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Jefffar wrote:
I'll offer my insight and opinion on the official answers being given. I'll give my opinion on what is probably going on. However I do not have any more information than anyone else here does.

In all honesty, have you been tempted to give up your mod/unofficial offical rep position with Palladium? I can't imagine the unpaid job(s) has/have gotten easier in the last 1,000 days. At some point, good intentions at PB should simply stop mattering and don't at all help replace actual skill and effort lacking at Palladium. I know you don't have any actual power to progress the project nor any inside information (as you said above) but do you ever get tired of defending a company that does so much that needs defending? Do you ever feel like it reflects back on you if you keep associated yourself with them? I think I've seen your name pop up as a mod over on the Tau forum so you'd still have that responsibility to keep you busy. I'm not trying to guilt you into quitting but I am genuinely curious if you still think it is worth it. Do you actively play Palladium games?

Jefffar wrote:

Merijeek wrote:
As someone who has seen all the exact same information as everyone else, as you've just admitted, please explain why you'd believe that work is being done to deliver Wave Two. Because in the last year there has been, literally, zero evidence other than "Kevin says so".

I didn't say there was work done, I just said I believe they still intend to get the product out.

Though I will point out, your own statement indicates that 100% of the evidence that has come out (Statements from Kevin) is supportive of it being worked on.

yes and we know how Kevin never lies and/or obfuscates the truth cough*98% done*, cough *coming out in 2015, 2016, 2017 ?

Jefffar wrote:

Merijeek wrote:
As someone who has seen all the exact same information as everyone else, as you've just admitted, please explain why you'd believe that work is being done to deliver Wave Two. Because in the last year there has been, literally, zero evidence other than "Kevin says so".

I didn't say there was work done, I just said I believe they still intend to get the product out.

Though I will point out, your own statement indicates that 100% of the evidence that has come out (Statements from Kevin) is supportive of it being worked on.

I'm not sure which is more hilariously cultish - your belief that "what Kevin says" constitutes "evidence" or you can simultaneously state that "they still intend to get the product out" and "I didn't say there was work done [in the last year]".

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Palladium Books's reasonable face.

 warboss wrote:
[In all honesty, have you been tempted to give up your mod/unofficial offical rep position with Palladium? I can't imagine the unpaid job(s) has/have gotten easier in the last 1,000 days. At some point, good intentions at PB should simply stop mattering and don't at all help replace actual skill and effort lacking at Palladium. I know you don't have any actual power to progress the project nor any inside information (as you said above) but do you ever get tired of defending a company that does so much that needs defending? Do you ever feel like it reflects back on you if you keep associated yourself with them? I think I've seen your name pop up as a mod over on the Tau forum so you'd still have that responsibility to keep you busy. I'm not trying to guilt you into quitting but I am genuinely curious if you still think it is worth it. Do you actively play Palladium games?

What and give up my career? LOL

Just kidding, but I do think that my 20th anniversary as a mod over there comes up next year, so it has been the one thing I've done consistently since the last millennium.

I currently do more Palladium than I do 40k, but then again, the last time I played my Tau, Broadsides had Strength 10 Railguns, so that doesn't necessarily say a lot.

And yeah, there have been moments when I've tired of it, slacked off for a few months, but I always roll back in. At this stage it's more lifestyle choice than anything.

Asterios wrote:
yes and we know how Kevin never lies and/or obfuscates the truth cough*98% done*, cough *coming out in 2015, 2016, 2017 ?

You forgot 2013 and 2014.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Jefffar: Thanks for the honest answer even if I disagree.

Jefffar wrote:

Merijeek wrote:
As someone who has seen all the exact same information as everyone else, as you've just admitted, please explain why you'd believe that work is being done to deliver Wave Two. Because in the last year there has been, literally, zero evidence other than "Kevin says so".

I didn't say there was work done, I just said I believe they still intend to get the product out.

Though I will point out, your own statement indicates that 100% of the evidence that has come out (Statements from Kevin) is supportive of it being worked on.

