This is the final article that summarizes the results of our Season 1 Vote. Previously we’ve discussed the vote results and feedback from our players about Season 1. Today we are looking at the section of the Vote survey that focused on the future: What should the IACP make a priority in Season 2.
The “Your suggestions for future Season content” question contained several topics, such as “improving Core Set content” and “change Gideon to Focus Rebels only”. Among these topics, voter chose one of the following four choices:
- Season 2 priority
- Content for a Season after Season 2
- Avoid as Season content
- No opinion or not important to you
The proceeding question was an open-ended text question that allowed voters to suggest topics that weren’t offered. A listing of these suggestions is at the end of this article.
Since Season 2 is just around the corner, the Skirmish Committee wanted to address topics that a significant amount of voters chose as a “Season 2 priority”. Since this question was not mandatory, all the topics had fewer than 53 total selections; most topics had at least 45 voters making a selection. This article will address those topics where the number of voters who selected “Season 2 priority” was at least 40% of all voters who selected any choice in that topic. We’ll also drop some hints on what is coming for Season 2 in order to start discussion about those changes.
If there’s a topic that you’d like to discuss that isn’t addressed here, please feel free to start a conversation with us about it.
Fixing Boba Fett
Boba Fett has always been at the top of Skirmish player’s list to be brought back into viability. Of the 50 voters who selected an answer in the “Boba Fett fix” question, 43 (86%) indicated that it should be a Season 1 priority. The Steering Committee was not surprised by this result.
While the Skirmish community strongly agrees Boba Fett should be a priority, the community has a wide range of ideas on how it should be done. The Steering Committee enjoyed this discussion on the FFG IA Skirmish forums where folks expressed several different ideas of what Boba Fett should be like, how he should be represented mechanically in the game and their implementations. The committee enjoys the problem solving of fixing figures and enjoys it when others share in the fun.
There will be a Boba Fett fix for Season 2. To the Skirmish Committee, Boba Fett should be a Mercenary queen piece that plays differently than IG-88. The Committee has worked on several iterations of Boba Fett, and has found that the current Boba Fett card requires changes that cannot all fit on a Skirmish Attachment. In particular, the Skirmish Committee feels strongly that several of Boba Fett’s weapons from his Mandalorian armor, such as the flamethrower and wrist rocket, needs to be added to his arsenal; the current Deployment card’s reliance on the “Battle Discipline” ability prevents that. With that change, there will be a new Command card for Boba Fett as well.
We expect the Skirmish Community to be especially passionate about our suggestion to fix Boba Fett. Our suggestion is our best effort for a change, but it is also the start of a discussion. We want you to keep in mind that, after all the Season 2 changes are announced, there will be a 2-week period where we will collect your thoughts about all the changes through the Season 2 Announcement Survey. If a majority of you disapprove and have better ideas, we will adapt the Boba Fett fix use those ideas. After the 2-week Announcement period, if our Boba Fett fix is approved but then enters testing and is found to be lacking in balance or is not fun to play, we will see that from your feedback and adjust accordingly.
Improving Core Set Deployments and Core Set Command cards
The topic that got the second-most “Priority for Season 1” picks from voters was improving Core Set Deployments: Out of 45 total picks, 31 voters (68.9%) felt like Core Set Deployment cards are a priority. The Skirmish Committee agrees that improving the Core Set is vital because it improves options not only for experienced players but also new players wanting to try Skirmish.
Some Deployment cards from the Core Set were changed in Season 1. We feel like Elite Probe Droid’s price reduction was very well received and will offer no further changes to it. We are reviewing some tweaks to give Luke Skywalker (Hero of the Rebellion), Elite Stormtrooper and Elite Rebel Trooper and our new Elite Diala Passil card; these are deployments that you indicated are better but could still use a little work. We have changes planned to improve other Rebel unique figure deployments from the Core Set — excluding Gideon Argus, of course.
We are looking at more Core Set Deployments for Season 2; details about them appear later in this article. One thing that was brought up 3 times in our open text answer question was Creatures that have been left behind. The Committee has been looking at an adjustment to the Elite Nexu and may introduce it as part of the Season 2 changes.
