I know the in-flight report is in a couple hours or so, but I had a couple ideas for the tri fighter I'd like to share (and it might not show up anyway). For some reason I can't stop thinking about this comically tiny ship.

I don't have anything much for the chassis but I'm leaning towards an A-Wing archetype with a 2 dice primary.

NEW STUFF IN RED

Chassis:

2 V or 3 V attack / 3 agility / 3 hull / 0 shields ---- calc. / lock / boost / evade? ---- missile / cannon / mod / talent?

Ship ability:

Pursuit Precepts - After you fully execute a maneuver, you may perform a boost action, even while stressed. After you perform a boost action using your Pursuit Precepts , if there is no enemy ship in your V , gain one stress, strain or jam token of your choice. (Of course inspired by Vonreg's TIE ship ability)

ALTERNATE VERSION: After you boost, you can lock an opponent in your arc or calculate if there's someone in your arc.

Simplify it a bit? Still goin for a hunter feel for the ship. Stressless free actions if you stay on target. This means you can double calculate if you're following programming, reflecting the more advanced, aggressive AI built into the ship.

Dial:

Just threw this together, ship ability opens up the dial in terms of speed so I hit the faster banks a bit (that is to say, axed those mother****ers), keep it in line with the other droids somewhat. Doesn't feel super unique to me and it's not fully thought out.

REVISED DIAL: (Designed by and credit to theBitterFig )

I think this can work with the ship ability I made, and overall works as an upgraded version of a droid dial. Better designed than my original one.

Pilots

I've posted this one elsewhere:

(Two Dot) Plac-Arphocc Prototype: I4

At the start of engagement, you may exchange one of your tokens with a friendly Plac-Arphocc Prototype.

I like the idea of prototype pilots for each of the droid ships.

Feel free to suggest tighter range restrictions and token type limitations to balance this guy out:

(One Dot) DIS-019: I5

When attacking, after you roll dice, you may transfer one of your green or blue tokens to another friendly ship at range 1-2.

See what I did with the name? Might be cheesy but at least I didn't call it prsk or something. Also it's D' I 'S as in 'interceptor', dunno if it's been discussed elsewhere but I figure that DFS and DBS stand for droid fighter ship and droid bomber ship respectively.

Time to get experimental:

(One Dot) DIS-707: I0

One charge

During the system phase, you may spend one charge to treat your initiative as 7 during the activation phase. Or you may lose one charge to treat your initiative as 7 during the engagement phase.

Anyone who actually understands what I'm going for here, please lemme know if you think it could be simplified! I want people to have to switch between the two modes instead of just using one.

The way it's set up here is that if you don't spend or gain a charge then you just have an I0 ship, so you have to make the change if you prefer, say, I7 during activation.

I love designing droids.

(One Dot) DIS-423: I3

SETUP: You must acquire a lock on an enemy ship, ignoring range restrictions.

You cannot perform lock actions. When attacking a ship you have locked, you may improve one of your dice results.

DBS-404s tri fighter cousin. Same naming convention and everything.

(One Dot) DIS-BOR: I2

While you perform a primary attack, if the attack is obstructed by another ship, roll one extra attack die.

(Three Dot) X386 Hounder: I1

When attacking a ship that has a red lock token, you may reroll one attack die.

(One Dot) Colla Prototype: I4

When attacking a ship in your bullseye, you may treat the range of the attack as 0, 1, 2 or 3.

If anyone has their own ideas I'd love to hear them!

Also I know I said I wanted to increase attack power without necessarily boosting dice, but sometimes more dice is more simple. Might still be able to do it in some areas.

Definitely want to see 5 of these guys at I4 with Ion missiles.

FP 2??? 🤣 🤣 🤣

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Droid_tri-fighter

8 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

FP  2  ??  ?  🤣 🤣 🤣

I thought it would have a pretty substantial attack as well but apparently that central gun is akin to the tie fighter's two guns in terms of power. Can't remember what I read on the wiki to come to that conclusion but I'm certainly open to a 3 die primary cause after all, it does look like it should have some teeth.

1 hour ago, Prosk_019 said:

I thought it would have a pretty substantial attack as well but apparently that central gun is akin to the tie fighter's two guns in terms of power.

In FFG's RPG, the Ghost's main weapons are identical to the Y-Wing's, so I wouldn't put much faith in the lore as applied to X-Wing.

2 minutes ago, Subhntr said:

In FFG's RPG, the Ghost's main weapons are identical to the Y-Wing's, so I wouldn't put much faith in the lore as applied to X-Wing.

Well see, what it actually is, is that the Ghost has greater power generation and cooling ability, so it can fire the same guns faster.

(how did that sound? did it convince you?)

