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ferrous wrote:
Yeesh, I had to Google Heavy Gear Kickstarter, as I couldn't find a link to it on the forums, not even in Dave's post that is literally, "Our Kickstarter is now live!"
And it's not even the first, second or third item in Google. It's the fifth thing.

Yeah, that kind of threw me too here yesterday - especially after all the effort of creating the forum graphics in the first place, which is definitely not on Balance.
Who by the way I apologize to if I gave the impression in my post that he was the incompetent and short-sighted individual who botched that kind of crucial first step.

mrondeau wrote:
I doubt DP9's capacity to deliver on their promises.
I'll only offer congratulations if they manage to resurrect the game they have worked so hard to kill.

 warboss wrote:
Alph, this thread is literally filled like a refugee camp with folks that tried to help with HG over the years (from paid employees to playtesters). I fully realize that some folks will see that as just a hive of scum and villainy filled with only those with an axe to grind... and to a point, they're correct... but it's also correct to say that the thread is filled with folks who used to be incredibly enthusiastic about the universe and now aren't because of numerous mistakes by the company that have led us to the point where very few people can find others to actually play and most stores and the EXCLUSIVE official EU distributor don't bother stocking their products.

 warboss wrote:
These issues are supposed to be addressed wtih this new and (for the first time) completely different ruleset. Unfortunately, developer bias has crept in repeatedly over the last year into the alpha/beta rules with little regard for balance until necessary public drama forces a change.

 Albertorius wrote:
Only one caveat: their RPG (actually their RPGs) failed because 1) they killed them doing a two-year hiatus to go film movies and 2) the actual brains of the operation left for greener pastures.

Perhaps the most amusing/frustrating thing of all about how TPTB at Dream Pod 9 carry on whilst treading all over anyone who doesn't blindly support the company is how they always eventually cut their own collective throats by repeating the exact same behavior(s).

Just like they're doing now in the news threads here on Dakka and elsewhere, talking up big plans without having waited to polish the detail questions everyone keeps asking to be answered, and then ignoring those outright or trying to get out of it with repetitive double-talk.
As a few folks have pointed out, about how on sites with the kind of traffic like Dakka, RPG.net, or BoardGameGeek have, the lack of much anyone discussing the company or its games is kind of a telling sign.

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Beasts of War and other Facebook and Twitter sites sharing the news counts well enough, and the company staff hasn't said anything here.

And 44k with a few hundred to go for Stretch Goal #3 says folks are showing plenty of interest.

Edit: 45,000. Earther MHT-95 Hovertanks are good to go.

I appreciate the info everyone.

I've always been interested in HG, but never took the plunge.

IF the KS funds high enough, the $100 pledge will become a deal 'too good to resist' for me - knowing full well that it will also probably end up shipping significantly late, and that the rules might need a lot of additional work.

I still dream of a miniature wargame based off of the super awesome Giant Robot anime from the 70's like Getter Robo, Gaiking and Grandizer...

mrondeau wrote:
The Ferret Mk II is not really what I would call "top of the line". It's not a Mk I (i.e. obsolete and useless), but it's basically just a jeep. Useful, but no Cheetah.
Sure, it's about as fast, but it's not as manoeuvrable. If speed is your criterion, then Warrior Mk IV are even more top of the line.

It is faster than a Cheetah, actually. It also has low profile, which the Cheetah has not, a better main weapon (a LAC instead of a DPG, but that doesn't help recon), same sensors and comm arrays, a much longer deployment range, and the same Target Designator. True, it doesn't have ECM, but that's not really recon equipment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
Only one caveat: their RPG (actually their RPGs) failed because 1) they killed them doing a two-year hiatus to go film movies

LOL, yeah, I forgot about that one. Can you imagine if Corvus Belli decided to completely stop developing Infinity for a few years just so they could focus exclusively on Spanish Soap Operas for Telemundo? LOL... that decision pretty much killed all of their product lines that weren't already on life support from minimal support and/or edition flip flops.

Yep. You're thinking south america there, though, not Spain ^^.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrandonKF wrote:
Just reminded me I need to upload the other profiles for the other factions on Thunder Run.

Seems that as long as Infinity is going, they won't be changing the rules up too much (although the little details are probably going to be the devil in disguise here for this 3rd edition ruleset).

