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 Albertorius wrote:

BrandonKF wrote:
I am also aware of the issues with Blitz concerning your Southern Republican Army, warboss, but the most recent army-building system validates your combat groups from prior to Forged in Fire, yes?

I guess you could say that, in my case. Of course, problem is that he's done it by transforming half my Gears into Jägers, which doesn't really amuses all that much.

Many of the other half of the units are complete crap in the current beta version, but that might very well change.

I would hardly call the change from Rattlesnakes/Basilisks into Jager stats amusing.

My own efforts with them in my most recent game was rather decisive in telling me that standard Jagers/Rattlesnakes/Basilisks are best kept to cover of some form, and against more optimized units of Arrow Jaguars or a Coyote they quickly fall prey to overkill. Though it is not surprising when you're escorting two very large Visigoths and hoping to be the picket line for them. And in truth, both my Caiman and my Rattlesnake (with Jager stats) absorbed the brunt of three or four attacks apiece before succumbing.

For how many kinds of things there are, why shouldn't units be more standardized? I don't see that as a bad thing for a miniatures battle game.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
For how many kinds of things there are, why shouldn't units be more standardized? I don't see that as a bad thing for a miniatures battle game.

It's not a bad thing, per se. The problem here is the actual implementation. Why Basilisk/Rattlesnakes get transformed into Jägers, but other dozens of Gears don't get transformed into other generic designs, even when their stats are more similar than in the above case? Nobody knows. Doing a standarization for just those two but not anything else in the game, without rhyme or reason is... not good.

Then again standarization, in and of itself, it's not a bad thing, but it it is not a good thing either. It's just a thing.

OK, got it. I had thought someone had decided to get serious about simplifying things broadly across the board, versus arbitrary spot changes.

That's rather disappointing, but it is consistent with the notion that there is very little comprehensive concept behind what needs to be changed in the new edition, aside from this notion that the 1st edition RPG items need to carry through for all eternity in an excess of backward compatibility...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Smilodon_UP wrote:
Almost eight thousand registered members on the official forum, and just over one thousand backers for the KS campaign, yet after talk about the Alpha died down this past Spring the community as a whole is lucky if a few dozen folks are talking and/or arguing about HG somewhere on the web.

Where are the other 7,000 forum members, and why didn't they back the KS?

Had DP9 simply captured their existing base, they would have raised $1M in revenue, and the current $3k would be moot. Has anyone asked "why not"?

Most of those are dead accounts, from people long gone.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Has anyone asked "why not"?

Albertorius wrote:Most of those are dead accounts, from people long gone.

Which unfortunately pretty much says it all about Heavy Gear:
- No matter how many times new product is released or a reboot occurs the IP never seems to reach a subsequent threshold where the community significantly grows with new and/or returning players, or at least maintains its numbers, instead of entering another period of slump.

Were something missing from the setting, presentation, or what have you in the title I do not think people would be so attracted in the first place.
But as AegisFate, amongst a whole lot of others including y'all, pointed out here or elsewhere there is and always has been a very extreme situation with player retention as illustrated by the thousands of inactive if not dead accounts just on the official forum alone.

Even under the typical conditions where only 1-5% of members in any web venue are vocal folks there should be a hundred or more active posters on DP9, instead of just the few dozen scattered between five or six currently active sites/groups/conversations across the entire worldwideweb.
Given how there isn't those numbers of vocal sorts though, well, that speaks volumes about Heavy Gear & Dream Pod 9.


So yes, I agree completely John, that when better than say 7,500 or so actual non-spambot individuals were interested enough in HG to register on the official forums since it started in like 2004'ish, yet only a handful are left, is a "why" that does need to be competently investigated.

_
_

Well we'll see how a new plastic starter set can reignite things.

Add in the Heavy Gear Assault computer game going full beta and the RPG work that Arkrite press is doing and I think we've got it covered for putting a lot of attention back onto Heavy Gear.

