Cosmic Encounter
I recently discovered that there is Yet Another damn version of Cosmic Encounter out. My initial reaction, based on gut feeling and then on the small blurb on Fantasy Flight's website, was that it was going to be as awful as the Hasbro/Avalon Hill version. In fact, I was surprised they'd gotten the rights to it- wasn't Hasbro going to do an expansion or something? Well, I guess not.
But, I am a completist (aside from some of the Eon expansions so far) so I went and bought the FFG version. I hadn't played it yet, but I've read the rules, alien powers, and all the cards, and I'm ready to offer an opinion. And that is- this version might be as good as the old ones. It's hard for me to say that, because Mayfair was my addiction through and after college, so I want to be a "get offa my lawn, in my day it was better!" type, but really, this version looks pretty good. I'd say 80% of the rules are the same as Mayfair's, 10% go back to Eon, and the other 10% are new but follow the right spirit. So, I thought it was time for an in depth review and comparison with the older versions.
For those who are wondering how I can do an "in depth" review without having played it... well, like I said, 80% of the rules are identical to how I do play it, so I feel I can at least review them, how things are different, how I expect it'll play out based on a fair chunk of Cosmic experience, and then I'll post again once I get a few games in.
Starting with the materials. The game is shown as being for 3-5 players, though the actual pieces will make it very easy to add more in expansions, and taking 1-2 hours. This was one of my first warning signs, because I have fond memories of the games that have taken 6+ hours, but
really, 1-2 is about right for a normal game. Our really long ones usually involved 2-3 alien powers each and more moons than you can shake a pointed stick at.
The pieces are bright and distinctive. No hexes- each player just gets 5 (or 4, for a shorter variant) planets in front of him. There's a warp, a cone, and the tokens for ships are now discs with a dimple on them such that they stack well. All fair enough, and certainly less obnoxious than the Hasbro version with the weirdass systems. (Remind me to cannibalize the ships from the Hasbro version someday, though.) No hexes does mean no reverse hexes, though, for those who liked that optional feature from the Mayfair edition.
The new rulebook adds a backstory involving a race called the Precursors, because every fucking space game needs a backstory involving Precursors. It isn't Cosmic's first backstory- Hasbro's version had a race called the Elders.
A bunch of terms have been renamed. Edicts are now Artifacts (artifacts from the Precursors, was artifacts from the Elders in Hasbro's). Bases are now Colonies- home colonies or "foreign colonies" for the outer bases. Challenges are now "Encounters", which I guess makes a certain amount of sense in a game called Cosmic Encounter. Challenge Cards are Encounter Cards. Consolation is now Compensation. Compromise is now Negotiation. All of these renames originated in the Hasbro version. The Hyperspace Cone is now the Hyperspace Gate, tying into the fiction as something that the Precursors gave to each home system. (In Hasbro it was renamed the Mothership, and allies ships were put on Carriers.) I'll note that "colony for colony?" just takes longer to say than "base for base?" so I'll probably continue calling them bases.
One thing that the FFG version has that I don't really care for is essentially a score track. I expect this to cause the same problem as the score tracks in Through the Ages- it'll be easy to accidentally not move one of the score markers. And really, there's only 5 colonies to keep track of, and beyond that, I feel that trying to pretend that you don't have 4 colonies yet is a viable strategy, and you'll feel less like you were cheated if you didn't notice that fourth colony and let someone ally than if you assumed the score track was correct and then realized it was wrong. Fortunately the Warp is identical on both sides except the back leaves off the score track markers. (Alas, yes, this means no reverse warp, but even in our wildest weird games we rarely actually used that.)
Alien sheets- Bright and colorful. I am amused to see that some of the flavor/history text on cards has been the same in every damn version. The new ones have a very short description written upside down at the top of the card for your opponents to read, which is nice. At the bottom, it has sections to describe what kind of player you have to be (main, offensive, defensive, ally, and/or any), mandatory/optional, and which phase. (All the alliance phases have been combined into just "Alliance".) Wonderfully there are 50 aliens- not as many as Mayfair + More, but over twice as many as Hasbro's version, and more than Mayfair or Eon had without any expansions.
