Federation Admiral Public Update

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:28 pm

Which gives the impression that the original draft was an utter mess. It wasn't. It just was not in the format (i.e. his own) that he's gotten used to over the last 30 years.

Federation Admiral is really only about 30-35 pages of rules. The rest are appendices, mission objective charts and ship lists.

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:47 pm

To be honest, it's all a bit rich because ADB's own campaign rulebook (Galactic Conquest) is a shining example of complete and utter incoherency. I couldn't make head nor tail of it.

Mind you, it's horses for courses as they say. He's the publisher and if he doesn't like it, well that's his prerogative I guess, disappointing as that may be to me personally.

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:37 am

It will prove to be somewhat ironic if it winds up being pushed back past the release date for VBAM 2e...

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:36 am

Gareth_Perkins wrote:It will prove to be somewhat ironic if it winds up being pushed back past the release date for VBAM 2e...

I hadn't thought of that. I guess it might happen. If, as seems to be the case, the publisher doesn't much like FA as written and sees it as a problem product he will probably always be able to find something else he'd rather be doing instead.

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:39 pm

Gareth_Perkins wrote:It will prove to be somewhat ironic if it winds up being pushed back past the release date for VBAM 2e...

That is unfortunately a possibility. Leaving all details aside, we were obviously very disappointed that the project has been pushed back further. I hope it has not eroded confidence in what was a monumental amount of effort to deliver an excellent campaign system for Federation Commander. The overwhelming majority of playtester reports were very positive and we still stand by our work.

-Jay

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:42 pm

Charles Lewis wrote: Federation Admiral is really only about 30-35 pages of rules. The rest are appendices, mission objective charts and ship lists.

Yep. We even made a First Campaign set so players could all try before they buy.

-Jay

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:42 pm

Regardless of the outcome of Federation Admiral, we're already reaping the benefits of Jay's hard work. Several elements of CSCR 2.0 came from FA. Also, I strongly believe that some iteration of the Local Campaign system he came up with will get ported back to VBAM at some point.

Which is not to say I'm not anxious for everyone to see Federation Admiral, as we, particularly Jay, put together a really good product here.

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:55 pm

I know you guys will have explored all ways possible of helping ADB over the barrier of understanding they have erected around this product. All we can do is hope that all of the hard work hasn't gone to waste.

It's a crying shame, as ADB's own campaign system is, well, let's just say I was genuinely shocked when I first read it. Rarly have I come across such an inaccessible and confusing product.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:08 pm

Shadow Warrior wrote:It's a crying shame, as ADB's own campaign system is, well, let's just say I was genuinely shocked when I first read it. Rarly have I come across such an inaccessible and confusing product.

Truer words were never spoken. That was another outsourced product, and well, sometimes that works, and in that case it didn't.

I fully expect Federation Admiral will indeed see the light of day. Campaign Games are not SVC's strongpoint nor his real interest, so his enthusiasm isn't what it could be. However, he recognizes that there is a great deal of interest in a good campaign system, so ultimately I think this will get through the process. Just gonna be a long slog to get there...

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:00 pm

Yeah, I guess campaign systems have always been the weak point in the Star Fleet Universe, and it's the one thing I've always wanted from them. The best of the bunch was, ironically, the very first one they did, Federation Space. It has a couple of design flaws, but it was fun and easy to play out of the box and didn't need a whole weekend to setup, unlike its replacement, Federation and Empire.

The Campaign Designer's Handbook was okay as a series of pick 'n' mix guidelines, but you would have had to invest a lot of time and effort to pull it altogether into something you could actually run. Star Fleet Warlord (the PBM one) was pretty good as a generic Master of Orion type game, but it wasn't very Star Fleety other than in the names used. The latest effort, Galactic Conquest, is just a bad joke - I seriously considered asking for my money back on that product.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:11 pm

For what it's worth, they have already had Adam Turner create cover art for Federation Admiral, so I take that as a positive sign that the book will indeed see the light of day eventually.

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:41 pm

Ooooh, is it beautiful and suitably epic?

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:19 pm

It is definitely beautiful.

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:27 pm

A sneaky of the cover would do no harm, surely? It would leave me keen for more!

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:00 pm

It has not been publicly released by ADB, so I can't share just yet.