The other thread involving this is going off the rails, so lets discuss the Wave V janky Separatist ace platform here and leave the derail discussion there.

Article for reference: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/8/13/pulling-the-strings/

Switching thread to try and side step the derailing.

To your point about noone saying the A-Wings would be the only ships with their talent slot allocation. Noone w/ FFG has said they wouldn't be either. Really either or neither of us maybe be correct. Should we resurrect the points and slots chant thread for giggles?

2 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Should we resurrect the points and slots chant thread for giggles?

Done

It sounds like people are done railing and it should be safe to return.

If it does have two talents does Treacherous get any use? Obviously depends on the costing of the two new ones, but I think having both of those on one of these would eat up quite a bit of points.

I could see Predator being in a possible second talent slot since your action is being used doing tractor shenanigans. It at least gives you one reroll when firing out of your primary bullseye arc.

Edit: I think I am unclear on Pinpoint Tractor Array; is the rotate action not your action for the turn? If not, then I think I use Marksmanship in the second talent slot.

Really don't think we're looking at double talents

I mean, it's always possible, but I doubt it. I also doubt you'd use both if it had two slots

The Nantex is a cute lil weirdo that'll have a VERY hard time bringing three dice to bear unless your name is Sun Fac. I'd be very surprised if it got use as anything other than

a.) An ensare bot (that ironically isn't a droid)

b ) the CiS version of the rz-A2 "swarm", now with more side winding!

c.) Sun Fac...just Sun Fac. It's a super positioning reliant ship that has an I6 pilot, so I hope you love your silly names!

What's really weird is the Nantex has ZERO synergy with droids (no calc, no networked; no targetlock off of Probes without additional investment).

And yet, Ensnare and Landing Struts LOVE rocks!

Because of the must rotate arc caveat, will we see people pointing the arc in a non threatening direction so when it’s important they can do the tractor trick and move the arc to where it’s needed? The arc synergy is going to be very important to plan ahead, the nantek May be harder to fly than initially thought.

6 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

neith  er of us maybe be cor  rect   . 

Well it obviously isn’t going to be 0 talent slots, so.... 3?? 😄

There is no reason to expect the Nantex to have two Talent slots. You have to make a choice about what to do with it, either using your Tractor tokens aggressively (with Ensnare) with a penalty for failing to pass it off (-1 agility), or defensively (with Gravitic Deflection), with compensation for the reduced agility in the form of the reroll. There's no meaningful decision to make if you can just have both, or either of them for 'free' (in opportunity terms) as well as another bonus with another Talent.
If those abilities were meant to be as much a part of the ship as the Pinpoint Tractor Array itself is, they'd have been Configuration cards like the Delta-7B/CLT are.

2 hours ago, MalusCalibur said:

There is no reason to expect the Nantex to have two Talent slots. You have to make a choice about what to do with it, either using your Tractor tokens aggressively (with Ensnare) with a penalty for failing to pass it off (-1 agility), or defensively (with Gravitic Deflection), with compensation for the reduced agility in the form of the reroll. There's no meaningful decision to make if you can just have both, or either of them for 'free' (in opportunity terms) as well as another bonus with another Talent.
If those abilities were meant to be as much a part of the ship as the Pinpoint Tractor Array itself is, they'd have been Configuration cards like the Delta-7B/CLT are.

While this is probably true, and the most likely outcome is only 1 talent slot, the Nantex is probably the most likely ship we have seen to get 2 talent slots. There are two main reasons for this, first, the Nantex is the ship most similar to the A-wing we have seen so far with the exception of the Delta-7 (Which has Force and the noted configs) and the same logic that lead to the dual talent slots for them can likely be applied to the Nantex. Second, the Nantex is the first ship we have seen so far with ship specific talents, and it's very likely the ship won't have any other upgrade slots besides talents and mods. So having a second talent will help keep it customizable. There is only 3 ships that have a single slot on their lowest initiative pilot. The TIE/ln, Modified TIE/ln, and the Fang, the first two are essentially canon fodder, and the Fang is a weird outlier. It doesn't seem like the Nantex is meant to be canon fodder, so if does only get 1 talent for the high initiative pilots it will be in rare company with the Fang.

Nantex has two Talents is the new Purple Actions can be performed in addition to a regular action.

Nantex is one of my favorite ship from the Star Wars universe I can't wait to add at least 2 of them on my collection. Sunfac and a generic will add some punch to a separatist fleet.

I think the point niche will be between 35 - 50 points with only one elite talent slot and one modification slot.

I like you have choice with them, would you like attack (Ensare/Target Computer) or Defense (Stealth Device/Gravitic Deflection) ?

Now I wait the slots andpoints !

5 hours ago, SpiderMana said:

Well it obviously isn’t going to be 0 talent slots, so.... 3?? 😄

I'll say 0 if it's a "closest without going over" thing. Otherwise, how about 5?

6 hours ago, GeneralVryth said:

...the Nantex is the ship most similar to the A-wing we have seen so far with the exception of the Delta-7 (Which has Force and the noted configs) and the same logic that lead to the dual talent slots for them can likely be applied to the Nantex.

What logic is that, though? Because the Nantex really isn't like the A-Wing - or indeed any other ship. It already has a lot of unusual shenanigans that are going to let it hit harder or move in unexpected ways (such as still being able to tractor-reposition off a bump). I don't believe it needs the added flexibility of two Talents, especially when the two unique ones are clearly designed to be so diametrically opposed as to be a decision between them rather than just being able to 'have it all'.

