Has anyone in the U.S. received their Fleet Boxes?

[Myrm]

When Federation Commander was released, Steve Cole believed that the new game (FC) would kill Star Fleet Battles (SFB). What happened was that SFB sales increased. It was because old SFBers were coming back and saying, "Oh wow, are you guys still in business?" and picking up the game again. SFBers are like alcoholics; you can be dry for years, but it just takes one little drink...

I wondered what FC would do to SFB, but it just raised my interest in SFB. I bought the first box set but that was all. It has a bunch of nice options in it - I particularly liked the energy use system compared to SFB allocation. However, it isn't light enough to substitute for SFB (to be fair SVC always said that it was not SFB lite, it targetted a different audience) - ACtA on the other hand did that job for fleet action SFB.

The single biggest bar to me playing SFB is not competition - it always has been the pain it is to get a bunch of SSDs ready for a game - without a scanner to hand, and photocopying being a bit awkward (no personal copying at work etc) - a CD or PDF product for SSDs would have made a HUGE difference to my ability to sort a game as all I'd need to do is fire off a few SSDs on the printer and go - I can assemble stuff ad hoc at the club depending on player numbers. Suddenly its not an exercise in cat herding and planning to have the right books at the right time to organise it all.
However electronic product of this kind always seemed to be shot down at the ADB forums for years - now I noticed when Jean first showed up her she indicated that there had been a bit of sea-change over that and so I am seriously hopeful.

Then I'll be able to play enough that I won't look addicted. Oh and of course the ACtA fans will get hooked to it as well, I'll get the roleplayers on Prime Directive and the universe will be SFU.

 

[Da Boss]

When Federation Commander was released, Steve Cole believed that the new game (FC) would kill Star Fleet Battles (SFB). What happened was that SFB sales increased. It was because old SFBers were coming back and saying, "Oh wow, are you guys still in business?" and picking up the game again. SFBers are like alcoholics; you can be dry for years, but it just takes one little drink...

The single biggest bar to me playing SFB is not competition - it always has been the pain it is to get a bunch of SSDs ready for a game - without a scanner to hand, and photocopying being a bit awkward (no personal copying at work etc) - a CD or PDF product for SSDs would have made a HUGE difference to my ability to sort a game as all I'd need to do is fire off a few SSDs on the printer and go - I can assemble stuff ad hoc at the club depending on player numbers. Suddenly its not an exercise in cat herding and planning to have the right books at the right time to organise it all.
However electronic product of this kind always seemed to be shot down at the ADB forums for years - now I noticed when Jean first showed up her she indicated that there had been a bit of sea-change over that and so I am seriously hopeful.

It was similar for B5 but then very genereous people put in lots of their own time and effort and designed complete ship viewers and fleet designers to help people play more (and indirectly more likely to purchase more product). The good old days :wink:

 

[Myrm]

SFB is really a different scale of preparation to ACtA, B5 and SF ships I can nail down on a blank sheet in a couple of minutes each - you cannot do that with an SSD for SFB, even if you ditched the firing charts and so on and stuck to the ship boxes only.

 

[Nerroth]

There are a few SSD books from SFB which have been uploaded as part of ADB's corner of e23 already, with more on the way.

(e23 also has some Ship Card ePacks for FC, plus the ship displays from the SFU adaptation to Starmada.)

 

[Myrm]

Indeed? Then those are the ones that are the seachange I was talking about, that saves me goinig for a look round the SFB boards to see what and when! Thanks

 

[Da Boss]

SFB is really a different scale of preparation to ACtA, B5 and SF ships I can nail down on a blank sheet in a couple of minutes each - you cannot do that with an SSD for SFB, even if you ditched the firing charts and so on and stuck to the ship boxes only.

Yes you can put if you are putting together a fleet of ten to fifteen ships and you would like to have nicely formated sheets to play with rather than scribbles on a piece of paper - especially if you are teaching the game. Perhaps we were just spoiled before with the quality of the resources......

 

[Totenkopf]

I don't know about the attitudes on the other side of the Pond, but here in the USA, many people are getting very tired of having EVERYTHING made in China.

Unfortunately, I don't think that is going to change for a good few years yet

If ever, when China begins to have competitors that offer products at their prices with better or equal QC - you might begin to see less products made in China. Doubt that those competitors will be found in Europe or the US though.

 

[billclo]

I don't know about the attitudes on the other side of the Pond, but here in the USA, many people are getting very tired of having EVERYTHING made in China.

Unfortunately, I don't think that is going to change for a good few years yet

If ever, when China begins to have competitors that offer products at their prices with better or equal QC - you might begin to see less products made in China. Doubt that those competitors will be found in Europe or the US though.

