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 Forar wrote:


Which also means that the Pledge Manager may be the first chance in some time to get our hands on the figures that aren't part of said first wave. I mean, they could release new ones weekly, but I suspect more of a monthly schedule, if that.

It might also mean that the KS stuff will be released in waves as well. I was a bit surprised that the KS didn't mention shipping waves as most other big offerings (zombicide, mantic anything, etc) seem to come out that way. The core set plus add-on boxes of individual mecha types in the core set seems like a good place to start since they require the same moulds and can be made in the same run.

I dunno, even flat rate boxes add up when you're potentially sending out 2 or 3 waves of them.

I guess it's possible, but I'd be surprised, especially dealing with multiple shipments to 4700+ people. That could rapidly ascend into hundreds of thousands of dollars on S&H alone.

As an entirely uneducated guess, my assumption had been that they'd get the molds made for everything, and use the Pledge Manager to note that they needed X thousand MAC II's and Y thousand FPA and just produce that many (with a little excess to cover QA and whatnot) and then get back to pushing out untold numbers of base boxes and the first five expansion boxes (especially if they do get 'em out by Nov/Dec and want some stock on shelves and on hand for the holidays).

I just have trouble believing that a company with no modern minis experience with two massively delayed crowdfunding endeavors teaming up with a company with considerable experience in minis that didn't stop their own KS from being significantly delayed will result in an on time one wave product.

It's possible and obviously the best case scenario for them to come out with everything early and in one wave to save on shipping but I wouldn't count on that personally. Bigger companies that are more experienced with minis and kickstarters feel the need to ship multiple waves from the get go (like Mantic and Reaper) but I admit there may be different circumstances behind the scenes. I'd personally be fine with splitting the cost of 2 wave shipping ($5 extra charge) if that means that the core box and extras from that core box get to me months earlier instead of being delayed. The resin limited edition items can likely be made in house so they could be included as well.

Seeing a pledge manager would go a long way toward having a positive attitude towards pb and this whole thing at this point. Right now it feels a lot like I'm watching Scrouge McDuck swimming in his vault filled with our money.

 warboss wrote:
I'd personally be fine with splitting the cost of 2 wave shipping ($5 extra charge) if that means that the core box and extras from that core box get to me months earlier instead of being delayed.

$5 in the US perhaps.

I'm generally surprised when S&H even just to Canada (let alone somewhere actually distant) is less than "bend over and think of England".

It may be that they have to do multiple waves, which would be unfortunate, but my guess is that they didn't plan on it from the start, otherwise the S&H fees would've needed to be a lot higher. $50 for 4 boxes and unlimited add ons to anywhere in the world? Flat rate boxes only hold so much, and I think to Canada it's $30+. Two waves of shipping would go past what I paid in, and I believe some parts of Europe are closer to 40 or 50 per box.

Again, not saying it won't happen, but if it does I hope they've got some of that money pile set aside, 'cause the USPS is a harsh and costly mistress.

Indeed... I was referring to the US (my personal frame of reference).

On a related note, I'm happy to announce that the Robotech Macross ranking track (the thing under your username to the left) is working and available. Just go to your profile, select the edit profile link, and it'll be listed halfway down the page under the track pull down menu. Enjoy!

p.s. How bad is it that the only news in the entire month since the end of the Kickstarter (which is exactly today) is an amateur fan led initiative?

Eh, they let us know the timing on the pledge manager.

That's... a thing.

Kinda.

At this point I'm just kind of fascinated to see if they'll talk to the backers officially about the Max figure at all.

I'm sure many people would be happier with a polite "no, sorry" than this utter silence on the matter. Dozens (hundreds?) of forum posts between here, the PB forums and the KS comments later, not one official update. A casual tidbit of info dropped in the 'weekly updates', but nothing to the backers themselves.

Hell, I even suggested that they could make a winking comment about that kind of figure possibly ending up as something that might be provided as prize support for the tournaments they mention wanting to run in their RRT news brief at the end of their posts, or perhaps a player reward system for participation in events. I'm not a tournament player in anything but the most casual sense, but I'd probably make at least an attempt if they had local events and a chance to either win or eventually earn figures we didn't have access to otherwise.

