Ive seen many players complain about how the game is getting too complex. And some other players telling them "politely" to "shut up". IMO the problem is not the complexity. Magic the gathering is much more complex and it's been the king of TCG like forever.

The problem is poor design decisions and inability to react to imbalance in a proper time frame. I started not so long ago (also just recently quit) and there were still some Tie swarms played competitively despite all the waves available. The amount of diversity seeing in lists was amazing, even in major tournaments. Sure some archetype were slightly more effective than others but overall there was a lot of list you could bring to the table without feeling that you shot yourself in the foot. And TLT were already present, they are definitively not the source of the current imbalance, as many player believe.

IMO it all started with the JMKs. Those ships were OP but for some reason FFG decided to hold on the nerf bat. What they did instead is try to release material that could compete with them. When they finally decided to go on with the nerf, the damage was already done. The game is at a point were a true fix would imply changing too many upgrades/ships. For example if the Ghost and Miranda are fixed then Quickdraw will start dominating. Theyll need to fix him as well but then another of the strong ship or upgrade they made would rise. They are stuck in a bad loop where they will have to just keep releasing more and more OP material. They went to a place they should have never gone.

Take the Xwing fix for example. Its amazing but sadly it probably wont be enough. Prior to JMKS the new T65 would have been borderline (if not) OP...

Complexity paired with balance is actually quite fun...

"citation needed

X-Wing has always had issues with design and balance.

That said, I agree with your pointing to Wave 8 and the Jumpmaster as an interesting point. In my mind, this wave represented the start of the "Dark Times," the start of the decline of civilized lightsabers and hokey religions that were summarily cast out by a bunch of clones. Only, in X-Wing, the Dark Times weren't actually caused by a bunch of white-armor-clad clone troopers, just a bunch of net-decking clones all running the same two or three incredibly broken lists (Triple Jumps, Palp Aces, X7s, Dengaroo, etc.).

Prior to Wave 8, it was possible (albeit hard) to make the final table of a Regional running some weird fun janky novel list. After Wave 8, trying to run the same sort of fun novel stuff wasn't just a slight handicap, it was a pretty assured way to rack up at least four losses.

With the advent of lists like Triple Jumps or X7s and all the other power-builds that have come after, the lists were so powerful that the requisite skill cap was greatly lowered. It was kind of like giving all the players in a HALO match a rocket-launcher. Sure, most of the noobs wouldn't get the full mileage out of the rocket launcher, and some of them would even occasionally blow themselves up, but all those noobs would occasionally kill some veteran tryhards and the noobs would likely get more kills with the rocket launcher than they'd have been able to rack up with a weapon that required more nuanced skill, like the DMR or Battle Rifle. In one sense, giving everyone a super powerful weapon evens the playing field, but in another sense it also lessens the effect that skill/experience has on determining the outcome of an engagement between players.


Synopsis: Yes, X-Wing has always had imbalanced builds that were better than other lists (e.g. Wave 1 Howlswarm). But, starting around the time of JM5Ks and Wave 8+ in general, the power-imbalance-gap between the top tier "broken" lists and other lists was far wider than it had ever been, while at the same time the skill cap to fly those lists was generally lowered. Given all of this, match-up has had an increasingly more influential role in determining outcome of the game, while skill (read: on-table decisions) has had an increasingly lowered role. At the same time, the community's "Analysis Halitosis," which manifested as countless forum posts and podcasts analyzing the competitive scene, seemed to really encourage mass net-decking. You could be pretty sure that, whether you were at top tables or bottom tables, most of your match-ups would be against the fashionable power lists.

29 minutes ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

It was kind of like giving all the players in a HALO match a rocket-launcher. Sure, most of the noobs wouldn't get the full mileage out of the rocket launcher, and some of them would even occasionally blow themselves up, but all those noobs would occasionally even take some veteran tryhards down with them and would likely all get more kills than they'd be able to rack up with a weapon that required more nuanced skill, like the DMR or Battle Rifle.

Have you ever played Rock'N'Rail, my friend? This is that almost exactly, everyone gets infinite rockets and railgun rounds, and a jetpack that recharges super fast, and everyone has dexterity. It is the most fun a spartan can have.

The day QuickDraw is the tippy top pilot of the game will be a beautiful one.

