Battle Systems Terrain Kickstarter - Updates thread

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Slinky**

GrimDork wrote:
Survey is probably gonna nail me.

So true :(

**Kroothawk**

Nice and smooth kickstarter. Congratulations.

Will add bunker and infected walls with the survey.

**Slinky**

Going to be hard to resist the bunker walls, definitely, as they really make it possible to use this stuff on a smaller scale alongside other terrain.

**Yonan**

Kroothawk wrote:
Nice and smooth kickstarter. Congratulations.
Will add bunker and infected walls with the survey.

Seconded and likewise. I've decided... go hard or go home. Or more accurately, go hard and stay home because you can't afford to go out. Or eat.

Snrub wrote:
I may just crumble and purchase 1 each of the add-ons.

Some addons are too good to get just one I think. Docking bay and the elevators/windows for example. Maybe the locksers and bunk beds too. That said, I'm operating on the assumption of 4x strongholds.

**GrimDork**

I'm not sure what to do, I've got $200 to cover a single stronghold shipping and addons... not nearly enough after bunker... but bunker doubles the effectiveness of the set allowing for smaller buildings worked into an existing table instead of just a floating interior. I may get over clean and infested walls to help lighten the pledge manager burden... but I still want extra turbines and such... Gah!

So I got a crazy idea from the bunker set... Instead of bunker skin... starship skin! Then you can build little space ships and move them around on a larger 8x8 or so board for boarding actions and whatnot

Make faithful representations of the kestrel and other FTL ships and battle them out in full-on 28mm glory

Hell, once I've got all of this and have the bunker walls in hand, perhaps I'll have a go at making my own if they haven't already come up with it

**Yonan**

Starship is going to be awesome for scenarios, expands the usability of the set substantially. imo so long as you have enough walls, the floors are far less important since you can just print out a floor on paper imo for 90% of the quality/effect.

FTL was an awesome game, I played the hell out of it and still play it occasionally - you see we're getting a free expansion soon? Also, have you played any of the mods? Was fun playing with the Enterprise ; ) I started to make some Eve ships in it... I fkn love Rifters for example, but I got sidetracked and didn't finish it.

**Reecius**

You guys killed it! Congratz on the awesome KS!

**GrimDork**

Oh.... gak.... mods? Crap, there goes my free time once I get around to checking those out =/

I love the bajeezus out of FTL. I still have some achievements to get (grr crystal cruiser, someday!) and am super excited about the expansion. What do you want when you are playing the older zelda and megaman games? More of the same. Plz thx.

I had half a mind to build a 28mm scale Kestrel and line the inside of it with batlezones, but I think it would now be so much easier to do it up out of battle systems tiles.

If you treat each square section of the Cruisers as a 1" square, it wouldn't take many floor tiles at all,to build the interiors. Not sure if the walls would allow you to use so few tiles though, might have to break the squares into 4" sections instead but then each room of the ship is 8"x8" instead of 2"x2"... I think the perfect size is somewhere inbetween but what can you do. I will have to mess around with this once the rewards arrive

*EPIPHANY! There *is* a reason 'gak' and 'feth' are so prevalent on this forum, it's autocorrect from some kind of language filter. Good god the world makes sense again!*

**RiTides**

Yep, although stay around long enough and you'll be typing them without autocorrect

I agree about this campaign, I joined late but it's one of the very best I've seen!

**Yonan**

GrimDork wrote:
Oh.... gak.... mods? Crap, there goes my free time once I get around to checking those out =/

There's some good ones! I wish the game supported mods better since it's pretty cumbersome to implement them, but they *do* work and some people have put in the effort to make them. From the addition of new ships to total conversions, removing the fleet that's chasing you so it's more of a freeform exploration than a race to the end and so on.

I love the bajeezus out of FTL. I still have some achievements to get (grr crystal cruiser, someday!) and am super excited about the expansion. What do you want when you are playing the older zelda and megaman games? More of the same. Plz thx.

I still have some to get too, but I did work hard to unlock some of the rarer ones, like the... crystal one? Where you get the staisis pod, then try to luck out and find the rock guys that send you to a place that hopefully you find in a subsequent nebula or something.

I had half a mind to build a 28mm scale Kestrel and line the inside of it with batlezones, but I think it would now be so much easier to do it up out of battle systems tiles.

