Dragonfire Produces Traveler Space Ships

[GhostWolf69]

Time will tell.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough rich-brats out there that just had to get it, to meet your quota.

If you could get Halle Berry to ware one on her next grand premiere; I'd probably give a 100 bucks for it. :wink:

Until then; be sure to let us know if we were wrong.

/wolf

 

[Paladin]

The term plastic needs to be ditched. These are some sort of polyfiber/resin/hardened something or other. Plstic implies bendy, el cheapo green army guy material. If I had not seen a post that they were plastic I wouldn't have known. I had every impression from GenCon they were some sort of brushed chrome/aluminum. The certainly look and are sturdy enough to be a weaker metallic.

 

[Paladin]

Time will tell.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough rich-brats out there that just had to get it, to meet your quota.

If you could get Halle Berry to ware one on her next grand premiere; I'd probably give a 100 bucks for it. :wink:

Until then; be sure to let us know if we were wrong.

/wolf

Feel better? We already got the point that you aren't buying. Let it go and find another thread.

 

[Infojunky]

I guess it is all personal preference.

I don't know friend. That's a pretty lame defense/selling argument for someone trying to hawk a piece of plastic for 100$.

Actually it is a pretty reasonable response, If someone wants one enough they will pay for it. And looking over my past invoices with Litko Aero systems (a similar company) The prices quoted are not out of line for what he is offering.

Consider this, the price of a character figure in 28mm in now in the $6-$10 range for a lot of companies. 5 to 10 figures is the price of deckplan.

 

[Infojunky]

I must admit I am quite surprised by the strength of the negative response that I am getting here on this forum. We have had quite a bit of positive response from people on our wooden sailing ships, which are priced in the same price range. They have sold very well and we won an Origins Award for one of them this year.

Now I am a firm believer in giving the customer what they want, so I will ask you to put your money where your mouth is, I will offer the lifetime warranty against normal wear and tear. If the board breaks or get sscratched up from normal play or accidental dropping, Send it in an we will replace it at no charge. This does not cover if one of your kids decides to draw on it in permanent marker or your dog decides to use it as a chew toy.

Does this satisfy your desire for a quality product?

Lucas Amodio
Dragonfire Laser Crafts

Geeze, can you be any more reasonable?

Lucas it is the nature of the online fan base, everybody has an ax to grind. Don't take it as a sign of the fan base as a whole.

 

[Dragonfire]

The term plastic needs to be ditched. These are some sort of polyfiber/resin/hardened something or other. Plstic implies bendy, el cheapo green army guy material. If I had not seen a post that they were plastic I wouldn't have known. I had every impression from GenCon they were some sort of brushed chrome/aluminum. The certainly look and are sturdy enough to be a weaker metallic.

The technical term for the material is metallic engraving laminate. I will use that from now on.

Thanks for the pointer.

Lucas Amodio
Dragonfire Laser Crafts

 

[Twi'lekk_Den-keeper]

ok, I'm about to ditch this thread because it's becoming repetitive. The fact is, if it were made out of crap plastic and therefore $10, I would buy it. I don't think the super-duper expensive matierial that seems to be what everyone is talking about is worth it. As for personal prefrence, obviously someones going to buy it and love it. I just dont think theyre going to be anywhere near the majority. I might be wrong.

<Closes thread door silently and tip-toes away>

 

[EDG]

I must admit I am quite surprised by the strength of the negative response that I am getting here on this forum.

Welcome to the Traveller community .

 

[GamerDude]

Dragonfire,

Your ships do look good and, having Tac-Tiles, understand that they are high quality.

While I can't speak for anyone else, I can't afford something like it. I'd love to own some of them, especially a far trader and such, but it's just out of my price range.

They are a great product and I wish you success with the lin. I've i'm ever able to afford them I will come back.

 

[captainjack23]

it seems that boarding scouts and free traders is not
considered a core activity of Traveller.

That's why I asked how often it was that people actually had combats on scout ships and free traders... I'm sure it happens sometimes (as Firefly attests) but I'd assume that most combats took place outside of those craft (like planetside, in alleyways, out in the open, whatever).

I never did get an answer to that question though...

Fair enough. In my scout campaign, pretty often -but the catch is, its generally aboard other ships. They have to do rescues, searches, exploring a derelict -once they did fight hijackers, once they had to do a rescue in a civil war that had spread to a liner....and was still hot...and once they had an infestation of large space crawdads they had to clean out of the ship at snub point.....

I have a lego built floorplan, it helps orient the players as to their home, and makes it clear where everyone is in crisis or a ship battle.

I like the ship plans - and I can see why they are pricey....I think the 15mm ones are in my budget; but for me, I'd need a bunch of them for all the ships that would probably add up to too much.

Its a great product - but I fear that the problem is one of scale- the ships are big, and need lots of high quality laminate -and we all know the relationship of area to length or width. If there was some way to make them multi use -ie once could assemble different ships from them, i'd be on it in a heartbeat. But could they be traveller ships built gemorphically ? Not sure. perhaps room by room ? At the least they'd have to lose their hull outline, which would no doubt send some players off the deep end.

Oh, and some of you ? Lose the attitude. No one is forcing you to buy them-and at least they are producing good quality -I'm sure if they produced paper mats, we'd be hearing from the "low quality is an abomination" . Plus, at least they are producing something, and that something is a product they love.

