News about the future of the 2500s

[Jean]

PRESS RELEASE
13 November 2013

ADB, Inc. and Mongoose Publishing have signed a contract modification which ensures that the three joint-venture product lines (A Call to Arms Star Fleet, Starline 2500, and Traveller Prime Directive) will continue and grow. This does not end the joint venture; it simply realigns the responsibilities to better match each company's core competencies to the best advantage. The two companies remain great friends.

We will ask you to be patient a little longer regarding elements of the new production plan. We could not begin to work out the details on some items until the contract modification was signed. (You're welcome to send your questions which will be answered in future press releases as we resolve each of them.)

ADB will assume primary design responsibility for A Call to Arms Star Fleet including the revisions to Book One and the entirely new future Books Two and Three. (Tony L. Thomas will manage the designs as developer; Matthew Sprange remains the designer of record.) ADB plans to sell these as both PDFs and print-on-demand books. The revisions to Book One will include adjusting the relative power of some weapons at various ranges, revising damage scores for some ships, creating a new way to handle seeking weapons, extending the range for transporters, changing compulsory movement, altering some special actions so they no longer preclude some other special actions, removing most of the crew quality checks, clarifying any confusing rules, and adding unobtrusive cross-indexes without resorting to formal rule numbers. ADB is committed to maintaining the existing ACTASF game system and improving it. ADB will be the only source for the purchase of new ACTASF books and PDFs. Mongoose will retain ownership and control of non-SFU versions of ACTA.


The Starline 2500 range will continue and expand. Mongoose will remain the primary designer of new ship models, but ADB will be responsible for production, marketing, sales, and quality control. ADB is committed to keeping the 2500s in production as long as someone buys them, and to adding new 2500s as long as enough players buy new ships. The stands will be changed and most resin ships will be replaced by metal ships. ADB has (with the signing of this deal) become the only source for 2500s. Mongoose will fulfill or cancel any back orders on file and any obligations to the Mongoose Infantry. The contract modification happened when Mongoose had just shifted production to a new facility, and until that facility is fully on line, ADB will be selling 2500s by mail order only (not through stores). We expect to do a major relaunch of the line in the first half of next year. This will include the missing Book One ships, several new ships, as well as changing the packaging and price structure.

Work will accelerate on the four Traveller Prime Directive books, which will be written, produced, and marketed by ADB in both print-on-demand and PDF formats. ADB will be the only source for the purchase of new books and PDFs. We expect to see the first book released in the spring of 2014 and one or two of the other books later during 2014.

[djdood]

This is nothing but great new, for all involved.

I'm looking forward to a bright future for the minis line and for ACTASF.

[trynda1701]

Very interesting development indeed!

Looking forward to see how things develop in the coming months.

Mark

[mdauben]

Another happy captain, here! Can't wait to see more 2500 minis start rolling out.

[Scoutdad]

Best news in quite a while.!!!!

[Monty]

Wow, great news.... Awesome!!!

[Steve Cole]

Here are some news items.

1. If you are Mongoose Infantry, you need to contact Mongoose about getting whatever freebies they owe you. I'd advise you to do that NOW as they will be making one final order for ships they need to fill existing orders.

2. If you have pre-orders with Mongoose they you need to talk to them. If they are for ships in production, Mongoose can get your ships as part of their last order. If they are for new production (e.g., the final ships for Book One) we'll all see how it turns out as it will be 30-60 days before SOME of those ships become available. If it is for ships/stuff never done (clear Romulans, ACTASF laminated cards) then you need to ask Mongoose to refund your money (which is an option for all of the above).

3. If you have defective ships, you can send them (the defective parts) to us and we'll replace them (it's in the contract with Mongoose). If you are not in the US, you may want to hang loose a week or two and then ask what kind of deal we can set up with Mongoose or someone else in the UK to make that happen. (I suspect it will be you send the defectives to Mongoose who send them to us in batches and we replace them in batch shipments.)

4. Mongoose will be taking all 2500s off of their cart soon (if not already) and you cannot buy more ships from them. They will sell some ships at conventions and stuff, but not by mail order.

5. We know that UK/Euro customers are going to have issues buying from us. Give us a month to figure out a deal to handle that.

[Sllarr]

I have seen this input request on the Facebook page. I believe ADB would get a larger response if the inquiry was posted in the forums and not on FB only.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

I like the details on the 2500 freighters, Free Trader and Priority Transport better and even though I already own the 2400 minis would buy them again for the superior quality. This would be true pretty much for any new minis that are size compatible with the 2400's. I do not like the new scale and think that the larger ships (CA and above) are simply not compatible with a hex based board.

[Steve Cole]

Well, I can tell you that the 2500 small freighter is inferior to the 2400 (the 2500's engine struts are too weak).

[Bill Stec]

Here are some news items.

1. If you are Mongoose Infantry, you need to contact Mongoose about getting whatever freebies they owe you. I'd advise you to do that NOW as they will be making one final order for ships they need to fill existing orders.

