Archive through December 07, 2008
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: New Product Development:
2009: The Year of the Book:
Archive through December 07, 2008
I was wondering when the F&E guys would show up. I figured they'd be doing the War Book chant by now.
ISC War has been directed to come out first Loren...by SVC's command. Otherwise I'd be dancing and chanting.
Because I'm a hopeless romantic, I'll resurrect the idea of the Peladine Exile Fleet:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/16363.html?1182525642
Lawrence Bergen: I forgot about that, and it makes sense. I think it would be good to have ISC War actually IN the WAR book.
Compiled book of term papers.
SVC
"1. Apparently, you missed our first paperback anthology."
Is sarcasm, yes? Cause I'd buy it...
Master starship book might be done as
1. separate books for each empire.
2. Fed (Kzinti, Orion)
Klingon (Hydran, Lyran)
Romulan (Gorn, ISC)
Other small states (Tholian, Neo-Tholian, LDR, Vudar, Jindarian)
3. As above, but with other small states mixed into the books.
SVC is that "Compiled book of term papers" for FC or SFB?
If it is for FC then you could also look at an updated 'Tactics Manual' or an "Advanced Tactics Manual" for SFB.
Of course it has always been one of my own hopes to see an F&E version of the Tactics Manual but just the F&E TacNotes are over 100 pages from the CL's alone. This doesnt account for the longer tactical war room discussion pages or the "Give me an example of.." type articles. Maybe if the Warbook ever gets done, then one of these might be a nice follow up product.
Book of "missing" boarding diagrams, and tables?
My normal suggestion
Quote:SVC
"1. Apparently, you missed our first paperback anthology."
Is sarcasm, yes? Cause I'd buy it...
IIRC it was an anthology of Klingon stories from Captain's Log, done as a test run of the idea. I don't know if it's still available, hunt around on the shopping cart.
The paperback book is called "Star Fleet Journal #1-For the Glory of the Empire" and is a collection of five stories from Captain's Log. Product number is 2201.
SVC,
As a follow to Mike Grafton's request for fighter and bomber squadron SSDs I would like carriers without fighters. The fighter and bomber SSDs would be useful with orbital and ground bases. Could you include SSDs for the heavy fighters in last few CLs?
A colony planet with the SSDs for the bases; one page ground bases for each hexside.
Unique ports of call. Meva Station is mentioned in one of the older CLs, perhaps it could be a commercial version of a sector base.
SFB Book I'd most like to see in 2009: SSJ3 (in what ever form). I want GW Carnivons!
I second Jeremy's sentiment there.
I would like a master scenario book because I know that I would use it. It would be more useful if the table of contents included the # of players and the historical races.
A tactics manual for Federation Commander - or at least, reprinting the command notes and tactics articles from Captain's Log in a future Briefing.
Quote:SVC said:
5. SFB needs to not be left out! It will get G3 and probably one module (maybe two) with counters, but we also need to think of SFB books to print that don't have to have counters. Anybody remember Petrick's idea for a carrier group book? how about a book of the 72 best ship submissions?
This could include any Hvy Fighter Carriers and the "superiority heavy fighters" for all of the races.
These wouldn't take counters, as do you really need a counter for a Fed CAV when it's basically a CVS?
The same with the fighters.
Basically the pages would be:
4 Fed (CAV, NVS w/ F-101, NVL w/ F-101, and ??)
4 Kli (D7VH, D5VH, DWVH, and ??)
4 Rom (FHV, SPV, KRVH, and ??)
4 Kzi (CVH, MVH, NCVH, and ??)
2 Gorn (CMVH, HVH)
__ Orion?
2 Tho (CVAH, CWVH)
2 Hyd (MKVH, COSH)
2 Lyr (CVLH, and ??)
4 ISC (CVH, CVSH, CSFH, CVFH)
__ Selt?
4 Jindo (HCSV, HCSVH, LCSV, LCSVH)
2 Vudar
I'm sure we could brainstorm some others too. Maybe HDW-V SSDs (one page per race)
I tossed this one up about 5 years ago and it was shot down with the 'no one buys scenario books' reply, but I think if it was done with an eye towards the graphic layout (and maybe 4-8 color pages for maps and FC stuff?) it would really be a hit, so here it is again:
MANY years ago, BattleTech had a series of books, each having details about a particular campaign (or campaigns) at different levels. This 'Campaign Book' format would work well for ADB as it would cover all products, allow material that SVC doesn't have generate wholly, and fleshes out depth instead of making new events.