Or, y'know, just add them to the bloody pledge manager for $5-10 and let those who are clamouring for them put their money where their mouths are.

Between the general silence/sense of being ignored and continued assertions of a possible early release while we're already seeing (albeit, minor) delays on the survey/pledge manager, I'm not exactly overwhelmed with confidence.

Edit: and for those who keep saying "omg con exclusive is exclusive" and whatnot, Wyrd miniatures who produces the game Malifaux makes their gencon exclusive figures (a "nightmare" figure/crew box and a female sculpt of a male figure ("Miss ____") available through their online store as well. The books and figures are bought at MSRP, so it's not cheap to get them, but one of the latter is given freely to any order (online or in person) of $100 or more. Surely if a small company like Wyrd can pull such a thing off, it's not impossible for ND/PB to pull off either. I'm sure it's not the standard way companies work, but I also assume they're not alone in making their 'exclusive' figures available to their fanbase either.

So uh, no pledge manager yet?

I didn't miss it did I?

Nah, last word was that it would be out by the end of June, so presumably it'll be available in the next week or so.

... or in the next month and a half if you're feeling snarky about PB. >.>

Yeah, the only "news" has been their usual "ZOMG! We're working hard and you'll love it!" press releases that are pretty much the same every week or two just with a different order of the same products being raved about, even when talking about the previous crowfunded RPG books that are now almost a year late. In the end, if they do get the stuff out on time, that's the most important thing... but the lack of a timely pledge manager as well as the ignoring of the Design an Ace contest for weeks and on top of the whole Max GenCon only mini has taken most of the wind out of my enthusiasm sails. I've sold a bunch of stuff over the past few weeks here at the swap shop and at bartertown that I had expected to funnel into the pledge manager for even more add-ons (I didn't go too crazy during the actual KS.. just blitzkrieg plus two add ons) but frankly I'll likely just save the money for other stuff and just wait and see how much traction the game gets locally. The value in the basic pledge is enough so that I'll have plenty of minis for one on one games of 2 hours or so.

Hm.... I had no money, so I pledged $23 for Rick's Veritech so I could upgrade to 2x War Cry. Now I'm wondering if I should simply let it ride if Palladium is up to their usual crap.

Eh, while annoying, I consider this pretty tame so far.

The Max thing is irritating on a few levels, but not to a "I wish I could rescind my pledge" degree. More like a huffy sigh, rolling of the eyes and "Oh you..." and maybe some dark muttering when people try to tell me my opinion is wrong and call me names while doing so.

Seriously, there are some lost souls in that comments section.

"Meh" communication? Eh, we'll see when the PM actually goes out. If we do see it in the next 4 or 5 days (hell, I'd accept by Monday July 1st without much complaint), but until then it's really not that much worse off than many large KS's I've been a part of.

So I'm not trying to dissuade you outright, but so far I wouldn't consider these dealbreakers just yet. Annoyances, possible red flags for some, but the Battle Cry tier is a pretty damn sweet deal. Showdown (2 x Battle Cry with slightly cheaper shipping) even moreso.

Basically, no matter what they say, I'd tack on at least an extra 3-6 months in delays, and if it gets out "on time" we'll all be that much happier. If they actually get it out early (as in, during the fall) I'll likely be flabbergasted.

Yeah, it's not close to a deal breaker even with my expressed reservations so far. They've been at most varying degrees of annoying mixed with stupid that has almost completely blunted my enthusiasm. At this point, I'd still tell interested people to take advantage of the $140 level but advise them not to go in for more just in case it's massively delayed or screwed up. If they continue their displays of ignorant arrogance on top of significant delays or crappy quality in the macross release, then it would be a deal breaker for my participation in future releases.

So, what's the over/under on the PM actually getting out before July?

I remain cautiously optimistic, and would even take July 1st in a pinch (6 weeks to the day after the campaign ended), but if they want to build any leeway about being more on top of things, hitting a mark they've set for themselves would go a long way.

 Forar wrote:
So, what's the over/under on the PM actually getting out before July?

