The Return?

[Joe_Dracos]

Matt's already ruled out the Star Trek universe I think.

With a smaller number of ship choices and expanded detail on boarding actions it could be Battlestar Galactica. Or possibly Firefly/Serenity.

He has already ruled out anything with only two sides.

[Armydillo978]

I've just seen the first draft of the rules.

Don't be a tease, love. Tell us more.

[Greg Smith]

it is still ACTA with the same movement, AD, special orders, many of the the same traits, etc etc.

The boarding rules are interesting. Taking control of the bridge is vital.

The shield rules are a very significant part of starship combat as almost every ship has them.

[Da Boss]

My money is on stargate...... which by the way would be very cool. Imagine the license would be reasonably priced as well.

An official Stargate ACTA would be great - as well as Farscape, Renegade Legion: Leviathan and maybe even Spelljammer.

At least there is a damn good fan made Stargate supplement

[Agis]

Hmmm, after looking at all that was ruled out and what hints we have...
Stargate would be the most logical choice for me!

I for sure have everything cross-able crossed for SG!!!

[treknogeek]

Each fleet has multiple options for tactics out of the box.

I'm not so sure about the SG option. Believe me, I wish I was. My firstborn recognized the theme song at one day old, our second is named Samantha, and our dog Rodney . . . but I don't see SG filling the need for types and varieties of ships and tactics, although it would be ideal for boarding actions. The Gould have 4 capital ship designs (2 of which are unique) and even fewer fighter and mid-ranged ships, and they have the most options of any of the races.

However, if imagination was used and more ship classes created . . .

Ah, I just hope I'm wrong and you guy's SG prediction is correct.

[Joe_Dracos]

If there ever was a restriction on the ship classes based on what was seen on TV B5 wars and the original ACTA's would have had much smaller fleets. They would have created more ships so the limited number of ships seen on the show should not restrict the fleets sizes.

[kodiak888]

*prepares flame shield*

My hat would be in the "almost anything but Stargate" pile. I liked SG-1, but never really got into the sequel/spin-offs, so my lack of fandom most likely skews my love for the ships designs. They worked well for the show, but even when I liked the show, I thought most of them were fairly ugly or uninteresting.

I think that Halo or Mass Effect would be better, but for whatever reason both of these seem gimmicky. I would like some of the ship models, but I would worry that the table-top game would last as long as the hype for the games themselves. In three years when no one cares about Mass Effect and Space Alligators: Origins is the sci-fi video game to beat, I wouldn't want mongoose to repeat ACTA history. I also worry about new sculpts. A very small percentage of the original mongoose ship sculpts were table worthy, imo.

My hopes are still on a Noble Armada spin-off. The ship models are mostly great, there are existing molds of them, it gives the writers a lot of room to expand and improve, plus it isn't as polarizing with trolls/fanboys who will argue the rules versus how it worked in the video game/books/whatever.

[Agis]

Hmm, Noble Armada would be cool too, I loved the RPG!

[bondp99]

I really hope that it is not Stargate...

[Ben2]

Given the lack of variety in ships I can't see it being stargate.

I take it this is definitely a licensed universe? With shields and boarding actions?

That should narrow it down a bit, but nothing is jumping out at me.

[H]

um, the lack of on screen ships didn't stop ACTA, g'quan, t'loth and thats it for Narn, but they have 20 or so ships in the game

[Ben2]

ACTA was based on B5W, and there were big gaps in TOEs to fill in.

Stargate literally has all the Earth ships are named ships you see on screen.

It would be neat to see them, but BSG would be something I'd like to see far more (particularly the original war).

I can't see it being Stargate or Farscape.

[Greg Smith]

I take it this is definitely a licensed universe? With shields and boarding actions?

Yes.

but BSG would be something I'd like to see far more

Starship combat games often add ships to canon to make games viable, even going back as far as FASA's Star Trek starship combat simulator.

But BSG suffers from a lack of races, something that Matt has said in the past was a hinderance to the success of Starship Troopers. (Not that I am ruling out BSG).

[silashand]

Ah, I just hope I'm wrong and you guy's SG prediction is correct.

Not I. I've never been all that enamored of Stargate, and certainly not as a space battle game. If it is that then I doubt I will pick it up unless as I've previously mentioned there is an easy and complete means of porting the new system back to B5. But that's just me.

Cheers, Gary

[Ben2]

Stargate done as 28mm skirmish would be great.

Halo done as 28mm skirmish (or 10mm mass battle) would be great.

I wouldn't think either of them as space battle games would be big sellers.

[Ben2]

I take it this is definitely a licensed universe? With shields and boarding actions?

Yes.

but BSG would be something I'd like to see far more

Starship combat games often add ships to canon to make games viable, even going back as far as FASA's Star Trek starship combat simulator.

But BSG suffers from a lack of races, something that Matt has said in the past was a hinderance to the success of Starship Troopers. (Not that I am ruling out BSG).

Is it some obscure thing I've never heard of (based on anime, or Lensman or something) or is it based on a TV series from the last ten years?

[Clanger]

Is it some obscure thing I've never heard of (based on anime, or Lensman or something) or is it based on a TV series from the last ten years?

To quote River Song from the new Doctor Who

"Spoilers Sweetie."

Think of the fun when it is announced out of the blue. Do not want to spoil that feeling for you.

People in the know will just tease everyone else until we all explode.

[McKickaha]

So when is the big announcement then, this year?

[AdrianH]

um, the lack of on screen ships didn't stop ACTA, g'quan, t'loth and thats it for Narn, but they have 20 or so ships in the game

From Planet Mongoose, 30/8/10:

There are far less ships than B5 fans will be used to (I think we topped over 200 in CTA: B5 II!), but the differences between them seem far more marked, even though several fleets share the same technological base.

So even if the fleet lists have been expanded, it won't be as excessive as it was for B5:ACTA, very few of whose ships appeared on screen and some of whose fleets contain no ships from the show at all.

And now in Planet Mongoose, 8/9/10:

Project N is now in the process of being signed and has now been set for a February release next year. This is the all new CTA game based on a setting that will be familiar to some and fascinating to explore for others.

Another couple of clues from an earlier post by Matt in this thread:

Then, at Gen Con, a chance meeting posed us with an interesting opportunity that we may be able to move very quickly on - just working out the details at the moment.

We have also been invited to make a proposal for a CTA variant based on a very big sci-fi setting. Don't hold your breath on that one, but it could be quite cool (especially as we already did some 'fan' rules in-house for it and all the basics are already in place!).

Let the speculation continue. In particular, was anyone at GenCon who can guess the identity of the other side of the "chance meeting"?