Was it ever really that popular?
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:38 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:59 |
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I'm surprised it got canceled before Armada because of how...sparse FFG has been about anything Armada related but
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:45 |
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FFG's model really starting to look like slash and burn over the last couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised if they cancel Armada in a while.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:46 |
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Eimi posted:I'm surprised it got canceled before Armada because of how...sparse FFG has been about anything Armada related but Lol I figured the super star destroyer would be the last model, going out with a bang. I doubt they're working on a resistance or FO faction and clone wars doesn't seem really viable either.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:52 |
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Drone posted:Was it ever really that popular? Not as far as I can tell. A couple of people bought into it heavily locally, but it never got popular. I think this area struggles with random-booster models generally (except maybe Magic).
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:53 |
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I remember the mad rush when the first couple sets were out and it was impossible to find at all, much less at MSRP
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 19:57 |
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Wowshawk posted:Lol I thought they said they were working on Clone Wars, but yeah, I think they counted on the new movies adding a lot more to Star Wars than they did. gently caress all for new ship models, new fighters that are basically the same thing. Unless they are given carte blanche to just make up their own thing there's like no real room to expand. You know not counting how the game is very fiddly, more objective focused than I think most people wanted, and just not very popular.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 20:03 |
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With Destiny I know a lot of people in my area dropped the game somewhere around the second expansion. Some of the unfun combos combined with low availability drove them away. I also noticed the secondary market dried up pretty quick. With only needing 2 copies of most cards, 2-3 boxes got you everything you needed outside of the legendaries. If the FLGS couldn’t make extra money off the secondary market, there was probably little reason to support the game once the player counts dropped.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 20:24 |
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I just bought a copy of Edge of Empire. Was I wrong?
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 21:28 |
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Cessna posted:I just bought a copy of Edge of Empire. No. At this point the RPG line is pretty fully fleshed out. Even if t]hey don't make any more books there's a ton of material already in print.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 21:38 |
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Drone posted:Was it ever really that popular? FFG did a public meeting with distributors and retailers regarding how they couldn't keep up with demand for the first releases, because pre-orders hadn't been there, but then everyone ordered it in bulk. I believe, but can't say for certain, that between a mediocre expansion and ongoing typical ffg print numbers, people dropped off. Given the huge cuts in the company (about 1/4 of the staff in total) and now this, their hedge fund owners and/or Asmodai are clearly looking to cut costs, it's not a good sign for them at all.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 23:09 |
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Destiny was one of the most fun and unique card games I've ever played, but the supply issue followed up by a broken metagame made people run and dump their cards. If only I sold my cards/dice when I could have made money instead of hopelessly waiting for a resurgence. I just threw out a shoebox worth of dice a few weeks ago because I couldn't even give them away. Maybe someone will use a similar system for another game of this type, because the mechanics really were fun.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 23:46 |
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I think part of what killed it would be relying on super special dice for each hero when they could've just said go buy a d6 and roll it and here's what each face equates to. Like the amount of storage even an intro destiny collection required was nutty I can't imagine what people who bought more than the first expansion had to lug around.
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# ? Jan 14, 2020 23:54 |
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Me and half the local players dumped Destiny as soon as old poo poo rotated out and we had 0 desire to dump hundreds more into it every few months. (LCG superiority) The other half bailed when the meta stayed trash for as long as it did. Theres like 4 or so people who do drafts but thats it. Best case scenario they ditch all their money sink games and rebuy the Netrunner license. but lol at that ever happening
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 00:24 |
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Eimi posted:I think part of what killed it would be relying on super special dice for each hero when they could've just said go buy a d6 and roll it and here's what each face equates to. Like the amount of storage even an intro destiny collection required was nutty I can't imagine what people who bought more than the first expansion had to lug around. Oh it was crazy what I saw people try to carry. What especially made it bad was that it was collectible, and collectible means people want to trade, so they'd have to carry more than just what they wanted to play with. It's easier to carry a Warhammer 40k army. The dice were real nice and amazing quality and I can't imagine the game would have been able to have the same depth if it relied on d6es. Just being able to see at a glance what options were on both sides of the table without having to cross-reference all the cards out with all the dice out was invaluable.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 01:24 |
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PST posted:Given the huge cuts in the company (about 1/4 of the staff in total) and now this, their hedge fund owners and/or Asmodai are clearly looking to cut costs, it's not a good sign for them at all. I feel bad for them. I wonder if the success of X-wing is actually what did them in. From what I remember they made a shitload of money off of it, and it let them keep afloat a lot of their other properties that were never going to be major successes. I can't imagine private equity is a huge fan of that though, and basically just wants more X-wing. 2nd edition isn't drawing what 1st edition did, and none of their attempts to capture that same buying frenzy seem to have succeeded (Keyforge, Destiny). I guess they have their LCGs, but I wonder if people aren't going to start getting leery of buying another $40 starter set for what we all know is going to end up being a $200 game. I wouldn't put it past Asmodee to just keep pushing them in that direction to the point everyone gets burnt out on the whole model.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 02:44 |
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I don't have the games, but I heard the news about FFG. Does anyone know if they're going to keep the books in print, or am I going to have to scramble for them before the supply runs dry?
