Federation Commander

I too would value that information more than the scenario, but I realize there might not be enough revenue from these packs to justify the extra effort needed.

To be totally honest most of these units have appeared some where else first. (Captains Log, Communique) Before extremely valuable Game Designer hours are spent on fluff for a $5 Download I would rather see them invested in FC Reference Ship Book or the FC Reference Scenario Book.

Just saying what my preference would be.

Dal, what would you want to see in a Reference Ship Book? Sort of like a Master Ship Chart, or a book of all ship cards?

To the best of my knowledge, the Master Ship Book will not include ship cards. Rather, it will contain all of the rules entries for all of the ships published to that point. It would presumably include a master ship chart (or two), too. I don't know if it would be limited to the laminated ship cards, or if it would include ePacks (probably), Captain's Log, and/or Communique.

It is mostly a "fluff" piece, since all actual rules should already be in the Master Rulebook.

(Note that these comments are independent of what Dal actually would like to see.)

Hello All,
I was wondering what is normally done with the ship cards in epacks. I'm assuming buyers are printing the cards and using them but in general is this being done at copy-shops--I don't think everybody has good colour printers do they?

If so are they being printed on card stock paper and then laminated?
What are the results? Any tips?

I've had decent results from a home color ink-jet printer and a cheap Wal*Mart laminator.

I've had excellent results from a color laser printer (at work or at Kinkos) and the same cheap laminator.



I usually print on basic white bond paper, but I glue the fleet scale and squadron scale print outs for a ship together, back to back. The result is roughly "cardstock" in thickness. Once laminated, they are very usable and play well with ADB's cards, if not quite as nice.

Having my own card-making ability has also allowed me to do graphics and cards for ships that weren't even in the game yet (I did my own cards for the Fed DDF, Tug, Battletug, and FedEx courier).

Very nice! Question: are the PDF's size-able? That is, can you change the dimensions of them to print cards of different sizes?

You can usually adjust print-size in the set-up for any printer. I typically left it as-is, but in some cases I would force it to some value other than 100% scale.

ADB's pdf files should scale beautifully during printing, as they are vector graphics (lines, curves, text, etc.) rather than raster bitmap images (fuzzy jpg pictures, etc.).

I have some half page sleeves that I just put the color printed copy in then use dry erase or wax pencil for the game. Then clean the sleeve. Some office supply shops carry the half page sizes.

nicole

Holy Smokes!! I never thought about wax pencils! I've been using dry-erase but they don't always work properly. The ink beads or just won't 'stick' to the plastic.
Thanks.

A different thing entirely, but some of us use these Rabco MC50 double-pocket sleeves to store our ship cards in binders.

I never thought about wax pencils!

Early editions of SFB actually came with Wax/Grease Pencils in the box.

mjwest wrote:To the best of my knowledge, the Master Ship Book will not include ship cards. Rather, it will contain all of the rules entries for all of the ships published to that point. It would presumably include a master ship chart (or two), too. I don't know if it would be limited to the laminated ship cards, or if it would include ePacks (probably), Captain's Log, and/or Communique.

It is mostly a "fluff" piece, since all actual rules should already be in the Master Rulebook.

(Note that these comments are independent of what Dal actually would like to see.)

MJW Thats pretty much what I would rather see. One book containing the fluff on all the ships published be it Communique, Captain Log or Ship Card.

If SVC is going to do Page Layout Work. I would perfer tosee it done systematically and in order. The time that it would take to do one page for a E Pack would rob th time that could be invested in this book.

Jean is proofing Klingon ePack #2.

Klingon ePack #3 is alsmost zero work except for the tedious part of huntin down a Klingon scenario that has yet to be in an ePack. If/when somebody finds one, I'll get that pack ready and then go see what Romulan cards I have available.

Bolo_MK_XL wrote:

I never thought about wax pencils!

Early editions of SFB actually came with Wax/Grease Pencils in the box.

So did FC, at least the first Klingon Border did.

Pencil worked pretty well during play, but getting it fully erased afterwards is significantly more work, and I couldn't help but feel I was going to degrade the laminate have to 'erase' so vigorously.