I already ordered one of Mel's T-85s. It's currently being sent to get painted in @Captain Lackwit 's paint scheme. Hopefully should be less painful to the eyes than New Republic Colors.

2 hours ago, Stealthcmc1974 said:

I already ordered one of Mel's T-85s. It's currently being sent to get painted in @Captain Lackwit 's paint scheme. Hopefully should be less painful to the eyes than New Republic Colors.

Looking forward to seeing it.

5 hours ago, Stealthcmc1974 said:

I already ordered one of Mel's T-85s. It's currently being sent to get painted in @Captain Lackwit 's paint scheme. Hopefully should be less painful to the eyes than New Republic Colors.

God I am so excited to see this. I'm also proud that my paint scheme was actually good enough to be used like that. Thank you. It actually means a lot.

As we’re not likely to see an official T-85 release any time soon, I’ve been giving thought to possible stats for the T-85 and have a couple of theories based on the limited info available and what we’ve briefly seen in Resistance.

Its possible that the T-85 has completely done away with any ordinance slots. So far we have seen no evidence of any torpedo launchers and after the defeat of the empire it’s feasible that the New Republic took a less aggressive approach to their new military designs as they shifted from the role of insurgents to a defensive/peacekeeping role.

The ship frame definitely appears larger and more robust than the T-70 and the bulbous nose could be indicative of improved sensor capabilities which would fit with a defensive/patrol role. I’d imagine Hull value of 5 and shields remain as 3. I feel that agility should remain at 2. Add a system slot and possibly even a 2nd tech slot.

Also in the 1st episode of resistance it appears that the FO tie interceptor is ionized by Kaz’s hit, so could this suggest a kind of dual purpose cannon? This could either be represented by having a cannon upgrade slot or baked in ability that allows you to substitute hits/crits for ion tokens. This would also fit in with the ‘peacekeeping’ doctrine of the New Republic.

For the T-85 s-foil ability I am thinking similar to the T-70 but when s-foils are open, also allow a stop & rotate 90 or 180 degrees maneuver similar to the U-wing.

Lastly, from the Poe quote, there’s a suggestion that the T-85 supports cloaking device. Still not clear if this would be a standard feature (baked in special ability or cloak added to action bar) or a modification (illicit slot perhaps?).

15 hours ago, Braddock76ie said:

Its possible that the T-85 has completely done away with any ordinance slots. So far we have seen no evidence of any torpedo launchers and after the defeat of the empire it’s feasible that the New Republic took a less aggressive approach to their new military designs as they shifted from the role of insurgents to a defensive/peacekeeping role.

15 hours ago, Braddock76ie said:

Also in the 1st episode of resistance it appears that the FO tie interceptor is ionized by Kaz’s hit, so could this suggest a kind of dual purpose cannon? This could either be represented by having a cannon upgrade slot or baked in ability that allows you to substitute hits/crits for ion tokens. This would also fit in with the ‘peacekeeping’ doctrine of the New Republic

It would line up with the T-70, to be honest. Part of the reason the T-70 is so flexible as a multirole fighter is the ability to pack either torpedoes, or missiles, or ion cannons, or, or, or as dictated by the needs of the mission. With the republic navy wanting small forces, being able to re-role a fighter group from long range patrol to hunting a pirate frigate is key.

15 hours ago, Braddock76ie said:

The ship frame definitely appears larger and more robust than the T-70 and the bulbous nose could be indicative of improved sensor capabilities which would fit with a defensive/patrol role. I’d imagine Hull value of 5 and shields remain as 3. I feel that agility should remain at 2. Add a system slot and possibly even a 2nd tech slot.

Definitely adding the system slot. I'm not sure a second tech slot is necessarily that important but it's not a bad idea.

15 hours ago, Braddock76ie said:

For the T-85 s-foil ability I am thinking similar to the T-70 but when s-foils are open, also allow a stop & rotate 90 or 180 degrees maneuver similar to the U-wing.

The T-85 appears heavier but not that heavy. It's still a fighter, not a shuttle. Someone suggested a reusable SLAM ability, which might be interesting.

8 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The T-85 appears heavier but not that heavy. It's still a fighter, not a shuttle  . Someone suggested a reusable SLAM ability, which might be interesting.

