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I'm thinking that PB has finally severed all ties with Ninja Division. I know Ninja Division does a lot of manufacturing overseas, and I imagine that PB was depending on them to take care of the manufacturing process. It's been a show from the beginning, and if PB has finally removed Ninja Division from the game, then yeah, more and more delays, and who knows what will happen for the future of Robotech. And hey! PB/Kevin will just be able to blame everyone else if it fails. Seems like he is great at laying out the blame and fault in others and accepts no responsibility for any failures, only success. Guess he's read one of those $0.10 "How to Manage" books. "A good manager never accepts failure and instead finds the faults and failures in others/the process/idea/whatever". He forgot to read the next paragraph about why he is looking for those failures and how to fix them.

I loved Batteletech "back in the day". Then I discovered a lot of other table top games, and suddenly, Battletech wasn't such a great game anymore. The game play is very, very clunky, slow, and I spend far too much time staring at my mech sheet and not enough time looking at the board. The game just feels way too static, and the mech designs are way, way outdated. Or, I should say, the Innersphere designs are. The Clan mechs look great. So yeah, when I discovered Heavy Gear, and later CAV, well, it was so long Battletech.

Then Catalyst got the IP when FASA folded, and I had a lot of hopes for a new system. Instead, they just "cleaned up" the same old clunky, fill in the dot sheets and released the game again. Alphastrike reinvigorated the game for me, but it's just a little too abstract. I love how fast it plays, how damage works, the fact that I can play with several lances or stars at the same time in about the same amount of time as a two mech match has a lot of appeal to me. What I miss though, is saying "Suck LRM, Freebirth!" as I shoot my LRM 20. Or shout out "Bullseye!" when I get a headshot with my Gauss Rifle. Instead, all the weapons on my mech are condensed into an attack and damage stat, and I miss that aspect of Battletech. Alphastrike is a much better, tighter rule set.

Heavy Gear these days is... well, a mess. I have not looked at the "new" beta rules in several months, and have no idea how far along they are. I know that I gave up on them when the beta rules came out mid-2014 and were hopelessly, needlessly complex and with change for the sake of change being the design idea behind the new system, rather then over hauling and streamlining the old system. It's been a while, so maybe I'll wonder on over the their forums and see how it's going.

 Tamwulf wrote:
I'm thinking that PB has finally severed all ties with Ninja Division. I know Ninja Division does a lot of manufacturing overseas, and I imagine that PB was depending on them to take care of the manufacturing process. It's been a show from the beginning, and if PB has finally removed Ninja Division from the game, then yeah, more and more delays, and who knows what will happen for the future of Robotech. And hey! PB/Kevin will just be able to blame everyone else if it fails. Seems like he is great at laying out the blame and fault in others and accepts no responsibility for any failures, only success. Guess he's read one of those $0.10 "How to Manage" books. "A good manager never accepts failure and instead finds the faults and failures in others/the process/idea/whatever". He forgot to read the next paragraph about why he is looking for those failures and how to fix them.

I think this is why they are going thru a manufacturing broker to find a factory to do their job, most miniature makers find a factory early in their career and usually stick with it, which begs the question is who is doing the sculpts? or is PB going to go with the old sculpts done by ND? you know the ones they said needed retweeking and such?

Probably something really idiotic - Wayne is taking night classes so that he can make the chops on the sculpts.

Or some fan-friend who took a CAD class that one time.

Maybe they contracted it out that Magic Mad Mike guy from their forums to do it because he makes CG paper minis for them? Or the guy that did the early PS2 cutscene quality cover for them a couple of years back?

 warboss wrote:
Maybe they contracted it out that Magic Mad Mike guy from their forums to do it because he makes CG paper minis for them? Or the guy that did the early PS2 cutscene quality cover for them a couple of years back?

Spoiler:

What was the title of that book? How not to do firearms safety?

I'm not sure but I'm guessing the original title of the piece was "Intro to CG modelling 102: Project 1".

