tre manor wrote:


I am in fact communicating with Dust Studios for the production on this project as well as the studio that handles a few other big name plastic lines. There will never be a mold line crossing a face on an RBG figure. Ever. I will take very special pains to make sure of this.

In fact I am trying to design the figures in such a way that parting lines will either be in areas where they will nto be easily visible or VERY easy to clean off. I am very well aware of the pains peopel have with PVC mold lines and I will take every effort I can to mitigate this.

Scale...... I am really nto sure that increasing the scale is really the right thing to do. However I DO see the need to change the way I do certain things to make the figure more painter friendly. CRoss compatibility is really not even a notion I have in the design for this game. It is going to be entirely it's own thing. this is nto fantasy with a new lick of paint this is a whole new sub genre with fantasy as it's root. Much in the same way that Kingdom Death of a new sub genre of Fantasy and Relic Knights is a new sub genre of Sci Fi. I do not mean to say that thsi will be SO far out of left field that you could not find uses for the figures in other games I am just saying that you will not look at these figures and think " Oh! That woudl make a great Dwarf Proxy or that woudl make a great Norse Barbarian proxy " instead you might look at these figures and think " Oh that would make a great primitive alien. " or " This will make a great Atlantean barbarian. " In some of these instances scale won't even be a consideration ( Mutants, Demons, and Lizardmen particularly ).

But just to allay any fears I am using the Zombiecide 1 figures as scale reference for the normal human proportions.


Detail in plastics........ This is something I have always harped on and been very very leery of through the metoeric rise of Kickstarter. I think that the main problem lies in design where many artists simply have not ( until recently ) had enough experience sculpting for plastic production to know how to avoid problems due to the process itself. I think that exaggerating certain features of the face ( part between the lips, depth of the cheeks from the brow and nose bridge, cut of the eyes etc ) I can avoid "nofacitis ". I have seen PVC figures with pretty damned good detail even if the detail is not as sharp as metal.

As for the figures themselves......Well some figures will be multi part kits which are goign to made in such a way as to allow people to pose and customize their forces. This has always been a goal here. I want people to tell their own stories with their war bands. I want people to look at warband creation in this game the same way a role player looks at character creation or party creation in a role playing game. Thsi will make balancing the system very difficult but I think it will be very rewarding to do so.

So a lot of the figures will be " kits " where people will be able to interchange heads, torsos ( with the upper arms attached ) hand options ( right and left forearms with weapons in hand ) legs and certain armor pieces and decorations ( shoulder armour, head dress elements, various decorative elements) etc to make their forces a bti more unique and personal.

There will usually be two or three different troop types with each of the types havign cross compatible parts. Obviously there will have to be some kits that will not interchange with ALL parts ( SOME heavy weapon fighters won;t be able to make use of all elements for example ) but or the most part all parts withint he same faction will interchange across that faction. So you could take a set of unarmoured legs and pair them with a heavy armoured torso, a bare head , one heavy armoured weapon arm on the right and an unarmored shield arm on the left and a particular back standard that might have a special game rule applied to it to grant it's wearer immunity to fire or the ability to safely leap the height of 5 men up and 5 men across once or twice per game or for a specific cost of action points ( magical jump pack ). Or maybe you give the same figure a demon mask that grants him a breath weapon attack or an aura of fear which reduces his enemies morale or melee skill?

These effects will be represented in card form BTW for some insight into how the game works. These cards will be " played " as expendable resources.

Aaaaaaaaanyhoo............. Yes there will be multipart kits to allow for customization in varying degrees. Some figures will be highly customizable and some will be less customizable ( heroes and special characters etc ) and then there will be some figures which will be single piece. These will usually be the cannon fodder figures or less prominent unit types, cultist acolytes and the Piteous Beset ( lesser undead ) for the Undead faction spring to mind.

Any multipart figures will always be fitted for easy assembly with plug an socket fittings, ball and socket fittings, piloted pin points etc.

Harder plastic weapons...... Again this is entirely possible but may ultimately depend on funding. Those harder plastic bits have to cast from a more expensive tool.

I am trying to build all costs in to the price though.

I am going to keep the price as low as possible. At first, the starter set might not seem like a fantastic deal ( I am figuring about $5.50 per figure in the starter set initially ) but if the funding allows the deal will get progressively better as more backers join in. I am going to plan that most stretch goals will add to the starter set with a very few add-on sets coming after the starter sets have been well built up and made a better value per figure. It will really all come down to the number of backers who join in. That said I am not planning this to need 1000's of backers to succeed. Right now, based on my estimates and what I plan to produce maybe 900 backers total will fund everything I have planned.

