Talk:Advanced Targeting Computer/@comment-81.157.150.29-20180808094841/@comment-454133-20180808154714

This card was designed as a direct fix to the TIE Advanced, which wasn't seeing much play because it was too expensive for what it did. By adding ATC + TIE/x1, they gave the TIE Advanced a 1-cost upgrade that granted a substantial boost in power. Or the player could choose another system slot (e.g. Advanced Sensors) and equip it for free with TIE/x1.

Equipping this card on another ship, e.g. the B-Wing, would wildly imbalance the game and wreck the intent of specifically fixing the TIE Advanced. And so it's marked as an upgrade for only that ship.

The fix was quite successful for those who had it -- Darth Vader became a monster and remains effective in the meta today. Unfortunately FFG cynically locked these upgrades away in a $100 epic ship expansion, which many players consider inappropriate and a cynical attemped to squeeze more money from players and push them to play epic. The price tag excluded a lot of players from the fix.

Reportedly they're going to be doing things differently in Second Edition, creating separate card packs that allow you to buy the cards of each expansion for cheap instead of having to buy the full expansion (with a ship, tokens, etc). No more buying full expansions just to get the cards. And they'll be making fine-tuned adjustments to cards on a regular basis to adjust balance, instead of waiting months or years to develop, test, and finally sell a fix in an expansion. So it sounds like they've learned a lot.

BTW, you should definitely proxy this card and TIE/x1 if you own a TIE Advanced but not the Raider. No need to buy a giant expansion just to make Vader and friends effective.