I assume Kevin thought that was the best cover ever. Presumably because it was cheap.

It was the cover for the RPG version of how to make friends and influence people.

 warboss wrote:
Maybe they contracted it out that Magic Mad Mike guy from their forums to do it because he makes CG paper minis for them? Or the guy that did the early PS2 cutscene quality cover for them a couple of years back?

It's made from Daz 3d poser models, basically a file dump site that you can get all sorts of pre-built (and largely crap) files from and use the software to pose them and place them backgrounds. Some of the 3d mesh files are ok, but most of them appear way too stiff and unnatural unless you do a lot of clean up work and modification. It's the 3d equivillant of those wooden pose dolls they use in life drawing classes to teach basic form and structure. It serves a purpose but the quality is kinda meh and most pieces as a result look amateurish. Plus they tend to have really crappy default lighting and texturing so it looks like video game models from the 90's.

It is an open license software so when you buy models for download you're able to use them for rendering or game content without needing to pay any royalties. Assuming he bought the models vs pirating them they run around $30-$40 each and then can be reposed and reused indefinitely, so it's a tool that can be used to keep things very cheap.

Fits right in with the Shadow Chronicles alphas.

Actually, if it wasn't for the "Property of the Coalition States", I would have thought it was a picture for Shadowrun.

So just out of morbid curiosity, what was the last word on Wave 2?

From adepticon... that it'll hopefully be out late this year. The last tangible "proof of life" was the feb 28th update.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So just out of morbid curiosity, what was the last word on Wave 2?

"Blah blah blah delay blah blah Hey! Look! We made up some new models for a completely different game that we have not yet written and you will have no use for! We're opening up the Pledge Manger to purchase these exclusive limited models!"

Between the lines: We're out of money and if enough people buy these models, we can afford wave 2.

No amount of metal choppers or characters will cover the cost of Wave 2. From the number of kits I see warming the shelves of my FLGS the main problem is lack of sales through.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So just out of morbid curiosity, what was the last word on Wave 2?

My joke used to be that the official PB response to such questions was "STFU, peasant!".

Now, of course, such a response is far more than they would actually give.

I remember during the campaign (loo many years ago) they said theyt didn't have the rights to do APCs, tanks and other conventional vehicles.

Which seemed odd, I mean what kind of @#$% contract do they have?

They also said thet can't do character models that show the heads, only mecha and armored figures.

With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

According to one of their cultists (don't remember which one, don't care) it turns out that their license didn't have the restrictions they thought it did. Which you would normally assume is a crock of gak, but let's face it, we're talking about the world's least competent company.

Merijeek wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

According to one of their cultists (don't remember which one, don't care) it turns out that their license didn't have the restrictions they thought it did. Which you would normally assume is a crock of gak, but let's face it, we're talking about the world's least competent company.

LOL, sounds about right.

The great Robotech/Macross/Battletech/Jetfire IPR war never ends...

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Merijeek wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

According to one of their cultists (don't remember which one, don't care) it turns out that their license didn't have the restrictions they thought it did. Which you would normally assume is a crock of gak, but let's face it, we're talking about the world's least competent company.

LOL, sounds about right.

The great Robotech/Macross/Battletech/Jetfire IPR war never ends...

Really would be awesome if Sony would just come along and put a bullet in HG and BW (even if it's a golden one) once and for all.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

Money, and the need of it.

Some art from the new Robotech Marines book hit FB today, Palladium has always used inked comic style art before which had a certain crispness to them and I was a pretty big fan of Kevin Long's stuff as it was bold and it fit the feel of the product. That style of art gave it an independent pulp comic book feel and it had a certain charm to it.

This new stuff looks to be straight up pencil work and is a mix match of Alpha and Beta parts, which IMO looks like badly half traced designs in somebodies sketch book. The line weights are random some are filled in solidly and some of it is barely a light pencil scratch making these look really unfinished and chopped together. It gives me the feeling that they are really tightening their belt and scraping the bottom of the barrel to avoid spending anything on production. It's a pretty big dive in quality from past books (which is saying a lot) and maybe gives some validity to rumors that they are flat broke and trying to saves dollars anywhere they can.

