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Here is a link to the rule overview PDF.

http://www.maelstromsedge.com/rules.pdf

According to the little cards there the basic Contractor squad is worth 10 points and a Karist trooper squad is 13 points(having 1 higher AV, Skill, and way better Willpower, and a special rule)

It can't open on my tablet, so I'll have to look at it later, but thanks. I'll probably understand more of what people are talking about.

Tibbsy wrote:

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
As such, the actual reloadable bullet elements are smaller and inserted into the rear of the master magazine. The bullets run out before the energy supply, so rather than carrying more than is needed, the bullet elements of the magazine are ejected and replaced within the larger 'full' magazine itself. Because of this standardisation around a small shape, contractors and drones can resupply each other without having to reload full magazines.

Have you got any concept sketches and drawing detail of how this works? I'm such a nerd for this sort of thing and I'm sure others would be interested too!

Only the writing to date. We have an ex-US military core team member as well as high level general nerds and physicists, so you can rest assured we've spent far more time than is healthy designing sci-fi weapons which are believable and interesting!

Vermonter wrote:Are there plans in the future for any alien factions based on a single alien race, rather than a "star wars" mix of various aliens and humans? Dreamforge is currently working on the Shadokesh, 40K has the Tau, the Eldar, the Orks, the Tyranids, the Necrons, etc.

If not, is it because you consider a monolithic alien race faction a financial risk? Too old school? Too provincial? Too fattening?

What?

They are on the drawing board for the future, but we want to slowly drip into them as it would be very easy to get them wrong and create something which only a very small small subset of our fanbase are interested in using. There are entire alien civilisations out there towards the galactic rim though!

CREEEEEEEEED wrote:How much will models cost after kickstarted if we want to expand? (Obviously it will take a long time to paint all the models before getting more, but it would still be nice to know. Also, the model count seems slightly skewed towards the Epirian faction. Will there be a points system so you don't take everything in the box, or will some Karist units be slightly stronger with the Kaddar Nova and big angel model balancing it out?

It is too early to finalise specific pricing, but we'll be aiming to keep things as cheap as possible while still being able to sustain the project over the long term. They will definitely be strongly competitive with other offerings in the wider wargaming world, and we certainly dont want to be labelled as expensive. We'd all much sooner have people able to afford and collect forces from multiple factions than be locked in to one faction because it costs too much to expand!

In today's Kickstarter update, we have a free audiobook, Transit by Stephen Gaskell, one of our lead writers. It's available as a stream or mp3 download from the Kickstarter update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1226627

We hope you enjoy it! We have more stories to come over the course of the Kickstarter and we have lined up the recording of four more audiobooks should we hit the 55K stretch goal.

yeah,
Downloading now
Looking forward to listening while I hobby.

Thanx!

Panic...

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:

Vermonter wrote:Are there plans in the future for any alien factions based on a single alien race, rather than a "star wars" mix of various aliens and humans? Dreamforge is currently working on the Shadokesh, 40K has the Tau, the Eldar, the Orks, the Tyranids, the Necrons, etc.

If not, is it because you consider a monolithic alien race faction a financial risk? Too old school? Too provincial? Too fattening?

What?

They are on the drawing board for the future, but we want to slowly drip into them as it would be very easy to get them wrong and create something which only a very small small subset of our fanbase are interested in using. There are entire alien civilisations out there towards the galactic rim though!

Out of curiosity are you looking at the easy option of aliens in the vein of Star Trek / Star Wars / 40K (essentially humans with pie shaped prosthetics on their faces) or are you looking at doing something unique? It would be nice to see some really Alien aliens.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
How much will models cost after kickstarted if we want to expand? (Obviously it will take a long time to paint all the models before getting more, but it would still be nice to know. Also, the model count seems slightly skewed towards the Epirian faction. Will there be a points system so you don't take everything in the box, or will some Karist units be slightly stronger with the Kaddar Nova and big angel model balancing it out?

Yes, there is a points system, and as already mentioned, the Karists tend to be a little more of the 'elite' faction compared to the Epirian units that make up this initial offering. However, the final point values have not been finalized yet, so a bit of this is still up in the air pending some beta rules testing post-KS. In a perfect world the two forces in the box set will be 100% equally matched, but there are other variables involved, like what models make sense to fit into the box. For example, we're including 2 Hunters for the Epirians and only 1 adult Angel, because the Angel is a bigger model than the Hunters. So while we can definitely try to tweak the rules to make the Angel be as powerful as two Hunters combined, we also don't want to go overboard with forcing units to behave more or less powerfully then it feels like they 'should be' just to get the initial box set forces completely equalized.

