A discussion on FB (along with various bits of custom content design I've done for fun) got me thinking: how much better would the game be with the following keyword/rule convention:

When an action symbol or upgrade symbol appears on an upgrade card or pilot card preceded by a '+ or -', that action or upgrade is added to or removed from that pilot's action/upgrade bar.

So, instead of Engine upgrade reading 'Add the boost action icon to your action bar' it could literally have '+[boost symbol]' on it, and nothing else.

This would mean that cards could easily add an action AND other stuff without getting annoyingly wordy, and you could dramatically simplify annoyingly complicated cards like Expert Handling, which could instead say:

'+Barrel Roll. When you perform a barrel roll action, you may remove one red target lock from your ship. Then gain a stress if your printed action bar does not have [barrel roll].

Similarly, upgrade cards could trivially add and remove slots, Havoc could just say '-crew, +system, +trashmech', and have a lot more room left for more text. Pilots could add or remove actions as their pilot ability - I'm envisioning a TIE Reaper pilot whose entire pilot ability would be '+Coordinate'.

This would allow for cards adding/removing slots/actions and doing other stuff, with adequate space on the card for the other stuff, offering a lot more flexibility in the game.

Wouldn't that be cool?

(I know, I've banged on about keywording and templating and so forth so many times before, but a man can dream)