I'm looking into ways of giving it a dangerous attack without increasing dice

Give it this ability: trifighter cannon; all hits are changed to crits.

A bit more punchy but still able to evaded by most ships.

Discussing Tri-Fighters with a friend of mine, he thought they ought to be faster than exists in the game, 4 and 5 hard turns and banks. I personally don't really like that direction of ideas, nor do I think it'd ever happen. However, something which struck me: it might work to give them an Ailerons-like ability, but with a fast rather than slow dial.

For statline, I like 3/3/3, without Cannon slots, just Missile/Mod. Action-wise, Calculate, Evade, Barrel Roll. No Lock. It can be added by Targeting Computer, if folks need it.

Ship Ability: Robotic Ailerons: "Before you engage, if you are not stressed, you must execute a white (1 left bank, 1 straight, 1 right bank) maneuver. If you fully execute this maneuver, you may perform a Red Calculate action."

Dial might look something like this ( https://xwvassal.info/dialgen/dialgen - AileronTriFighter.1FW,2TW,2BR,2FB,2NR,2KR,2YW,3ER,3TB,3BW,3FB,3NW,3YB,3RR,4FW) A ship like this would almost be too fast to handle, but it'd have flair, and could Calc/Evade.

//

Another direction: Calculate/Evade/Barrel Roll -> Red Calc/Boost -> Red Calc. Networked Calculations ship ability. It'd be really interesting to have an interceptor-type ship which could share tokens. Seems like it'd be nice for if it gets mixed up into a scrum, since blocking one of these doesn't necessarily eliminate it's potential to modify it's dice.

The dial would need to be fairly different, however. (LinkedTriFighter.1TB,1YB,2TW,2BR,2FB,2NR,2YW,3ER,3TB,3BW,3FB,3NW,3YB,3RR,4FB,5FB,5KR). No banks for clearing stress would be awkward on an interceptor-style ship, but having both 1 and 3 hard turns being blue would make them super hard to block.

Due to the size and mix of weapon options they have access to in Canon I think they may end up being a third small base with hardpoint.

1 hour ago, Hiemfire said:

Due to the size and mix of weapon options they have access to in Canon I think they may end up being a third small base with hardpoint.

It would be really interesting if they gave them a hardpoint but no primary attack.

To me they sound like a M3a

On 8/15/2019 at 8:37 PM, theBitterFig said:

Discussing Tri-Fighters with a friend of mine, he thought they ought to be faster than exists in the game, 4 and 5 hard turns and banks. I personally don't really like that direction of ideas, nor do I think it'd ever happen. However, something which struck me: it might work to give them an Ailerons-like ability, but with a fast rather than slow dial.

For statline, I like 3/3/3, without Cannon slots, just Missile/Mod. Action-wise, Calculate, Evade, Barrel Roll. No Lock. It can be added by Targeting Computer, if folks need it.

Ship Ability: Robotic Ailerons: "Before you engage, if you are not stressed, you must execute a white (1 left bank, 1 straight, 1 right bank) maneuver. If you fully execute this maneuver, you may perform a Red Calculate action."

Dial might look something like this ( https://xwvassal.info/dialgen/dialgen - AileronTriFighter.1FW,2TW,2BR,2FB,2NR,2KR,2YW,3ER,3TB,3BW,3FB,3NW,3YB,3RR,4FW) A ship like this would almost be too fast to handle, but it'd have flair, and could Calc/Evade.

//

Another direction: Calculate/Evade/Barrel Roll -> Red Calc/Boost -> Red Calc. Networked Calculations ship ability. It'd be really interesting to have an interceptor-type ship which could share tokens. Seems like it'd be nice for if it gets mixed up into a scrum, since blocking one of these doesn't necessarily eliminate it's potential to modify it's dice.

The dial would need to be fairly different, however. (LinkedTriFighter.1TB,1YB,2TW,2BR,2FB,2NR,2YW,3ER,3TB,3BW,3FB,3NW,3YB,3RR,4FB,5FB,5KR). No banks for clearing stress would be awkward on an interceptor-style ship, but having both 1 and 3 hard turns being blue would make them super hard to block.

Gosh I wish I could find a dial generator that sets the maneuvers out plainly, makes it much easier to visualize how the ship would fly.

Your first idea for a faster aileron type ship with some bonus action economy is real nice. It sets it apart from both the striker/reaper as well as the other droids in the CIS.

What I was trying to do with my ship ability was to give the tri fighter a sort of hunter-esque identity by giving free repositioning after movement but punishing you if you don't stay on target.

