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50 Foot Ant posted:Yeah, I should have either consolidated it a lot, or just put it in a document. You'd probably have to edit the drumbeat theme of incompetence in the Coalition development efforts; I suspect K-Sim wouldn't like seeing that in an official product.
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 13:08 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:42 |
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Bieeardo posted:Good god. I saw seventy-some new posts and thought something spectacularly awful had happened to the Robotech miniatures game Nah, the truck is inbound to reach MI on tuesday. We're not expecting more RRT drama until at least Wednesday.
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 15:10 |
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Hey Ant, I loved the expanded info on the Glitterboys (and everything else - thanks for trying to make weapons and armour actually *feel* different from each other!), but I'm dense. Your ARCHIE/Hagan interlude intimated that the Harbinger units are something ARCHIE is... maybe not afraid of, but content to let them rust wherever they are. I either didn't see a reason why, or my brain was too Sundayed up to make the proper connections. Could you spell it out for me?
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 15:15 |
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...
Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Mar 31, 2017 |
# ? Sep 29, 2014 15:24 |
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50 Foot Ant posted:NG-33 Laser Pistol
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 15:54 |
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Bieeardo posted:Good god. I saw seventy-some new posts and thought something spectacularly awful had happened to the Robotech miniatures game, or KS had finally completed his metamorphosis into an alien intelligence. Even worse: the game might be released!... just kidding. I hope everybody who payed out at least gets their order, and isn't let down. (Some degree of letdown is likely inevitable, tho.) 50 Foot Ant posted:Naw, I've never submitted to the Rifter. I've thought about it, but never really got around to it. Not lazy enough, if you're writing this much! Granted, The Rifter only pays $10 a page, so YMMV.
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 16:07 |
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A friend who bought into the kickstarter is pretty disillusioned at this point. I think they bought in mainly for the minis, so I'm hoping they at least end up in a state that's worth painting.
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# ? Sep 29, 2014 18:19 |
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Anybody know if folks have been getting their minis product yet? Supposedly most of the first wave of stuff should be out in the wild by now.
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# ? Dec 8, 2014 05:14 |
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A friend in the Atlanta area has his, and he said a local hobby shop had at least one as well.
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# ? Dec 8, 2014 05:24 |
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North America is supposed to be complete, Europe is just starting now, and people in Australia and New Zealand won't get theirs until 6 months after retailers in the US have stock because Siembieda is a liar and a thief
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# ? Dec 8, 2014 06:47 |
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Saw a couple of boxes at a FLGS over the weekend. Didn't touch them, but they're there.
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# ? Dec 9, 2014 02:18 |
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So, it looks like Palladium is putting out paper miniatures for Palladium Fantasy. I mean, the game doesn't have rules for movement, much less minis, and it can't be their hottest-selling game, but... sure. Paper minis. Presumably part of this is the fact that fantasy models are a lot easier to do in DazStudio than, say, Coalition soldiers. DazStudio? It's like Poser, only free. Oh, yeah, if that isn't odd enough, they're done by Mike Leonard. He does art like this: He's open for commissions, by the way.
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# ? Mar 22, 2015 07:22 |
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The first "amateur Poser-style" book cover I saw was some Shadow World module in the early or mid 90s. It was only some tower on a crag, but it still looked like poo poo. I'm always baffled by actual professional companies (even Palladium) going that route. You could pull some hand drawn drek from the bowels of DA, probably for even cheaper than mom's friend's cousin who torrents Maya 3D, and it would still look 100x better.
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# ? Mar 22, 2015 08:03 |
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My first wave of Robotech arrived today, a year and a half late, and a week after the kickstarter campaign for the first major expansion of Deadzone kicked off - Deadzone being the similarly sized and financed project that run on KS at the same time as Robotech. It's going to take me a while to get all of these many, tiny pieces assembled enough to play with the rules a bit.
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# ? Mar 27, 2015 10:42 |
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Oh God that's the real Rifts Black Market cover. I had to check. The 80s' comic esthetic is . . . well it's basically Rifts' thing. This is sort of sad.