The other thing that the alien sheets have is a color coding for the experience level that the players should have. All beginners should all be running with Green aliens, some experience and you toss in the yellows, and you don't want to introduce red aliens until everyone knows the game. (Reds are either more complicated (Citadel, Dictator) or just more powerful (Void, Virus).)
Rather than make you keep track of stuff on sheets, the game comes with a whole bunch of generic tokens (and some Grudge specific ones) for powers like the Warrior.
Flares are introduced similar to Mayfair (Hasbro didn't have 'em). Hand size in Hasbro is increased to 8. Minor change, and goes ok with the new alien powers that force discards more often.
There are 7 phases. They take the 10 from Mayfair, ditching "between turns" and combine all three alliance phases.
1- Regroup. Take a ship out of the warp. Same as every other version. (Note to those who have only played Cosmic with me and/or Jay- the bit about being able to draw a card if you have no tokens in the warp is a long standing house rule, and one that I am beginning to think is overall detrimental.)
2- Destiny. I was glad they went back to the name Destiny from Hasbro's "Orders". Also, nice that there are wilds and there are even "specials"- a smaller set than Mayfair's gray Destinies, but still, nice to see them. Missing some of the more rules confounding ones, like "attack into the warp." I think that's ok. Rules for drawing our own color are the same as Mayfair (and every other version).
3- Launch. Everything here is pretty much the same as Mayfair (and every other version). Main players, offensive player, defensive player. (To my surprise, given how much I disliked the Hasbro version, most of the rules in the new FFG seem to have been ported pretty much word for word from it. I guess Hasbro's faults weren't so much in the rules but in how much was left out and never added.)
4- Alliance. This merges all three phases from Mayfair. All the rules are the same except defensive allies place their ships in front of the planet rather than on the cone (sorry, Hyperspace Gate). Oh, and alliances are accepted in order starting to the left of the offensive player. This was the final resolution mechanic from Mayfair (if people wound up looping/waiting on others to decide) but I may end up missing the chaos of people being able to take back decisions as others make theirs.
5- Planning. Otherwise known as the "cards down" phase. You put down an attack, a negotiate, or a "morph"- a new card, there's only one in the deck, that turns your card into whatever your opponent played. (A nice touch in the rulebook- while there is only one Morph card, they do give a rule for what happens if you both play one. "Were it possible, both players would lose.")
6- Reveal. Cards up phase.
7- Resolution. Encounter resolution is exactly as it was in Mayfair (and all the other versions. In fact, this section is word for word the same as Hasbro's except they fixed the grammatical error).
You still get a second Encounter if the first was successful, and successful means the same thing. You still only draw a new hand if you need to play an Encounter card- beginning of your turn as offensive player, or when you become defensive player.
One difference is in the Cosmic Zap. Now the alien powers have a "use to ..." on them if they get activated (rather than being continual). You can zap only in response to someone firing off their use power, and they may not use the power again for the rest of the encounter. Looking fresh at the wording on the Mayfair card, it says "just as he attempts to use it", which implies that very early on we house ruled it to be usable any time to shut down a power, because by the strict wording I don't think it can be used on, say, Macron. So this isn't so much different in FFG as clarified. But it'll be different for us- I'm used to our house version where you can Cosmic Zap someone at the start of a turn just to shut them down all turn. Either way FFG is much clearer, as the powers have a specific use clause in their description, which eliminates any question of "was that a use of the power?" (And some powers that you might think are continuous are now use powers- like Macron, who uses his just after allies are invited. Its use is mandatory, though.)
Flares go back to the Eon rules- they are not discarded upon use, though you can only use each flare once per encounter and you can only use one flare per encounter, though they say you can relax that second restriction if you're willing to deal with the increased complexity. Which we are.
