I have written far too much on the subject of Bare Bones X Wing or similar, but there is a reason for that.
It is something I do feel strongly about and here are a few reasons that I think rationalise this desire to strip back the games I love.
Sometimes, even Legends have to be sidelined for a cleaner experience.
Story fidelity.
I like to simulate what I see in the source material, to connect with the thing that got me interested in the first place. I do like sandbox style games, in fact with historical minis, I tend towards “representative” forces and original scenarios, within a tight historical context. In other words, I don’t do Gettysburg, but I like to simulate small parts with similar scenarios. With that in mind, these “representative” forces are accurate and used thematically. X Wing, Armada etc are the same for me in that I want forces that make sense, playing out scenarios that….well, make sense.
I also believe in the empowerment of a simulation to allow the possibility of sequence of events that mimic the original story, but also allow for other, equally compelling outcomes. As with above, I dislike railroading play into mimicking preconceived or limited results.
So, simulate reality, worts and all.
A game is either a game in its own right or a simulation, but the typical game, working within set parameters rarely does both well.
Take for example X Wing 1e (the case in point). I feel the designers did a very good job of creating a simulation of space combat, with a nice Star Wars style. You have a ship, beautifully presented and in its basic form, pretty much on the money capabilities wise, especially in comparison to the other ships represented by the game. It looks right, feels right and takes me tho the place I want to go.
Then you have a pilot, with a relative pilot skill level and if a character, an ability that is again pretty much spot on with my take on the pilots role in the universe, expressed in game terms (as far as it can). Vader gets two actions and Luke defends better naturally, both abilities grant “Force” like abilities in game terms and I feel, pretty accurately to story precedents.
Upgrades like a Droid and some Ordnance all fit perfectly in both relevance and application, just like in the movies. R2-D2 can repair your shields, which again, within the limits of game mechanics makes him relatively powerful and relevant and in context to his movie role.
Simulation successful.
Now you add the ability to give the hero of the story another ability that they did not necessarily have or worse, one that a main character has natively, but is now potentially given to any other character in the game with an EPT slot. Some are harmless, even logical, so they could have been absorbed into the above (Deadeye for Luke for example), others are at odds with the simulation, being made purely for game play.
Next are Modification upgrades. Mods do what EPT’s do, making a ship better than it was originally depicted. Just like EPT’s a unique feature of a ship is now open to any and all (within limits), diluting the relevance of that ship and it’s role. Want a full action bar? A well chosen EPT and Mod may be able to provide. What makes an Interceptor special, if it can be matched by a lesser modified ship. Sure the Interceptor can take a mod, but that is where the problems lay. Everything raises a notch, so allowances are made to make dis-empowered ships better again, and the cycle continues. If the core ship is left alone, the game plays in a balanced way, sticks to story fidelity and is easier to grasp for the majority of players.
As X Wing grew, new ideas emerged and FFG applied what options they had to try to retro fit them in like class based Titles where a base ship is permanently “upgraded”, fundamentally changing it for game balance alone. Who would fly a Tie Advanced without X1 Title or a mark 1 Star Viper? In 2e, most of these changes were fully integrated, proving that they were needed, but also that they were jammed into 1e..
The X Wing itself was the major beneficiary with several Droid, Mod and Title options opened up to it by the end of the games run.
The Tie Interceptor, king of jinking by contrast lost its uniqueness, as it can now be matched by lesser ships with the right upgrades. Sometimes things that a pilot and ship already champion are exaggerated even more by adding more of the same as if the basic concept is lost on us (Concord Dawn, Lone Wolf).
For a game, this is all fine. It adds in the tactical sub-game that is squad building. As a simulation, it takes too much artistic license and puts it in the players hands. No harm done, after all it is a game, but for me desiring a simulation, it has now gone past that into the realm of “what if”.
As the game grows, as all competitive enterprises do, more and more options/balances/mitigations are introduced, stretching the known into the unknown (for many of us) and sometimes even to the purely speculative. This then snow balls with more and more combinations creating an environment that not only shifts away from the simulation roots of the original, but starts to lose all resemblance to its own original form.
By wave 10+ of X Wing 1e, the ships worth flying were not the ones you signed up for at the start.
Does this matter?
That is up to you. If it bothers you, then fix it or move on. If not then business as usual I guess.
For me, a late comer to the game, I felt I had arrived not when the car came off the production line, nor even after a few mods and different models had been produced. I felt I arrived when the original car had been relegated to the “pimp my ride” or die category, or dumped all together.
I wanted to fly Luke with R2, in an X Wing and not be blasted off the table. I could always play him of course, but cutting through the chaff required to get back to the core of the game (to give him a chance) became a hobby in itself. Bare Bones, Skeleton Crew and all of the other cut-back version that have been created, have done nothing to the game except shift the expectations of realistic play back to a place closer to the original designers’ intent.
I cannot help but feel they (the designers) would approve on some level. You constantly see in their designs, attempts to accurately represent the story, only to have their intent trashed by the tournament circuit. Ships, upgrades and pilots are pressed into service as a kind of Frankenstein’s monster of tourney winning combinations.
A part of me wishes the designers had made the game deeper and more flexible (separate Pilots for one, Droids with multiple capabilities etc), so they could stick closer to the original offerings, but allow more options within that range. I love the game, but feel saddened and slightly repelled by the competitive circuit and its complete of lack of care for the provenance of the materiel (2e is making real efforts to empower all ships equally).
If this was the only form of the game available to me I would either be the guy that always comes last, playing “straight” squads made up of logical pilot and ship combinations or I would more likely have dropped away or abstained long ago.
Stripped down X Wing 1e saved me.
This is not the only system I like a little plainer.
Armada has so far been played without Titles. All other mods make sense to me, but Titles are more a representation, an indication of where a good ship could/will get, not where it should be. I would prefer a ship grow a reputation, not be gifted one.