So far, I like what I'm seeing about the pilots and ships. My initial impression was that each ship/pilot was a weak combination of some guy + some ship, however the pilot profiles released so far in the Kickstarter have shown that to be a premature assessment. So far we've got:
Neo-Elf assassin sisters, one silent, the other boisterous, piloting a super-stealth ship
A brutal and scarred Sulph-Orc bounty hunter with a lingering sense of loyalty to his War-Prince, piloting a converted spacedragon claw
A Techno-Dwarf demolitions expert who's constantly searching for the perfect kaboom, piloting a bomber
A rakish Metahuman gambler, con artist, and gun-runner, piloting a customized racing frigate named after his discarded fiancee
A War Spectre who seems to be a pretty good guy, piloting a symbiotic living space creature
A barely-holding-it-together Sulph-Orc, piloting a ship cobbled together from pieces of other ships
A competent but joyless Metahuman commander, piloting a competent and modern corvette
A cruel and chaotic War Spectre, piloting an enslaved living space creature
As long as the actual cards serve to reinforce these personalities, then consider me satisfied. I know GSF isn't supposed to just be SotM in space, but I think one of the main strengths of SotM is the strong personalities conveyed by each hero card and deck. That's a strength I'd like to see carried over into GSF. When I play the Dwarf Demolitionist, I want it to feel distinctly different than when I play the Neo-Elf Assassin Sisters. I'm still a little worried that once I start grabbing Sector cards from the same pool as everyone else, that personal feeling will be diluted, but I'm willing to be convinced that won't happen.
One additional thought, of all the characters/ships shown so far, these are what I would consider the weakest spots out of a relatively strong lineup in terms of characterization:
I love the Bomber Dwarf, though I get no particular special feelings about his ship, which is described as "a classically styled bomber". Is there anything special about it that would make a player think, "ooh, that one's for me"?
For Khorijin, the barely-holding-it-together Sulph-Orc, his ship seems to have more personality than he does. Apparently he's just the most recent guy to sit in the captain's chair? Or is the entire crew of Bad News Bears/Orcs really the characters and not just the captain? Because that might have legs, characterization-wise.
Who wants to play a competent but joyless commander character? Especially one piloting a competent and modern corvette. I read and re-read that section looking for the Awesome, but came away empty (except the fact that she jacks into her ship to drive it, but presumably so does the Metahuman gambler). Where's the hook for this one?
I can definitely assure you that personality of both ship and pilot come through. Playing the Ranak Warbeast was a very different experience from playing Marot's Folly. That remained through the entire game, also. It never felt diluted through buying new cards.
I imagine the "competent but joyless" character would be a good fit for players who aren't quite married to any of the other personalities and want to shape the type of ship it is a little more using the additions you can buy.
Of course, I haven't played the game. This is all speculation on my part.
Its also to note that Warbeast is pilot by young pilots that are ranked by their kills. Which makes it the more the sweeter.
Also some ships are piloted only by 1 Pilot because they are linked to the ship while others are a small crew and I expect are shown in their card art. Like Vinidicative.
Actually, she's my favorite so far because a completely different section of that page jumped out at me. Metahuman pilots normally, and her especially, are always afraid the tech will break down so they have back-up systems on top of back up systems. I love that aspect of over-planning, 'cause that's exactly what I end up doing. I get less "joyless" and more "serious" from her, I'd like to think after a succssful mission she sits back, shares a nod with the crew, and sips some coffee while planning the next run. I like it.
Chaosmancer, your forum name doesn't say you're a playtester. Have you secretly cracked the >G vault code to get a sneak peek at the new game, or do you just not have a PT badge?
Perhaps knows a playtester in person and plays games with them. When I read it though I was getting more about her personailty though rather than play mechanics.
Nope, never even seen the game, that's just the feeling I got from the kickstarter page. Sorry for any confusion, I've been making guesses and decisions based off the kickstarter page for a while, guess I just forgot to make that clear, but I can't imagine with that information being released with that character that her deck doesn't take advantage of that somehow or another.
Oh, sorry. When I re-read your post, I can see clearly that you were just talking about the personality. For some reason, I misconstrued that to mean that you had additional experience with the character.
Do play testers have favorites? Just interested to see who might be the crowd pleaser. Any tidbits you could share on why would also be nice but I understand that the responses you can give are probably limited.
The whole "powering her ship off the timestream thingy while she commits piracy with her crew" reminds me of La Capitan. Only this time, we're the ones (presumably) nicking people's stuff and sailing around blowing stuff up and generally being a pain in the arse :D.
I think the only pilot that I really have not connected with in some way is the bomber dwarf. I felt like I could gather little hints to each ones play style and personality, but his KS update days later still leaves me a bit wanting. He makes things go boom. So what? I have a feeling all of the pilots will make opposition ships go *boom* as well. What makes him different?
So far I think my favorite pilot is Euphrosyne mostly because he seems to be the heavy support ship (like an Argent Adept or Visionary). Without giving anything away, how does a support ship hold up amongst some of the other higher octane ships? Does it require a little more complex strategy to be fully effective?
Trust me, Conclave of Niphon can hold its own. The strategy isn't as straight-forward as the other War Spectre ship, though. You'll find, as has been mentioned elsewhere, that each race has a ship that is low complexity and a ship that is higher complexity.
