Upcoming Releases - No ACTA Star Fleet

[The Legend]

I've noticed today that all the upcoming releases have been removed for ACTA Star Fleet. Is there any reason for this or should I start considering the possibility that the game is about to implode.

I've noticed that the entries for these are still available to preorder and I have a preorder for one of these items that I have been waiting on since May 2012!!!! Are we ever going to see these items or not?

 

[billclo]

Well the game is at a standstill until the rulebook is cleaned up, with perhaps some revisions. New miniatures releases were put on hold until all of the ships in Book 1 were available (some more civilian ships, the Tholians, Mobile Base, BATS).

Last I heard from Steve Cole, he didn't think the new revised rules would be out before early next year. But I have not heard anything about the venture imploding or anything.

Minis production has been moved to a new facility with a more reliable miniature maker, and distribution has been consolidated in the UK, which should provide better service (we hope).

Which pre-order are you waiting on? Cloaked ships are vaporware...

 

[kyrolon]

I really hate to say it, because I like the game, but even if the venture doesn't implode, the playerbase might. With all the bad press Mongoose has had from the failure of B5, Starship Troopers, and Battlefield Evo, it is already hard to get people involved with this game now. The fact that those of us trying to interest others cannot recommend getting the current rules because of the shoddy editing done on the original run means that the new rules need to be a priority.

I am not sure where the problem lies. Moving mini production away from the US facility was a good start, but I fear the game won't survive waiting another 8-10 mo before getting fixed. Maybe ADB needs to realize that a brand new game requires a more robust release schedule than one that has been around for 25 years. Waiting another year for module C13 or Fleet pack 536 for the other games is no biggy. The games play fine, there's plenty of material available. ACTA is withering on the vine. There's little stock available outside of Mongoose and ADB, there are things that were on preorder a year ago still MIA, and now there's apparently a bottleneck because one man needs to approve everything done with the property.

I know the people at ADB work hard on this, and I appreciate that and have since I discovered SFB in 1988 when I was in high school. I don't want to see this fail, but there needs to be something seen well before next year. Delegate if necessary, just get it done.

 

[firekite]

as much as I would like to see this happen Matt and Steve only have so much staff and so many hours to support all their products.

Matt has ACTA:NA which needs new products (not to mention VAS 2.0 or others that I do not play).

Steve has had several issues this year (a broken leg and a hardware meltdown just to name 2) and has several of us waiting for new SFB/FC/F&E goodies to play with.

if they ignore these to focus on rushing out a rev/new version of ACTA:SF the potential mess could kill this game let alone piss off their other customers. just remember that "all good things come to those who wait" and "Patience is a virtue" ( I know easier said than done).

 

[McKinstry]

Better communication would be a good place to start. I've had the cards on order for 18 months without a word.

I can live with delay when informed honestly and upfront but utter silence is fraying even my long suffering patience. :x

 

[firekite]

I agree that Matt's silence can be frustrating ( I have played ACTA since B5, along with VAS). Steve has made some statements to what he see's as problems that have to be fixed. he has insisted that mini's for all the ships in the first book be available before moving on to new ones for the next book. He is the reason that the ship cards are held up at the moment because he says the civilian ships are a mess and need more work than he has time for at the moment. they both want the same thing. a successful game but they are after all individuals who do things differently.

Matt, Jean: I know you are both busy but it would be good to let everyone know what's up if you can spare a moment .

 

[LimeyDragon]

ADB, does weekly updates on their own website and facebook page..

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.
It was a busy week for all of us. Read about it here: http://federationcommander.blogspot.com/2013/08/this-week-at-adb-inc-28-july-3-august.html

 

[Allerka]

Steve has had several issues this year (a broken leg and a hardware meltdown just to name 2) and has several of us waiting for new SFB/FC/F&E goodies to play with.

And that's a big part why this shouldn't boil down to one person, especially one that was already in charge of three or four major systems before ACTA was even developed. No matter how much enthusiasm or energy you may have, there's still a finite amount of time you have each day.

Better communication would be a good place to start. I've had the cards on order for 18 months without a word.

I can live with delay when informed honestly and upfront but utter silence is fraying even my long suffering patience. :x

Well, the cards ARE actually coming out now, just one fleet at a time, and in a different way from what was originally stated.

As for the silence, it's only been the last couple months that Matt has gotten quiet, before that he was usually pretty good at letting us know what was going on. Again, though, one person, too much to do.

 

[firekite]

Matt's rules set (which he is protective of), Steve's licenses (and he has to be very protective of it or else paramount will do bad things).

look at this as a time to playtest. the Orions are probably under pointed :roll: , there are several things that people believe are in need of fixing and creating ship cards from FC and from Communique (the monthly newsletter for FC that Steve puts out for free (has a new scenario and ship card in every issue - did I mention he posts these for free on the FC website :shock: ) is not to hard. this should give you plenty to attract new players with, after all not everyone gets to help test a game these days :twisted: .

 

[kyrolon]

Matt's rules set (which he is protective of), Steve's licenses (and he has to be very protective of it or else paramount will do bad things).

look at this as a time to playtest. the Orions are probably under pointed :roll: , there are several things that people believe are in need of fixing and creating ship cards from FC and from Communique (the monthly newsletter for FC that Steve puts out for free (has a new scenario and ship card in every issue - did I mention he posts these for free on the FC website :shock: ) is not to hard. this should give you plenty to attract new players with, after all not everyone gets to help test a game these days :twisted: .

