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Finished a batch of elite/vet/special forces gears for my South army. Tons of pics, so I put them in a blog post. https://yadzcb.friestman.net/hgb-southern-specops.html

Looks good thanks for sharing.

Nicely done. I like the stealth squad camo!

So... it's been what, half a year or something, since the Pod started selling Gear Krieg STL files.

Do they plan on selling HG files at some point? Because, again, I would buy HG STL files, but there's no way in hell I would buy physical stuff from their store, with current shipping costs. No way in hell.

 Albertorius wrote:
So, someone forwarded me this:

https://store.dp9.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=140

It seems DP9 has started selling 3d files, which is a move I fully endorse. As soon as they sell Heavy Gear stuff, I will buy it.

That said, I think this would be the perfect opportunity for them to address their horrible non-USA distribution issues. Now they have decided to go this route, they should embrace it and sell files for private hobbyists like me, but also license the commercial use of the files so that printers can produce minis locally and sell them.

That could certainly help with that.

EDITED TO ADD: Well, I will buy them except if they are the 3d models from the KS, particularly the North/South ones, because those were 1) made for the limitations they had for plastic sprue production, and 2) utterly horrible.

Just a new heads up to DP9, now that they seem to be being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century: I will buy HG stls if you sell them.

I clicked the link and it had zero HG files available under the appropriate category.


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This may be old news to some but it appears like there is more news on the HG front. I haven't looked at their stuff this year but it looks like they added redone classic 1e/2e RPG books up on drivthrurpg as well. They're not just bootleg quality scans of the paper products like for the past twenty years but apparently redone from the original files. I was able to totally zoom in on the individual graphics to a level previously that would have been a mess. The detail on some of my favorite art is ridiculously good now.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/429144/Heavy-Gear-Revitalized--Field-Guide-North-1?src=newest

p.s. Damn, you Albertorius. Damn you to hell, you dirty skinkin' ape! You made me look at HG again... again!

Problem with those new pdfs is that if you bought their old gakky scanned pdfs, you don't get to get those updated unless you buy them all again.

Which is a really gakky way of doing business, if you ask me. So they can go feth themselves.

 Albertorius wrote:
Problem with those new pdfs is that if you bought their old gakky scanned pdfs, you don't get to get those updated unless you buy them all again.

Which is a really gakky way of doing business, if you ask me. So they can go feth themselves.

Normally I'd agree with you in general on simple updates of pdfs but I think these are genuinely better/more in this limited case. I would add though that the price is a bit more than I expected though and I would have appreciated some sort of a discount for those who bought the previous ones. I might pick up some 1st edition Field Guides the next time drivethru has a big sale but I totally understand why others wouldn't. Fortunately in my case, my most nostalgic wants are the cheapest/smallest products.

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
Problem with those new pdfs is that if you bought their old gakky scanned pdfs, you don't get to get those updated unless you buy them all again.

Which is a really gakky way of doing business, if you ask me. So they can go feth themselves.

Normally I'd agree with you in general on simple updates of pdfs but I think these are genuinely better/more in this limited case. I would add though that the price is a bit more than I expected though and I would have appreciated some sort of a discount for those who bought the previous ones. I might pick up some 1st edition Field Guides the next time drivethru has a big sale but I totally understand why others wouldn't. Fortunately in my case, my most nostalgic wants are the cheapest/smallest products.

They are the same books, and they did NEVER update their crappily scanned pdfs. I don't think they should expect people that already bought their books to get them again if the content is the same, so updating them for the people that did bear with them and the shoddy performance should not even impact their baseline.

Also, by that same logic errataed books are also better/more, so we shouldn't get those for free either .

The new pdfs are, simply put, what they should have been since the very begining, but they were too cheap to do until now. And if you were stupid enough to buy them before? Well, feth you, sucks to be you.

And let's not fool ourselves, these are just updated pdfs, unless they have different ISBN numbers to prove they aren't. I could have done (and I have done) what they have in a lot less time, and it's not that much of an effort or an expense. They, once again, were simply too cheap to do it until now, and they are, once again, too cheap to update their already existing customers.

