ooooh, look! Shiny!

Loving the pirate love, especially for Hondo and Nym. Long overdue subfaction and finally at a sweet place for competitive options.

My few attempts at playing lost tribe went miserably due to a lack of defense against shooters. evade should help quite nicely.

I'm a fan of simpler, wotc-like designs too, but I can understand the need to be a little more heavy handed for helping under developed subfactions. That deshad is brutal though for a non unique. I bet he'll make a splash.

Yeah, one of the things we can't get around these days is the need for LIMITING special abilities. We can no longer just make a decent piece that can be boosted 6 ways from Sunday. We need special abilities to make sure they don't get overpowered. It's not just a list of what they can do, but also what they can't do, in a matter of speaking.

Single-shot blaster, exclusive loyalty, rival, singular focus, low caste, fixed cost, loyalists code, etc, etc

These abilities (and more) were necessary to add to multiple figures, and they do add to the total number of SAs on a card.

additionally, we have conditional SAs, such as Rapport and Call for Support, and added new ones such as Covert Tech and Heat Signature Dissipation.

Example - The Dashade Pirate was originally 30pts. When play tested in all-pirate squads with Arvo Norstag, they we balanced. But then when tested outside of all pirates with greater movement breakers - too strong. SO we added rapport 5 with Arvo Norstag, and added 5pts to the cost. Additionally, we dropped attack, and added synergy with pirate commanders.

This was after already making shatter beam conditional (via covert tech - only if all unique allies are pirates), and making cloaked conditional (via heat signature dissipation - if they don't move on their turn), and then further tweaking it to only last until end of round instead of until they next activate.

So - if the Dashade Pirate simply had original cost, original attack, shatter beam and cloaked, they'd be crazy broken in many squads, and still not used in all pirate squads.

OR - we could have dropped all that and they'd simply not be that great, but horrible in all pirate squads.

NOW (hopefully) they will be usable outside of all-pirate squads, but really shine with all pirates (where they are good but not broken).


So finding that balance took a lot of effort, and additional balancing special abilities. On top of a piece that already (intentionally) had several tricks up its sleeve. The end result is a wall of text on the card but a much better and balanced overall piece.


To be clear - I still hear what you are saying. Not all pieces are like this in vset 22. There are several pieces with 1-3 abilities. (btw, I personally don't count Unique, Melee attack, or identifiers such as Pilot or Subfaction name, which could just as easily be in the name of the character).

Some people love the more complex figures. Some love more simple. We have something for everyone.


In fact - stay tuned to the Sith Holonews Network tomorrow night for 2 new spoilers, one which has a lot going on, but the other is super simple. Not counting necessary limiting abilities and a unit type identifier, it only has ONE ability. So hopefully that will be good to see for those who like simpler figures.

Spoiled 5/27:

Stats:
Benthic, Partisan Lieutenant (Ben-Thic?)
Wraith Squadron Recruit
Supreme Commander Sla Tsun

May Sunday Regional spoiler posted

Sexy-Kexy!

Sonic Bolt FTW!

More Flavor text from spoiled pieces that didn't make it on the card, but hopefully will be in Bloo once the set goes up.

(From June 24)
A cheap Death Watch Unique,
a Neo-Crusader NU commander,
and more Jedi Crusader love (check out Reckless Assault!)

(From June 26)
A Duo piece straight outta the last season of The Clone Wars!

(From July 8)

The counterpart to the other cheap Death Watch Unique in this set,
beefin' up the Shamed Ones,
and an Old Republic Swiss Army knife non-unique (check out Burst Run!)