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There is that as well. They should probably close the PM and then place their order, but I imagine they are just projecting.

Oh well.

I think they got a bit too greedy with the Deadzone pre-release thing. I mean, it was a nice idea but most of the people I know who went in for it, ended up not getting big chunks of their stuff. - One did a pre-release for the Marauders starter set before Christmas, didn't get it and ended up having mantic staff swear blind to him that it never said that it would be shipped in December and it was always going to be February.

He is not pleased. Not pleased at all and has actually raised a paypal dispute with Mantic over it.

Another did the big huge bumper collectors edition super expensive pre-release and got most of his things, except his marauder and rebs starters. He's pretty relaxed about it, he was mostly just wanting the book to read at the moment.

But honestly, if they hadn't bothered with the pre-release thing, or done it on a significantly smaller scale (EG, in shows only), or kept the extra boxes in the warehouse until mid-late January before announcing them, most people would likely have had the majority of their missing bits now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mantic's done good by me, personally but they really do need to get their heads on straight.

Lock the pledge manager earlier, make delivery time later. Either way they shouldn't be running out of pre ordered paid for stuff.m

Wow, I've been gone for a week and it looks like quite a bit of Mantic stuff has happened. Don't know how deep I will go in on DBX, but looking forward to seeing it.

They definitely struggled with the Deadzone release. I got my main box during the prerelease and had no problems, but I bought a starter at a FLGS and it took about a month and 3 e-mails to get a missing part. At least I got it though.

 Compel wrote:
Being forced by on-high to put out shoddy rules in a tight timeframe, knowing that your bosses genuinely don't care about the quality of the product you're producing, as long as it helps sell a new shiney...

I'm pretty sure nobody is forcing GW devs to write in any particular way. If that were the case, the new stuff would be more powerful but the newest kits are almost universally the most terrible units in the codex (Riptide an honourable exception). They're writing complete and utter gak of their own free will.

NTRabbit wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
Hard plastic is essential but not sufficient for Mantic to stop being gak. If the Warpath Kickstarter is 100% plastic AND the concepts are good AND the sculpts are good AND they have more than the bare minimum number of parts AND the integral bases stay gone, they'll be worth looking at.

Well they already hit those two with Deadzone, I thought all of the concepts were good, and all of the final sculpts we've seen to date. I understand some people don't like the Marauders, some don't like the 3rd Gens, some don't like the Rebs weapon team and some don't like the Cypher renders, but that's just personal opinion rather than definitive fact.

Well, whether they hit any of those is personal opinion actually - your opinions are no more canonical than anyone else's here. I felt that the concepts were a mixed bag and most sculpts decidedly second-tier. And yes, I consider myself a "Mantic supporter". My standards are pretty high, though.

 GrimDork wrote:
I appreciate the sentiment They have suggested as much. We shall see, I'll just be glad to finally have my stuff. May go on over to the kickstarter page and shoot them one more email just to be the squeaky wheel (in soviet deadzone, the metaphor is you!).

I'll agree with Carlos on this. You've also taken it much more calmly and politely than I would have.

NTRabbit wrote:
Which is still demanding the sculpts change to suit a minority view.

Nobody is going to like everything, so if only 20% of their customers don't like them, why would they change something the other 80% are buying?

If it was the other way around, and 80% were not buying them, then that would be a majority opinion of them being bad, and give Mantic a hit

]

You're being deliberately disingenious here, as well as needlessly insulting. Who is the "minority" here, and where is your evidence? "Minority" or "majority" of what, by the way? Getting Orcs in the Kickstarter is a non-negotiable option for Strike Team level backers, and so for me it means their fate is to be mostly filling in a box of figures that will never be painted or used unless I manage to trade/give them away. That's if they don't end up lost somewhere like my KoW Cat Cavalry. (which I'm still looking for, as someone here is interested in some of the parts for conversion).

But back to the main point. 100% of strike team pledgers are "buying them" since they outright refused to allow people to swap them for something good. "Buying them" is/was essentially non-negotiable.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
Veer-myn are awesome.

The Vermin are bad in every conceivable way. They're an ugly implementation of an insipid concept presented as being implausibly significant by their idiotic flavour text. The setting is literally worse for their very existence, because it draws more attention to Mantic's childish portrayal of the Corporation as equal parts baby-eating evil and paint-licking stupid.

