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Find a bit of interest in the FB page. I might intermediate or they might sign on to DAKKADAKKA to respond

If they want they can email me at paulsongames (at) hotmail (dot) com

will advise


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How much for the monster?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I might get the monster if the price is right....how much?

@Paulson: Appreciate the heads up but maybe a Swap Shop thread would be more suitable at this point.

 paulson games wrote:
They are a lot bigger and also pretty hard to find in large quantities.


Took me over 2 1/2 years to build the collection and a crazy amount of money.

I hear ya on that one. I remeber looking for these when I was in my 20's for RPG and TT gaming purposes. I'm sorry to hear that PB sucked the fun out of RT for you. Your a talented guy and wish you the best. I'm still looking forward to that suit sketch you posted on FB a while ago. Also will you be making mecha in 1/285?

Did I actually see in all that a "Battlemaster"?

Seeing all those models was making me lightheaded and my wallet scared.

Yeah, the blue Battlemaster. I wonder what that red one is on the 4th picture?

Yes there's a blue battlemaster in that 3rd pic. (Dougram Bigfoot) I have a large collection of the dougram and crusher joe models which make up a good portion of the other unseen mecha from battletech. Between the nichimo models, dougrams, and some fan sculpts I have almost the entire collection of mechs from battletech 3025. I've used these guys in place of the normal 1/285th scale stuff for playing battletech as it's a lot more visually impressive although it is more demanding on space. The 3rd pic also contains a red and blue version of the armored veritech.

The red mech in the 4th pic is Sazabi from Gundam, which is my all time favorite mech design. In that jumble there's a couple other gundam figures and also some armored core stuff. The collection of 1/200 scale mechs is pretty extensive and a bit overwhelming which is why it's time to downsize.

Palladium really soured me on Robotech, which is saying a lot as I was a fan of the show for close to 30 years. They are a bunch of IP squatters that have done nothing with their lisc for decades, sadly I showed them what was possible with a miniatures game but they didn't want to listen to an outsider and obsessive control freak doesn't even begin to describe Kevin. Ninja Division has done some great work but they are caught in a death triangle as even the slightest change or decision has to be run through two other companies before it can be approved or rejected. It's a design for failure in every sense. PB and HG not having the first clue about minis and that is what is causing much of the delays and frustration. I imagine that John from ND is losing hair on a daily basis and what he doesn't lose will be snow white very soon. It's management hell and I am so glad I didn't get tangled in that mess any further than I did. I think ND has done some excellent work but they are continually being sandbagged by Kevin.

It's really sad though, when I approached them I had models for roughly 2/3rd the core units ready for casting but they would have needed metal instead of plastic. I even have 3d models for about half the Mospeada designs finshed. At that time I could have minis flowing and in stores within a 3-4 month window, which would have been back in Sept-Nov 2012 it amuses me that we're in 2014 and they still don't have anything in production. I shudder to think about how long it'll take them to even begin looking at stuff beyond the Macross arc. Of course Kevin/Palladium "knows" how to do things better then everybody else already in the minis industry. ::Shrug::

I seem to remember people commenting on how ND has several projects going on at once. It was commented that they probably just made the mini's and the rest handed off to someone else.

It's clear now from the recent update that is not the case.

They also seem to be having to handle all the crap regarding Relic Knights.

Now I can only imagine how having to finish Relic Knights and then make Mega Man... can't be helping Robotech get released.

Maybe I am wrong, but that seems like a lot of directions to work in at once.

Not sure, it seemed like they handed Palladium a working game with 3D sculpts pre kickstarter and just had to finish the extras stuff.

Prior to the KS they had almost everything ready to go it terms of the sculpting. They previewed a lot of stuff at Adepticon and from the miniatures side it looked pretty complete. They have a team of 4-5 working for them and the models don't take all that long to generate, I'm slow at modeling as I'm self taught and I can get a model done in 4-5 days time. Somebody with more formal training in 3d can easily do it in half that time, plus a lot of the robotech designs go very fast since there's so many parts that you can cut and paste between builds. Veritechs for instance are largely the same outside of the head variations so it's very little effort to make the variations once the 1st model is done, same with making guardian and fighter modes. Another advantage is that there's literally decades worth of reference materials to use as a source for the models, when you have drawing galore along with toys and models for reference you can copy those details much faster then when you are creating something brand new from scratch.

If you are taking the time to properly playtest the mechanics and rules it can take a good deal of time, but with a dedicated and experienced team it shouldn't be more than a few months. Back when I did playtesting for WOTC and AEG we'd usually have a 2-3 month window for each game or expansion which was usually plenty of time. It can bog down if you are trying to make something radically different or if your group isn't very focused. Another pitfall is opening the playtesting up to too many people as it generates a very distorted signal to noise factor where you have too many competing ideas, which makes filtering the results into a tangible mass quite difficult.