She (he? Can’t recall) has no outlandish repositioning to avoid strong piloting of lower ps ships, does not drop infinite amounts of bombs, does not have a way to regenerate shields, cannot turtle in such a way that 2 attack dice ships never hit, and does not have a turret. One of the least NPE top tier pilots you could ever ask for. I would sing praises to the heavens if QD was the best of the best. Because if that was the case, I would be playing the game I loved again.

9 minutes ago, GLEXOR said:

Have you ever played Rock'N'Rail, my friend? This is that almost exactly, everyone gets infinite rockets and railgun rounds, and a jetpack that recharges super fast, and everyone has dexterity. It is the most fun a spartan can have.

Heh, I have not, but that sounds miserable to me. Probably because I'm the azzhole who loved to play the patient game of Halo:Reach where I'd go 20-0 or 30-0 while five-tapping noobs with the DMR trying to perfectly time and align that reticle bloom of the fifth shot. For me, I enjoyed Big Team Battle most when I was trying to rack up the biggest perfection-streak I could and playing the cautious, calculated, hit-and-run sort of game. Just turning everyone into a flying nuke and letting pure random chaos ensue is a very different sort of fun, and I can see why lots of players would enjoy it, but it's the exact opposite of what I personally enjoyed about Reach (heck, I even groaned every time a "Heavies" map was voted).


Board games can also exist on that spectrum all the way from random chaotic pandemonium (e.g. FLUXX) all the way through patient calculated foresight where only player-decision affects the outcome (e.g. Chess). Both ends of that spectrum offer very different kinds of enjoyment, and some players have their own personal subjective preferences. Sometimes I enjoy a heavy euro-game of worker placement or a long quiet game of chess at the cafe, but sometimes I also crave a good Ameri-Trash dicefest (though personally I don't skew far enough on the spectrum to ever really enjoy games like Fluxx, Exploding Kittens, or We Didn't Playtest this at All, but hey that's just my own tastes).

But with regards to X-Wing, since I want to treat it as a competitive game, I want it to stay closer to Chess than Fluxx. Because who wants to schedule time away from work/family and spend four hours traveling, paying for a hotel, and spending 16 hours playing something like Fluxx where you're likely to get Fuxxed no matter what decisions you make during the game?

Playing the game of X-Wing has become more complicated but the game itself has not become any more complex.

2 minutes ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

..."But with regards to X-Wing, since I want to treat it as a competitive game, I want it to stay closer to Chess than Fluxx. "

In here I think is the major issue between many players who post here and FFG. Would X-wing sell as well if ti was like competitive chess? Chess takes year to learn to a high level and a certain amount of skill to be really good. How many people would be willing to pay the cost of entry to X-Wing to begin playing if all they do is get pounded by skilled players at the table every time they venture out of their house to play at their local game store?

FFG wants new player to have a positive experience quickly to get them to commit to the game to sell product. If we want to see manufacturer endorsed tournaments and continued product development, and new players we need to accept that the game will have mechanics to allow someone to pick it up easily and see results.

Much like your Halo example to be truly skilled takes time but new players need to have positive experiences. Certainly some would begin the game for the mental battle of a elongated tactical dog fight, but I think the number of people willing to shell out the bucks to collect all the needed ships while they gain the skills for that type of game are far fewer than those that will stick with it when they can have some success early on.

1 hour ago, Thormind said:

Complexity paired with balance is actually quite fun...

That I agree with. War machine MKII was for a while, very balanced and that is a complex game and it was fun.

But this game is inconsistent among other things, this fast becoming unfun.

6 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Heh, I have not, but that sounds miserable to me. Probably because I'm the azzhole who loved to play the patient game of Halo:Reach where I'd go 20-0 or 30-0 while five-tapping noobs with the DMR trying to perfectly time and align that reticle bloom of the fifth shot. For me, I enjoyed Big Team Battle most when I was trying to rack up the biggest perfection-streak I could and playing the cautious, calculated, hit-and-run sort of game. Just turning everyone into a flying nuke and letting pure random chaos ensue is a very different sort of fun, and I can see why lots of players would enjoy it, but it's the exact opposite of what I personally enjoyed about Reach (heck, I even groaned every time a "Heavies" map was voted).


