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I grabbed the last Early Backer Feeder Special. It is only a minor savings but after KD:M any savings will help .

I have faith that the creator of 40K and Warhammer will not allow his brainchild to be anything but great. Not to mention I like the idea of a network of gamers from around the world influencing the game's universe .

Being that this game is Rick's brainchild and what he most likely wanted 40k to be I have no doubt the models will be of the highest quality.

 endtransmission wrote:

overtyrant wrote:
http://www.darkspacecorp.com/forum/index.php?sid=0cfe44e2da1128803f4534204ced7120

Everyone has access to the forums. After the KS is finished only backers will have access to the development forum. ATM the development forum is open to all.

Note that the rest of the forum is a normal forum and is open to all.

Please make sure you sign up to the forum with the same email address as your Kickstarter account. This will be used to determine whether you retain access to the development section after the kickstarter closes.

Is that really a requirement? I login to kickstarter through facebook rather than having a kickstarter account, so how are they going to match that up to my account on the DSG forums?

Albino Squirrel wrote:

 endtransmission wrote:

overtyrant wrote:
http://www.darkspacecorp.com/forum/index.php?sid=0cfe44e2da1128803f4534204ced7120

Everyone has access to the forums. After the KS is finished only backers will have access to the development forum. ATM the development forum is open to all.

Note that the rest of the forum is a normal forum and is open to all.

Please make sure you sign up to the forum with the same email address as your Kickstarter account. This will be used to determine whether you retain access to the development section after the kickstarter closes.

Is that really a requirement? I login to kickstarter through facebook rather than having a kickstarter account, so how are they going to match that up to my account on the DSG forums?

Good question. I'll try and find an answer for you on that one... (while I check...) I would assume that if you have used Facebook to sign up, you just need to use the same email address as Facebook instead. The integration between Kickstarter and Facebook is likely to pass this information across, otherwise you'd never get any update emails from Kickstarter.

I don't think it's an issue for the time being. The blurb on the forums says...

Currently open to all, these are our open development forums where we'll be guiding you through the development process as we (and YOU) make the game.
This is gonna be fun!
This area will become locked and only accessible to Backers after our Kickstarter campaign (PLEASE USE THE EMAIL YOU REGISTERED WITH KICKSTARTER TO REGISTER WITH US)

I've just confirmed with Rik that if you've signed up to Kickstarter using Facebook, use the same email address that you use for Facebook notifications when signing up to the GoA forums.

If you've already subscribed to the forum with something else we can sort that when it comes to securing the dev forum access at the end of February, so it's not a big deal.

For those interested, but who still have some interrogations, there's going to be a Q&A Thursday. You can post your questions here.

Sorry this is a bit of a late post, but as no-one else has mentioned it a further detail on some of the races/factions involved:

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We're all nice and refreshed thanks to some sleep and seeing our families again, so its time to get back to business.

We have lots of interesting updates to share with you this week, including the start of Kev's Hansa modelling and some more details on the initial figure list we'll have for launch so lets get into it with this:


AN OUTLINE OF FACTION FORCES

Concord factions - CoCom strike units are recruited and provisioned by the CoCom and have a military level of equipment - because all Concord fighting troops are volunteers (or in effect mercenaries) they tend to comprise Revers, various types of Pans - mostly from within the Concord but not exclusively - ditto types of Sims - and a significant element of sentient machines notably WarDrones. Concord exploratory and mission specific units are more likely to be mercenary units (effectively warbands or professional hired fighters) and have a more variable but individual level of equipment and fewer sentient machines. NuHu can appear in both - but have a role of 'special advisors' and sometimes as technicians or investigators. For example, a mission might be to accompany a NuHu survey team to a newly discovered world to project it whilst it conducts a cultural analysis of the native population, a bio-assessment, or some such task.

