Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

(Reposting here from the updates page, as Lego and co are currently busy with all sorts of behind-the-scenes stuff...)



Hello once again to all of you! We've been working extremely hard on Maelstrom's Edge, and we are pleased to report that we have been free from illnesses, vacations and any other unplanned diversions, allowing us to give our complete focus to Maelstrom's Edge over the past few months. As such, we are pleased to report that we still remain on target as per our existing project delivery plan which can be found here: http://www.maelstromsedge.com/status

We've had a number of small delays over the past couple of months, but fortunately nothing has pushed us back too far just yet and as such we will have no issue in getting everything out in December as planned. Those of you backing for digital rules only might see a couple of weeks of slippage which might push delivery of the rules PDF to Nov from Oct, but that is simply a measure of how much effort and work is going in to making the rulebook as good as it can be.

The biggest potential hold up is getting the final 3 models completed. The sculpts and parts are done, tested and signed off, and the final tooling (cutting the designs of the digital models into metal moulds to facilitate injection moulding) is underway, but due to the extreme number of variables involved, we cant count on it being done until the production is complete and the models are on the boat and on the way to us. There are many things out of our control, with one of the major consistent issues being large industrial plastic orders coming in from third parties, and due to them having 8-figure budgets, they immediately get priority over our small scale, high detail, high effort models. Thankfully we are at the very end of the model development process for these three, and as such the chance of those variables affecting us drops every single day.

Beyond that, getting the box printed is the next biggest issue. We desperately want to have pictures of all models on the box for obvious reasons, but printing is a very slow process and booking in print time alone can require as much as two months notice. We've committed to the extra expense of getting printing done in Europe so that we can get it into our warehouse without it needing to spend 5 weeks on the ocean, but it is still a very tight timescale with little buffer room for the unexpected.

The rulebook and all cards should not be a problem at all. Progress has been great on them and we will have them in the warehouse well in advance of the final packing and shipping dates.

The card tokens, suppression markers, victory point trackers, card objectives, blast templates and spray templates are all done and best of all are sitting in our warehouse ready for packing. We had some interesting adventures in international shipping to get to this stage, but they look great and the colour is vivid and sharp. We'll aim to get a suppression token assembly tutorial together before you get them so that you can plan on how to make them look as good as can be, though assembly is very straightforward and simply comes down to how perfect you want them to look by using things like black pens to mask the edges of the card. Here's a picture of a 1 metre cubed pile of our cardboard - a lot of suppression tokens!



and here's some pictures of the finished, final product - all three sheets (please excuse the camera shadow in the bottom centre!):



The existing plastic models are already starting to flow into our warehouse. We've had multiple injection moulding machines running around the world for weeks, churning out the best versions of our models that have ever been made. Our production teams have blown us away with their talents and we are very proud and pleased to state that the models we've shown you pictures of are not as crisp and sharp as the ones you will be getting. The production run surpasses our prototypes quite notably. Here's some of the recent palettes of plastic that have arrived in our warehouse:



If you are in at the $1 pledge level, then you'll be pleased to know that the next audiobook - "Crisis Point" by Stephen Gaskell just has a few minor bits of polishing left and will be going out to you all as planned this October. If you've not yet been claiming your audiobooks and other digital rewards, then be sure to check out this update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1299968

If you are just backing for terrain, then you'll also be pleased to know that your plastic is done and almost ready to ship and is in fact in one of the palettes photographed above. We have the logistics and packing plans in place now and just need to get the pledge manager out to you for your addresses and then the sprues will be on the way. Here's a nice test one of our friends did which shows just how many pieces of terrain can be built from a single terrain sprue:



The next update we send out will have the pledge manager details in it. We appreciate it has taken us a while to get it out to you, but we are not using an off-the-shelf solution and have developed our own which integrates nicely with our website at maelstromsedge.com. We also wanted to pin down a few details first, the most significant being if we are able to offer standalone models. I'm pleased to report that we will now be able to offer add-ons for individual model sprues though they will just be loose sprues with bases, not in final retail boxes, but as a result they'll be discounted too as a thanks for your early support in getting us to this point. For those of you who wanted to build a whole drone army, or just wanted a force of alien angels to proxy in another game, it will now be possible to get the models on their own! You'll be able to add them to your pledge very soon when the pledge manager goes live.