Should be very doable with Battle Systems terrain I think, and yeah the boparding actions were great. Z'zor would make great Mantis, Teratons would make decent Rock men and so on : )

RiTides wrote:
I agree about this campaign, I joined late but it's one of the very best I've seen!

Yep, will use this as a reference for future KS's. Mantic = problems with communication. Dreamforge = awesome but huge delays. Defiance/Defiant? = Possibly not receiving goods. Battle Systems = perfect.

**GrimDork**

Battle systems = perfect *so far*. I don't foresee delays, but yknow, don't jinx us

You have to find the pod, then have the right type next system within a couple of systems to *potentially* house the second event... and THEN get the right type of next system AND event. Its RNG x3-5, pretty hard to get those stars to line up especially while trying to survive

Extra ships could be neat, and taking out the race portion would virtually turn it into Oregeon Trail in Spaaaa'aaaace, which is fairly awesome

Your engineer got hypercrabs from the last pleasure planet, you had to eject the core, distress signal on? Your away party was savaged by laser wolves, none survived. You lost a Nacelle fording the black hole. If FTL wasn't already so close I'd be sorely tempted to try my hand at the "Orion Trail"

**angelofvengeance**

Can't wait to get this stuff. Looks really durable from the video they put up on KS. Looks great too!

**DaveC**

Project Update #38: Tool Testing... Surveys and Pledge Managers
Posted by Battle Systems Ltd ♥ Like

Hey all,

We have been busy as always and the main focus has been on tools and getting the pledge manager sorted.

Pledge Manager

We can confirm that the pledge manager we are using is Backer Kit, this should make everything nice, smooth and generally easy to follow for the post KS scramble. We should have this up a running in the next two weeks. As a rough date we are still planning on closing the pledge manager (above named Backer Kit) on the 31st Jan, but might be able to keep it open a little longer, only time will tell.

We will give a full run down of what you need to do when we send it out )

Tool Testing

So far we are half way through drawing all the tools we need. We have 17 tools in total now and this is 7 more than the original 10 we had planned... cool.

However even though we are still drawing the tools, we have actually already had two tools made and these are finished and have been used to cut our first test samples. The samples (just 'white copies'- no image) have already been shipped and are somewhere between China and the BSL studios as I type. )

When they arrive I will unpack, fully test and then adjust or, if correct, start sending the other tools we have drawn so far out to China. The two tools we have had made are the 'Walls' and the 'Room Items'

Crates are part of the white tests

V-Consoles too

...and Conduits

... plus walls and some other bits. )

Expect pictures of the white copies in the next update. )

Other than that, not much else to say... we are just ploughing through the work and generally it's heads down and focus. lol

Over and out for now...

Colin & Wayne )

**GrimDork**

Excellent, always nice to see things moving along.

**Snrub**

Agreed Grimdork. It's nice to know what's happening.

**Snrub**

Update #39

Dec 24, 2013
BackerKit rolling out soon
6 comments
7 likes

We're beavering away here at Battle Systems Towers (the home of BS and everything is bang on schedule. We've been working on the new re-tools (making the accurate even more accurate) and designing the new stuff.

To make sure we stay on schedule we need you, the backers, to fill out the BackerKit pledge manager before 1st February 2014. We will be rolling out the BackerKit in a few days so expect an invite in your email.

BackerKit is very easy to useBackerKit is very easy to use

You'll be able to login, update your address details and choose your add-ons. Those who've paid up fully will find that they have 'credit' to spend on add-ons. Choose wisely Late backers (those who jumped in after the KS or pledged for the £1 reward tier) will be in 'debit' ie they'll need to add funds. It all makes sense when you see it.

You'll be able to login and and out as much as you want up to the manufacturing stage. We will be 'locking down' the BackerKit on February 1st 2014 when we'll be giving our manufacturers their final orders. In order to get the stretch goals you will have to jump in and pay in full, before this date of 1st Feb 2014. Those who pledged during the KS are already guaranteed their stretch goals of course. Well done you

After the BackerKit is locked on the 1st Feb it may open again later in the year if we have stock to offer or/and new items. This means we may be able to offer the Stronghold set again if you require another set or could not jump in before the 1st Feb. However as noted above there will be no Stretch goals or free items as listed on the KS. These will be basic sets, but still be totally awesome. ;o)

A note on postage: please double check your postage is paid up. This will save a lot of time for us. Also, the late backers need to make sure they purchase either an Outpost, Station, Stronghold or Hulk, not just add-ons. This is purely so we don't get screwed into the ground paying for postage!