It's true that there is not a ton of traffic on the Forum right now, but that is to be expected in a post-kickstarter situation. The number of orders that we are receiving is a far better litmus test for interest right now for our forum.

Cheers!
Dave


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And to paraphrase:

"Never doubt that a small and dedicated band of players can change the gaming world, in fact it is the only thing that ever has."

Cheers!

Dave, any comment on the much more important discussion of the last few pages regarding the unprecedented (in my experience following TTG kickstarters) of relocking an unlocked stretch goal despite relatively good pledge conversion rates? Did you and Robert think you were going to get every single dollar from every single pledge? I know you guys are busy chasing the next dollar (Chibi gears) and formatting the next update but some folks who just gave you money have posted some concerns.

 DP9Dave wrote:
"Never doubt that a small and dedicated band of players can change the gaming world, in fact it is the only thing that ever has."

But is all change, good change.
Is all change done in a useful and coherent fashion, respecting both the existing players and published material as well as potential players.

Because when that quote is applied to HG the moral seems to be, "That players can no longer use a model, book, or other product they bought is entirely their own fault for purchasing it in the first place, but everyone please keep supporting the Pod regardless so we can continue our 20 years of gaming excellence."

The massive loss of initially attracted players that continues into the present, as retention and not attention has been the theme more commonly discussed through both threads here on Dakka, is indicative of an environment where the company has little or no reciprocal investment in their playerbase once product has been purchased.


Which I think rather reinforces the previous question(s) asked of you and/or Robert about your KS campaign experiencing either a shortfall or roll-back of funds that removed a previously unlocked goal, where the consensus of quite a few folks is that either case should have been foreseen.

_
_

Update #69:

"We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. The Dream Pod 9 office will be closed this coming week for Christmas, but we`ll still be checking emails and answering questions.

First a quick update on the Pledge Manager. Total pledges are now at $149,085 CAD with 931 Backers registered and we have sent out another round of invite reminders to the 93 who still need to register. The Fundafull team have also unlock the Pledge Manager to allow new outside backers to join for our additional funding campaign to reach $185K CAD in total pledges and unlock a few more desired stretch goals not reached during the Kickstarter.

Here is the new direct link to setup an account on the War for Terra Nova Pledge Manager, for new backers who missed the Kickstarter campaign. If you already backed the Kickstarter don't use this link, you need to register using the invite email that was sent out to you previously.

https://www.fundafull.com/projects/dream-pod-9/heavy-gear-blitz-war-for-terra-nova-starter-set/outside-backers

Its the Christmas Holiday season again and every year Dream Pod 9 makes an exclusive Xmas mini for our online store. This year during the Christmas Holidays (December 17th, 2014 to the morning of January 5th, 2015) all Dream Pod 9 Online Store orders over $100.00 USD will receive one of the Xmas 2014 Chibi Hunter resin miniatures (unassembled and unpainted) as a Christmas Gift at no charge (limit 1 free gift per customer). We are also offering the Xmas 2014 mini for sale at a cost of $19.99 USD for those that want extra copies. Please do not add your 'free' miniature to your cart. Any Xmas 2014 Chibi Hunters added to your cart will be charged the normal price. Here is a direct link to its ordering if you want to purchase one and have it shipped right away.

Special Note for all our Kickstarter Backers, after the Christmas Holidays are done on January 5th, 2015 we plan to make the Chibi Hunter resin miniature available as an Add-on the in the Pledge Manager for $23 CAD each. So Backers can get it added to their reward package when it ships later in 2015, and it will help raise more pledges to unlock the additional stretch goals.

