scarletsquig wrote:
New stretch goal!

You can’t miss Helder on the pitch – she’s the one with a trail of broken bodies in her wake. Despite insisting that she’s ready for the role of Striker (and the glory the role brings with it), whether it’s her uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time or her well-renowned right hook (as commentator Jake "the Jackhammer" Thunder found out during what was called an impromptu interview by the media), Coaches have continually pushed her towards playing the guard position – a position she excels herself in.

As a young player growing up she had an unhealthy obsession with the beast known as Buzzcut and Helder often tries to emulate him in her game. Whilst she lacks the physical presence to match him in pure brute strength, she is surprisingly quick (which her celebrity management company says supports her claims that she could rank up alongside the leading strikers of this decade if given the chance), and her "run-up-and-slams" often catch opposing players unawares.

Outside of the sport, Helder has her own range of cookbooks and is known to bake a mean tri-cal Pie.

Mantic has listened to your demands, and acted upon them. She's a real beauty!

The original DreadBall games were considered, by some, to be a showcase for the prowess of biological organisms. In a world so dominated by machines, it was a throwback to a simpler age – an almost prehistoric urge to fight or flee, and all in the context of a brilliant sporting spectacle. But the robots were bound to come.

Too many big corporations had vested interests in showing off their cybernetic prowess for the lobby to go away, and the first robot team took to the field in the early days of Shemtek SmackDown III. This team, the “Oilers”, caused enormous damage to the opposition and was banned part way through its second game. Digby was buried under lawsuits from the teams, the relatives of the slain players and their many fans. How could they let such objects take to the field? It was a while before the second robot team rolled out onto a neodurium pitch.

The “New Oilers” were different. Their ballistic ceramic casings were covered in gel pads so they caused fewer injuries, and their servos downrated to avoid punching entirely through a human torso in one blow. The crowds were mollified, then excited by this new turn, especially when the Oilers showed off their new twist.

DreadBall’s rules state very clearly that a player must play as a single position, but they never considered that someone could change from one to another within a match. The robots can. They troop out onto the pitch as Jacks, but at the whirr of a servo they can change to a Striker or a Guard, avoiding any infringement of the letter of the rules by only every being a single role at a time, but the spirit of the rules is ridden over roughshod. And the crowd loves it!

scipio.au wrote:This isn't going anywhere near Bones. But on the other point, I'l already down for $140. I was in within the first 30 minutes of it going up. (I think I was the 9th pledger). Having said that, there's now a bunch of extras I'll be adding, but I won't do it until the end of the KS. I'm not saying this to troll you, but I'll explain why - they keep adding new things as the KS progresses. Paints, board, new teams, coaches, etc etc etc. We know there's going to be quite a few more things added in the next 2 1/2 weeks as well, so I have no reason to go in and micromanage my pledge now to add those extras, since I know there'll be more of them and I'll just have to go in and adjust it again, and again, and again.

So I may as well wait and do it once - at the end. This is no doubt an additional reason that these things spike at the end. On top of the "wait and see" people and those making last-minute decisions.

scarletsquig wrote:New stretch goal!

Right, all you people who were complaining about "no fat girls" earlier in this thread and ragging on the female team for being too skinny (there were a lot of you!), start pledging. Mantic has listened to your demands, and acted upon them. She's a real beauty!

GrimmKey wrote:

I think you mean 1 1/2, and yes, I'm dreading/anticipating the announcement of the cheerleaders. But I still don't see WHY you're waiting. As it stands, you've not actually bought anything, you've just promised money to Mantic so they can make their game without worrying. The more support they feel they're getting, the more stuff they're going to put out(or suffer a possible backlash). Granted, I know that they won't breach that ridiculously awesome price-per-mini that Bones was offering, but a man can hope that he has a set of awesome minis that he can say "I paid less than a dollar per". But while going in and adjusting it isn't a problem to me, but I can see where you're coming from.

 scipio.au wrote:

GrimmKey wrote:

I think you mean 1 1/2, and yes, I'm dreading/anticipating the announcement of the cheerleaders. But I still don't see WHY you're waiting. As it stands, you've not actually bought anything, you've just promised money to Mantic so they can make their game without worrying. The more support they feel they're getting, the more stuff they're going to put out(or suffer a possible backlash). Granted, I know that they won't breach that ridiculously awesome price-per-mini that Bones was offering, but a man can hope that he has a set of awesome minis that he can say "I paid less than a dollar per". But while going in and adjusting it isn't a problem to me, but I can see where you're coming from.

Basically, because I don't feel obliged to micromanage my pledge on a seemingly-daily basis according to the stretch goals, and frankly I can't be arsed mucking about with the pledge manager more than a couple of times for a campaign at the most, which is why I might give a bump on the second-last day to cover the stuff they added in since the start - though still knowing that more will come up after than and while I sleep.

