Who, if anyone, wants a FC: Early Years module?

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Sat May 23, 2009 3:16 am

Well, perhaps after War and Peace gets done, the likes of the Inter-Stellar Concordium EDN, CAT and others (pre-refit) could be added, and pitted against the Gorn and Romulan forces posted to what became the ISC frontier between 2568-2572 - and the Orions snooping around to spoil the party!

(If the Romulan ships were given a little bit of wiggle room, the same could be true for the Concordium - plus, for both the Romulans and Gorns, the ships deployed to what they had hitherto considered to be open frontiers may have been relatively neglected upgrade-wise compared to those on the Gorn-Fed-Romulan frontier...)

Plus, there are the likes of the Peladine who have (a small historical range of) MY ship classes which could work, too.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sat May 23, 2009 3:38 am

So are you saying that there won't be any more MY ships?

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Sat May 23, 2009 4:00 am

Mike wrote:So are you saying that there won't be any more MY ships?

I am saying that there is not another 72 MY ships worth doing, so there probably won't be another Briefing full of them. The whole reason for having 72 ships (an outrageously large number for FC) in Briefing #2 was to attempt to put them all in, in one shot.

Now, if there are specific, individual ships that you want to see, please feel free to request them for Communique.

Here, let me turn the question around back to you: What significant MY ships are missing?

Nerroth wrote:Well, perhaps after War and Peace gets done, the likes of the Inter-Stellar Concordium EDN, CAT and others (pre-refit) could be added, and pitted against the Gorn and Romulan forces posted to what became the ISC frontier between 2568-2572 - and the Orions snooping around to spoil the party!

That time period is fully within the General War era. Please believe me, it was asked, and the answer was, "No."

(As an aside, the pre-refit CA is not the CAT. The pre-refit CA is the "pre-refit CA". The CAT was not invented until way, way later.)

DorianGray · Post by **DorianGray** » Sat May 23, 2009 10:33 am

I would think more people would like Early Years more than X-ships.

In any regard since both of these exist in Star Fleet Battles already won't be enough for a simply conversion to Fed. Com?

SVC could release it as a expansion too unlike a briefing.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sat May 23, 2009 1:57 pm

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any other specific ships that are needed for MY.

I was wondering, however, about the Kzinti Medium Cruiser. Was it developed later? I seem to remember an SSD for it in my SFB basic set back in the early 1980's.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Sat May 23, 2009 2:35 pm

Mike wrote:I was wondering, however, about the Kzinti Medium Cruiser. Was it developed later? I seem to remember an SSD for it in my SFB basic set back in the early 1980's.

The Kzinti Medium Cruiser is their entry in the "war cruiser" class. As such, it is considered a "General War era" ship.

It may be found in Klingon Attack and Booster 6.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sat May 23, 2009 5:06 pm

I doubt there are ten MY ships not already published, and those are all so marginal as to not be worth publishing.

Evidence does not support the theory that more people want Y than want X. Evidence does support the theory that 72 ship cards were a hell of a lot of work and we're going to have to rethink the entire idea of doing setting books. FCB2 just took six times the work it was budgeted for, and hasn't measured up to the sales of six other products.

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat May 23, 2009 5:35 pm

Six times the budgeted work? Wow! I count us lucky we saw it at all.

For my part, I am very happy with the core setting and Briefing 2. I am a TOS fan so it is nice to have those ships. Early Years and X Ships, as well as simulator races, omega quadrant etc, might well be fun to play, but they are periferal to my interest in SFU gaming. I would not complain about featuring them in Captain's Log or Communique, but I would not rush to buy a product featuring them. The same goes for BoM, fighters, and a lot of other "chrome". I do enjoy monster scenarios though.

DorianGray · Post by **DorianGray** » Sat May 23, 2009 10:05 pm

Briefing 2 didn't sell well?

ah man...

I hope that doesn't put a damper on the chances for an early years product.

dave · Post by **dave** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:48 am

I don't think SVC is saying MY didn't sell well per se, just that it didn't sell equal to six other products combined. So sales were not comensurate with the work required to produce it.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Mon May 25, 2009 5:54 pm

Briefing 2 was supposed to take less work since everything was just a conversion of an existing ship. But the real work turns out to be (as we always knew it was, why were we so stupid?) in the CHECKING the cards for mistakes, to be sure everything got changed. Not just that this ship now (then?) has 3x9 warp instead of 3x10, but that the power track also does not need a +40 any more. A ship card is just exactly as hard to do if it 's color or B&W (same work goes into it) and a ship card that is a modification of a ship card is no easier (in some ways harder) than a new ship card. (If you're doing a new card, you don't put things on it that it doesn't need. If your converting standard to EY, every single thing on the card has to be re-confirmed as being what should be there, not a leftover artifact of the historically-later (previously published) card. In hingsight, I probably would not have done B2, at the very least, not in the "spring" when the origins deadline is there to get screwed up.

B2 contributed to a nasty spring for us. Everything we did took longer, and products we had scheduled got squeezed out, delayed, or worse. We found the new building after we abandoned hope of moving and set the schedule, and the move cost us a month. B2 took way too long, so did FCRRB. Then everybody (but me) decided that I had to do all of the Rev4 rulebooks over RIGHT NOW instead of next fall, which cost us three more weeks. Then I spent over a week on the die cutting crisis (now solved, I think) and and THEN I got sick and spent the last five days doing nothing much (other than some bodily functions you do not want to know about).

But yes, I did tell you guys to wait for FCB2 sales figures (six months to a year of such sales figures) before hassling me about Early Years or X-ships. And I need to solve the question of how to offer small quantitis of color cards for you guys for FCB2. And considering that FCB2 was a LOT more work than FCB1 or Orion Attack or Hydran Attack or Gorn Attack or War & Peace, I don't know if you'll ever see another 72-page setting module. Maybe. We were being kinda pushed into doing books without counters by the idiot die cutter (now replaced) so that pressure is gone, but we still have the huge cash flow hit of doing color cards (doing Hydran Attack will require spending $12,000 to do its cards, the booster cards, a few reprints, and Booster 91). right now, I'm just too fragile (just getting over serious illness) to think this through. Ask me in a week, or better, after Origins.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:06 pm

I hope you feel better soon SVC and that Origins sales are stellar.

Post by **Steve Cole** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:43 pm

I suspect Origins sales are going to be the worst ever, due to the economy (low attendance) and the fact that Hydran Attack all but certainly won't get done (due to the die cutting crisis).

Sneaky Scot · Post by **Sneaky Scot** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:28 pm

Get well soon SVC - the last thing we want is for you to be ill!

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Tue May 26, 2009 8:44 pm

It wouldn't hold the same amount of excitment (or for you, cash), but it would be easy to pump out boosters 91, 92, and 93 by Origins, wouldn't it? It would sustain the blow. Don't wanna see you going bankrupt.

Even though I wont be there, get out those boosters and you'll have at least one customer