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Where are people getting the 'Deadzone Week' thing? I'm sure I saw it somewhere, but can't see the announcement anywhere now.

 Zweischneid wrote:
James Hewitt is on forums (as well as the places such as facebook groups, sub-reddit, twitter, etc.. most of which by themselves have far more mantic-playing people on them than all wargaming forums taken together btw. )

Example: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?378462-Dreadball-quality-issues&p=6876772&viewfull=1#post6876772

That said, he can't catch eveything. Hell, all of Mantic Games' 20-odd staff doing nothing but browsing forums full-time can't catch everything. You may just want fire up your email-account yourself and drop him a line, if you want him to know/see/respond to something, no?

And yes, Scarlet does a good job here on Dakka.

If James can check Dakka less often, because Scarlet is here, and concentrate on the other 99.9999999999999999999999999999% of the wargaming-interwebs that are not Dakka, that's a good thing, no?

Having a fan of a game company respond is not the same as an official response no offense meant to Scarlet as he/she is a great asset to the wargaming community. Perhaps publicly addressing issues at hand via Mantics site or through Kickstarter would be a good idea? As far as Wargaming-Interwebs is concerned I strongly believe Dakka is much bigger than Warseer, Facebook, and Reddit.... There are concerns and issues that have been outstanding so long it is ridiculous! If I neglected issues in my job I would no longer be employed. How hard is it to past a sentence that says something like this "We are aware of your concerns we are working on an official response and will have something for you guys and gals in the very near future.". Sometimes the smallest things can quell anger and misconceptions.

 Riquende wrote:
Where are people getting the 'Deadzone Week' thing? I'm sure I saw it somewhere, but can't see the announcement anywhere now.

No idea. It's currently KOW week on Beast of War though...

 primalexile wrote:
I strongly believe Dakka is much bigger than Warseer, Facebook, and Reddit....

Warseer? Sure. But not bigger than some of the larger forums (e.g. BoardGameGeek.com) who in turn are far smaller than the respective social media communities.

Either way....

 primalexile wrote:

There are concerns and issues that have been outstanding so long it is ridiculous! If I neglected issues in my job I would no longer be employed. How hard is it to past a sentence that says something like this "We are aware of your concerns we are working on an official response and will have something for you guys and gals in the very near future.". Sometimes the smallest things can quell anger and misconceptions.

Send him an email: james.hewitt [at] manticgames.com

Blimey. James here. Been away from a computer for a week or so (at Spiel Essen, which by the way was only that small because of a booking error) and it looks like I've finally realised my dreams of becoming the target of a heap of online vitriol. Hooray!

As people have guessed, I don't get a huge amount of time to trawl forums looking for complaints or issues. If they're brought to my attention by someone emailing me - as someone did with this thread - I'll do what I can. My job these days involves a lot more than I can sensibly fit into the 40 hours I'd like it to, which is why I'm eternally grateful to people like Scarletsquig, Daedleh and all the rest for spreading the word and keeping people informed. I'll be sure to update my LinkedIn profile to reflect this

Anyway. There are a heap of things to address in this thread - questions, complaints, misconceptions, and some very valid viewpoints. We (I, Chris or someone else) will get a proper official answer out as soon as we can, hopefully this evening.

In the meantime, as ever, if you have an issue the best way to get it resolved is to email me directly. My email address was given earlier in the thread, and is posted all over the internet, so please feel free to drop me a line. I will respond to your concerns directly on a one-to-one basis if that's what it takes!

Keep your eyes on this thread for a proper response from Mantic later. In the meantime, thanks for joining in the discussion - positive or negative, it's all important

Cheers!
James

Appreciate the post, James!

But to point out, the two main issues here do need addressing for everyone, not on a 1-on-1 basis. That is:

1. Why the metal and restic Zees were deemed OK to ship, when they are clearly different sizes
2. What the situation is with the plastic (or restic) Enforcers for those involved with Deadzone

It really isn't too hard to keep an eye on a single thread like this one, and the companies that do always get a lot of appreciation out of it, as has been mentioned already. So... thanks for checking in

Yes, absolutely - sorry, should have made myself clearer. I will gladly do both: I will respond on here, but also if people have concerns that they would like me to address directly I will do that. I was aiming to say that I'm fairly approachable online, with an open-door policy. Which I will no doubt regret in 3... 2... 1...

(Nah, only joking. I look forward to any emails that come my way!)

I've bookmarked this thread, and will endeavour to poke my head in whenever I get a chance. Considering I haven't had a day off in a week and a half, I'm not sure when that might be - but I'll do what I can!

Cheers, and if you're able to get/post an answer to the two above concerns, that'd be great

 RiTides wrote:

1. Why the metal and restic Zees were deemed OK to ship, when they are clearly different sizes

This didn't really bother me, I know for humans at least that height differences vary greater then the 10-15% we see between restic and metal models

Although if they didn't tell people about the change in material, that's still a no-no.

 lagoon83 wrote:
Yes, absolutely - sorry, should have made myself clearer. I will gladly do both: I will respond on here, but also if people have concerns that they would like me to address directly I will do that. I was aiming to say that I'm fairly approachable online, with an open-door policy. Which I will no doubt regret in 3... 2... 1...

