I keep seeing topics discussing strategy using lots of initalism, such PSx , AdvS, TL, CM, FCS, etc. It makes it really hard for new players to fully get involved in the forum when they feel they are constantly trying to learn all of the rules lingo, but then the Acronyms make it even harder

Now sometimes it is easy to figure these out, for example when the Topic is "Fire Control System" and the question immediately uses FCS . But other times these terms just appear in the middle of a discussion like everyone knows them. I feel sometimes I have to decode the discussion.

Could there be a Sticky topic where the most common terms and Initialisms are defined?

Could user's please define their initalism before using it, when introducing it in the middle of a discussion. Such as "when using Advance Sensors (AdvS)"

These would really help.

We'll try, but by the eighteenth time you've typed out Squad Leader, Push The Limit, or Advanced Sensors, you just start throwing around the initials without thinking about it. You can also always ask if there's a specific one that you're confused about and can't pick up from the context. You know, instead of asking the entire rest of the community to modify their actions for your sake.

Just say "what is PS again?" and someone will undoubtedly jump right in and tell you it's Pilot Skill, for example.

X-WING

AdvS: Advanced Sensors

APL: Anti-Pursuit Laser

APT: Advanced Proton Torpedos

BH: Bounty Hunter

DTF: Draw Their Fire

EPT: Elite Pilot Talent

FCS: Fire Control System

HSF: Han Shot First List (Normally Hans + some Rookies)

HLC: Heavy Laser Cannon

ORS: Outer Rim Smuggler

PS: Pilot Skill

PtL: Push the Limits

TL: Target Lock

VI: veteran instincts

Fettigator = Boba Fett w/ Navigator upgrade

General Gaming

AoE: Area of Effect

LOS: Line of Sight

RAI: Rules as intended

RAW: Rules as written

Misc

AFM: A Few Maneuvers

BGG: Board Game Geek

EU: Expanded Universe

FFG: Fantasy Flight Games

MM: Miniature Market

OP: Original Poster / Original Post

TO: Tournament Organizer

Imperial

Eyeball - TIE/Ln - TIE Fighter

Squint - TIE/In - TIE Interceptor

Bright - TIE/x1 - TIE Advanced x1

Dupes - TIE/Sa - TIE Bomber

Trip - TIE/D - TIE Defender

Peeper - TIE/Sr - Tie Scout

Blur - TIE/Rc - Tie Recon

Clutch: A squadron of TIE Fighters

Rebel

Pointer - X-Wing

Wishbone - Y-Wing

Edge - A-Wing

Spinner / Cross - B-Wing

Skull - Z-95 Headhunter

If you are new this might also be a good thread to look at too.. http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/90880-good-beginner-tips-thread/?view=findpost&p=873851&hl=acronyms

WTF, Rodent Mastermind??

There have been many people nice enough to start newbie helper posts that fill in the abbreviations. I would suggest that you take the time to look one up, it will fill in any hole in understanding. Or like the wookie said, just ask, people will tell you, no one will expect everyone to know what a abbreviation is on their first time through the forums.

Edit: or some one can be nice enough to copy/paste it here for you.

WTF, Rodent Mastermind??

I might have it saved :-) This comes up quite often.

WTF, Rodent Mastermind??

I might have it saved :-) This comes up quite often.

No, I mean why isn't WTF on there? I keep seeing it pop up and I don't know what the **** it means!

WTF: Wookie, Think First.

WHAT THE FUDGE...... Actually a standard list, but I've never seen it flown. I know the first 2 parts are Wedge and Tycho but can't remember what the F stands for.

Wedge and Tycho Forever?

Ideally the board would implement something like this, but I like a little challenge, so i created this bookmarklet which uses the above list.

Create a bookmark and as url put in:

javascript:var d={'advs':'Advanced Sensors','apl':'Anti-Pursuit Laser','apt':'Advanced Proton Torpedoes','bh':'Bounty Hunter','dtf':'Draw Their Fire','ept':'Elite Pilot Talent','fcs':'Fire Control System','hsf':'Han Shot First List (Normally Hans + some Rookies)','hlc':'Heavy Laser Cannon','ors':'Outer Rim Smuggler','ps':'Pilot Skill','ptl':'Push the Limits','tl':'Target Lock','vi':'Veteran Instincts','aoe':'Area of Effect','los':'Line of Sight','rai':'Rules As Intended','raw':'Rules As Written','afm':'A Few Maneuvers','bgg':'Board Game Geek','eu':'Expanded Universe','ffg':'Fantasy Flight Games','mm':'Miniature Market','lgs':'Local Game Store','wtf':'What the frag'};var posts=document.getElementsByClassName('entry-content');for(var i=0,l=posts.length;i<l;i++){posts[i].innerHTML=posts[i].innerHTML.replace(/\b(advs|apl|apt|bh|dtf|ept|fcs|hsf|hlc|ors|ps|ptl|tl|vi|aoe|los|rai|raw|afm|bgg|eu|ffg|mm|lgs|wtf)\b(?!<\/abbr>)/gi,function(m){return '<abbr title="'+d[m.toLowerCase()]+'" style="border-bottom:1px dotted #fff;">'+m+'</abbr>';});};return false;

What this will do when you click on the bookmark, while you are on a topics page, it will replace all abbreviations with the <abbr> html tag, that will show a little tooltip when you hover over it, and put a little line under them, so you can see which ones.