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 03:55 |
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I'm weighing up the odds of buying everything I don't have for Imperial Assault or just rolling the dice on finding them cheap later. I get the impression that the game, or at least the first edition, is dead and the new movies didn't get the consistently positive response necessary to justify doing a Resistance era 2nd edition.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 09:36 |
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Arquinsiel posted:I'm weighing up the odds of buying everything I don't have for Imperial Assault or just rolling the dice on finding them cheap later. I get the impression that the game, or at least the first edition, is dead and the new movies didn't get the consistently positive response necessary to justify doing a Resistance era 2nd edition. I've got a core set that I never got around to playing with, if you want it. I had planned on subbing in the IA models for the Doom board game models (stormtroopers = imps, e-web teams =mancubus, etc) but never even started it. e: of course the solo marine was going to be Boba.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 12:20 |
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Thanks, but I have pretty much everything outside of waves 4-7 at this point. I got into it late enough that I got the reprints of early waves while the later waves were being released. It's just a lot of physical space to start working out for storage.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 12:48 |
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I picked a bad time to get into Armada didn't I
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 13:08 |
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Na. They cant flush every game they have. That would look even worse than whatever fat trimming they're doing now. Just because it doesn't pull X-wing numbers doesnt mean its not profitable.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 13:30 |
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Actually speaking on Armada, I've been buying into a bunch of both Rebels and Imperials lately so I don't have to rely on my friends buying in and can just loan them a fleet any time we play. What would people say are the most important ships to have for each faction, both for the ships themselves and upgrade cards?
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 13:34 |
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I'd say the only skippable ships are the MC-30, Pelta and prob Assault Frigate MK II (its just a cheaper uglier Home One) For empire you can skip the Interdictor and prob the Raider and VSD Must have upgrades are Gunnery Team, Electronic Countermeasures, X-17 turbo lasers, Leading Shots, Intel Officer, Strategic Advisor, Bomber command center, Ordnance experts, Turbolaser reroute circuits, engine techs uhh...thats all the generics I can think of. Theres some faction specific officers like Raymus and Wulf too I cant recall atm. Any of the online fleet builders or the Armada wiki will tell you which expansions they come in. Try and get the various fighter packs if you can find them too. also the 2 campaign boxes have a bunch of new squadrons and upgrades and stuff you can use in normal games.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 13:50 |
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Acebuckeye13 posted:Actually speaking on Armada, I've been buying into a bunch of both Rebels and Imperials lately so I don't have to rely on my friends buying in and can just loan them a fleet any time we play. What would people say are the most important ships to have for each faction, both for the ships themselves and upgrade cards? Take a look at https://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/ they have good discussions about all the ships and upgrade cards in the game. Full disclosure, they two guys who update that site play at my FLGS, but they are very knowledgeable. For Imperials, the must haves are as follows: 1-2 Gozanti - flotillas are limited to two, but they are cheap activation padding, and can activate squadrons efficiently 1 ISD (first version) - the cornerstone of a lot of lists, and if you play Imperials, the whole reason you got into the game 1 Gladiator - Demolisher is the whole reason to bring a gladiator. And the reason they will never get any significant improvement For Imperials, the useful to have: 1 Quasar - great carrier for pushing squadrons. But more fragile than a medium ship with 6 hull appears to be. 1 Interdictor - it’s a tough ship to kill, and the interdictor specific upgrade cards let you mess with the board layout and put your opponent on their heels right off the bat. 2-3 Arquitens - surprisingly resilient for small ships, especially if you keep them at long range to Chuck those red dice. You probably want to field more than one at a time. 1 Chimera ISD - the new ISD cards are also really good. As a bonus, it comes with 3 copies of the new layouts (for use with the first version), so you definitely don’t need more than one of these. And that leaves: VSD - VSDs can be built to be passable carriers, or a mini ISD. Their movement template really hinders them, so you need to get them some help maneuvering. A second VSD isn’t terrible, but other ships should be bought first. Raiders - Raiders can punch way above their point costs. But needing to be at close range makes them very hard to use properly. They are very fragile, and with a lot of the meta being big ships with large attack pools, they tend to get vaporized before they do anything terribly useful. SSD - It’s most of a list all on its own. It’s a good ship, and not just a gimmick. But at $200, you probably want to buy the 5-6 other ships you could