I have some friends that are full time sculptors that have worked on projects in a similar management situation and they found it to be a complete nightmare. One of my friends was sculpting stuff for starcraft and it had to pass through managers at topps before it went to blizzard, then it might end up back at toops before heading back to the sculptor, sometimes topps would boot it back to blizzard a couple times before the sculptor would get notice of what changes were needed. On his end the sculpt could be done in 2-3 days time and look amazing, but with all the ping ponging back and forth between managers it'd be weeks or even months before a single sculpt met final approval. It ends up disrupting any sort of schedule you might hope to stick to and if you are working primarily as a freelancer it ties up massive amounts of time for no additional pay as you don't want to take on other work that might conflict with it and you are stuck on a holding pattern for long periods of time which quickly eats into your ability to make money.

Add in the fact that most of these items are having prints made which is something neither ND or PB are likely having done in house and that can add several week time for each model as you need to add yet another company into the mix and deal with their schedule and turn around times. That's also for a single print, add several more weeks if any revisions and new prints need to be done.

For the low volume run promo pieces done in metal it's usually a 2 month turnaround with most spincasters before you have product in hand. So you can easily have a single piece take 3 months (or more) even though the sculpt end in theory might only take 2-3 days.

Once you add in plastics it's a very long turn around time, most plastic projects are quoted out a year in advance or more. Pretty much every KS that has used plastics has gone well over a year on the delivery dates due to numerous delays springing up from the production base and overseas shipping issues.

There's a number of things that can be done to streamline the process, but things based on multi company involvements do not favor a timely completion or delivery. The best way to address a project like this is with a singular laser like focus which is simply impossible when you have 3 companies in the mix before involving production phases. If you're scratching your head saying "I don't remember there being a starcraft minis game?" there's a good reason, the 3 pony show ended up delaying things so badly it went way over budget in development and got canned.


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I hope the last part doesn't happen. From the way it sounds the game could realistically come out in 2015 instead. Thank you for your incite. I'll be more understanding in the future about tardiness. I say that now, but if this takes all of 2014 it'll suck. But now I'm worried the whole thing will go bust with no minis and maybe not a full refund.

I'm not doom saying about the game, there is a ton of money in place for the game launch, but even really good projects can die the death of a thousand cuts if they are mismanaged enough. Having the two main controlling voices in the party (being PB and HG) may not be the best for the project, while they are looking to make sure that the IP is handled correctly they don't have the background in what makes a good game.

It's like if Harley Davidson suddenly decided they were going to make a miniatures game called War Hogz, they have plenty of money to make it happen but it's really coming out of left field and unless they had somebody with a really good background it gaming it'd probably crash and burn.

The guys at ND have that background and experience, but they are the lowest on the chain of command which IMO is not good. Kevin likes to rely on his inner circle of trusted advisors inside PB, the problem is that they are all pandering yes men and not the "experts" Kevin seems to think they are. If they were up to snuff wouldn't PB be able to hit their own deadlines once in a while? Instead they have a very long track record of projects that have their delays measured not in months but in YEARS. Compound that with the fact all of his "trusted crew" are completely RPG guys with one exception and he's a very casual hobbyst/wargamer. Collectively they have virtually no minis experience and no experience within the miniatures industry yet because they are "in" with Kevin the default value of their ideas/advice outweigh the ideas coming from ND. Guys that actually make a living on miniature games & products.

I think ND has put all the proper stuff into place and has worked their butt off trying to bridge all the weirdness, what remains is determined by the guys with the final call PB & HG.

Also a huge part of getting the game established after launch is the ability to manage their relationship with their customers, something PB has struggled with for a long time. They have a core audience of die-hards that have kept them afloat, but the miniatures crowd is a very different market and not fanatics that will put up with abuse in the way that PB's zealots do. Right now it's looking like it's going to be a fire and forget product which is really a shame as there's a lot of people who love the setting and it can thrive for years if it were supported correctly. (but I think that's beyond PB capacity)


.

Paulson, thanks for the little view of the inside of PB.

I guess I just find it worrisome that we gave PB and Kevin over one million dollars and they imply that they've got no idea what's going on!

And all of the "under-bussing". Whomever coined that should get an award.

Interesting account but PB being one of "the guys with the final call" doesn't square with Kevin's last update, unless you mean he is just an outright liar.

 Manchu wrote:
Interesting account but PB being one of "the guys with the final call" doesn't square with Kevin's last update, unless you mean he is just an outright liar.

Hmmm.. I suspect some would say there is a 98% chance of that.

