Came up with some questions regarding starfighters, mostly squadrons, in the game:
- I'm not a military person, personally, so ranks tend to escape me. If I was looking at the members of a top-tier fighter squadron, how do their ranks, within the military, work out? On the one hand, the Empire doesn't generally seem to value theirs, while other members of their military, like Moffs, might even seem like their ranks are different. I don't know if, if I introduced Death Squadron, what rank the squad leader of it would hold, or his second? I hoped that the Rebels might help, since we tend to get more details from them, but even Rogue Squadron, I don't know what rank Wedge Antilles held in Return of the Jedi. In later novels, he was a general, even, but then the Rebellion doled out ranks like prizes, because they needed people to fill jobs; "General" Solo wasn't even in the military, but was going to perform actions possibly requiring his rank, or something comparable. So the Rebels didn't help much. Is there a good answer? Does anyone know the ranking systems among the various factions' fighter corps?
- This one is more mechanical. How do you handle a squadron of aces? We'll use Rogue Squadron. Wedge Antilles is considered one of the greatest fighter pilots ever, and is justified in being placed at the head of Rogue Squadron, but he's not the only ace in the unit; most members of this illustrious team are a cut above the rest. This is fine, except in this game, squadrons usually seem to work by just stacking the rest of the fighters on top of the leader, getting better for more members. With nameless pilots, of regular skill, that's fine, but if Wedge Antilles, Luke Skywalker, and Jaina Solo were all in Rogue Squadron at the same time...it just doesn't work for the mechanics of squadrons as I understand them. Would they just each fly solo, and ignore squadron benefits? Is there a way to stack other Elites into a single squadron, and not just be wasting them? I don't expect there are enough extra fighters around to have each break off, squad up with other chaff fighters, and work, but otherwise I don't get how a squadron of elite pilots is supposed to function in this game. A few years ago, I invented an Imperial equivalent to Rogue Squadron, for use in a game of AoR that never took off; they were Reaper Squadron, and I invented a heroic squad leader to command them, and garner PR from the citizenry, named Darian Killgrave (for the question above, I ranked him Commander). Thing is, Reaper One, while amazing, is in a TIE Hunter squadron comprised of several of the Empire's best aces, so as said, I'm uncertain how one Nemesis special character and four TIE Ace Elites make a squadron that isn't just strap on health packs to the leader. Any advice would be great.
Well, that will about do it. Hope everyone is well, and has a wonderful holiday!