The work on improving the archetype-definitions has begun!
Rebel archetype changes
The bulk of the work in this update is for rebels, mostly for 4-ship lists, but changes to the Selfless prefix has also been made:
- The prefix “Selfless” is now added to all lists that have 2 or more copies of the “Selfless” upgrade, or has Biggs and 1 or more “Selfless”
- The new archetype “4-ship Rebel Joust” has been added. This archetype is defined as:
- 4 ships total
- Rebel
- No large bases
- At least 2 ships from the following list: (“Jousters”)
- ARC-170
- Attack Shuttle
- Auzituck Gunship
- B-Wing
- E-Wing
- U-Wing
- Y-Wing
- X-Wing
- No more than 1 ship from the following list: (“Support”)
- HWK-290
- Sheathipede
- No Bombs or Mines
- “4-ship Rebel Joust” can offcourse be prefixed by “Torp” (at least 2 proton torps) or “Selfless” (see above)
- The new archetype “Rebel Dirty Y’s” have been added. This archetype is defined as:
- 4 Rebel Y-wings
- At least 2 Bombs or Mines
General archetype changes
- The “4-ship [factionname]” has been further broken down for all factions, to split the lists with one expensive “centerpiece” from the rest. This results in the following two new archetypes:
- [CENTERPIECE] + Trip [Ship]: One ship worth at least 80 points + 3 other ships of the same chassis. For instance “Poe+Trip A” or “Rexler+Trip Bombers”
- [CENTERPIECE] + 3: One ship worth at least 80 points + 3 other ships that are not the same chassis. For instance “Boba+3” or “Kylo+3”
- Several archetypes have had their faction-name added to avoid confusion, and solve some technical challenges with having archetypes be cross-faction. (Could be the case due to Y-Wings, TIE’s, HWK-290’s, Z-95s and ARC-170s being present in more than one faction)
- At the same type several “shortnames” of ships have been shortened when used in archetype names:
- All YT-1300 are now referenced as ‘1300’
- The Resistance A-wing is no longer called “A2” but just “A”
- The T-70 is now just called “X”
- All TIE’s (incl. Mining Guild variants) are now just called “TIE”
Archetype backlog:
There is still a lot to do to get the archetype definitions better – it is a constant balance between not having too many, and still making them seem meaningful. Ideally all lists of the same archetype have similar matchups – and they also don’t share matchups with another archetype.
To achieve this there is probably going to be more general changes in the future, but for now the backlog for archetypes looks like this:
- More work on 4-ship lists for the other factions
- 5-ship lists for all factions
- Revisit 3-ship lists – especially focusing on the ones where there are no “centerpiece” at 80+ points, but it is still meaningful to call out specific pilots in the archetype name. (Corran + Wedge + Cassian seems like a good example for this, Kylo is another)