Federation Admiral Public Update

[Shadow Warrior]

Pretty much what I thought. It was never going to be the case that sorting out and printing somebody else's product would take a place in the queue in front of any of their own stuff.

Just how big is the book? That might explain the playtesters' possible concerns about accessibility to non-VBAM players.

[mwaschak]

Just how big is the book? That might explain the playtesters' possible concerns about accessibility to non-VBAM players.

There are a few pages of introductions and terms, then only about 50 pages or so of core rules (including the entire FACRS). We even have a section that breaks down the core rules in to essential rules of the basic move, shoot, and build. Those essential rules are what I used to make "First Campaigns".

Then there is a section for optional rules and empire discussions, but the biggest section of the book is for Local Campaigns with its Objective Campaign System (which contains literally hundreds and hundreds of missions). That is the biggest chunk of the book, which is designed to be an appendix. There are 158 pages in Word, not counting all the material I have written in the mean time to supplement the release. So by far the biggest parts of the book are in the appendix and support material for force lists, and objectives.

-Jay

[Charles Lewis]

My opinion of the playtesters' reactions was that it boiled down to whether they "got it" or not. One guy pretty much just flipped through, said "too complicated," then whipped off a long meandering email to Steven V. Cole trying to say that.

Others, like Battlegroup:Mufreesboro (check your playtesting credits on anything ADB has published for the last many years), struggled a little bit at first, then got the overall concept, and dove in head-first and really got into it.

The big thing is that VBAM is quite different from anything ADB has published both in form and function. Love it or hate it, ADB has developed a pretty unique identity for itself over the years, and I think some of the comments just stem from being presented a product not cast out of the same mold.

Jay's work on the local campaign system with the missions and objectives is truly phenomenal and truly gives one the feel of an episode (or even a season) of classic Star Trek. I think that's where a lot of players are going to settle in 1) because of the generally low unit density, it would actually possible to play out most, if not all, of the battles in Federation Commander where one so inclined and 2) it's just plain fun! and 3) quite different from previous ADB attempts at campaign play.

I'm anxious to see the general reaction from the community (both ours and ADB's) so hopefully it will still get published before year's end.

[Gareth_Perkins]

One guy pretty much just flipped through, said "too complicated," then whipped off a long meandering email to Steven V. Cole trying to say that.

Wow,

I mean, he's a SFB player right? SFB wrote the book on "too complicated" in many folks' books... (It's far more complex even than something like SITS - and that plays in full-3D),

I'm anxious to see the general reaction from the community (both ours and ADB's) so hopefully it will still get published before year's end.

Trust me, we're all anxious to give you our reactions! And the bigger the delay the more anxious we're all going to feel about it...

[Shadow Warrior]

158 pages? That ain't so big. I mean the SFB rulebook is what, 500 pages or something? I know a lot of that is scenarios and ship descriptions but seems a lot of those 158 FA pages are scenarios as well.

Obviously I can't blame ADB for putting their own products first, who could, but seems this talk of the rulebook being too complicated or too long is a tad off beam. It's just a capacity scheduling issue, plain and simple.

I'm so gutted. It had better not slip to next year otherwise I will be... displeased.

[mwaschak]

I'm so gutted. It had better not slip to next year otherwise I will be... displeased.

Thank you for your support though. In the mean time I have a bunch of scenarios I am polishing up for the release and campaign testing the ships that will show up in Briefing 3. So we can always discuss and mull over new scenarios and the like.

I also owe Tyrel a review of the latest 2E stuff.

-Jay

[Shadow Warrior]

Thank you for your support though. In the mean time I have a bunch of scenarios I am polishing up for the release and campaign testing the ships that will show up in Briefing 3. So we can always discuss and mull over new scenarios and the like.

I also owe Tyrel a review of the latest 2E stuff.

-Jay

Sounds good to me. Any chance of a sneaky peek at one of the scenarios, just so we can see the sort of thing we are talking about in terms of granularity and what have you?

Or maybe a draft table of contents?

[mwaschak]

Sounds good to me. Any chance of a sneaky peek at one of the scenarios, just so we can see the sort of thing we are talking about in terms of granularity and what have you?

Or maybe a draft table of contents?

Sure! I need all kinds of help with the new scenarios I am working on. There is a mountain of fiction that needs checked, and some consistancy issues with the scenarios themselves. I can't share much about FA anymore, but the new stuff is fine. Just PM me your email address.

I hope they can get "First Campaigns" posted sometime too.

-Jay

[Shadow Warrior]

PM sent.

[mwaschak]

PM sent.

Great, let's see if The Dissenter is worth reading .

-Jay

[Shadow Warrior]

PM sent.

Great, let's see if The Dissenter is worth reading .

-Jay

Sorry, Jay, can you please send again? I had a d'oh moment and deleted it irreversibly!

[mwaschak]

Crossposted from: http://www.federationcommander.com/blog/

"The delay in K20M will probably kick Federation Admiral (set for 19 October) back to November 16th. (And remember that F&E 2010, also set for November 16, has priority so if there is only time to do one, it won't be FA.) This is just an ugly reality of game production. We have thousands of dollars invested in countersheets for Hydran Attack and F&E 2010 and we need to get those products onto the market without delay. We have no cash tied up in Federation Admiral, and even if it will sell better than FCHA and F&E 2010, we have to print those first due to the cash tied up in them."

[Gareth_Perkins]

Well, the basic delay doesn't seem too bad ('cept I'll also have to wait for it to ship to the UK as well...),

I guess we'll just have to hope for the best,

Thanks for the cross-post,

[mwaschak]

Thanks for the cross-post

You're welcome! I am glad I can give you some information on the progress.

I am still planning to run a PBEM for new players when something is available, and with any luck, you won't have to wait for First Campaigns to ship .

This autumn will probably be busy with PBEMs between FA and the 2E playtesting.

-Jay

[Gareth_Perkins]

I'm not sure I'd count as a new player (and I appreciate that new players should get priority), but if you do have any spare slots and don't mind me being in a totally different time-zone feel free to count me in for the pbem game,