We spend a lot of time ensuring everything is going to plan, and as such we can see in our projections that there is a chance of around 40% that external or internal variables might affect our rate of production and prevent us getting everything together and shipped before Christmas. While that is still less than a 50/50 chance, we want to keep ourselves motivated and dedicated, so we'll publicly promise now that if we slip past December shipping and into Q1 2016, we will add the second most requested bonus unit - the huge Epirian Hunter Robot - to every single box set at the $90+ pledge level. We'd prefer not to give away one of our most complex and valuable models, so we'll be working extra hard to make sure we ship on time, but if we fail then you'll get a free Christmas present off the back of it!

Once again, please excuse our relative lack of community outreach at this time. We are a small team and we are working flat out to get Maelstrom's Edge to the highest quality while sticking to our timescale goals. We'll be ramping up communication as shipping approaches and are always open to questions and chats about the game, models and rules, so feel free to ask here on Kickstarter in the comments section anytime you want to!

As one more teaser from the Maelstrom's Edge universe, here's an image showing a number of Cybel Gates (the mechanism for travel over large distances at effectively faster-than-light speeds) in close proximity to a large star:



and an example page from our in-development rulebook:



We'll be in touch soon with the pledge manager link! Thank you for your patience and as always we cant wait to start getting the game, the rules and the models into your hands!

What is the status of the pledge manager?

Thanks Vermonter, it is complete save for a bit more testing, but cant go live until our SSL certificate is issued which is not being released until we've updated some of our business info at a third party, which takes 3-5 days. I'm thinking it should be live by the 16th and it is top priority right now after anything which would otherwise delay the project as a whole. Thanks for your patience!

How long will it be open? I would love to have some time to refill my coffers before splurging on the pledge manager.

It will be open for about 2 months for kickstarter pledges, then we'll keep it open for pre-orders/sales until we go to retail and switch to a full web store most likely. Once you finalise your pledge, you'll be able to come back in and buy add-ons at the cheapest possible prices. A scarecrow robot will be $6.50 with $1 global shipping for example. You can buy as many add-ons as you want, and for as long as the pledge manager is open. Printed books will be $8.99 each with free global shipping.

You are speaking my language.

Will the drones, troopers and minnows be sold by the sprue or by the squad? Will there be bulk discounts, or is a second game box likely to be the best way to get lots of drones, etc.?

Everything is being sold by the sprue as squad sizes are somewhat flexible. There is no general bulk discount as things are already priced as low as they can go (and for about half of the world we take a hit on shipping as well). Buying additional game boxes is certainly the best way to get the most overall value, but the sprues are cheap enough that you can pile in as many as you need. The most expensive model (excluding terrain) is the hunter at $9.50 (and it is 3 sprues), the cheapest is the shadow walker at $6.00 per sprue (builds 1 model but 2 has bodies worth of parts). Most sprues will be $6.50-$7.50. We've tried to average no more than $3.50/£2 per model, and there are absolutely loads of extra parts on each sprue as well.

That sounds like a great deal on the larger minis. I'll probably stock up on them, then.

You're the only KS I've ever backed, so excuse the ignorance

I pledged for the PDF rules only. But am I correct in my understanding that when the Pledge Manager opens, I will have the opportunity to purchase a full boxed set at the KS price of $90?

Yup, that is correct. When the pledge manager opens you'll also be able to buy any individual models you like in as little or as much volume as you'd like too.

I should add that the add-on/pledge manager box set for $90 is just the normal box set, and does not have the kickstarter bonus large angel sprue (so that we dont penalise backers who went in early - they deserve a slightly better box for taking the plunge at the start).