I've gotten invested on Infinity as of late, so I'll be very interested in your project.

 Albertorius wrote:

Yep. You're thinking south america there, though, not Spain ^^.

It was as close to a accurate joke comparison as I could get. In any case, Telemundo is watched by and geared towards plenty of North Americans as well seeing as how the largest and most populous spanish speaking country is on that continent. They'd just need to tone down the lisps for their former colonial audience!

Also, it looks like the FLAILs will be unlocked soon so congrats to the CEF players.

Unlocked.

Thanks warboss, but I can use these just as good as targets.

And Albertorius, I will do my best to upload some more of the factions sometime tonight.

I do want to warn you, I have never played them. I had someone earlier who was using them for a Roleplaying group he had put together, but I haven't heard back from him. Currently I only have the rules for the Northern Lights Confederacy and the Southern Republic on my blog.

Edit: Just checked my blog and found the Stencil font I chose auto converts to something else in the phones. Darn it...

 Albertorius wrote:

mrondeau wrote:
The Ferret Mk II is not really what I would call "top of the line". It's not a Mk I (i.e. obsolete and useless), but it's basically just a jeep. Useful, but no Cheetah.
Sure, it's about as fast, but it's not as manoeuvrable. If speed is your criterion, then Warrior Mk IV are even more top of the line.

It is faster than a Cheetah, actually. It also has low profile, which the Cheetah has not, a better main weapon (a LAC instead of a DPG, but that doesn't help recon), same sensors and comm arrays, a much longer deployment range, and the same Target Designator. True, it doesn't have ECM, but that's not really recon equipment.

One of my favorite designs of the 2e Gears is the Kodiak, which likewise has a strange equipment loadout compared to others of it's type, as the damage types/potenial of the particle accelerator and light guided missiles are more suited for anti-Gear work rather than how it is fluffed.

I just can't see those weapons being all that useful versus ground vehicles equipped with tiered active and passive defensive systems. The Destroyer variant kind of fixes that, but not a whole lot.
Still, at least either aren't like the King Cobra in carting about a kitchen sink. You'd think too many machines would be getting knocked off whilst the pilot decides which delivery system to use in a situation.

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 Smilodon_UP wrote:
One of my favorite designs of the 2e Gears is the Kodiak, which likewise has a strange equipment loadout compared to others of it's type, as the damage types/potenial of the particle accelerator and light guided missiles are more suited for anti-Gear work rather than how it is fluffed.

I just can't see those weapons being all that useful versus ground vehicles equipped with tiered active and passive defensive systems.

Well, the regular Kodiak's LPA worked well against terranovan tanks, actually, due to its inherent +1 and Haywire, which was quite nice back in the day (rolling twice for damages was kind of a big deal). Against HTs, though... eh, I got nothing. Not sure either how it was supposed to be good against them.

I know a little bit about the plastics industry, having worked in it for awhile, and the numbers don't seem right to get a finished injection mould and run production with it.

By the stretch numbers, they are figuring $5000 per tool (figuring 1 sprue per model, each sprue will be a separate tool), and not simple tools at that.

I can't see them funding that much tool and die making and running profitable production runs with those numbers. A production run of a 1000 is not a big one for any injection shop, so its not like DP9 will be a priority customer unless its a very small shop.

For that reason, I'm out of this Kickstarter. But also because I have lots of models already and no one to play with.

Well, it looks like the campaing is stalling hard, looking at the graphs:




which really, isn't that surprising all told (actually, i thought they would have less backers by now), but could snowball fast: I expect a non insignificant part of the current pledgers are probably in to get as much "bang for their bucks" as possible, and not reaching stretch goals can end up making those people retire their pledge... and then the real troubles start.

I also find really baffling the fact that the pod has not made any kind of advertisement for their arguably absolutely vital KS anywhere at all. Anyone else would probably had filled the net with it, particularly any miniatures and giant robots page, forum, wiki et all.

Instead, they seem focused on bombarding their current pledgers with update after update, most of them not really interesting at all, or naked, shameless and (their own words) gratuituous plugs.