So in the end, it may likely be the case where if you want to play with *just* all the models from a single starter boxed set, then the Karists will probably have to take all the most expensive unit options and the Epirians would have to take the least expensive unit options to have them be completely equal...but as mentioned above, none of that is finalized as of yet.

Looking forward to hearing the audio book. What's the runtime?

I finally read "Shipyard" last night. Definitely liked what I read. I really like the apocalyptic setting, so I think I'm going to be enjoying the fiction just as much as the game.

Its an hour in length. Pretty good stuff.

 Henry wrote:
Out of curiosity are you looking at the easy option of aliens in the vein of Star Trek / Star Wars / 40K (essentially humans with pie shaped prosthetics on their faces) or are you looking at doing something unique? It would be nice to see some really Alien aliens.

I've said it before, but "rubber forehead aliens" are a good opportunity to get more bang for your buck with your plastic kits. Think Asari and human women from Mass Effect: if they're using the same equipment, all you need is an extra half-dozen heads on the sprue and the one kit can be used to make an all-human army, an all-alien army, a mixed force or two opposing forces.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Henry wrote:
Out of curiosity are you looking at the easy option of aliens in the vein of Star Trek / Star Wars / 40K (essentially humans with pie shaped prosthetics on their faces) or are you looking at doing something unique? It would be nice to see some really Alien aliens.

I've said it before, but "rubber forehead aliens" are a good opportunity to get more bang for your buck with your plastic kits. Think Asari and human women from Mass Effect: if they're using the same equipment, all you need is an extra half-dozen heads on the sprue and the one kit can be used to make an all-human army, an all-alien army, a mixed force or two opposing forces.

Like with the wargames factory shock trooper sprue?

 MajorTom11 wrote:


So, assuming that is the case, then: you have the information you have, and the pics in front of you. Decide. It's totally cool not to buy. It's also ok to criticize what you don't like too even if you are not buying (assuming you won't make a habit of posting the exact same points on an hourly basis, at a certain point, that is just spam, general statement not directed at you). But being angry you haven't been convinced yet is not cool. Attacking people for saying they saw them like they are bought or privileged or both is not cool. At no point did either of them say 'I changed my mind, therefore so must you'. They just said THEY changed THEIR minds, fwiw, nothing more.

Oh, come on MajorTom. Please don't use hyperbole. Where am I attacking people?

I was responding to both Grey Templar and Ozy's posts which appeared to be aimed directly at the doubters.

Let's look at this post which set this ball rolling. Bold emphasis mine:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well today I got to look at some of the infantry sprues, and they're frankly stunning.

Anyone who has doubts about the Epirians needs to stop, because the details on those guys is exquisite. I'd say they're just as good as what Wyrd is putting out, if not better. There is so much fine detail that isn't coming across on the pictures they have on the KS page.

I can only hope the mechs are half as good as these guys, because the Epirian's themselves knocked it out of the park. They'll give a nice challenge to any painter.

According to Grey us doubters should just stop doubting because HE has seen the quality and we just don't know what we are talking about. Condescending a bit, no?


Then there is this gem which slags off the artist who painted the studio models:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Meh, if you don't like the sculpts thats fair, but really the sculpts are amazing. The detail will let you do a lot, and they're quite posable.

The guns themselves are really impressive. They lose a lot of the blockyness in person.

Paint also can cover some of the issues. I think the stock paint jobs aren't showing the true impressiveness of the miniatures.

They're way better than Guardsmen, thats for sure.

So, now not only is the detail not being appreciated, but the paint jobs aren't doing the models service. Knowing who painted those studio models I can say that Grey's comment is naive at best, and is dripping with fanboyism.


I'll concede that Ozy was lumped unfairly in with Grey as his posts are more neutral, but Grey's posts above are very condescending.

So where did I attack anyone?

My post may been many things, but it was certainly not condescending. I was a little overexcited after seeing the sprues in person I'll grant, but seriously my post isn't saying what you claim its saying. Just giving my opinion dude. No need to get all riled up over it.

And seriously, the paint comment is not a disparagement on whoever painted the models. Its a known fact that sometimes a particular scheme can exaggerate parts of the model. That doesn't mean the person is a bad painter, they're not, its just maybe they didn't pick the absolute best paint scheme they could have. I'm not saying they're horrible people or anything.

I see. If you post something it is you being excited. If I respond I am being riled up, or attacking people (according to Major Tom).

Make sense.

Well you basically called us out as being schills and that we were being condescending. Thats definitely being unnecessarily hostile.