Finally, something entirely new, an optional rule: Technologies. At first I saw that and said "Cosmic does not need a tech tree!" Well, I was right, and it doesn't have one, so that's ok. Techs, honestly, seem kinda cool. You draw two at the start of the game and discard one face up. The one you keep is kept secret. Before you take a ship out of the warp at the start of your turn, you may choose to research your tech, complete it, or do nothing. If you research, take one ship from any colony and put it on your tech card. That ship has left the military for now and is doing research. Completing a card makes you flip it face up. If you have at least as many ships on it as its cost, it remains in play and can now be used. If not, it is discarded. Either way, you get your researching ships back. Ships on techs can be targeted by powers and such. You can draw new techs by skipping a second encounter. Overall, pretty cool.
The techs themselves take a few things from Edicts that otherwise got left out, and from some Moons. The cheapest cost 2 (Delta Scanners (an improved Space Junk (take a card from the discard pile)) or Vacuum Turbines (draw 4 cards)), the most expensive cost 9 (Precursor Seed (Power Surge! Draw an additional alien power) or Coldsleep Ship (get a free colony)). All of the above techs are discarded when you use them (which can be any time after you complete them), but some are Continuous, Play Now (such as Xenon Lasers, add or subtract 1 from your total). Two of the techs have cost X- they are played at other times and have effects based on how many ships are there. Tricksy. Other moons/powers/cards that are imitated here include the Nova Moon (and a sister card that creates a planet!), Warp Break Moon, a one-shot version of the Crystal's power, and a mini-Spiff (odd as Spiff is actually in the game).
A note on the Encounter cards- they mostly only go from 0-20, with one each 23, 30, and 40. No negatives. Yet. And there's only one of each odd number.
There are 50 alien powers. Here's the quick list, with comparison to Mayfair (G,Y,R for difficulty level):
(Y) Amoeba : Same.
(Y) Anti-Matter : Same. And still annoying.
(G) Barbarian: New. Power to Loot and Pillage- after you win as offense, before compensation, you look at your opponent's hand, take one card for each ship you had, and discard the rest entirely. To which I say: dayum.
(Y) Calculator: Same. Muahahaha.
(G) Chosen: Similar. Now you draw three cards and either add one to yours or replace yours.
(R) Citadel: Each turn may play a card next to a planet, and later use it to help defend that planet. Pretty cool.
(G) Clone: Same.
(G) Cudgel: As main player, if you play an attack card opponent loses additional ships equal to the number you have in the encounter. Again: Painful.
(R) Dictator: Similar. Now you look through the Destiny deck and draw a card for each person.
(Y) Fido: After an encounter, you may take a card and offer it to another player. You keep it if he doesn't want it. If he takes it you draw one card or ship.
(G) Filch: Same.
(Y) Fodder: You can add cards to your total if they are higher than yours and lower than your opponent's.
(R) Gambler: Pretty much the same. One of the few with bold text at the bottom.
(R) Grudge: Pretty much the same but possibly a bit nastier.
(G) Hacker: You can take Compensation from any player, and choose what cards someone gets from you.
(Y) Hate: Choose and discard. Everyone else discards a card of the same type (and higher attack value, if applicable). If they can't, they lose a ship.
(Y) Healer: Same.
(Y) Human: *sigh* I am distress that this is in there, but whatever. Adds 4 to your side. If you are zapped, you win the encounter automatically. (It does, however, win full acceptance based on its summary text being "Mostly Harmless.")
(Y) Kamikaze: Sacrifice ships to draw 2 cards per ship.
(G) Loser: Same.
(R) Machine: Same.
(G) Macron: Pretty much the same. Worded more clearly, I think.
(R) Masochist: This is basically the warp win moon as a power. Your only power is that you win if you have no ships.
(Y) Mind: Same. Though it brings up one difference between versions: this specifies that you can't tell anyone what you saw in the hand. Mayfair's rules would have been that you can, but you can also lie.
(Y) Mirror: Same.
