Just wanted to let everyone know where we are at this point. Tyrel is back from his vacation and getting back into his groove between his work and life and so on. He's putting together a nice compilation of all his efforts and our discussions and feedback from the forums, and we are getting very close to having a full alpha version of the 2E rules. This means we should be able to start alpha level playtesting by September!!!
He's working on a new compilation of the tech rules right now, which I will use as the basis for the next design journal once he's done. I intend to dive into the nuts and bolts of ship design and it's implications. So far, it's looking really good, and I'm looking forward to sharing more details with you soon!!!
Brief Update
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Charles Lewis
- Rear Admiral
- Posts: 937
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- Location: Des Moines, IA
- Contact:
Brief Update
'Fear God and dread nought'
Coat of Arms motto of Baron Fisher, of Kilverstone
Coat of Arms motto of Baron Fisher, of Kilverstone
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Tyrel Lohr
- Vice Admiral
- Posts: 1466
- Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:48 am
- Location: Lusk, WY
- Contact:
To add to Charlie's update, I am going to be compiling all of my various tech notes into a single, comprehensive document this weekend. I might get to it sooner, but there is no guarantee I will find the time to do so until this weekend.
Just as a "behind the scenes" aside, right now most of my development time is being spent going through all of my old notes from the last year and combining and refining the elements from those early drafts into a new working draft that reflects the direction that we are taking 2E in. This last weekend I was working on the Intelligence rule draft, and that involved me scouring my old notes for ideas and text and then modifying them to reflect the current rules trends. I had a sample redux of the Intel rules from last November that I found in the course of my writing, which was itself a near-complete set of Intel rules. I ended up gutting about 3/4 of them -- just 1/4 of the text was really usable or desirable at this point. That is pretty much par for the course at this stage in development.
The silver lining to all this is that each successive rewrite is streamlining the rules that much more. Some of the early drafts held steadfastly to some mechanics from 1E that are honestly not worth keeping, because they tend to make it that much harder to resolve orders or generate turns.
Going back to the tech system, I do hope to have that done by Sunday, and then we can move forward to fill in the remaining gaps. My personal goal is to have a fully-playable draft copy of the rules put together by the end of August.
-Tyrel
Just as a "behind the scenes" aside, right now most of my development time is being spent going through all of my old notes from the last year and combining and refining the elements from those early drafts into a new working draft that reflects the direction that we are taking 2E in. This last weekend I was working on the Intelligence rule draft, and that involved me scouring my old notes for ideas and text and then modifying them to reflect the current rules trends. I had a sample redux of the Intel rules from last November that I found in the course of my writing, which was itself a near-complete set of Intel rules. I ended up gutting about 3/4 of them -- just 1/4 of the text was really usable or desirable at this point. That is pretty much par for the course at this stage in development.
The silver lining to all this is that each successive rewrite is streamlining the rules that much more. Some of the early drafts held steadfastly to some mechanics from 1E that are honestly not worth keeping, because they tend to make it that much harder to resolve orders or generate turns.
Going back to the tech system, I do hope to have that done by Sunday, and then we can move forward to fill in the remaining gaps. My personal goal is to have a fully-playable draft copy of the rules put together by the end of August.
-Tyrel
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
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Gareth_Perkins
- Captain
- Posts: 242
- Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:39 am
- Location: Exeter; UK
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mwaschak
- Rear Admiral
- Posts: 854
- Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:43 am
- Location: The data mines of VBAM
- Contact:
Thank you. I will make an effort to keep both places up to date. With any luck First Campaigns won't take too long to get ready for release. That is the demo version of Federation Admiral.Gareth_Perkins wrote: Awesome news - should we look for information about its release here or over at the ADB site?
-Jay
Sounds great Jay!mwaschak wrote:Thank you. I will make an effort to keep both places up to date. With any luck First Campaigns won't take too long to get ready for release. That is the demo version of Federation Admiral.Gareth_Perkins wrote: Awesome news - should we look for information about its release here or over at the ADB site?
-Jay
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Charles Lewis
- Rear Admiral
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- Location: Des Moines, IA
- Contact:
Over on the DISCUS side of the ADB site, Federation Admiral is listed with an October 19th release date. 
I've highlighted it and the subsequent Briefing #3 (which has a bunch of ships for FC that we needed for campaign purposes):
I've highlighted it and the subsequent Briefing #3 (which has a bunch of ships for FC that we needed for campaign purposes):By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - 02:05 pm:
ADB: Product Schedule
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Revised 11 August 2009
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RECENTLY RELEASED
Valkenburg Castle Computer Game: Already released.
Communique #43, also Hailing Frequencies: Released on 10 July.
Captain’s Log #39 Supplementary File: Released on 1 Aug.
Communique #44: Communique released 10 Aug.
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AUGUST
Hailing Frequencies August: Plan to release this on 11 or 12 Aug.