There's also the fact that, seeing as most of the current pledgers seem to be also the current fanbase, I expect that any money they throw at this is probably money they won't be investing on buying stuff from the Pod store, at least in the near future (there's only so much money you can spend on humanoid IFVs, after all :p).

I haven't bought anything for Heavy Gear in about 3 years. The rules mechanics made my brain bleed. But the new box set in the KS is just too good to pass up. I can always use the minis in after games, like Tomorrow's War, or something like that if the new rules suck. I'm getting in on this as soonxas I get paid! I've always loved HG, but the rules chased me away. :(
Also: Bring Back Jovian Chronicles!!! I LOVED that setting! I played it for years in high school.

Would that we could Headcase.

 Albertorius wrote:
Well, it looks like the campaing is stalling hard, looking at the graphs:

I wouldn't worry about that as it is pretty typical for a KS. You get a rush typically at the beginning then it tapers off to a drizzle after 2-3 days. It is a bit unique that day 2 was bigger than day 1 apparently but the drop off after that is normal. The set is already a much better value than it was when it started (which IMO was definitely not worth getting at $130 CAD) and I'd put it currently in the ok value category personally once the Iggies unlock. As long as we don't see negative pledger and funding totals daily, it won't be in trouble.

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
Well, it looks like the campaing is stalling hard, looking at the graphs:

I wouldn't worry about that as it is pretty typical for a KS. You get a rush typically at the beginning then it tapers off to a drizzle after 2-3 days. It is a bit unique that day 2 was bigger than day 1 apparently but the drop off after that is normal. The set is already a much better value than it was when it started (which IMO was definitely not worth getting at $130 CAD) and I'd put it currently in the ok value category personally once the Iggies unlock. As long as we don't see negative pledger and funding totals daily, it won't be in trouble.

I do agree that it's mostly the case, except in stupidly successful ones, but the rate of "decay" tends to be much less pronounced, in most cases. That said, I expect a heavy spike the last days, too.

As to the current value of the starter... well, it is indeed much better now (and no, the original starter was very much not worth it at $115+shipping+VAT), but now it has another problem, IMHO: not it is heavily unbalanced, due to the inclusion of the CEF stuff. Not only what's in there right now doesn't allow you to field a whole army, it also doesn't allow you to field all the contents of the box in a game, as right now is effectively a 3-players, free-for-all box.

If the CEF ends up getting Frames and some Caprice stuff, the box will probably end balanced and you'll be able to play it as two forces. Right now, though... it is kina problematic.

How are you not able to field the stuff together? Can't the fire support and scout gears be added as support to the core trooper and elite gear squads? Am I missing some new restriction or can't you just add a FS support unit to the Strike primary unit and a recon support to the primary GP? It seems relatively balanced but simply has nothing to do with WFTN... it is currently 100% an Interpolar War set.

 warboss wrote:
How are you not able to field the stuff together? Can't the fire support and scout gears be added as support to the core trooper and elite gear squads? Am I missing some new restriction or can't you just add a FS support unit to the Strike primary unit and a recon support to the primary GP? It seems relatively balanced but simply has nothing to do with WFTN... it is currently 100% an Interpolar War set.

I mean that you can't field North+South against CEF (which looks like it's the expected default), because the force disparity is a bit too big. So the CEF's 2 HTs and FLAIL bases are a bit of a leftover, right now.

 Albertorius wrote:
I also find really baffling the fact that the pod has not made any kind of advertisement for their arguably absolutely vital KS anywhere at all. Anyone else would probably had filled the net with it, particularly any miniatures and giant robots page, forum, wiki et all.
Instead, they seem focused on bombarding their current pledgers with update after update, most of them not really interesting at all, or naked, shameless and (their own words) gratuitous plugs.

Most definitely, despite having been a serious problem for every previous product since at least FiF if not before.
I think maybe it boils down to that nobody important enough to TPTB has made a repeated effort of getting across how much not doing this is contributing to killing the company's exposure, reputation, and bottom line.

There are still only two things that come up on a web search for HG Kickstarter actually started by the Pod; on Gamewire & RPG.net, except of course both were put up after the KS went live.
Plus, there was a post by Dave on BGG, but it disappeared strangely fast. Maybe where he posted it was only for advertising completely new games, and not revamps of existing ones, but I don't frequent the site enough to know all the rules or geekmod personality quirks that crop up.


