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Honestly, with even 5 people, they should be able to ship 300 a day easily. They'd have to be working really short days with few people to only get 100 out, and it'd take them over 5 weeks.

Davor wrote:

GenRifDrake wrote:
Yep, now that I have a pretty much near full picture of the rules, this is easily my primary Starship combat game now over FSA, HFB and BFG.

Can you please explain. Since I was going to do a Resistance army and not having any Resistance in Droplet Commander I lost interest in it. What makes this game so great. I haven't played any space fleet game in ages, and was thinking of trying Star Wars Armada or the new Halo. What makes this game so great? I might see if my FLGS can order this and get into it.

It is a mix of things. Overall the game is rather easy to understand it's core concepts, how shooting workings, manuvering, launching fighters/bombers etc etc. But there is alot tactical depth to it despite this with the Order system plus the Scan and Signature system for determining if you have range/lock on an enemy adds a lot of decision making since any order beyond Silent Running and Standard Orders adds energy spikes to you making you more exposed. It is not just simple "I have X" range, are they in range, no? okay then" deal, spiking your energy signature up to Major suddenly your ship has an extra 12" on it's signature, and that ship that was an outlier previous can now also shoot you etc, as well as mechanics and ways to add spikes to enemy targets you may wish to target priority etc etc.

The fleet building is also great in that I find it rather open and flexible as to what you can take, but often fleet building to try and fit EVERYTHING in becomes very hard and still forces you to make choices, which I appreciate as someone who likes to field the pretty starships he likes the most aesthetically, but still makes me have to make some decision making in what I put in. Can't speak for Star Wars as I never touched that but DFC is also shipping with a whopping amount of ship variety, more than Halo has currently definitely.. halo's fleet roster is rather.. limited still, with no word on when we can expect more ships.

Combined with how balanced the fleets look on face value (meta and time will ultimately see how truely balance is) it looks like a very well made and put together Starship combat game, a lot better than how Halo feels to have turned out anyway definitely. Can't speak for Star Wars again as never played those games.

Edit: Also on the Resistence thing, I know the lack of Resistence irked many Resistence players, but when you think about it, it makes very little sense those guys have any sembalance of a fleet of starship combat force at all. They're not even united as Resistence but more like individual warlords and such on individual former UCM cradle worlds. Maybe they'll get something eventually, but I can understand why, as annoying as it is for Resistence players, they don't have a fleet/force in DFC.

GenRifDrake wrote:

Davor wrote:

GenRifDrake wrote:
Yep, now that I have a pretty much near full picture of the rules, this is easily my primary Starship combat game now over FSA, HFB and BFG.

Can you please explain. Since I was going to do a Resistance army and not having any Resistance in Droplet Commander I lost interest in it. What makes this game so great. I haven't played any space fleet game in ages, and was thinking of trying Star Wars Armada or the new Halo. What makes this game so great? I might see if my FLGS can order this and get into it.

It is a mix of things. Overall the game is rather easy to understand it's core concepts, how shooting workings, manuvering, launching fighters/bombers etc etc. But there is alot tactical depth to it despite this with the Order system plus the Scan and Signature system for determining if you have range/lock on an enemy adds a lot of decision making since any order beyond Silent Running and Standard Orders adds energy spikes to you making you more exposed. It is not just simple "I have X" range, are they in range, no? okay then" deal, spiking your energy signature up to Major suddenly your ship has an extra 12" on it's signature, and that ship that was an outlier previous can now also shoot you etc, as well as mechanics and ways to add spikes to enemy targets you may wish to target priority etc etc.

The fleet building is also great in that I find it rather open and flexible as to what you can take, but often fleet building to try and fit EVERYTHING in becomes very hard and still forces you to make choices, which I appreciate as someone who likes to field the pretty starships he likes the most aesthetically, but still makes me have to make some decision making in what I put in. Can't speak for Star Wars as I never touched that but DFC is also shipping with a whopping amount of ship variety, more than Halo has currently definitely.. halo's fleet roster is rather.. limited still, with no word on when we can expect more ships.

