I'm working my way page by page through the Core Rulebook and I've run into a question that keeps nagging at me.

• In the Evasive Maneuvers description is says "Executing Evasive Manuevers upgrades the difficulty of the dice pool once for all attacks made against the ship..."
  
• The description of Stay on Target, it reads "this maneuver upgrades the Ability dice in their pool once"
  
• In the description for the talent Master Slicer it says "once per round the character may perform a Master Slicer incidental to suffer two strain and decrease the difficulty of the next Computers or other slicing-related chef by one, to a minimum of Easy (1 purple)"

Any time it says "increase difficulty" or "decrease difficulty" I'm taking that to mean add or remove purple dice. FFG seems to consistently use "increase" or "decrease" to mean add/remove purples.

I'm also taking whenever FFG uses the term "upgrade" to mean upgrading purple to red, or green to yellow depending on the situation. (or adding dice if there are none left to upgrade/downgrade)

However, the terminology uses with upgrading is all over the board. In Evasive Maneuvers it says upgrade the difficulty dice pool once. So if I'm understanding right, if the pool was [ppp], then it would become [ppr].

But what about Stay on Target if say the beginning pool was [yy]?

It says upgrade the Ability dice. I doesn't say upgrade the dice pool. So do I do nothing?

Or do I follow the normal upgrade process from page 21 and add dice. So the new pool would be [yyg]

Maybe I'm making this too complicated, but sometimes the book says "upgrade dice pool" or "upgrade difficulty." I'm taking these to mean the same thing.

So to sum up, for me:

• "increase or decrease" difficulty adds purple
• "upgrade dice pool" or "upgrade difficulty" means purple to red (or adding dice if there aren't any left to upgrade"

Am I on target here?

I think that's all correct. Upgrade dice pool is a fancy way of saying upgrade dice, as far as I can see. I can't imagine a weird third alternative.

Upgrade dice pool seems to just be a neutral term, covers yellow and red upgrades.

I went back through the dice mechanics rules and they do address upgrade vs. increase.

I guess what is still throwing me is the distinction made between upgrade dice pool and upgrade "Ability dice" specifically.

I went back through the dice mechanics rules and they do address upgrade vs. increase.

I guess what is still throwing me is the distinction made between upgrade dice pool and upgrade "Ability dice" specifically.

Well, "upgrading the dice pool" I think usually refers to upgrading the difficulty dice to challenge dice.

Upgrading the ability dice means upgrading ability dice to proficiency dice.

In other words, upgrading Ability dice is a positive for the person who is rolling.

Basically think of it like this: if the effect should be positive for the character, "upgrade dice pool" refers to upgrading ability to proficiency (and if only proficiency dice in pool, add an ability die as per raw). If its a negative effect for the player character then "upgrading the dice pool" would refer to difficulty. And the opposite for downgrading.

Guess my end all be all question is if the text says "upgrade ability dice", does it mean only ability dice, or just upgrade the dice pool.

If the pool is [gg] - then a Stay on Target upgrade would make the pool [gy]

But since Stay on Target specifically says "upgrade ability dice" would a pool of [yy] be unchanged? Or would you follow the normal rules and since the proficiency dice can't be further upgraded, add dice to make a pool of [yyg]

Upgrade is upgrade as far as I understand it. If it refers to ability, pool or whatever else, its still an upgrade.

EDIT: So your [YY] would become [YYG] with one (positive) upgrade, mentioning ability die or not.

Ability and Difficulty dice are the only dice that can be upgraded. By upgrading either of these dice, you are essentially "upgrading your positive" or "upgrading your negative" dice.

Basically, I think you are reading the wording too closely and whipping yourself into a panic over it. . Do what Luke did and put away the targeting computer XD.