Although this was only the Pod's "biggest thing ever," and they are certainly carrying on to match if not going overboard until finally being checked, so yeah, the lack of beforehand advertising is awful damn silly.
But every time anyone brings it up on the forums or over here they still get knocked down for pointing out such a basic truth.

/shrug, It just makes no sense whatsoever; and it cannot possibly be that complicated, getting the word out in a regular and professional manner is like business 101.
Always expecting that the folks buying their products should be the ones to promote the company may seriously bite them in the collective ass this time.


A truly boneheaded thing about all this though; that Dave kept asking in the KS comments for people to tell TPTB about sites the Pod hasn't posted news to; .... I mean, .... really, .... just, .... hello?

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 Albertorius wrote:

 warboss wrote:
How are you not able to field the stuff together? Can't the fire support and scout gears be added as support to the core trooper and elite gear squads? Am I missing some new restriction or can't you just add a FS support unit to the Strike primary unit and a recon support to the primary GP? It seems relatively balanced but simply has nothing to do with WFTN... it is currently 100% an Interpolar War set.

I mean that you can't field North+South against CEF (which looks like it's the expected default), because the force disparity is a bit too big. So the CEF's 2 HTs and FLAIL bases are a bit of a leftover, right now.

Yeah, that is more than a bit odd. For those reading this who don't know the details, it would be the 40k equivalent of making a Horus Heresy boxed set that contained only Ultramarines and Imperial Fists.... and didn't unlock any chaos stuff until several stretch goals later and always had twice the number of loyalists to rebels models planned.

warboss wrote:
I wouldn't worry about that as it is pretty typical for a KS. You get a rush typically at the beginning then it tapers off to a drizzle after 2-3 days. It is a bit unique that day 2 was bigger than day 1 apparently but the drop off after that is normal. The set is already a much better value than it was when it started (which IMO was definitely not worth getting at $130 CAD) and I'd put it currently in the ok value category personally once the Iggies unlock. As long as we don't see negative pledger and funding totals daily, it won't be in trouble.

Albertorius wrote:
I do agree that it's mostly the case, except in stupidly successful ones, but the rate of "decay" tends to be much less pronounced, in most cases. That said, I expect a heavy spike the last days, too.

I really should try to setup the (possibly hidden) Markov chain model of Kickstarter results, with a classifier used to decide which of the N class of KS is more appropriate based on the daily data combined with some other info derived from the number and values of the rewards levels. Some other features, like the category, should help with the classification. Shipping info, for example, should be important.
This would be an interesting problem, but fairly trivial. The hardest part is going to be getting the training data for the Markov model and the classifier.

Well now.

This could get interesting.




On the Kickstarter front, it seems that now there's money in it, they're willing to promote it. Odd, but I guess it makes a kind of sense.

 warboss wrote:
How are you not able to field the stuff together? Can't the fire support and scout gears be added as support to the core trooper and elite gear squads? Am I missing some new restriction or can't you just add a FS support unit to the Strike primary unit and a recon support to the primary GP? It seems relatively balanced but simply has nothing to do with WFTN... it is currently 100% an Interpolar War set.

You can use the leagueless rules to combine the forces in a mash-up of North And South armies. The only rule is that all variants are limited to 0-1 per unit unless they are 0+ models. and you can mix North and South models if they share a Unit Availability (UA). This means you could take a unit with a Stock Jaguar, Stock Black Mamba, Strike Black Mamba, and a Destroyer Jaguar under the Strike Unit Availability (UA:SK). However models in support units have their availabilitiy reduced by -1 so only unlimited models can be taken in Leagueless support units. This means Stock Hunters and Jagers and stock Jaguars and Black Mambas in the basic set. It still makes a perfectly legal army. In terms of stretch goals for the Leagueless player you put the Grizzlies and the Cobras in a Fire Support unit together (UA:FS) and mix the cheetahs and the Iguanas as a Recon unit (UA:RC).



Thanks for all your responses and comments. We have a lot of players picking up the new free beta rules and while they're not perfect yet they do a good job of speeding up the game and show an improvement on game play plus vastly easier army construction. The contributions to development of our fans in the open beta has been overwhelming, and mostly supportive, even the criticism has been examined carefully. Not everything has been handled the best way possible but I am constantly pushing to improve the communication around the feedback we get.