We have been busy working on first layout of the Heavy Gear Blitz Living Rulebook Beta. We received lots of great feedback and suggestions on the layout from our Facebook and Forum pages. One of which was to try and make it more printer friendly and not have large black stripes with white lettering, which uses a lot of ink or toner. Below are sample of the North Forces and North Models List. The North Forces has a light blue North tab on the side of the page to find sections fast when flipping through a printout. We used the blue faction color with just a 20% tint to save ink or toner on the printout. The North Models List shows all the different faction tabs, but normally only the color tab for the faction would be on the page. Plus we added the text "Living Rulebook Beta Ver. 1.0" small under the Heavy Gear Blitz Logo, so players will always know on each page which version of the rules they are looking at. We still have a lot of work to do on the ebook layout and hope to get it finished up during the Christmas Holidays and released before the end of the year."

Link to the respective post is here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-blitz-war-for-terra-nova-starter-set/posts/1090310

Still can't give a flying flip about the chibi, but so, so, SO happy to hear the efforts towards printer-friendlydom.

Maybe it has something to do with the Chibi Hunter being really ugly?

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Maybe it has something to do with the Chibi Hunter being really ugly?

Plus the waste of time and resources its design, marketing, and promotion represents. I get that it's nice to have a... a.... a whatever, for Christmas, but there's bigger fish to fry right now. Throwing in an extra Gear of your choice with every order, or something, would've been a better Christmas gift than something new. Or just $20 off, since the chibi is apparently worth that.

But! Layout improvements! That's been a problem for a while now, and it's good to see steps being taken to address it.

I started playing Heavy Gear quite some time ago and stopped many months before Forged in Fire came out. I bought FiF, felt kind of lukewarm about it and never ended up playing a game with it. I watched this kickstarter but with no concrete answer of what material they were planning on using, with no actual models to show my what I'd be buying and with some renders that were laughably bad, I couldn't even begin to consider putting even a dollar in.

Henshini wrote:
I started playing Heavy Gear quite some time ago and stopped many months before Forged in Fire came out. I bought FiF, felt kind of lukewarm about it and never ended up playing a game with it. I watched this kickstarter but with no concrete answer of what material they were planning on using, with no actual models to show my what I'd be buying and with some renders that were laughably bad, I couldn't even begin to consider putting even a dollar in.

Given that they've already reneged on unlocked stretch goals, I think you made the right move.

Henshini wrote:
I watched this kickstarter but with no concrete answer of what material they were planning on using, with no actual models to show my what I'd be buying and with some renders that were laughably bad, I couldn't even begin to consider putting even a dollar in.

Putting down an option marker for the models is worth less than a dollar. Fortunately, Canadian dollars are worth less than real dollars, so it's fair.

The inexperience that is being revealed demonstrates that it would have been foolish for putting in more than that.

If the stars line up, and it looks like DP9 will actually have product to deliver, then I'd consider to buy the minis.

Of course, the game itself still looks terrible, but it's not like the game can't be adapted to a 40k3 engine for smooth play.

 Firebreak wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Maybe it has something to do with the Chibi Hunter being really ugly?

Plus the waste of time and resources its design, marketing, and promotion represents. I get that it's nice to have a... a.... a whatever, for Christmas, but there's bigger fish to fry right now. Throwing in an extra Gear of your choice with every order, or something, would've been a better Christmas gift than something new. Or just $20 off, since the chibi is apparently worth that.

But! Layout improvements! That's been a problem for a while now, and it's good to see steps being taken to address it.

Glad you like the layout and the printer friendly improvements. The Chibi didn't take any resources away from the Kickstarter since it was sculpted by Phil and he does stuff with plasticard and green stuff, not digitally. If you don't like it that's fine, the general response is that it is cute as heck and a fun change from yet another mod sculpt. Though I am seriously thinking of modding a Mammoth to match.

Cheers!
Dave




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 frozenwastes wrote:

Henshini wrote:
I started playing Heavy Gear quite some time ago and stopped many months before Forged in Fire came out. I bought FiF, felt kind of lukewarm about it and never ended up playing a game with it. I watched this kickstarter but with no concrete answer of what material they were planning on using, with no actual models to show my what I'd be buying and with some renders that were laughably bad, I couldn't even begin to consider putting even a dollar in.