Sadly, I gotta agree with Alex on this. Space Skaven could have been done well, but I'm not at all excited by the implementation. I've ordered GW parts from a bitz vendor to try and "fix" the DreadBall models I have, because I just don't like them as is. Might do the same as well for the few I have via Project Pandora. I ordered a lot of heads, after all.

 porkuslime wrote:
Well.. we may not be seeing James Hewitt back.. according to the newsletter I just got.. he is parting ways with Mantic to go write gaming rules elsewhere...

Interesting. James didn't really last long there as a dedicated community guy then, did he? He seemed a genuinely nice guy, but still - in that role I'd rather see someone who was active outside of KS periods, though. Even just for the occasional post rather than disappearing once the current KS of the day was complete.

 Compel wrote:
I've got to say, going to become a Rules Designer for GW would not have been my choice of a careers change. Especially if I had worked previously as someone in social media / communication-ey stuff.
Being forced by on-high to put out shoddy rules in a tight timeframe, knowing that your bosses genuinely don't care about the quality of the product you're producing, as long as it helps sell a new shiney...
Then having to live the bile and hatred online as a result of these rules - from the community you used to work with... And knowing, deep down, they actually have a point but your hands were completely tied...
That seems like hell to me.

No, it's an incredibly smart career move. Put the GW-bile on hold for a moment and think about what a stint writing rules at GW means to your CV and ability to get work elsewhere afterwards. It's a great springboard to working prety much anywhere else in the miniatures, roleplaying, tabletop gaming gaming industry as well as the computer/video game industry. Do you think the guys doing the hiring at Blizzard or Bethesda are going to take more note of the usual white noise of the internet (protip, they all have their own online nerdrage population) or a CV with 5 years of GW rulebooks and a letter of recommendation from the studio director/their counterparts at GW?

 squall018 wrote:
Wow, I've been gone for a week and it looks like quite a bit of Mantic stuff has happened. Don't know how deep I will go in on DBX, but looking forward to seeing it.

They definitely struggled with the Deadzone release. I got my main box during the prerelease and had no problems, but I bought a starter at a FLGS and it took about a month and 3 e-mails to get a missing part. At least I got it though.

Wait- you got a missing part already shipped out to you for Deadzone? How'd that happen?

I know quite a few of us have sent those forms in. I did mine the very first day it went up, and I've heard absolutely nothing back!

I get back and have 3 friends clamouring to add stuff to my Deadzone second survey. What Mantic has done with Deadzone/Terrain/Restic isn't perfect, but it's pretty damn awesome all up and a lot of people seem to be taking to it after being hesitant about kickstarting. Happy to see it seems to be taking off in Australia like Dreadball has.

One was wondering how well the Mars Attacks terrain would work for fantasy settings if painted more earthy... you can pass bricks off in fantasy but stone would probably be better is what I was thinking, as a non-fantasy player. Any thoughts on if the MA terrain would be too out of place in a fantasy setting?
---
Good on the Bear wizard for moving to rules design, living the nerd dream. Hopefully he can bring some semblance of sense to 40k rules. Working on fantasy ist verboten!

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

 squall018 wrote:
Wow, I've been gone for a week and it looks like quite a bit of Mantic stuff has happened. Don't know how deep I will go in on DBX, but looking forward to seeing it.

They definitely struggled with the Deadzone release. I got my main box during the prerelease and had no problems, but I bought a starter at a FLGS and it took about a month and 3 e-mails to get a missing part. At least I got it though.

Wait- you got a missing part already shipped out to you for Deadzone? How'd that happen?

I know quite a few of us have sent those forms in. I did mine the very first day it went up, and I've heard absolutely nothing back!

I think it was because I bought mine at retail (Rebs starter). It was the Tetraton's tail. Maybe they had extra of those?

 Azazelx wrote:
Who is the "minority" here, and where is your evidence? "Minority" or "majority" of what, by the way? Getting Orcs in the Kickstarter is a non-negotiable option for Strike Team level backers, and so for me it means their fate is to be mostly filling in a box of figures that will never be painted or used unless I manage to trade/give them away. That's if they don't end up lost somewhere like my KoW Cat Cavalry. (which I'm still looking for, as someone here is interested in some of the parts for conversion).

But back to the main point. 100% of strike team pledgers are "buying them" since they outright refused to allow people to swap them for something good. "Buying them" is/was essentially non-negotiable.

