Looks like the same design principle as Uglies, back in the days of legends.

I would like to see them released as 6 ships with the same stat card, but a series of unique titles, but the model either a mystery, or varied, but on display. So you knew when you bought it what cardboard components you were getting but maybe not the plastic component (at least a mystery to the store owner when the order a batch of them)

1 hour ago, Ronu said:

Okay so is it me or does it look like the Black Ace went back to the Clone Wars era and made an updated, ETA-2?

That Aside, if these are racing craft are they all combat capable? Most look like they could be but a couple look like dedicated racers similar to “POD Racers”.

I am fairly confident that the front forks are assets from the u-wing used in rebels.

10 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

With the thread discussing the show in the off topic, I decided to start one here SPECIFICALLY geared towards x-wing, and where these ships fit in to the game and how they would work.

Without linking everything here, the official databank has some good, and new, pictures of the craft and pilots. Link below so you can read up.

Star Wars Databank

So.. assuming you have read up, it seems these new ships are all unique (as are the pilots). We have 5 aces; Yellow, Red, Green, Black, and Blue as well as the hero’s (Kaz) ship, Fireball.

The general gist of the aces role is the pilots are tasked with defending the Colossus fueling station, but between actual missions, they race.

X-wing wise these ships are a goldmine, assuming they end up in an existing faction - which going by the name implies the Resistance, but story wise we don't know anything concrete yet, as well as the series being set before the Force Awakens.

While the ships could certainly show up in x-wing, the real question is should they? Now this is not a debate about the look of the show, please take that elsewhere, but rather if the idea and gameplay of x-wing is a fit with what the show is going to portray.

While the above aces are (and will certainly) be involved in combat, one of the major plot points is the racing. Now as these ships are all unique and thus only have one pilot, individual expansions are going to be light on content. Sure, there would be upgrade cards but random pilots dont makes sense thematically. The options I see are: don't make the ships (the worst option), have expansions with only one pilot, add in random non-existant pilots (the second worst option) or, and I feel the best option, do a 6 ship box set.

Now, this box set will still be light on content pilot wise, but I think this could be a great idea for FFG to do the Aturi Style campaign that so many of us love, as well as expand the gameplay mode for tournaments.

With the focus of these ships being racing, and thus speed, some of the core concepts don't work with native x-wing - namely initiative. As a race is generally the first past the post, slower pilot get to move first and thus would win. This leads me to believe that IF these ships show up they would have to be relegated to the basic 200/6 x-wing mode or a new game entirely must be created for racing - which is not a bad thing in my mind.

If a new game style was created, that of racing, I think there would have to be a ton of customizing for pilots. Were it up to me, I would do this racing box set as having these 6 aces as being created and detailed specifically for this game mode. (As well as having basic x-wing ship stats). The game would have to be redesigned somewhat, changes to initiative, but most of the mechanics could translate easily maneuvers, templates, damage cards, upgrades.

But what would be the biggest part about this game, and could work with both x-wing standard and what I will call rally mode is the custom pilot creation.

See, while these six pilots and their ships are great, there are so many other ships in x-wing standard that could get new life in the rally game. Many of us have a favourite ship. Imagine if this Rally game gave us the option to make our unique pilot and fly them in any ship availiable? You could start with a chassis TIE, x-wing, Scyk, etc and customize it for the racing mode. A tournament could literally be a race - and flying will be the focus.

Now, this would requird a lot of balancing, I admit, but could be a lot of fun.

Another option is that FFG could implement their new unique game idea instead of custom pilots. You could buy a racer pack (or more likely put it in the above box set idea) and get a unique pilot for both standard and rally mode as well as the racers from the show.

This of course has issues of its own. But the standard 200/6 tournaments would be a whole new game if there was a unique pilot that no one else had. That being said a player should only be allowed to ever field one such character in a list. Now this is of course a pipe dream.. not likely to happen, nor necessarily should it. Even if relegated to the rally mode, FFG could take the uniqe concept and create their own ships (or even a customizable model) and sell then with the racers. Basically, you choose a ship that looks cool and you get a unique racer/pilot for it. While the models would provide the default stats, each pilot inside would fly differently. The downside to this of course is I'm not sure of the long term viability of this financially, I'm not even considering the liscencing implications with Lucasfilm with this either.

This is the single best idea I've ever heard for X-Wing. FFG, please do this. All of it.

3 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

nor would the Black Ace flown by Griff Halloran work, since it is said to be an extensive rebuild of his old TIE. (given the parts in there, i'd guess he started with a Striker, myself.)