Isorian faction - the Isorians are essentially a breakaway group of the Concord and they are similar in respect of how the forces operate.The difference is that the Isorians have direct contact with a different group of alien and have developed some unique technologies that are incompatible with the Concord (for various reasons - but mostly I think of this as a giant 'software bug'). This includes Isorian phase-armour - which is the basic armour type for the military arm of the Isor.

Freebooters - Shard and ExCon - these are traders, gunrunners, occasional mercenaries, criminal gangs, and working adventurers - in other words guys whose prime motivation is to look after themselves. I have made these two separate factions corresponding to those who work within the Concord and those who don't - but I'm tempted to amalgamate them, as I'm not sure there's enough essential difference. In the meta-game some of the episodes would invite the Freebooters to enter results for one of the other factions -and they would pick up the benefits from the faction they support. This would neatly divide Freebooter factions anyway, and would enable Freebooter players to 'play the field' - making them really mercenary and opportunistic - which I rather like! Anyway - mostly Revers but also Pans, Sims and renegade aliens - some sentient machines but not universal.

Determinate - I currently have this as one faction in the game - but really it's representing a loose alliance of mostly Pan civilisations that maintain their independence outside of the Concord and Isorian Shards. Their forces would be mostly made up of the Pan or Sim type specific to one world - and might have a military or mercenary type of organising depending upon type. The potential here is for a huge number of distinct armies - as well as mixed 'allied' forces for players who prefer to mix - but some of the Determinate forces will be extreme isolationists - such as the Gwar. To start with we'll make models for Determinate forces that are less rabidly specie-ist (is that a word!) as otherwise we have to make very large numbers of models to facilitate play. There is obviously the potential for us to divide Determinate forces into separate factions - but the players can drive that i.e. if enough players want a 'Gwar' faction then the Gwar will go it alone.

Vorl Orde - the Vorl - and most pure alien species - will have forces of that species - these might include mercenary human types in some cases - but not on the whole. The Vorl shock troops are A-G troops (anti-grav) and these are the troops most likely to be encountered in military type conflicts. I am picturing the Vorl as quite a militarised race – divided into a number of Orde which might occasionally fight amongst themselves, especially where the Prime Orde (if that is the term) is weakened in some fashion.

- Rick Priestley

There is a discussion taking place right now regarding this on the GoA forum: http://www.darkspacecorp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=155&start=30

So I think what we are seeing here is a general outline of how the different factions are comprised in the background universe.
- The 'Concorde' are essentially the main faction, which can comprise of lots of different types of unit.
- Isorian Faction are similar, but have a unique and differentiating 'alien tech'.
- Freebooters are again similar to the above, with a kind of 'Firefly/Millenium Falcon' vibe, and with the ability to 'play the field' (although not in the sense it is usually meant in - perhaps! )
- Vorl Orde - the only true alien race? The description makes me think of things which are perhaps insectoid, or else have a society that functions in a particular way. perhaps like ants/wasps - a communal society, but also one where the warriors (and therefore faction) can be divided?

It looks also like there will be a lot less of a hard and fast divide between the way the different factions are set out - certainly we know this from the Wardroids at least, and the talk of modelling opportunities (and add on bits?) which alter according to which faction you play.

I think another really interesting thing here is the mention of 'Episodes' as to how some of these factions will work in the game - especially the Freebooters who can work for either faction. I like the sound of some of the missions also - research on alien worlds etc. (who no doubt run into an enemy faction there), will give a great deal of scope for varied forces, and for also adding a depth and complexity both in army lists (might include non-combat units?) and also a 'mission' beyond 'everyone set up 24" apart - shoot each other until 1 remains"

Also looking forward to the first images of 'Hansa', whenever that might be! Hopefully not too far away!

New update - check it out here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2037958218/beyond-the-gates-of-antares/posts/382012

For those of you that are work blocked, here's the image from said update with the first piece of Kev's work on the Hansa model. He will keep showing previews of the work as it goes along.

The gun has a nice vibe to it - advanced, but it doesn't lose the essential quality of a gun (which Star Trek's guns always did for me).