That's all great except no one in our group plays FC nor do they have the time or desire. That's why we took up ACTA. Now, apparently there can be no new material (even playtest) for that until Steve personally goes through every line. Do you see the issue? Add to this the fact that instead of making one system good, Mongoose has added three more that seem to be taking up more time (especially Judge Dredd) leaving ACTA hanging with nothing going on, not even corrections of known errors.

People are tired of getting burned by this company. I regularly game with eleven other people. Six of them got left half way through Starship Troopers armies when the plug was pulled. Two were working on B5 in similar circumstances, and another three were working into BFE. You see where this is going? None of our group trusts Mongoose anymore. After my experiences ordering from them I only order from ADB or the Warstore now. None of my FLGS can or will get this stuff in because of the history. Now it's all happening again. Big release, lots of hoopla, poor support, few fixes, now nothing new. It's a pattern. This is the turning point where someone has to put up or shut up of they want to keep ACTA alive.

Of these people I got three into ACTA. I only managed that because I got them the rules and a squadron box each for Christmas the year it came out. What do I tell them? Have patience? The rules will actually be playable without handwriting a couple dozen rules soon? How do you sell that? How does Mongoose manage to sell the current rulebook? The file must exist somewhere. Matt's been promising a PDF for over a year now with the errata included. Where is it?

Edit: Located the last mention of the PDF

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=51048&start=150

Matt expected it anytime now in MARCH. He had been saying the same since January.

 

[The Legend]

I am a Huge fan of Trek. Huuuuge Fan. The original series was always my favourite so you can imagine my excitement when Mongoose announced the joint venture. I have a serious amount of geasr for this and to be honest will continue playing this for years to come, I'd just like to see that the game doesn't go the way of........ Mighty Armies, VaS, BFE, Starship Troopers, Babylon 5 ACTA, War without end (anyone remember this?). I like mongoose games but I hate the way that enthusiasm seems to wane after a short time.

How many times has mongoose tried to reinvigorate the Judge Dredd mini's licence now? Lets see some Star Fleet and Noble Armada love please. Otherwise I can see myself jumping over to Palladiums Robotech RPG tactics!

 

[mdauben]

Well the game is at a standstill until the rulebook is cleaned up, with perhaps some revisions. New miniatures releases were put on hold until all of the ships in Book 1 were available (some more civilian ships, the Tholians, Mobile Base, BATS).

Well then, where are they? Some of those miniatures have been listed for pre-order since last year. I've invested well over $600 in miniatures for ACTA:SF to date and I'm ready to spend more, but there's nothing for me to buy. A few new releases would go a long way towards reassuring the player base, plus once those "boring" civilian ships and generic units are out of the way they can think about releaseing more of the "exciting" warships (note I use "boring" and "exciting" in terms of how they may be regarding by some players, personally I want to be able to play freighter convoy scenarios and base assult games so all these missing miniatures are eagerly awaited by me)

Last I heard from Steve Cole, he didn't think the new revised rules would be out before early next year. But I have not heard anything about the venture imploding or anything.

Honestly, if its not imploding they are giving a fair impression of it. No releases, no news, Matt seems to have disappeared from this section of the forum. Its not a situation that gives the player base a warm fuzzy feeling about the game...

Matt's rules set (which he is protective of), Steve's licenses (and he has to be very protective of it or else paramount will do bad things).

True enough but that does not change the fact that the existing player base is fading and new players are being discoraged by the lack of development. All the excuses why things are happening this way don't matter if it ends up killing the game. If these are the things that are holding up the game, Steve and Matt need to try and work out an alternative as what they are doing does not seem to be working well enough.

I don't want to sound all doom-and-gloom. I love the game. I love the miniatures. I want it to thrive and grow. While the rules could stand a bit of tweaking, I honestly don't think there are any fatal flaws in them other than the advanced drone rules, which has already been recognized and they certainly are not needed to play the game. I'm just worried that the issues that have been mentioned, valid or not, are hurting ACTA:SF.

 

[billclo]

I can't argue with any of this. Lack of communication, lack of apparent progress, is probably stifling the game's growth. Despite my and other's efforts.

I am starting to think that Matt has moved onto the next shiny and new thing, and abandoned the game... which is a freaking shame. He certainly seems to have a pattern of this.

Matt, we're trying to get more players into the game, but all of the above mentioned factors are not helping us help you grow the player base. Throw us a bone at least and tell us what is going on, maybe a timeline for a cleaned up and updated rule-set? After which, you can sell us more minis...

Speaking of minis, I gave up waiting for some of the minis to be released. I managed to lay my hands on some Large Freighters. Made my own Heavy Freighters, bought other company's small freighters, Free Trader, Armed Cutter/APT, Battle Station. I have yet to get a Mobile Base. There's 9 minis not bought from Mongoose due to the delays.

I have enough civilian ships to run a decent sized convoy attack scenario at an upcoming convention, but the majority of the civilian ship minis are not going to be Starline 2500, which is a shame.

I also have a copy of a cleaned up and clarified ruleset that someone else did and sent to me to look at. Can I send you a copy?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hey there,

There are a couple of things that seem to have clogged up the system when it comes to CTA: SF - let me have a chat to the chaps at ADB, and we'll see if we can get them cleared.

And no, we are not abandoning this game under any shape or guise. Quite the opposite...

 

[mdauben]

Hey there,

There are a couple of things that seem to have clogged up the system when it comes to CTA: SF - let me have a chat to the chaps at ADB, and we'll see if we can get them cleared.

And no, we are not abandoning this game under any shape or guise. Quite the opposite...

Thanks Matt! Honestly just some news and knowing you are all working to push things forward is all we can ask (well, besides more ships and an update rule book and more races and....) :lol:

Seriously, though, it helps a lot to hear what's going on, even if it's just "we're working on it"