Board games can also exist on that spectrum all the way from random chaotic pandemonium (e.g. FLUXX) all the way through patient calculated foresight where only player-decision affects the outcome (e.g. Chess). Both ends of that spectrum offer very different kinds of enjoyment, and some players have their own personal subjective preferences. Sometimes I enjoy a heavy euro-game of worker placement or a long quiet game of chess at the cafe, but sometimes I also crave a good Ameri-Trash dicefest (though personally I don't skew far enough on the spectrum to ever really enjoy games like Fluxx, Exploding Kittens, or We Didn't Playtest this at All, but hey that's just my own tastes).

But with regards to X-Wing, since I want to treat it as a competitive game, I want it to stay closer to Chess than Fluxx. Because who wants to schedule time away from work/family and spend four hours traveling, paying for a hotel, and spending 16 hours playing something like Fluxx where you're likely to get Fuxxed no matter what decisions you make during the game?

I played Reach until it decided it doesn't work anymore. Now all I have left is 4. I love abstract game modes, but to get them, I have to enter "Action-Sac", which means my favs (team ninja assassins, shotgun CTF, Clang of the hill, shotgun ricochet, etc.) always lose out to Meta Raid.

I was going to say something on-topic, but I decided to not.

7 hours ago, Kdubb said:

The day QuickDraw is the tippy top pilot of the game will be a beautiful one.

She (he? Can’t recall) has no outlandish repositioning to avoid strong piloting of lower ps ships, does not drop infinite amounts of bombs, does not have a way to regenerate shields, cannot turtle in such a way that 2 attack dice ships never hit, and does not have a turret. One of the least NPE top tier pilots you could ever ask for. I would sing praises to the heavens if QD was the best of the best. Because if that was the case, I would be playing the game I loved again.

QD is easily, by a HUGE margin, the best balanced 'S-Tier' ship in the game. Is she powerful? Absolutely! Can she be managed and counterplayed against? YES!

AT MOST she gets 3 activations of her ability. If you play well against her and stack a high burst attack on her shields, she only gets one. Other than that, she's a solid ship but will absolutely melt to focused fire. She's not the best points fortress, she can't regen, abuse TLTs, or abuse infinite bombs.

If QD was top of the pile, this game would be in a MUCH better state. Ships like QD have counterplay.

20 hours ago, GLEXOR said:

Have you ever played Rock'N'Rail, my friend? This is that almost exactly, everyone gets infinite rockets and railgun rounds, and a jetpack that recharges super fast, and everyone has dexterity. It is the most fun a spartan can have.

True but that's on Halo 4. That said, it does sound fun.

Boy howdy do I miss my Jetpack. Halo Online (ElDewrito) has been fantasti c though.

15 hours ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

QD is easily, by a HUGE margin, the best balanced 'S-Tier' ship in the game. Is she powerful? Absolutely! Can she be managed and counterplayed against? YES!

AT MOST she gets 3 activations of her ability. If you play well against her and stack a high burst attack on her shields, she only gets one. Other than that, she's a solid ship but will absolutely melt to focused fire. She's not the best points fortress, she can't regen, abuse TLTs, or abuse infinite bombs.

If QD was top of the pile, this game would be in a MUCH better state. Ships like QD have counterplay.

Alright, I feel the need to chime in on this because Quickdraw easily one of the worst pilot abilities from a game design standpoint.

A core rule in miniatures game design is that your should never go with something vague when you can accomplish your design goal with something specific. This is very simply because in miniatures games, you don't have the same hard and fast rules interactions that are tightly controlled by the engine and whose interactions with other abilities must be hard coded. Instead, you have people interpreting what the ability does by RAW, so it can very easily end up doing something that you don't want or didn't expect it to do which can dramatically alter the power levels or create unintended and possible game breaking interactions. So lets look at Quickdraw's ability:

" Once per round, when you lose a shield token, you may perform a primary weapon attack. "

The "once per round" qualifier is a good step, but why isn't it at least "The first time each round" instead? It will do mostly the same thing, but you've opened up an option for QD to bank her pilot ability if she feels it will be better used later in the turn which is unnecessary for an ability that's already bends much of the game around it. It also limits counterplay options as she gets to choose when it triggers and the only meaningful counterplay it provides is trying to burn down her shields in one turn (which is counterplay that itself has counterplay, so not the best).

