Federation Admiral Public Update

[terryoc]

I've heard that some of ADB's GURPS Prime Directive material will be made available through Steve Jackson Games' e23 site as .pdf's, on an experimental basis. The experiment being to see if it hurts sales of hardcopy or not.

So, maybe, if we're all good boys and girls and the dice gods are pleased with our sacrifices, Federation Admiral will be available as a pdf... eventually. Probably the best way to convince ADB to release it as a pdf is to buy a hardcopy.

[Gareth_Perkins]

Hmmm,

Thing is, I don't see how it can't hurt hardcopy sales - unless they're doing it wrong

The point of online sales is that if you sell enough .pdfs you make up for the loss in hardcopy sales (and the reduced cost both the the manufacturor and the buyer should mean more volume - which in theory is better for the game-line (more players), plus is less wasteful in terms of the environment),

However, I can clearly see the problem of online sharing being extremely easy if the publisher has conveniently made the book available as a digital product (not that it will stop them I suspect, the world being the way that it is ), so I guess as you say we'll just have to wait and see,

[terryoc]

I don't see how it would negatively affect hardcopy sales myself, but it ain't my property so I don't get a vote. With luck, the sales of pdfs will be high enough , and the piracy will be low enough, for ADB to decide that it's worth the work to do more products as PDFs. Fingers crossed.

[Gareth_Perkins]

I don't see how it would negatively affect hardcopy sales myself

If players have a choice between them then players that might otherwise buy a hardcopy may only get .pdfs instead. On that basis it's going to hit hardcopy sales unless the book is the sort of thing you really need with you while you're playing (and even then, only if playing away from your computer),

(For Fed Admiralty, given the choice I probably wouldn't bother with a hardcopy - so there's one lost hardcopy sale. There are no doubt others like me),

I've noticed a few games companies these days are offering .pdfs alongside the hardcopy (i.e.: buy the hardcopy and get a pdf with it for immediate download). This methodology I quite like and seems to be gaining some popularity, as it gives you the best of both worlds (without also hitting hardcopy sales),

As you say though - if we buy hardcopies they may change their mind. Of course if I have a shiny new hardcopy I might be slightly less inclined to then go on to buying the .pdf... And as I don't play SFB/FC it won't really help me any if future SFB/FC supplements are released as .pdfs

[Charles Lewis]

My understanding is that ADB's non-PDF stance has less to do with sales and more about protecting IP and maintaining the value of their license.

[jygro]

I think their issue with pdfs is the ease that one paid copy can become 5 copies to each friend in the gaming group...

-Bren

[Feralkoala]

Which is a perhaps valid concern if that is 5 lost sales. However, it is also possible to consider that without a PDF there would be no sale at all--as the group doesn't want to pony up for 6 physical copies. I know in my local area, while many people are willing to play FC, there are only a couple of us that actually own 1 or more of the games.

[mwaschak]

My understanding is that ADB's non-PDF stance has less to do with sales and more about protecting IP and maintaining the value of their license.

That is my understanding as well. "Also available in PDF" has a bit of stigma in some circles.

Which is a perhaps valid concern if that is 5 lost sales. However, it is also possible to consider that without a PDF there would be no sale at all--as the group doesn't want to pony up for 6 physical copies. I know in my local area, while many people are willing to play FC, there are only a couple of us that actually own 1 or more of the games.

I have heard some pretty good arguements for and against PDF. There is no denying that PDF sales have been a good thing for VBAM as a company because we tend to be a niche-within-a-niche market. I have personally not come across anyone who pirated our PDFs before but I know of people who have seen our books posted on various file sharing sites.

I think that is a bit different than a group of friends sharing a copy of a book to play a game together. But I fear I am opening a can of worms here.

-Jay

[gambler]

First of all, let me say that I'm very excited about the news that this is going to be published at some point in 2009 (hopefully).

One question I had was:
Was there a decision made on the campaign scale (Local, Regional or Strategic)? Initially I probably would have wanted the Regional Strategic level, but the idea of utilizing a small core of ships to complete missions assigned by the game really appeals now. It does sound as though the 'local' scale is the way things went, but I couldn't tell for sure.

I really like the idea of being able to request ships and not always getting what you wanted.

My only 'complaint' is that no dates in service, refits and the like (a Federation Commander issue, not a VBAM one) really takes away some of the richness that could appear in this type of campaign. That said, I'm planning to try to fit SFB into the product when I get my hands on it.

It's kind of an odd thing. At the 'local' scale, most of your actions will be smaller anyhow, which to me is the perfect scale for an SFB campaign. The Regional and Strategic scales would fit Federation Commander quite nicely however due to the large number of fleet sized battles.

Of course, a large part of my 'complaining' is that I have tons of SFB stuff, but only one Federation Commander product.

All the above said, this is still going to be one of my most anticipated products in 2009.