Combined with how balanced the fleets look on face value (meta and time will ultimately see how truely balance is) it looks like a very well made and put together Starship combat game, a lot better than how Halo feels to have turned out anyway definitely. Can't speak for Star Wars again as never played those games..

Good accurate words

I also started a thread here for people's impressions of the game rather than news on it:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/705514.page

nekooni wrote:

Davor wrote:

GenRifDrake wrote:
Yep, now that I have a pretty much near full picture of the rules, this is easily my primary Starship combat game now over FSA, HFB and BFG.

Can you please explain. Since I was going to do a Resistance army and not having any Resistance in Droplet Commander I lost interest in it. What makes this game so great. I haven't played any space fleet game in ages, and was thinking of trying Star Wars Armada or the new Halo. What makes this game so great? I might see if my FLGS can order this and get into it.

I asked about the resistance and they say that you should just paint up your ucm or phr as resistance. For now there are no plans for a resistance fleet, but they are not saying never

That is good to know. I will keep my eye out on it. One of the reasons why I basically got out of Dropfleet (and a few others) not having a faction I like to play. I didn't get into the original 4 much but got into the Resistance for some reason. Maybe Phase 2 or more likely Phase 3 would have reasons why Resistance have space ships. Until it happens I guess I will just wait.

Not sure how the resistance differs in gameplay mechanics in dzc but if its just looks: run as ucm and paint, convert or use third Party or scratch build. Models dont matter gameplay wise

I was really hoping for a Resistance fleet too, or even just a few ships or guidelines / background on what they might look like. I'm happy with UCM but would love to see something like that

I've actually been considering painting up my UCM to look like they're in great disrepair to use in the role for now (and as possible allies later). Anyone have tips or examples of ships painted like that? With normal Resistance models, rust looks perfect, but I'm not sure if that is something that works for a ship scheme or if there's an analogous look, etc.

Ideas / links / etc appreciated!

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/236ezw/does_metal_tarnishcorroderust_in_space/

According to Reddit, tarnishing and corrosion do happen in space, reportedly especially in low-Earth orbit. The thread recommends a Google image search for "corrosion MIR" for pictures of how the MIR space station corroded with time. It's pretty interesting!

DFC is my first foray into a Hawk Wargame, so I don't know the background terribly well. How your ships should look I'd think would be a function of what metals the hulls are made of. Iron would give rust, aluminum seems to corrode into a speckly white that almost looks like salt or snow, though how you'd convey this at such a large scale is something I couldn't guess.

I'd think atmospheric vessels vessels like the New Orleans should have the most overt weathering/tarnishing, possibly scorching from repeated atmospheric entry. Cruisers should have less weathering and more battle damage with impromptu repairs. Perhaps once you've got a sprue in your hand, you could track down some old, small-scale battleship kits and swap out some turrets?

I just checked up in my DZC rulebook; all it mentions about the shipyards is that they're located in orbit of Niccolum, which is a gas giant whose rings 'proved a valuable prize for early explorers.' 'Countless mineral rich rocks circle Niccolum, containing rare metals at far higher concentration than found in typical planet crusts.'

Johira that's just awesome, thank you! And same to you, Brunius

Ordered from the Warstore on Friday at work. It's at my house now.

Thanks Neal

str00dles1 wrote:
For many KS, if you back it you usually get it before retail. That's part of the appeal and perk.

Its true many KS get you your stuff before it gets to retail. I just don't really understand why that matters so much? I mean, if we were getting our KS pledge 6 months before it went retail that might be something. Getting it a week or two before it hits the stores? Meh.

I would disagree though in you saying if they held it back. That's more bodies getting it sent out, not out demoing and selling in Speil(sp?) like Dave is among a few of his employees right now.

If they held it back they might not be selling at Spiel, but I'm sure they would still be there demoing the game. AFAIK, Spiel is the biggest gaming convention in Europe so any company with a new product almost has to be there.

I can see how people don't think of this as a big deal, but take a look at it from the backers perspective.

I am looking at it from the Backers perspective, as I'm a Commodore level backer myself.