My point is that there is no evidence. Even there you're declaring the only reason people got Marauders is because Strike Team forced them to and nobody is actually going to build them, which nobody can prove. I'm a Strike Team pledger and I got them because I wanted them, not because I was forced to, so that shoots 100% out of the water. The only proof anyone will have is sales numbers, if they're ever released, and the Marauders running out of stock for preorders suggest at least someone is buying them.

If no one is buying Marauders and everyone hates them as some truly claim, they'll get ultimate vindication if a couple of baggies of them end up in the 2014 Xmas Box like the MaA and Ogres this year.

NTRabbit wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
Who is the "minority" here, and where is your evidence? "Minority" or "majority" of what, by the way? Getting Orcs in the Kickstarter is a non-negotiable option for Strike Team level backers, and so for me it means their fate is to be mostly filling in a box of figures that will never be painted or used unless I manage to trade/give them away. That's if they don't end up lost somewhere like my KoW Cat Cavalry. (which I'm still looking for, as someone here is interested in some of the parts for conversion).

But back to the main point. 100% of strike team pledgers are "buying them" since they outright refused to allow people to swap them for something good. "Buying them" is/was essentially non-negotiable.

My point is that there is no evidence. Even there you're declaring the only reason people got Marauders is because Strike Team forced them to and nobody is actually going to build them, which nobody can prove. I'm a Strike Team pledger and I got them because I wanted them, not because I was forced to, so that shoots 100% out of the water. The only proof anyone will have is sales numbers, if they're ever released, and the Marauders running out of stock for preorders suggest at least someone is buying them.

If no one is buying Marauders and everyone hates them as some truly claim, they'll get ultimate vindication if a couple of baggies of them end up in the 2014 Xmas Box like the MaA and Ogres this year.

Ah, I see where my choice of words was misleading. I apologise for that. I will clarify. I did not mean that the only reason anyone got them was because Mantic did not allow us to change them.

My intent was to state that 100% of customers got them (regardless of whether they would have liked to swap them out or not) was because swapping them out was not allowed and non-negotiable. Not that 1000% of backers dislike them or that nobody would like to buy them. If trades had been allowed, obviously some percentage we don't (and can never) know would have swapped them out for more enforcers, forgefathers, et al. This is why your claims of "majority/minority/etc" are useless, since it's just speculation.

Re: James going to GW...

Either of two possibilities occur.

a: they had a vacancy in the rules section and he applied, or..
b: he had an idea for a game and pitched it to them.

Everything that I've seen of James makes me feel its more likely to be B.

So did anyone else notice the updated Mars Attacks stuff today?

The new images of what we get at each "custom" level is much more helpful.

For the price of those extra mats I can get all those extra Martians with an additional saucer. Not bad.

I think I've got enough mats from Deadzone as it is. Worst case maybe I can lay the paper street ones on top of my Deadzone mats for a little extra support?


What's everyone's thoughts on the scenery? I'm debating whether or not I need any extra, especially the intact stuff. I've got a fair amount for DZ already.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

What's everyone's thoughts on the scenery? I'm debating whether or not I need any extra, especially the intact stuff. I've got a fair amount for DZ already.

Given that MA has no elevation and hence only needs one level of terrain, what they give you in the packs seems like a pretty good amount to me.

That's kind of what I'm thinking too.

It seems hard to justify getting the intact scenery when I've got plenty of DZ stuff as it is.

Maybe I'll get one pack just to see what it's like.

If there's a storefront door on there I'll be happy.

Otherwise I need a few more bugs to go with all my martians.

Also 1950s soldiers versus giant ants- can't forget that classic match up!

 Yonan wrote:
I get back and have 3 friends clamouring to add stuff to my Deadzone second survey. What Mantic has done with Deadzone/Terrain/Restic isn't perfect, but it's pretty damn awesome all up and a lot of people seem to be taking to it after being hesitant about kickstarting. Happy to see it seems to be taking off in Australia like Dreadball has.

One was wondering how well the Mars Attacks terrain would work for fantasy settings if painted more earthy... you can pass bricks off in fantasy but stone would probably be better is what I was thinking, as a non-fantasy player. Any thoughts on if the MA terrain would be too out of place in a fantasy setting?
---
Good on the Bear wizard for moving to rules design, living the nerd dream. Hopefully he can bring some semblance of sense to 40k rules. Working on fantasy ist verboten!

Well, given local GW prices and the fond memories so many of us have of Necromunda and gang-sized sci-fi skirmish...