(Nah, only joking. I look forward to any emails that come my way!)

I've bookmarked this thread, and will endeavour to poke my head in whenever I get a chance. Considering I haven't had a day off in a week and a half, I'm not sure when that might be - but I'll do what I can!

Your rank tracking is oddly appropriate.

As good of a job as scarletsquig does it comes 'tainted' by the fact that he is such an avid supporter of your company. Having an actual member of the company coming on and saying something--preferably before he does, just so that it does not seem to be parroting the response he has already given as 'coming from the company' might go a long way towards soothing a lot of the doubts people seem to have about Mantic.

RiTides wrote:Cheers, and if you're able to get/post an answer to the two above concerns, that'd be great

Everyone who can give me an answer has already gone home, but I'll do some investigating tomorrow. I want to make sure I'm giving a correct answer before I give one.


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 Kanluwen wrote:
As good of a job as scarletsquig does it comes 'tainted' by the fact that he is such an avid supporter of your company. Having an actual member of the company coming on and saying something--preferably before he does, just so that it does not seem to be parroting the response he has already given as 'coming from the company' might go a long way towards soothing a lot of the doubts people seem to have about Mantic.

Fair point - however, please be aware that we are also fairly avid supporters of our company, so I doubt we'll come across as any less biased!

Zees are supposed to be clones. It's a little different. It's really the only ones that anyone cares about. The Teratons and Nameless in particular really aren't gonna show after they are painted they are different sizes

The "easy" solution would be to find a friend and swap your metal for their restics or vice versa. But that could have been fixed if people knew and could have ordered double on one or the other (whichever material they prefered).

There are a couple of the metal poses you could still of course use as they aren't standing up straight and the size difference is negligable to really tell unless your eyes are 6" away. But folks would like to use all 8 poses without feeling they don't mix right, and thus only have to double up or 4 or so throughout the team. RiTides has always come off as a "It's the principle of the matter" type guy and remains "rock solid" on his stance

Earth Dragon wrote:
Zees are supposed to be clones.

Well damn, got me there

mantic will address the enforcers in the deadzone update tomorrow, plus all of the other questions there are.

Deadzone week was mentioned on the newsletter and starts tomorrow.

Not bothered by the switch to metal, though why my Season 3 is not complete is still a mystery.
I'm more concerned with concepts. A lot of the concept art we see on Mantic kickstarters is excellent then the sculpts are released and it seems at times that any similarities are coincidental. Is this being addressed for future releases or should we treat any concept as only the artists interpretation?

Welcome James! Try not to get eaten by the locals.

 lagoon83 wrote:
Blimey. James here. Been away from a computer for a week or so (at Spiel Essen, which by the way was only that small because of a booking error) and it looks like I've finally realised my dreams of becoming the target of a heap of online vitriol. Hooray!

Hah, it's nothing personal, it's just that Dakka is fairly large and well-read and it (and the Mantic forums) should be checked as at least part of a routine. If the FB page can get answers to questions fairly regularly, why not here and on the Mantic forums?

lagoon83 wrote:I've bookmarked this thread, and will endeavour to poke my head in whenever I get a chance.

Just for the record and your bookmark list:
Here the Dakka thread for KoW: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/445605.page
Here the Dakka thread on the Mars Attacks kickstarter: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/551582.page

scarletsquig wrote:Welcome James! Try not to get eaten by the locals.

Naah, the Master Shaper declared him taboo for some reasons

We don't bite just looking for a bit of clarity on the specifics above, and hopefully a course correction on some of the more general issues that have been recurring (like not communicating problems before shipment...).

I enjoyed your post Earth Dragon, and fair enough

 lagoon83 wrote:

Anyway. There are a heap of things to address in this thread - questions, complaints, misconceptions, and some very valid viewpoints. We (I, Chris or someone else) will get a proper official answer out as soon as we can, hopefully this evening.

In the meantime, as ever, if you have an issue the best way to get it resolved is to email me directly. My email address was given earlier in the thread, and is posted all over the internet, so please feel free to drop me a line. I will respond to your concerns directly on a one-to-one basis if that's what it takes!

While it is nice to have a way to communicate directly with some staff, it's not very helpful to the community at large. Public responses means that far, far, far more people would see it and have their silent concerns addressed. While I trust what Daedle says somewhat since he's got some "insider info", that's obviously a "friend of a friend told me" kinda thing, and not really official.

Obviously some things don't warrant a response (if someone says "these models suck!1!" then it's a personal preference) but other things like RiTides' metals question and the whole Deadzone plastics thing, where we just want clarification on what is actually going on, it's far easier to address the question publicly so people can know what's going on (transparency, vs the oft-repeated claim of Mantic pulling bait & switches etc)

Great that an official Mantic person can post here, and I have to be honest probably quite a brave decision. As others have pointed out, I hope your 'rank' isn't too apt!

But, straight away a +1 for trying to engage with the community, and hopefully there will be some rational discussion and prevailing comments here that might make there way back to Mantic HQ - hopefully it will hopefully be good for everybody!