Most people who ordered just a starter, or hardly anything got their stuff. People, like myself, among lots others who ordered 500$ worth of stuff or more have yet to see it. That's a good bit of cash tied up with no return for about a year now. The more you invent in something, the more you want to see it pay off when its supposed to. Had I just got a single starter, id proably not care at all. I could go out now and just buy a second one. But I got way more then that.

I can understand that you're disappointed in Hawk's handing of the KS and I'm certainly not saying you are not justified simply because it doesn't matter to me. Hopefully we'll all get our stuff soon now and can start gaming!

I won't be able to get my stuff until this Friday at the earliest as I am on exercise but I find it galling that the KS has been delayed so much that people are getting their stuff through standard retail channels before my pledge has even been dispatched. This is despite Hawk's many promises that this would never happen.
if my stuff hasn't arrived by Friday I am not going to bother with any future Kickstarters as clearly there is nothing to gain from them.

I understand people are annoying they're getting it after retail release, but it's not by much, and you're getting quite a lot of free stuff.
Eg, for the £60 pledge (which is already slightly cheaper than retail) you're getting a tshirt, a the credit, dogtag, plus another 20 ships for free. You're pretty much getting as much plastic for free as you're paying for. Not really a bad KS in my books

Saw some being disappointed no Resistance for Dropfleet. Dave did mention in past beasts of war vids that there will be no Resistance with ships. He stated that they hardly have the tech to use to fight plaentside, they don't have the manpower or tech to have fleets of ships - ever.

He did say though that while they wont have fleets, there can be missions of saving resistance people in transport ships for Dropfleet and the like, just no full army for them.

I can't understand people being upset about getting it a few weeks late.
A Kickstarter is not a pre-order system, it is quite common for pledges to be delivered much later than initially promised. You know this before you back. The main perks of backing a Kickstarter usually is not that you get stuff earlier, but rather that you can get stuff cheaper than at retail. For DfC this is certainly true with all the free stuff they are adding to the starter box. It is free stuff, so why complain?

Yeah, I didn't have the capitol to back the game, but I really can't see the problem with "not getting it before the retail customers do" when you are getting twice the product- plus exclusives that will never be available again- that they are paying for.


This Kickstarter barely had any hiccups compared to many, many of them. I backed Sedition Wars. Imagine Dropfleet shipping with a rulebook that was already out of date and had flaws, and you had to pay additional funds for the up-to-date one. Which then also sucked.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
I can't understand people being upset about getting it a few weeks late.
A Kickstarter is not a pre-order system, it is quite common for pledges to be delivered much later than initially promised. You know this before you back. The main perks of backing a Kickstarter usually is not that you get stuff earlier, but rather that you can get stuff cheaper than at retail. For DfC this is certainly true with all the free stuff they are adding to the starter box. It is free stuff, so why complain?

I backed the kickstarter, and I'm not concerned about my stuff coming after retail as much as we are already 4 months past the expected date, stuff is shipping and I still don't know if my order is coming. I backed this particular kickstarter in part based on the reputation of the people in question and my confidence that they would pull it off in a professional manner, which for the most part they did. The models look fantastic and I'm eagerly awaiting a chance to look over the rules. That being said I'm basically stuck now waiting for my stuff to arrive when I could have bought the rules from a local store day one, and the ships I wanted (barring the KS exclusives) the same day. Yes, I'll get some extra frigate sprues, but I'm still stuck essentially in the back of the line despite my early contribution, with no clear date to look forward too aside from the same nebulous "Soon" that i've had for a while now. That is what is irritating, going to the end of the line when I took the risk to back the KS in the first place.

Let's get back on the specific topic - Dropfleet Commander fulfillment (or Dropzone Commander news) - rather than general discussion of Kickstarter practices. We've covered that pretty sufficiently by now

---

I'm curious, does anyone in the U.S. have a tracking number, and if so what was your pledge level?

