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Joyboozer wrote:
So is the current theory that ND wrote a miniatures game, Kevin completely rewrote and and now been forced to realise he's made it unplayable?

That would, sadly, mesh with what I've heard from writers working for Palladium in the past. This seemed like a win-win for ND and PB: ND gets the funding and support for the work, PB gets the money, 'halo effect' sales for the RPG, everyone goes home happy.

Mike1975 wrote:
Just to clarify for everyone I think it was back in September that I sent PB an email via the KS site. I offered to help keep people motivated and do what I can in exchange for the actual rules and being able to post pics of games that I'd play with brief descriptions. I attached links to the games that I had played so far as well as the rules that I had written up to date to the email. Later I added the Facebook page.

After ~6 weeks (Mid-November) I got an email from Jeff Burke telling me that they were interested in looking things and that they would get back to me. At this time there were rumors about the rules not being completely done so I just put myself on sit and wait mode as far as PB was concerned. I received another email a month later saying to expect a call from Kevin S. I spoke to him before Christmas and I will hopefully be receiving the NDA soon so that I can get a copy of the actual rules.

This is a two edged sword. I will have the actual rules, can mess with them and see what I think and make my opinions known to Jeff and the PB gang BUT I will no longer be able to openly share with you all that I know from the rules. So I'm hoping to get a good look and then work with PB and Jeff to "share' a few tidbits on the actual rules here and there. This sharing will be completely dependent on their OK so take that as you will.

Glad to hear that you get your wish and can work on the official version. I'm sad to hear though that it's still in flux 7 months later despite being 90% done in April and 98% done and in final something or other every month since. I have to warn you though that a peek behind the curtain is sometimes scary when you decide to playtest for a company in decline. Despite needing an obvious change, some people simply can't/won't accept the help if it conflicts with their own opinions (despite those viewpoints leading the company to the sorry state it is in). As you said, don't violate your NDA since you're dealing with a paranoid company and let them personally handle the dissemination of any info. It might be nice to chat with you here on dakka but frankly you should stop any commenting on the project once you get access to the rules. You don't want to be the next chapter in a PB drama episode.

From the rumors I've heard it sounds as if the rules are done. I just hope that all of the concerns that others have brought to my attention have been taken care of and if not I hope that I can help bring it to the right people's attention before things go to the printers.

That's awesome Mike.

But the stats and rules are supposed to be done.

Of course, they could be bringing you into the pool working on the Southern Cross (or another Work In Progress), errata (unfortunate, but wouldn't be surprising), the tournament rules or something else that was due out post-release anyway.

But at face value there's a lot that's still not adding up, and if we should be settling in for a long haul then it's probably not doing them any favours to keep us in the dark. If they don't even have a tentative date, they're not nearly as far along as they want us to think they are. If they're as far along as they've claimed (rules/book done, art done, sculpts done, test run by the end of the month) then barring some catastrophic issue (oh god, the battlepods are all one solid block of plastic! What did you doooooo?!) they really should have a factory slot lined up and at least a clue on the transportation side.

I guess we'll find out this week. Or next.

Maybe.

*jazzhands*

I'd ask that you double check the LOS rules as they're overly complicated but easily abusable (in true Palladium RPG fashion). Other personal bugbears are more close combat attack options in a shooting oriented anime/game than shooting ones for veritechs; you end up with scenarios like either you or someone from gencon where it was better for battlepods to surround and kick destroids to death rather than shoot them. IMHO close combat for all but dedicated CQB mecha should be a command point last resort only. No VF-1J options in the skirmish army format (assuming that still even exists post kickstarter and wasn't dropped) was also a bit worrisome. Some more lengthy thoughts from previous posts on it.

Here's hoping that they're using multiple playtesters and that they want actual feedback and not backslaps...

I'm 98% sure they just want back slaps.

Nah. They've finally just finally got all the finally attention they finally craved and finally desired. It's finally driven them to finally branch out their finally brand products.

Finally.

I actually suggested to pb in a phone convo that they read this thread rather than listening to all of the "oh more delays are ok go PB WE LOVE YOU!" on the KS commentary clearly their lack of useful info shows they don't care. In fact the rep I was speaking to said they weren't even aware of this thread.

