Federation Commander

darebear

Question: can anyone give me the dimensions of the SSD cards?

mjwest · Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:05 pm Post subject:

They are "half-sheets" of standard American 8.5 inch x 11 inch sheets. So, their dimensions are 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches. That's approximately 138mm x 214mm (by my ruler).
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

darebear · Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:35 pm Post subject:

Thank you very much! Most appreciated.

darebear · Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:00 pm Post subject:

As an addendum, I played SFB years ago but sold it all off due to lack of a player base. FC seems right up my alley, but I have a hard time justifying playing $10 for a small amount of duplicate laminated SSDs. It feels very "X-Wingy"/CCGish. Coming from SFB, with access to zillions of ships if feels like a less for more situation. It is certainly good for revenue though; that I understand and respect.

Finally, being Canadian, currency conversion is an issue for me since all of these products are at least 30% more expensive for me (everything up here is a fortune.....we can easily pay over $100 a month for an average phone plan). The 12 Booster Packs for Klingon and Romulan Border/Attack modules is $120 which would/have bought a lot of SFB products. Really hard to swallow that for things I used to photocopy en mass.

Anyway, I figured that with my home laminator and color laser printer/copier I could make those extra SSDs I need at home. Copy both Fleet/Squadron SSDs onto a single piece of 8x11, fold it over and laminate with 10 mil 6x9 pouches (10 being very rigid).

Do most people purchase extra cards or do you make your own? Just curious.

mjwest · Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 3:00 pm Post subject:

One option is combing through Communique. The first, I dunno, 80 or so, issues have reprints of published ship cards. Basically, all Klingon Border, Klingon Attack, Romulan Border, and Romulan Attack are republished through Communique. It will take a little digging to get them all, but they are definitely there. (The bonus Booster ships are not, of course, but the rest are.)

If you want to try the game out, and have no map or counters, then I recommend getting Academy. This gives you the Klingon/Romulan Border rules, a map, counters, and four ship cards. With the above mentioned Communiques, you will be able to have a full, effective set of ships to use, and you can figure out if you want to go further. Academy itself is a USD $25 purchase. (I have no idea what the shipping to Canada is for it. It could double the price, honestly.)

This all assumes that you are willing to accept paper (and B&W paper at that) ship cards. But, as a lowest-cost entry point, this should allow you to experiment with the system with a (relatively) low entry cost. If you like it, you can start buying what interests you. If you don't, at least you aren't out a huge amount of money.

Just a thought.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

You can also download FIRST MISSIONS which is a streamlined and simplified set of FC rules without some bells and some whistles. But it's free.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

darebear · Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:18 pm Post subject:

thanks gents.

Nerroth · Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:22 pm Post subject:

I might also suggest taking a look at these PDF options. Various empires have one or more ePacks available from Warehouse 23, DriveThruRPG, and/or Wargame Vault. (Bear in mind that the "Briefing #2" packs listed there are for Middle Years Ship Cards, which are akin to the "unrefitted" hulls in Star Fleet Battles terms.)

Also, if you want as close to a one-stop-shop as you can get for the rules needed to operate the "main era" Alpha Octant empires presently in Federation Commander, I might further recommend getting an electronic copy of the FC Reference Rulebook.

And it might be worth noting that certain Ship Cards are "double-size", for units such as battleships and starbases. I don't have the exact dimensions of those Ship Cards to hand right now, though.
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

Itharus · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:31 am Post subject:

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

We are moving to PDFs as fast as we can BUT we cannot post a PDF of a non-updated product or we get trashed in reviews. And Steve Petrick can only revise/update one product at a time and updating old products is not his only job.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

cnuzzi · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 10 Jun 2017 Posts: 209

Sgt_G · Posted: Wed May 13, 2020 5:37 am Post subject:

Who cares what a few jerks have to say? Well, there's an old adage "a happy costumer will tell ten people, an unhappy costumer will tell a hundred people." And with the Internet, multiply by a thousand. Those "jerks" will post poor reviews on the three main PDF download sites and also on gaming sites such as Board-Game-Geeks. Poor reviews lead to poor sales.
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Garth L. Getgen

Master Sgt, US Air Force, Retired -- 1981-2007 -- 1W091A

koogie · Lieutenant JG Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 72

I'm kind of skeptical about that. These are niche products on a niche topic in niche hobby. The people who are going to buy the PDF of the Module R1 SSD book are not likely going to be new customers, but old customers who want the convenience of SSDs they can simply print off, or replace worn out copies.

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

Actual sales data shows that being trashed in reviews lowers sales for every product and costs us lots of money.

We don't set policy on gut feelings. We use actual data. The last time we posted a non-updated book we got trashed so thoroughly it took months of updated products for sales to recover.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

cnuzzi · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 10 Jun 2017 Posts: 209

That seems strange to me, but then I generally don't read reviews for most purchases. I know what I want to buy and I buy it. I'll read reviews if I am buying a TV, but even there I take them with a grain of salt. The people who liked the TV don't generally post reviews, so the data is heavily skewed.

Just out of curiosity, what is it they are trashing? I guess what I am really asking is, what do the updates consist of? Errata? New content?