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Gareth_Perkins
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Post by Gareth_Perkins »

Firefox v3.5.5 and Windows XP sp3,

I'm sure I remember seeing the RSS icon on other sites?

Who knows ;) To be honest, unless a site advertises an RSS feed, it wouldn't even occur to me to look for one in the address bar, so advertising the fact wouldn't hurt,
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

Just a quick note to let people know where things stand on the upcoming public playtest.

First, I am planning on spending the next four days revising and editing the rules into a playable form so that we can get them out to you by the end of next week. There are some last-minute changes that need to be made, including reintegrating the alpha CSCR rules that were released earlier this summer back into the main book. I am also going through the book looking for topics that just can't be done justice in the amount of space available, or that were overlooked during previous writing and compilation.

The public playtest draft document will be *extremely rough* -- it won't be a final draft by any means. Final assembly of the rules will take place as we get feedback on the new rules and perform an additional wave of internal testing ourselves.

I had really hoped to have the rules done and released by now, but the project is at least picking up some extra steam to get us to that finish line. The consolation is that the followup books should take less time to write, as the biggest problem with the new Campaign Guide is that everything is being rewritten and reorganized, so there is very little of the original books that can be reused. This is truly a new edition.

-Tyrel
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
HairyHeretic
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Post by HairyHeretic »

Will this be an open playtest that anyone can take part in, or will it be limited to playtester groups you've already established?
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Charles Lewis
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Post by Charles Lewis »

My understanding (and Jay or Tyrel are free to correct me) is we intend to release an Alpha edition of the new rules for all to review and playtest much like we did with the new CSCR. More eyes means more errors and weirdness caught before release.

Also, because a number of things are changing we want to make sure that things don't just look good to us, but to the larger VBAM community, too. We will be eager to receive constructive criticism (and hopefully some kudo's, too!) with an eye towards making the new edition as good as it can be.

That said, complaints about things being different without anything constructive about ways to make it better will be generally ignored. Please keep in mind that our overall intent is to streamline play without sacrificing the overall experience. In other words, "more fun, less work" is what we're striving for. That means there may be better ways to do some aspects of the new rules, but we may decide (or have already decided) that the work involved to use Method X didn't justify the results for the core rules.

As always, VBAM will be modular. Even if you disagree with some of our choices, you're always free to house-rule your way to your perfect rules set. Also, keep in mind that a great number of options will find there way into the planned rules expansions that will be following shortly after 2E is released; namely, The Menagerie, CM Companion, Engineering Manual, and others. There will always be plenty of ways to modify and expand your gameplay - but a lot of them either won't be appropriate or won't fit into the core rules.

Stay tuned for more!
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

Charlie's about got it covered -- we want to get as much reaction and feedback now before we finalize the rules so that we can minimize the chances of any major issues cropping up that will derail a final draft.

I had hoped to have the rules ready to go this weekend, but a general malaise wiped me out after a long day of writing Friday -- pressure headache and what feels like a cold biting at the back of my throat. I am feeling better now, however, and will go through and try to clean up the relevant rules so that we can at least release a large chunk of the rules (if not everything) this Friday.

The open playtest materials will be far from polished; they will be rough collections of the rules put together in near-final format, but without a lot of the descriptive text and continuity of formatting that you'll see in the final book (as I am leaving those for the final draft).

Tonight, after House, I will try to get the first few pages of a campaign walkthrough generated as I finish up the empire generation rules. The document currently walks you through the first steps of setting up a new solo exploration campaign up to empire generation -- which should at least provide a nice teaser for what you have to look forward to.

-Tyrel
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
HairyHeretic
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Post by HairyHeretic »

Will the core rules include tech development and ship customisation, or will those be in later supplements?
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

HairyHeretic wrote:Will the core rules include tech development and ship customisation, or will those be in later supplements?
The core rules will include all of the standard technologies and unit design rules. The only tech extras that are being held over for the Engineering Manual or elsewhere are those technologies that go beyond the basic rules, including those that require enough extra rules so that some players may not want to use them in every campaign.

Additionally, when we begin distilling the Campaign Guide down into the Academy Edition starter book, the latter book will likely include only Common technologies, and even then only those strictly required to play the game.

BTW, I ended up more or less sick on the couch last night (more tired than sick, but the same general feeling), so no progress was made. Hopefully tonight I will be feeling better and can get some more done.

-Tyrel
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
HairyHeretic
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Post by HairyHeretic »

Pff. Look after your health first. I think we can stand to wait a day or two longer than you scheduled :)
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

But I am already over the deadline! :(

It is just a case of many long nights getting the better of me. I can put in long, late hours for weeks on end until I finally get a good night's sleep one night... then it hits me like a ton of bricks.

What I might try doing, instead of releasing everything at once, might be to post draft versions of the tech and unit construction rules tonight or tomorrow so that everyone can start debating and discussing those rules while they wait for me to update the other sections of the rules that are still waiting on some spit and polish.

-Tyrel
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
HairyHeretic
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Post by HairyHeretic »

Shift to Irish Gamer Time. It's much more convenient. If we say a 2 o'clock start, that means turn up about 2.30, talk rubbish for a while, get the munchies out, and get started about 3, maybe 3.15

Much more relaxed way of looking at deadlines :)
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