Hmm When should I start worrying that I don't have my season 3 yet ?

Jerram wrote:
Hmm When should I start worrying that I don't have my season 3 yet ?

Haven't gotten it yet either.

 Cyporiean wrote:

Jerram wrote:
Hmm When should I start worrying that I don't have my season 3 yet ?

Haven't gotten it yet either.

Just drop an e-mail to the guys on the KS page to find out.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
I wonder if they'll want backers to cover the shipping back to the UK?

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They did when nkeltch wanted a refund for his teams.

Yeah, a refund for a Kickstarter after Mantic offered to replace his mold-lined models and he refused to get his models replaced for free. They went way above and beyond offering an actual cash refund on an investment; did anyone get a refund for their Enron shares?
Hell, I've had mispacks and bad sculpts, and i just get them replaced, shipped to me for free. Tim @ Mantic even shipped my Mantic Points order bundled with my replacement parts from KoW so that I wouldn't have to pay shipping costs for my Points order.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

Yeah, I've pretty much taken to ignoring everything Nkeltch posts in a Mantic thread. Half stories and indignation are all you'll find. There are plenty of other posters who have offered constructive criticism, but his has been largely confrontational.

Fine, but pissing on nkeltch aside, my question is still a valid one, and we apparently don't have an answer for it. Not that any of my Wave 3 stuff has turned up yet anyway, so I have no idea what I'm in store for.


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 timetowaste85 wrote:
But their customer service is equal to GW's. I've called/emailed both companies enough times to see the equality. I've also had an email response from Mantic within hours every time I send one.

It's not equal to GWs. For a time I had good email responses from them, but lately their response time to my issue with the KoW items screwups is countable in weeks. I'm still trying to wrap up the issues from my first email sent on 21st September. The main issue is non-responsiveness with them taking a week or more to reply to my emails (my current waiting time is now 10 days and counting since my last email to them). The tone on both sides if the emails is friendly - it appears that the main issue is that all their time is taken up with Mars Attacks (which is why I first got onto them a full fortnight before it started - to try and get it resolved before it took up all their time.)

It used to be great. Now it's gak. One thing (the only thing?) we can't fault GW on is their CS.

In fact - I just paused my post to send Tim this:

Me wrote:
Hi Tim,
Any updates on this? - as it's been another 10 days since my last email to you guys about this.

I hate to sound like I'm making a threat, but there's no chance whatsoever I'll be keeping my $300 MA pledge if this can't get rectified immediately, especially since I first contacted you guys about this on 21st September - well over a month ago now and a good fortnight before MA started up.

thanks,

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 judgedoug wrote:
Does anyone read updates? Update 103
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game/posts/543729

"NEW! Hard Plastic Sprues

Good news ladies and gentlemen – we’re going to be producing hard plastic sprues for the Enforcers, Asterian Cyphers and Forge Father Forge Guard!

This breakthrough is down to the Cyphers, Forge Guard and the Enforcers being digitally sculpted."

- at no point does it say anyone gets them for free
- or even have a price
- in fact the update also says you have like 2 days left to complete your survey
- or even a delivery date

so with nothing saying you get them, or you get to buy them, or when they're even coming out, why would you assume that you got them?

It's implied. Being that the KS was in part for Cyphers, Forge Guard and Enforcers.

Regardless, it wouldn't be hard for them to be explicit and clear in their communications, rather than vague.

Yep it was definitely implied. We backed for those models, then we get told those models are being done in hard plastic. It's counter intuitive to suggest that they'd email us about something unrelated to what we were getting.

To be fair, while the comms weren't clear there were other hard plastic kits that were funded that people weren't automatically entitled to. Each of the additional terrain battlezones, while available to backers to buy, weren't given out freely.

It could have been done with confirming either way as soon as people started asking.

On the other hand, some of the terrain items that came later were indeed included in the core pledge.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ultimately though, if Mantic wants to keep it's customers and their Kickstarter momentum, they'll need to improve their clarity and communication. $300 or whatever every few months isn't too much for me to spend, and I've been a backer of each of Mantic's KS campaigns (excepting the forced drop for DZ) but I'm at the point of choosing to spend that money elsewhere. It'll also mean I don't come back in (big) on the next survey.

 Daedleh wrote:
To be fair, while the comms weren't clear there were other hard plastic kits that were funded that people weren't automatically entitled to.

That's right, but that was always clear, whereas in this case the wording in the update made it pretty clear that we were getting these ones

 Azazelx wrote:
On the other hand, some of the terrain items that came later were indeed included in the core pledge.


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Ultimately though, if Mantic wants to keep it's customers and their Kickstarter momentum, they'll need to improve their clarity and communication. $300 or whatever every few months isn't too much for me to spend, and I've been a backer of each of Mantic's KS campaigns (excepting the forced drop for DZ) but I'm at the point of choosing to spend that money elsewhere. It'll also mean I don't come back in (big) on the next survey.

In fairness- you are on the other side of the planet, so you are like 10/12hrs ahead, chances are their offices may not have been open when you've contacted them?