Federation Commander

[terryoc]

AFAIK there are two Frax submarines. There are the Frax torpedo boats as well, that's another one or two.

Two products would probably cover it. One with rules, and basic ships, the other with the submarines and variants.

E.g. Frax Pack A
Frax Rules & Ship Descriptions
The Frax scenario from Cap Log #41
Dreadnought
Heavy Battlecruiser
Heavy Cruiser
War Cruiser
Destroyer
Frigate

Frax Pack B - Frax support ships and variants
Command Cruiser
War Cruiser - Drone Variant
War Cruiser - Escort Variant
War Destroyer Leader (if one exists)
War Destroyer Drone Variant
War Destroyer Torpedo Variant
Frigate Torpedo Variant
Police Ship
Submarine - War Cruiser
Submarine - Frigate
Scout? (unless you wanted to put this in BoM)
Tug/LTT? (Does one even exist?)
_________________
"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West

[Carthaginian]

[Shinanygnz]

[Steve Cole]

Assorted replies...

You guys have got to stop using the term "bonus ships" when you mean "new ships" since there already is a different thing called bonus ships.

Yes, $60 is a lot for 72 PDFs, but then, if you bought laminated cards, what would they cost you? Something like $90, so you're already getting a serious break. (Remember the guys who moaned that we should have included $90 worth of laminated cards in B2 and still charged only $20 for it?) Remember, it's not the product, it's the cards, and cards are worth more than rules pages. Would we sell more if the price were lower? Sure, but would we make more? No, we would not. Seventy-two is a LOT of cards! Whoever thought we should sell the 72 ship cards for less than the $20 cost of the black and white paper product was crazy.

For one thing, if we did 72 for $20, nobody would pay more than 28 cents a card thereafter, and the price of 12 for $10 is entirely reasonable.

Including counters: That's an idea.

Some of you do or don't want omega, frax, Magellanics, and so forth. That's the glory of PDFs, because we don't have to limit products to just what sells to the mass of players. Different strokes, boys and girls. Just because you "make scanned backups of laminated cards" doesn't mean everybody does. Just because you like this or that doesn't mean everybody else wants exactly the same thing. Tell me what you want but don't try to tell other people what THEY want, or should want, or would want if they were as intelligent, good-looking, and athletically-embodied as you are.

I have no idea how many frax packs are needed, but it's 12 ships per pack, so if it turns out we need more than 24 ships, we'll do more than two packs. (There are four subs, by the way, of which only 3 have been published.) I think it would be stupid for us to say "There will only be two packs of Frax" when nobody even looked at the list of frax ships (which lists about 60 in SFB). We'll probably do two, then see if the sales make doing a third justifyable. If we do a third and it bombs, we don't do a fourth. If it sells, we will do a fourth. Terry, your frax pack plan doesn't work. Twelve ships per pack, my man, not six.

Even so, I suspect that the Frax will come early in the series. the plan is for one or two $10 packs of 12 per week, and we have the four remaining packs of B2 ships for the next two weeks, so we'll see what comes after that.

We'll also see if the sales of the B2 packs produce enough revenue to justify doing Frax, Klingons, B93, and whatever else. No, Virginia, selling one pack does not produce a profit. It takes at least a dozen to just break even, and if you're talking about packs of NEW ships (i.e., ships from SFB not yet in FC) then you're talking 50-100 to make a profit.

I would not think that doing a PDF of a card would forever take it off of the list of ships to be done as a laminated ship, but I also wouldn't put a ship I am pretty sure if putting into lamination in the next year into a PDF pack.

I am not sure what this scenario PDF thing you guys want is. If you want a book of existing scenarios, updated and reformatted with the subsequent ships/empires added to the variant lines, we're already planning to do that as a hard copy book.

I am not sure what a CC ship is? commander's circle? Those come from such a huge variety of sources that I don't see them as a category.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[DirkSJ]

[Shinanygnz]

[Kang]

[JimDauphinais]

I apreciate Steve's response to the comments that have been posted. I can understand the going forward expectations concern with selling the B2 ship cards at a price less than the price at which ADB will need to sell new ship cards packs.

As an aside, I am also another one who is just as happy with hardcopy scenario books.
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Jim Dauphinais, Chesterfield, MO

St. Louis Area Fed Comm Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/STL_Federation_Commander/

[storeylf]

[pinecone]

I'd like to make a point about the Laminated boosters, please:

I think the reason people buy these is for both the Bonus ship cards and the extra laminated oldies. That makes it worth the cost. I would (and do) pay for those; I would not pay $10 for 1 new ship card and non-laminated oldies.

And don't call me virginia, please. I was wrong, I admit, but that seemed a little rude.

[pinecone]

I'd like to make a point about the Laminated boosters, please:

I think the reason people buy these is for both the Bonus ship cards and the extra laminated oldies. That makes it worth the cost. I would (and do) pay for those; I would not pay $10 for 1 new ship card and non-laminated oldies.

And don't call me virginia, please. I was wrong, I admit, but that seemed a little rude.

[Kang]

[Steve Cole]

Regardless of what B2 cost, there is no way to sell it's cards for less than other card packs. YOU might say you'd not equate it, but virtually everyone in the real market will. So, it's $60 for six card packs, no matter what they are, new ships, communique/captlog ships, laminated ships, boosters, whatever.

As for the B-series "bonus cards" in the booster packs, those can never be sold individually or in a pack of "all B-series and nothing but B-series". I suspect they'll be only sold in packs of "cards already laminated for those who wanted to print their own."

So I suspect we'll have at least three series...

The six packs from Booster 2.

A series of packs of 12 ships from a single empire, all of them being ships which exist as laminated cards (and accepting that this series won't sell as well).

A series of packs of 12 ships from a single empire, including a mix of ships only in communique, only in captain's log, or done as new ships. Some of these packs will be borders of madness. The ships that might or might not eventually be in packs 93, 94, and 95 might or might not be mixed into these, but probably there won't be a pack of eight cards from booster 94.
_________________
The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Steve Cole]

Pinecone, I wasn't rude to you. Go google "Virginia" and "Santa Clause" in the same search and you'll find a touching story from when I was your age, which was the allusion I was making. It was anything BUT rude.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Jean]

Pinecone, when I am in Amarillo or on the phone with SVC and I say something that indicates that I am "young in the way of business knowledge" or that I don't know something, SVC will start off his sentence, "Yes Virginia, XYZ." He always says it with a smile on his face and with affection.

It's always a pity that we cannot hear a person's tone in the written word. In fact, when I read that post, I thought SVC was writing to me because just that morning I had done a happy dance email because we had sold a B2 pack.

Sometimes I think SVC thinks I will never, ever grow up. And I don't intend to do so, if that means I have to be oh-so-serious and somber and never, ever giggle.
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Business Manager/RPG Line Editor
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.