No, not space, but something that has been annoying me for a while and finally addressed (first world problem I guess, but here goes).
The differences between Attack Wing and X-Wing are many, really only the broad theme and system style are similar, the specifics are often quite different.
I dislike X-Wing’s fixed pilots, find squad building less forgiving and some points values are off in 1e especially.
Attack Wing feels like a bigger ship game with fewer movement actions and generally less dynamic ships, but builds deeper.
I do not have a favourite, they both do their jobs fine and the things I would like to change in one are often addressed in the other, so between them they satisfy.
Attack Wing however has one element I find more annoying and illogical than usual in both a game play and a simulation context. I dislike the action bar limitation for cloaked ships, but there are plenty of upgrades that address that.
A unique ship in AW is like an XW named pilot card. The ship gets an ability, sometimes a little illogical, but I can deal, they get more upgrade slots and cost more.
They also get a shield value boost.
Inversely, a generic ship costs (usually*) a flat 2 points less, has fewer upgrade options, no inherent ability (basically a thematic 2 point upgrade), but also suffers a -1 shield value.
Also, when a ship has no shields (NX Enterprise), the generic still gets no ability and fewer upgrades, but at the same or no cost reduction. This just fails to impress.
Why?
I can see no logical reason for the reduction in shields. Primary weapons, Hull and Agility stay the same, so why are shields reduced?
For a poultry 2 point dispensation you lose on three fronts, all worth at least 2 points of pain or in some cases you lose two and do not take the hit because there is no shield value to reduce. This means the ship ability and upgrades are of no value?
The shield reduction can be a 50% hit or in more powerful ships as low as a 15% reduction (i.e. again, no consistency) and fewer upgrades can make the ship nearly useless (the Tholian vessel cannot even function fully as a generic with either the ability to cast webs or another weapon).
The triple hit make generics just a very poor option, usually only taken when you run out of others.
I have adjusted some point values across my fleets for consistency, usually in line with Wizkids own adjustments (or sometimes in reverse, depending on the period), especially on “0” shield ships, but in some periods where uniques and generics mix, weak ships just get weaker and thinner pickings become frustrating.
The fix has been to upgrade shield values to the same value across the class.
Not in all periods, like TNG battle, where generics are used for large actions and uniques for scenario games, but for TOS, TOM, Voyager and Enterprise periods, where generics and uniques mix, it makes a huge difference. I have also run out of numbers to re-purpose.
For bigger TNG fleet actions I use generics with lower shield values. These ships are more powerful anyway, so less is easier to handle.
I have also tried to mix up repetitious upgrade bars, usually not adding more upgrades, just a better range of options. This addresses things like the Xindi Insectoid Boarding Party Crew card having no ride on an Insectoid ship as they have no crew slots. Odd considering they have a full nursery on board, are as big as an NX class and provide the boarding parties!
Uniques are now just named ships with a built in ability like any other upgrade, usually cheap for what they offer, but that is ok to define their named status.
After a coupe of Vulcan faction packs and an OP brick, I have a lot of these (8), so upgrading them and adding some variety makes sense.
Generics are now a cheaper option worth taking and a few are even capable of combinations of upgrades that no other ship in their fleet has.
*Interestingly in their very latest releases Wizkids have started to adjust some generic values to as much as 4 points less, but still often not enough and a fix very much too little, too late.