As we learned from the Season 1 Feedback, our voters aren’t so keen on adjusting the Command cards from the Core Set: only 12 of 45 voters (26.7%) selected that improving Command cards is a priority for Season 2. However, in order to make limited but broad improvements to certain types of figures (such as melee figures & Force Users), the Steering Committee may include a few changed Core Set Command cards as part of Season 2 for discussion and testing. These changes are lower priority and may be dropped from Season 2 if better Deployment card changes are warranted.
Improve Melee Figures
Of 49 voters, 21 (42.9%) want Season 2 to prioritize improving melee figures. In the articles that summarized Season 1 Playtesting results, we shared that our playtesters found that melee figures are still difficult to play. Some get too-easily defeated when they finally move into melee range because their defenses are too soft; some are exposed when trying to get into melee range between activations and need more movement options; some do not do enough damage when attacking. Some melee figures are pretty well balanced (Riot Troopers, Darth Vader) and any improvements should not cause them to become overpowered.
The Steering Committee has been investigating what can be done to melee figures since evaluating the playtesting results over Season 1. After some discussion with players in the IACP channel on Zion’s Finest Slack and among ourselves, we feel that a general melee figure fix through the utilization of one or more Skirmish Upgrade cards would not properly solve problems with all melee figures. Instead, the Committee will be looking to increase some Command card options that give limited boons to melee figures and will evaluate each melee figure Deployment card separately and suggest changes that meets that card’s needs.
Improve Troopers Released Before Jabba’s Realm
The Steering Committee was a little surprised by the urgency many of you have to improve older Trooper deployments. Of 47 total voters, 19 (40.4%) want to prioritize fixing older Troopers. As mentioned earlier in this article, we are looking to tweak our existing Elite Stormtrooper and Elite Rebel Trooper changes to improve them; we may include a tweak to Elite Echo Base Trooper as well. We have also been working on some Trooper Skirmish attachment cards that boost the attacking power or utility of Troopers; some of these may be presented in Season 2.
The Committee feels that the Elite Heavy Stormtrooper and Elite Snowtrooper cards need careful adjustments, and may not include them in Season 2. While the Captain Terro and Elite Dewback Rider cards came out at the same time as Jabba’s Realm, the Committee may make some slight adjustments to them in order to improve their attack outcomes; those adjustments may not be ready for Season 2. Elite Wing Guard also need careful adjustments, but based on previous playtester feedback, there seems to be little desire to prioritize their improvements.
A note about E-Web Engineers: Since the start of the project, the Committee has been working on ways to allow E-Webs better participate in Skirmish. These changes are not quite yet ready for testing within a Season.
Improve Massive Vehicles
Many players seemingly want to dust off the fantastic AT-ST model from the Core Set and put it into play. From 47 total votes, 21 (44.7%) indicated that Season 2 should prioritize improving the Massive Vehicles of the Imperial Army. The Skirmish Committee is still finalizing how the changes will be implemented, but we will be addressing the major issues that come with Massive Vehicles: improving mobility, increasing action economy and giving a slight buff to defense once the figure has moved into line-of-sight of ranged figures. Currently these improvements are provided in a card similar to the “Beast Tamer” card.
In addition to the Skirmish Upgrade card, expect to see price reductions for the AT-ST & General Weiss. The SC2-M Repulsor Tank may need a more in-depth rework and will likely not be ready for Season 2. The AT-DP is well balanced for its cost and will likely not see any further changes.
Improve Trandoshans & Bossk
The Steering Committee was a little surprised by the strong response to this topic. 23 of 47 total voters (48.9%) selected that Bossk and his lizard brethren should be a Season 2 priority. As part of our preparations toward improving the Core Set, the Committee has been working on full card reworks of the Elite and Regular Trandoshan Hunter. Given that the competitive Skirmish game is played on a 65-minute limit, the Committee felt like Trandoshan Hunters should have their attack pools and surge abilities changed so that the figures can engage quicker and not be so reliant on self-Focus. The balance is tricky, as the Hunter and Brawler tratis contains some of the most powerful Command cards in the game. Therefore, Trandoshan Hunters will remain fairly expensive 2-figure deployments.