afford at that price point. Imperial Upgrades: Most of the commanders are useful and have a place in a viable list. About the only imperial commanders that are not worthwhile are Admiral Konstantine (Interdictor), and General Tagge (Gozanti). You should be able to get any you don’t have for a reasonable price off eBay, as there is no reason to own more than one. There are some useful imperial specific crew upgrades, but covering them would take awhile. Must have Rebel ships: 1-2 medium transports - same reason as Gozanti. A bit more important, as the rebels don’t have a dedicated carrier like the Quasar. Home One MC80 - the biggest ship the rebels can currently field (about to change at any time with the release of the next wave). Its not quite the offensive powerhouse that an ISD is, but can be built to tank an obscene amount of damage. Liberty MC80 - a more straightforward large base rebel ship. Point the front where you want the damage to go. Put engine techs on it for the only large base ship that can go a pretend speed 4. Hammerheads - very cheap and resilient. They are slightly better filler than CR90s. Keep their upgrades cheap, get their couple of shots in, then get them out of there. Useful Rebel ships: Pelta - Fleet commands can be really strong, especially if you field a lot of smaller ships like the rebels sometimes want to do. Currently the only viable way for rebels to use them (There is a CR90 title that lets you use a fleet command once the whole game) MC30 - the rebel equivalent of the Gladiator. Can unload a crazy amount of black dice at a target. Doesn’t have the demolisher title, but the Admonition title (and Lando crew) let it survive attacks that would take out larger ships. MC75 - a slightly smaller Home One MC80. Not quite as powerful or resilient, but fixes the glaring problem of Home One. It mounts decent guns on the front arc. Your opponent can park something small in the front arc and keep it pinned down like the MC80. That leaves: CR90 - while better than Raiders (these want to stay a long range where they are more survivable), they still tend to get killed in a single strong hit. Lists used to have swarms of these, but it just doesn’t happen much anymore. Nebulon B - Basically used for the Yavaris title, which is bonkers with the right squadrons. Assault Frigate - tries to do a bit of everything, so it doesn’t excel at anything. Costs a bit too much once outfitted for a specific job. Can be made to work well with Ackbar. The rebel commanders are also generally useful. Just avoid Sato (by the time you have enough squadrons to use his ability, you don’t really have many points left for ships), and Leia (too expensive to make command dials slightly better).
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 17:19 |
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banned from Starbucks posted:Na. They cant flush every game they have. That would look even worse than whatever fat trimming they're doing now. Just because it doesn't pull X-wing numbers doesnt mean its not profitable. There's a former ANA employee in the reddit FFG layoff thread who answered a LOT of questions about internal FFG stuff. Wish I could have seen more before it was edited, but there's still good stuff there. https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/elfkbq/massive_layoffs_at_ffg/ User is wrightsparrow quote:The Marvel license is going to do great both Crisis Protocol and Champions are great games on their heads though (the creation of Atomic Mass studios was I think one of the better moves recently) but at the same time the Infinity Saga hype is on the downswing as they got the license quote:I mean it in two ways Star Wars Outer Rim: quote:Outer Rim is such a great game I wish it were selling better Twilight Imperium is here forever quote:TI cracks the Top 50 products across all ANA lines (FFG, Zman, Plaid Hat, Catan, Matagot, Repos, etc) so while I understand your fear I would be suuuuuuper surprised quote:Fun fact! Twilight Imperium has the highest attachment rate (sales with/per) for expansions of any game in the Asmodee catalog! A week before the Destiny announcement: quote:Destiny is MIA Keyforge is Too Big To Fail, they're working on a full integration of RPG and boardgames - they have budgeted for KF to carry the day quote:I am probably skirting some confidentially agreement stuff here and I'm not unidentifiable on this account by a long shot so I'm gonna not confirm or deny anything else about Destiny X-Wing/Armada quote:Xwing and Armada are doing fine and likely will continue to do so (Armada doesn't sell a ton but it's super steady) quote:If the player base is happy that's good news No reprinting old plastic in 2020 is the plan Should be seeing some new ships from IX and books and flushing out the clone era with some cartoon ships Something cool happening with Descent: quote:You're going to be super excited about what's next with Descent, maybe? Legion: quote:It's got a real nice profit margin👌 quote:Still going strong afaik, time will tell if upping the quality/price of plastics will work out L5R quote:If they let it grow it will RPGs: quote:My guess is RPGs on the whole aren't making the money corporate expects from a product line
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 18:35 |
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"They severely underpay for the work they ask, and use the fact that you're in the game industry to try and make up with it" is pretty close to what the title of a TG thread about working in the games industry should be, if there isn't one already. "SW is a rocky fandom right now" is an interesting line; I wonder if the rocky fandom really worries FFG's bean counters or if Star Wars fans are always going to eat up Star Wars stuff no matter what and just like to complain - in other words, just like any other fandom.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 18:55 |