2. If you have pre-orders with Mongoose they you need to talk to them. If they are for ships in production, Mongoose can get your ships as part of their last order. If they are for new production (e.g., the final ships for Book One) we'll all see how it turns out as it will be 30-60 days before SOME of those ships become available. If it is for ships/stuff never done (clear Romulans, ACTASF laminated cards) then you need to ask Mongoose to refund your money (which is an option for all of the above).

3. If you have defective ships, you can send them (the defective parts) to us and we'll replace them (it's in the contract with Mongoose). If you are not in the US, you may want to hang loose a week or two and then ask what kind of deal we can set up with Mongoose or someone else in the UK to make that happen. (I suspect it will be you send the defectives to Mongoose who send them to us in batches and we replace them in batch shipments.)

4. Mongoose will be taking all 2500s off of their cart soon (if not already) and you cannot buy more ships from them. They will sell some ships at conventions and stuff, but not by mail order.

5. We know that UK/Euro customers are going to have issues buying from us. Give us a month to figure out a deal to handle that.

Item #1. We Mongoose Infantry are not being allowed to use our remaining credit with Mongoose to get ACTA:SF stuff. Several of us submitted orders to use up our left over credits, but as of Nov 13th, none of those orders were allowed to be filled. I was told by the head of the Mongoose Infantry that I can use the credit on non-ACTA:SF stuff, but being as I have zero interest in their other game systems, it's a non-starter.

So effectively, several of us can't use our credits unless we are willing to accept stuff we don't want. I'm only out $40 in credits, but one guy is out $150, and Tony Thomas is out a bunch as well.

I have quit the Mongoose Infantry over this matter, and since I have no interest in learning/demoing their other games, there was little point in staying in the program anyways.

Item #3: I have 7 ships that are defective from an August order, 3 ships still owed from that same order, plus one ship that has the wrong engines. I have been nagging them for months about this, but the MI has low priority since stock levels are low. I was told yesterday to give Mongoose until the end of the month to see if they will send replacement ships. If not, it appears I may have to mail you at my cost the defective ships. I have no idea what will become of the 3 ships that Mongoose still owes me from that August order.

I may have more to say after the Thanksgiving Holidays and I see if Mongoose will send me the replacements/unfilled items from my August order. I am REALLY displeased about how this has all gone down.

[Steve Cole]

I can't do anything about the Mongoose Infantry. That's in the contract as something Mongoose will do. I'll ask Matthew about it and see if we can help him handle that as an administrative solution. His problem is that he literally has no stock, and only gets one final order from us. Not that I wouldn't sell him more if he needed to clear the books.

Hey, you have a path for defective ships, and it also applies to missing ships. What one might assume that missing means you bought a box of 16 ships and found only 14 in the box. Ships you paid for and never got are missing in my book. Wrong engines is the same thing. Your expense to mail those back would be about half the cost of one ship but the contract says we cannot replace defective or incorrect parts without return of the bad parts.

[Bill Stec]

Understood. I didn't think you had much, if any, influence over what Matt does. I just figured you ought to know what was happening.

I'm honked off about it enough that I'm debating whether I even want to run any more demo events to promote the game, given how we Mongoose Infantry have been treated over this. I've introduced over 80 people to the game in the past year, and I'm not sure I want to do something that benefits Mongoose anymore.

[Bolo_MK_XL]

I wasn't too far off when I said Mongoose's attention span on the mini's would only go to about 2 years. It wasn't the Goose the laid the Golden Egg so wasn't worth the effort it entailed.

[djdood]

Have faith, my friends.

ADB is now putting the wind in the sails of the minis and things *will* improve, in very short order.

Bill Stec - I know Jean is putting energy into making the Starfleet Rangers program a more going concern. I've never looked into it, but there aren't any promises of product made that can't be kept (I think the "gimme" is mostly SFU fame in Captain's Log, etc.)

[Bill Stec]

Have faith, my friends.

ADB is now putting the wind in the sails of the minis and things *will* improve, in very short order.

Bill Stec - I know Jean is putting energy into making the Starfleet Rangers program a more going concern. I've never looked into it, but there aren't any promises of product made that can't be kept (I think the "gimme" is mostly SFU fame in Captain's Log, etc.)

I have faith that the game will be much improved, that's pretty much a given.

As for the Rangers, well, they pay 1/8th of what I was getting from Mongoose, which is why I only occasionally did Ranger events (mainly for the combat stars on my ribbon). $5 for say 4 hours work versus $40 is a big difference. But it's the only game in town now.

I don't have to make up my mind about doing more demos or not right now, so I am not going to dwell on it at this time. Next convention submission cutoff date is early February, so there's plenty of time.

I wasn't too far off when I said Mongoose's attention span on the mini's would only go to about 2 years. It wasn't the Goose the laid the Golden Egg so wasn't worth the effort it entailed.

Probably more like the newest shiny thing (Judge Dredd)came along to distract him...