A note on BackerKit: please note that the reward levels differ slightly as the UK postage is included in the price. The international postage (Rest of World) has the UK postage subtracted. The final cost to you is the same.

For example, the Stronghold Sweet Spot pledge is £70 on Kickstarter with £8 shipping to the UK and £16 to RoW. On BackerKit it is £78 for the UK and £8 shipping RoW. On reflection we should have included the UK postage from the start but this was our first Kickstarter and the learning curve is steep! Again, it all makes sense when you see it.

Here's a handy INFORMATION ONLY page you can look at if you don't want to keep looking at the KS page:

http://www.battlesystems.co.uk/bskickstarter.html

Information only page that details pledge levels and add-onsInformation only page that details pledge levels and add-ons

Finally, a few people have pre-arranged to pay via PayPal. The BackerKit won't be much use to you so you will need to contact us directly so we can add you in manually. Just choose what you want and we will invoice you. Please, no more PayPal requests, it's truly a pain in the bum!

Enjoy Christmas (if you celebrate it) and know that we're busy slaving away and ignoring our families for you, our beloved backers

Wayne and Colin.

P.S. Final terrible joke of the year:

Darth Vader: Luke, I know what you've got for Christmas.

Luke: How?!

Darth: I felt your presents....

Sneak peak of the next update ) - FIRST WHITE SAMPLES )))))))

Couple of tweaks needed, but In short... they are good )Couple of tweaks needed, but In short... they are good )

Full report next update- Over and out we now take Xmas day off..... ZZZZZZZZZ

(Colin)

**GrimDork**

So glad its february! Gonna need some time to let funds accrue!

**Yonan**

So miffed it's feb, more funds will have accrued. ; p

**GrimDork**

Well I want the bunker set so I can make standalone interiors for say Infinity and the like... couldn't add them to the original pledge, now maybe they will make the cut after birthday rolls around

**Yonan**

Ahh hell, those awesome looking bunkers... Double curses at increased funding! (I kid, I'll happily get a good setup of this stuff)

**GrimDork**

I'll just be glad to be adding some terrain to my collection that won't take a lot of effort to paint! Deadzone tiles are gonna kill me

**Yonan**

You're not wrong. I'm hoping Deadzone terrain can look good with some basic airbrush basecoating, stenciling and sponging on weathering. But the Battle Systems terrain will blow away whatever I (and maybe you) can be bothered doing for our Deadzone terrain looks wise. So yeah, 100% agreed ; )

Still looking forward to that 6x4 table! Was also thinking... could be a 6x4 table of deadzone terrain - and since battle systems comes with its own flooring... the table could end up something like 10x4 with 4 strongholds ; p

**GrimDork**

Muahaha, nice! I still only will be getting one stronghold, but lots of goodies to flesh it (and my DZ table) out.

I'm still considering brush-on-dipping my DZ tiles after I've done as you said airbrush-->pick out other colors-->sponge action. We'll see what I can do, typically with terrain having lots of it makes up for any individual imperfections

**Snrub**

I like the part where those who have fully paid up (i.e: me) get credit to spend on free stuff.

**GrimDork**

Wait what now?

**RiTides**

All that means is you select what you want for your pledge total, nothing too earth shattering

**Snrub**

So does that mean I get my...
-Pledge (stronghold)
-Free strech goals
-Credit for other stuff

or....

-Pledge
-Credit for stretch goals

**Yonan**

Not sure where you got credit for free stuff from. All I saw was:
- Backers get what they pledged for. The survey will let them say exactly what they pledged for.
- Backers get more rewards than retail purchasers will, as retail don't get the free addons from stretchgoals.

**Azazelx**

Your Pledge amount gets converted to "pledge manager credit" of the same amount. Quite a few KS PMs have worked this way.

**GrimDork**

See that's what I thought was going on, and the post I 'wait what now'ed was throwing me. The world makes sense again!