I remain cautiously optimistic, and would even take July 1st in a pinch (6 weeks to the day after the campaign ended), but if they want to build any leeway about being more on top of things, hitting a mark they've set for themselves would go a long way.

My bet is that if it isn't here by Sunday, I won't be here until the 8th.

Nobody gets any useful work done next week.

The 4th of July might as well be Christmas.

If we use the Northern Gun books as an example... if we don't get the pledge manager by Sunday we likely won't get the pledge manager BY CHRISTMAS. :(

Apparently it was posted in a peripherally related thread on the general Palladium forum that the pledge manager has been moved from "June" to sometime in the next two weeks. No news on the Design an Ace contest nor has anything been posted since early June officially on the kickstarter. Yup... it's business as usual at Palladium.

 warboss wrote:
Apparently it was posted in a peripherally related thread on the general Palladium forum that the pledge manager has been moved from "June" to sometime in the next two weeks. No news on the Design an Ace contest nor has anything been posted since early June officially on the kickstarter. Yup... it's business as usual at Palladium.

Could you post a link to that?

It's in this thread, 2nd page, toward the bottom.

http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=139697&start=50

And so begins the long pushback we knew was coming.

*Colbert-I-Called-It.jpg*

Granted, they have to produce the molds either way, and they have tons of production to do of the base sets (for backers and retail alike), so presumably they can just produce the non-wave 1 stuff last (and continue working on it after the first shipment goes out). Meaning it might not hold up further parts of the process.

But that doesn't exactly make me any happier that the PM's being delayed.

sigh...

OK so it's not a Christmas gift, it's an Easter gift to myself.

Or maybe a 4th of July 2014 gift.

In my opinion they're just shooting themselves in the foot.

As it stands, I'm very unimpressed by the proverbial media blackout from both parties involved in this.

Oh, but it's not a media blackout.

You just have to watch the Palladium news releases.

And their forums.

And the ND facebook page.

.... just strangely not a thing on the KS page.

*facepalm*

 Forar wrote:
Oh, but it's not a media blackout.

You just have to watch the Palladium news releases.

And their forums.

And the ND facebook page.

.... just strangely not a thing on the KS page.

*facepalm*

Like I said... business as usual for palladium. I guess the post kickstarter communication is organized like one of their books. If you want to clarify rule x, you don't look under the topic heading of rule x but rather memorize that it tucked in midparagraph under the discussion of peripherally related item y.

 Forar wrote:
Oh, but it's not a media blackout.

You just have to watch the Palladium news releases.

And their forums.

And the ND facebook page.

.... just strangely not a thing on the KS page.

*facepalm*

Actaully, the ND Facebook has one 'update' since the KS has ended. The 'design an ace's contest has no news whatsoever.

Yes, you have to follow the PB updates and forums and those are mostly the same. Stuff looks great and rules are getting some polish. Why should we believe that when you can show us some pictures of the process?

But, what about ND? Why isn't there any updates from them?

Looks like in honor of the 100th!! update on the Kickstarter, Ninja Division and Palladium have posted what they consider to be the answers to everything we've been asking and details that we've been wanting. Here it is in its unedited full hundreth anniversary fan communication glory:



Yup... totally worth the wait.

Gotta love the typo too. Nothing says "We will spend your money wisely" like typos in simple messages.

At least it wasn't Kev S coming out saying its awesome and we'll love it. Really, that's for me and everybody else to decide. Talking about how the rules are tight yet many folks on the PB forums want a rules overhaul since its the same system for 30+ years. Tight indeed.

Cypher-xv wrote:
At least it wasn't Kev S coming out saying its awesome and we'll love it. Really, that's for me and everybody else to decide. Talking about how the rules are tight yet many folks on the PB forums want a rules overhaul since its the same system for 30+ years. Tight indeed.

Are they sating the RT rules are tight, or the Palaldium RPG system is tight? The RT system is an unknown (at least to me) and is hopefully at least in playtest. The Plaadium System has been around for decades and really hasn't advanced since the 80s. It worked reasonably well for TMNT, but not nearly as well for the 1st edition Robotech RPG.