A bit of a mention of Robotech by John Cadice of Sodapop interviewed below

http://losthemisphere.com/forum/index.php?topic=715

not much extra info other than the transfer of the sculpts into final product are being more tricky than expected at the manufacturing end

also Ninja Division is only involved in the sculpts for Megaman, not in any way on the rule set

The rumor mill is abuzz that something big is coming up soon.

An announcement that they're 98% sure they have a manufacturing slot all lined up and ready to go before Chinese New Years?

 Red_Starrise wrote:
I actually suggested to pb in a phone convo that they read this thread rather than listening to all of the "oh more delays are ok go PB WE LOVE YOU!" on the KS commentary clearly their lack of useful info shows they don't care. In fact the rep I was speaking to said they weren't even aware of this thread.

Why would they be aware of this thread? It's a 40k forum mostly.lol Although I'm surprised their not since some backers have left links to this thread over on the RRT ks. I agree tho I do appreciate their passion for gaming. Just wish the head cheese was more receptive to constructive criticism. Not all PB customers are 40+ year old versions of MTV groupies. I gave up on trying to reason with people who can't accept a companies problem and pretend that everything is ok. It's the equivalent of being in love with someone that doesn't love you back.

I'm just glad I never got into their other line of books because folks on their boards are asking/begging for new books that were promised what seems like eons ago. It's their equivalent of GW someday maybe releasing new sister models. I was checking out their store and found out that the books in the coming soon section have been there for years. Talk about trolling your fans. If or when they do check this thread out their in for a rude awakening which will probably cause them to take one look and leave under the assumption that it's an anti PB thread when it's not. But since many can't express their thoughts on the RRT ks or the PB boards without getting dumped on we come here. Hopefully once whoever reads this thread gets over their shock, will see that there are valid concerns over the game rules and their inconsistency to get product out the door in a timely fashion.

NTRabbit wrote:
An announcement that they're 98% sure they have a manufacturing slot all lined up and ready to go before Chinese New Years?

I'd ask then that they add a year to that update judging from the NG books. They were supposed to come out in late summer after their crowdfunding but they came out THE NEXT YEAR in late summer.

Stop saying 98%. We'er going to end up giving Forar liver problems.lol

When it comes to the factory that will make the minis I don't think PB/nd have much control over the day to day stuff that happens over there. So yeah maybe add a year to that 98% factory slot.

Mike seems to have more confidence in PB now since he knows thing the rest of us don't. If he's cool with the going ons at PB concerning RRT then I have to trust in his judgement. He's one of us after all.

New update is up on the KS. From the look and surface texture of the mini shown, it is a 3D printed test piece and NOT something made from a traditional plastic sprue type run. It looks like something you'd get from Shapeways. Either way, it's an actual update with more to follow so I'm not complaining.

As some of you may have heard, Ninja John sent us some prototype game pieces last week. They were a bit delayed by Christmas and FedEx being a bit overwhelmed, but they arrived on Friday and we've been putting them together since.

We intend to show you a new one of these prototypes every couple of days for the next week or two. Since we know we've not posted Updates quite as often as many of you would like, we’ll start things off with the mighty Glaug-Eldare!














You can click the images above to see larger versions. Happy New Year, everybody!

The Glaug-Eldare is jazz handing!

Joyboozer wrote:
The Glaug-Eldare is jazz handing!

I wish I could magically make cookies appear for this person.

I liked it so much, sigged.

Kendachi wrote:

Joyboozer wrote:
The Glaug-Eldare is jazz handing!

I wish I could magically make cookies appear for this person.

I liked it so much, sigged.

It should be posted in the ks comms section.

Man, if Palladium got in on and embraced the Jazz Handing, it'd make me laugh until I cried.

Both for the raw sorrow of the reference, and for them proving to at least have a sense of humour about things, unlike some of their most staunch defenders, a few of whom have taken the jazzhands as some sort of personal affront.

According to the comments, it is a 3D print, similar to the prototypes they showed off at Gencon.