Statements are not evidence, I'm afraid (unless you're in Rokugan, I guess ^_^), and although absence of evidence is not evidence of absence either, it does not look good. Like, at all.

Merijeek wrote:

Jefffar wrote:

Merijeek wrote:
As someone who has seen all the exact same information as everyone else, as you've just admitted, please explain why you'd believe that work is being done to deliver Wave Two. Because in the last year there has been, literally, zero evidence other than "Kevin says so".

I didn't say there was work done, I just said I believe they still intend to get the product out.

Though I will point out, your own statement indicates that 100% of the evidence that has come out (Statements from Kevin) is supportive of it being worked on.

I'm not sure which is more hilariously cultish - your belief that "what Kevin says" constitutes "evidence" or you can simultaneously state that "they still intend to get the product out" and "I didn't say there was work done [in the last year]".

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Palladium Books's reasonable face.

You were the one who created the association of Kevin's statements with evidence, I was just pointing out that you had.

Jefffar wrote:
My opinion is that they still intend to get it out, they just haven't worked out the path from where they are to where they need to be yet and are keeping quiet until they have it.

I fully agree that they intend to get it out. The problem is that they've remained silent, contrary to the spirit of the Kickstarter ToS if not the letter. In order to shut their disgruntled backers up they needed to take a pro-active approach to updating us that was transparent to the point of being invisible.

What they intend is irrelevant without proper action to back it up.

Sining wrote:
What they intend is irrelevant without proper evidence to back it up.

FTFY

From the weekly spam:

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™
I know many of you would love to see some hard details and images right now, and we would love to provide them. However, we are still exploring different possibilities which could mean retooling and changing up the engineering that has already been in progress. We don’t want to show you things that may be changed. When there is a final resolve, and more concrete details, we will most definitely show you images and keep you apprised of progress and plans.

As for our work on other Palladium game titles, we have commitments to our fan base for other Palladium RPG lines, not just Robotech®. We are trying to get a number of products out for everybody. If it seems like the emphasis is on sourcebooks other than Robotech® RPG Tactics™, it is because books are faster to turn around, especially since we print them in the USA. It sure does NOT mean RRT has been tossed to the wayside. Far from it. Things are moving on all fronts. We’ll be keeping you posted as details are nailed down.

Guys! See! They'd LOVE to provide us with some hard details and images for the first time in almost exactly a year.. but can't. Meanwhile also in Palladium Fantasy LandTM, they're still expecting 76+ attendees at the convention going on RIGHT NOW without an actual event listing to let people know about it at the con.

Note: Last year's RRT tournaments were 300 and 1000 points each. Anticipating 76+ participants for the RRT tournament thus far.

Over in Reality LandTM, we have this report from a supposedly multi-year attendee at the actual convention:

http://www.palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=150226&p=2905737#p2905737

I don't think I've ever seen a 76+ person event at Strategicon. Especially not in miniatures. Maybe something like Dominion, TTR or one of the CCGs gets 50-ish or so. (I'm interested now, I'll have to ask the boardgame organizers what event has gotten the most people.)

Maybe it's a typo? Like "7 to 6"? Or "7+"?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There have been a few games of RRT at Strategicon, but they usually had about 4-ish players.

I'm going to Strategicon this weekend. I'll be sure to keep an eye out.

The guys running the miniatures room confirm there is no RRT at Strategicon this time. The guy who normally runs it is in Scotland.

The mystery deepens...

Loch Ness monster confirmed to be running RRT event at Strategicon!

Thanks Warboss. That spam hadn't reached me yet, I was wondering if PB had just missed its deadline for spamming.

Reading between the lines, it feels more and more like PB is changing the manufacturer on the China side. That's... not great in short term, almost certainly a worse thing in long term, but hey, I'd be happy if Wave 2 actually gets done. Anything else beyond the scope of RRT KS is.. wistful thinking, I feel.