"when you lose a shield token" is where we start dipping into awful design territory. It doesn't specify anything, you just have to lose a shield. What you lost it to, or when you lost it in the turn sequence is irrelevant. This is part of what makes this ability so bad is that it can be triggered by bombs, asteroids, pulling a harpoon out, or even your own electronic baffle. This massively reduces counterplay because even if QD's opponent is going out of their way to stop that extra shot, QD's controller still has ways to get it in (and guaranteed at that with Palpatine who's also terribly designed, but that's another article).

"you may perform a primary weapon attack" at least they remembered the "primary weapon" part, but it's still way too open. Again, this massively limits counterplay because, unlike a character like Dengar where at least ships outside of his arcs can try to get in some free shots, there is no way to stop QD from getting use out of this ability outside of QD having zero targets in either arc or landing on an asteroid and a high PS pilot with barrel roll should never have nothing to attack. The only way to consistently push damage through without return fire is something like RAClo dropping a Blinded Pilot on her.

So, the language is just too broadly worded to allow for meaningful counterplay in most cases and what counterplay exists is itself vulnerable to counterplay and listbuilding (Things like Palpatine and Sensor Cluster to allow a lot of fine control over evade results), but the poor design doesn't stop there.

X-Wing only has 1 win condition, destroy your opponent's things. In tournament play, there's the alternate win condition of the clock and having a fatter ship. QD's pilot ability throws a substantial wrench in that whole scheme. Attacking QD, the only way to achieve your win condition, is likely going to contribute to your opponent's win condition. This can result in scenarios where the right answer is to do nothing, because you're likely taking far more damage than you'll deal, which game designers should always avoid like the plague. In game deisgn, you generally want 2 players racing towards the finish line in an active game state, so making the optimal play to be for one player to just sit back and have coffee while the other player gets ahead is pretty weak. Dengar kind of did this, but again it was actually far more possible with Dengar to find scenarios where you may be able to sneak in free damage whereas unless the QD player is quite weak, that's far less possible because even if the firer is out of arc, your whole squad has to be in order to get those free hits in with QD.

QDs ability also interrupts the normal sequence of play and can do so at really weird times. The lack of any conditions on the timing of when the shield is removed can mean QD getting random shots off even during the activation phase and often still modded or fully modded because of things like Expertise or FCS. The ability also creates some absolutely god awful interactions with other QDs or Dengars resulting in scenarios where players literally have no idea whose turn it is. I'm broadly against interrupting the normal sequence of play for various reasons, one of the biggest being that it creates an unfun and, for newer players, confusing experience. It can work if tightly controlled, but there is very little control over this.

So to sum up:

1- Language is too lose

2- Meaningful counterplay is limited

3- Can create a passive game state for one player

4- interrupts normal sequence of play

Ticking 1 of these boxes is not bad, 2 still fine, 3 is pretty rough, but ticking 4 is egregious. There's a perfectly valid set of reasons that most empire lists now are QD + chumps and possibly Palp and it's not because she's in any way well designed, it's quite the opposite.

I think it's a fair comment that you'll rarely be able to burn down quickdraw without her getting at least one free shot ( @Kdubb - quickdraw is female according to the FFG article which introduced her), but it's one three-dice - potentially even two dice - primary attack. Getting just that is counterplaying, because whilst a single free attack isn't nice to be hit by, it's rarely game-winning. The reason Dengar's ability is (or was, at the height of his scaryness) so much more powerful was that (a) he could be pegging a torpedo back at you, and (b) he got his shot even if you missed - the reason why I would often decline to take a shot if I thought I'd come off worse in the exchange. At least quickdraw doesn't shoot if people miss her.

7 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

The "once per round" qualifier is a good step, but why isn't it at least "The first time each round" instead? It will do mostly the same thing, but you've opened up an option for QD to bank her pilot ability if she feels it will be better used later in the turn which is unnecessary for an ability that's already bends much of the game around it. It also limits counterplay options as she gets to choose when it triggers and the only meaningful counterplay it provides is trying to burn down her shields in one turn (which is counterplay that itself has counterplay, so not the best).

Dengar's ability isn't the first time each round either. A big part of the 'return fire' abilities is the threat of it hanging over you to persuade you to shoot someone else.

7 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

"when you lose a shield token" is where we start dipping into awful design territory. It doesn't specify anything, you just have to lose a shield. What you lost it to, or when you lost it in the turn sequence is irrelevant. This is part of what makes this ability so bad is that it can be triggered by bombs, asteroids, pulling a harpoon out, or even your own electronic baffle. This massively reduces counterplay because even if QD's opponent is going out of their way to stop that extra shot, QD's controller still has ways to get it in (and guaranteed at that with Palpatine who's also terribly designed, but that's another article).