(G) Miser: Same, slightly reworded. I'm surprised it's green, actually.
(Y) Mite: If defense has more than 3 cards, you can make him discard down to 3 or let you land a colony.
(G) Mutant: Same, modulo that hand size is now 8.
(G) Observer: You don't lose ships to the warp, and you can let allies not lose ships to the warp.
(G) Oracle: Same.
(G) Pacifist: Same.
(G) Parasite: Same.
(Y) Philanthropist: Same, except it is explicit that if you do this and are main player and wind up with no encounter cards you draw a new hand.
(Y) Reincarnator: Same.
(Y) Remora: Whenever someone takes one or more ships from the warp or cards from the deck, you can take one.
(G) Reserve: Same, though restricted to 6 or less (wasn't Mayfair's 8 or less?).
(Y) Shadow: Same as Mayfair's Assassin.
(G) Sorcerer: Same.
(G) Spiff: Same.
(Y) Tick-Tock: Starts with 10 tokens. Every time any player wins as defense, or makes a deal, remove a token. Win immediately if you are out of tokens. Eeeeeeeeeeep.
(G) Trader: Same.
(R) Tripler: Mandatory use- if your card is over 10, triple it, otherwise, divide by 3.
(G) Vacuum: Same.
(R) Virus: Same.
(R) Void: Same, except cannot be used to make someone unable to win.
(G) Vulch: Same.
(R) Warpish: Same.
(G) Warrior: Same, except you use tokens instead of a sheet with a running tally.
(G) Will: Same.
(G) Zombie: Same.
A few final notes:
Still has the Wild/Super distinction for flares, and most of them seem to do the same things as in previous versions.
Just from the Destiny deck there is no way to attack player A in player B's system. Wilds are now just "pick a color and treat it as though that color had come up."
A PS: I've played my first game tonight. It really feels Cosmicy. Hasbro was missing so much, only 20 powers, no flares, no moons, etc... this has flares, has 50 powers, has techs... I think in Mayfair we tended to play overly offensive games combined with random moonshots. And we had rules timing questions, which of course felt very Cosmic. ;) So yeah, I recommend it, especially if you don't have a copy of either Eon or Mayfair.
But, I am a completist (aside from some of the Eon expansions so far) so I went and bought the FFG version. I hadn't played it yet, but I've read the rules, alien powers, and all the cards, and I'm ready to offer an opinion. And that is- this version might be as good as the old ones. It's hard for me to say that, because Mayfair was my addiction through and after college, so I want to be a "get offa my lawn, in my day it was better!" type, but really, this version looks pretty good. I'd say 80% of the rules are the same as Mayfair's, 10% go back to Eon, and the other 10% are new but follow the right spirit. So, I thought it was time for an in depth review and comparison with the older versions.
For those who are wondering how I can do an "in depth" review without having played it... well, like I said, 80% of the rules are identical to how I do play it, so I feel I can at least review them, how things are different, how I expect it'll play out based on a fair chunk of Cosmic experience, and then I'll post again once I get a few games in.
Starting with the materials. The game is shown as being for 3-5 players, though the actual pieces will make it very easy to add more in expansions, and taking 1-2 hours. This was one of my first warning signs, because I have fond memories of the games that have taken 6+ hours, but
really, 1-2 is about right for a normal game. Our really long ones usually involved 2-3 alien powers each and more moons than you can shake a pointed stick at.
The pieces are bright and distinctive. No hexes- each player just gets 5 (or 4, for a shorter variant) planets in front of him. There's a warp, a cone, and the tokens for ships are now discs with a dimple on them such that they stack well. All fair enough, and certainly less obnoxious than the Hasbro version with the weirdass systems. (Remind me to cannibalize the ships from the Hasbro version someday, though.) No hexes does mean no reverse hexes, though, for those who liked that optional feature from the Mayfair edition.
The new rulebook adds a backstory involving a race called the Precursors, because every fucking space game needs a backstory involving Precursors. It isn't Cosmic's first backstory- Hasbro's version had a race called the Elders.