Also, if you've already tried the game be sure to post / link to your reviews here, or in this discussion thread in the Sci-Fi Misc Games section:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/705514.page

As a backer/victim of the ultimate "backers first" dick move in the Robotech Kickstarter, I feel for backers here as well but I have some questions. Did they make the promise to ship to backers first BEFORE the kickstarter campaign ended? If not, it wasn't really a factor in your pledging. If they made it after the fact (which seems to be what was posted a few pages ago.. I can't attest to its veracity though), it still is quite unfortunate for backers that they had to retract that later promise but not as bad as if they had made it earlier. I see comments about a lack of communication as well and I can empathize on that but I think folks need to look at the intent behind the breaking of the promise. Did they seem to actually try as hard as they could to keep it? That seems to be the case reading the updates posted here and their intent wasn't to screw over backers months in advance (unlike with Palladium's Robotech where they manufactured and shipped ONLY retail bound products for the first few containers).

Again, while it sucks it reads like a series of unfortunate events mostly beyond their control. It also sounds like it will only be a matter of weeks (and not weeks to 6+ months like with Robotech) so that should mitigate the response as well. I'm not coming here to start a robotech pity part (we already have 400+ pages of that elsewhere) but rather to put it hopefully a bit more in perspective.

Again, if I'm wrong about the timing of the "backers first" promise, let me know as that would change my feelings a bit (although frankly not much as I don't feel that Hawk as a company or Dave as an owner has any contempt for his customers unlike a certain someone else).

Warboss, it's right there on the Kickstarter page:

We are committed to quality and speed of delivery, but also loyal to our backers; it is our intention not to put any of the kickstarted game elements up for sale through retail until all backers have received their pledge levels.

That said, we really have beat this horse to death by now - let's stick to discussing actual shipping news, and ideally news of the game as soon as folks have their hands on it / have any more info to share

Have they shipped any orders to the US at all?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Have they shipped any orders to the US at all?

From the Facebook group postings, there are reports of received lieutenant packages and delivery notifications for others including admirals.

The exception seems to be Commodore level pledges which there have been no reports (that I've seen) confirming that they've gone out anywhere, much less the US.

From what I've seen posted in a couple of places it looks like not all the add ons are ready yet and this could be why they are leaving orders with add ons until last. There have been admiral orders delivered with notes listing items like map packs and the acrylic tokens as 'to follow'.

Ah, that's not a good development. Thanks for the update, though!

I can cope with tokens 'to follow' if I'm getting my ships. My airbrush is getting hungry...

nobody wrote:
The exception seems to be Commodore level pledges which there have been no reports (that I've seen) confirming that they've gone out anywhere, much less the US.

Your words, they're like a dagger in my heart.

Of course the best pledge is the last to go out...

 JOHIRA wrote:

nobody wrote:
The exception seems to be Commodore level pledges which there have been no reports (that I've seen) confirming that they've gone out anywhere, much less the US.

Your words, they're like a dagger in my heart.

Of course the best pledge is the last to go out...

Yeah. I'm starting to wonder if that has to do with it using the Starter Fleet kits that went out to retail.
By the way: I picked up a PHR starter fleet at Spiel, but I'm missing the Cruiser Assembly instructions - anyone got those scanned in? I managed to assemble one cruiser by using pictures of the ship, but having the proper instructions would help a lot for the other two.

nekooni wrote:

 JOHIRA wrote:

nobody wrote:
The exception seems to be Commodore level pledges which there have been no reports (that I've seen) confirming that they've gone out anywhere, much less the US.

Your words, they're like a dagger in my heart.

Of course the best pledge is the last to go out...

Yeah. I'm starting to wonder if that has to do with it using the Starter Fleet kits that went out to retail.
By the way: I picked up a PHR starter fleet at Spiel, but I'm missing the Cruiser Assembly instructions - anyone got those scanned in? I managed to assemble one cruiser by using pictures of the ship, but having the proper instructions would help a lot for the other two.

Somebody posted these on the Dropfleet Commander Community facebook page, in reply to somebody else who had picked it up at essen and was missing assembly instructions:

Does the rule book explain the fluff for each of the weapons?

According to beasts of war when Dave was on yes.

He said just like dropzone book where it has small pics of weapons and armor, it talks about them