What if scum had some 'for hire' ships other factions could use?

scum has access to 19 ships. maybe some of them could be used cross faction? id expect there to be a 'for hire' tax in points per ship hired. This would still give players a reason to play scum.

This could be limited to only scums generic ships and not its unique pilots. The for hire tax could even be higher for specific factions.

FO and Resistance factions could use some more ship options until they catch up.

thoughts?

It’s a cool idea but I think it’s more suited for a special format then an overall mechanic, only because of balance, either the ships are overpriced and not competitive for the sake of the cool theme, or someone finds a nasty combo or list which is now possible because vader can ride in slave one or something like that. It’s challenging enough to balance ships simply within each faction

now that being said a seasonal format where everyone must take one scum ship, with probably other list building criteria could be really cool and fun for little change of pace tournaments

44 minutes ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

What if scum had some 'for hire' ships other factions could use?

scum has access to 19 ships. maybe some of them could be used cross faction? id expect there to be a 'for hire' tax in points per ship hired. This would still give players a reason to play scum.

This could be limited to only scums generic ships and not its unique pilots. The for hire tax could even be higher for specific factions.

FO and Resistance factions could use some more ship options until they catch up.

thoughts?

Actually, I wouldn't stop at "For Hire."

For Hire = any Scum ships that are allowed into other factions

Commandeered = other faction's ships being used by the FO, Empire or Republic

Stolen = other faction's ships being used by Rebels, Resistance, or Separatists.

I do agree with @TheOz , however. This probably should be limited to Special Missions, Narrative Play, Epic, or the like, just in terms of controlling balance.

But ships like the Lambda Shuttle, Zeta Shuttle (WHEN, FFG, WHEN??!!} and GR-75 should get special/limited reasons to be shuffled around the factions.

I brought this up when I was new here and did not get a lot of support for the idea. To be honest, I am a till debating making it a house rule for my VERY limited group of players. More options equals more thought and fun. I honestly don't know why FF has not gone with it as it would sell them a lot more ships and draw in many new players. Perhaps, it will be in the "epic" rules?

Suppose this chain of events:

1. A ship is under-played in Scum.
2. It can now be played in other factions.
3. It gets added costs.

Now, why would it be played in other factions again? The only reason is broken combos. So no. I don't think it's a good idea. Resistance doesn't need to overpay for Mining Guild TIEs. First Order doesn't need to overpay for, what, YT-1300s?

//

At least, that's as far as constructed goes. I'm totally in favor of some cross-faction shenanigans in quickbuild. Particularly in partly draft-like semi-random quickbuild events.

//

Also, points update soon. Scum got over-nerfed in the last update, but they REALLY needed some nerfs. I wouldn't be surprised to see Scum be more on the buff-side of the balance this update.

Even if it were allowed for normal games but banned from tournaments. I don't know.. I honestly see it as a win win. Could even give each non scum faction a list to choose from that would be tailored to negate broken combos and be the most fluffy where there could be a limit imposed like "no more than 1 scum ship for every 2 base faction ships".

in Empire SB, Boba worked for the empire. in xwing 1.0 we had imperial versions of boba and all the firespray pilots.

scum seems well positioned to have something cross faction, perhaps even name pilots.

id enjoy seeing some new pilot cards with cross faction pilots eg. Rebel Lambda Shuttle aka Shuttle Tyderium.

id even be interested in a System Open that mixed it up and allowed ANY faction to field a single scum limited pilot or multiple generic pilots.

• Put some mining guild ties into an imperial swarm with Howlrunner or Drea with a team of academy pilots.
• Have Boba anchor your team,even if your are fielding a rebel or imperial list. (He isnt likely going to bother with the other factions... different eras)

lots of possibilities and if you are open-minded, they can be balanced.

1 hour ago, EVIL INC said:

Even if it were allowed for normal games but banned from tournaments. I don't know.. I honestly see it as a win win. Could even give each non scum faction a list to choose from that would be tailored to negate broken combos and be the most fluffy where there could be a limit imposed like "no more than 1 scum ship for every 2 base faction ships".

Suggest it to your locals maybe? Homebrewing stuff can be really fun. I've been trying to start up a custom card league (kinda quiet because people are busy though).

Allowing Scum to fly in any list would be a balancing nightmare. Is a good idea thematically, just hard to implement.

46 minutes ago, Archangelspiv said:

Allowing Scum to fly in any list would be a balancing nightmare. Is a good idea thematically, just hard to implement.

you could tax other factions based on initiative of pilot fore hire.

init 6 pilots add 3pts per pilot (Fenn up from 68 to 71)

init 5 pilots add 2pts per pilot (Boba up from 86 to 88, Guri up from 63 to 65, Old Teroch up from 56 to 58)

init 3-4 pilots add 1pt per pilot (Palob with title up from 58 to 59)

init 1-2 pilots are same cost.