A bunch of terms have been renamed. Edicts are now Artifacts (artifacts from the Precursors, was artifacts from the Elders in Hasbro's). Bases are now Colonies- home colonies or "foreign colonies" for the outer bases. Challenges are now "Encounters", which I guess makes a certain amount of sense in a game called Cosmic Encounter. Challenge Cards are Encounter Cards. Consolation is now Compensation. Compromise is now Negotiation. All of these renames originated in the Hasbro version. The Hyperspace Cone is now the Hyperspace Gate, tying into the fiction as something that the Precursors gave to each home system. (In Hasbro it was renamed the Mothership, and allies ships were put on Carriers.) I'll note that "colony for colony?" just takes longer to say than "base for base?" so I'll probably continue calling them bases.
One thing that the FFG version has that I don't really care for is essentially a score track. I expect this to cause the same problem as the score tracks in Through the Ages- it'll be easy to accidentally not move one of the score markers. And really, there's only 5 colonies to keep track of, and beyond that, I feel that trying to pretend that you don't have 4 colonies yet is a viable strategy, and you'll feel less like you were cheated if you didn't notice that fourth colony and let someone ally than if you assumed the score track was correct and then realized it was wrong. Fortunately the Warp is identical on both sides except the back leaves off the score track markers. (Alas, yes, this means no reverse warp, but even in our wildest weird games we rarely actually used that.)
Alien sheets- Bright and colorful. I am amused to see that some of the flavor/history text on cards has been the same in every damn version. The new ones have a very short description written upside down at the top of the card for your opponents to read, which is nice. At the bottom, it has sections to describe what kind of player you have to be (main, offensive, defensive, ally, and/or any), mandatory/optional, and which phase. (All the alliance phases have been combined into just "Alliance".) Wonderfully there are 50 aliens- not as many as Mayfair + More, but over twice as many as Hasbro's version, and more than Mayfair or Eon had without any expansions.
The other thing that the alien sheets have is a color coding for the experience level that the players should have. All beginners should all be running with Green aliens, some experience and you toss in the yellows, and you don't want to introduce red aliens until everyone knows the game. (Reds are either more complicated (Citadel, Dictator) or just more powerful (Void, Virus).)
Rather than make you keep track of stuff on sheets, the game comes with a whole bunch of generic tokens (and some Grudge specific ones) for powers like the Warrior.
Flares are introduced similar to Mayfair (Hasbro didn't have 'em). Hand size in Hasbro is increased to 8. Minor change, and goes ok with the new alien powers that force discards more often.
There are 7 phases. They take the 10 from Mayfair, ditching "between turns" and combine all three alliance phases.
1- Regroup. Take a ship out of the warp. Same as every other version. (Note to those who have only played Cosmic with me and/or Jay- the bit about being able to draw a card if you have no tokens in the warp is a long standing house rule, and one that I am beginning to think is overall detrimental.)
2- Destiny. I was glad they went back to the name Destiny from Hasbro's "Orders". Also, nice that there are wilds and there are even "specials"- a smaller set than Mayfair's gray Destinies, but still, nice to see them. Missing some of the more rules confounding ones, like "attack into the warp." I think that's ok. Rules for drawing our own color are the same as Mayfair (and every other version).
3- Launch. Everything here is pretty much the same as Mayfair (and every other version). Main players, offensive player, defensive player. (To my surprise, given how much I disliked the Hasbro version, most of the rules in the new FFG seem to have been ported pretty much word for word from it. I guess Hasbro's faults weren't so much in the rules but in how much was left out and never added.)
4- Alliance. This merges all three phases from Mayfair. All the rules are the same except defensive allies place their ships in front of the planet rather than on the cone (sorry, Hyperspace Gate). Oh, and alliances are accepted in order starting to the left of the offensive player. This was the final resolution mechanic from Mayfair (if people wound up looping/waiting on others to decide) but I may end up missing the chaos of people being able to take back decisions as others make theirs.
