I was supposed to spend today doing the two FC ship cards but instead spent the whole day fixing problems in the shipyard section. Things in the text had to be corrected and I had to create new weapons tables in a program I haven't used for years for the Omega Paravians.

Mike sent some Q&A stuff but I need to verify that was all of it because it makes a difference to the page count.

I did the the six SFB scenarios put into the layout program but all of them need some work before I print it out for proofreading.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Saturday, August 29, 2020 - 11:33 am: Edit

What do the weapons charts look like

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 29, 2020 - 06:33 pm: Edit

They look like rows of numbers.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 29, 2020 - 06:34 pm: Edit

I did a bunch of changes to existing pages.

I did the SFBF page, at least to the point a real artist can do what is left to do.

I did some tank stuff that may or may not get into CL54.

I found out that Jean and Petrick knew about a scenario that has to go into the book that they never told me about meaning one of the scenarios I already did has to be deleted.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Saturday, August 29, 2020 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Nah, just start the CL55 file and drop it in ... (G)

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Sunday, August 30, 2020 - 12:08 am: Edit

That’s was a stoupid I as kid Steve didn’t think

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Sunday, August 30, 2020 - 03:09 am: Edit

Sorry typos

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 30, 2020 - 07:17 pm: Edit

We're sitting at 74.67 percent.

Official release date is set for 14 September.

It should go on the cart sometime around 7 September.

We lack:
3 pages of starmada
1 page of Paul's stuff.
1 page of FEAR's stuff.
1 page of awards
2 pages of tarantula scenario I just found out about
1 FC ship card I haven't done yet.
Lots of proofreading, Editing, art.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Monday, August 31, 2020 - 07:00 am: Edit

I’ll be sure to mark my calendar Steve

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, August 31, 2020 - 11:17 am: Edit

I am looking at where I am, where we are, and what needs to happen to finish this.

Release two weeks from today is a condition set by the cover art (which isn't here yet and will take seven days to get printed once it is so we really need the Shapeways sculptors to wrap that up by Wednesday or at worst Thursday of THIS Week).

The table of contents is of course not done yet as it has to be done last.

HISTORY: This is all done except for Jean checking the changes I made, ordering the art for the story (which I could and should have done a week ago but only so much gets done in any one day), and Al Beddow giving me the final numbers on the Gorn tank's plasma cannon.

COMMUNICATIONS: This is all done except for the awards pages.

FED COMMANDER: This is all done except for Paul Franz's article which, frankly, could show up next Monday and not be a problem.

SFB SCENARIOS; Ten pages, six scenarios. This was in good shape until Steve Petrick reminded me what I had forgotten, that there has to be a scenario for the Space Tarantula, the monster Jean invented. That means one of the scenarios already selected will get bumped to another product. Which kinda makes this whole chapter hard to work on. I have the drafts of the six scenarios (not the tarantula) so I can do my format/edit/art thing to them, but I hate to do all six and lose the work on the sixth one when it dies to make way for Tarantula, and I won't know which of the six will die until I see how big Taratula is. There is a scenario for Magellanics and one for Omega and one for Early Years, so I guess one of the General War scenarios will sacrifice itself for Tarantula.

TACTICS: This is entirely done but 19 pages have not been proofread by Jean, and those involve 19 different authors which makes this a very difficult and tedious section to proofread and make corrections. Nineteen authors means nineteen different styles, sets of abbreviations, flavors of jargon, creative spelling and capitalization, and so forth. Who knew there were six different ways to spell Dilithium?

DATABASE is done except for the three page monster article (Tarantula). Which I hope to heck actually turns out to be three pages because if it's short or long it's going to cause problems. OH, and I need one piece of art from Loren.

VENUES is done except for Paul Franz's articles.

CALL TO ARMS is done.

F&E is something of a mess that snags the whole book. Until I get the rest of Mike Curtis's Q&A stuff I don't know if he's going to use 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 pages. Once I know that, I can figure out how many pages of Tactical Notes will fit and still leave the space for the rest of the book. If he runs long, we might lose a snapshot at the front of the book. If he runs short, we may get some more tactical notes into the chapter.

SHIPYARD is done although I have to change the four Paravian ships from "minis soon on Shapeways" to "minis now on Shapeways".

SSDs and SHIP CARDS: All done except for the FC card for the B8.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, August 31, 2020 - 08:15 pm: Edit

HISTORY: art ordered, tank conference with Albert set for Wednesday.

COMMO: no change.

FEDCOMM: no change.

SFB SCENARIOS: now seven scenarios, eleven pages.

TACTICS, DATABASE, VENUES, CALL TO ARMS: no change.

F&E: Mike sent the last page and we are all good.