Thanks to everyone who has shown your support of the Kickstarter. We unlocked the first Frame goal today and now we're working our way up past $70K to get to the second frame type the BF2-21 then it's on to the Caprice mounts!

There was a comment about the mold costs compared to the length of the stretch goals. We have done an incredible amount of diligence with regards to how the molds will be constructed and costed. As the biggest capital purchase that will result from the Kickstarter we have investigated the process and the costs very seriously. The biggest risks to the KS was that the mold costs would get out of hand, or we would promise more than was feasible for our fulfillment schedule. We have received enough information now to be certain of including at least two additional weapons for each model pus some alternate poses for legs and arms.

Cheers!
Dave (DP9 staff: Line Dev, and rules designer/production manager)

Ha, yes. Beta rules developed by someone who has the same amount of experience as the previous rule writers (i.e. none), who works exactly like they did, who has the same level of assurance that his work is perfect, and who has the same approach to feedback (selective listening).
Well, the last one is not 100% true. As far as I know, actively pruning the feedback is an innovation.
Why, this will surely results in a ruleset not plagued with the problems that plagued every rulesets since the original Blitz!

Meanwhile, the testers have stopped testing and started designing, and they have no idea what is supposed to do what.
Like in all the previous playtests. Of course, it's their fault. It cannot possibly be DP9's fault. After all, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, the result will, eventually, be different!

Not to mention that the test procedure used has 0 chances of testing for game balance. None. Whatsoever.
It's not as if it's important, and has been a major problem since Blitz.
Now, it's combined with an army construction system that makes it even more impossible to know what will be actually used.
That's great for balance! It's not as if the value of a weapon depended on its expected utility, which is a function of the distribution of possible targets!

 warboss wrote:

Yeah, that is more than a bit odd. For those reading this who don't know the details, it would be the 40k equivalent of making a Horus Heresy boxed set that contained only Ultramarines and Imperial Fists.... and didn't unlock any chaos stuff until several stretch goals later and always had twice the number of loyalists to rebels models planned.

Hey Warboss,

The North and the South have a history going back centuries, it's easy to come up with any number of reasons for them to be fighting each other.

Same with the CEF vs North and South. There are multiple forces in the new Heavy Gear that let you easily take North with South or vice versa.

The starter rulebook will introduce players to the core rules of the game in an escalating scenario format: Scenario 1: 2 Hunters vs 2 Flails etc., and will build up each of the core rules of the game in a progressive way. This will allow the forces to be balanced in the scenarios though not necessarily by points until we reach the $105K mark at stretch goal #13.

Cheers!
Dave

mrondeau wrote:
(Numerous valid points, and this important bit applicable to the lack of a manifesto from the "Heavy Gear Line Developer, Rules Designer, and Production Manager at Dream Pod 9".)
Meanwhile, the testers have stopped testing and started designing, and they have no idea what is supposed to do what.

All the answer it apparently gets however is:

DP9Dave wrote:Sorry gents, I follow the rules of the road, especially the ones about not feeding the trolls.

So much for improving play-testing?....

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And, once more, DP9 keep doing the same thing while pretending to change. How unexpected.

EDIT
All right, let's be direct.
Dave, can you explain why your predecessor failed?

Why did the previous playtests let some major problems through?

Why did the previous playtests not result in clear rules?

Why were known questions unanswered for years (and multiple editions)?

Why did the vision constantly changes?

Please explain what you are doing differently. Be concrete.

Also, please details the experience you claim you have. In which products are you credited?
How is your experience different than your predecessors' experience?

Can you also explain to me how and why you think the current playtest procedure can identify balance problem. Be concrete. Use numbers, especially expected sample size.

EDIT^2:
While you're at it, could you justify DP9's behaviour in this: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1500/570123.page#7304078
An explanation of why it does not show that DP9 does not care enough about its customer to do the bare minimum would be appreciated.