Yeah the SLAM would be a nice addition but I just don’t feel like those 4 small extra engines are SLAM material. They seem more like compensation for the larger ship frame.

With luck we might see more of it in future Resistance episodes or even an episode 9 appearance. At the moment details are just too scarce.

How did it take me this long to find this thread?

To put my hat in the ring...

I'm fine with the T-85 design, I don't like it as much as the T-70, but I think it's a sensible evolution. All I wanted is corrected alignment of the S-foils like EC Henry's. They just look... off in the show.

So I figured I'd cross post the basic concept into this tread. Over in the Krayt's topic, @skotothalamos suggested that a T-85 X-Wing could do something like a Reaper or Striker, with certain kinds of forced movement before you reveal your dial. Here's my take at a ship design with this basic premise.

• Statline: 3/2/3/4 or 3/3/3/3
  • Agility would depend on what price-point you want these to occupy. Probably don't want them too comparable to a T-70 in price, just for variety in the kinds of lists they'll fit into. An E-Wing statline could probably justify a slightly higher price point, if the wonky S-Foils don't already do that.
• Actions: Focus, Lock, red Evade .
  • Why red? For an easy way to shut off the Adaptive S-Foils.
• Dial: Blues are 1-2-3 straight, 2 bank. Whites are 1-bank, 2-hard, 3-bank. Red a re 1-ha rd, 2 T-Rolls, 2 K-Turn.
  • Kinda slow, kinda limited blues, but these things get free movement from S-Foils, so it's OK.
• Upgrades: Astromech, Tech, Torpedo. Talent where appropriate. No modification slot.
  • It'd be possible to give them a Weapons Hardpoint like a T-70, but let's make these a bit more different.
• Ship Ability: Advanced Aileron Controls: You must equip the Adaptive S-Foils configuration.
• Configuration: Adaptive S-Foils, which would combine the forced movement of a Striker/Reaper, and the flavor of X-Wing S-Foils adding boosts or barrel rolls.
  • Adaptive S-Foils (Open)
    • Grants actions: Barrel Roll, Focus > Barrel Roll
    • Before you reveal your dial, if you are not stressed, you must execute a 1-bank left, 1-straight, or 1-bank right maneuver.
    • After you activate, you may flip this card.
  • Adaptive S-Foils (Closed)
    • Grants actions: Boost, Focus > Boost
    • Before you reveal your dial, if you are not stressed, you must perform a barrel roll (words, not symbol, so it isn't an action), treating it as a maneuver if it would overlap a ship or object.
      • There isn't really great language in X-Wing right now to execute something which "looks" like a barrel roll, but is technically a maneuver. Adaptive Ailerons nails the "it looks like a boost" language. The intent is that if you bump, you'd slide yourself sideways along the train tracks; if you land on a rock, you roll for damage, same as Adaptive Ailerons does it.
    • After you activate, you may flip this card.
  • The flip is after you activate, so that an opponent has more time to plan around what one of these things can do. If the flip was before activating... that'd be insane. Supernatural Reflexes for everyone. In order for there to be meaningful counter-play, having the S-Foils already fixed into position when planning dials seems wise. There's still a huge amount of adaptation and surprise one of these can pull off.
• Why? Because I think it'd be boring for a T-85 X-Wing to just be another X-Wing. We already have two. It'd be wicked lame to have three which behave in mostly the same way. So how about turning it into a cross between a Striker and a Phantom?
• Other thoughts:
  • BB Astromech on one of these would be sweet. Closed S-Foils and a Blue maneuver would yield essentially a 3-speed barrel roll before you move. BB-8 is likewise more insane.
  • R4 Astromech for Closed "rolls" away into 1-hard back in is pretty nice. That's one of the reasons why there'd be red 1-hards without a droid; so that only the " roll" + 2 hard is an option on one of these without upgrades.
  • Given the power of BB-units and their scaling prices, maybe it'd be best for these not to really have a low-generic. They were supposedly given only to elite units (I think I heard that... maybe I'm making it up...), so perhaps Init 3 Talent is the lowest generic. Or if there are two generics: Init 3 untalented and Init 4 Talent.

43 minutes ago, XPav said:

Alright, spill the beans, where's this at?

Upcoming comic -- Age of Resistance – Poe Dameron #1 .