The new books have a weird path to existence. Basically one fan fronted the money (like $5k) to have an outside company take the original compatible-with-nothing ancient mac files and bash on them til they could be imported into a program modern enough to render them as PDFs.

The guy that owns DP9? Never cared about making updated copies, he just wanted to make brand new books and who gives a gak about the old stuff. He approved of this project grudgingly.

I believe part of their cost is to directly reimburse that fan.

And they are incredibly better quality than any other company I've ever seen try to digitize an old book has achieved. Maybe when WotC did the AD&D 1e set. They're basically 'remastered', not fixed.

But totally agree, an 'upgrade' discount should have been available to people that own the old scans.

slyphic wrote:
The new books have a weird path to existence. Basically one fan fronted the money (like $5k) to have an outside company take the original compatible-with-nothing ancient mac files and bash on them til they could be imported into a program modern enough to render them as PDFs.

The guy that owns DP9? Never cared about making updated copies, he just wanted to make brand new books and who gives a gak about the old stuff. He approved of this project grudgingly.

That is entirely plausible, knowing Robert.

I'm of two minds about this one.
On one hand, this is exactly the product I've been wanting for... Hmmm... At least 15 years now ? Good quality PDFs.
On the other, they are overpriced at pretty much actual paper book prize, and there's something weird about the whole thing.

For all his talk about pleasing the fans, Robert seems really intent on burrying the whole 1st/2nd ed line, and I remember claims the original files were lost. I'm not surprised to hear about how reluctant he was about this, what I'm surprised about is that some people were able to convince him otherwise.

In the end, I'm still quite likely to get the core books in that "new" line.
Sell me things I want, with satisfying quality, you'll get my money.

Apparently someone put money up front, and I guess that was too much of a temptation.

Funnily enough... if something like $5k is "big money" for the company, and a big investment that needs to be recouped... that puts in perspective a lot of their financial situation.

That amount of money is in the ballpark of what I get for a corebook translation (sometimes more, sometimes less). A single one. That's about a month, month and a half of part-time work for me.


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Also, as a side note to te Pod: If you want this stuff to sell, particularly at those prices... don't just throw it all at the same time.

Drip feed it. Sell them one at a time, maybe dropping one each couple weeks. It's more likely people will buy them that way (instead of a guhe amount of money to rebuy what they already have), AND you keep interest longer, as you have stuff being released over a longer period of time.

Think of it as the Netflix vs. regular release of series: people talk about stuff longer if it's released over a longer timeframe.

 HudsonD wrote:

Sell me things I want, with satisfying quality, you'll get my money.

It's sadly ironic that one of the things that made DP9 stand out to me in the mid 90's was the same electronic layout that "stopped" them from professionally releasing the products digitally.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Albertorius wrote:
Apparently someone put money up front, and I guess that was too much of a temptation.

Funnily enough... if something like $5k is "big money" for the company, and a big investment that needs to be recouped... that puts in perspective a lot of their financial situation.

That amount of money is in the ballpark of what I get for a corebook translation (sometimes more, sometimes less). A single one. That's about a month, month and a half of part-time work for me.

Albertorius discussing his next project with the company...

I mean, if I was at all interested in working for Robert, it would not be for free...

 Albertorius wrote:
I mean, if I was at all interested in working for Robert, it would not be for free...

Nor should it! It was just a joke post regardless in case that didn't come through clearly about getting paid upfront.

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
I mean, if I was at all interested in working for Robert, it would not be for free...

Nor should it! It was just a joke post regardless in case that didn't come through clearly about getting paid upfront.

Ah, gotcha! xD Yeah, that too, most certainly ^^

I can't help but wonder if simply scanning the text, then redoing the whole layout from scratch wouldn't have been easier, faster and cheaper.

 HudsonD wrote:
I can't help but wonder if simply scanning the text, then redoing the whole layout from scratch wouldn't have been easier, faster and cheaper.

