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Shipyard was a good, quick read. Good primer before I get into the novels.

I love short stories in general, so very nice of you guys to release one for people to dip their toes in! I bought the novels but probably won't get time to do them justice for a while, so this is perfect

Out of curiosity, will the Epirians be compatible with GW, Mad Robot or Victoria Miniatures bits? I'm assuming that the figures were designed with customization in mind.

Backed for 2 terrain sprue today - not massively interested in the game but the terrain sprue was a great idea.

RITides, do you mean the actual paperbacks? Has there been any word when we can buy the salute leftovers?

I was referring the "The Shipyard", which is a free short story

Here's the update, and a direct link to the short story PDF:

http://www.maelstromsedge.com/The%20Shipyard.pdf

Thanks for the feedback on the story everybody! There'll be more to come over the course of the Kickstarter.

Speaking of which, today and yesterday we posted up some of our early concept work for the Epirian Foundation and Karist Enclave:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1218430

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1219144

Bob, we're working on ways to get the paperbacks out to those who want them but it takes a bit of time to ensure we can send it reliably to everybody. More detail soon, I promise!

 darrkespur wrote:
Thanks for the feedback on the story everybody! There'll be more to come over the course of the Kickstarter.

Speaking of which, today and yesterday we posted up some of our early concept work for the Epirian Foundation and Karist Enclave:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1218430

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1219144

Bob, we're working on ways to get the paperbacks out to those who want them but it takes a bit of time to ensure we can send it reliably to everybody. More detail soon, I promise!

The concept work is great to see and the shipyard was a good read (and short enough to not give me headaches)

Thanks for giving us an update on the paperbacks, I am champing at the bit to get at copies.

I like the mech designs, I'll be looking into getting some of those at retail regardless of what happens with my backing status and whether or not they get added to the main pledge or not.

Like the Epirian gun tech, magnetic acceleration which allows for caseless bullets and for the Epirians to bring MOAR ammo Plus the interchangeable ammo between pistols, rifles, and some drone armaments.

I also liked the station-safe ammo they used in the second novel, guns are somehow networked and detonate the rounds before they impact the hull so no penetrations. And if you shoot a person? Same thing as a bolter round

Thank you, darrkespur. I hope the hunter robot unlocks soon. I think he will really bring some more pledges in.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Thank you, darrkespur. I hope the hunter robot unlocks soon. I think he will really bring some more pledges in.

Oh yes, I really agree with Bob. Having something like that Hunter showing up as a stretch goal will really drive some pledges. Right now we have the terrain sprue, but since it's separately purchasable, I don't think there is as much of a drive.

Drop in that hunter and things will start moving pretty fast!

It'll be interesting to see how that works in practice. I infer, and thus could be wrong about, that all items they have planned will show up in some form or another and will be purchase-able as add-ons even if they're not a formal stretch goal. What the stretch goals are "really" for is how much ends up in the core box "for free" versus how much is add-on only.

It could lead to this interesting scenario where lego posts the Hunter for $15 at the appointed hour. Bob decides he likes that design enough to up his pledge. A week or so later towards the end of the campaign, a stretch goal is hit to include a Hunter in the core box. Bob, now insanely bitter about his inability to consume narrative from the inscribed carcass of arboreal lifeforms, drops the $15 from his pledge because he doesn't see anything else to spend it on. This cycle repeats itself for number X of backers, and the funding moves backwards a noticeable amount, potentially below the stretch goal.

Obviously that's a transient sort of issue that's only a "problem" right at the very end where it'd likely be overshadowed by the "OMG it's almost closed!" rush. I'm also sure the guys have thought that scenario through already, but I'm curious to see it in action. Still plenty of time left before we have to worry about Bitter Bob and the Add-on of Doom though.

I was thinking about that too. Addons in this case fuel stretch goal completion, but the stretch goals mitigate the need for the add-on costs. At least for some.

Maybe not as much backsliding as bottlenecking once a certain point is reached.

Robotech had alot of goals like that which initially unlocked as add ons and later a separate goal for a free amount. That was a very high pledge total project though with a much faster rise and lots of subsequently lots of problems that are still ongoing.

Make the drones add ons. Once a stretch goal is met, and the item included in the sweet spot pledge, why not give people the option to buy more?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, "Bitter Bob?"

 warboss wrote:
Robotech had alot of goals like that which initially unlocked as add ons and later a separate goal for a free amount. That was a very high pledge total project though with a much faster rise and lots of subsequently lots of problems that are still ongoing.

Yeah, overstetching to draw in pledges seems to be a really common theme with a lot of Kickstarters. In that regard, I think pledgers for MEdge will be very satisfied with the turnaround time. However, I do think a couple of exciting goals that can only be attained by hitting stretch goals (that aren't too far apart, mind you) will help bring in more funding.

Thanks for putting out the full body pics of the Hunter, guys. I love it. And, I want several. Too bad it won't actually be articulated though. I'm hoping that it'll be designed to allow modelers to easily adjust the posing so that they aren't all static.

Also, that Karist with the hood firing the psitol in that piece of artwork, what is he? Will we be seeing a figure of that guy? The Karist artwork really makes them look cool and has got me fired up to build some.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Also, "Bitter Bob?"

Yes, for not having his dead trees on the way by the end of the campaign. The alliteration just worked in this case.

OT: It DID give me an idea for a dice and card game though. Push-your-luck game based on a theme of crowd-funding campaigns. More people buying in means more stuff, but a higher chance that something goes wrong (and something can always go wrong regardless of size). Person who gets the most return after a certain number of rounds wins! Advanced rules for selling your stuff on and having to dodge the spouse for added fun!

I would say that they will need to be VERY careful about how clearly they show the size of the hunter if they have to rely on art/prototypes in islolation

people will assume its as big as X (insert whatever mini they want to counts-as) and will then get cross when it's too big or too small

lots of measurements, lots of pictures alongside existing known minis etc

 Barzam wrote:
Thanks for putting out the full body pics of the Hunter, guys. Too bad it won't actually be articulated though.

Not articulated? You dont know how awesome our tooling is yet

The hunter has:
- ball joints on the hips
- 180 degree joints on the feet
- partial ball joints on the shoulders (easily extended)
- 80 degree joints at the elbows
- rotatable hand
- 3-5 alternate guns depending how you count it
- 2 alternate rocket pods

The hunter is extremely pose able, though we do seem to keep assembling it the same way. You can have it crushing stuff underfoot which at the end of the day is all we really want from big robots.

Barzam probably wants Polycaps.

Polycaps make everything better.

Full articulation!? Holy gak. I was already sold. Now it seems I'll need several.

Yeah, polycaps would make things even better, but I'm down with full articulation in general.

Ball joints are great, saves me time when I go to ball-joint magnetize

It is fully sliding core across three (tiny) sprues as well, so no seams on any limbs - all limbs are single parts (up to the joints) with sockets in all the right places.

 legoburner wrote:
with sockets in all the right places.

That's what I like to hear!

So put a few in the main pledge already.

Some pics would be nice.

The terrain stretch goal is a little flat now that you can just add the sprues on. I'd like to see some extra SWAG.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
So put a few in the main pledge already.

I'm sure it would be in there at a certain stretch goal threshold.

Yes, but will the campaign make it that far without a boost?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yes, but will the campaign make it that far without a boost?

Barzam will find a way to put polycaps in it.

I'd be itnerested in one, especially if it scales well with my Rangers Project Salamanders and/ or Gundams.
Nobody wants rinky dink mecha!

I predict we'll see Hunter sprues/ painted shots before the end of the week.


These guys know exactly how to push our buttons to get us interested, what with being our hivemind and all...