Given that they've already reneged on unlocked stretch goals, I think you made the right move.

I think you have to check terms of service. Stretch goals are unlocked by pledges, but actual pledge levels reached are only determined after all the backers are contacted. There are always a few kickstarter trolls who pledge out of maliciousness and then renege on their pledge by blocking their payment, it just happens. We had less than 2% of our funding affected by this which is quite low, but significant. Regardless the people who have jumped in through the pledge manager should be covering more than the shortfall though I haven't seen the numbers in a week, due to vacation. We've already announced where the extended pledging period leads, hopefully to three more stretch goals (Kodiak, Ammon, Weapons sprue). The King Cobra was at risk only after the initial call out, now it's almost certainly a lock. I'll confirm that for you as soon as I can.

Certainly we've been listening to the comments on the sculpt quality and have sent some back to be reworked with a few more details. The tolerances of the mold mean that things like the crash bars on chins and such are only a millimeter thick, not too near the minimum allowed but getting on the thin side for issues like cracking or breaking parts. You also have to ask yourself about how busy the designs have to be. A model from infinity will have layers and layers of texture and detail. Frankly I find them maddening to paint since there's no space for decals or freehand work, it's all just basecoat/ink/highlights everywhere.

Cheers!
Dave

 DP9Dave wrote:

I think you have to check terms of service. Stretch goals are unlocked by pledges, but actual pledge levels reached are only determined after all the backers are contacted. There are always a few kickstarter trolls who pledge out of maliciousness and then renege on their pledge by blocking their payment, it just happens. We had less than 2% of our funding affected by this which is quite low, but significant.

Sorry, Dave, but that is trying to have your cake and eat it too. If the amount was actually lower than you knew about and expected, you SHOULD have planned for it in the funding buffer and it shouldn't have been significant enough to go back on your word about the last stretch goal at the expense of backers. If the amount was more than standard/expected, the situation would be different. What happens when your manufacturer increases costs a small amount in 2015? Will you roll the King Cobra back again due to that forseen but unaccounted for cost? Also, if 2% of your pledges didn't go through, I don't think it is fair to call folks "trolls" as that is 1 in 50 credit cards in effect... incorrectly entered numbers, spending limits reached during the intervening weeks during the holiday shopping season, or unexpected complications like not specifically enabling international purchases on your card are benign normal reasons for the miniscule amount of roughly 1 in 50 pledges not going through. You don't have to instantly resort to the paranoid idea that "malicious trolls" are out to get you and your little dog too.

After 12 months I would expect most of the folks here to have had their cake and eat it at least once.

Folks can also decide not to resort to instant 'Oh, they didn't plan this out and they are cheating us!', when half said posters didn't even chip in a full hundred dollars (less than American or not) into the plate.

For those who are so reserved, I say go ahead and keep your reservations and let Dream Pod 9 make their updates, but don't expect instant response on this forum as a result. If you would like to make your input directly, feel free to get on the DP9 forums in the KS forum and ask a few questions.

 DP9Dave wrote:

I think you have to check terms of service.

Any time you have to refer to technicalities in the terms of service or other fine print, things have already left a state of honest straightforward dealing.

November 22: "We passed $150K in Pledges and stretch goal 18 has been unlocked, we'll be adding 1 Southern King Cobra to the Core Starter Set."

Or you won't add one. Even though you said you would. Because of a technicality in the terms of service.

Stay classy DP9.


.

And you want to stay classy by putting in a little quote for yourself, frozenwastes?

I believe Dave explained that others could join in on the Kickstarter and not only add to the goal of the King Cobra, but also unlock the other three primary assets that were offered in the first 30-day run for those who wanted to get the miniatures.

