How about a second SFB tactics manual or a Federation Comander Tactic manual also?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 10:54 am: Edit

Patrick D already is working on the FC manual for next year. It's more than 2/3 done.

As for a new SFB manual, you'd have to give Petrick a list of topics it might cover.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 02:22 pm: Edit

An update of module D2 tournament tactics could be a start for the book, also a compilation and expansion of tactics published in captains logs since the first tactics manual was published.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Istead of first I meant last or newest edition of the SFB tactics manual.

"5624 TACTICS MANUAL: First printed 1987. Captain's Edition printed 1992 with major revisions. New edition in 2000 corrects several minor errors. The new 2000 edition has a different cover (cgi people standing around a hologram display)." From the product updates website. If this is correct, the book hasn't had a major update since 1992 surrely some of the tactics have changed as the game has elvolved since 1992.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 03:40 pm: Edit

Anyhow, I am not saying that it needs to be redone but I believe that there has to be some room for expansion.

Topics: Maybe discussions on early years, simulator, Omega, Vudar, X-ships, Mallagenics, etc. Things added to the game since 1992 and all the things added since 2000

By Fred J. Kreller (Kreller1) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 03:59 pm: Edit

And things like carronades, sabot plasma, etc. (Hey, we plasma junkies need our fix, too!)

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 06:16 pm: Edit

Yes, exactly. Thanks Fred.
Haven't some new drone types been added also? Bombers and heavy fighters are pretty new. Stellar shadows stuff, maybe playtest tactics or advice on how to playtest? Advice on the monster rules. Campaign strategies. Maybe an article on facing unknown enemies. Advice on building battleforces or fleets.

Everybody else feel free to jump in here.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 06:21 pm: Edit

Didn't Ken Burnside write something about introducing new people to SFB??? Maybe a cadet section, or teaching people the game. Running a demo advice.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 02:31 pm: Edit

With the Silent Death conversion still potentially on the cards, this question might be redundant - but then, if that conversion will see a shift in scale to ships rather than fighters, perhaps not so much.


Now that we have a range of miniatures for various Alpha Octant empires available, could a dogfighting game be created in order to let these units take each other on?

As well as air-to-air action, this could also include ground attacks (and surface-to-air responses) as well as, say, strikes against asteroid bases or what have you.


(If not based on SD, one comparable game I had in mind was Aeronautica Imperialis, which allows for in-atmosphere combat between airborne units from various factions in its parent setting. Of course, I don't suggest to use its rules or anything, but merely mention it as an example of what I had in mind.)


Such a game could give the new fighters the spotlight, and perhaps even allow for more use of the drone and plasma minis, too.


Could such an idea work?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Could be. I've said as much myself.

I do not know why I haven't seen any progress on this, but I haven't had time to shake that bush because I did not have time to deal with whatever fell out. I'll ask the guy next week what he wants to do with the project.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Friday, October 23, 2009 - 03:05 pm: Edit

I'm not sure if this would make the most sense as a "New Product" idea - perhaps just something that could appear in Captain's Log now and then.

But, anyway, what I'd REALLY like is some "mini-campaigns" specifically designed to be used with the crew quality/experience rules. Kind of like RPG sourcebooks, that provide DMs ideas on specific campaigns or theaters to work with. My group is quite familiar with that mindset from previous gaming experience, and would like something like that with SFB (but, keep in mind, we are talking ship/fleet scale, NOT personnel scale a la the SFU RPGs).

IE., a 'mini-campaign' that describes a pair of frigates on the Klingon border, allowing for various operations (scenarios - anti-piracy, intel gathering, convoy escort, monster fighting, etc), crew promotions (to include, for example, promotions to new ships) and experience gains, etc.