There's also one that looks an awful lot like the new super Tau titan from FW. I don't think we'd be lucky enough to see it go anywhere but OMG I'd love to see GW sue PB.

Warning much Derp ahead:

Ok, firstly, I don't actually dislike the art style on those, but the last 3 images make me wonder. I mean, they do look rather ........... Tau.
Wonder if the artist plays any WH40K?

And the weekly update is up. To the tune of
"UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™

Nothing new to report on this front for now, but we have a number of things boiling. More after Gen Con."

Well, at least they are admitting they have nothing to report, that's progress, right!
And the "number of things boiling", that wouldn't be the 5K odd backers, by any chance?

I agree that it looks like Chuck Walton plays 40k. It's not that I don't like the designs (I do) but I'll echo the previous sentiments... they feel half done and just not very robotech. They're first draft pencil sketches (maybe that's his style?... he did the robot heavy art in the Northern Gun books but I didn't buy either one or even see it ever personally) and they don't feel finished. They feel rushed like they were done last minute which given the pace of palladium production (wait 5 years... then cram everything in last minute). Also, the designs don't feel very robotech. There are some overused too common robotech design features like the alpha shoulders and less commonly the veritech forearms but they overall feel more like gundam or armored core.

Also, did any of the new cyclones or the zentraedi pods pic previews hit facebook? I'd be curious to see those as well. Ironically, if I ever ran a robotech RPG, I'd use the space cyclone rules for tau crisis suits sentinels stand ins as I don't like cyclones in space RPG campaigns.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I remember during the campaign (loo many years ago) they said theyt didn't have the rights to do APCs, tanks and other conventional vehicles.

Which seemed odd, I mean what kind of @#$% contract do they have?

They also said thet can't do character models that show the heads, only mecha and armored figures.

With the new GHQ models coming I wonder what changed.

actually we have yet to see any miniatures which show actual character faces, we saw a drawing of one, but no actual miniature.

also you noticed they have yet to show that one figure, but have shown the others, which begs the question why the secrecy over Breetai unless it doesn't show his face and the pre-orders want to cancel their order.

Maybe we wait and see if the PB's hat gets filled this Gencon so they can report they can continue with their wave 2 due to more funds?
It is a rather troubling thing: PB will not say anything, so I have nothing more I can say, but they still owe us for wave 2, but I am repeating myself...
How long can you say "we plan on getting wave 2 done" with the intent of not getting sued or nailed for spending the funds elsewhere and fully intending on not getting it done?

I thought at some point PB was not allowed to make derivative works on the Robotech license?
I thought there were some grumblings on that matter but I know in prior RPG books they had other weird hybrid mechs.
Might help them flesh-out their Invid Invasion wave of stuff if they can prove they can finish their first offering...

 stanman wrote:
Some art from the new Robotech Marines book hit FB today, Palladium has always used inked comic style art before which had a certain crispness to them and I was a pretty big fan of Kevin Long's stuff as it was bold and it fit the feel of the product. That style of art gave it an independent pulp comic book feel and it had a certain charm to it.

This new stuff looks to be straight up pencil work and is a mix match of Alpha and Beta parts, which IMO looks like badly half traced designs in somebodies sketch book. The line weights are random some are filled in solidly and some of it is barely a light pencil scratch making these look really unfinished and chopped together. It gives me the feeling that they are really tightening their belt and scraping the bottom of the barrel to avoid spending anything on production. It's a pretty big dive in quality from past books (which is saying a lot) and maybe gives some validity to rumors that they are flat broke and trying to saves dollars anywhere they can.

There's also one that looks an awful lot like the new super Tau titan from FW. I don't think we'd be lucky enough to see it go anywhere but OMG I'd love to see GW sue PB.