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LifeLynx posted:
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 19:11 |
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quote:Destiny is MIA Keyforge is Too Big To Fail, they're working on a full integration of RPG and boardgames - they have budgeted for KF to carry the day
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 19:29 |
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canyoneer posted:There's a former ANA employee in the reddit FFG layoff thread who answered a LOT of questions about internal FFG stuff. Wish I could have seen more before it was edited, but there's still good stuff there.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 19:31 |
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JazzFlight posted:I really don't know who would be interested in running/playing a Keyforge RPG campaign. The actual setting of Keyforge is so generic and slapped together. It's just a bunch of different aliens/creatures from different dimensions or something. Really weird how someone would look at that setting and go, "wow, it's so deep and rich!" Yeah, I don't get it either. You have elf thieves, forest beasts, little green men from mars, warcraft paladins, Roman dinosaurs, star trek, netrunner tech society, mtg red mana beasts, and demons. It's not groundbreaking. I think the most original would have to be the Roman dinosaurs which I like because of the utter weirdness of it.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 19:36 |
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I mean, it’s like anything else in that it will be good if someone cares to make it good. This, however, just seems like a transparent attempt to find more ways for people to spend money on Keyforge.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 19:51 |
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LifeLynx posted:"They severely underpay for the work they ask, and use the fact that you're in the game industry to try and make up with it" is pretty close to what the title of a TG thread about working in the games industry should be, if there isn't one already. Is there a single industry in the US where people aren't being underpaid or overworked and given a set of ridiculous expectations by suits who don't understand anything except that more profits and less costs = better than? Re: Star Wars, it does seem anecdotally that toy and merchandise stuff hasn't been as popular for the last few movies. Like the big box retailers near me barely bothered for episode 9.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 20:04 |
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The new films added so little from the toy perspective. Like each of the OT or PT movies made sure to add lots of new spaceships or cool vehicles that could absolutely be turned into toys. By sticking to basically just the original designs there's nothing really 'new'. For original ships there's what...the Resurgant class, the Silencer...Strikers from Rogue One?
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 20:28 |
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Eimi posted:The new films added so little from the toy perspective. Like each of the OT or PT movies made sure to add lots of new spaceships or cool vehicles that could absolutely be turned into toys. By sticking to basically just the original designs there's nothing really 'new'. For original ships there's what...the Resurgant class, the Silencer...Strikers from Rogue One? Why not add a new "Letter-Wing"? Some of the fun of X-Wing is discovering the weird letter ships from other games/books.
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 20:47 |
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Like gently caress the only kinda unique ship was the resistance bombee
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# ? Jan 15, 2020 21:43 |
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LifeLynx posted:"SW is a rocky fandom right now" is an interesting line; I wonder if the rocky fandom really worries FFG's bean counters or if Star Wars fans are always going to eat up Star Wars stuff no matter what and just like to complain - in other words, just like any other fandom.
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# ? Jan 16, 2020 11:40 |
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I think X-Wing is in fact the fifth system released to use the same basic mechanics, but changed up damage resolution a bit and generally tightened things up. People are definitely playing it because they like Star Wars. The only reason I played it was because I was buying ship models I liked while already owning two different versions of the same rules.
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# ? Jan 16, 2020 13:52 |
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Are you referring to Wings of Glory? Because X-wing's dials are vastly superior to the card decks its predecessors used, as well as having actions and ships that actually felt different. The Star Wars name helped but it saying it merely 'tightened things up a bit' is super disingenuous. X-wing isn't even the first pre-painted SW spaceship game, but it's the one that stuck around for almost a decade because the other one was bad and being called Star Wars isn't enough.
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# ? Jan 16, 2020 14:53 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:59 |
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I really wish Ares Games had licensed the flight path system for its BSG game. The miniatures for that are great, on par with FFGs, but the movement cards deck is so terrible.
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# ? Jan 16, 2020 15:10 |