The new Heavy Gear blitz beta rules are being play tested by a number of groups in the Montreal, Trois Riviers and Ottawa areas plus some other readers in the states and overseas.. I myself organize two game sessions a week (taking a bit of a hiatus for the Kickstarter of course), and there are numerous other people who send me notes, experiences and other feedback. This collaborative approach began with the plans to revamp the system over two years ago.

I won't go into the discussion of what decisions were made when, the developers blog and other discussions have covered those.

Each player has the choice of participating or not, and I have seen no participation from many of the detractors on this forum other than endless commentary without submission of game results. Sorry but smoke with no fire is not results that I count on. Discussion and calculation alone can identify problems and sometimes solutions, but nothing beats dice hitting a table for a reliable playtest.

The readers and playtesters I go to with Alpha material and rewritten rules are players whose deviousness both terrifies me and makes me chortle in glee. These guys know how to break a system. They keep me honest and I could do a lot worse in a rules council.

That said we know that there are a lot more changes that will come. The Blast damage, Command, Anti-tank, and Electronic Warfare sections all need to be re-examined and we'll do that in a small group before opening it up for a larger discussion.

Our commitment to an online living rule book PDF will allow us the flexibility to make regular updates and fix the bugs that appear, not to mention add in the new models that we regularly release. This may be the last time a definitive edition of the rules can be identified. A regular update schedule with a healthy dialogue and a preview period for those inclined to help detect bugs to do so is the gold standard we are looking to follow. It creates a longer process but one that is always able to respond to the needs of the game as they evolve.

Yes, we are a small company made up of 4-10 different types of workers from the owner Rob and myself dealing with rules and production to Our Resin Caster and our 3D artist. We have other artists that we bring in for contracts, and our miniature sculptor Phil whose work continues to be the standard for our other models follow.

Regarding service we always take care of our customers. I believe we have an excellent reputation of fixing problems and being responsive. Our supporters like what we do and while being a fan and a DP9 watcher may make people aware of issues and results but they don't get to see the work that goes into how those decisions are arrived at.

No company makes those conversations public so sorry, I won't be satisfying curiosity about that.

We're running a successful kickstarter! Period.

Anyone who wants to keep asking questions in an accusatory tone about things that are not going to be answered is just going to have to get used to disappointment, sorry.

Cheers!
Dave

 DP9Dave wrote:
Discussion and calculation alone can identify problems and sometimes solutions, but nothing beats dice hitting a table for a reliable playtest.

The readers and playtesters I go to with Alpha material and rewritten rules are players whose deviousness both terrifies me and makes me chortle in glee. These guys know how to break a system.

Unfortunately, Dave, Dp9 has proven to be enamored with decisions that absolutely screw over players and their collections and throw balance out the window... repeatedly. Some ideas are so bad that you don't need "dice hitting a table" to see how bad they are.. like giving away free abilities to ONE faction in a game that has a system that ostensibly charges for everything.. including the ability to ignore one of the ONLY ways of getting a negative modifier to the opponent in a game where you absolutely need those modifiers to not sit there and do nothing... for free. Oh, and that faction's book was spearheaded by the chief playtester who plays them pretty much exclusively... and who thought it was ok to charge for WORSE versions of those abilities for another faction while his faction got stat boosts free of TV and vet slot costs as well as load outs that he decreed as unbalanced for others. I agree that some playtesters know how to break the system but I'd add the caveat that they use that to THEIR own advantage when in charge of their own faction's future. You yourself were enamored for months with the idea of giving Paxton effectively free stat boosts and cheaper weapons as "faction flavor" despite the unanimous community response to that. I'm glad that it has for the most part changed but there are still (at least with the last beta update) a bunch of no brainer freebie why would I take anything else choices in the army building.

 DP9Dave wrote:
The new Heavy Gear blitz beta rules are being play tested by a number of groups in the Montreal, Trois Riviers and Ottawa areas plus some other readers in the states and overseas.. I myself organize two game sessions a week (taking a bit of a hiatus for the Kickstarter of course), and there are numerous other people who send me notes, experiences and other feedback. This collaborative approach began with the plans to revamp the system over two years ago.

All right, I'll give you that: unlike your predecessors, you are playing the game. That's an improvement.