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# ? Mar 28, 2015 01:43 |
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Plague of Hats posted:I'm always baffled by actual professional companies (even Palladium) going that route. Palladium largely recruits from their fanbase these days from what I can tell. Granted, that's always been true, Siembieda has always seemed wary of getting industry freelancers, but I think it's especially true after The Rifter became their vetting house. NTRabbit posted:My first wave of Robotech arrived today, a year and a half late, and a week after the kickstarter campaign for the first major expansion of Deadzone kicked off - Deadzone being the similarly sized and financed project that run on KS at the same time as Robotech. Wait, the Second Wave still isn't prototyped yet? Yikes. MalcolmSheppard posted:Oh God that's the real Rifts Black Market cover. I had to check. The 80s' comic esthetic is . . . well it's basically Rifts' thing. This is sort of sad. There was a collector's edition that looks much better with a gold-embossed glitter boy, but it's $35 more, so YMMV. Only 250 copies ever produced! (They're still available for purchase.)
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# ? Mar 28, 2015 05:36 |
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Rifts is getting an official conversion to Savage Worlds. I don't even know what to say to something this baffling.
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# ? Apr 22, 2015 03:17 |
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Time for the easy joke: You see, Palladium planned to release this for April Fool's, but, you know. Palladium.
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# ? Apr 22, 2015 03:30 |
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I forget: Isn't Savage Worlds actually kinda balanced?
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# ? Apr 22, 2015 18:23 |
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I just read their quickstart pdf. It's pretty basic. They address one of the weird questions that crops up from their rules right in the FAQ in the newbie guide too, which is actually kinda cool. Basically since the game uses exploding dice and dice represent stats (like you have a D8 in strongitude or whatever), you are percentage-wise more likely to explode your dice every time your stat gets smaller. They address that. Good for them!
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# ? Apr 22, 2015 18:31 |
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Exploding dice are self-balancing to an extent, really- the bigger your die value, the better your average is, even with the rerolls. The big difference is that rolling an exploding d4 is way more swingy than rolling an exploding d10. I did the math when I ran Fantasy Craft, since players at times had a choice of what value of exploding die to add to a d20 roll, and a casual review of articles on the subject backs up my own conclusions. It turns out bigger dice are still always better, even if confirmation bias means d4s "feel" better, since you're a lot more likely to get a memorable double or triple explosion and forget that three-fourths of the time you're still getting a mere 1-3. Savage Worlds always felt like a refinement of 1990s design principles to me, and it's a solid, lean system with an emphasis on minis. (Finally, those who hung onto those Rifts minis from the 90s will have a use for them...) I definitely have some gripes with it; I think starting characters are a little too weak, bennies are a little too uncertain, edges / hindrances really aren't any more balanced than most games of their ilk, and the equipment / magic divide... well. I think the equipment / magic divide will be the biggest question, since they use two different reward mechanisms to improve either (money or advancement) that aren't balanced against each other, at least that I'm aware. This is a particular point to bring up because some characters in the original Rifts start with equipment that's worth millions of credits while others get 2d4x1000 creds, and I don't know how they're going to handle that. For me the more immediate questions, though, are A) who'll be writing it and B) will the relationship with Palladium hold? Palladium has always struggled with licensing their work even though Kevin burns with the desire to see Rifts movies, toys, etc. For the record, previous licensees include Myrmidon Press (Palladium broke their relationship, they collapsed afterwards), Precedence Entertainment (collapsed), and Backbone Entertainment (only put out the one N-Gage game, but apparently still going strong). They've worked with Ninja Division on Robotech RPG Tactics, of course, but the scuttlebutt is that Ninja Division is just quietly trying to divorce themselves from the whole affair. Time will tell, but Palladium has had a hard time keeping an long-term relationship with another company, and they're going to have to change that for this to matter.
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# ? Apr 22, 2015 19:28 |
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Wow, I had no idea that Precedence did a Rifts CCG. What a strange company it was.
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# ? May 12, 2015 17:31 |
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Well, now Palladium is starting to sell "Raw Preview Editions", which are... unfinished text-only versions of upcoming books in limited printings. You'd think that'd be the kind of thing you'd offer as a PDF for pre-orders or the like, but no, these are literal physical things that have to be purchased and sent through the mail. I guess that's one way of addressing people's complaints about book delays.
