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 paulson games wrote:

keisukekun wrote:

Apparently someone got in touch with them and advised them of some methods to save some money so thats why the first stretch goal (at 25,100) is adding an extra 3 models. Then 5k for each additional 3 models.

That someone was John Bear Ross who's a pretty big name in 15m scale stuff and very experienced with 3d sculpting. He probably told them a lot of the same stuff I posted and plenty of extra stuff I didn't mention.

Guilty.

Best,
JBR

I went to the KS page. Nothing there inspires me to invest. I'm seeing enough people think the same that we can stick a fork in this one.

As of right now the KS is funded at the first stretch goal. Hopefully we can get a bit more!

hopefully I'm not the first to notice it's not battle tech mini's there thats robotech/ macross minis.

keisukekun wrote:
As of right now the KS is funded at the first stretch goal.

Well yup theres the reliable last minute push

Lets see if they deserve that

Looks like a last minute Hail Mary saved this project. $2000 donar popped up at the end but at least one of the 3085 LAMs is committed to being made now. Lets see if it takes another two years to actually get them in hand.

I have no evidence, but it looks as if they kicked the last bit in themselves so they wouldn't miss out. Pretty poor tactic.

Is that against the rules?

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Is that against the rules?

I don't think so. But it feels unethical if they have set a number they need, but they have the cash to bail themselves out if needed. And I can see the temptation, when you have raised 22,000 dollars and cannot quite get to it.

Well, all in all, I'm fairly happy to not have participated in this one.

GBL wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Is that against the rules?

I don't think so. But it feels unethical if they have set a number they need, but they have the cash to bail themselves out if needed. And I can see the temptation, when you have raised 22,000 dollars and cannot quite get to it.

it pretty much goes hand in hand with exactly the habits and false promises, I discussed earlier in this thread.

GBL wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Is that against the rules?

I don't think so. But it feels unethical if they have set a number they need, but they have the cash to bail themselves out if needed. And I can see the temptation, when you have raised 22,000 dollars and cannot quite get to it.

It's specifically against KS terms of service

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

GBL wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Is that against the rules?

I don't think so. But it feels unethical if they have set a number they need, but they have the cash to bail themselves out if needed. And I can see the temptation, when you have raised 22,000 dollars and cannot quite get to it.

It's specifically against KS terms of service

Meh doesnt seem too hard to make some fake/duplicate accounts though, especially if you have quite a few employees. And KS still gets a cut of the money anyways so they probably dont mind too much

Looks like someone's playing around with the high-end pledges. No more $2000 supporter. Just a $1600 and one of the $1500 ones pledged.

Has to be an inside job. Neither of those pledge levels are worth the money.

 kenshin620 wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

GBL wrote:

 NecronLord3 wrote:
Is that against the rules?

I don't think so. But it feels unethical if they have set a number they need, but they have the cash to bail themselves out if needed. And I can see the temptation, when you have raised 22,000 dollars and cannot quite get to it.

It's specifically against KS terms of service

Meh doesnt seem too hard to make some fake/duplicate accounts though, especially if you have quite a few employees. And KS still gets a cut of the money anyways so they probably dont mind too much

IIRC, the issue ends up being with the Amazon payment processing technique, and it is only an issue for the creator account to pledge (or another account which is linked to the same financial service that is tied to the Amazon payment account). It is an actual law regarding financing, though I forget the specifics off the top of my head. KS could care less - they only want their cut off the top, regardless of whether or not it comes from strangers or from friends/family/employees, though they put it in their ToS in order to satisfy Amazon who is on the hook for the actual financial processing.

Regarding big bids near the end - there are a lot of people who grew up on Battletech...and many of those have real jobs now. Quite often you see those people bidding large amounts, just because they can when they want to see something done. It might have been an inside job, but given how many people have been touched by the Battletech franchise in the past 28 years or so...I wouldn't write off that they were legitimate bids. Since they met their initial goal by a $5K and some change, I don't think all of that would have come from employee pledges (after all - that would be several hundred dollars going to Amazon and KS).

Depends: the extra-dickish thing to do would be to make an insider pledge *with a card you know will bounce*. Not to hard with virtual card providers around nowadays, non-collection after project ending seems not to impact success anymore, I believe they wouldn't have to pay fees over it and good luck trying to prove it, when done right...

 Sean_OBrien wrote:

Regarding big bids near the end - there are a lot of people who grew up on Battletech...and many of those have real jobs now. Quite often you see those people bidding large amounts, just because they can when they want to see something done. It might have been an inside job, but given how many people have been touched by the Battletech franchise in the past 28 years or so...I wouldn't write off that they were legitimate bids. Since they met their initial goal by a $5K and some change, I don't think all of that would have come from employee pledges (after all - that would be several hundred dollars going to Amazon and KS).

Agreed. There's a chance it was an inside job, but it's more plausible that it was just a deep pocketed BT fan who really wanted another LAM model.