Yet that particular part of the quote you seem to have conveniently forgotten.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, I won't even demean your intelligence by saying you have forgotten. You read it. You didn't acknowledge this part because it does not suit your views. So be it.

As much as it might be in any TOS, it looks bad to say one thing over the KS and another thing after, and remember that promises made during the KS period are a binding contract.

It would have been a lot smarter to just maintain the next stretch goal levels on the post-KS pledging plattform but adding 3k to the first.

BrandonKF wrote:
Folks can also decide not to resort to instant 'Oh, they didn't plan this out and they are cheating us!', when half said posters didn't even chip in a full hundred dollars (less than American or not) into the plate.

Last I checked, there was no $100 minimum buy in to call a spade a spade. The fact is that they took the unprecedented (in my KS tabletop watching experience) step of reneging on a stretch goal after being blessed with what they admit is a better than average/expected pledge conversion rate. There were better and fair alternatives that would have avoided this but they chose as usual to take worst road to the $3,000. That type of move is inline with the very unfriendly moves the company has taken with regards to their fanbase for decades and exactly the type of thing they were supposed to be not doing with the "new leaf" that this kickstarter was supposed to represent. In the end, what matters is if the pledgers get their contractually agreed upon models regardless of what self serving roadblocks and hurdles DP9 unilaterally decides to throw up in the meantime. If they deliver, they've met their legal obligations. How they get there will just determine what percentage of backers they keep as customers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrandonKF wrote:

For those who are so reserved, I say go ahead and keep your reservations and let Dream Pod 9 make their updates, but don't expect instant response on this forum as a result. If you would like to make your input directly, feel free to get on the DP9 forums in the KS forum and ask a few questions.

And if Dave doesn't like your input then he'll just prune the thread and lock it like he did with the Kickstarter Feedback thread.

BrandonKF wrote:Yet that particular part of the quote you seem to have conveniently forgotten.

No, I left it out because it was off topic. The part of the 22nd update I quoted was where they specifically said the item was unlocked and will. be. included. You know, the relevant part.

Actually, I won't even demean your intelligence by saying you have forgotten. You read it. You didn't acknowledge this part because it does not suit your views. So be it.

My views are that when you say you do something and then point at fine print in a terms of service agreement to excuse not doing it, you have demonstrated a lack of integrity. I really can't see how any of the text of the November 22nd update that I left out could possibly make that okay.

Folks can also decide not to resort to instant 'Oh, they didn't plan this out and they are cheating us!', when half said posters didn't even chip in a full hundred dollars (less than American or not) into the plate.

Into the plate? DP9 is not a church passing a collection plate (at least they're not my church, maybe they are yours?). They are not a charity. They are not even a local community group. They are a for profit business.

When people point out issues, you claim they have an agenda and look for ways you can accuse them of intellectual dishonesty or lump them into a group of haters or something. It's a very us-vs-them mentality. The real thing you (and more importantly DP9) should be asking is why there are so many ex-customers/supporters of DP9 at all?

 frozenwastes wrote:

No, I left it out because it was off topic. The part of the 22nd update I quoted was where they specifically said the item was unlocked and will. be. included. You know, the relevant part.

No. The relevant part was the entire thing, which you conveniently ignore.

Into the plate? DP9 is not a church passing a collection plate (at least they're not my church, maybe they are yours?). They are not a charity. They are not even a local community group. They are a for profit business.

When people point out issues, you claim they have an agenda and look for ways you can accuse them of intellectual dishonesty or lump them into a group of haters or something. It's a very us-vs-them mentality. The real thing you (and more importantly DP9) should be asking is why there are so many ex-customers/supporters of DP9 at all?

The 'real thing' you bring up has been discussed. It has been argued. It has been dredged up and gone over more times than is feasible within the context of the 'why you don't' thread.

Since then, Dream Pod 9 has now begun opening up dialogue with folks concerning the Kickstarter, and they have been addressing the issues.

After the direction that this discussion took, I opened a poll on the Terra Nova DMZ Facebook Group.