Also there WILL be early birds pledge levels. As much as I have bemoaned the practice I have come to understand it's benefit and usefulness. These early birds will offer a substantial discount on each set but will be very strictly limited and will of course grow in value with the development of the campaign.

The starter sets will include initially:

1-3 " masters " ( these are the leaders )
1-2 " greater " monster minions ( Specialists )
6-8 " lesser " minions ( grunts ) *

And if funding allows will expand with;

2-4 " lesser " monster minions
1-2 Heroes ( auxiliary leaders )*
2-4 additional alternate " lesser minions ( more grunts )*
2-4 " Greater " minions ( auxiliary specialists )*

*modularly fitted for customization.

Each figure will have a character card included with it describing it's basic game rules. There would be other decks produced for items, spells, powers, effects, events, terrain, scenarios, etc. Each faction starter would also include a few faction specific item, spell, power, event cards.

So the intial barbarian starter might look like;

Shaman x 1
Demon Summons x 1
Lesser Warriors x 6 ( sculpt a + b + x 3 )

and expand as such;

SG 1 + Lesser demons summons x 2
SG 2 + Lesser Warrior Hero x 1
SG 3 + Lesser warrior alt sculpt c
SG 4 + Berserkers x 2 ( sculpt a )
SG 5 + Lesser warriors alt sculpt d x 2 ( 8 total figures per set )
SG 6 + Berserker hero

Each Stretch Goal would also expand ALL factions in funding. So no one would be sat waiting for " their turn " at a stretch goal.



THIS IS ALL STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS based on estimates without the actual figures on hand so these plans are subject to change but this is what I am planning right now based on months of research.


So anyway I need to get back to work. These figures won;t sculpt themselves!

Cheers Yall!

Tre'

 Da Boss wrote:
One question I was just mulling over: I see a lot of controversy swirling around DUST on the boards. I'm not very up to speed about it at all, but are they the same manufacturer Tre is considering? Are they reliable?

 tre manor wrote:
In fact I am trying to design the figures in such a way that parting lines will either be in areas where they will nto be easily visible or VERY easy to clean off. I am very well aware of the pains peopel have with PVC mold lines and I will take every effort I can to mitigate this.

Scale...... I am really nto sure that increasing the scale is really the right thing to do. However I DO see the need to change the way I do certain things to make the figure more painter friendly

In some of these instances scale won't even be a consideration ( Mutants, Demons, and Lizardmen particularly ).

But just to allay any fears I am using the Zombiecide 1 figures as scale reference for the normal human proportions.

 tre manor wrote:
Detail in plastics........ This is something I have always harped on and been very very leery of through the metoeric rise of Kickstarter. I think that the main problem lies in design where many artists simply have not ( until recently ) had enough experience sculpting for plastic production to know how to avoid problems due to the process itself. I think that exaggerating certain features of the face ( part between the lips, depth of the cheeks from the brow and nose bridge, cut of the eyes etc ) I can avoid "nofacitis ". I have seen PVC figures with pretty damned good detail even if the detail is not as sharp as metal.

As for the figures themselves......Well some figures will be multi part kits which are goign to made in such a way as to allow people to pose and customize their forces. This has always been a goal here. I want people to tell their own stories with their war bands. I want people to look at warband creation in this game the same way a role player looks at character creation or party creation in a role playing game. Thsi will make balancing the system very difficult but I think it will be very rewarding to do so.

So a lot of the figures will be " kits " where people will be able to interchange heads, torsos ( with the upper arms attached ) hand options ( right and left forearms with weapons in hand ) legs and certain armor pieces and decorations ( shoulder armour, head dress elements, various decorative elements) etc to make their forces a bti more unique and personal.

 tre manor wrote:
Ok I do not have any of the zombiecide humans. I only have the zombies.

 tre manor wrote:
season 1Taarnak.

And thanks RiTides. In so far as I am informed you buy the entire mold whether you fill it up or not. Depending on the figure and it's composition I could probably get anywhere from 12 ( single piece ) to 6 ( large multi part ) figures into a tool and then you MUST buy a minimum quantity of casts. Even if I do not order the minimum I will still pay for the minimum.

I am not at all opposed to runnign a really quick and dirty KS to fill a tool and minimum order for a few figures. It certianly couldn;t hurt could it?

Question is though......what should I do for the test run?? Adventurers? Monsters? Troops?

 Alpharius wrote:
Definitely a mix as I've no doubt that larger monsters will be just fine in PVC, whereas the smaller human sized figures are where you'd really need to show that everything will be able to hold your detail and expectations!

 tre manor wrote:
........It just occurred to me that PVC would make a set of cavalry very much affordable..... Hmmm.....

 tre manor wrote:
duly noted Wobble.

Yen I will definitely have the sculpts finished before launching the KS and have a quote from the manufacturer in hand as well.