Plans for PDF ship packs on e23.

[pinecone]

Okay, sorry. I didn't understand what was being said. I apologize

[ericphillips]

I completely disagree, Steve.

THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS!

All hail the Great Pumpkin.

[terryoc]

Eric, there IS a santa claus, you can download the sleigh from the Commander's Circle (in the Monsters and Heroes section).

[pinecone]

Heck with the great pumpkin, what about the easter bunny? Or the tooth fairy? They've got my alliegance

[JimDauphinais]

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.

Sounds like a good plan.

I believe keeping the pdf packs of existing laminated card ships separate from the other pdf packs fully resolves my original concern that touched off many of the other comments that were subsequently made. It eliminates the possibility of new ships (or color pdfs of Captain's Log ships) being introduced into the pdf packs of existing laminated cards. Those who want pdf packs of existing laminated cards can purchase them while those who do not want to purchase them will not feel that they are compelled to purchase those pdf packs in order to get a new ship or a Captain's Log ship that they currently only have in greyscale.

Also, using a mix of Communique, Captain's Log and new ships should work fine for "mixed packs" as long as you avoid doing something like having a "mixed pack" of 12 ships that includes 10 Communique ships and only two new ships (or only two Captain's Log ships) in that pack. I suggest that the number of Communique ships included in each of the "mixed packs" be kept small as those are already available as color pdfs (at a lower resolution).

[Steve Cole]

Pinecone, you had nothing to apologize for, but I appreciate the gesture.

[Kang]

Heck with the great pumpkin, what about the easter bunny? Or the tooth fairy? They've got my alliegance

The problem with the Tooth Fairy is that she steals your teeth (figuratively: weapons) and replaces them with money, which may not be negotiable in all empires in the game.

It's a step up from hit & run raids, where they steal your weapons but don't leave the money.

[Warhammer]

I don't post a ton, but felt I would chime in on this. I think a .pdf format for what I would consider "fringe" stuff (omega, frax, etc.) is acceptable, probably preferable format (I don't ever see me or my group playing those races enough to justify a full color card purchase). I would definitely consider buying a Middle Years Era full color card set. $60 might be a bit much, but two sets at $30 a pop would be something I would be very interested in.

One of the reasons I did not pick up the middle years briefing was because the material was not pick up and play. Also, my play group likes things pretty. I don't think b&w cards or copies would go over well. I actually prefer MY ships myself because they have weaknesses, and the races each play with a decidedly different flavor.

[Steve Cole]

Warhammer, it's actually six packs for $10 each so you can just get the empires you want.

A is on e23 with generals and feds.

B is on e23 with Klingons and Orions

C went on e23 yesterday with Roms and Tholians.

D will be posted Friday with Kzintis and WYNs.

E and F next week.

[JimDauphinais]

Considering the time it takes to print and cutout the ships from the PDFs, that schedule is fast enough.

I have purchased the first three Briefing #2 ship packs and have printed and cut out the Feds.

I experimented with three approaches:

- Printing the PDF as is with no Adobe page scaling.

- Using PrtScn to cut and paste cards into Microsoft Photo Editor, followed by cropping and pasting them into Microsoft Word to scale them to the normal card size of 5.5" x 8.5".

- Printing the PDF with no ADOBE page scaling, but using the printers built in scaling set at 118% and printing each Briefing #2 page on 11" x 17" paper (I have access to a large color laser printer at the office).

The first of the methods produced very sharp cards with no text, line or color distortions. However, the cards are of course smaller than normal due to the way they are laid out in Briefing #2.

The second method yielded normal size cards, but some text, line and color distortion (the picture of the ship drifted from grey to a pink-grey color). Most of it appears to be introduced in the prtscn cut and paste when the card is turned into a bmp file. Better results might be had with Photoshop or some other tool.

The third approach worked like a charm. There was no text, line or color distortion and the cards are nearly perfectly normal size. They came out very close to the print quality of laminated cards. I am cutting them out and putting them into 5.5" x 8.5" page protectors -- Squadron scale paper cutout on one side, Fleet scale cutout on the other and a piece of cardstock in the middle to stiffen them. My cost to print and store each card is running about $0.30 to $0.40.

[Warhammer]

Warhammer, it's actually six packs for $10 each so you can just get the empires you want.

A is on e23 with generals and feds.

B is on e23 with Klingons and Orions

C went on e23 yesterday with Roms and Tholians.

D will be posted Friday with Kzintis and WYNs.

E and F next week.

Nice! Now to free up some funds from the Quartermaster.

[Procopius]

I would be interested in seeing those ships from CL done, as well as extras not already released.

As an example:

Has the Federation Destroyer Escort been done yet? If so what pack can I find it in? If not, will it ever be released and could it be one of the "extras" mentioned?

(Does the Federation Escort require a new model or will existing Destroyer models do?)

[Dan Ibekwe]

Procopius, the DDE and the carriers it escorts are (probably) going to be covered in the Borders of Madness (BoM) book whenever it appears. This will include ship classes that need some of the more involved rules from SFB that FC currently omits - carriers, PFs, mines et.c. There may be more than one book in the BoM series.

The DDE can be represented by a standard DD miniature.

Kudos for the Byzantine-inspired moniker, BTW.

[Sneaky Scot]

From my perspective, I strongly object to forking out $60 for the Briefing #2 ships when I've already bought the product. (Scottish, therefore tight, or as we like to say, "careful".) I'd like to see the main races continue to be released as "proper" Border/Attack/Booster combos. However, for the "fringe" stuff (Early Years, Omega, Simulator, Magellanic etc.) I'd be quite happy with the thought of buying the PDF products that interest me (which for purposes of data gathering would probably be Omega and Early Years). That way, ADB doesn't have to invest capital in "hard" product that may not sell well enought to justify it. I'd be really keen to see counters included in the product for people to make their own stuff - that way they wouldn't have (for example) LTTs or CWLs cluttering up the product they bought.

I'd be quite keen to see PDF counter packs for ships not yet included in Border/Attack products that appear in CL or Communique.

Scenario PDF - great idea. S1 and S2 were some of my favourite SFB products.

[terryoc]

Well, ADB has "print-on-demand" technology, so really, most of the capital invested in a product is time, not printing. And there's an opportunity cost there, if you invest time in making one product that doesn't sell you could have spent the same time making something that did...