Got my Fleet Book and some issues with it

[animus]

Okay, because I'm in the US, I haven't been able to get a rulebook yet, but I did get a fleet book.

It's sleek and nice, good looking for the most part, seems sturdy but... I have some issues:

Why are the ships alphabetical? For an encyclopedia, I can see this working, but for a gaming book? Not so much. The ships should have been listed by priority level. Take a clue from the gamers - every single ACTA fan reference site is arranged by priority level. Why? Because that's how it's most useful.

Further, where the ships have been listed by priority at the start of the race chapters, the table is, well, terrible. To conserve space, apparently, each level is in two columns - the right one so far far from the left without a heading or box, that I want to draw lines to remind myself to look there. Terrible layout there. Really terrible.

The entries are cluttered and crammed on the page a bit too much for my taste as well. More "white space" between ships would have helped the book immensely. I feel I should draw boxes around the entires to differentiate each from those before and after.

Alphabetical....? :roll:

 

[Right Hand of God]

And what's with the order that the fleets are in?

 

[Lord David the Denied]

It ain't the best layout in the world. The ship photos aren't in consistent places either, they're all over the page. Still, it does the job.

 

[Winged_Human]

Agreed. For a 2nd Ed book, it's not that bad. Ontop of all that, there are PLENTY of resources out there to help build fleets.


I think it was a job well done guys.

 

[Frankvas]

I must concur. The ship ordering is my main gripe with the book as well. Why put the ships in alphabetical order? It makes very little sense really. The list in the front, but it forces you to have to look at two places to make your fleet.

As for online resources, you can't assume everyone has access to them, nor that they will be there 2 years from now.

Frank V.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Once you know your fleet, which takes very little time, really, you only need the fleet book to check stats and ogle the pictures. Alphabetical order does actually work as long as you remember that's the order the ships are in. If you know the PLs for each ship you can quickly flip to the ship you want.

 

[animus]

Agreed. For a 2nd Ed book, it's not that bad. Ontop of all that, there are PLENTY of resources out there to help build fleets.
.

Yes, I agree, that's why I'm not spitting mad. Still, I will be using the online stuff alot - more than I should have to.

 

[Sulfurdown]

The ship listing for alphabetical isn't bad once you're used to it (or go in expecting it). The order of the Fleets though... I'm still trying to discern the pattern that was used to order them.

 

[Triggy]

The ship listing for alphabetical isn't bad once you're used to it (or go in expecting it). The order of the Fleets though... I'm still trying to discern the pattern that was used to order them.

Apart from the Dilgar and Psi Corps fleets (that really should be the other way around) they are in some sort of order

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Going to share what that order is?

 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Going to share what that order is?

Chaotic :evil:

 

[scorpioni]

order of amount of attention given?

 

[lastbesthope]

The order is a loose evolution of the order the fleets (or their predecessors) appeared in the original 1E fleet book.

LBH

 

[Arch Lector Petrovski]

Excluding the appearence of the Dilgar so early on they are set up in clusters; the four major governments, the league and then everything else. Within the clusters I'm not entirely sure why the major governments are ordered in the way they are; apart from that's their previous order and possibly has something to do with importance/appearence frequency in the series. As for the league they're in alphabetical order (I think).

As for the alphabetical nature of the fleet lists it's quite possibly the best way to lay it out. If set out in PL then the different variations of some ships would be split across several PLs and in alphabetical order they are easier to locate for stats. If they pictures been larger and the data more spread out then the number of pages would have been greatly increased and so, potentially, would the price.

 

[Chernobyl]

I'd buy that argument if all ship variants were the same priority level at the class ship. but they're not.

Chern

 

[Apachex]

Minor nit for me. Why are the Kirishiac and Thoughtforce pictures still reversed? (at least on the PDF)

 

[Lonewolf187]

Minor nit for me. Why are the Kirishiac and Thoughtforce pictures still reversed? (at least on the PDF)

I was wondering about that as well. The pictures in the book I have are switched around with the Lordship and the Thoughtforce.

 

[animus]

You know what makes me most upset about the book having studied it all weekend? It's that against my explicit recommendations on this very forum, Mongoose didn't list the weapons for each ship in arc order! I'm not exactly sure what order they used, it's not alphabetical, almost but not quite, it's not by dice, or trait or zodiac sign. However, it doesn't matter. Anything other than by Arc is just a nuisance for the gamer, a problem instead of an aid. I honestly can't figure out what they were thinking. I've asked before if the people who put the books together actually play the game, and was told they do. So tell me why the book isn't as much a game aid as a quaint encyclopedic tome of science fiction fandom (key word encyclopedic).

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm deeply disappointed by the illogical and unhelpful order of the ships weapons systems, particularly since there was nearly unanimous support for listing by firing arc on this forum well before 2e was printed. So much for listening to the fans on this one :?

 

[Triggy]

You know what makes me most upset about the book having studied it all weekend? It's that against my explicit recommendations on this very forum, Mongoose didn't list the weapons for each ship in arc order! I'm not exactly sure what order they used, it's not alphabetical, almost but not quite, it's not by dice, or trait or zodiac sign. However, it doesn't matter. Anything other than by Arc is just a nuisance for the gamer, a problem instead of an aid. I honestly can't figure out what they were thinking. I've asked before if the people who put the books together actually play the game, and was told they do. So tell me why the book isn't as much a game aid as a quaint encyclopedic tome of science fiction fandom (key word encyclopedic).

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm deeply disappointed by the illogical and unhelpful order of the ships weapons systems, particularly since there was nearly unanimous support for listing by firing arc on this forum well before 2e was printed. So much for listening to the fans on this one :?

If you remember there was a massive debate on this subject and no clear consensus. You had a strong opinion but not everybody shared it. Mongoose chose to stick with the ordering system seen in 1st ed. as they didn't want to change something for the sake of change without a clear reason.

 

[animus]

No clear reason for the change!? Repeating an error because it's always been wrong? Sorry, Triggy, I don't buy it. What is the order in the book now? When I'm reading the ships trying to visualize what they'll do by the numbers I'm irked to hunt for arc coverage. When I write the ships up for play, it's equally infuriating. It's too late now, and luckily the fans who make gaming aids to fill in where Mongoose dropped the ball will instinctively correct this mistake. I just have to wait for the cavalry. Still, for me, the fleet book isn't as useful as is should be because of this.