I wonder who that was...

 Alpharius wrote:
We sure did get to see "Robotech® RPG Tactics™" in that post a lot.

® & ™ - FTW!

And there seemed to be a fair bit of "Under Busing" going on in there too...

No doubt. But how much of it is hard feelings? And ears made receptive because money is spent with no clear idea of a return? I don't have any particular confidence in PB as rule writers but I don't think they are solely or even mostly behind the delay.

Wait... there's actually words in between all those ® & ™ symbols?






No PB isn't *the only factor* behind the delays, what causes the delays is the disjointed fashion in which all 3 companies need to be in alignment before any forward progress can be made. Even if one member is upholding their end perfectly there's still 2 other entities that can trip up and drag out the process. It may not be intentional but when you have too many cooks and hands in the mix things get messed up.

If you have two people in a three legged race if one person stumbles both get stalled, if you expand that to 3 people doing the same 3 legged race it only compounds the issue. Considering there are easily 4-7 companies involved in this process there 's plenty of opportunities for f-ups. (ND, PB, HG, 3d printer, metal caster, plastic company, stock printer *& binder, packing, shipper) Again not saying that it can't or won't be done but it's a lot of pieces that all need to sync up and when they don't it results in delays. Working with companies overseas also brings on a whole slew of additional complications like language barriers, quality control, and most of all shipping & customs delays.

I can see a lot of areas in which his (well known) controlling nature will create stress points and cause things to lag at times, is it the only area of delays? certainly not, but the "Kevin factor" certainly doesn't help things run any more smoothly.


A lot of his current update centers on: stuff is hung up somewhere, we don't know how or why but were still working and trying to get the log run unjammed and moving again. (which is good) But for a guy like Kevin who is used to having a vice-like grip on micromanaging his company (to death) there are elements in play that he likely finds terrifying as he doesn't like to trust that anyone outside his inner circle can get it done.

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Between all those companies that can slow things down there's also the battlfoam bags that aren't even ready yet because there's no models. How long do you think it'll take Romeo to make all those bags?

I hope all those people who are Super Excited For The Game, Unlike The Unbelievers(tm) who ordered Battlefoam Bags aren't too disappointed when their orders ship last due to the delays.

Oh who am I kidding?

They'll probably hold up ALL the orders until they can send them out properly.

Well a significant number of the Battlefoam bags for the much delayed Sedition Wars KS ended up arriving so late at CMON that they gave up offering any 3rd party stuff on their KS

so there's a fair chance some people who ordered bags will find that it causes them sleepless nights

I suspect ND was done long ago and is spending more time on other projects.

Palladium meanwhile is probably going over their stuff with a fine tooth comb and needing most of it explained to them.

Really hope ND has a paid by the hour type of contract because Palladium will nitpick them to death in order to feel they have control.

What has me concerned is an IP that has been so well documented; what would be needed to take longer than a couple hours to approve a proposed model?

For Kevin to not know what are the causes of some of these holdups really makes me think he is in a management death spiral:
- Thinks they are "no good" at what they do, takes control.
- Makes a mess of it, hands it back to them.
- Thinks they are taking too long to fix his mess, takes it back.
- Gets overwhelmed and intimidated of what is going on, hands it back.
- Not wanting a thing to do with the project because he cannot face his failure to "handle it" so is making every excuse to not get involved until he gets his nerve up.

I have seen this before in the micromanagement types and would expect no different.

Yes, based on what Paulson posted above, it sounds like working with PB would be a nightmare.

But the bigger nightmare might be HG.

 Manchu wrote:
Yes, based on what Paulson posted above, it sounds like working with PB would be a nightmare.

But the bigger nightmare might be HG.

Caught working between Palladium and HG at the same time.

'Night terror' material.

Joyboozer wrote:
Not sure, it seemed like they handed Palladium a working game with 3D sculpts pre kickstarter and just had to finish the extras stuff.

Were these sculpts based off the early renders I remember seeing that had really weird proportions? I vaguely remember a couple destroids being shown where the legs and arms were way too skinny or something.

I want to make a really obvious "we've got a plant!" pun here...

Also, you do realize that if we posted the less glowing commentary on the project, we'd start a gak-storm, right?

I wish the poster who called PB would call again. This time he could ask if the BF bags will delay delivery for those that didn't? Because it would piss me off if my order was sitting in the PB warehouse waiting on other people's BF bags.

Wait, am I being called a plant? No relation to ND, PB, or anything else to do with Robotech.

 Balance wrote:
Wait, am I being called a plant? No relation to ND, PB, or anything else to do with Robotech.

I believe people are referring to a backer named Fern posting Paulson's post here on the kickstarter. Is that you?