Faction costs could further balance the points and effectively limit which factions get most use from scum for hire ships.

Outer Rim Smuggler, Wild Space Fringer...

3 hours ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

you could tax other factions based on initiative of pilot fore hire.

init 6 pilots add 3pts per pilot (Fenn up from 68 to 71)

init 5 pilots add 2pts per pilot (Boba up from 86 to 88, Guri up from 63 to 65, Old Teroch up from 56 to 58)

init 3-4 pilots add 1pt per pilot (Palob with title up from 58 to 59)

init 1-2 pilots are same cost.

Faction costs could further balance the points and effectively limit which factions get most use from scum for hire ships.

I think I would happily pay 3 points to fly Fenn with the likes of Jan Ors. 6 die at range 1.... yes please.

24 minutes ago, Archangelspiv said:

I think I would happily pay 3 points to fly Fenn with the likes of Jan Ors. 6 die at range 1.... yes please.

ME: I get to use Fen and get 6 die at range one with Jan Or for just 3 extra points? Sign me up!

FFG: Fenn Rau cross faction is now an extra 16pts 26pts.

5 minutes ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

ME: I get to use Fen and get 6 die at range one with Jan Or for just 3 extra points? Sign me up!

FFG: Fenn Rau cross faction is now 16pts.

I was pointing out how hard it is to balance such things, you helped me prove my case by now making Fenn 16 points more expensive as if that is the way to make OP things not play together.

At no point have I said I wouldn't like it to be a possibility through something like quick builds. But I think you a trying to add a level of difficulty that FFG are not ready for.
They have enough issues already trying to figure out how to make other ships viable and stop lists like Rebel Beef being the go to, and no... Scum mercs is not the answer.

1 minute ago, Archangelspiv said:

I was pointing out how hard it is to balance such things, you helped me prove my case by now making Fenn 16 points more expensive as if that is the way to make OP things not play together.

At no point have I said I wouldn't like it to be a possibility through something like quick builds. But I think you a trying to add a level of difficulty that FFG are not ready for.
They have enough issues already trying to figure out how to make other ships viable and stop lists like Rebel Beef being the go to, and no... Scum mercs is not the answer.

generic scum ships could be good filler ships tho and theyre less prone to balancing issues. imo FFG have expanded to 7 factions so quickly it has created a lag for the newest factions to catch up. Hyperspace somewhat mitigates these issues but then we are left with such a small pool of ships to select from things have become rather stale. The next points rebalancing should help but its still a long time between drinks for those factions who are not at the top of the pile.

6 hours ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

id enjoy seeing some new pilot cards with cross faction pilots eg. Rebel Lambda Shuttle aka Shuttle Tyderium.

I'll add this every time: while I don't necessarily think Shuttle Tyderium is right for the standard game, there 100% should be Quickbuild Shuttle Tyderium with all the main cast, and a Poe+Finn TIE/sf for Resistance. All these edge cases from the source material should be somewhat represented.

16 hours ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

What if scum had some 'for hire' ships other factions could use?

scum has access to 19 ships. maybe some of them could be used cross faction? id expect there to be a 'for hire' tax in points per ship hired. This would still give players a reason to play scum.

This could be limited to only scums generic ships and not its unique pilots. The for hire tax could even be higher for specific factions.

FO and Resistance factions could use some more ship options until they catch up.

thoughts?

Here is an alternative format that uses the Custom Format App Feature on the Official X-wing Squad builder.

16 hours ago, TheOz said:

It’s a cool idea but I think it’s more suited for a special format then an overall mechanic, only because of balance, either the ships are overpriced and not competitive for the sake of the cool theme, or someone finds a nasty combo or list which is now possible because vader can ride in slave one or something like that. It’s challenging enough to balance ships simply within each faction

now that being said a seasonal format where everyone must take one scum ship, with probably other list building criteria could be really cool and fun for little change of pace tournaments

Well with this format ship building restrictions still apply. Sure you can have Vader crew in a list that has Galactic Empire with Mercenary Scum but Vader will be in an Imperial Ship.

game is hard enough to balance as is

only place I've seen mercs make any sense is in Warmachine/hordes, because there is otherwise no overlap (apart from specialized theme lists) between faction options

So basically, mercs in Warmachine fill the niche of "generic", faction-independent upgrades in addition to being their own faction

The idea of a "neutral" faction has been explored in quite a few other Star Wars games (wizards of the coast Star Wars Trading Card game, etc).

I love the idea, but in order for it to be balanced well, you'd have to design the ship balance around faction-unique characters like Leia Crew, Vader Crew, etc.

Then it sort of turns into a card game with ships, in my opinion...which is totally fine (for RPGs and epic, maybe).

For hire,commandeered,stolen: pilot cards please!

Played a fun custom list night at my shop a few months ago, normal 200 point list, no scum lists, then you add one bounty hunter ship for no more than 70 points. Lot of ships and craziness on the table but a ton of fun!