Correct. However, most of those options have distinctly negative effects quite aside from the shield loss; asteroids and debris represent stress and loss of actions, electronic baffle means building Quickdraw around that ability and forgoing the more effective fire control system, and damage from pulling a harpoon out - firstly, if she's taken a harpoon hit, I find it quite likely she won't have shields left, and you chose to fire the harpoon at her and then didn't set it off.

I do understand the 'why are you shooting me before I get to do stuff' but I'd respond by saying that a lot of minelayers and the snap shot crowd do much the same thing. In this particular case, Quickdraw's silly high pilot skill actually works against her; few opponents won't have their tokens stacked up before she activates.

I do like the TIE/sf as a ship. It's flexible, capable,and not overpowered - it can be a very efficient missile boat, but making you choose between Lightweight Frame and Guidance Chips is an interesting one (unlike the T-70, where the choice between guidance chips and either integrated astromech or autothrusters is basically a no-brainer).

23 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I think it's a fair comment that you'll rarely be able to burn down quickdraw without her getting at least one free shot ( @Kdubb - quickdraw is female according to the FFG article which introduced her), but it's one three-dice - potentially even two dice - primary attack. Getting just that is counterplaying, because whilst a single free attack isn't nice to be hit by, it's rarely game-winning. The reason Dengar's ability is (or was, at the height of his scaryness) so much more powerful was that (a) he could be pegging a torpedo back at you, and (b) he got his shot even if you missed - the reason why I would often decline to take a shot if I thought I'd come off worse in the exchange. At least quickdraw doesn't shoot if people miss her.

Dengar's ability isn't the first time each round either. A big part of the 'return fire' abilities is the threat of it hanging over you to persuade you to shoot someone else.

These are not irrelevant points, I grant you, but most of them assume that I think Dengar's ability is not poorly designed which I would very much say it is (and also Dengar did get nerfed, so there's that). I'm also not a huge fan of Snap Shot especially because even without dice mods, there an uncomfortable number of effects that still proc off of it (like R3A2) that can make it pretty severe even if it misses. Snap Shot would be an interesting ability for a single pilot i.e. someone lands in front of you and you get an unmodded shot with no range bonus, but as an EPT it opens up a lot of very problematic situations because a lot of ships have EPT slots.

I don't find it to in any way be coincidence that every pilot they've ever printed that can shoot twice in a turn (Corran, Dengar, QD, Ghost) has made its way into tournament lists. The potential to basically function as two ships for damage purposes just gives such a substantial edge and even moreso if you have easy access to mods for both shots (expertise, FCS, K4, Predator, etc).

10 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

I don't find it to in any way be coincidence that every pilot they've ever printed that can shoot twice in a turn (Corran, Dengar, QD, Ghost) has made its way into tournament lists.

-Tie/D

-Chewbacca (hotr)

-Double-Edge

-BTL/A4

-IG88.B

Any others?

Edit: - Josterto

-Gunner or Luke crew

-IG88.D crew with IG88.B partner ship

1 minute ago, player2072913 said:

-Tie/D

-Chewbacca (hotr)

-Double-Edge

-BTL/A4

-IG88.B

Any others?

TIE/D and the BTL-A4s are the major anomalies and even then it's mostly because the platforms are expensive and X7 is better for the TIE Defender (and ATL-A4s do at least see some play with R3A2). Chewbacca's is too hard to proc and has positioning limitations, Double Edge only shoots if you miss as does IG-88B so they're not increasing damage (and even then IG88B has still seen play in Brobots and Gunners have still appeared a number of times to help burn down token stackers).

5 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

TIE/D and the BTL-A4s are the major anomalies and even then it's mostly because the platforms are expensive and X7 is better for the TIE Defender (and ATL-A4s do at least see some play with R3A2). Chewbacca's is too hard to proc and has positioning limitations, Double Edge only shoots if you miss as does IG-88B so they're not increasing damage (and even then IG88B has still seen play in Brobots and Gunners have still appeared a number of times to help burn down token stackers).

Pretty true. I was just being nitpicky about the claim that every source of multiple shots is top-tier. It's powerful for sure, but with sufficient management it's not game-breaking. I'd say quickdraw is on the line there.