During the course of the discussion, several of the members pointed out that yes, it would be 'shady' of Dream Pod 9 to renege on the purchases, especially for those who had specifically put in money for additional King Cobras. I can understand that concern. Others expressed that while it was not shady, it was very disappointing. Again, I agree.

Over the course of the discussion, however, it was pointed out that Dream Pod 9 has been very honest, and was willing to take a hit by admitting upfront that the original pledge level had been reached. Many agreed that it was disappointing. Those who were worried about where their money would go offered several alternative means of gaining additional miniatures.

Then Mr. Dubois interjected with the following post:

"Here is a quick update on where the funding stands right now with the Pledge Manager we are at $149,656 CAD just $344 short of the $150K. We have not removed the King Cobra from the Core Starter KIt or from the Pledge Manager as an add-on available, and we have no intention of doing that. In fact we opened up the Pledge Manager to new backers, so we can try to get a few more stretch goals that were not unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign. We'll be making a big push after the holidays when we are back in the office to get more Backers.

As it stands right now we just need 3 new Backers at $115 each to hit $150K. Just 87 more backers after that at $115 each will unlock the Kodiak at $160K and add one to the Core Starter Set. And another 87 gets the Ammon unlocked at $170K and one added to the Core Starter Set.

After that is the final additional goal at $185K or 131 new backers at $115 to unlock the Extra Weapons and Parts Sprue which would then be available to all Backers as a $10 Add-on reward if they want to get it. So we need a grand total of 308 new backers at $115 each to make this happen without existing Backers pledging more. We think that will be easily to accomplished over the next 2 months, with a little help from all the Backer in getting the word out, the Core Starter Set is a pretty amazing deal. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. Robert Dubois (President Dream Pod 9)"

One of the Backers asked: "What I'm not sure of is: How do we get updates on the pledge total now that it's all being done in the pledge manager and not KS?"

Mr. Dubois' response: "The pledge manager was not designed to run a funding campaign, so we are going to have to things manually for now, we have a dashboard when we login that shows the total pledges and another number that shows how much is set aside for shipping on US and Canadian Backers so far. We then manually subtract the shipping number from the total pledges to get the real total pledge number. I have asked our webmaster to get the pledge total added to our website when we are back from the holidays and we'll need to manually update it each night for now."

So, to summarize:

1. King Cobra is not being taken away from Pledge Goals.
2. Current funding number: $149,656 CAD
3. Additional miniatures are available if folks decide to go to the Fundafull link and add their own Core Starter Sets. An additional 330 members
4. The additional funding period extends out for the next 2 months.
5. The total pledge number will be manually updated by Dream Pod 9, along with the amount of money that is to be set aside for shipping.

BrandonKF wrote:

So, to summarize:

1. King Cobra is not being taken away from Pledge Goals.
2. Current funding number: $149,656 CAD

Good to hear that they've reversed that decision (albeit after they've seen that they didn't need to do it in the first place as the funding has reached 75% of the shortfall that they should have planned for in the first place). I just hope they don't try to reinsert that foot yet again into any of their own front side or pledgers' backsides.

 DP9Dave wrote:

 Firebreak wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Maybe it has something to do with the Chibi Hunter being really ugly?

Plus the waste of time and resources its design, marketing, and promotion represents. I get that it's nice to have a... a.... a whatever, for Christmas, but there's bigger fish to fry right now. Throwing in an extra Gear of your choice with every order, or something, would've been a better Christmas gift than something new. Or just $20 off, since the chibi is apparently worth that.

But! Layout improvements! That's been a problem for a while now, and it's good to see steps being taken to address it.

Glad you like the layout and the printer friendly improvements. The Chibi didn't take any resources away from the Kickstarter since it was sculpted by Phil and he does stuff with plasticard and green stuff, not digitally. If you don't like it that's fine, the general response is that it is cute as heck and a fun change from yet another mod sculpt. Though I am seriously thinking of modding a Mammoth to match.