For DP9? It's hard to be cheaper than free if the above statements about a fan funding it privately are true.

 warboss wrote:
It's hard to be cheaper than free if the above statements about a fan funding it privately are true.

I literally talked to the guy that's named in the thanks section of the announcement. Horse's mouth.

And also, they're trying direct 3D printing of models ala PP with their next release - https://www.dp9community.com/gear-up-blog/caprice-reinforcements-maru-and-zikru

slyphic wrote:

 warboss wrote:
It's hard to be cheaper than free if the above statements about a fan funding it privately are true.

I literally talked to the guy that's named in the thanks section of the announcement. Horse's mouth.

Thanks for the clarification. It wasn't meant as a dig against you or anyone else as the source but just rather a standard I apply unless I see/hear/read it myself.

 HudsonD wrote:
I can't help but wonder if simply scanning the text, then redoing the whole layout from scratch wouldn't have been easier, faster and cheaper.

Probably, yes. Their layout is not that complex, and they already had templates for those, and all the illustrations in the original color versions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

slyphic wrote:

 warboss wrote:
It's hard to be cheaper than free if the above statements about a fan funding it privately are true.

I literally talked to the guy that's named in the thanks section of the announcement. Horse's mouth.

And also, they're trying direct 3D printing of models ala PP with their next release - https://www.dp9community.com/gear-up-blog/caprice-reinforcements-maru-and-zikru

Not interested in buying what I can get at home. Let me buy the files, and we'll talk, otherwise it's a non-starter.

EDIT: Also... not those. Ugh. Theey look like old caprician mounts, and I'm not saying that in a good way.

I don't know if this is news to anyone else but apparently the rpg kickstarter went up two weeks ago.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-roleplaying-game-fourth-edition/description

I recall someone was working on some large scale stls for the older gears a few years ago. Does anyone else remember that or what happened?

 Ahtman wrote:
I recall someone was working on some large scale stls for the older gears a few years ago. Does anyone else remember that or what happened?

There was a guy on reddit that I had bookmarked who was working on files but my old computer HD crashed and I lost it along with most of my own files ripped from the Assault game.

 Ahtman wrote:
I recall someone was working on some large scale stls for the older gears a few years ago. Does anyone else remember that or what happened?

I printed a Hunter and contacted the person who did it to ask them if they were planning to do some more. They said yeah, but...


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As to the RPG KS is... a weird duck.

No real info about the game on the KS, no real talk about mechanics, no Quick Start to show the game during the KS... no nothing, other than some pics and some promises. Not even the old beta.

And pretty out there prices for the physical copy, too (120$ CAD for a softcover, 140$ CAD for a hardcover, plus shipping, for a DrivethruRPG PoD book).

That much? Oof. That's alot. I only skimmed through the info and didn't look at the pledge levels as I'm not the target for this (my interest in HG traditionally was more on the tactical/wargaming side personally). I can't see that working at retail after the fact either so I wonder if that's even in the plans. I suppose retail customers getting a massive discount to make it viable would be an option once they traditionally print it (instead of POD) but that certainly isn't likely to engender much good will in the early adopters.

It's not going to go to retail, as they are only doing PoD.

Not with this KS at least.

 Albertorius wrote:


And pretty out there prices for the physical copy, too (120$ CAD for a softcover, 140$ CAD for a hardcover, plus shipping, for a DrivethruRPG PoD book).

Finally got around to looking at this, and yeah, that's really rough. $30 CAD for the eBook alone doesn't seem too bad, but another +90 CAD for getting a softcover version (or +110 for hardcover). Going by the campaign, it's 480 pages full color, that's about twice as thick as 2nd edition, which was mostly black and white. With that size I think going hardcover for the extra $20 is probably the better idea, but $140 is pricey.

For reference, the Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook hardcover is 640 pages full color and $105 CAD on Amazon, but they are getting some economies of scale given the popularity and traditional printing.

I do like that sample art though. Eldon Cowgur has done a decent job channeling Ghislain's original art.

I didn't play 2nd edition. Did they split off the tactical wargame from the RPG in the core book or was that later?