Warning much Derp ahead:

Spoiler:

umm after looking at those pics i'm thinking Gundam and or Tau and not Robotech, most of those I couldn't even see how they would transform, nor how they would even be viable options. like the Tomahawk with a hand? how is he supposed to grab something with that big cannon in the way? seriously did anyone even bother looking at those pics and asking will this work?

 Talizvar wrote:
Maybe we wait and see if the PB's hat gets filled this Gencon so they can report they can continue with their wave 2 due to more funds?
It is a rather troubling thing: PB will not say anything, so I have nothing more I can say, but they still owe us for wave 2, but I am repeating myself...
How long can you say "we plan on getting wave 2 done" with the intent of not getting sued or nailed for spending the funds elsewhere and fully intending on not getting it done?

I thought at some point PB was not allowed to make derivative works on the Robotech license?
I thought there were some grumblings on that matter but I know in prior RPG books they had other weird hybrid mechs.
Might help them flesh-out their Invid Invasion wave of stuff if they can prove they can finish their first offering...

something tells me sales this GenCon will not be as good as PB hopes they are, RRT is no longer new, its been out in the wild for almost a year, so hope they are not counting on the sales of those.

Asterios wrote:



umm after looking at those pics i'm thinking Gundam and or Tau and not Robotech, most of those I couldn't even see how they would transform, nor how they would even be viable options. like the Tomahawk with a hand? how is he supposed to grab something with that big cannon in the way? seriously did anyone even bother looking at those pics and asking will this work?

They're destroids. The only thing they're supposed to transform into is sales.

 warboss wrote:

Asterios wrote:



umm after looking at those pics i'm thinking Gundam and or Tau and not Robotech, most of those I couldn't even see how they would transform, nor how they would even be viable options. like the Tomahawk with a hand? how is he supposed to grab something with that big cannon in the way? seriously did anyone even bother looking at those pics and asking will this work?

They're destroids. The only thing they're supposed to transform into is sales.

I'm talking about the Alpha monstrosities and such.

also there is the feasibility of some of those destroids like the rifleman type with the 3 cannons per arm, there is no power supply or ammo container big enough to last more then one quick burst on those things.

Asterios wrote:

 warboss wrote:

Asterios wrote:



umm after looking at those pics i'm thinking Gundam and or Tau and not Robotech, most of those I couldn't even see how they would transform, nor how they would even be viable options. like the Tomahawk with a hand? how is he supposed to grab something with that big cannon in the way? seriously did anyone even bother looking at those pics and asking will this work?

They're destroids. The only thing they're supposed to transform into is sales.

I'm talking about the Alpha monstrosities and such.

Those alpha monstrosities ARE the destroids. They just stole the alpha's head and shouldersTM.

 Talizvar wrote:
Maybe we wait and see if the PB's hat gets filled this Gencon so they can report they can continue with their wave 2 due to more funds?
It is a rather troubling thing: PB will not say anything, so I have nothing more I can say, but they still owe us for wave 2, but I am repeating myself...
How long can you say "we plan on getting wave 2 done" with the intent of not getting sued or nailed for spending the funds elsewhere and fully intending on not getting it done?

I thought at some point PB was not allowed to make derivative works on the Robotech license?
I thought there were some grumblings on that matter but I know in prior RPG books they had other weird hybrid mechs.
Might help them flesh-out their Invid Invasion wave of stuff if they can prove they can finish their first offering...

OK this is going off my memory but I asked similar questions in the KS and it seemed there were 3 nos

No derived works/mecha that did not appear in the cartoon
No conventional vehicles, even if fictional ones from the cartoon
No people/faces (full armor/helmets were OK)

But who knows what's going on behind the scenes, as I said the whole Robotech/Macross etc IP situations is FUBAR and I understand there's friction between Harmony Gold (may they soon go bankrupt) and Palladium b/c HG would much rather have made a mini game themselves and feel that Palladium is abusing their RPG license.