Looks like a fantastic start and the first kind of concept of weaponry in the game, like the sleek look and hope it continues through the miniatures. Looking forward to seeing more developments on this model and the rest of the range.

Love the gun.

The background is mostly good, but I think making Firefly/Han Solo a major faction kind of misses their point.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Love the gun.

The background is mostly good, but I think making Firefly/Han Solo a major faction kind of misses their point.

I don't think that they are an united faction. The Freebooter/Determinate factions look more like "army classes" than true factions.

The Freebooters are a collection of rabble pirates into a mercenary army/fleet who would sell their services to the highest bidder or act in their own interests to secure wealth/ships/arms/stuff. Essentially anything from murderous pillages, fame seeking mercenaries, or rogues and outcasts grouped together for survival and profit. (thugs, mercs, rogues, pirates)

The determinate is made up of independent factions defending their homesteads, they are the small colonies with no desire to be forced into someone else's empire, the farmers defending their homestead, the xenophobes fighting against foreign influences and the nanite-phobic paranoid in sterile suits in ships. Essentially grouping together to stand a chance against two pushy empires (Isorian and Concord) who would seek to integrate them into something they want not part in. (militia, private armies, variety of tech levels)

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Love the gun.

The background is mostly good, but I think making Firefly/Han Solo a major faction kind of misses their point.

like the browncoats?

I didn't know the space Confederacy was made up of Boba Fett types.


Joe Browncoat: "There are things you don't know about me, Dottie. Things you couldn't know. Things you shouldn't know. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a rebel, Dottie. A loner."

Sergeant: "Alright you maggots, shut up and get in formation!"

?

I think the issue is it's not clear what faction your actually referring to.

A mercenary faction is hardly a strange or new concept and and the Determinate is a Rebel underdog faction a loose coalition of diverse worlds which holds the potential to "promote" sub factions from within the Determinate to full factions.

KarlPedder wrote:
I think the issue is it's not clear what faction your actually referring to.

A mercenary faction is hardly a strange or new concept and and the Determinate is a Rebel underdog faction a loose coalition of diverse worlds which holds the potential to "promote" sub factions from within the Determinate to full factions.

Freebooters - Shard and ExCon - these are traders, gunrunners, occasional mercenaries, criminal gangs, and working adventurers - in other words guys whose prime motivation is to look after themselves. I have made these two separate factions corresponding to those who work within the Concord and those who don't - but I'm tempted to amalgamate them, as I'm not sure there's enough essential difference. In the meta-game some of the episodes would invite the Freebooters to enter results for one of the other factions -and they would pick up the benefits from the faction they support. This would neatly divide Freebooter factions anyway, and would enable Freebooter players to 'play the field' - making them really mercenary and opportunistic - which I rather like! Anyway - mostly Revers but also Pans, Sims and renegade aliens - some sentient machines but not universal.

Sounds like teamwork to me. You can always trust the discipline and sincerity of the men behind you, unless you think they'd be able to salvage something valuable from your corpse.

Honestly, I'm just really sick of the whole Pirates, Smugglers, Bounty Hunters, Assassins chic, and I just can't buy into the whole "honor among thieves" thing, let alone in a setting that claims to be hard science fiction. The technological effects of the setting on society are well-developed, but there's a faction based on the appeal of Disney movies (Pirates otC, Star Wars)? Maybe if they all work for Space Keyser Soze. Maybe, at the end of the day, I'm just the kind of guy who liked Boba Fett better when he died in the Sarlacc pit and liked Mal better when he was just a bitter outlaw raging against an uncaring, ambiguously moral Space North (before the movie validated his obvious bias).

Then again, it worked for the Deathstalker series. That was hard sci fi, right? :V



The more I think about it, the more this den of thieves with hearts of gold makes sense. Financial sense. I know a dozen fandalorians cosplayers alone who would dive right into this.

Forget I said anything.


