Yeah, the Rebels are the least-EU oriented faction, but I'd say that's primarily because the focus of the Rebel faction is the core 5 heroes (Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Obi-Wan).

Flipping through the minis, for WotC EU rebels, you've got:

All the Bothans (Never appeared in the movies, only mentioned)
Juno Eclipse
Master Kota
Vader's Apprentice, Redeemed
Verpine Tech
Dass Jennir
Ferus Olin
Jax Pavan
Kota's (Elite) Militia
Red Hand Trooper

And that's really it.

Luke in his stealth suit is from the EU.

After reading three pages worth of post I am left scratching my head.

As a design team member and being involved since the first one I know that designers try to keep the following items in mind when looking at characters to design. First they look at what the community wants. They look at what the game needs. They look at what they have interest in. Then they try to take all three of those and make a character.

I have looked over some of the arguments made. Why did we shoebox Grevious JH? Then I read a bit farther to a statement that says something along the line of it's ok to make bad pieces good even if it makes better pieces great. ugh... do you see what you just did? you left Grevious JH in the shoebox because it is a bad piece. Not too mention the community had been asking for a grevious that could kick a$$.

Next on the comment where a list of character are named that we should do. SPOILER ALERT over the next two sets 5 of those figures listed are going to appear. Why? Because we listen to the community.

If you are going to start throwing numbers out there please make sure they are correct. There have not been 4 bossk made. Only three and all by WOTC. On this subject we have done 4 set at 60 characters each that is 240 characters. Roughly half are uniques. So over 4 set we were able to do roughly 120 named pieces. Not everything can be unique, you have to have some fodder. Why hasn't there been a new Nien Numb? Well I think most the designers thought the community would rather see a character that does something then just drive the falcon around with Lando.

We do listen to criticism. I have big shoulder i can take it. if you don't like something I created that is fine with me. The next guy i talk to will.

Well, biggest criticism for this set is Laranth Tarak. Call me a fan boy. Call me blind to balance. Heck, you can call me Al. But this piece was.... Nothing like the character. She was just like the piece she helps (Jax): dull.

For everything Embo became (all from mostly 1 ep), she became meh (from 3 books.)

I am just interested in the thought process behind this piece. Force-using gunslinging twi'leks don't pop up everyday.

Laranth Tarak is. His complaint is that Embo got a detailed figure from his basically 1 episode. Tarak had 3 books but got what he considers a boring figure.

Fanboy



Blind to balance



Hi Al!

(just kidding btw, being sarcastic)


But this piece was.... Nothing like the character. She was just like the piece she helps (Jax): dull.

For everything Embo became (all from mostly 1 ep), she became meh (from 3 books.)

I am just interested in the thought process behind this piece. Force-using gunslinging twi'leks don't pop up everyday.

[/quote]

Valid points. Our goal with her was to make an inexpensive Twin Attacking Rebel with mid-range Rebel-ish stats (success!). I totally get that she isn't what people were expecting for her, at the time we thought that adding an inexpensive Unique Rebel gun would maybe sub-plant the stranglehold Crix and ERC's have on the Rebel cheap gun market. For 22 points I still think she is pretty good and will only get better as we continue to try and make rebels viable outside of Smug Commandos.

Also as I've stated before we try hard to not make SA's that only 1 character will ever get (we make exceptions in some cases) the shooting blaster bolts thing we just made Evade, basically the same thing only she isn't spending force on it.

As far as Laranth goes. As designers we felt that she couldn't be better than Han (even though in canon she may have been). Han is and will always be the big Rebel shooter (thats what he did in the movies and that is how WOTC made him). And Han is still tier one. So if we make Laranth anywhere close to Han she could supplant him as the main rebel shooter. And as far as the designers for s+v were concerned that was not something we wanted to even contemplate. And yes we could have given her a crappy CE so that she couldn't have gotten some of the other CEs (specifically Leia). But she wasn't really a leader in any sense.

Actually the force power she has actually represents her shooting prowess quite well. She was extremely good with her blasters. She was so accurate that she could shoot down incoming blaster bolts. Logically doesn't that also make her so accurate that she could choose what she was shooting at on offense? We tried to incorporate her blaster defense but it ended up either as evade/Soresu Style/deflect/or reflect (same type of wording: avoid damage and maybe send it back). Granting evade let us do 2 things at once actually by incorporating her defensive prowess and make her less reliant on Reikken by having evade naturally.

In a vacuum by herself she has good offensive stats and good defensive stats and bunches of tricks. Who knows if she will replace the ERC or somebody else to see play on a regular basis. IMO she is a very solid piece with the potential for a whole lot more as there aren't very many shooters with twin and 20 base Damage (she had to have that with the twin DL44s she carried). Had we done much more with her, her cost would have shot up or her Damage would have had to drop to base 10 (neither of which we wanted to do).

why not increase the cost? plenty of precedent for high cost characters.
not every SWM created has to be viable at the 200 point competitive level, does it?

please remember I'm only asking Q??'s
I realize I'd be in a mucho big pig wampa poodoo pile without v-sets,
my favorite game would be terminal, with a large red DNR on it's charts

I understand, I guess I'm just a very curious jak.

First and foremost, thank you to the designers for discussing Laranth. In looking at the Proto-stats, I'm amazed only evade was made for her. I will admit there would be problems in creating a force power that does a Range 6 "evade" as this would increase the problematic nature of the Reiken reliance. Outside of a force ability that grants within 6 Evade (ex. Force Interception, a name that could be used for the abstraction of tossing debris in the air at the minimum), thus ensuring having Rieken being an option instead of a crutch. Force-based Evade could allow a faction from being nuked by B$%#*-stilla when she pops her "Powerful Meditation Superpower" but still limited to a range.

That is predominantly my issue. Just that she's lacking a team-helping defensive abilities.