5- Planning. Otherwise known as the "cards down" phase. You put down an attack, a negotiate, or a "morph"- a new card, there's only one in the deck, that turns your card into whatever your opponent played. (A nice touch in the rulebook- while there is only one Morph card, they do give a rule for what happens if you both play one. "Were it possible, both players would lose.")
6- Reveal. Cards up phase.
7- Resolution. Encounter resolution is exactly as it was in Mayfair (and all the other versions. In fact, this section is word for word the same as Hasbro's except they fixed the grammatical error).
You still get a second Encounter if the first was successful, and successful means the same thing. You still only draw a new hand if you need to play an Encounter card- beginning of your turn as offensive player, or when you become defensive player.
One difference is in the Cosmic Zap. Now the alien powers have a "use to ..." on them if they get activated (rather than being continual). You can zap only in response to someone firing off their use power, and they may not use the power again for the rest of the encounter. Looking fresh at the wording on the Mayfair card, it says "just as he attempts to use it", which implies that very early on we house ruled it to be usable any time to shut down a power, because by the strict wording I don't think it can be used on, say, Macron. So this isn't so much different in FFG as clarified. But it'll be different for us- I'm used to our house version where you can Cosmic Zap someone at the start of a turn just to shut them down all turn. Either way FFG is much clearer, as the powers have a specific use clause in their description, which eliminates any question of "was that a use of the power?" (And some powers that you might think are continuous are now use powers- like Macron, who uses his just after allies are invited. Its use is mandatory, though.)
Flares go back to the Eon rules- they are not discarded upon use, though you can only use each flare once per encounter and you can only use one flare per encounter, though they say you can relax that second restriction if you're willing to deal with the increased complexity. Which we are.
Finally, something entirely new, an optional rule: Technologies. At first I saw that and said "Cosmic does not need a tech tree!" Well, I was right, and it doesn't have one, so that's ok. Techs, honestly, seem kinda cool. You draw two at the start of the game and discard one face up. The one you keep is kept secret. Before you take a ship out of the warp at the start of your turn, you may choose to research your tech, complete it, or do nothing. If you research, take one ship from any colony and put it on your tech card. That ship has left the military for now and is doing research. Completing a card makes you flip it face up. If you have at least as many ships on it as its cost, it remains in play and can now be used. If not, it is discarded. Either way, you get your researching ships back. Ships on techs can be targeted by powers and such. You can draw new techs by skipping a second encounter. Overall, pretty cool.
The techs themselves take a few things from Edicts that otherwise got left out, and from some Moons. The cheapest cost 2 (Delta Scanners (an improved Space Junk (take a card from the discard pile)) or Vacuum Turbines (draw 4 cards)), the most expensive cost 9 (Precursor Seed (Power Surge! Draw an additional alien power) or Coldsleep Ship (get a free colony)). All of the above techs are discarded when you use them (which can be any time after you complete them), but some are Continuous, Play Now (such as Xenon Lasers, add or subtract 1 from your total). Two of the techs have cost X- they are played at other times and have effects based on how many ships are there. Tricksy. Other moons/powers/cards that are imitated here include the Nova Moon (and a sister card that creates a planet!), Warp Break Moon, a one-shot version of the Crystal's power, and a mini-Spiff (odd as Spiff is actually in the game).
A note on the Encounter cards- they mostly only go from 0-20, with one each 23, 30, and 40. No negatives. Yet. And there's only one of each odd number.
There are 50 alien powers. Here's the quick list, with comparison to Mayfair (G,Y,R for difficulty level):
(Y) Amoeba : Same.
(Y) Anti-Matter : Same. And still annoying.
(G) Barbarian: New. Power to Loot and Pillage- after you win as offense, before compensation, you look at your opponent's hand, take one card for each ship you had, and discard the rest entirely. To which I say: dayum.
(Y) Calculator: Same. Muahahaha.
