Someone gets it!

There will always be something that can be abused. We don't live in a magical world where everything would be perfectly balanced.

Yes, abuse is going to be done in practice where possible, but suggesting that abusive abilities are fundamental would mean that the abuse is intentional and not just an oversight.

Nope your absolutely right

No those are merely called counters. Even in Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock everything had a counter or 2.

Huge +1 (wow, I think this is the first time we've agreed on something like this. I'm excited )

Especially the effect on future pieces. When handing out abilities, pieces usually (A) hand it out to an individual or easily-defined subfaction, (B) hand it out to everyone, or (C) just check for a certain ability that probably denotes the intended subfaction. If you try and sort recipients out by what abilities they have (in order to prevent broken combos), you almost immediately run into weird stuff like Yaddle's CE, which targets "Unique Republic allies with a lightsaber and without Double, Triple, Quadruple, or Twin Attack."

I despise it when pieces limit the game significantly. I was excited for the new Jagged Fel (who gives Twin to Jaina Solo), until the next EPIC set came out and I realized that every Jaina from now on has to have a handicap in order to hit that 'just-right' power level when she gets Twin from Fel. Equipment would be far and away worse than even situations like this.

That was a bit tongue in cheek on my part.
"Abuse" shouldn't be intentional and is not an intent for the game's fundamental structure.
However, even in Rebel Storm, I remember Override being kind of a big deal.
Returning players will remember Special Abilities in SWM but they wouldn't recognize "equip cards."

+2 to remaking characters that don't work.

The problem with doing it by equipment, is that equipment just gets used on better characters. It doesn't help the bottom, it helps the top! The 1%! The rich get richer!

Bernietronx 2016

I like the idea of equipment but with it comes a lot of rules. How many characters can you give stealth while super stealth is in the game? Or the black sun's that will get super stealth and+4 +10....
Etc. Etc.

Equipment is kind of in place already on peeves like czerka scientist, squib trader, etc.

If the equipment is limited and very little apron I think it could be fun.

Any squad can only have up to four points of equipment. Equipment can only be given to uniques

Cost 3 upgraded sight. Nonmelee gains +2 attack
Cost 3 stealth generator. Gains stealth
Cost 2 armor gains +2 defense
Cost 2 regenerative implants gains regeneration 10
Cost 4 shields. Gains shields 1


Cost 1 camo gains +6 defense while in cover instead of +4.


Etc.

I think it could be fun and should be something to look into. If Magic the Gathering can change everything all the time. I think it is worth looking into.
But with the ability of ce's, and special abilities like blaster upgrade there might not be a reason for it.
I also think that individual pieces should have abilities that are equipment. We see that all the time. Lightsaber, armor, gauntlet knife, grenades, etc.
A few pieces like squib trader that grant others a special ability could be really fun.

I would say that "Fundamental structure" has not been changed since the end of WotC. The one potential candidate: Force abilities. Force abilities were never part of WotC as an official term, but they do exist. Check out the original Battle Meditation, Force Valor, or Control Minds. The Force powers replace attacks and grant the user a Commander Effect for the rest of the skirmish. Slightly different execution - the effect is killed by Disruptive instead of Force Immunity - but identical outcomes otherwise.

The "structure" that Advanced Battle Meditation follows dates back to Champions of the Force. Updated and refined, yes, but it's been there.

Equipment, as a card that you assign to a character, would be a change to "fundamental structure." That involves something entirely unseen before in Star Wars Minis, as has already been detailed.

I think the best thing to do for handing out equipment would be what jen'ari says at the end of his post: more pieces like the Squib Trader that hand out SAs. The Squib is a useful piece without bending the game at all.

One last thought. This does not magically "fix" the intense power of Advanced Battle Meditation, but I'm curious: did anyone expect the v-sets to go beyond Destiny of the Force? I wasn't around here then, so I don't know, but if you look at the comments on the DotF pieces, everyone seemed pretty surprised to see it. Point being: if the v-sets were supposed to be a one-hit wonder, Bastila pretty much single-handedly put the OR on the map (from what I understand).