It doesn't replace everything, an abbreviation like TO is pretty common in a sentence. But I think it covers most of them. Also, I just wrote this, so no guarentee at all. I will update it, it it happens to have unforseen bugs.

Turns out, using search foo, it's WTH not WTF. Wedge, Tycho, Hans. Why you would need an acronym for a list which comes to 101 points without upgrades is beyond me.

Turns out, using search foo, it's WTH not WTF. Wedge, Tycho, Hans. Why you would need an acronym for a list which comes to 101 points without upgrades is beyond me.

How about Wedge + Tycho + Horton?

That's 80 pre-upgrading, though these days I might swap out Tycho for Ten Nunb to keep the acronym (85 at that point).

Maybe WTF stands for Wedge - Tycho - Falcon?

Perhaps a greasemonkey script, sigidi?

Sure, you can install it as a greasemonkey script, just create a new user script and paste the following code

// ==UserScript==
// @name        AMF ABR
// @description Show abbreviations tooltips
// @include     http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/*
// @version     1
// @grant       none
// ==/UserScript==
var d = {
    'advs':'Advanced Sensors',
    'apl':'Anti-Pursuit Laser',
    'apt':'Advanced Proton Torpedoes',
    'bh':'Bounty Hunter',
    'dtf':'Draw Their Fire',
    'ept':'Elite Pilot Talent',
    'fcs':'Fire Control System',
    'hsf':'Han Shot First List (Normally Hans + some Rookies)',
    'hlc':'Heavy Laser Cannon',
    'ors':'Outer Rim Smuggler',
    'ps':'Pilot Skill',
    'ptl':'Push the Limits',
    'tl':'Target Lock',
    'vi':'Veteran Instincts',
    'aoe':'Area of Effect',
    'los':'Line of Sight',
    'rai':'Rules As Intended',
    'raw':'Rules As Written',
    'afm':'A Few Maneuvers',
    'bgg':'Board Game Geek',
    'eu':'Expanded Universe',
    'ffg':'Fantasy Flight Games',
    'mm':'Miniature Market',
    'lgs':'Local Game Store',
    'wtf':'What the frag'
};
var posts = document.getElementsByClassName('entry-content');
var re = new RegExp('\\b('+Object.keys(d).join('|')+')\\b(?!</abbr>)','gi')

for(var i = 0,l = posts.length; i < l; i++){
	posts[i].innerHTML = posts[i].innerHTML.replace(re, replaceCallback);
}

function replaceCallback(m){
    return '<abbr title="'+d[m.toLowerCase()]+'" style="border-bottom:1px dotted #fff;">'+m+'</abbr>';
}

Also makes it easier to add more abbreviations, just add more items to the list. Only downside is that the way the topic url's work for the FFG boards, is that it will be activated for all topics on each of the boards.

To install it in chrome I would use Tampermonkeyt

this needs a sticky

Wouldn't you want to add a space before and after in the string, or possibly search for non-letters before and after so it would incude things like (wtf) /wtf etc.. As it is currently set up it will pick up parts of words that match the search strings? eg h ors e

In this part

new RegExp('\\b('+Object.keys(d).join('|')+')\\b(?!</abbr>)','gi')

it uses the \b metacharacter so it would match (ors), but not horse. I think that is how it works best. If it would check for spaces, it would miss a lot of situations where it is last in the sentence, followed by a dot or exclamation mark, a comma, etc.

What I did not think about though is that there is a pilot Jan Ors, she kinda gets in the way. So the

'ors':'Outer Rim Smuggler',

could be removed.

Here's one that links to the x-wing miniatures wiki.

// ==UserScript==
// @name        AMF ABR
// @description Show abbreviations tooltips
// @include     http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/*
// @version     1
// @grant       none
// ==/UserScript==
var d = {
    'advs':'Advanced Sensors'
};
var posts = document.getElementsByClassName('entry-content');
var re = new RegExp('\\b('+Object.keys(d).join('|')+')\\b(?!</a>)','gi')

for(var i = 0,l = posts.length; i < l; i++){
	posts[i].innerHTML = posts[i].innerHTML.replace(re, replaceCallback);
}

function replaceCallback(m){
    var replacement = d[m.toLowerCase()];
    return '<a href="http://xwing-miniatures.wikia.com/wiki/' + replacement + '" title="'+d[m.toLowerCase()]+'">'+m+'</a>';
}

Awesome! That works really well on the upgrade abbreviations

First response: what wif da bad grammar?

Real response: welcome to the forums. 90% of us here are pretty chill; just ask and we'll clarify. We probably won't even call you a newb. We might call you "scum" though if you decide to fly for the rebellion.

I may have been reading posts wrong but I think OP has been used as both Original Post and Over Powered. Such overloading of acronyms can make things difficult whether you are a newbie or not.

Context can remove a lot of confusion. For instance, you know exactly which abbreviation it is in both of these sentences:

"The TIE Defender is completely OP with those stats."

"I think the OP is asking about whether we'll see the Z-95 next wave."

Provided of course you're familiar with the terms "overpowered" and "original poster".