[mwaschak]

First of all, let me say that I'm very excited about the news that this is going to be published at some point in 2009 (hopefully).

Hello!

Yeah, right now everything I have seen indicates that the wait on this one should be reasonable from here.

One question I had was:
Was there a decision made on the campaign scale (Local, Regional or Strategic)? Initially I probably would have wanted the Regional Strategic level, but the idea of utilizing a small core of ships to complete missions assigned by the game really appeals now. It does sound as though the 'local' scale is the way things went, but I couldn't tell for sure.

As of this time there is room to keep all three. There seemed to be enough interest in a variety of scales, and not much payoff from trimming a few pages, that it was worth maintaining. It is currently in internal testing at ADB and I will let you guys know if there are any plans to change that.

I really like the idea of being able to request ships and not always getting what you wanted.

I wanted the Local campaign player away from the critical shipyards back home to feel the tug of politics back home, and that his or her sector, may not in fact be the center of the known universe .

My only 'complaint' is that no dates in service, refits and the like (a Federation Commander issue, not a VBAM one) really takes away some of the richness that could appear in this type of campaign. That said, I'm planning to try to fit SFB into the product when I get my hands on it.

Ironically you were not the first to contact me about this. Another very dedicated F&E player just sent me a list of ships complete with ISD. If you want to take a look at it please let me know. But on that note I imagine you will have no trouble using Federation Admiral for SFB. We just need a good SFB ship conversion system or ship list to start with.

It's kind of an odd thing. At the 'local' scale, most of your actions will be smaller anyhow, which to me is the perfect scale for an SFB campaign. The Regional and Strategic scales would fit Federation Commander quite nicely however due to the large number of fleet sized battles.

I think that is especially true if you play Federation Commander at the fleet level too. Converting SFB ships may be a good topic for a Captain's Log, and I should probably mention it to SVC if there is enough official interest. I have just had several other people mention it this month so I doubt it is a coincidence.

Of course, a large part of my 'complaining' is that I have tons of SFB stuff, but only one Federation Commander product.

All the above said, this is still going to be one of my most anticipated products in 2009.

Thank you! We are very excited to finally see it in print after such an intense and enjoyable development cycle.

-Jay

[terryoc]

Federation and Empire has "ship information tables" (SITs) which are available for free download from ADB's website, IIRC. It lists year-in-service dates. It doesn't list refits, because at the grand strategy level of F&E, refits are ignored as the relative combat power of the ships is assumed to be the same as technology evolves. You can also get the master annex modules for SFB, which list refits, in service dates, and also production status (like regular production, limited production, could have been produced but wasn't, and "campaign conjectural" which is for ships that the empire never had but which are needed for campaigns.)

Edit: Federation Commander Briefing #2 will contain "pre-war, pre-refit" ships for the "middle years" period of SFB. Adapting these for Federation Admiral first would seem to be the logical way to go for getting a "timeline" into FA.

[gambler]

Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely be purchasing G3 "The Master Annexes" from ADB at some point, with an eye towards using it with Federation Admiral.

(Just having watched Star Trek II everytime I type the word, I hear.. ADMIRAL!? Admiral. Admiral.... in Montelban's voice. )

I can't stress enough how much I like the 'requesting' ships deal. Awhile back I thought about creating a simple spreadsheet program for different races that assigns percentage chance of receiving each ship type, modified based on how many hulls of that size and class you already have. The idea was that you could make a request, the high command would tell you what you could have, and then you could continue making requests until your fleet was made (any previously rejected ships would be permanently off the list) within a set BPV (basic point value).

And in Star Fleet Command, the computer version of SFB, my favorite part of the campaigns was combining my fleet with an AI fleet in the same hex, not knowing if they would stay, if other ships would come in, etc, forcing me to use what I was 'given'.

If you haven't guessed, I really like mechanics where the player doesn't get to have everything he wants, and has to make do with what he's given.

[MarkG88]

And in Star Fleet Command, the computer version of SFB, my favorite part of the campaigns was combining my fleet with an AI fleet in the same hex, not knowing if they would stay, if other ships would come in, etc, forcing me to use what I was 'given'.

If you haven't guessed, I really like mechanics where the player doesn't get to have everything he wants, and has to make do with what he's given.

Hear, hear! I'm with you on this all they way. It is much more representative of the way actual military campaigns work, you use what you have and hope it's enough to get the job done right the first time.

[Charles Lewis]

In regards ISDs for Federation Admiral, while Federation Commander is effectively pulled away from the timeline, there is an inherent development tree that unlocks increasingly powerful ships within broad categories. It's kinda gamey, but it was the best solution we could come up with to avoid having everything available to the player right off the bat without ISDs.

[Shadow Warrior]

A quick question on this most exciting project - will there be a combat resolution system within the FA game itself, i.e. you won't have to resolve battles using FC right?