1 minute ago, player2072913 said:

Pretty true. I was just being nitpicky about the claim that every source of multiple shots is top-tier. It's powerful for sure, but with sufficient management it's not game-breaking. I'd say quickdraw is on the line there.

I'd actually agree with you if not for basically all of the variations on QD+chumps we're seeing. Just because something has poor game design practices involved doesn't mean it necessarily needs a nerf, but she's driving Imperial list building to a pretty ridiculous degree (and I legitimately wonder if Krennic would've still had the limitation of Imperial if QD didn't exist or was less powerful). There are basically 2 situations where a game element needs to be looked at in terms of being nerfed:

1. Game breaking- some interaction that makes the game basically unplayable

2. Removing too many other options- Simply too good for the cost that it removes a lot of design space just by virtue of existing

Quickdraw is dangerously close to the latter category.

"The problem is not complexity", but complexity is a problem.

This happens when you spend more time reading the card texts then actualy playing.

4 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:

I'd actually agree with you if not for basically all of the variations on QD+chumps we're seeing. Just because something has poor game design practices involved doesn't mean it necessarily needs a nerf, but she's driving Imperial list building to a pretty ridiculous degree (and I legitimately wonder if Krennic would've still had the limitation of Imperial if QD didn't exist or was less powerful). There are basically 2 situations where a game element needs to be looked at in terms of being nerfed:

1. Game breaking- some interaction that makes the game basically unplayable

2. Removing too many other options- Simply too good for the cost that it removes a lot of design space just by virtue of existing

Quickdraw is dangerously close to the latter category.

Now that I will grant you. Quickdraw is probably the single most dominant Imperial pilot - way more than even Soontir was at the height of his popularity - precisely because she's both powerful and flexible.

I will accept that she's a good hair-and-eyebrows clear of most alternatives. But is that because she's too good? Or the other options are not good enough? (Which kind of begs the question of where the 'power target' the game is trying to aim for at the moment actually is ).

10 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Now that I will grant you. Quickdraw is probably the single most dominant Imperial pilot - way more than even Soontir was at the height of his popularity - precisely because she's both powerful and flexible.

I will accept that she's a good hair-and-eyebrows clear of most alternatives. But is that because she's too good? Or the other options are not good enough? (Which kind of begs the question of where the 'power target' the game is trying to aim for at the moment actually is ).

It's also the "Above curve v. below curve" question. If most of the game is above curve with only a few stragglers, buffing is easier, but if the bulk is below or on curve with some spikes above it, nerfing is just more viable. It does appear that it's the latter as Scum struggles to put together decent lists and Imperial squadrons are seeing a lot of the same offenders with Rebels having the closest to real variety. I suspect FFG is waiting for the Worlds data to figure out a solution for the current meta.

I would be more confident in the health of the meta if we were seeing a healthy variety of Dark Horse lists popping up as those are generally indicative that, even though the meta may be stagnant, there are viable options outside of it that are simply being overlooked. There are enough showing up that I'm on the fence about the health of the meta. It's not the target number, but it's not miles away either. I think everyone, including FFG is waiting to see what happens at Worlds. I suspect whatever list wins this year will not win next year...

On 4/28/2018 at 3:18 PM, MasterShake2 said:

Alright, I feel the need to chime in on this because Quickdraw easily one of the worst pilot abilities from a game design standpoint.

A core rule in miniatures game design is that your should never go with something vague when you can accomplish your design goal with something specific. This is very simply because in miniatures games, you don't have the same hard and fast rules interactions that are tightly controlled by the engine and whose interactions with other abilities must be hard coded. Instead, you have people interpreting what the ability does by RAW, so it can very easily end up doing something that you don't want or didn't expect it to do which can dramatically alter the power levels or create unintended and possible game breaking interactions. So lets look at Quickdraw's ability:

" Once per round, when you lose a shield token, you may perform a primary weapon attack. "

The "once per round" qualifier is a good step, but why isn't it at least "The first time each round" instead? It will do mostly the same thing, but you've opened up an option for QD to bank her pilot ability if she feels it will be better used later in the turn which is unnecessary for an ability that's already bends much of the game around it. It also limits counterplay options as she gets to choose when it triggers and the only meaningful counterplay it provides is trying to burn down her shields in one turn (which is counterplay that itself has counterplay, so not the best).