You can expect to see the Elite Trandoshan Hunter in Season 2; we are still working on the Regular Trandoshan Hunter and it may not make Season 2. We feel that an improved Elite Trandoshan Hunter (and other Core Set changes) will especially assist players who only own the Core Set into making a competitive Imperial list.
As for Bossk, the Committee has not done much prep work to change him. We may elect to wait on any Bossk changes until after Season 2 as to not detract from players testing Boba Fett. The easiest and least invasive change might be to drop Bossk from 8 points to 7. However, given that there are so many cheap unique Hunter figures in the Mercenary faction already, the Steering Committee may elect to keep Bossk at 8 points but improve his abilities or action economy so that he is worth 8 points.
Change Gideon to Focus Rebels Only
After applying nerfs to On the Lam and Assassinate, many players still are concerned about the “Rebel Care Package” empowering Mercenaries too strongly. 19 of 46 total voters (41.3%) selected to prioritize removing Gideon Argus’ ability to Focus non-Rebel figures in Season 2. Removing Gideon from the Mercenary Hunter list equation has been a common suggestion for improving Skirmish. The Skirmish Committee is concerned that removing Gideon now might allow the Skirmish Upgrade card Doubt to counter Hunter damage output too strongly, forcing Merc players to run Jabba and Threepio. Our goal is to add more options for players in the IACP metagame, and only reduce options when absolutely necessary.
As we add options, we’ll keep asking our playtesters if they think the new IACP changes compare favorably to the strength of Mercenaries with Rebel Care Package. If there’s just no way to match it, we will consider modifying Gideon in a future Season.
Full Results From “Your suggestions for future Season content” Question
Each choice on this question matrix was optional for our voters. Therefore, most of the suggestions do not have a total of 53 votes. The total number of voters who selected at least one of the choices for each suggestion is listed in the right-most column.
| Suggestion | “Season 2 priority” votes | “Content for Season after Season 2” votes | “Avoid as Season content” votes | “No opinion or not important to you” votes | Total |
| Boba Fett Fix | 43 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 50 |
| Improve Core Set Deployment cards | 31 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 45 |
| Improve Core Set Command cards | 12 | 12 | 8 | 13 | 45 |
| Improve Melee characters | 21 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 49 |
| Improve Force Users | 13 | 21 | 6 | 5 | 45 |
| Improve Guardians | 18 | 20 | 3 | 6 | 47 |
| Improve Troopers released before Jabba’s Realm | 19 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 47 |
| Fix Dengar | 18 | 24 | 0 | 6 | 48 |
| Improve Rebel Unique Heroes | 18 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 45 |
| New Clone Wars Deployments | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 47 |
| New Deployments based on Endor (Ewoks, Scout Troopers, etc.) | 10 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 46 |
| Improve Massive Vehicles | 21 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 47 |
| Make E-Webs playable in competitive Skirmish | 17 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 49 |
| Improve Regular deployments to enable more swarm play | 15 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 47 |
| Reduce power of Hunters released since Jabba’s Realm | 7 | 9 | 19 | 10 | 45 |
| New Deployments for 4-LOM and Zuckuss | 9 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 45 |
| Improve Trandoshans & Bossk | 23 | 20 | 2 | 2 | 47 |
| Improve Tusken Raiders & Bantha Rider | 17 | 24 | 1 | 4 | 46 |
| Improve Spies | 12 | 24 | 4 | 5 | 45 |
| Ban Temporary Alliance | 5 | 2 | 27 | 8 | 42 |
| Change Gideon to Focus Rebels only | 19 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 46 |
| Improve FFG’s nerfed Spectre Cell | 5 | 7 | 19 | 13 | 44 |
Suggestions Given By Voters That Were Not Listed On Question Matrix
- General Sorin
- Fixes to older Creatures (Nexu, Wampa)
- Improve Heavy Weapons trait
- New Droid Command cards
- 3-D printable sculpture files for new deployments
- Fix Saska Teft
- More 4-player Skirmish missions
- Promo versions of existing FFG cards (e.g. Negation)
- IACP including the Campaign game
- Dr. Aphra
- Scar Squadron
- Iden Versio & Inferno Squad
- Improve “The General’s Ranks” Skirmish Upgrade card
- Improve Royal Guard Champion
- Change white die blank & evade roll results