I just noticed a line in the FAQ, "Points will adjust based on the type of game that you are playing, and the cost of a card could vary under very specific criteria."

I'm wondering how "very specific" they're planning to go here. Are we talking, "R2-D2 is cheaper with Luke than with other pilots," or are we saying, "Palpatine is cheaper if he's on a Lambda-class shuttle, but only if Vader is not a pilot and at least one of your pilots has Initiative of less than 3"?

Either way, I hope that by controlling the points much closer, it'll be much easier to balance the game and keep one particular ship <cough,cough,TIE PUNISHER,cough> from absolutely dominating the meta!

I like the idea of thematic pairings being a lesser point value. The app is going to be huge in terms of flexibility. I know that for some it will be a pain. But all we can hope for is the good to outweigh the bad.

How specific, you ask?

R3-A2 is 0.78563953 points cheaper on Wedge Antilles if the Diamondbacks lead the National League West, the tulips are blooming, the moon is in its 7th phase, Alex Davy had sushi last night for dinner, your fence is painted blue, the S&P 500 is down, Armada is dead, Legion eats Imperial Assault, Cthulhu is rising, Ragnarok approaches, it's April Fools, and Augie's Great Municipal Band is holding a parade on Saturday.

1 minute ago, jwilliamson12 said:

I like the idea of thematic pairings being a lesser point value. The app is going to be huge in terms of flexibility. I know that for some it will be a pain. But all we can hope for is the good to outweigh the bad.

I also like that they can adjust it based on game type. So a pilot who is average during 200-point games but excels at Epic could be priced accordingly for each. There will still occasionally be nerfs/buffs/clarifications to the card texts, but being able to fine-tune the point values anytime for all players and being able to make the changes dependent on the other cards in your list should help iron out a lot of the trouble with balancing in 1.0.

2 minutes ago, Npmartian said:

How specific, you ask?

R3-A2 is 0.78563953 points cheaper on Wedge Antilles if the Diamondbacks lead the National League West, the tulips are blooming, the moon is in its 7th phase, Alex Davy had sushi last night for dinner, your fence is painted blue, the S&P 500 is down, Armada is dead, Legion eats Imperial Assault, Cthulhu is rising, Ragnarok approaches, it's April Fools, and Augie's Great Municipal Band is holding a parade on Saturday.

...what shade of blue?

4 minutes ago, Npmartian said:

How specific, you ask?

R3-A2 is 0.78563953 points cheaper on Wedge Antilles if the Diamondbacks lead the National League West

I wanted to make a joke about this but turns out they’re actually good this year...

3 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

...what shade of blue?

Zaffre.

My take on it was also an upgrade would cost differently on a small base ship than on a large base.

As I understood it tje same upgrade could have a different cost on different ships

29 minutes ago, Npmartian said:

How specific, you ask?

R3-A2 is 0.78563953 points cheaper on Wedge Antilles if the Diamondbacks lead the National League West, the tulips are blooming, the moon is in its 7th phase, Alex Davy had sushi last night for dinner, your fence is painted blue, the S&P 500 is down, Armada is dead, Legion eats Imperial Assault, Cthulhu is rising, Ragnarok approaches, it's April Fools, and Augie's Great Municipal Band is holding a parade on Saturday.

Wait, I thought this was for X-Wing, not Fizzbin.

4 minutes ago, T70 Driver said:

Wait, I thought this was for X-Wing, not Fizzbin.

I'm just happy the app will be taking care of all the point cost stuff for us. Back in the days of Star Wars CCG, we had this guy:

It seems that the App will allow for what others have said above, my main concern with this is that is a lot of new info to remember for new and old players alike.

As I don’t believe you need to have a digital version of your squad list handy it will be very hard to verify that your opponents list is actually 200 points or less without intimate knowledge of all potential point adjustments for specific ships etc.

It will also mean that unintentional illegal squad lists might be built, players might not use the app but build a squad from what they know, but unwittingly make an illegal list because a certain upgrade cost more on one of their current ships than any other ship they have had it on before. The app while free has now become an mandatory part of squad building.

It seems likely that in addition to the physical pilot and upgrade cards, a printout will almost be required with all the card values of you list, particularly as the app also tells you what half points on each ship build is worth, and so your opponent can verify your squad points are correct.

Maybe I'm wrong and it will all be really easy to remember, but I'm not convinced currently.

2 minutes ago, Mace Windu said:

It seems that the App will allow for what others have said above, my main concern with this is that is a lot of new info to remember for new and old players alike.