Thanks for backing!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
One other point is that there is a feature to upgrade your pledge as well, so if you just backed for the PDF, as an existing backer, you dont need to pay $90 to get the full set - you can pay $80 to upgrade your pledge and get the full $90 kickstarter reward (with the bonus sprue) as a result.

Pledges can be upgraded in the following ways:
Any pledge to $90
$90 pledge to $180 pledge (doubling everything)
$180 to $520 (6 copies of everything)

 legoburner wrote:
Yup, that is correct. When the pledge manager opens you'll also be able to buy any individual models you like in as little or as much volume as you'd like too.

I should add that the add-on/pledge manager box set for $90 is just the normal box set, and does not have the Kickstarter bonus large angel sprue (so that we don't penalise backers who went in early - they deserve a slightly better box for taking the plunge at the start).

Thanks for backing!

So I can definitely buy the Angel Minnows separately then yes?

Absolutely, yes. They will be $6.50 per sprue (2 models), plus $1 shipping per sprue. Flight bases are included in the price.

(About £2.12 plus 32p shipping per model, though there is a third pair of wings on every sprue as well so it is really 2.5 models per sprue)

Cheers. Gonna have some messed up looking Razorwing flocks in my Dark Eldar!

Some other KS just reminded me to ask: will you include directions for assembling your minis? If not, will you have a website or tutorial video available at launch? Seems trivial, I know, but turns out it's super important.

There will be four things to help that:

1. We dont have any phoenix-level complicated models in terms of part count!
2. Photos of our models make it easy to check/spot the orientation of parts.
3. All sprues have labels with corresponding numbers in paired parts. Epirian arms for example are A1/B1, A2/B2, etc. to reduce the risk of using the wrong ones.
4. We will have online guides to assembly. We dont have the timespan to get them into the rulebook/box set, but will have guides online to recommended configurations. There are some poses that will not work (left leaning legs with right leaning torsos), so you cant always just slap any two parts together without taking such factors into account. We'll also include guidance on how to maximise the interchange of parts - for example some of the Epirian parts on the sprue do not work well together unless you place something on the base under the right foot of the model, which changes the 'lean' and opens up a bunch more posing and part options. There are still loads of build options that do work well together, but our guides will make it easy for those who are not confident in trying out new parts.

All of our stock/official photographed models are just straight off the sprue without any considerations like lean adjustment, so it is still easy to get a good range of poses by just gluing parts together too.

Long term, I'd love to do some 'pro-level' assembly guides as well, adding very simple greenstuff sculpting to builds to make 'directors cut' models where things had to be done certain ways to facilitate plastic, so that those who want to make things as perfectly as possible get the chance.

I don't know where else to post this, but eh.
Do you have plastic models for the Shadow Walkers, Kaddar Nova, and Handlers yet? Just curious since I've only seen updates on preparing the starter sets.

We do - it has been addressed in the kickstarter comments recently:

They go off to the painters on Wednesday so as soon as the painters can get them done. Certainly by mid November at the latest. We only have a handful of sample sprues of them to work from at the moment, and all of the spare ones have been cut up for prototyping, labelling and testing. The painters will be putting together the superior quality models and then painting them If we had more sprues we'd show sooner, so if we end up getting some more samples between now and then, we'll share sooner. Thanks for your patience!

That was last week, and they are in the painter's hands now, so should be 2-3 weeks until we get them in nice, painted form to show

And I must say, they look awesome

Great to see the project firing on all cylinders. I can't wait to see it hit the shelves!

 darrkespur wrote:
And I must say, they look awesome

I'm very much looking forward to seeing these. Glad the reveal isn't too far away.

I'm pleased to report that the pledge manager is roughly on schedule still. We've had 2.5 days of extra delay from production factors consuming our time, so provided final testing doesnt turn up any surprises we should be going live on Friday this week ready for the pledge manager, arranging immediate shipping of terrain sprue orders, allowing add-ons of any sprue we are producing and allowing those who did not participate in the kickstarter to pick up models and box sets.

Thanks for the quick reply, lego. I'm reading my free copy of Faith right now and looking forward to the rules release.