And based off what you wrote is my conclusion hard to understand?

Yes it is. At most all that should have provoked was a "I'm still not convinced man, sorry I just can't take your word for it" instead of what was basically "You're a duchebag and have probably just been paid off to say nice things"

edit: never mind. No one cares.

So.... how about them Scarecrows?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Yes it is. At most all that should have provoked was a "I'm still not convinced man, sorry I just can't take your word for it" instead of what was basically "You're a duchebag and have probably just been paid off to say nice things"

And your initial post could have simply said, "Wow, I got to see these in person and I've changed my mind about the sculpts."

But it didn't. You told the doubters that they should stop doubting because you had a change of opinion based off of an exclusive sneak preview you and your gaming group got. How did you get that preview? One wonders. Surely if you have connections to someone with early release models it brings into question your reliability as an observer to the sculpts. You got to see them early. What else did you get? Did you get to keep some? Did you get to see other materials? Would any of those special privileges inform your glowing review of the models that you posted telling the doubters to "stop" doubting? One definitely wonders.

So now that we have that covered I think this tangent can die.

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

I'd like to see the sprues for sure. The shoulder guns seem a little oversized, but thats minor nitpicking. It should be an easy conversion to be in another spot, like the other arm or something.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:


So now that we have that covered I think this tangent can die.

Yes please.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

I'd like to see the sprues for sure. The shoulder guns seem a little oversized, but thats minor nitpicking. It should be an easy conversion to be in another spot, like the other arm or something.

I do agree, I'm not a big fan of how skinny they are. But I guess that's why they are called Scarecrows.

Weapon location (with any hope) will be movable. I would love to run them megaman style. replace the right arm with the cannon, and paint them all blue.

It's all HIPS plastic. It's an easy conversion! Makes me feel bad for my poor dremel tool, which isn't seeing much use these days.

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

Where are the scarecrow pics? I didn't see them in the OP of this thread or on the KS frontpage.

We'll have them tomorrow, but there was some footage from the Salute video, but they weren't talked about much to my chagrin.

Prestor Jon wrote:

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

Where are the scarecrow pics? I didn't see them in the OP of this thread or on the KS frontpage.

From the Maelstroms Edge website:


There's some pictures floating around of them, but nothing high detail. We'll have to wait for their release.

 Vanguard-13 wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

Where are the scarecrow pics? I didn't see them in the OP of this thread or on the KS frontpage.

From the Maelstroms Edge website:


There's some pictures floating around of them, but nothing high detail. We'll have to wait for their release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryUxuJHu-0o

around 2:36 you see them in the case

Prestor Jon wrote:

 Vanguard-13 wrote:
So.... how about them Scarecrows?

Where are the scarecrow pics? I didn't see them in the OP of this thread or on the KS frontpage.

Here's a pretty decent quality pic: (credit endtransmission)

 Ozymandias wrote:

Look, I'm someone who didn't like the Epirian contractors based on the photos I saw. Then I was lucky enough to see the sprues in person, and all my misgivings about them (save the heads, but like I said, there is a plethora of alt heads out there so I'm not really bothered) went away. I'm not saying everyone who dislikes the models is wrong, just that my dislike of the models changed once I got to hold them and yours might too. I don't get why that is such a hard concept.

That's cool, but without getting into the argument you guys are all having, that's not enough for me to go in for $100+, because I might not like them once I see them in hand. I totally respect that you went from dislike to like, but there's no guarantee that any of the rest of us who don't like the designs based on the photos would change our minds as you have done, so it remains a big $100+ risk to take. For me personally, it's too much. I just assume you guys would have seen them at Salute, rather than at a super sekret cabal meeting in the Spiral Arm bunker. (though I could be wrong there, too!)

I think you guys would probably come to an agreement on that, but the internet and the read-in tonal quality of typed words have probably caused some crossed wires.

Speaking personally - for me to buy figures I don't like the look of in pictures and be sold over by seeing them in person, I tend to need to see them in person which in this case would mean either making it to Australian Retail (which might not happen - I'm dubious about it being big enough to become a thing that's played locally - unless I'm the one who buys it and cheerleads my gaming group into it, which will cost a lot more than 1 boxed set) or lots of people doing amazing things with them in pics online (which probably will happen). I'm sure it's still okay for me to follow the thread with interest and wish the project my best thoughts, though - right?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 SexierThanYou13 wrote:

Here's a pretty decent quality pic: (credit endtransmission)

Ouch. Really?

(oops signed in as the wrong account! - see next post)