Looks like the TIE Phantom, actually.

3 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

ultimately all but the black ace have the option of Lucasfilm and FFG deciding that the manufacturers turned the ace's customs into the basis for more mass produced versions. and even the black ace could probably be turned into something of the kind, given there are a lot of TIE parts around and turning them into viable fighters through mods is probably a thriving industry.

If Black Ace is added to the Resistance does that make it the Resistance's Tie Fighter, since every faction post PT seems to need one?

12 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

With the thread discussing the show in the off topic, I decided to start one here SPECIFICALLY geared towards x-wing, and where these ships fit in to the game and how they would work.

Rewatching the extended trailer, I don't see any scenes with the racer craft in space. They might only be atmospheric craft like the T-16 or T-47.

There are a few ships, in a quick shot, that may be some kind of planetary militia fighters. The pilots from the series could come with that ship (whatever it is) and then have pilot card versions for the T-70 or whatever.

10 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

Rewatching the extended trailer, I don't see any scenes with the racer craft in space. They might only be atmospheric craft like the T-16 or T-47.

There are a few ships, in a quick shot, that may be some kind of planetary militia fighters. The pilots from the series could come with that ship (whatever it is) and then have pilot card versions for the T-70 or whatever.

Oh please. You know full well they can go into space.

1 hour ago, Animewarsdude said:

If Black Ace is added to the Resistance does that make it the Resistance's Tie Fighter, since every faction post PT seems to need one?

Are we 100% sure we can rule out the prequels?

5 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:

Oh please. You know full well they can go into space.

I don't know that at all. Performance racing craft would very likely not be very useful for military purposes. Like bringing an F1 racer to a tank battle... They do have guns, but the guns might be ions for slowing down other race craft.

50 minutes ago, Koing907 said:

I don't know that at all. Performance racing craft would very likely not be very useful for military purposes. Like bringing an F1 racer to a tank battle... They do have guns, but the guns might be ions for slowing down other race craft.

Considering some of those racing craft and pilots are also part of the defensive squadron for the refueling station that everyone is on, the likelihood that their weapons are just ion seems low. There is also mention of them preforming stunt flights. These two tidbits suggest the ships are more versatile than just racers.

Also consider that all the racing ships are reported to have Astromechs, an indicator that the ships are hyperdrive capable.

Also consider that this is a dramatic series set in the Star Wars universe. There is no way the main characters signature crafts are going to be limited to one planet.

1 hour ago, Koing907 said:

I don't know that at all. Performance racing craft would very likely not be very useful for military purposes. Like bringing an F1 racer to a tank battle... They do have guns, but the guns might be ions for slowing down other race craft.

you realize some of the best Fighters in WW2 were developed off Air Racers right? Supermarine Spitfire was designed using features and lessons learned from Schneider Trophy races. the Bf109 was designed using air races as a cover, and also using lessons learned from Air Races (using the Bf108, which was similar in design to the Bf109 but had a side by side cockpit and different engine) and actually competed in several international ones in switzerland after the fighter started production.

pretty much all the 'modern' fighters when ww2 started were based off Air Racers and the lessons learned from the many air racing tourney's of the 20's and 30's. either directly or from copying elements of other nation's fighters. air racing requires speed, agility, and responsiveness.. which are the three main aspects that make a fighter exceptional in combat.

I imagine their "Racing" ships will work like Sabine's TIE or the Phantom shuttles, where the ship comes with no generics i.e. named pilots only. This would fit into the Resistance's "elite pilots" style that FFG want to achieve.

2 minutes ago, Porkchop Express said:

I imagine their "Racing" ships will work like Sabine's TIE or the Phantom shuttles, where the ship comes with no generics i.e. named pilots only. This would fit into the Resistance's "elite pilots" style that FFG want to achieve.

This honestly makes a lot of sense, but the question is how do you shuffle the pilots around per ship? Aside from each ace's ship, where do you put them? Seems like our MC and Blue Ace (really need to learn their names) might be spending a lot of time together so they might fly each other's ships (In X-Wing, not the show) but we might have to see some of the episodes first to get an idea of the relationships between the other characters.

Either that, or FFG makes up uniques to compliment each ace, but seeing how they handled the Ghost, Phantoms, and Captured TIE from Rebels, I doubt that's what will happen.

