Federation Commander

terryoc wrote:BTW Mike, are there any mods to tractor beams? Wasn't there a limited arc in EY, or are you just going to ignore that for simplicity's sake?

I figured that since tractors were already only one-hex range, why bother. That is definitely one I ignored.

I've got Module Y1, never used it. Guess my friends and I just aren't Early Years kinda guys, although I would always think of the Early Years stuff when I'd watch Enterprise.

I favor an early years expansion over x-ships.

I will definitely buy an early years product.

In all seriousness, guys, wait about 4-6 months and let's see what the sales of Middle Years are. It turned out to be a LOT more work than expected, and X-ships or Early Years would be even MORE work. (This is due to the editing of existing cards and the need for entirely new cards.) It, frankly, doesn't matter what people HERE say they want. The only thing that matters is how FCB2 sells.

You know what that means.

BUY BRIEFING NO. 2 right now or in the immediate future. OR ELSE...

All of us have a duty to support ADB.

picking up my copy of fc:b2 in the morning. so i guess now i wait for everyone else to get theirs. thank you SVC for the info.

I mentioned this before.

Why not have a P500 system like GMT games does, where people can put in a certain number of pre-orders before games get developed and published?

It'll only take to have a website and a pre-order system set up.

Most wargaming companies now have a pre-order system because it is an excellent way for market research.

That way, you won't have to take a leap and only develop early years when it hits 500 orders. Also, you could already have fiscal capital (from those 500 orders) to use for development.

Same could be applied for future miniatures, War & Peace, Jindarians, ISC...

I did buy Briefing 2, and am lovin' it .

We discussed this P500 ransom model before. It doesn't work very well (and is only used by a few companies that aren't in major distribution as we are, the distributors won't stand for it), and NO, "most" companies do nothing of the kind, and NO, "most" companies to NOT have a pre-order system that is any different from our system (which has pre-orders a week early) and the ones that do have no end of trouble with them (and their customers no end of complaints). Far too many products end up late, rescheduled, or reformatted. It's just not workable. The way the credit card system works, you can do the charges manually or automatically. Manually is about 10 times as much work per order, and manually is the only way a pre-order system works, because there are LAWS against charging credit cards for products that do not have a firm release date. The FEW companies that do such things mostly do it because they cannot get into distribution. (I actually know of two that do it, and they both pulled out of the distributor system, something we considered and rejected.)

I say just three settings, Early Years, Middle Years, and what we have now.

FC:B2 is great . my wife plans to at least try the game now thanks to this book. i would buy FC:EY in a heart beat. i am currently waiting for MJWest's EY 1Z article to see how close i've come with the few i've converted to date. so when you get to this one . i'll order 1.

I have FC: B2. I think the Middle Years Federation CA vs D7 match-up is much more fair than using the GW-era ships. The match seems closer. In the GW era, the D5W is a much better opponent than the D7 for the CA, IMO.

I like the price, at $19.95 much more affordable than an attack product (for me), and I would support this format with more purchases if it was used for other "marginal" products for FC. (I'd personally like to see the simulator races, but I suppose that it'd be a lot of work so it's unlikely to happen... Oh well. )

I will ditto Terryoc's comments, both about buying an early years and the CA/D7 match.

Before we see an early years project I would like to see more middle years ships. I like the idea of basing campaigns in this era.

pmiller13 wrote:Before we see an early years project I would like to see more middle years ships. I like the idea of basing campaigns in this era.

There aren't anymore MY ships. We were reduced to including the Fed hospital ship and making a new ship out of whole cloth! (Though the new ship was cool.)

The only things 'missing' are tugs, scouts, commando ships, and things like that. But they aren't in FC in the main setting, either.

(OK, I guess there are the obscure, weird stuff like the C4B, LD5, GCA, LCA, and such. But that wasn't the direction of the setting effort.)