Federation Commander

I was looking at possibly getting the Master Rulebook for SFB and was thinking it would be nice to have a master SSD book. So, my question is, are there any plans to produce a master SSD book for SFB? Even if all it included was the Alpha Octant races it would be worth it. I don't even know how much something like that would cost, but it would be great to have. Even producing it as a PDF and selling it on e23 would be good.

So, has this been considered before?

Would hate to take a guess whether a DVD would even hold that PDF ---

If it was all Alpha Octant stuff it probably would. It would depend on how high the resolution was, but could probably be done. Would be a great resource to have.

Bolo_MK_XL wrote:Would hate to take a guess whether a DVD would even hold that PDF ---

20 Kb by SSD in the reprinted section...

Let say a DVD can hold 4.7 GB, that means : 4 700 000 kb so about 230 000 SSDs...

I guess you can pretty much put all the SSDs ever printed on a DvD and still have large amount of space avaliable....

There is a plan to do that, but probably updated on a product by product basis.

Steve Cole wrote:There is a plan to do that, but probably updated on a product by product basis.

Thanks, SVC. I can tell you, I would definitely buy that!

I mentioned this at a meeting and was reminded that due to the way e23 works, we cannot (and thus will not) do a master SSD product.

We will do the SSD book for each product, and if you buy them all, you'll have the same thing at the same (total) price. We cannot do a "master" book because it becomes obsolete every time we print a product or a captain's log and has to be re-done not as a "revised, free re-download" product but as a "new edition, pay for it again" book because it would cost more (by the price of the new product's SSD book).

We will probably start uploading a couple of SSD books a month after Origins. They may very well not be updated until months after they are uploaded, but when they are updated, they'll be "revised, free re-download".

SVC: Could you clarify what you mean when you say and SSD book for each product? I know you don't mean one SSD book for all of SFB, but not sure how granular the product is? Does that mean each module? Each individual SFB purchasable product?

Thanks!

Yes, that is exactly what he means. So, you would get PDF versions of (in no particular order):
- Basic Set SSD book
- Advanced Missions SSD book
- Module C1 SSD book
- (other Module Cx SSD books)
- Module R1 SSD book
- (other Module Rx SSD books)

And so on. Each would be an individually purchased item. Considering that there are BS, AM, C1-5, J1-2, K, R1-12, M, X1/X1R, Y1-3, and whatever else I have forgotten, it could take a while to get to them all. And I have no idea what order they will be done in. I also have no idea of the cost (though I imagine their price as a 'spare part' is likely a good starting point).

mjwest wrote: and whatever else I have forgotten

Ω1-5!

(Good thing you remembered C5, though.)

My dream would be a computer program which you could go in, say you wanted a Fed CAp with 2 extra marines and 3 TBs and it would print out that SSD with those specs. Or at least something that would be a 'build a freighter' program that would let you choose what pods, ducktails and skids and get a single SSD out of it. But that would take a LOT of work by somebody with plenty of skill.

That said, being able to simply print out the SSD's I want out of the PDFs would be very nice. Does make the 'source' column in the MSC that much more useful.

Well I think that you can probably make an Access database with a form that let you choose from your ships SSD database and print just the right one for you to use.

It is just a task to feed the database with the correct filename and page, then a command line.

Now, for customisation that is something else.

BTW the database thing would be great because of the numerous different .pdf release. In fact that could be a tool that can be sold by APB with free update each time they put a new pdf on e23. Just a simple update of the database or even a text files accompanying the .pdf that can be imported into the database.

I'm not sure their Macs have a program that plays nice with Access.

Well... I said Access but what I really meant was a 4th generation database manager

I don't know what access is, but we dont have a program that we tell "add two marines". We have to open the file, copy or draw two boxes, and slide them into place.