We will, within a week, have the six packs of 12 middle years ships from Briefing #2 on e23.

After that, the plan for ship cards on e23 is basically this...

Pick an empire. (All card packs would be single-empire, since -- I admit I am guessing -- players want them that way.) We then select 12 ships from that empire (not really worried about what product they are in). This would include at least one "bonus" ship and at least one communique ship (if there are any for that empire) and at least one captain's Log ship (if there are any from that empire) at least one or two entirely new ships (perhaps selected by player votes). We probably would not include BoM ships (separate packs for those). We'd then release said pack of 12 for $9.95. The goal would be a pack a week, perhaps working our way up to two packs a week if all goes well (i.e. no piracy and good sales).

Does anyone have any comments?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 06:20 pm: Edit

Oh, these would be high-res, not the low-res ones in commander's circle.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 06:57 pm: Edit

Are the briefing ships and Captain's Log ships on e23 going to be color?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 07:06 pm: Edit

Yes.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 08:32 pm: Edit

Packs of a single empire is convenient. I also like the idea that the pack will include new ships and bonus/communique/caplog ships.

I have found printing out the Commander's Circle ships convenient in my PBEM game, for reference. I keep the copies of my own and my opponent's ships in a manila folder with the damage marked in pencil, it's better than the PBEM versions because I have important data like turn modes etc. right there. The .pdfs supplement the laminated cards and don't replace them, at least for me. I think you will find that while some players prefer one format or the other, a number will buy both and use them for different purposes.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 09:37 pm: Edit

What about the ship cards from Briefing #1?

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 10:35 pm: Edit

The ship cards from Briefing #1 were packaged in Booster #92.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 - 10:01 am: Edit

Thanks

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 - 01:54 pm: Edit

Just released: Pack A of the Ship Cards from Briefing #2 is available via e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022-A

These are PDFs for twelve Ship Cards from Federation Commander Briefing #2. This includes the General Units used by all empires and the Federation ships. You will need Federation Commander Briefing #2 or the PDF of the Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenarios Pack [these are forthcoming -- Jean] to fully utilize this pack.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 02:42 pm: Edit

Just released: Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenario Pack G is available via e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022G
This has 27 pages of rules, tactics, history, and the Master Ship Chart from Federation Commander Briefing #2.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, August 20, 2010 - 07:21 am: Edit

News flash! Federation Commander Briefing #2 Ship Pack B has just been released to e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022-B

These are PDFs for twelve Ship Cards from Federation Commander Briefing #2. This includes the Klingon ships and the Orion Pirate ships. You will need Federation Commander Briefing #2 or the PDF of the Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenarios Pack to fully utilize this pack.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:45 am: Edit

Leanna has packs C, D, E, and F ready to go. the plan is to post two per week (Tuesday and Friday) which gives me two weeks to think of something else to post.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Sunday, August 22, 2010 - 07:18 pm: Edit

I noticed that some of the ADB products on e23 don't have previews. Is this an oversight?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, August 23, 2010 - 11:40 am: Edit

Nobody here can answer that. You'd have to ask Leanna. I don't know if she does the previews or if SJG does them, so I don't know who oversought what.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - 08:12 am: Edit

Federation Commander Briefing #2 Ship Pack C has just been released to e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022-C

These are PDFs for twelve Ship Cards from Federation Commander Briefing #2. This includes the Romulans ships and the Tholian ships. You will need Federation Commander Briefing #2 or the PDF of the Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenarios Pack to fully utilize this pack.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, August 27, 2010 - 01:17 pm: Edit

News flash: Just in time for weekend games, Federation Commander Briefing #2 Ship Pack D has just been released to e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022-D

These are PDFs for twelve Ship Cards from Federation Commander Briefing #2. This includes the Kzinti ships and the ships that the WYNS captured or purchased and converted to their use. You will need Federation Commander Briefing #2 or the PDF of the Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenarios Pack to fully utilize this pack.

Enjoy!

By Scott Johnson (Sejembalm) on Monday, August 30, 2010 - 11:48 pm: Edit

We really need previews of the ship cards to see what we would be getting.

And will these PDFs be modifiable?

I mean, can the purchaser select and copy portions of the PDF and import it on something like a blank PNG image and then modify it?

I really liked Federation Commander Briefing #2 (Middle Years are my favorite), but the ships had too much decoration and gray filler in the system boxes, shield boxes and information boxes. As a result, they were hell on my toner cartridge to print and produced a smudged copy.

That's why I made low toner printer-friendly versions of the free ship cards published in Commander's Circle.

I would get rid of the thick dividing column, blank out the color in the boxes, and move the power track of the fleet scale ships to the left side so that a paper clip can be used on the left side of the paper to record power expenditures. Or make two fleet scale ships or two squadron scale ships on one page to better fight out groups of ships.

