With the Clone Wars coming to X wing, will we see the first initiative 0 pilots in the form of the droid pilots of the CIS? I'm sure that the best ace pilots for the faction will be the sith assassins (Maul and Ventress); there will also be much stronger droid pilots with higher initiative, but the CIS deployed droids en masse in a cheap and cheerful way (even more than the empire did with TIE's).

I'm not sure if it would break the game, but it seems like a very cheap droid with no sense of self-preservation would be a lower initiative than a living being who is still learning how to fly, but would like to continue being alive.

They made 1.0 absolutely incompatible with 2.0 by reducing PS from 1-9 to Init 1-6, and now you want to a add a level back??

No, just no.

i highly doubt droids are a 0.

Theyre not super-smart quick-witted pilots, but they are still better than someone who just got his license to fly in the first place. They'll be a 2 most likely, with the "unique pilots" being like 4 tops (unique pilots being more like a squad since i doubt theyre going to not be multi-ship stands)

It stands to reason that there will be every color of Initiative droid pilots/ships mainly (to my mind) because a droid brain can be faster than an organic one--at a price (points). Consider how quickly a basic calculator does division, addition, etc. compared to our own brains. Granted we have better reasoning, experience, wisdom and instinct, but there are droids in game now that are equivalent to organics already (IG-88, Guri, Leebo, AP-5, 4-LOM, Chopper, etc.).

There will have the "fodder" ships--low initiative, low hull (swarms of 10 or more?!!) and you'll have Initiative 5 and even 6 that will give you a run. I would just expect those droids to be few and far between.

I'm 100% sure that you will have "ace droids" with initiatives of 4+. I'm just wondering if the lowest of the low could have initiative 0.

I’m hoping implementation of cheap droid fighters is more innovative than just i0.

It's possible. That may be their faction's defining characteristic. That or like in the Phantom Menace, there's a support ship that controls them, boosting their collective Initiative up to a max number (5?) unless it's destroyed, then they drop down to 1 (or zero).

37 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

It's possible. That may be their faction's defining characteristic. That or like in the Phantom Menace, there's a support ship that controls them, boosting their collective Initiative up to a max number (5?) unless it's destroyed, then they drop down to 1 (or zero).

THAT is a cool idea. I was thinking of a controller ship giving free calculate tokens, but your idea adds another level to things and makes the game more dynamic. Going from this idea, you can start to see the classification of independant droid aces and scouts vs dependant swarmy ones within the faction.

2 hours ago, BDrafty said:

it seems like a very cheap droid with no sense of self-preservation

This part is iffy. They have a sense of self preservation of sorts, if only to ensure they can keep shooting things, refuel then go out and shoot things again.

1 hour ago, Force Majeure said:

It's possible. That may be their faction's defining characteristic. That or like in the Phantom Menace, there's a support ship that controls them, boosting their collective Initiative up to a max number (5?) unless it's destroyed, then they drop down to 1 (or zero).

I could see a commander droid as a unique pilot for a Sheathipede (I swear there's a precedent for a commander riding in a Sheathipede but I can't recall exactly, probably an episode of TCW. I could see that droid improving the Initiative value of friendly ships with calculate as pilot ability. I still don't see them doing Initiative 0, though. It really does break the new Initiative model in a way that is undesired.

I really like the idea that the command droid could allow ships with calculate in the squad to activate at Initiative 0 or Initiative 7 for the round (player's choice).

Another alternative is during the end phase or the start of the turn, he can assign a condition to a ship with calculate that he's "assuming control" of or something. The condition changes that pilot's Initiative to the commander droid's initiative.

Both of those concepts could technically exist, I suppose.

2 minutes ago, Ixidor said:

Another alternative is during the end phase or the start of the turn, he can assign a condition to a ship with calculate that he's "assuming control" of or something. The condition changes that pilot's Initiative to the commander droid's initiative.

How very Mass Effect 2 of him to do so. ?

I was actually hoping 2e would have Initiative 1-5. But that ship has sailed. It is already apparent that the difference between I1 and I2 is entirely irrelevant. Pilot skills that matter are I6, I5, and then there's everyone else. I'm not even seeing any I4 or I3 pilots that have broken abilities that would shake up the Initiative meta. Broken ships like Biggs, Kanan, Lowhrick, and Asajj made mid tier PS relevant in 1e.

Initiative 0 is pretty gimmicky. The 2.0 TIE swarm is the only thing you'd be blocking, and they'd PS snipe multiple ships even without tokens. If you're blocking PS 2+ TIEs are going to be better anyway.

I'd enjoy a droid commander mechanic. The CIS have plenty of command shuttle and larger craft. I'm thinking something along the lines of a set of crew upgrades with varying power levels, something along the lines of:

Tactical Droid (Crew, 5 points, CIS Only, Unique) (Calculate Action)

When you perform the calculate action, each \other friendly ship with the calculate action may assign one calculate token to it.
At the start of the planning or engagement phase, friendly ships at range 1-3 can spend 1 calculate token to treat their initiative as 5 until the end of the phase.

So the support itself is very vulnerable, but the rest of your very cheap fighters become deadly to all but the greatest aces.

Droids can be aces, remember Scar from Battlestar Galactica?

9 minutes ago, GILLIES291 said:

Droids can be aces, remember Scar from Battlestar Galactica?

Are we talking a Raider or was it a drone?

9 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Are we talking a Raider or was it a drone?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylon_Raider#Scar

Raider Ace.

1 minute ago, ScummyRebel said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylon_Raider#Scar

Raider Ace.

Neat. Leaves to be seen if FFG implements some.