The video tutorial is up. It's interesting and very well done, though I would have preferred they got the voice from the Rogue Squadron games to do it. Would have been awesome! Though that would have been an unnecessary external cost, I'm sure. Much cheaper to let a current employee do the voice, assuming that's what they did.

But the video did bring up something that's been bothering me about the rule book and this video: firing arcs.

Whenever we see firing arcs with range increments indicated, the range increments follow the same arc as the internal firing arc guides. However, if you physically move the range guide around your ship's base, and within the firing arc, while trying to maximize distance, you can't get an arc like they always illustrate. Instead, you get a long, flat surface out front, corresponding with the face of the ship, and then rounded corners as you pivot the guide when it reaches the edge of your base. Is this making sense?

The same would go for distance to other fighters for target locks and such. In those cases, you don't have 3 concentric rings of range, but 3 concentric squares with rounded corners. Sure, the circles look prettier, but the rounded squares would have been more accurate. If they had wanted circular ranges, they should have made the bases circular and had the ends of the maneuver templates also be rounded to fit those bases. That would have caused a problem with medium-sized ships, however.

Anyway, the object of this rant is not to say anyone is wrong or FFG should have done things differently. I just want to point out what may or may not be obvious to my fellow gamers: maximum distances in this game follow the path of a square with rounded corners and not circles.

Budgernaut said:

The graphics in the video look great but the range of a shot shouldn't be greater that those of the edges.

I know where you're coming from but the difference in range from the center compared to the left or right of arc doesn't bother me that much.

Jaster said:

Ok, Making V. 3.0 of module and thought I'd take a closer look at this concern. here's my findings regarding circular firing arcs from a square base:

It's not so much a square, as it is just a bit oblong of a circle. Here's a pic:

That small flat space the size of the square base edge in the middle of the firing arc isn't too much to worry about.

I'm not sure I understand this graphic, because the range rulers you lined up are not within the area of the base relative to the V-shaped arc at the front of the ship. Or is this just supposed to represent the 360-degree version, such as for Ion cannons and targeting locks?

I think I am following you on this correctly for the 360 arc. Yes, its not designed a 100% perfect because of the rounded edges of the range stick & that the ships all use square bases. So you do loose and gain a fraction of inch because of this.

Yet since everyone is using the same rules, it is a minor issue.

Yeah, I didn't realize how much longer the range ruler was than the base, so it is minor at ranges 2 and 3. Range 1 looks like exactly what I was talking about.

I just flip the range marker on its side when doing range