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# ? May 25, 2015 18:07 |
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Who wants to read a Kevin Siembieda ego trip, sob story, blame game, credit grab, and money beg all in one? Part 1: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rrpgt/robotech-rpg-tacticstm/posts/1255963 and because he hit the character limit Part 2: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rrpgt/robotech-rpg-tacticstm/posts/1256008 Absolutely no understanding at all that he and his company are the sole reason behind this failure. Mismanagement to the extreme.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 10:09 |
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I only just started reading, but: Jesus Christ, trying to act like the quarter-century dead TMNT license is at all relevant to Palladium today, or that anyone who didn't already know about it would give a poo poo. And thinking anyone by now who wants to know any of this crap didn't already find it out long ago without a ridic huge wall of text KS update. Extra at mentioning the movie deal. Keep that flame burning, Kevin! Edit: quote:We thought we had all our bases covered. And we did. But only to a point. You dense motherfucker… That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Jun 7, 2015 |
# ? Jun 7, 2015 10:45 |
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Let us tell you of the tale of tragedy and woe that your Kickstarter money has sent us down. Thanks, backers! We owe it all to you! P.S.: We realize we may have planned badly and should have done all our minis in an entirely different scale. Our fault? Uh, you wouldn't mind buying them all over again at a higher price, right?
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 11:07 |
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"We had no idea how fulfillment would be done; we just assumed Ninja Division would handle it." Also: quote:But again, I digress. Also also: quote:To make a long story short A couple paragraphs before "Oops, we hit the character limit for KS updates, please see part 2!" Edit whatever: quote:To be honest, we have been so savaged for the many delays and changing release dates in the past, that we are afraid to offer release dates or certain details until we are sure of them. That has resulted in fewer updates over the past few months. In fact, I have had several advisors tell me not to even say that we are trying hard for an end of 2015 release for Wave Two. But we really are. That’s what I want more than anything. If we can make it happen, we will. Again, going into all the reasons for the delays or why we might not be able to make a release date is excruciating and we are not going to put ourselves or you through that pain. We just aren’t. We will, of course, release what we consider to be reasonable information and data as we get it. And we’ll try to do so more often. PLEASE remember this is all a work in progress. Things change. What in the everliving gently caress was the previous one billion words? That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Jun 7, 2015 |
# ? Jun 7, 2015 11:12 |
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While I'm very slightly sad on some level to see Palladium go (and let's be honest, at this rate it's rapidly running out of luck and money), only Siembieda could manage to mess up a pre-order tabletop game kickstarter, one of the safest and most predictable uses for the platform. And writing that many words about it.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 11:40 |
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10,149 words. 10,149 words.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 11:48 |
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I cannot stress enough how hard it blows my mind that product fulfillment was just a loving mystery to everyone involved until someone in China was all "Okay, we are done with the first batch. Where do we send them?" For all that goons as a whole talk about TG industry incompetence, I am gobsmacked that even Palladium spent literal years twiddling their thumbs not figuring out how their millions of dollars of product would reach customers.
That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Jun 7, 2015 |
# ? Jun 7, 2015 12:05 |
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NTRabbit posted:Who wants to read a Kevin Siembieda ego trip, sob story, blame game, credit grab, and money beg all in one? The comments on these are solid loving gold. quote:Ninja Division. Meet Mr. Bus. See how it looks under the bus. See how squeaky clean I made myself look. quote:Remarkable. The only place the word Sorry is used in both these updates was when they put words in NDs mouth, basically saying they are behind the miscommunication mess. quote:It's clear to me now you couldn't manage your way out of a paper bag And my personal favorite quote:Once again, as with last update: I work with people with masters degrees. Once we had an entry level guy come in, eat a foot long and a half salami and then get confused when he went home sick. Which do you think you are in this example?.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 15:00 |
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What ever happened to the idea that this would be a Ninja Division show, with Palladium more on the sidelines? Oh, right. Kevin Siembieda happened.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 15:19 |
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Is Ninja Division a company or the username of somebody on the Palladium forums? Both? Because it would not surprise me if Siembieda started combining his two favourite strategies: blaming everything on his associates, and hiring fanboys who will give up favourable terms. Although I believe doing so really has the potential to end Palladium for good.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 18:02 |
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Ninja Division is a combination of Soda Pop Miniatures (Super Dungeon Explore, Tentacle Bento) and Cipher Studios (Hell Dorado, Anima Tactics), both of which are studios that used to work under Cool Mini or Not, but recently broke away to form their own company. About the only positive spin I see is that Siembieda credits Thomas Roache pretty hard, and it's about fuckin' time. He's thanked him in the past, but there literally would be no Robotech miniatures project at Palladium without him pushing it. As for him squeezing fans for money, see the "Raw Preview Editions" above, or him trying to sell signed galley proofs of books at conventions. At least he's selling something that isn't just a byproduct of the publishing process, even if it is $22 for a 6mm figure. (What really distinguishes Max or Miriya's veritechs at the 6mm scale, anyway? Wouldn't a good paint job fool anybody but a tiny minority of hardcore Robotech fans?)