EDIT: FWIW, another KS I backed just ran into problems. The Fairytale Games KS just ran into financial issues -- reportedly, product is done but costs overran so he's out of funding to ship.

And he's being open about it and trying to find solutions. I can respect that. Whereas we just get a runaround in RRT.. sheesh.

Just came across this article about Palladium's history; http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3547622

This was the interesting part;

Palladium vs. White Wolf Magazine: In 1990, Kevin Siembieda sent a letter to White Wolf Magazine, accusing it of not covering "small-press" publishers like Palladium. They published two such letters from Kevin, and explained that their coverage was dependent on submissions received, and that they had never received submissions for Palladium material. A Rifts adventure was sent by a writer, however, and White Wolf Magazine agreed to publish it. However, Palladium immediately sent a C&D letter, threatening to sue White Wolf Magazine if the article was published. Confused, White Wolf Magazine pulled the article from their next issue, and avoided attempting to publish any Palladium-based articles thereafter.

A guy who claims to have been a freelancer for PB for a couple of years pops up early in that thread, and shares this;

"Well, one thing I can talk about is the general office atmosphere. I worked from home mostly since the office is about thirty miles away from my house (I'm in NE Detroit), but once a week I'd go in for various things and it was always weird. The office is dead quiet, all the doors are closed, most of the lights are kept off (to save electricity)... it's like a tomb in there. Also, Kevin has no personal boundaries, wants everyone to be BFFs, and will tell you the most intimate details of his personal life at a moment's notice. The man has no filter. It's a pretty strange, inappropriate, and toxic environment."

Followed by this exchange;

"Q: Any idea what the editing process is like? Palladium Books seems to have a number of editors noted on most books, but that doesn't seem to do much for the rough quality of some material. I'm curious as to what sort of things get redlined.

A: Yeah, the "editing" is a joke. If Kevin writes it, Alex and Julius (both of whom are incredible sperglords and total yes-men) "edit" it, all the while telling Kevin that it's awesome and the best thing they've ever read. If someone else writes it, then Kevin re-writes it, gives it to Alex and Julius who then "edit" the manuscript, all the while telling Kevin that it's awesome and the best thing they've ever read and only he could have fixed the obviously deeply flawed original manuscript."

HA.

Edit: I'd paste more, but I'm still on the first page and he has a lot to say. It's fairly interesting reading, and frankly funny (in that it fits our preconceived notions and seems to corroborate other tales of woe behind the scenes like the Bill Coffin thread).

Seems worth a read, at least thus far.

Sining wrote:
What they intend is irrelevant without proper action to back it up.

Ah, but when it's Reality vs. What Kevin Says, there's only one True Answer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forar - Where is this thread, and what's a 'sperglord'.

Evilsmurf posted it right above my post.

And 'sperglord' is a pejorative towards people with Aspergers (or an insinuation that a person's behaviour is similar to the stereotypes associated with extreme forms of that condition).

I anxiously await the addition of the Palladium vs Kickstarter Backers entry to the original post.

edit: I kept wondering why the mods there don't ban the idiot who keeps spamming the elderly woman photos every time he posts but it's apparently some sort of adbot they've got on the forum. I guess there's a first time for everything...

Thanks, some things are easy to miss on a phone.

I'm also curious as to whether Jeffar thinks that the were 76+ (not just up to 76, but 76+) people at the tournament.

Same level of evidence as Wave Two after all...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hooboy, that thread is gold, Jerry! Gold!

Personally, my favourite race is the Harlowes. If you haven't read up on them yet everyone, they're magically created bird-women. They grow to look like a 21 year old woman "with exaggerated female characteristics" within two to four weeks of their birth. Why do they grow so quickly? Well, their demon masters needed the new children to breed really quickly after the old ones were used up. A Harlowe can only give birth once, you see.