An example layout might be "Campaign Book - Assault on Rigel"
The first 8-15 pages are fiction. One to three stories, one of which is a 'Red Storm Rising' type that covers 2-3 locations or units over a period of the attack to give a scope and details of the campaign but also to draw the buyer in.
2-4 pages of biographies of notable figures (admirals, captains, fighter squadron leaders, PDU officers, etc..) and particular ships, seen in this campaign. (i.e.; The Military Channel.)
After that 2-4 pages of F&E level sector charts showing the historical fronts and occurrences with accompanying explanation and historical commentary. (i.e.: The History Channel)
Then 4-6 pages laying out the F&E sector scenario.
? pages of a T campaign for SFB, including updating the existing scenario.
A whole bunch of pages for the FC guys giving them some ships and all the SFB T stuff but in FC terms & format.
2-4 'preview' campaigns of key battles fought planetside using Starfleet Assault.
Then a dozen or so pages of a PD module that also includes mini sub-mission possibilities, detailing out enough that the GM could build the particulars from there and carry on in their campaign.
- - -
It's a show with everything, but Yul Brenner!
Big, yes? Will it have to have projects assigned & a ring master, yes. Will every person playing in the SFU get something from it, yes.
The key is going to be to not make it look like (no offense intended) an R section data extract but HIGHLY graphic (no, not tons of fluff pictures, I mean a stylistic layout) and make it exciting looking. I'd even lean close to the TOS & TMP style fonts and graphics to try to get free spill over from the upcoming movie, thus getting non-SFU people to pick it up.
And look, no counters!!! 
Plus if it sells, it's repeatable, effectively making a new product line but one that uses and supports ALL the existing lines.
RH
RH: Cool Idea...I like it. I think you are suggesting that this would be how ADB presents something big, as a campaign (for example "Day of the Eagle"), for everyone at once. It goes a step or two further than a Captain's Log and I think would be easier in some aspects and harder in others.
It doesn't even have to be the whole campaign, and honestly the Day of the Eagle was way to big to present in one product, but yes, this might be handled similar to a themed super issue of CapLop as far as production goes. The mizzenplas articles like BattleForce, Ask, Eratta, Scanner, and so on are eliminated and the space used for pure, direct material.
The scope for the first one at least, imo, needs to be smaller and focused on one target.
RH
Another suggestion for a book only product would be a revised campaign designers handbook.
It could include revised tech trees to allow for everything that has been released since the publication of the original.
I'd like something like the Campaign Book, too. They could be used to explore something not-the-GW, too. Like the 1st or 2nd Fed-Kzinti War, or Op. Unity, or stuff like that.
I'm a Middle Years fan, so the 2FZ, or the non-war between the Feds and Gorns, or a Tholian campaign would be neat.
how about space monster ssds like old robot killing weapons.
I, too, like the idea of an all-inclusive campaign book.
A suggestion: write the scenarios in as generic fashion as possible so that they can be played in both SFB and Federation Commander. After the generic section of the scenario, have a section for "SFB-only" and another for "FedComm-only." Perhaps this would be unworkable...I don't know. It would seem to be a waste of space, however, to write the background twice.
Also be sure to include an entire range of scenarios that can be played. From individual one-on-one actions to 3-ship squadron actions to fleet actions, something will appeal to everyone. And for those who typically only like to play certain limited types of engagements, perhaps they will read about the others and decide to try them out.
I really think these campaign books would have tremendous possibility.
An additional note about the FedComm side of things. Even though one of FedComm's guiding principles is that of having no real timeline (I assume to keep things simple and avoid multiple versions of the same ship card because of refits), the new emerging concept of "eras" in the FedComm game has lots of potential. The campaign book system could take advantage of that. No new counters, discussions of ship types and their roles, "actual outcome" articles (history)...all of that could be included. What will really be needed is careful thought about what campaigns to do and the order in which they are released.
Another idea would be to think of a way to set up engagements that are determined by the outcomes of previous engagements, much as rpg do.
I don't think you could write a scenario to be usable in both FC and SFB because the formats are rather different. Also, there's a lot of stuff in SFB not in FC. Besides which, FC is getting a campaign system soon: Federation Admiral.
However, it's not that difficult to convert SFB scenarios to FC, it's just a matter of subtracting the things not relevant to FC. If a master scenario book got published, I'd probably buy it just to raid it for scenarios for conversion to FC.