Also, there should be a steampunk faction and a zombie race.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS: All but one of the factions (The Orde) fields mercenaries already. You can easily have your Hammer's Slammers fight your Space Expendibles teamed up with Space Mafia troops if that's what you want. You wouldn't even need a pure Mercenary cut-throat Maverick faction to do it.

I guess I'm just confused?

No, you don't come across as confused. Bitter and spiteful, maybe.

mrondeau wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Love the gun.

The background is mostly good, but I think making Firefly/Han Solo a major faction kind of misses their point.

I don't think that they are an united faction. The Freebooter/Determinate factions look more like "army classes" than true factions.

If it's played like this, and not as if there is a coherent society of smooth criminals, then I'll be totally OK with it.

Was Priestley talking about the background of the factions, or the background of the types of skirmishing units you can choose?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Agamemnon2 wrote:
No, you don't come across as confused. Bitter and spiteful, maybe.

I said I loved the gun and liked the background, except for one faction. That's bitter and spiteful?

People then pressed me to explain, the enablers.

I want the game to be good. Is the best method for accomplishing that to limit one's feedback to cheers and "yes sir"s?


On a more positive note, I love all the far-future Iain Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Dan Simmons and post-singularity flavors already apparent in the fluff. I want to see more of that. Less WWII in Space and more "This is what Skynet is thinking," please.

We'll I've called the different basic groups ‘factions’ - and remember Rik is from the video games industry where the term gained its currency. I think of them as essentially a point of entry for the player collecting a force - an army list even - and I've worked them around these big political structures to flesh out a backstory. So, though I have six factions set out to begin with, they don't all fit into the backstory the same way.

Concord and Isorian Shard are two big monolithic structures - overbearing - utopias or dystopias depending on your point of view - where humans are freed from all burdens of responsibility and work. Within these huge structures the combat forces are partly machine and partly human - but the human elements are by definition outsiders and fringe members of the society. The faction represents the military arms of those structures - in the case of the Concord the Concord Combined Command - which I usually abbreviate to CoCom - though I'm also using CCC as it's more distinctive on the page - perhaps C3 - anyway - the 'faction' in this case is the Concord Combined Command which identifies threats and opportunities to the Concord within Antarean space and assembles forces to act accordingly.

The Vorl Orde are a classic single-species militaristic alien race - and I included these as an example of the many alien races that exist in Antarean space - some hostile, others less so - I wanted to show form the start that the game and background have aliens. The Vorl are also powerful enough to be a threat to the Concord/Isorian ambitions - competing for new worlds, exploration, and colonies. In this case the faction is the Vorl race – although even the Vorl are prone to internal division during times when the Prime Orde falls or is challenged for supremacy.

The Determinate is a cover-all description for a huge swathe of independent worlds and small empires populated by humans of various kinds - it is not a united poitical entry - in fact the only thing that unites it is each world's/empire's desire to retain its independence. The Concord/Isorians are not necessarily aggressive conquerors - but their technology is such that other human worlds they come into contact with become absorbed within the Concord's/Isorian's Integrated Machine Technology network (IMTel). This isn't deliberate or planned - it's just the way the Concord/Isorian societies function - they are like a virus that spreads by integrating the technological basis of other societies they touch. Their separateness arises from a basic incompatibility resulting from a period of Isorian isolation and contact with technologically advanced alien societies whose technology they absorbed in this way. The Determinate faction could easily be any number of factions, but to begin with I wanted to sketch out the broad idea. The backstory also allows for the concept of mixed forces, with different worlds getting together, or single species forces of highly isolationist, zenophobic species.