 DP9Dave wrote:

Each player has the choice of participating or not, and I have seen no participation from many of the detractors on this forum other than endless commentary without submission of game results. Sorry but smoke with no fire is not results that I count on. Discussion and calculation alone can identify problems and sometimes solutions, but nothing beats dice hitting a table for a reliable playtest.

Two things: your predecessors made the same claim. I have seen decisions made from a single playtest game, going against multiple games played by others.
That's why the detractor don't participate. DP9 burned them, and more than once.
Similarly, I don't see any point in participating in a playtest where I will be given the mushroom treatment for weeks, and then blamed (with the other testers) for not reporting the problems I reported.

Second, and I say this as someone who test things as part of his jobs, your current setup does not control for any variable and rely on interpretation of all feedback by the designer.
Those are the fatal flaws of the process used by DP9 since Blitz. You need to control variables, and you need to let the testers decide what is and is not working.
The testers. Not you, the designer.
You can do both by explaining the purpose of the game's mechanics and directing the test (e.g. "Everyone, play this. You should see X. If you don't, or if you see Y, there's a problem").
This way, you can control for some variables, and you can get direct feedback.
With your current structure, the interpretation of the feedback is more important than the actual content. As a designer, you are defensive of your idea. That's normal!
You also have your opinion of what you did wrong. That's also normal!
If you interpret the feedback, you will tend to read it as confirming that you are wrong where you think you are wrong and that you are correct everywhere else. That's also normal!
That's also what killed Locked and Loaded, Arena and led to the current mess you are trying to solve.

 DP9Dave wrote:

Regarding service we always take care of our customers. I believe we have an excellent reputation of fixing problems and being responsive. Our supporters like what we do and while being a fan and a DP9 watcher may make people aware of issues and results but they don't get to see the work that goes into how those decisions are arrived at.

The Field Manual FAQ says otherwise. The swiftly abandoned rule threads on DP9's forums say otherwise.

Look, we have played together, we live in the same city. I'm trying to help you see the problems before it's too late. If I wanted you to fail, I would simply shut up.
Want to meet and talk about it ? PM me, we can surely schedule something.
You say you want feedback? I'm offering you feedback. Once more, I deal with those kind of problem as part of my job.

I would also encompass within "taking care of customers" giving them more than a year or two utility from first publication before those products are invalidated and/or abandoned. If the free "living rulebook" will actually stick around (instead of being abandoned like the "new" field guide and squad structure after only a year and a half spanning two products), that might improve the views on whether Dp9 takes care of its customers beyond just replacing defective parts which they are legally required to do.

 DP9Dave wrote:
Each player has the choice of participating or not, and I have seen no participation from many of the detractors on this forum other than endless commentary without submission of game results.
Sorry but smoke with no fire is not results that I count on.
Discussion and calculation alone can identify problems and sometimes solutions, but nothing beats dice hitting a table for a reliable playtest.

Concerns, problems, and internal inconsistencies within the faction model lists or the force construction system aren't exactly items that can be checked by rolling dice.

But I think now you'll have to be the one to do the work of finding the posts or digging through the material to fix those items, as you seem to have a pronounced gap in your knowledge of the setting based on your work to date that I'm not sure anyone else can help you cover.

 DP9Dave wrote:
Regarding service we always take care of our customers. I believe we have an excellent reputation of fixing problems and being responsive. Our supporters like what we do.
We're running a successful kickstarter! Period.
Anyone who wants to keep asking questions in an accusatory tone about things that are not going to be answered is just going to have to get used to disappointment, sorry.

Humility is not just being able to admit that you might be mistaken about something you hold to be true.

I think you are missing the point that no one is expecting you to answer for every foolish thing done by the Pod leadership in the past.
Rather, these things are being pointed out so the Pod more so than any consumers/investors can avoid falling into the same traps or show directly what is being done differently.
Especially when so many behaviors are small enough to be easily changed if not outright avoided.

Not just here, but even on the official forums, Facebook page, and KS comments folks are pointing out where they still see these kind of things happening despite what is being said by the Pod.
Change obviously isn't going to happen overnight, yet some visible effort that things aren't just as per usual would probably make a lot of those comments go away.

It is also not unreasonable for anyone to provide or seek out information not reliant solely on the organization asking for time, funds, or another commitment to verify the truth of what was said by that organization.

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