Cheers!
Dave

 frozenwastes wrote:

Henshini wrote:
I started playing Heavy Gear quite some time ago and stopped many months before Forged in Fire came out. I bought FiF, felt kind of lukewarm about it and never ended up playing a game with it. I watched this kickstarter but with no concrete answer of what material they were planning on using, with no actual models to show my what I'd be buying and with some renders that were laughably bad, I couldn't even begin to consider putting even a dollar in.

Given that they've already reneged on unlocked stretch goals, I think you made the right move.

I think you have to check terms of service.

Cheers!
Dave

First, The happy weed you're smokin' is some good reality-altering stuff. OTOH, I guess if you only sit in an echo chamber of fanboys and white knights, I suppose the world can look like it's always roses.

Second, thanks for confirming DP9 actually did renege on the King Cobra sculpt. It's good to know for a fact that DP9 is as shameless as its worst detractors imagine. When you figure out what your actual offer is going to be, please let us all know. In the mean time, I'm holding at 1 CAD, not a penny more.

Just was reading the comments, there are a few on Dakka that don't like us and there is not much we can do about it.

I finally took a look at Brandon's facebook group and found this part of Robert Dubois' post that he (smartly) edited out from his update above. Since Robert is actually reading this thread, I've got a tip for you. There is something you can do about the negativity and it starts with rebuilding the trust that your company has thrown away repeatedly over the past two decades. The first step would be to NOT break your word when YOU don't plan projects with due diligence. You, as head of DP9, should have built in a buffer into the pledge amount to account for the entirely predictable small percentage of pledges that don't go through. You've been running the business as head of the company for over a decade now IIRC... when people order on the website, does EVERY SINGLE credit card purchase go through? No, it likely doesn't. Rolling back a stretch goal because you experienced a LOWER than expected pledge drop rate is like a FLGS taking out something of value from every preorder customer who paid at the store because someone else shoplifted to make up the shortfall. If you're running the business, you are expected to know what your own risks are and to plan appropriately for them, not to pass the buck to the people who went out on a limb to give you money almost a year (assuming you're not delayed like most every other KS) upfront.

Robert and Dave, only you two have the power to rebuild the HG and DP9 brands and a good start would be to follow Wheaton's Law.

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325176-wheatons-law

 warboss wrote:

Just was reading the comments, there are a few on Dakka that don't like us and there is not much we can do about it.

I finally took a look at Brandon's facebook group and found this part of Robert Dubois' post that he (smartly) edited out from his update above. Since Robert is actually reading this thread, I've got a tip for you. There is something you can do about the negativity and it starts with rebuilding the trust that your company has thrown away repeatedly over the past two decades. The first step would be to NOT break your word when YOU don't plan projects with due diligence.

It is interesting that a company would make such a statement, but then, if they insulate themselves with fans, then any questions or criticism will naturally appear hostile. The interesting thing is the attitude of "not much we can do about it".

Many had ignored Dream Pod 9 and Heavy Gear for years until the KS came out. Now, a lot of eyes are on them, and people are talking, asking questions. Some are asking uncomfortable and challenging questions. But as I see it, a lot of this is self-inflicted. The decision to renege on the King Cobra is an excellent example.

DP9 claims there's not much to be done, but that's because they choose not to change. They hope to reap substantial rewards of new players and new revenue without substantially changing business practices. Which raises the question of why KS at all?

Still, if one believes there is no future, then one will invariably be proven right.

Right well lets clear this up now.

The King Cobra is not cancelled, but it was a question for a while when we were several thousand short. That issue seems to have tidied itself up so the King Cobra is on and hopefully we'll see the Kodiak, Ammon and the weapons sprue by the end of January.

Even if you are only going to pledge $1 please make sure you complete the registration with the pledge manager.

Cheers!
Dave