As well as the fact that the project was already funded, IWM really has no incentive to barely reach another stretch goal just to give free mechs to a bunch of funders. It's much more in their interest to miss the goal, make the additional mech anyway and sell it at retail afterwards.

I find these miniatures to be hideously ugly and overpriced. I am happy the people who like them got it funded and hope they get their miniatures reasonably fast however.

It's Battletech. That means it's pretty much aimed at 45+ year olds who are nostalgic for the minis of their youth which, in our eyes, look like total crap indeed. They have to look like this though: there's just no way to revamp the BT aesthetic which would both appeal to a younger audience and still keep the nostalgia alive (which is basically it's only remaining selling point by now...).

If you actually look through a lot of the Battletech books though, there is a lot of room for more modern styled figures. Even the old stuff could be revamped to better reflect modern technology and materials for casting and sculpting - that alone would go a long way to help deal with the stiff look of the figures.

Although the earlier artwork was rather rough and looked to be scratched out on glass using a razor blade, the stuff in the books from 1990 or so and on was pretty good even today. If they have the rights to the Studio Nue alternative artwork - then they would really have something that would have something which would fit you young whipper snappers.

FASA Griffin from Technical Readout: 3025 (1986)


Studio Nue Griffin from the Japanese Battletech books (1992)


FanPro Technical Readout: Project Phoenix (2003)


Other mechs underwent similar evolution - but the old artwork has continued to be used in order to not invalidate old armies.

It's Battletech. That means it's pretty much aimed at 45+ year olds who are nostalgic for the minis of their youth which, in our eyes, look like total crap indeed. They have to look like this though: there's just no way to revamp the BT aesthetic which would both appeal to a younger audience and still keep the nostalgia alive (which is basically it's only remaining selling point by now...).

Of the 15ish people I know that play, I am the only one not in their 20's.....

@Justyn and is that for the rules, or the models? I suspect the former - strongly.
Really, all the guys I see playing BT around here are 40+ at least - US younglings generally can't stand the sight of those models (sorry...)

@Sean that looks quite decent indeed. But would it actually appeal to the old guard (the ones who actually value the battletech brand)?
...meh. maybe I should not have gotten into a thread for a system I (obviously) care little for

 Bolognesus wrote:
@Justyn and is that for the rules, or the models? I suspect the former - strongly.
Really, all the guys I see playing BT around here are 40+ at least - US younglings generally can't stand the sight of those models (sorry...)

@Sean that looks quite decent indeed. But would it actually appeal to the old guard (the ones who actually value the battletech brand)?
...meh. maybe I should not have gotten into a thread for a system I (obviously) care little for

well it may also depend on if your players are playing a specific era. There are allot of more modern designs that are far more visually appealing than the designs of 25 years ago. Most of which came from other games, not Battletech as it is today.

 Bolognesus wrote:
@Sean that looks quite decent indeed. But would it actually appeal to the old guard (the ones who actually value the battletech brand)?
...meh. maybe I should not have gotten into a thread for a system I (obviously) care little for

The Studio Nue ones might be a bit too much for them - though since they harken back to Macross (Studio Nue is the same production house who developed the artwork for the Robotech movies and shows) - it might be well enough received.

The FanPro artwork and even later FASA artwork would probably be a good middle ground. Fresh enough to get some new blood but still more Western in the design philosophy (which I always found a bit odd - anime covered a broad range from wacky Gundam to functional looking Votoms and everything in between).

Actually, that cost for plastic production preparation is close to accurate.

However, they seem to be making traditional white metal miniatures, thus you can really easily just have a master 3D printed from a 3D file, then physically cleaned and molded to produce a metal master, from which to make the molds for metal miniature production.

So I'm not sure why there's such a high cost other than the actual printing itself.

@Justyn and is that for the rules, or the models? I suspect the former - strongly.
Really, all the guys I see playing BT around here are 40+ at least - US younglings generally can't stand the sight of those models (sorry...)

@Sean that looks quite decent indeed. But would it actually appeal to the old guard (the ones who actually value the battletech brand)?
...meh. maybe I should not have gotten into a thread for a system I (obviously) care little for

Well I can poll them, but most of them have quite a few IWM models. Mine are almost all Ral Partha. And the Warhammer is generally regarded as the best looking mech in Battletech by all.

Honestly I think the majority of newer designs look quite crappy. Oh don't get me wrong there are some really nice ones. Just I think Catalyst and Fanpro before them shoved new designs out the door as fast as possible to sell more books. The majority of the new mechs look terrible. Then add IWM into the mix, as casters, they are great, as sculptors..... quite a few nice looking mechs from the art have been translated into terrible looking mini's. I guess i'm mostly agreeing with you that B-Tech mechs in general look pretty bad. But I'll disagree when it comes to most of the original designs.

On the other hand I also like MWO's imagining of many of the old designs. Can't stand the game however.