Federation Commander

[Steve Cole]

It is tentatively scheduled for "sometime in September" and will be available for pre-orders when we start shipments to wholesalers.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Thenur]

When Federation Admiral is released will it be book only or will we be able to buy a PDF?
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"Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship."

[pinecone]

September is here. Where is "sometime"?
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Doomed to live in secret since discovering that the Air Force Tapes were a fantasy...

"Your knowledge of my existence must be punished"

[terryoc]

Communique #69 (now in the Commando's Snorkel) just says "...will be released this fall".
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"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West

[Jean]

There are only so many hours in a day and SVC has been focusing on the Mongoose joint venture so you guys can see it for Christmas.
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[pinecone]

Fair Enough
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Doomed to live in secret since discovering that the Air Force Tapes were a fantasy...

"Your knowledge of my existence must be punished"

[Scoutdad]

And having played both, given the choice - ACTA is the one I'd prefer to see [no offense, Jay]
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Scoutdad's minis photos here!

[Steve Cole]

The Fed Admiral thing is a project that I should not have scheduled until I worked on it. The plan was "plug and play", just take Jay's manuscript and stick it in page maker, but it was discovered that certain elements caused certain issues, meaning that we had to actually "work on" the manuscript, and it's been pretty slow going. Nobody really knows how big the book is (which is why we've never set a price) and progress is very slow as things are going back and forth multiple times (because the original manuscript has to be, in some parts, totally replaced with things that actually work). One example is the tech block system, which was in the original just a generic system usable with any generic universe that had nothing to do with how SFU works (and the contract with Paramount says SFU products have to work like the SFU works, any deviation has Paramount asking if we're trying to sneak back into their post-contract stuff). That, and the Mongoose thing is taking VAST amounts of time. It was supposed to take an hour or two per ship in the 2500 series but they're taking entire days because of things not ADB's fault.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Dan Ibekwe]

I don't want to speak out of turn, but I'd be more than happy if FA slipped into next year to make room for ACtA:SF. FA sounds as if it is a monster, and while I 'do' want to own it, we all understand thar ADB's resources are limited. ACtA is going to be a far bigger product, and I'd suggest that it should have priority.
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We are Hydrans! NO ONE LIKES US!

[Savedfromwhat]

To be the one voice in the desert... I completely disagree my fellow FC players have been waiting for fedadmiral since it was first hinted at. Patiently... It was a breath of fresh air to have a FEDCOM specific product designed for a campaign generator, tacking on SFB and Starmada was a letdown for me. The continual pushing back of the release and the explanations for those delays have turned a lot of folks against the product. Just check the vbam message board, there is very very minimal buzz about fed admiral any longer.

[Jean]

I'm deliberately not building buzz and I bet Jay is doing the same. You don't want to get people excited about something without a firm release date and that means a product nearly in hand.
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[Steve Cole]

Let's say that I should have gotten more into FA before I put it on the schedule and leave it at that. Jumping the gun was a mistake made, regretted, and learned from.

And Mongoose is upset this morning that I'm not doing their stuff (answering memos, checking ships, typing up rulebook notes) as fast as they want me to do it. I told them that they have nearly destroyed ADB's release as it is.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[JonPerry]

Completely and totally agree with Savedfromwhat.

[Steve Cole]

You would be completely wrong to think that "taking on" the other game systems delayed the product. (It did not, not one day. The delay was caused by things wrong with the manuscript and the size of the project. The original supply system totally contradicted everything every published about SFU and could not be published under the license. The original techblock system had nothing to do with how SFU tech development works and could not be published under the license.)

You would be completely wrong to think that "taking on" the other game systems made the book bigger. (That added about one page. Basically, everywhere that said FedCom now lists four games. One or two places have a note about ship list availability being different in the games.)

You would be completely wrong to think that "taking on" the other game systems changed the book in any way.

The idea that this book would be better if it was FedCom specific is just plain wrong. It's a campaign, and FedCom is a combat engine. Any campaign will (and needs to) work with any combat engine.

The other issue is that for FedAdmiral to work correctly, it needs a LOT of ships that are NOT in FC (and quite a few that never will be). FedAdmiral actually works a lot better with SFB than it does with FC because the ship list is ten times as big.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Savedfromwhat]

The idea that the book would be better as FEDCOM specific is not plain wrong. But only taken from a certain perspective, that being if the system had been designed with FEDCOM ships in mind so there wouldn't have to be fuss over not having a CAR+r-p+x or whatever ship that is only in SFB. That being said it doesn't sound like that is the way fed admiral was designed in the first place so in that respect SVC is correct.