I didn't get a booster sled, but a buddy of mine did, so he was happy to see something. They get a polite golf clap from me for tossing us a bone before the years end, however this quote;

Since we know we've not posted Updates quite as often as many of you would like

Um, guys, it's not a question of "as often as I'd like", it's a matter of "as often as you said you would". If weekly updates aren't sustainable, then toss us an update to say they'll be every 2 weeks, or whatever. I'll admit that going monthly would seem a bit strange considering how much, in theory, is supposed to be going on right now, but as I've said before, I'd even take those as long as they came to us with some real meat to them. Not this vague "everyone loves it" gak, but some hard "here's a big snippet of rules, here are a half dozen stat cards and a bunch of characters, a bunch of pictures, and some fluff to show that this is more than a mere cut and paste".

Also, if you look in the background, there's an Artillery Pod.

Edit 2: I should probably be glad they don't read this thread.

They'd probably put my order to the back of the queue.

Are you kidding! With half the stuff we've posted here if the defenders knew about this place there would be pitchforks and torches coming our way.

I just hope one of them would realize the irony of the situation since we were told to go complain "somewhere else".

So, not to be a noob; but what is the release date now?

I want to pick up the models, but didn't get in ont he kickstarter.

Technically, it's still the never going to happen Feb 2014 date.

Well, as of the Dec 19th update they're still copy pasting this;

Flexible Date of Release: An exact release date is yet to be determined, but it is looking like sometime in February, 2014.

However, the front page news paragraph changed to this a while back;

Barring any unexpected delays, the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ box game and initial expansion sets should go to manufacturing soon. An exact street date is unknown at this time and we’d rather not speculate.

So, basically; vOv

Paired with the fact that backers have been told repeatedly that we'd get our boxes before retail, and these are public statements (so not referencing just the KS), a February retail release is right out, and February backer boxes would take a miracle. The less optimistic among us are questioning 2014 entirely. The somewhat optimistic souls think they'll debut by Gencon (August/September retail launch) with backers getting boxes in the months leading up to that (June/July perhaps? 4 months to produce and ship everything to North America would still likely be an ambitious time frame, but not impossible).

 Easy E wrote:
So, not to be a noob; but what is the release date now?

I want to pick up the models, but didn't get in ont he kickstarter.

If they're just showing that prototype, that means they haven't actually printed a single thing (not even a master) in China, which means at best estimate it's still at least 3 months out.

I think Shapeways-quality prints are fine to show progress is occurring. Use the lower-quality/lower-cost prints as 'drafts' to get the posing and proportion of minis right, as well as to test with actual play pieces, if the rules are picky about this.

So Mike, are the preview pics the "decisions and details" you were hinting at or is there more to come?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Balance wrote:
I think Shapeways-quality prints are fine to show progress is occurring. Use the lower-quality/lower-cost prints as 'drafts' to get the posing and proportion of minis right, as well as to test with actual play pieces, if the rules are picky about this.

At least they're showing something physical even if it's something we've seen before in a way. That is still an improvement but I would hope that they'd also post the full rules (either all at once or in chunks) to get corrections/FAQ/Errata before either printing (hopefully) or at least retail release.

They've got the "Chinese New Year" excuse already prepped and ready for firing, so you know that Feb. 2014 is dead in the water, clearly.

On the back end, they've already purchased the "Held Up By Evil Customs" device and are ready to deploy it when necessary...

Really dastardly would be the "Gencon Is Crazy Times And Basically Eats Up An Entire Quarter" defensive system.

Wyrd employs that one every year. It's a go to shield against criticism about anything at all, and fits solidly into place for July, August and September, if not longer.

Not to mention the "We're Just A Small Company" subsystem. Put into action together, these can placate an entire herd of fanboys on their own.

Hell, given a little push, the fanboys will occasionally use these on themselves.

It's actually kind of sad to watch.

 Forar wrote:

Not to mention the "We're Just A Small Company" subsystem. Put into action together, these can placate an entire herd of fanboys on their own.

I'm sorry but the "They're only a couple of people" excuse is TM of Dream Pod 9 fanboys (but not the company themselves) for use with the Heavy Gear brand. It's how the ultra slow one physical paper product a year plan got slowed down to a 24 page simply formated pamphlet for a board game for 2013. 2014 is looking a bit better hopefully though.