Also I'll admit I ain't fond of the idea of networked calculations on an interceptor, cause while it suits the way it's often presented in various media (flying as a trio), I think it limits the degree to which the ship can make use of its dial when it has to stay in formation. Also while netcalc. does distinguish the tri fighter from other interceptors, in my opinion it would be cool to instead set it apart from the other droids, as it looks very different to them and comes from a separate manufacturer I believe.

Advanced Droid Brain instead of Networked Calc maybe?

21 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Advanced Droid Brain instead of Networked Calc maybe?

Honestly that probably makes the most sense and it would be real useful for netcalc clouds. Thing is, wishful thinking has me hooked on making a new ability for them

1 hour ago, Prosk_019 said:

Honestly that probably makes the most sense and it would be real useful for netcalc clouds.

Not really. Net calc can only draw from ships that have the Net Calc ability. Adv Droid Brain would be instead of Net Calc increasing the independence of the Tri.

11 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Not really. Net calc can only draw from ships that have the Net Calc ability. Adv Droid Brain would be instead of Net Calc increasing the independence of the Tri.

Incorrect.

Netcalc can take any neighbouring calc.

Networked Calculations: While you defend or perform an attack, you may spend 1 calculate token from a friendly ship at range 0-1 to change 1 result to an or result.

15 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Incorrect.

Netcalc can take any neighbouring calc.

Networked Calculations: While you defend or perform an attack, you may spend 1 calculate token from a friendly ship at range 0-1 to change 1 result to an or result.

Hmm. Strange. Could have sworn it required the one being taken from to have the Networked Calculations ability.

8 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Hmm. Strange. Could have sworn it required the one being taken from to have the Networked Calculations ability.

Well it's a logical assumption at least. Probably should work like that just in case having somethin like an advanced droid brain around to share stuff is too powerful

2 minutes ago, Prosk_019 said:

Well it's a logical assumption at least. Probably should work like that just in case having somethin like an advanced droid brain around to share stuff is too powerful

Kraken and TA-175 provide a similar effect enabling O-66 or Feethan Autopilots to act as Calculate batteries of a sort already.

Kraken allows whoever holds it to do that, it provides a calculate action to the ship equipping it.

It's why it's so good on Wat/Greivous.

I would probably design it with Advanced Droid Brain as the ship ability. And give a teo dot pilot that allows you to spend a Calculate at to boost or barrel roll, at some point in the round.

Because the Tri-Fighters are said to be able to outfly and outmaneuver Jedi on a regular basis.

8 minutes ago, Kreen said:

I would probably design it with Advanced Droid Brain as the ship ability. And give a teo dot pilot that allows you to spend a Calculate at to boost or barrel roll, at some point in the round.

Because the Tri-Fighters are said to be able to outfly and outmaneuver Jedi on a regular basis.

I was actually thinking about some ideas for the rogue class fighter and how to make a magnu guard pilot more effective at dealing with them, since that's what they're known for.

Also do tri fighters really outperform jedi that regularly? I'm not sure how many cases there are of it happening.

On 8/15/2019 at 11:52 AM, martini74 said:

Give it this ability: trifighter cannon; all hits are changed to crits.

A bit more punchy but still able to evaded by most ships.

Although I don't think it'll be crit-specific, I very much agree to a ship ability for offense.

Something that would make any ordinance other than discord missiles feel like a waste of points.

Bullseye= +1 dice

Or

Roll 1 extra dice at range 3 and reroll 1 at range 1.

On 8/18/2019 at 7:18 PM, Bucknife said:

Although I don't think it'll be crit-specific, I very much agree to a ship ability for offense.

Something that would make any ordinance other than discord missiles feel like a waste of points.

Bullseye= +1 dice

Or

Roll 1 extra dice at range 3 and reroll 1 at range 1.

You could simply boost the attack to three, but I'm wondering if that'll mess with the price point too much, making these ships less expendable while still being very fragile. I think you're onto something with a sidegrade-to-attack-power ship ability.

Maybe we could do something stupid like add the ordnance symbol to the primary attack and deny defense range bonuses.

Just looking at the design of that ship screams bullseye abilities. Bullseye= +1 dice sounds great. In the movies it was surrounded by vultures like it was a command ship. I would love to see abilities that make it want to fly in formation with others, but have a little more punch than the typical vulture. This means it should keep the Networked Calculations so it can synergize with its vulture buddies.

I would give it abilities like:

Allies with Network Calculations gain +1 reroll when attacking targets you have a lock on.

After performing an attack that hits against a ship in your bullseye, all allies with Network Calculations may acquire a lock on that ship. (talk about a lot of caveats...)

After performing an attack, Enemy ships in your bullseye arc must discard a green token or take 1 damage. (thank you Torani)

After performing an attack, if the target is in your bullseye it gains 1 Ion token or 1 strain.