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 19:06 |
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Ninja Division is a combination of Soda Pop Miniatures (Super Dungeon Explore, Tentacle Bento) and Cipher Studios (Hell Dorado, Anima Tactics), both of which are studios that used to work under Cool Mini or Not, but recently broke away to form their own company. Actually, not even that is 100% true - Jon Paulson is the real reason there is a Robotech minis game, everything he did predates Thomas Roache by a few months. He got the idea, he cast the first prototypes, he started the facebook community with a couple thousand people joining it, and he took the prototypes and the concept to Siembieda to propose making a miniatures game for them. Siembieda declined throough lack of interest, then immediately turned around, took the entire concept out and shopped it around himself and got Ninja Division on board.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 19:37 |
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Huh, thanks for correcting me on that, then!
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 19:45 |
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Not that Tom Roache did nothing, I think he was pushing that it would be a really good idea to have a Robotech minis game, just that Paulson was doing the hard yards sculpting and casting. Reading some old posts, Paulson went to Harmony Gold first, they liked the idea but had to direct him to Palladium because of the rights deal. quote:This week, Palladium Books signed a deal to expand its current Robotech® license with Harmony Gold USA, Inc., including the right to produce and sell pewter game pieces of Robotech® mecha and spaceships. This has been one of the secret projects we’ve been working on for months. Our thanks to Tom Roache, Jon Paulson, Jeff Burke and Carmen Bellaire, along with many others, for their help with our investigation and research on the subject. How soon can you expect to see 1/285 scale mecha available? Probably not until next year sometime. We’ll keep you posted. Sculptors wanted. An update from Palladium, after the approach, but before signing with Ninja Division I believe. Paulson decided to make his own game instead http://www.mechafront.com/
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 19:54 |
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Plague of Hats posted:I cannot stress enough how hard it blows my mind that product fulfillment was just a loving mystery to everyone involved until someone in China was all "Okay, we are done with the first batch. Where do we send them?" For all that goons as a whole talk about TG industry incompetence, I am gobsmacked that even Palladium spent literal years twiddling their thumbs not figuring out how their millions of dollars of product would reach customers. I'm actually surprised by the notion that Ninja Division didn't know anything about it, either, having participated in several Kickstarters previously, but it's possible that Cool Mini or Not handled the shipping and fulfillment end of stuff for them. Whatever the reason, I don't get the impression Ninja Division has had any trouble getting their last Kickstarter out to backers now that they're independent. Of course, the idea of them just making excuses to get out from under the debacle would support the scuttlebutt that they were just looking to untie themselves from the whole project (and the fact that they aren't mentioned as far as things going forward says a lot). I would presume it's some mixture of the above, ultimately.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 20:24 |
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I think Ninja Division were excited to get a big deal contract, didn't realise until they were in it how toxic a three way relationship with Palladium and Harmony Gold would be, got out once the terms were completed, and now don't want to talk about it at all. People have tried asking them at conventions and they change the subject, like that lovely ex who sold all your furniture to buy meth that you never want to mention again. I've heard a similar story about a nascent Starcraft minis game that died before it really started, taking 3 months just to get a list of necessary changes to a sculpt back to the sculptors from Activision, and each approval needing to be stamped by a sea of managers along the way.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 20:51 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:42 |
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As someone who doesn't get into minis, the only exciting thing from Palladium for me is the Savage Worlds version. I'm not in love with SW or anything, but it's pretty much the polar opposite of the Megaversal system in terms of complexity and ease of play, and could actually get me playing a Nightbane campaign.
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# ? Jun 7, 2015 20:52 |