Without getting too political, it's hard to compete with Chinese cheap and abused labor when you have to comply with all the regulations/rules in the US, to say nothing of there being a much higher cost of living pushing up wages.

Granted, many of the safety regs are needed, but some are a tad over the top.

 

[Totenkopf]

billclo - yep I don't understand how some people think the US will be able to compete with China in terms of manufacturing cheap little one-offs, toys, and the like. It's just not realistic. As for better QC that's still cheaper than any price any company in the US can offer, Taiwan fits that bill perfectly. So more likely we will see another Asian country step up to compete with China in certain niches.

 

[Ben2]

Unfortunately, I don't think that is going to change for a good few years yet

If ever, when China begins to have competitors that offer products at their prices with better or equal QC - you might begin to see less products made in China. Doubt that those competitors will be found in Europe or the US though.

Without getting too political, it's hard to compete with Chinese cheap and abused labor when you have to comply with all the regulations/rules in the US, to say nothing of there being a much higher cost of living pushing up wages.

Granted, many of the safety regs are needed, but some are a tad over the top.

I think some strides have been made with the use of prison labour to compete with China, particularly in the States.

For example

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/prisoners-help-build-patriot-missiles/

I think the key is that people don't want to pay people wages for manufacturing things, so having western unskilled labour (and now skilled labour) competing with labour prisons wherever they are located helps undercut wages and workers rights.

However I can't see Mongoose using Chinese prison labour, as the Chinese mostly use it to supply their internal markets and keep goods cheap there, and rarely directly supply Western markets because of consumer sensibilities. While everyone generally accepts that child labour or exploited labour or indentured labour goes into making their clothes, iphones, computers, etc as long as it isn't waved in peoples faces and they have to notice it they don't care.

I think there are a fair few people who are pretty happy about falling living standards in the West, as the race to the bottom in terms of wages and living conditions means cheap labour all round, and as long as you aren't that cheap labour you get to enjoy cheaper manufactured goods.

But no, I don't think Matt will be announcing that all ACTA ships will now be made in Peoples Reeducation Centre No 23.

 

[MongooseMatt]

But no, I don't think Matt will be announcing that all ACTA ships will now be made in Peoples Reeducation Centre No 23.

No, that is just where the rules are written.

 

[billclo]

Ben2, I'm aware of the Chinese labor prisons. I wasn't referring to those. I was referring to the regular "factories" the Chinese run. Maybe the workers are free to quit, I don't know, but otherwise apparently the conditions are horrific.

Boy the race to the bottom is not a good topic to discuss here, so I won't.

 

[Totenkopf]

But no, I don't think Matt will be announcing that all ACTA ships will now be made in Peoples Reeducation Centre No 23.

Is that located in the US? It would be fun to go visit that on a field trip

 

[Lincolnlog]

So a photo of a Fleet Box, well modeled appeared in the UK today, but has anyone in the US recieved your fleet boxes?

After all they are shipping and have been for over a week someone should have one by now. :mrgreen:

 

[archon96]

hell get the chinese to paint the mini's too, it would be like micromachines, then my shaky hands wouldn't field bad paint jobs.

 

[McKinstry]

But no, I don't think Matt will be announcing that all ACTA ships will now be made in Peoples Reeducation Centre No 23.

No, that is just where the rules are written.

I'm a huge fan of predatory capitalism. If the quality can be maintained, you might try Indonesian child labor. Resin minis made by embryos for .07$ per day could really up margins while lowering cost to the consumer.

 

[Ben2]

Ben2, I'm aware of the Chinese labor prisons. I wasn't referring to those. I was referring to the regular "factories" the Chinese run. Maybe the workers are free to quit, I don't know, but otherwise apparently the conditions are horrific.

Boy the race to the bottom is not a good topic to discuss here, so I won't.

Wages are often withheld, violence is pretty normal, and imprisoning anyone who makes a fuss about health and safety or wants to start a union (unions not run by the government are illegal) can be imprisoned or 'dealt with'.

It's like 19th century America on steroids, and there are about 8000 riots a year because people get pissed off with the whole thing. Hopefully there'll be a revolution soon, but there'll be a bunch of people in the West bleating that it will delay the Iphone 5.

 

[Lincolnlog]

There is a holograghic image on display of a Fleet Box in the thread: Federation Fleet Box - It Exists! :idea:

Since not a single Fleet Box can be confirmed as having been received, after they started shipping two weeks ago, the photo must be a cleaver ruse! :lol:

 

[Finlos]

Do we really think at this point that anyone is going to admit they have a fleet box? They'd probably get mobbed by the rest of us

 

[Totenkopf]

So I guess I shouldn't...oh, never mind