As I don’t believe you need to have a digital version of your squad list handy it will be very hard to verify that your opponents list is actually 200 points or less without intimate knowledge of all potential point adjustments for specific ships etc.

It will also mean that unintentional illegal squad lists might be built, players might not use the app but build a squad from what they know, but unwittingly make an illegal list because a certain upgrade cost more on one of their current ships than any other ship they have had it on before. The app while free has now become an mandatory part of squad building.

It seems likely that in addition to the physical pilot and upgrade cards, a printout will almost be required with all the card values of you list, particularly as the app also tells you what half points on each ship build is worth, and so your opponent can verify your squad points are correct.

Maybe I'm wrong and it will all be really easy to remember, but I'm not convinced currently.

I mean it would take you what 20sec to input his list into your own app and see for yourself?

It's probably easier to verify a list then in 1.0 frankly.... no checking FAQ's and whatnot. Recreating the list in your squad builder is probably faster and more accurate than adding up all their squad points, let alone ships and cards that have been FAQ'ed

(unless you don't have a smartphone, then you just have to take their word for it or pull out your printed out PDF and do the math, like you do now.)

I can see the lists (both printed and digital) having a QR code for the app to read for just such instances

1 minute ago, Icelom said:

(unless you don't have a smartphone, then you just have to take their word for it or pull out your printed out PDF and do the math, like you do now.)

I can't speak for everyone, but at my game store, I'm pretty sure anyone without a smart phone would have a half-dozen other players willing to do a quick look-up upon request.

I sincerely hope they don't go for 'thematic' pairings and the like; far preferable to have a pairing that is great because it just works well that way and then have prices that stay sensible so they're handy elsewhere too.

Remember that every time you tweak a price away from a normal value, the harder discoverability is - a great strength of the original was that it was at least partly possible to track point values in your head, and that's going to be hard enough to keep up with when they change on a regular basis without there being 1001 Exceptions Everywhere as a feature, as opposed to being a carefully considered balance strategy.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing to have available - I just hope they use due caution in it.

Part of this caution is that FFG software has tended to be... shinier than it is practical. It will take serious engineering to get the information we'll need in a suitably clear and user-friendly fashion as it is, and given it doesn't matter how barebones they make it, we'll be forced to use it anyway...

4 minutes ago, Icelom said:

I mean it would take you what 20sec to input his list into your own app and see for yourself?

It's probably easier to verify a list then in 1.0 frankly.... no checking FAQ's and whatnot. Recreating the list in your squad builder is probably faster and more accurate than adding up all their squad points, let alone ships and cards that have been FAQ'ed

(unless you don't have a smartphone, then you just have to take their word for it or pull out your printed out PDF and do the math, like you do now.)

You know, I suspect they won't be bothering to stick with the community-constructed format for ship list sharing, which will be a shame.

But they'd be madmen if they didn't at least include a QR code for sharing squad lists, visible both within the app and automatically included on squad list printouts.

... Scannable into tournament software, of course.

1 minute ago, Reiver said:

I sincerely hope they don't go for 'thematic' pairings and the like; far preferable to have a pairing that is great because it just works well that way and then have prices that stay sensible so they're handy elsewhere too.

Remember that every time you tweak a price away from a normal value, the harder discoverability is - a great strength of the original was that it was at least partly possible to track point values in your head, and that's going to be hard enough to keep up with when they change on a regular basis without there being 1001 Exceptions Everywhere as a feature, as opposed to being a carefully considered balance strategy.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing to have available - I just hope they use due caution in it.

Part of this caution is that FFG software has tended to be... shinier than it is practical. It will take serious engineering to get the information we'll need in a suitably clear and user-friendly fashion as it is, and given it doesn't matter how barebones they make it, we'll be forced to use it anyway...

I think they stated its going to be used for drastic cases (variable point costs) i dont expect anything to be on release (but i could be wrong)

4 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I can see the lists (both printed and digital) having a QR code for the app to read for just such instances

That's very smart, I hope they thought of it or are listening to you.

4 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

I can't speak for everyone, but at my game store, I'm pretty sure anyone without a smart phone would have a half-dozen other players willing to do a quick look-up upon request.

Yep my local place it would be no problem, most people would be happy to.

They're going to use variable point costs only to patch broken combos. If a certain upgrade is way too good on a certain chassis then it might get a points tax, but they aren't going to use this proactively.