You mentioned that we can add extra complete boxes during the pledge manager. I know the extra boxes won't come with the extra large angel but will they include all the stretch goals including the terrain sprue?

The pledge manager is now live at https://www.maelstromsedge.com . Go there, and if you are not already registered, sign up using the same email address that you use for kickstarter. On your profile page, you'll then have access to the pledge manager, which you can also access directly with this link.

We will put out a kickstarter update about this in the next few hours, but wanted to give priority to people in this thread just to iron out any wrinkles and make sure the process is simple and clear.

If you are not a kickstarter backer, you can order terrain sprues, box sets and anything else now at the same link too.

Terrain sprues and printed novels will be shipped out either in the last week of this month or the first week of November. Everything else should be going out in December still (likely mid-late Dec), provided our boatload of models does not get held up in customs for too long. If it gets held up, we'll certainly have all the orders sent out in January save for circumstances of force majeure.

There are a few minor glitches we are working on in the background, so please read the below:
- The pledge manager will send out emails when your products are in picking/packing, and also emails when they are shipped. There are couple of glitches in the mailout software right now so sometimes double emails are sent, and sometimes no emails are sent. Your order status on your profile page on the maelstrom's edge website will always be accurate though - any glitches are just linked to email notifications.

- on iOS devices and some android browsers, when you 'click to pay', you'll need to click twice - the button will change to inform you of this. This is because we lock the order in place, then start the payment process, but starting the payment process is blocked by iOS' popup blocker due to that slight delay between functions. On all other devices, you only need to click once to get through the process.

- If you have pledged for $1, we've set the value of that pledge to be worth $0 on our system, so you wont lose out on that dollar, and can spend it on addons too.

- Next week, we'll send out images of the unit profile cards so you can start building lists and getting any extra models around those lists.

- The VIP status reward is priced in to everything except the printed novels and digital products (as backers get them anyway), and is active for anyone who pre-orders as a thank you for early support. If for some reason we drop prices in the future, we'll recredit any difference to you at that time.

- We use the same payment provider as kickstarter, so if your card works there, it will work on our site.

- We have a minimum of $1 for transactions through our credit card provider - please make sure anything extra on your order comes to either $0 (or less), or is over $1.

- In the event of any unforeseen errors, the 'processing payment' text will stay visible after you've been given the reason for the error (invalid card details, etc). Simply go back to your user profile page at that time and you can re-pay there if you have card issues.

- We will be offering email support during allocated support slots each evening (UK time) this week, so please allow 24 hours for a response to any queries. Rest assured your card will not be charged in the event of any errors of any sort.

Shipping Prices

As promised, we were able to keep shipping prices at or below $20 globally for KS rewards and unique box set purchases. We have 4 shipping regions:
UK - $14.50 (GBP 9.39)
European Union - $18.10 (EUR 15.95)
USA and Canada - $19.20
Rest of World - $20

All prices are in US dollars for ease of accounting on our end. We'll be pricing in GBP and USD when we go to retail next year. Your credit card provider will handle the currency conversion automatically if you order anything extra.

Final Model Previews

The pledge manager contains small images of the very early test models for the Kaddar Nova, Epirian Handler and Karist Shadow Walker. We wont put up bigger pictures of these models just yet as the models in those images are made from the very first test sprues we had, so suffer from misaligned tools, shrinkage and other issues which will not be in the final retail models that you'll be getting. We should have final pictures of these models in the next 2 weeks and we'll share them in big, fully painted glory then. We have put up the sprue photos for these models, though again they are pre-retail versions and are lacking labels and other bits of final polishing which will be on the final versions of the sprues. We put those images up just so that you are not buying something unknown, and you can rest assured that the end models will be even better

--

Gongfarmer - Yup, they will include everything added via stretch goals that expanded the general boxes, so they have a terrain sprue, all the extra models, etc. The audiobooks, the extra Angel and the digital novel are the only things from the stretch goals that are not included. You can head over to the pledge manager now and check it out yourself