Naturally, I would not publish or give away such things without ADB's permission.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - 11:34 am: Edit

You really dont need previews since they look like ship cards. As for modifying PDFs, I have no idea. They're PDFs. I don't think I knew that there were such things as modifyable and non-modifyable PDFs.

By Scott Johnson (Sejembalm) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 02:55 am: Edit

Yes, we need previews of the FC Briefing 2 ship cards. Are these single ship cards? Or do they look like the ship sheets in the print version with the fleet scale version of the ship to the left of the squadron scale version, meant to be printed on an 8.5x11" sheet of paper?

Yes, I believe some PDFs are "locked" in that they will not allow the selection tool to be used on them.

At least I have had problems cutting and pasting certain PDFs. Your PDFs and Communiques are fine. You just have to download them and then you can export the ships into a blank PNG image to modify further or just print out the section of the PDF that you want. Those Communiques are very nice and APPRECIATED.

Buying the PDFs in four ship packs is pretty expensive, though.
$39.84 + $4.95 for the Rules & Scenarios Pack.
$44.79 --OW!
Kind of steep for a virtual version of a $19.95 expansion book.

Could you offer the whole PDF version (4 ship packs and rules combined) for a reduced price?
Or have it like the Starmada PDFs where the ship pack is in one big PDF for just $5.95, not broken up into races?

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 07:28 am: Edit

Scott, you probably are not aware that this has been discussed extensively over on the Forum. There will be a total of six packs of cards (12 each) plus the rules.

The seventeen page pack has a cover sheet, twelve Ship Cards and some advertising. The Ship Cards look like the ones in the book, except they are in full color.

For your $9.95 you are getting 50% more cards than you would in a booster pack. They are all unique cards. In all honesty you are getting a 50% discount over the "print/laminated" version.

From a marketing viewpoint, you are getting the flexibility to get only the packs you like and you are getting unlimited downloads. We have to sell two packs of cards to equal one book. Furthermore, when we start creating other packs, if we had come down to say $5 per pack, then we'd still hear that it was more expensive than the book and we'd be expected to sell all packs at that price. We'd lose our shirt.

Briefing #2 was one of the most expensive books, design-wise time, that we have ever done. Most of our expansions have only 16 ship cards; this had 72. Buying two packs of cards plus the rules gives you 50% more cards than you would get in a typical expansion and at a far cheaper price.

That's my understanding of the situation; SVC may have more information.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 11:35 am: Edit

I think Jean answered all of the questions.

Ship cards are not RPG pages and are not priced the same way. You might print only one copy of an RPG but you can print infinite copies of a ship card. 12 pdf cards for the price of 8 laminated cards is already a bargain.

By Scott Johnson (Sejembalm) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 12:34 pm: Edit

But how about the question of combining the four (now five) ship packs for a reduced price?
Like what you did with the Starmada PDFs?
Buying the ship packs individually still costs about $40 ($60 when all six packs are released), a steep price for something that can be sent through an email.

Don't get upset when I tell you that comparing electronic PDF downloads to actual laminated ship cards is sort of apples and oranges. I would take your 8 wonderful laminated ship cards to 12 PDF downloads any day of the week. Having the PDFs would be nice for printing out a bunch of ships for a fleet battle, but when the price is close to what a relevant booster pack would cost, the booster pack gets the nod, at least in my book.

I hope you can continue to print material on Middle Years and Franz Joseph designs. I was just hoping for a combined ship pack deal.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 12:52 pm: Edit

News flash: Federation Commander Briefing #2 Ship Pack E has just been released to e23: http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB4022-E

These are PDFs for twelve Ship Cards from Federation Commander Briefing #2. This includes the Hydran ships and most of the Gorn ships. You will need Federation Commander Briefing #2 or the PDF of the Federation Commander Briefing #2 Rules & Scenarios Pack to fully utilize this pack.

By Mark S. Hoyle (Resartus) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 12:59 pm: Edit

Scott,

Don't think your getting the point of the conversation, the cost of printing/laminating not where this is coming from --

It's effort/time involved in converting them from SFB SSDs to FC Ship Design -- Which has the major affect on prices -- And to add in the time taken from other projects with better sales potential --

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Scott, I don't see a combined product discount happening. For one thing, the guys who bought things individually would be really peeved (and rightfully so). We'd always be pressured to combine packs X, Y, and Z to get a discount.

The booster packs with totally unique cards (the 90 series) lost money. Unless a miracle happens, I don't see those happening again in the future. SVC might be inclined to give things away, but Leanna has a habit of insisting that products turn a profit so that the company can pay employees. (I have to say I totally agree with her.)

These are twelve completely unique cards, not with mostly ships you got in an expansion with a few unique ships. You cannot compare most of the boosters to these Packs and see it as a fair price, when you take into account design time which we absolutely must do. Every bit of time that SVC is working on FC ship cards is time he isn't spending on other products. Every bit of time that I spend checking ship cards is time that I am not working on the RPGs.