Arkangel wrote:Now there is one thing I'd like to add. I've backed roughly five KS projects. One never saw the light of day. I'm still waiting for my copy of the Traveller movie, and have only received two or three new books for Interface Zero 2.0. I didn't even know about the Robotech Tactical game until a month after the KS closed and begged them to let me donate a few hundred bucks to the cause, but I was denied. However, I am thrilled to see this bring produced. For those who've been gaming miniatures, and recall the ancient days of a small British company called Games Workshop and a game called Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, you'll recall that getting anything from them besides plastic space Marines and metal orks was a genuine nightmare, if they even had them cast (I found a box of eldar pirates that became my army). It was expensive, frustrating, but we were patient. Mainly because we had no choice, and no internet to voice our opinions.
That's part of the problem. Going back 30 years, with the limited options, this probably wouldn't be an issue. But we're not in the 80's anymore. There are so many options available. Heck, I can't remember there ever being so many active (ie, not completely fringe) TTG's out there, with frequent releases and active communities. Which is why the delays are so much an issue. Every fiscal quarter that PB don't put something new up, shelf space at LGS and personal budgets get committed to other projects. Every refusal to actively hype something specific (rather than the nebulous "Oh, stuff's happening, we promise. We just can't describe it, it's so HOOOGE! But soon."), and get in front of at least the most legitimate criticisms, causes some enthusiasm to drop.
Sure, if PB's market is only going to be people who have a deep seated nostalgia for a 30yr old anime, fine. But I don't think that's financially viable as an audience. They need to be getting market share from the wider community. And there's currently nothing that makes RRT really stand out amongst the competition, other than nostalgia.
Arkangel wrote:I guess what I'm trying to say is I understand the frustrations. I wish they would've been able to get Wave 2 out when they thought they could. I'd love to see this line grow to cover the other eras (imagine what a Beta or Cyclone would be like against Invid? Or spartas tanks and Ajax Veritechs against bioroids?). That's why I think we need to support PB as best we can. I don't know what happened or why, but I've yet to do a KS that wasn't delayed and maybe that is unusual. I know they promised a 2014/early 2015 release for Wave 2.
Yup. A lot of Kickstarters are delayed. There's a lot of evidence to show that. The differences though, are in how far along, and in how they handle it. If it was a matter of months, and backers were told that, there'd likely be nary a peep. But it's been essentially two years of "Just a couple more months". What was supposed to be Dec 2013 became Feb 2014, became W1 April 2014/W2 in Oct, became W1 July/W2 EO2014, became W1 Sept/W2 Unknown (pre GenCon2015), became W1 delivered Oct, became W2 EOY 2015, became W2 EOQ1 2016. And in all that time, they've shown very little to indicate that those timeframes should be taken at their word. As others have said, they've had more than half a year since the W2 Update, and have nothing, by their own admission, to show for it. Take three projects I'm in that are currently late.
Shadows of Brimstone - Wave 1 produced mostly on time, huge delays on the remaining product. Infrequent updates. But a crapload of progress shown that work is moving forward at a steady, if not brisk paste.
Fireteam Zero - Currently a year late, half that delay was a reboot for a foreign language. Copious amounts of information regarding rules, miniatures and in game content as things got done. Shipping imminently.
CAV - W1 shipped close to on time. W2 is delayed, but they've kept the backers relatively informed as to the reason. No ETA on finalization, but it looks to still this year.
What do these three projects have that PB doesn't? Well, besides the fact that they're not close to as late as PB, they've all made it a point to show progress. Delays with explanation, expectation and evidence of movement are ultimately more acceptable than delays with handwaving, fingerpointing and nothing to show for it.
Palladium need to produce, obviously. But failing that, they need to show they can. Not tell us they can. Show us. If they did that, I think you'ld see a large drop in the complaints. Heck, just the PDF cards for the MPA/FPA brought the noise down a bit, for quite a while.
Arkangel wrote:I'll wait patiently, growing my armies into true terrors. I still need another pack of pods, another pack of artillery pods, a couple more Valkyrie packs, and some more Destroids (imagine the look of terror on your opponents face when you reveal for Phalanx destroids, four Defenders, and four Tomahawks?). Besides, there are still special characters I need to model up for the UEEF and some Zentradi from available stock.
But I'd sure love to see micronian combat vehicles enter the fray. Hell, do up some Cat's Eye recon birds, refueling trucks, IFVs, rocket and limpet mine troops. That would be awesome.
To steal from Forar,
Days since Conventional Vehicles stats were supposed to be up: 102.
This would have been one of the things I was talking about in my first para. If they'd release this stuff, it'd go to keeping it actively in people's minds, in a positive way. While some try to dismiss the critics as a minor, even insignificant number of backers/customers, that there is a very little on the positive side to talk about means that the vast majority of the silent backers (cause let's not kid ourselves, the publicly pro AND con RRT backers are an tiny number compared to the backers, and completely insignificant if accounting for POTENTIAL customers) from engaging. And that's what's needed to be tapped for this game to be anything but fringe, if not fail outright.
You said earlier "That's why I think we need to support PB as best we can.". That has to work both ways. As was shown with the PDF Cards thing, that quieted things a little. When PB do good updates, they're given credit by most (obviously not all). But when they let stuff go unanswered, the silence is filled with grumbling. And that's on them. People want engagement from the people responsible. Even your original post, you wanted "an official answer". People respond better to the creator/publisher/provider being active. Relying on fans to do the heavy lifting doesn't cut it.
Personally, I think PB would get more support from their base if they showed they deserved it. But I think given the self-inflicted hits to their credibility, it's incumbent on them to show that "restarting the conversation", and promising to do more, is more than empty rhetoric. They step up, in a meaningful and consistent manner, and I'm confidant that a portion of the playerbase will as well. But if they don't, why should anyone not already wholly committed (Hi Mike!) invest time and resources themselves?