After seeing a few of the new pieces stats for the latest V-set, it seems to me that we will have way more new SA's and Force Powers than the normal V-set. This would be ok if many of these new SA's and Force Powers would see use on future pieces being designed, but from what I've seen a lot of them are super flavorful and will probably only see use on one figure. I would like to see an exact number of new SA's and Force Powers we have in this set compared to other sets in the past, cause I haven't got my cards yet. It seems like there are going to be way to many to me. I love new SA's and Force Powers as much as the next guy, but I don't want to see an overload of new abilities every 6 months. Again, I could be wrong about how many we have in this set as compared to others, but just by seeing the few stats so far, it seems like way to many to me and would hope we don't have nearly as many in future sets so as to avoid confusion in tournaments about obscure abilities that are only used on 1 piece. Again, I am not saying we shouldn't have new stuff in every set. In fact we need new abilities. But we need it in moderation.

I guess I would like it better if a new SA was something that can be used on many different pieces and in the same set would be cool, just like they did last set with Flak Shield (not Flax shield for all you insiders lol )

I like new SA's and Force powers, as long as it every 5th specail abuility or something I don't think its bad or overwhelming.

I do remember listening to the Star Wars pod casts that Mark and Tim did, were they tell you what all the new SA's and FP's were in the new set and they even listed the total amount of each. I do remember saying that Armed and Operational had more then the previous set/s.

I've done counts of new SAs in sets a few times, of both certain V-sets and WotC sets. Unfortunately I didn't save the numbers. When I count them I ignore things like identifiers and new versions of existing abilities (new Synergy, Cortosis Gauntlet 16, etc.) and only count abilities that actually do something new, even if it's simple like Flak Shield. When I get to work tomorrow maybe I'll do a count for the new set and compare it to recent V-sets. I know that AaO and Galactic Heroes both had a lot, but I think CotG was the lowest of all the V-sets, or maybe second lowest. That was something I wanted to do on that set; reduce the number of new abilities.

Part of it is due to Bastila. A lot of stuff that would have been in CEs has been shifted Camaraderie-like special abilities.

Thanks for doing this. As long as the next few sets slow it down, i think it will be fine. It does get kinda overwhelming when there are so many new abilities coming out. Im sure next season when someone brings Chewie to a regional squad, i'll be needing a copy of his card just to see what he does, cause I'm not going to probably memorize abilities I'll only see once ever on a piece.

Hehe. Yeah I know about that. I played Star Wars CCG a ton up until they lost the licence. Really fun game, but man it was complex towards the end. Kinda wish they had continued making the game, cause it was great!

It's all about finding balance. To me - new abilities ARE what Star Wars Miniatures is all about. New GOOD abilities. Even during WotC, I remember getting so excited when a new set came out just reading through new abilities. Especially excited when one was well made, clear, and useful.

Imagine if a set came out with zero new abilities. I think I would quit!

That doesn't mean that it's not a valid point to have TOO many abilities. I totally agree that is possible.

To me though, rather than having a set number or anything like that, it's about what a set feels like. Too many new abilities can be overwhelming. What compounds this is the abilities themselves. If it is re-usable, then it's not as bad. If it's simple, then it's not as bad.

I know some designers opinions differ on this, but I've always hated the same ability with different names. Shockstaff and electrostaff are the same ability. Why did the name change? Probably a WotC screw up. But we've done it other times in the vsets "for flavor". this just adds a new ability for no reason and confuses players.
Besides - it misses an opportunity for creativity. Plasma Eel = Missiles 20, so why didn't Plasma Eel do something slightly more fun. Target is also activated, save 6. Anything to make it actually a new ability. Anyway - this is a slight aside.

We have tried to be conscious of naming abilities in such a way that they might be able to be used again. Such as Defensive Reflex on the Tso'asu was originally called Acidic Defense Reflex (more specifically accurate to that beast), but too specific to ever be reused again. So we went with the simpler name. That's just one example - but there were many. (Irrepressible Force on vset 7 Bane was "Sith'ari", etc, etc). The bottom line is that we didn't want another "Single-shot Blaster" (which is a fine ability, but not well named to put on a melee piece).

Then (speaking of Tso'asu) there are things that pop up that FORCE you to have a new ability. For example - Tso'asu was specifically meant to be a Vong reinforcement for Quorreal. Quorreal's reinforcements gain aggressive negotiations. If the Tso'asu gain aggressive negotiations, then they usually can't be attacked, and then they can't use defensive reflex. THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE FIGURE. So we had to create "non-sentient" to counter that, and get them working according to intent.


Long story short - semantics do play a large role, as do clarity and usefulness (as well as re-usability). This all factors into how a set feels in terms of "too many abilities". And personally I think these factors are more important than a hard number.

That being said - in general it is good to try and keep the hard number at a reasonable level.

Fair point, but that wouldn't make all that much difference with Daala. If Daala had a +4/+10 CE instead of Prideful, that would still stack with Opportunist/Cunning and Squad Assault/Firepower. It wouldn't stack with Needa's reroll or the extra +4 from the Snowtrooper Commander, though.

It's another layer of Rock-Paper-Scissors. (There are many such layers in this game.)

Rock: SA instead of CE (or no boosts at all) - not boosted as much/as cheaply as a CE-boosted squad, but unaffected by CE denial

Paper: CE Heavy - strong, boosted squads with cheap(ish) CEs

Scissors: CE Denial - pay extra points to deny CE heavy squads