FFG could take a page out of GWs book (see recently: Speed Freeks) and create a standalone game for these that includes components for X-Wing. That way, having a ship with just one pilot wouldn't be all that weird, and you could cut down on wasted cardboard by having one side for X-Wing and one for the racing game on the base chits. Would be a pretty large purchase similar to an huge ship, but with a lot of spice!

"The Star Wars Resistance Aces and should the be in this game or a new one?"

- Why not both?

A box with racing rules and ships compatible with XWTMG.

2 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

FFG could take a page out of GWs book (see recently: Speed Freeks) and create a standalone game for these that includes components for X-Wing. That way, having a ship with just one pilot wouldn't be all that weird, and you could cut down on wasted cardboard by having one side for X-Wing and one for the racing game on the base chits. Would be a pretty large purchase similar to an huge ship, but with a lot of spice!

Well, this. ^

7 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Are we 100% sure we can rule out the prequels?

Fine.

Republic: Proto-Tie

CIS: Stolen Proto-Tie

19 hours ago, Animewarsdude said:

Yellow Ace, looks to be a ship with all the S-foils/moving wings.

This bears a passing resemblance to this 2+ year old design...
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Imperial-Navy-Avenger-Strike-Fighter

(which GW clearly borrowed/"inspired" from an F-4U Corsair and A-10 hybrid)

GW lawyers suing the Mouse? Maybe...

OK, so here's something funny - I was working on a racing version of X-wing after reading about the MarioKart rules some other folks had come up with. I thought it was great fun, but I like Wipeout style play more than MarioKart, so I was going through some trouble to come up with new stuff. I also happen to work at a sign/graphics shop, so I can print racetrack sections and whatnot and we just got a router table for chopping up PVC and whatnot to create custom track shapes. If FFG does all that heavy lifting for me I'd be pleased as punch.

On a related note, speaking of customized ships from the upcoming show, before I'd seen anything about the show I built a racing Z-95 (a Z-95R?). I'm still in the process of painting it - the attached image is just a photoshop paint job, but the model is built and was surprisingly easy to make.

Anyway, I love the idea of a separate racing game, especially if the racing fighters till work for standard X-wing.

11 hours ago, Animewarsdude said:

If Black Ace is added to the Resistance does that make it the Resistance's Tie Fighter, since every faction post PT seems to need one?

ETA-2 Actis is dang-near a TIE. Twin ion engines, panels that fold out to make it look somewhere between the curved wings of the TIE/v1 and TIE/x1 or TIE/In.

I don't think the CIS had anything too close to that, though.

EDIT: I guess the tri-fighter has a passing resemblance to a Phantom, and has a ball in the middle.

1 hour ago, Ixidor said:

ETA-2 Actis is dang-near a TIE. Twin ion engines, panels that fold out to make it look somewhere between the curved wings of the TIE/v1 and TIE/x1 or TIE/In.

I don't think the CIS had anything too close to that, though.

EDIT: I guess the tri-fighter has a passing resemblance to a Phantom, and has a ball in the middle.

Personally, I never thought the ETA really looked all that TIE-like. It may have been the ship TIEs got their inspiration from, but it's not really a prototype TIE any more than a TIE Fighter is a prototype TIE Advanced.

10 hours ago, SabineKey said:

Considering some of those racing craft and pilots are also part of the defensive squadron for the refueling station that everyone is on, the likelihood that their weapons are just ion seems low. There is also mention of them preforming stunt flights. These two tidbits suggest the ships are more versatile than just racers.

Also consider that all the racing ships are reported to have Astromechs, an indicator that the ships are hyperdrive capable.

Like I said. The only time we see the racer craft is when they're racing in the atmosphere. There is a shot of some unidentified craft, a shuttle/transport and some smaller ones. So they might use actual military fighters when in space, doing militia things.

12 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Personally, I never thought the ETA really looked all that TIE-like. It may have been the ship TIEs got their inspiration from, but it's not really a prototype TIE any more than a TIE Fighter is a prototype TIE Advanced.

While the cockpit as a whole doesn't look much like one, the very front part of it is very reminiscent of the ball cockpit. It has the right kind of engines and I'll admit the wings don't look THAT much like TIE/x1 or TIE/In, but some passing resemblance, some renditions version definitely have some visible similarity to the TIE/v1's wings.

It's close enough in the same way the TIE Phantom is close enough. It's quite distinct but shares some common themes.

I would never say the ETA-2 is actually a TIE series fighter but it's got some similarities that I feel are enough to fulfill the "does Republic ALSO have one of these?" questions.