Federation Commander

[Weirdo]

I saw something mentioned in the most recent Hailing Frequencies about a Starmada Unity. What is it? A new edition of the game or something?
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Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!

[Steve Cole]

It is mentioned in the Communique.

Unity is a new edition of Starmada that unites and replaces Admiralty and Nova. There won't be any more Admiralty or Nova books, just Unity.

Hold on a second, we don't expect you to buy another new edition of Star Fleet Starmada.

Anyone who bought a PDF of any Star Fleet Universe Admiralty of Nova book will find the new unity version of that book in their updated download PDF archive. So if you bought Klingon Armada Nova you'll get Klingon Armada Unity for free the next time you update your download.

Anyone who bought a hard copy Nova or Admiral Star Fleet book from ADB or a store will be sent a PDF of the new Unity book on request.

So everybody gets a free upgrade/switchover to Starmada Unity.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Weirdo]

Well, that's...annoying? Disappointing? Infuriating? One/all of those.

I finally got my group really interested in Admiralty, and support is being discontinued?

No. I'm staying with AE. Much as I wish you guys(and the folks at MJ12) weren't doing this, they're your companies not mine, and complaining won't help anything. I'll probably buy the new stuff anyway, but only so I can convert it back to Admiralty. About the only real difference is that if my circumstances change and I can actually attend a convention, I still won't be playing any of the games.

Will the download update also be there for people who bought their stuff before the store changed, or who bought it from MJ12, or DriveThruRPG?

How long will the paper AE books remain in the online store? I've got pdfs galore, but have long been planning to get them in physical form as well. And I sill have yet to find anyone willing to trade me an AE Klingon Armada for the Nova one I was accidentally given as a gift.

Does this affect the odds of us getting a corrected version of the Starmada Log?
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Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!

[mj12games]

(NOTE: "We" in this post refers to Majestic Twelve Games; I do not presume to speak for ADB.)

I certainly understand your reaction, but to be blunt, you've precisely articulated the need for Unity. (See what we did there? )

Over the history of Starmada, a new edition has come out every 4-5 years. Each time the game was expanded and improved upon, yet nothing was ever "invalidated" because players were all using self-designed ships and customized backgrounds. The release of a new edition meant going back and improving upon those designs -- the prospect of which was generally met with excitement.

Then the Star Fleet Universe deal came along, which was brilliant! It brought Starmada to a new audience, and gave me the chance to mess around in a setting I have always admired.

In 2012, Nova happened. I failed to appreciate what the existence of the SFU products meant to the existing cycle -- suddenly, a new edition meant a lot of players felt their existing materials were "invalid". Chalk it up to my inexperience with the "real world" of game production. No longer was Starmada merely a player-driven collective effort; it had the honor but also the responsibility that goes along with being attached to one of the most-beloved universes in science fiction.

At ADB's urging, I continued producing new books in both editions. (That's not a complaint; I understand and agree with the decision completely.) However, after five years, continuing support for both is simply unrealistic. The player base remains split, which affects not only Star Fleet Armada customers but also hampers the production of non-SFU material. In a word, we were stuck.

About a year ago, I began working on a "crossover" product which would allow Admiralty and Nova designs to be used against each other in the same game. After working on that for a bit, I realized that with only minor revisions to the Nova starship displays (which I was planning to introduce anyway because some players felt the game had gone too far into abstraction) you essentially had a single, unified rules set. Thus, the idea for Unity was born.

If your group likes Admiralty, they will love Unity. There are only a couple differences between the two. Further, the Admiralty ships are playable in the new edition of the game. OTOH, the new Unity ships have been re-designed to more accurately reflect the source material.
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Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
www.mj12games.com

[Weirdo]

[mj12games]

[Steve Cole]

See, guys? We spent a lot of behind-the-scenes time making sure that Unity would SOLVE problems not create them.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Weirdo]

[mj12games]

[Weirdo]

In that case, I have but two requests for Unity books:

1: Please put all the data on the record sheet. In my Starfleet Armada pdfs, I had to go in and manually put the data for drones, shuttles, plasma torpedoes, etc, so that we wouldn't have to be constantly referring back to the book every time one was used. And DriveThruRPG secures their files, so I didn't even have that option on things I bought from there.

2: Please put all the record sheets upright. I know it makes sense to rotate them in the printed book, but it makes looking at the sheets very difficult(and painful for my neck) on a computer, and almost impossible on a tablet or e-reader that will keep rotating the page every time you try and turn the device for easy reading. As above, I was able to fix this myself on some of my pdfs, but not on the ones from DriveThruRPG.

Thanks!
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Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!

[mj12games]

Request (1) is already done.

Request (2) will be taken under advisement.
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Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
www.mj12games.com

[Garydee]

I second having portrait style record sheets. Those SFU Admiralty landscape sheets were a pain to look at on a computer.

[mj12games]

I can take a look at formatting options, but my gut reaction is that for printing purposes landscape is going to remain the best option. Simply too much wasted space any other way.

However, I believe it is a small matter to format the PDF so that the displays are viewed "right side up" on the computer screen.
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Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
www.mj12games.com

[Weirdo]

[Steve Cole]

I for one don't have a problem with putting both portrait and landscape versions of the charts in the PDF download.

QUESTION ASKED
Will the download update also be there for people who bought their stuff before the store changed, or who bought it from MJ12, or DriveThruRPG?
ANSWER
I am from ADB and can only answer about the Star Fleet books. The existing admiralty/nova books on DT and W23 will be replaced with Unity (although Jean was thinking to maybe stack the two books so you still get the original one, you might tell her your preference.) Did anybody buy hard copy Star Fleet books from MJ12? (I really don't know, not in that side of things.) If so, you can get the free PDF. I am not sure what "store changed" in this context.

QUESTION ASKED
How long will the paper AE books remain in the online store? I've got pdfs galore, but have long been planning to get them in physical form as well. And I sill have yet to find anyone willing to trade me an AE Klingon Armada for the Nova one I was accidentally given as a gift.
ANSWER
Since they are print on demand there is no real reason they cannot remain forever, except that we dont want to confuse customers in future. As noted, because they are POD we can print one for you in 2027 if you want. If it's not on the store when you want it, just email Leanna (sales@StarFleetGames.com) and she'll figure out how to trick the cart for you.

QUESTION ASKED
Does this affect the odds of us getting a corrected version of the Starmada Log?
ANSWER
I am not sure that "corrected" is the proper word here. So far as I know, all of that stuff will eventually be rolled into future products, so I'm not sure if there is a need for an updated version, but if Daniel wants to whip one up we'll certainly make it available. (ADB cannot do it; we aren't qualified to do rules or ships for his game system. It's not that his system is hard to understand, we're just busy doing our own systems.)
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander