Just now, Hiemfire said:

In the current setup you're correct, they don't. In the adjusted rendition that you suggest they wouldn't prevent Ionization allot of the time on small bases, which is what I was focusing on. Ion weapons are balancing on a razor's edge. Tilt them a little 1 way and they become too powerful, tilt them a little the other way (as they sit now) and they're meh. Getting that middle where they are both useful and not overpowered is looking like pain.

Yeah, I said that.

39 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Ion has always been about sacrificing damage for control. The problem is that the control is not guaranteed on a hit .

Ion has always been a difficult thing to get right. In some case it can be fun to walk a ship off the table, but if Ion becomes too much of the meta it is the first to Ion wins. Personally I thin Ion cannons should always do ion damage even on the first dice as well as additional ion damage. Not 1 damage then ion damage.

I believe it would have been better if the first hit was 1 damage and 1 ion token, and each additions hit gives out more ion tokens than damage.

Either way, the cards are printed and there is no way to change that with the 2.0 future proofing designs. Unless they bring out an Ion Cannon II (or Ion Turret II) the Ion weapons are stuck as is, and it is best to look past them like a Proton Torpedo in 1st edition.

The fact you need 2 hits is why ionwalking isnt that easy.

Even with requiring 2 hits, ionwalking isnt that hard to do, its just most small ships die before they reach the rock or edge of the board anyway. Its just hard enough to do so its not basically auto-ion because you cant Evade, Repair, Boost, Roll, or some special action to avoid the attack better.

I initially didnt notice the 1st hit didnt ion and when i saw Ion now restricts to a focus action i immediately went "Are you kidding me they made ionwalking EASIER TO DO!?" - once i noticed the first hit doesnt ion, i realized it wasnt that likely. Still happens, but often its just 1 damage no ion.

It also provides an incentive to dodge the attack when you arent going to dodge it all. In 1.0 if you got hit by ions and you couldnt fully dodge it, you never spent any tokens because there was no point. Now there is, avoid that ion token is pretty important especially if the enemy list also has APTs, which are SUPER easy to line up if you are ioned.