Squadron Box #91, The ships of Franz Joseph. Scheduled for 24 Aug. Covers are printed, minis in stock, Mike is packing them.
Booster Pack #91, The ships of Franz Joseph. Scheduled for 24 Aug. Covers go to press around 14 August. Cards are already printed.
SFB Module G3A Master Annex Supplement. Scheduled for 24 Aug. Project Officer: Steve Petrick. Cover goes to press 14 Aug.
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SEPTEMBER
Communique #45, also Hailing Frequencies: Scheduled release date, 10 Sept. Project Officer: SVC. Will include KD5R.
Klingon Armada: Scheduled release date, 14 Sept. Project Officer: Daniel Kast of Majestic 12. The draft is in final edit. Cover goes to press 14 Aug.
Starmada: Scheduled release date, 14 Sept. Project Officer: Daniel Kast of Majestic 12. This is a hard-copy release to distribution of the PDF/POD he has for sale now. Cover goes to press 14 Aug.
Prime Directive d20M Klingons: Scheduled release date, 14 Sept. Project Officer: Jean Sexton. This is in final edit.
Starline 2400 seeking weapons: Scheduled release, 14 Sept or 19 Oct. Data on specific stock numbers and prices to be available soon.
Asteroid Zero Four Computer Game: Scheduled release in September.
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OCTOBER
Communique #46, also Hailing Frequencies: Scheduled release date, 10 Oct. Project Officer: SVC.
FedCmdr Hydran Attack: Scheduled release, 19 October. Project Officer: SVC. Countersheets to go to press 1 September. The
Booster Packs #25, #26, #27: Scheduled release, 19 October. Assigned to SVC. The bonus cards have already been printed.
Federation Admiral: Campaign system for Federation Commander. Scheduled Release, 19 October. Project Officer: Jay Waschak.
Starline 2400 Fighters & Shuttlecraft: Scheduled release, 19 Oct. Data on specific stock numbers and prices to be available soon.
Starline 2400, Mines & other stuff: Scheduled release, 19 Oct. Data on specific stock numbers and prices to be available soon.
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NOVEMBER
Communique #47, also Hailing Frequencies: Scheduled release date, 10 Nov. Project Officer: SVC
F&E-2010: Scheduled release, 16 November. Project Officers: SVC and Chuck Strong. Die cutting to go to press 1 September.
FedCmdr Briefing #3 Support Ships: Scheduled release, 16 November. Project Officer: SVC.
Squadron Boxes #25, #26, #27: Scheduled release, 16 November. Project Officer: SVC.
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DECEMBER
Communique #48, also Hailing Frequencies: Scheduled release date, 10 Dec. Project Officer: SVC.
Captain’s Log #40: Scheduled release, 7 December. Project Officer: SPP and SVC.
Border Box #9: Scheduled release, 7 December. Project Officer: SVC.
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OTHER, UNSCHEDULED, PENDING, SPECIAL CASES
IPhone Games: Scheduled Releases: all through the fall. Project Officer: Jay Waschak.
Prime Directive Federation: Do be done for d20, d20M, and GURPS. Project Officer: Jean Sexton.
Starline 2400 new ships: Scheduled release is waiting on Tony Thomas to deliver the Juggernaut and Fed Destroyer.
SFB Module C3A Andromedan Threat File. Estimated Release, sometime this fall or next spring. Project Officer: Steve Petrick.
Battle Stations Star Fleet: Schedule release, for Christmas (or failing that, GTS). Project Officers: Siadek brothers of Gorilla Games.
Prime Directive d20M Romulans: Scheduled release, ASAP. Project Officer: Jean Sexton.
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ADB: 2010 Schedule
Captain’s Log #41: May 2010
F&E: ISC WAR
FC War & Peace: June 2010
Captain’s Log #42: Nov 2010
More RPG books to be named later: PD Tholians, Savage Worlds, others.
Star Fleet Assault
Romulan Armada
SFB Modules to be named later
Silent Star Fleet
FC Borders of Madness #1
Prime Directive RPG (books to be named later)
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ADB: Possible Future Products
Star Fleet History book
F&E Civil Wars
Tholian Armada
Prime Directive RPG (books to be named later)
Captain’s Log #43: May 2011
FC product to be named later: June 2011
Captain’s Log #44: Nov 2011
F&E Defensive Operations
Klingon Invasion
Romulan Invasion
SFB Master Starship Book
SFB Master Scenario Book
Expansions to the STAR FLEET BATTLE FORCE card game.
Reprint of BATTLE DAMAGE CODE RED
Reprints of earlier issues of CAPTAIN’S LOG
Reprint of BATTLECARDS
There are many other ideas for products, some of which may appear before the ones above (and not all of those above or the others may appear at all).
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'Fear God and dread nought'
Coat of Arms motto of Baron Fisher, of Kilverstone
Coat of Arms motto of Baron Fisher, of Kilverstone
