I'm almost positive it can, but I have to ask because my buddy didn't believe it was legal for me to put Veteran Instincts on Wedge to give him a pilot skill of 11 in a game last week. We temporarily resolved the dispute by using the method described in the rulebook (we both rolled attack dice … he got more hits so I took Veteran Instincts off and replaced it with something else) but I'm pretty sure I should have been able to do it. Couldn't find anything on the latest FAQ document, either.

Danthrax said:

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: You couldn't find anything about it in the rules/FAQ because there is no cap to pilot skill that would require a rule. It's worth noting that one of the spoiled cards from wave 3 allows you to treat a ship as if it had a pilot skill of 12, if you need a little more evidence to show your friend.

Moldy Crow aside, I find it strange that your friend even tried pulling that. No where in the rule book is there a limit on Pilot Skill, it just so happens the highest on any card is 9. If they wanted to limit it, they would have put it somewhere on a card, it would never be an "assumed" limit. In any game, if it does not state there is a limit, it is assumed to be limitless. That's just kind of a natural law of games.

So what happens when that pilot gets boosted to level 12 AND he has VI? 14?! :-)

jetsetter said:

12. He doesn't have PS 12 for VI to bump up, you treat him as if he was 12.

Subtle but important difference.

godofcheese said:

Exactly. The critical damage card Damaged Cockpit says "After the round in which you receive this card, treat your pilot skill value as "0."". No matter the VI increase, the skill is treated as 0. Roark Garnet also says "treat your pilot skill value as 12" so no matter any other modifiers, the skill is treated as 12.

ziggy2000 said:

So - Here's a small rules case that will be sure to crop up - What happens when Roark and Damaged cockpit are in play?

I forsee the arguments going like this…

A. Players will say "The effect which is applied second will matter."

B.Other players will say " Here we will have two effects vying to change the same thing" and will site the FAQ guideline applying to maneuvers to say that the Damaged Cockpit critical will override Roark because it is the "worse" effect.

- Then players will respond that it doesn't because that guideline only applies to maneuvers. The question will be put to FFG and eventually appear in an FAQ. (personally, I think they will likely go with case B above - as B seems in line with intent, but intent arguments aren't so great, and so until the specific ruling comes from FFG, it will be probably be something like case A.)

I think you have the entire process, possibly including the final outcome, nailed down. The problem for us before the FAQ comes out: I wouldn't be surprised either way they ended up ruling it, so while I have a guess at intent I don't even feel strongly about it.

so if you have a pilot with the crit…that drops him to PS 0… but not the crit that eliminates pilot ability or upgrade cards …..would you not have to consider Veteran Instincts…to make him a PS2? I haven't seen this happen but one time…and in that game we allowed the pilot to be a PS2…on the same token….it didn't matter…he was the lowest guy anyways…

Not trying to start a flame war…just want to make sure I'm understanding the rules in play here….

~Ron

*confused look*

"These go to eleven"

jetsetter said:

We had a thread on this a while ago that's buried back on page 8 now. The general agreement was that Damaged Cockpit wins out. I'm going to quote dbmeboy's response from that thread, because he always put it better than I can:

"Note that the critical hit Damaged Cockpit does not actually change your Pilot Skill value, it just instructs you to treat it as "0". So it's still going to win over a Veteran Instincts-increased pilot skill: The original ship as a value of 2, increased to 4 by the upgrade, and treated as 0 due to the critical damage."

If you want to read through the whole thread you can:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=331&efcid=6&efidt=795574

I'm good thanks!