(G) Chosen: Similar. Now you draw three cards and either add one to yours or replace yours.
(R) Citadel: Each turn may play a card next to a planet, and later use it to help defend that planet. Pretty cool.
(G) Clone: Same.
(G) Cudgel: As main player, if you play an attack card opponent loses additional ships equal to the number you have in the encounter. Again: Painful.
(R) Dictator: Similar. Now you look through the Destiny deck and draw a card for each person.
(Y) Fido: After an encounter, you may take a card and offer it to another player. You keep it if he doesn't want it. If he takes it you draw one card or ship.
(G) Filch: Same.
(Y) Fodder: You can add cards to your total if they are higher than yours and lower than your opponent's.
(R) Gambler: Pretty much the same. One of the few with bold text at the bottom.
(R) Grudge: Pretty much the same but possibly a bit nastier.
(G) Hacker: You can take Compensation from any player, and choose what cards someone gets from you.
(Y) Hate: Choose and discard. Everyone else discards a card of the same type (and higher attack value, if applicable). If they can't, they lose a ship.
(Y) Healer: Same.
(Y) Human: *sigh* I am distress that this is in there, but whatever. Adds 4 to your side. If you are zapped, you win the encounter automatically. (It does, however, win full acceptance based on its summary text being "Mostly Harmless.")
(Y) Kamikaze: Sacrifice ships to draw 2 cards per ship.
(G) Loser: Same.
(R) Machine: Same.
(G) Macron: Pretty much the same. Worded more clearly, I think.
(R) Masochist: This is basically the warp win moon as a power. Your only power is that you win if you have no ships.
(Y) Mind: Same. Though it brings up one difference between versions: this specifies that you can't tell anyone what you saw in the hand. Mayfair's rules would have been that you can, but you can also lie.
(Y) Mirror: Same.
(G) Miser: Same, slightly reworded. I'm surprised it's green, actually.
(Y) Mite: If defense has more than 3 cards, you can make him discard down to 3 or let you land a colony.
(G) Mutant: Same, modulo that hand size is now 8.
(G) Observer: You don't lose ships to the warp, and you can let allies not lose ships to the warp.
(G) Oracle: Same.
(G) Pacifist: Same.
(G) Parasite: Same.
(Y) Philanthropist: Same, except it is explicit that if you do this and are main player and wind up with no encounter cards you draw a new hand.
(Y) Reincarnator: Same.
(Y) Remora: Whenever someone takes one or more ships from the warp or cards from the deck, you can take one.
(G) Reserve: Same, though restricted to 6 or less (wasn't Mayfair's 8 or less?).
(Y) Shadow: Same as Mayfair's Assassin.
(G) Sorcerer: Same.
(G) Spiff: Same.
(Y) Tick-Tock: Starts with 10 tokens. Every time any player wins as defense, or makes a deal, remove a token. Win immediately if you are out of tokens. Eeeeeeeeeeep.
(G) Trader: Same.
(R) Tripler: Mandatory use- if your card is over 10, triple it, otherwise, divide by 3.
(G) Vacuum: Same.
(R) Virus: Same.
(R) Void: Same, except cannot be used to make someone unable to win.
(G) Vulch: Same.
(R) Warpish: Same.
(G) Warrior: Same, except you use tokens instead of a sheet with a running tally.
(G) Will: Same.
(G) Zombie: Same.
A few final notes:
Still has the Wild/Super distinction for flares, and most of them seem to do the same things as in previous versions.
Just from the Destiny deck there is no way to attack player A in player B's system. Wilds are now just "pick a color and treat it as though that color had come up."
A PS: I've played my first game tonight. It really feels Cosmicy. Hasbro was missing so much, only 20 powers, no flares, no moons, etc... this has flares, has 50 powers, has techs... I think in Mayfair we tended to play overly offensive games combined with random moonshots. And we had rules timing questions, which of course felt very Cosmic. ;) So yeah, I recommend it, especially if you don't have a copy of either Eon or Mayfair.