 

[Baron Sidur Haski]

I think it is an inventive product, but the cost is too high. The early draw for Traveller was that you could play it with a minimum of costly game aids. Fans may have gotten accustomed to that frugality.

What about using 1/8th inch polystyrene sheet, or even some flat rolling fiber (or even mousepad material) instead, to lower the cost? If the ships were flexible, they could be packaged as tubes? I am sure if the cost was lower and there were more ships, there would be a lot more sales.

In the case of polystyrene, at that thickness, you would really want to damage it to damage it, and it could use existing packaging and shipping.
With the reduced cost, you could produce more ship designs from the book, and even do the higher end laminate ones marketed towards gaming groups with a custom ship.

Multiple players could defray the higher cost by chipping in, and get a custom ship done. Who knows? it could begin to mean that you have got a serious game running...

BTW: I work for a company that does waterjetting and all that. I do a lot of materials analysis and cost analysis stuff. Please do not take the impression that I am telling you how to run your company or anything like that. I think you have a great idea and product. Just hopefully offering some helpful stuff.

 

[captainjack23]

I think it is an inventive product, but the cost is too high. The early draw for Traveller was that you could play it with a minimum of costly game aids. Fans may have gotten accustomed to that frugality.

The early draw of traveller was that it was an RPG, and one of three or four in existence. There were hardly any game aids (beyond third party GM screens), costly or not.

When the Minis came out, (if you could find them) they were hardly bargain basement prices for that period, and they were generally sold only in large lots (Grenadier boxes were not cheap) ....and even then, the quality was middling at best for 15mm, and "okay" to "good" for the 25mm stuff.

So...if traveller playesr are used to frugality, i suspect its simply from having to make do due to the vast lack of any aids after megatraveller,, and TNE.

 

[Baron Sidur Haski]

Also, I think you guys are the first ones to hit the market with a non-book liscenced game aid product for the line, and that's pretty cool.

Is it the first "Traveller thingie" in a while? When was the last item like this? Was it a ship minature? Traveller Dice?

 

[towerwarlock]

I have a suggestion. I have to admit the idea or durrable yet modular ship plans is a good idea. Skeletonkey Games came up with tiles in a PDF format, although they do need some work. Perhaps you could get with them and reproduce their work for use with Traveller?

 

[captainjack23]

Also, I think you guys are the first ones to hit the market with a non-book liscenced game aid product for the line, and that's pretty cool.

Is it the first "Traveller thingie" in a while? When was the last item like this? Was it a ship minature? Traveller Dice?

Currently AD astra games is producing ship Minis. And Megaminis is producing character figures.

 

[Dragonfire]

Yes, I think that we are the first to do something in a while.

The reason that we are doing the ships the way that we are is that we are a laser engraving company. We have been coming up with ways to apply this technology to different game companies. Overall things have been rather successful. We try to come up with products that people would want. And comments on this board to the contrary, people have been asking us for space ships. No offense, but I think they were asking for playing Star Wars. Now we can't afford the license for Star Wars, and I knew that Traveller has quite a name as the space RPG. So I signed up to make some nice ships.

Several of the comments that I have recieved have been good and constructive. And I appreciate that kind of dialog. I understand that not all players may be able to afford the ships or think that they are worth it. I know that I still want a copy of the ship that my character used to fly. (But that was a custom job, so I still have to find those old notes.)

I priced them based on time, labor and materials required to make them. I thought about doing them out of thinner materials, but wanted something that would last. And I think that we have achieved that.

Now the first two ships that I did were the two most iconic ones in Traveller. They are the ones that you are most likely to get shares of in character creation, but they aren't as impressive as say the Mercenary ship with its multiple floors. I will look at doing that one next to show off more.

The idea of modular ships is a good one and I will try to explore it when I get some down time.

And finally, thanks to all of you who make positive or constructive comments.

Lucas Amodio
Dragonfire Laser Crafts

 

[EDG]

The idea of modular ships is a good one and I will try to explore it when I get some down time.

The modular ships are easy - just make a front and back section and churn out loads of different middle bits .

Have you thought about doing your own new ship designs for Traveller? You could include the Mongoose Traveller stats with the plans too.

 

[rust]

You could include the Mongoose Traveller stats with the plans too.

Yep, and something like a couple of cardboard sheets with "furniture"
and perhaps a few figures could also help to make the deckplans a
little more attractive without raising the price much (or at all), I think.

 

[Imperator58]

ok, I'm about to ditch this thread because it's becoming repetitive. The fact is, if it were made out of crap plastic and therefore $10, I would buy it. I don't think the super-duper expensive matierial that seems to be what everyone is talking about is worth it. As for personal prefrence, obviously someones going to buy it and love it. I just dont think theyre going to be anywhere near the majority. I might be wrong.

<Closes thread door silently and tip-toes away>

OMG that's hilarious, but it's dead on the money! Way to go.

Disclaimer: Bolds mine.

 

[EDG]

OMG that's hilarious, but it's dead on the money! Way to go.

Well in that case I think Dragonfire should churn out loads of shoddy, $10 cheapo crappy plastic deckplans, and then say "well, you asked for it, and you can't have your money back" when they inevitably break. :roll:

I mean, really. If you're happy with paper deckplans or your own cheaper setups then carry on playing with those. But don't go pissing on Dragonfire's products just because you don't see a use for them yourself or because you think they're too expensive. These are luxury products made of high quality, expensive material, and that presumably take some time to make properly - hence they're more expensive - but if they're priced out of your range then make yourself a cheaper option and be done with it.