Freebooters is a coverall description for bands of individuals of all kinds who exist beyond the immediate control of any planetary or larger scale of government. They are not all the same, and they are not all mercenaries as such, some would be traders, explorers and merchantmen plying the gates and turning their hand to whatever opportunities arise. That might include fighting as mercenaries on behalf of the other factions, or banding together with other Freebooters to mount a big raid. I don’t imagine them as in any way forming an organised political body as a whole – they are the glue and the facilitators that ensure trade and technology can move between the Concord/Isorian Shard and worlds within the Determinate. Most of them are ordinary humans, and therefore able to work without the aid of the IMTel that permeates Concord/Isorian societies, so they can move between the nano-sterilizers that act as barriers between IMTel enabled forces and worlds within the Determinate. The faction represents these free agents – in all their forms – and I identify it as a faction because technology and information is traded freely within it. I initially had these as two separate factions (based out of the Concord/Determinate) but I'm increasingly thinking there isn't sufficient difference to make a clear distinction - so one faction works better.

Of course – some of these touch upon or potentially touch upon archetypes which have proven popular subjects for models and games – I make no apologies for that – I would sooner make models that people want to buy and design games that folks want to play – and if that means making provision for the familiar alongside the innovative and outlandish I don’t see that as a bad thing. Not everyone likes exactly the same thing – and the success in any miniatures range and game often rests upon providing a variety of experience both in the model ranges and gameplay.

That's my take on it anyway!

Rick

Thanks Rick for the clarification, some great ideas for factions there, loving the Concord myself,

The C3 background is great so far. I think there's a lot of room for interesting characters and ideas. In a society that elevates humanity beyond its animal needs, what makes some people choose to fight and die? No doubt there's a lot of material there.

I also like your explanation of the Freebooters. It reassures me that more thought went into the background than in most games that feature freebooters.

I really, really love the concept behind this KS. I love the slight The-Culture-vibes in some of the background.

But - in my humble opinion - the numbers are grim.

It needs ~ GBP 4.500,- in pledges a day to succeed by the end. It hasn't done that in some 4 days.
At the current average pledge level per backer, that is some 45 new backers each day. Hasn't done that either in the last 4 days.

That "stretch-goal-&-new-options-escalation-dynamic" that drives the highly successful (e.g. CMON) Kickstarters isn't going to be there, except for the very end. And even than, "more credits" is cool, but not as - um - entertaining as "what's behind the next Reaper-Tombstone" or "what-could-that-latest-KD-silhouette-be"?

Rivet Wars is raking in more than BGaA.

If I sound gloomy, than I do so because I'd really, really love to have "Rick Priestly's-heart-blood-game". But this needs some serious ideas on baiting in more people, and soon.

If not, this will fail. Calling it now.

The last few days have been slow, but someone just pledged one of the £3k "private game" rewards

A long way to go yet. Hopefully enough time for sufficient development of miniatures/ideas to be done to convince the more sceptical people.

I think the lack of a more defined vision in both the rules and models may be hurting this at the moment, but I got in very early because I have faith in Rick and his crew delivering the goods. when more models are shown and also some of the more rounded out rules appear I think this could gain some yards.

Most kickstarters continue adding rewards. Ideally I'd like to pick up more models during the kickstarter, so will do so if I get the option. I dumped $800 on minis in the DFG Eisenkern kickstarter, most of which were stretch goals and/or added in later.

Most kickstarters also have a huge influx in the last days of the kickstarter. This one is in great shape.

 Zweischneid wrote:
That "stretch-goal-&-new-options-escalation-dynamic" that drives the highly successful (e.g. CMON) Kickstarters isn't going to be there, except for the very end. And even than, "more credits" is cool, but not as - um - entertaining as "what's behind the next Reaper-Tombstone" or "what-could-that-latest-KD-silhouette-be"?

It also doesn't help that the credits aren't very big. If you're pledging at the $100 level, those first $80,000 worth of stretch goals only get you a single standard trooper.

Once the company is able to show what Hansa and the war drones look like, there will be much more backers. I am still optimistic that this project will go through.

I agree, alot of people are waiting on solid greens to see what the theme and models of this project look like, I'm confident when they've been shown there will alot more enthusiasm from people currently on the fence.