"when you lose a shield token" is where we start dipping into awful design territory. It doesn't specify anything, you just have to lose a shield. What you lost it to, or when you lost it in the turn sequence is irrelevant. This is part of what makes this ability so bad is that it can be triggered by bombs, asteroids, pulling a harpoon out, or even your own electronic baffle. This massively reduces counterplay because even if QD's opponent is going out of their way to stop that extra shot, QD's controller still has ways to get it in (and guaranteed at that with Palpatine who's also terribly designed, but that's another article).

"you may perform a primary weapon attack" at least they remembered the "primary weapon" part, but it's still way too open. Again, this massively limits counterplay because, unlike a character like Dengar where at least ships outside of his arcs can try to get in some free shots, there is no way to stop QD from getting use out of this ability outside of QD having zero targets in either arc or landing on an asteroid and a high PS pilot with barrel roll should never have nothing to attack. The only way to consistently push damage through without return fire is something like RAClo dropping a Blinded Pilot on her.

So, the language is just too broadly worded to allow for meaningful counterplay in most cases and what counterplay exists is itself vulnerable to counterplay and listbuilding (Things like Palpatine and Sensor Cluster to allow a lot of fine control over evade results), but the poor design doesn't stop there.

X-Wing only has 1 win condition, destroy your opponent's things. In tournament play, there's the alternate win condition of the clock and having a fatter ship. QD's pilot ability throws a substantial wrench in that whole scheme. Attacking QD, the only way to achieve your win condition, is likely going to contribute to your opponent's win condition. This can result in scenarios where the right answer is to do nothing, because you're likely taking far more damage than you'll deal, which game designers should always avoid like the plague. In game deisgn, you generally want 2 players racing towards the finish line in an active game state, so making the optimal play to be for one player to just sit back and have coffee while the other player gets ahead is pretty weak. Dengar kind of did this, but again it was actually far more possible with Dengar to find scenarios where you may be able to sneak in free damage whereas unless the QD player is quite weak, that's far less possible because even if the firer is out of arc, your whole squad has to be in order to get those free hits in with QD.

QDs ability also interrupts the normal sequence of play and can do so at really weird times. The lack of any conditions on the timing of when the shield is removed can mean QD getting random shots off even during the activation phase and often still modded or fully modded because of things like Expertise or FCS. The ability also creates some absolutely god awful interactions with other QDs or Dengars resulting in scenarios where players literally have no idea whose turn it is. I'm broadly against interrupting the normal sequence of play for various reasons, one of the biggest being that it creates an unfun and, for newer players, confusing experience. It can work if tightly controlled, but there is very little control over this.

So to sum up:

1- Language is too lose

2- Meaningful counterplay is limited

3- Can create a passive game state for one player

4- interrupts normal sequence of play

Ticking 1 of these boxes is not bad, 2 still fine, 3 is pretty rough, but ticking 4 is egregious. There's a perfectly valid set of reasons that most empire lists now are QD + chumps and possibly Palp and it's not because she's in any way well designed, it's quite the opposite.

Not limited enough???

A, counter play is more than present. Qd-s dial is not great, you can Dodge her easily

B, Missing a shot with her (which is limited) still means you lose the shield. So basically you got a free shot at QD, and reduced her effectiveness. If you simply shoot someone else in the combat phase with your second ship, qd already lost value for nothing. This is in no way "too loose"

C, allowing other ways to trigger the shot (baffle, rocks) is key with high skill qd players. The ship is built to do that. With the tech slot and system slot this is actually a risky but viable tactic

Let's compare it with Miranda

Like Miranda, she also trades a shield for an offensive bonus. Qd fires primary again, while Miranda rolls +1 red die. It's not the same, but:

Miri is a turret, and she is not limited by any arcs or weapon type restrictions

Miri has more shields

Miri can regen

It is impossible to dodge miri, as she will always have a shot on you

Miri is in complete control of using the ability, and does not rely on the opponent to do anything

Now, all these factors are the things that make miri an NPE. If you think that QD is anywhere near to her in power or npeness, you are wrong. Qd is strong, but your points don't make much sense in the context of the game. You'd remove all choice from QD, and make the skill something that is less fun to interact with. The things you mention are a feature not a bug and they promote options and thinking.

They are balanced by the fact that QD uses a limited resource, loses her effectiveness over time, and an average dial, and a tax on the mod slot.