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[mdauben]

Basically this.

You can teach someone to play ACTA in 20 minutes. Most people would rather slit their wrists than learn a game as complex as SFB.

I got into SFB in college, with the original pocket edition game (rulebook and countersheets all came in a small ziploc bag). I was able to assimilate the ever expanding game as it grew and grew and at the time I loved the level of detail. As a ship vs ship game, or even for small squadrons, it was great. I honestly would not mind getting back into SFB, as long as we stick to small scale games and left the big brawls for ACTASF.

What killed it for me was our group trying to play fleet scale games, especially after the proliferation of fighters, PFs, and drones. The group I was involved with would stage games with a half dozen players per side, each with several ships to control and at some point with litterally hundreds of seeking weapon, fighter, shuttle and PF counters on the board. It was epic but it took days to play out. Eventually everyone just got burned out and the SFB group fell apart.

 

[Ben2]

I got into it at school, but everyone I played with then moved away. At uni it was B5W, a simpler game with a popular licenced property that was recent. B5W was fairly complex for the casual gaming crowd and needed people to be at least a bit familiar with the rules before playing.

ACTA hits the spot where you can bring new players in. Games that are too complex are too much of a timesink for people with jobs and kids to learn, and things like power allocation every turn with 32 impulses are just too detailed for big engagements, whereas ACTA is perfect for fleet level games.

 

[firekite]

Matt and Steve are juggling a lot of stuff right now. This joint venture puts a lot on both of them. ACTA:SF is not going away anytime soon (my opinion ). I have played CTA since B5 and the game engine continues to improve with each new version just like SFB has ( which I have played since the pocket edition). Steve believes in being as "transparent" as possible as to what is happening. He can and will say things that may ruffle some feathers from time to time but he believes in giving us the best possible games he can make ( just like Matt does ). Please remember this when reading his posts. This year started off with ADB set to release a lot of new stuff and "Murphy" has bitten them south of the boarder pretty hard this year.

 

[adm]

As someone from the SFU/ADB customer base, my impression was this was rushed to market 6-8 months to fast. Between the intricacies of the Paramount contract, the difficulties of the new resin process, and the different style of operations between Mongoose and ADB. More time should have been spent on building a better foundation.

I do not, however; see this drying up and blowing away, given time and effort the joint business effort should still blossom into a hugely successful project.

 

[McKinstry]

Basically this.

You can teach someone to play ACTA in 20 minutes. Most people would rather slit their wrists than learn a game as complex as SFB.

Wrists phooey. I'd rather gouge my own eyes out with a rusty spoon than ever so much as glance at a 32 impulse chart. :evil:

 

[katadder]

SFB is actually quite fun but I prefer FC for the detailed stuff as thats much more fun. it also handles all the different weapons far better than ACTA imo

 

[locarno24]

At uni it was B5W, a simpler game with a popular licenced property that was recent.

You see, that sentance there sums up the problems; B5Wars is a simpler game.

Ultimately, SFB is an awesome game, but it works best as an RPG-esque duel game - i.e. one or two ships engaging one another, with lots of detail.

Which is fine and sensible; it's what you see in the series.

ACTA is for multi-ship fights. It's quick to learn and I can get our assorted Irks playing a two-to-three-a-side game easily and finish a fleet-level engagement in an evening*.

players want to be the television deck crew

As in, the highly-unlikely-but-by-now-embedded-in-the-public-conciousness concept that the same half-dozen officers who functionally run the ship (helm, tactical, captain, first officer) also make up the landing party...See Star Trek, Crusade, etc, etc.

We have to learn new skills on many levels. We need to start immediately on new projects such as TRIBBLES VS. KLINGONS.

I repeat my prior demand for a Tribble fleet for the SFU.


Glad to hear Jean's now relocated; hope the process of unpacking and steadily transferring organised chaos into more normal, common-or-garden chaos goes well...

* Significantly faster in any game featuring the IKV Atrocity. That ship is a freakin' beast and it appears to have the Klingon version of William Tell at its gunnery controls.