SHIPYARD, SSDs: no change.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, August 31, 2020 - 11:38 pm: Edit

Special thanks to Mike Curtis for getting me the last needed part under difficult conditions.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Tuesday, September 01, 2020 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Saving up my pennies for captain’s log 54

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 01, 2020 - 02:59 pm: Edit

Lots of stuff happening regarding CL54.

I heard from Paul Franz who will have his stuff (one of the blank pages) to us by Friday. This is not a problem as I know how big those articles always are.

I heard from Daniel Kast that all he lacked to send his three pages is some art he forgot to ask for. I sent it to him this morning, so that part should be under control by tomorrow.

I processed all of the remaining staff reports on everything and sat down with Petrick to puzzle out three F&E Q&A things I couldn't understand. We decided that two of them were right and the last one (a toss up that FEAR tossed to me) went the only way it could (LAA and LAC can both garrison provinces).

I consulted with Jean on the Shapeways release which will let her get on the check-change stack later today. We have been stuck at 54 finished pages for several days while she did Shapeways and it will be good to put some more points on the board by tonight, maybe. There are about ten pages in the check-change stack and at least some of them should get approved.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 01, 2020 - 03:10 pm: Edit

So, where are we, and what's left.

TABLE OF CONTENTS; Obviously has to be the last page done.

HISTORY: Jean has to check the last six pages of changes. Dale owes me three pieces of art I won't have until the 10th. I need three pieces of ship art which I can find easily enough.

COMMUNICATIONS: Steve P and I need to do the awards, which will be very late in the process as it will take an entire day. The artist list obviously cannot be done until very near the end. There are a couple of page numbers missing on one page which are references to other things in the book that have page numbers that cannot be known at this time.

FEDERATION COMMANDER: One paragraph from Paul Franz that should be here soon. Three pages with corrections Jean has to check. Tactical note ranks.

SFB SCENARIOS: I have all seven in eleven pages but I haven't read a word of them nor have I done the graphics or filled any gaps with art. Sounds like tomorrow will be a fun day.

SFB TACTICS: Waiting for Jean to proofread the most difficult 19 pages in the book, then me to make changes and her to check the changes and me to make the changes I missed the first time.

SFB DATABASE: I am supposed to have Steve Petrick's last article (Jean's monster) tonight. I don't know if it will be two or three pages but I have a plan for either. And Loren owes me a piece of art.

VENUES: I lack one page of Starmada text, one page of Paul Franz stuff, and Jean checking the changes on the Vega profile.

CALL TO ARMS: done.

F&E: Pretty much done except for Jean proofreading it. I await Mike FEAR checking the last Q&A pages then the staff checking them.

SHIPYARD/SSDs; I lack one FC card I haven't found time to do and corrections to two FC cards that won't take much and four Starmada ships (two Vudar, and the Klingon B8 and B10T).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 01, 2020 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Progress:

Steve Petrick finished the three page monster article so that's done and in Jean's proofreading stack.

I have done the squadron side of the B8 which passed Steve Petrick's review with one minor change. So my hand is now set to the task of doing the fleet side.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 01, 2020 - 07:30 pm: Edit

More progress.

I got Daniel Kast's Starmada stuff (Vudar preview and the Klingon B10T and B8) and they're now in the book.

I did the first six of 11 pages of scenarios.

Jean cleared more pages, so we're up to 58 finished pages and 80% completion.

The only "missing" stuff is Paul's and since (a) I know how big it is and (b) I have another week to go I told him that Saturday will be soon enough.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 11:31 am: Edit

Steady progress.

Jean cleared 3 more pages as finished.

I made further corrections to five previously corrected pages.

I got the last five scenario pages done including the graphics.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 05:29 pm: Edit

More pages got final approval.

I made Petrick's changes to scenarios and gave the lot of them to Jean.

I fixed the FC Orion CS card.

Jean marked 142 corrections to the first four pages of battle groups.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 06:19 pm: Edit

All of Paul Franz's articles are in and edited and handed to Jean for proofreading.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 06:21 pm: Edit

At this point, 142 pages are essentially complete and 68 of those have final approval. The only thing not given to Jean for proofreading is the Awards pages. Steve Petrick and I may tackle those Friday when nobody else will be in the office. That or we might play SPACE HULK instead of working.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 08:51 pm: Edit

Have fun playing SPACE HULK.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 10:52 pm: Edit

Never have played it

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 02:06 pm: Edit

Is space hulk an rpg

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 02:58 pm: Edit

Space Hulk is fun. Tony Thomas and I would play the Marines and his wife, Evey, would play the Tyranids(sp). She would always pull the six figure blips... Usually wiping both Tony and I out over time.

Great fun.