I know you didn't suggest it, but nor do I feel any reason to just add $200 to my pledge to "cover" what I might buy. If we go down that road, I may as well pledge $5k now and pull $4,700 (or whatever) on the last day during the last-minute frenzy.

 scarletsquig wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Damn-it zipped up there in the past couple hours. I looked at it earlier and it was "only" 282k. Now it's 289k. And about 40 new strikers added on since yesterday. Holy...crap.

Basically, Mantic has massively rationed The Striker and Jack levels all of a sudden. There are around 150 Jacks and 400 Strikers left. Once they're gone, they're gone, that's it. So, what we're seeing is a surge from people who were on the fence about this, saw the rationed Striker level and went "crap, I gotta do this now or I'll miss it".

If you want in on this, DO IT NOW, because in about 3 days time, you won't be able to get in on it at the "sweet spot".

We just burned through 60 Striker pledges in the space of 6 hours, and I would hate to see anyone on dakka who has been on the fence about this to miss out.

Or you could take a gamble that new pledges identical to Striker which ship *after* December will be added later. But that is basically a giant gamble at this point in time, we don't know what Mantic is or isn't going to pull out of the hat at this point.

They really should have stated the limit on their manufacturing capabilities right from the start rather than springing it on people like this. Not only would have it been better in terms of communication, it would have encouraged more people to pledge earlier.

 scarletsquig wrote:
New stretch goal!

Right, all you people who were complaining about "no fat girls" earlier in this thread and ragging on the female team for being too skinny (there were a lot of you!), start pledging.

nkelsch wrote:
Boils down to Ironman 2 where the almost exact same technology was used to make them basically the same.

nkelsch wrote:
Like the fat girl... torn on the robots.

I feel like in a universe where amazing robots can be built... why would humans ever need genetically augmented super cyber suits? I don't see much difference than a super cyber suit vs a robot. Boils down to Ironman 2 where the almost exact same technology was used to make them basically the same.

I was hoping for a bit of a retro look. Why does a robot need fingers? they are either doing their primary function or 'Off'. I would expect them to have scoop hands which quickly scoop up the ball, possibly via vacuum and then shoot it out of the other arm out of a cannon. I would expect Guard to have "clampy and squeezie" hands or even blunt bashing instruments.

If you are a robot race wishing to live and interact with a humanoid-based civilization, I get being a fully functional robot. If you are just a bot for playing a sport... I dunno why you wouldn't have chainsaw hands.

Also: will the robot team's transforming mechanic possibly include 'replacing' models on the board with different looking models or something?

 AlexHolker wrote:
The stated reasoning for the transformation doesn't fly (you've already got Jacks so there's obviously no rule against having a Guard/Striker hybrid, and the difference between a Guard/Striker hybrid and a Guard that can turn into a Striker and back at will is rather arbitrary), so here's how I'd do it: whenever one of your robots is about to enter the field, you have your pit crew do a quick change-out of components, either adding extra armour for protection at the expense of manoeuvrability or the glove for handling the ball and running around. Every player is both a Guard and a Striker, but can only do the one thing until it goes off the field for a pit stop.

GrimmKey wrote:
But that doesn't allow for mid-round changes. Imagine you've got one robot who's free. The rest are preventing the other team from moving. BAM, he is able to go from one to another to the third in one turn, just by spending your chips.

 AlexHolker wrote:

GrimmKey wrote:
But that doesn't allow for mid-round changes. Imagine you've got one robot who's free. The rest are preventing the other team from moving. BAM, he is able to go from one to another to the third in one turn, just by spending your chips.

In that case it's still important that the modes be distinct from one another, visually and in role. There should be no Jack mode (because it would only weaken the concept), just a heavily armoured Guard mode with all its joints and vitals protected that can do little but bull rush opponents, that can open up into a Striker mode where its joints are free from its usual constraints but are no longer protected.

 scarletsquig wrote:
New pics of both the MDF and acrylic boards, both have been upgraded to include the score/turn trackers, reserve bench and sin bin:
Looks like 2 different thicknesses of MDF in use on the $25 board, so you're getting a good amount of 3d texture there.

 scarletsquig wrote:

$340,000 – DBR-7 Prototype, Robot MVP


DBR-7 is a cybernetic MVP and one-of-a-kind prototype keeper. Unlike other robots in the league he cannot transform and has instead risen above the usual robotic spectacle and into the ranks of the celebrity with his point-saving heroics. Crowds erupt into cheers when this bot steps out onto the pitch and his veiled operators always make sure to address them with a signature gloved salute.

If we hit this goal we will be able to fund the hulking robot known as DBR-7 and will include him free at Jack and Striker!

 Souleater wrote:
Saw new Chaos Models.

Pledged at Striker!