Good question on Bricks. I did some googling and looked at Wiki (amongst others) and brick buildings of various kinds have been used since the Greeks and Romans, through the middle ages and Renaissance, right up to today. - since "Fantasy" settings seem to usually be a mash-up of concepts from the Ancients right up and to including the Renaissance (and everything in between), I'd say that brick can fit right in quite nicely into most fantasy settings. Possibly not as the only material, but it definitely has a place. Now it just depends on what the actual MA buildings look like. I certainly intend to get a whole bunch and use them from everything from Bolt Action to 40k, and now I guess in KoW and Mordheim-type stuff as well as appropriate.

Hahah nice researching, thanks Aza! I'm picking up some for myself at least (5 battlezones basically I think) so I'll definitely paint them with fantasy/medieval in mind as well. Will try to con him into getting a bunch too as you can't go wrong with lots of modular terrain.

Marble, sandstone, brown or grey clay come to mind as better choices than the .... vibrant.... red chosen by Mantic ; p

 Azazelx wrote:

since it's just speculation.

Which is what I've been trying to say the whole time, anyone stating it factually one way or the other is conflating personal opinion and being a silly. I too should have been more careful with my words and added "in my opinion" to my first sentence.

 Micky wrote:
Re: James going to GW...

Either of two possibilities occur.

a: they had a vacancy in the rules section and he applied, or..
b: he had an idea for a game and pitched it to them.

Everything that I've seen of James makes me feel its more likely to be B.

But surely GW isn't interested in making new games?

I find it unlikely that GW are making new a new game that James has pitched.

 judgedoug wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
Shame the Nameless get left out, but between the Veer-myn and Zz'or I'd probably get my monster itch sufficiently scratched.

Choosing to make Veermyn instead of Nameless would be a huge mistake. So, yeah, I can see it happening.

Veer-myn are awesome. you couldn't be more wrongererrerer!
I bought the one player set and then after I got them I went crazy and now I own *checks google drive* nightcrawlers -50, nightmares - 30, nightspawn - 1, stalkers - 30, scourgers 5
and would buy even more

All I am saying is that you will find that Cthulhu and even his most degenerate derivatives have more Kickstarter charisma than any ratmen or even space sports ratmen. Expanding the almost-Cthulhu line into hard plastic will not erase the existing not-ratmen line, while it will add interest and open up a new market. In food terms, you can love vegemite all you want, and that's fine, but when Mangia Inc want to expand their line of foods dipped in creamy milk chocolate, maybe they should start with peanut butter first...


Besides, from your purchasing history it looks like the entire Veermyn market is now tapped out.

Did anyone confirm it's GW? Warlord are also based in Lenton.

^ No, nothing confirmed. All OT rambling based on speculation.

Warlord or River Horse were the first that came to mind, although GW pays a good salary to studio staff and Azazel makes a good point that it'd be great for further career advancement.

Apprently this was posted on James desk.



yeah hes joining GW.

I'm more concerned about the poster in the back with the three dudes taking a conference meeting dump.

More power to you, James.

 carlos13th wrote:
I find it unlikely that GW are making new a new game that James has pitched.

Ditto!

Assuming he's working for GW, being in rules development wouldn't be hell. Hell would be being informed that the new "rules" you've been brought on to help develop is the new community guidelines for the forums they're launching with their multi-million dollar website redesign and that you will be the public face of GW's communications to the fans on the Internet to help develop these rules further.

THAT, my dears, is what hell would look like.

Back on-topic, finally put in my MA survey and managed to stick with my guns (and pledge amount)! This is probably going to end up like Reaper for me when the box shows up and I'm "What's this...oh right!" since it's in the far-distant future of six months from now. <cue horror music soundtrack> That's like an eternity, especially here on the Internet. Maybe I'll be unburied from KD:M by then though...

When do you start at GW?

I mean, I guess we'll kind of be able to tell, as you'll no longer show up online in any sort of informal capacity, but still, we'd like to know!

 Alpharius wrote:
When do you start at GW?

I mean, I guess we'll kind of be able to tell, as you'll no longer show up online in any sort of informal capacity, but still, we'd like to know!

lol. I see what you did there. As everyone knows, you have to sign away any access or knowledge of the internet when you go to work for GW.

Is it still possible for people to add Deadzone Scenery to their pledges? If so and someone in the US is willing to, drop me a PM.