If anyone has played Interplay/Taldren's "Starfleet Command" series of games (I'm sure everyone has), pretty much EXACTLY what they did with their scripted campaigns (not the 'Dynaverse' ones, really), given players a rough set of missions they must do and they have flexibility to earn prestige for upgrades (or, with the more detail the SFB rules offer, refits, specialized drones, etc)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 23, 2009 - 10:05 pm: Edit

Xander: I am out of town on the wolf trip, so I cannot do anything with your suggestion, and won't be able to find it (or remember to look for it) when I get back. Please pay attention to the My Day blog, and if I'm out of the office, that's an excellent time for any suggestions to get lost forever and never acted on.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Monday, October 26, 2009 - 07:46 pm: Edit

To bring up my previous post ('mini-campaigns' along the lines of RPG adventures to connect a series of scenarios/battles together for gamers with crew upgrades, etc) - again, not sure this is a "new product idea" or not, so...should I send this via email, or discussion here ok?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - 11:22 am: Edit

We have done several mini-campaigns for SFB, and will do more if somebody writes them. I am not sure that this would be a complete product.

I have more ideas on my list than I can do, and this one doesn't appeal to me as a designer, but as a publisher, if somebody did one, I'd publish it if it was good enough to publish.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 - 05:03 pm: Edit

SVC- How about a MRB outline? It would help greatly for undestanding some rules and sections better, and would make some rules easier to find and see how they are organized. I emailed you an example.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 04:06 pm: Edit

SVC, how about a TR (Tourney Reference) for the Omega ships?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 06:22 pm: Edit

Buy the Omega Master Rulebook.

I don't think it would be good for the product line to sell you have of that rulebook at half price.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 06:33 pm: Edit

Didn't knew there was a MRB for Omega, thought there only was one for the Alpha. I will take a look at it.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 01:41 am: Edit

Huh. I didn't realize there was an MRB for Omega, either. 'Course, given how incomplete SFB is with only the MRB (really, at LEAST the R-sections are needed, if not the S-, T-, and U- intro sections for completeness sake), I wonder how much value it would have to, say, me, who is keenly interested in Omega but has none of the modules so far...

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 07:02 am: Edit

Xander, for the Omega Master Rulebook, the R, S, and T sections are there, just no SSDs. It also includes tactics and term papers.

For the Alpha Octant, The R section would be the Master Starship Book and the scenarios would form the Master Scenario Book.

With staff as it currently is (i.e., me working not working full time and in Amarillo), we sort of have a choice -- produce new things or turn out the master products. I think most people would really rather have new products at this point.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 08:20 am: Edit

Jean,

Yes, but ...

It would be *extremely* handy if we could have sections S1-S8, T1, U1, and U7 done in the MRB. These are general rules on scenarios (and campaigns), not actual scenarios. They heavily affect how you can use scenarios seen elsewhere.

Note that you can discard S8, as it is being done in CL40, anyway, and there is no (relevant) S7. So, you can shorten the above list to S1-S6, T1, U1, and U7. These really are important sections to running SFB (particularly S1-S6). These should have always been included in the MRB.

And throwing in R0 wouldn't hurt, either. At one time, someone made a list of rules from the R section that should probably be included, too. But doing that would require a whole bunch of cut-n-paste (along with searching for it). So, to keep things simple, I am ignoring those and only list R0.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 10:31 am: Edit

And that is a Steve question/suggestion, so I leave that for them.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 11:15 am: Edit

We made a decision long ago on what to include in MRB and I'm not going to re-re-re-re-debate that decision again. Every now and then, somebody comes up and says "I think this or that should have been in there" and others say "no, it should not, I don't want it" and well, that's just a time-wasting psychic energy sinkhole.

We are, however, entering another product planning cycle, a question came up on the "master" books that may be worth discussing in the correct topic.

By Sidney G. Kanouse (Konus67c7) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 01:01 pm: Edit

I have to throw in my two cents worth on this one. As far as a new product..We have Omega on the ISC side of the map, which is cool because I just bought Omega One, and love it. We cannot go outward because there is nothing there. We have extragalactic races. One, we can go coreward. Two, and this is my choice, go to the farside of the Kzintis, Lyrans, and Hydrans. You hear so much about this area in fiction, even the Klingons go poking around out there. Let's add a few new races on this side. I think it would be a blast to get everybody's creative mojo going. Just a thought. Would adding fuzzy dice to my C7 be over the top?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 01:21 pm: Edit

I'd like it better if we filled in the existing late history a bit more.