In other words, there's a race of bird-women who exist only as pedophilia bait and as utterly disposable surprise sex once and throw away objects by their demon masters. What the gently caress dude? That's incredibly hosed up, even by RPG standards. Let me guess, they become 21 so quickly because you think women over 21 in real life are completely used up and horrible. gently caress off, you gross piece of poo poo.

Kind of wonder who the woman is that is named "Harlow" in real life.

The prize was $100 worth of Palladium merch and a mention in one of the early Rifters, where Kevin mangled my name.

Only half of it ever ended up getting to me, though. I ended up getting the Heroes Unlimited 2E main book out of it, and one other thing, but the rest of what I asked for never arrived. I dunno; maybe Kevin decided to deduct postage out of the hundred bucks.

(Dear mods, I won't cross post again, so please don't hurt me - I just thought it was extremely funny, even if way off topic)

Id never seen a forum before where you have to pay to join. Outside of porn ones that is.

I think Something Awful has always had that. I think it's partially to offset costs (no idea what their ad revenue is like), but mostly to make sure people have 'skin in the game'. Their forums are old, and have always attracted a... unique sort of individual (hence their adorable auto-changes for profanity), so having people cough up a little cash was an extra incentive not to get out of hand enough to be banned, especially multiple times.

But I'm not a member, so that's mostly from my recollection of years long past when I used to swing by there for some articles and the occasional thread I'd read.

The 76+ always struck me as a kind of out of nowhere figure . . . I have no idea what it was based on.

Jefffar wrote:
The 76+ always struck me as a kind of out of nowhere figure . . . I have no idea what it was based on.

A d100 roll; Kevin probably has a random tournament table from 1984 somewhere around the office. A more time intensive option but still possible is that he has converted one of the old Rpg organization point buy systems from Heroes Unlimited to generate fictional tournament stats on the fly.

 warboss wrote:

Jefffar wrote:
The 76+ always struck me as a kind of out of nowhere figure . . . I have no idea what it was based on.

A d100 roll; Kevin probably has a random tournament table from 1984 somewhere around the office. A more time intensive option but still possible is that he has converted one of the old Rpg organization point buy systems from Heroes Unlimited to generate fictional tournament stats on the fly.

No, he forgot to close the loops on the 7 and 6. You see, it was supposed to be 98%.

Badda bing.

Back to lurking...

The mods must be asleep over at their fb page. Theres now a lot of complaints on there.

 Forar wrote:
A guy who claims to have been a freelancer for PB for a couple of years pops up early in that thread, .

THAT would be Jason Marker, Author of the Macross and Masters Saga source books for the RT RPG.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

evilsmurf wrote:
The mods must be asleep over at their fb page. Theres now a lot of complaints on there.

And poor "Alundra" *cough*Akashic Soldier*cough* is afraid 75+ Palladium fans are going to be upset when they arrive and there is no record of any event or even representation of Palladium is there at Strategicon.

I would be shocked if there 75+ fans of Palladium in the same STATE as Strategicon at this point

jaymz wrote:

 Forar wrote:
A guy who claims to have been a freelancer for PB for a couple of years pops up early in that thread, .

THAT would be Jason Marker, Author of the Macross and Masters Saga source books for the RT RPG.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

evilsmurf wrote:
The mods must be asleep over at their fb page. Theres now a lot of complaints on there.

And poor "Alundra" *cough*Akashic Soldier*cough* is afraid 75+ Palladium fans are going to be upset when they arrive and there is no record of any event or even representation of Palladium is there at Strategicon.

I would be shocked if there 75+ fans of Palladium in the same STATE as Strategicon at this point

It's Jeff, not Akashic.

^^^ what makes you think that?

Jeff? The guy they fired?

 Mike1975 wrote:
^^^ what makes you think that?

He flaunted the fact he was ignoring FB rules when he made the profile to respond on PB's FB page so I reported him. One of the feedbacks I got back said it was The Deific NMI's profile that I had reported. Even if it's not him, I high doubt it's Akashik Soldier. I currently game with his old group and the last any of us heard he quit both FB and RPGs for awhile now.