6 hours ago, GeneralVryth said:

Second, the Nantex is the first ship we have seen so far with ship specific talents, and it's very likely the ship won't have any other upgrade slots besides talents and mods. So having a second talent will help keep it customizable.

We don't know that, though. Granted it's likely, given the cards shown, but no guarantees. Perhaps it has an additional Modification slot to help keep it customizable? Or perhaps it doesn't need to be?

6 hours ago, GeneralVryth said:

There is only 3 ships that have a single slot on their lowest initiative pilot. The TIE/ln, Modified TIE/ln, and the Fang, the first two are essentially canon fodder, and the Fang is a weird outlier. It doesn't seem like the Nantex is meant to be canon fodder, so if does only get 1 talent for the high initiative pilots it will be in rare company with the Fang.

But the Nantex is definitely a 'weird outlier' - almost the definition of it given how unusual it is. And the Fang sees plenty of play and plenty of different setups despite only having minimal upgrade slots. I don't think we can use that as evidence in the Nantex's case.

More than anything else, I just really hope that the Nantex only has one Talent slot - as I've said, that way there are actual decisions to be made when building it, rather than just being able to take everything.

13 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

What's really weird is the Nantex has ZERO synergy with droids (no calc, no networked; no targetlock off of Probes without additional investment).

There is a synergy:

Also, Ensnare has a lot of synergy with large numbers of moderately-modified moderate-dice attacks, not to mention Discord Missiles.

1 hour ago, Managarmr said:

There is a synergy:

Right

Mr Hoops as he shall now be known on account of all the conditions you have to meet just for a red calculate action (which is itself full of more hoops to jump through)

Which is a whole lot of questionably necessary pain when probes already set you up with full mods on approach

This guy will have to be REAL cheap to ever see play

30 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

This guy will have to be REAL cheap to ever see play

It wouldn't surprise me to see him be very cheap; his ability sounds nice but in practice is so-so because acquiring a lock is hard at low initiative whilst calculating is easy (Especially with Doofus - DFS-081 - on the field), and if you've got around the lock restriction by fielding Dorks - DRK-1 - you've got your lock a turn ahead and are probably already on double mods anyway.

Yes, it applies to every friendly regardless of range, but since they need the lock it's in practice limited to range 1-3 of the target, and hitting with a Nantex's attack isn't a forgone conclusion.

On the other hand, he is Initiative 5, which for an interceptor-esque ship is a justification for existence in and of itself; Chertek by comparison has an awesome ability but is only Initiative 4.

Also note that it needs the calculate action but doesn't need Networked Calculations . Which may make him more suitable to fly wing for O-66 or Feethan Ottraw Autopilots

Eh, dunno about the non networked calcs given that the blues on those dials are far less than ideal

Would far sooner just take Kraken, which both the bubble and Sith can pack

29 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Not necessarily

Tractor reduces agility and makes it far easier to I kill some poor bastard

Therefore, more reliable high I ensnares plus attacks (esp from the Faqer) should generally prove to be more devastating

Now, there is a distinct possibility that a sort-of-swarm (ala 5 Rz-a2s) of Nantex will be possible depending on cost, in which case you'll just see the entire spectrum of ensnares!

from the locked thread...

So far most (all?) strong Ini scaling (+100% or more, over range) has been on abilities that directly benefit from late activation. I see your logic, but by that same logic I'd see ProTorps getting scaled way before Ensnare would, not to mention PT more directly benefits from a later activation. But who knows, stranger things have happened. Maybe it gets scaled 7B style (only +50% over Ini range)

3 hours ago, MalusCalibur said:

the  two unique ones are clearly designed to be so diametric  ally  opposed as to be a decision between them rath  e  r than just being able to 'have it all'.

This is the best reason to not have 2.

But it is like the A-Wing in that it’s a difficult ship to fly, so all of the pilots will be relatively good. This is somewhat evidenced by the initiative of its genetics—though again, doesn’t realistically mean anything about having two talents.

Has anyone heard an indication on timing? Usually they give a quarter in the closing paragraph, but this just said with the rest of wave V.

Are we just straight guessing on release dates?

8 minutes ago, SpiderMana said:

This is the best reason to not have 2.

But it is like the A-Wing in that it’s a difficult ship to fly, so all of the pilots will be relatively good. This is somewhat evidenced by the initiative of its genetics—though again, doesn’t realistically mean anything about having two talents.

If they had two talent slots, seems like they would have hinted at in the article. Instead, I get a distinct either/or impression:

For example, if a Nantex-class starfighter can't avoid an incoming attack, its tractor tokens can always become part of a  Gravitic Deflection  to the fire it takes aside.

A tool as powerful as a pinpoint tractor array can be used in many different ways, and the Geonosians who pilot the Nantex-class Starfighter often use it to suit their personal style. An ace like  Sun Fac , for example, prefers to  Ensnare  their targets for an offensive advantage.

Not conclusive though, of course.

2 minutes ago, PaulRuddSays said:

Has anyone heard an indication on timing? Usually they give a quarter in the closing paragraph, but this just said with the rest of wave V.

Are we just straight guessing on release dates?

Guessing, but unless they're planning on doing a LOT of Epic previews, second or third week of September seems very likely.