RyderV

This might be a mute point, if there is a way to withdraw ships in skirmish, but I haven't figured out how to.

And if you can't withdraw ships in skirmish... Hardpoints just become annoying exploitables. Why finish off that ISD? Just strip it of it's most troublesome weapons and move on, sticking your opponent with a big wedge shaped waste of his population cap.

Does anyone know if you can suicide/withdraw ships in skirmish? I know you can't repair hardpoints in skirmish (or at least you couldn't in vanilla).

I haven't settled on what new ships will be in it yet, but if I do add any, it will indeed largely be for balance purposes. The Viscount's name has come up the most from the fans, but it would be a massive rigging job - and I didn't even finish the MC80s yet (they've only got, what, eight bones?). But the star dreadnought disparity is perhaps only the most obvious one. If you're aware of another missing role, then start a new thread and state your case. I get the impression that the Imperial Fleet is at least more versatile than the Rebel's, but I want to hear how other people feel.

For my two cents I guess I wouldn't be adverse to the Viscount (or something like it), the only reservation I'd have is that the NR does not acquire an edge in both heavy capitals and starfighters out of the deal. Is the Viscount, which seems to be close to the Executor in power already, gonna be close enough that with a nice pile of NR fighters she'll win every matchup? I dunno, I'm too used to the Empire having an edge in big ships with lackluster fighters. Viscount just seems like it might rub every advantage. It'd be nice if she balanced out with the Executor, maybe being slightly weaker to compensate for carrying better NR fighters or something, I dunno... Just hope it doesn't wind up being the mass production Lusankya. Meh, maybe Razor's Kiss will beat 'em both.

A couple quick observations for Skirmish that might not have been said yet (sorry if they have),

The AI is not thinking about building mines very much. That might have something to do with the fact that ships draw out their cost, seems like one usually has 0 cash on hand at any given moment. Just a guess, but anyways, the AI never builds mines after the first five minutes or so. Would it be hard to make mines and space structures draw cash during construction instead of requiring it 'up-front'? I dunno if that'd solve it for the AI though or not...

Heroes are quite risky to hire in Skirmish. You could be 90% through one, and an enemy fighter captures the space structure and *poof*, no hero (and no refund as far as I can tell)!

Also, I liked the suggestions to remove the AI bonus damages for hard mode (I think Zarkis and somebody else suggested this somewhere...) Anyways seconded.