Thursday, October 13, 2016

This week in Dropfleet!

What has been going 


With Dropfleet hitting retail I think it is time to unveil all the information I have gathered for ship stats. This has helped several creators to make Army Builder files, an Excel builder, and assisted in a few others.

Over the next few days onto next week, I will have the stat pictures I have accumulated up. I will be using Dread2005's Ship Charts with the stat pages to show you a comprehensive overview of each ship. Now before anyone decries me, when you have many people take some pictures you end up with a complete picture of what is going on.
Just a teaser that will be come clear in time!

Where are we in the Kickstarter? 


Well we have gotten some bad news earlier this week. Hawk reached their Retail deadline that they had planned for months in advance and can't realistically push that pack due to event considerations, holiday season, etc. This has outraged MANY people (me included but I am more on a simmer) and I feel they are justified. I will have links to the Video, Update 54 which goes into the reasons a tiny bit and Update 55 that came out recently where Hawk Dave apologizes to the backers about this issue and lets us know to expect a shipping update on how things are going early next week.

All the pretty boxes waiting. . . 
Right now, Hawk is shipping like mad! It seems retail orders went out which could of been why orders have been slow going this week, it seems to also be due to some system issues which is why notification emails have not gone out. Well that second issue is supposed to be resolved so we shall see. With people getting notifications again, peoples anticipation should be right up there again! I hope to get mine soon!


Retail sales and how it affects the backers. . . 


So retail sales are going to affect a few things with us Kickstarter backers. One of those things is that for many of us (Commodore and Admiral pledges made up roughly 2700 backers), we wont have pledges in hands before retail sales are out. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. 


The good:


You can get extra ships for factions that you want to expand as well as test models for your precious Battlecruisers and such.

You have players who were unable to back the kickstarter joining you from the ground up.

Retail packaging (this is controversial I know but we were never promised retail packaging and while I think it is indeed a stupid thing it is something NO ONE thought to ask. Shame on us there.)

No wait time between new players and backers to get in on the game. (means community building is golden but may be too ripe without the pledges to assist)

The Bad:


We wont have out full freebies with us (no shirt, dice which I wish I could of gotten, etc)

Station is at full price! (was 20 quid in the KS and is now 45 quid!!!!)

Same footing as everyone else (I wanted cool things first so I could show awesomeness to drag people in!)

We will have to buy retail to play with our toys before our toys get to us. . . (sounds like a bad. . . something, somebody come up with a word there!)


All in all the good and bad balance each other out. Some will have more reasons, some will have less reasons and that is fine. Please just remember that Hawk has not forgotten about us Backers. They are working like hell and while they deserve the criticism they get for their foul-ups they still need support from us to keep their heads up.

So pretty. . .  and worth the wait I hear.

Let me share a bit of wisdom I learned while in the US Navy. On deployment we had a mission, we had goals, and we had the job. We needed morale days however to keep our spirits up so that we could continue functioning properly. This is why I support Hawk like I do. Some hate me for it, some cheer me, but I care little for either. Hawk is killing themselves for us the Backers and they need a measure of moral support. If there is criticism to be given (and we all know there is) then give it or do what I do and message Hawk and let them know. We dont need to be blasting them, that just hurts their moral which affects them subconsciously. Let them know they messed up but do it tactfully is all I am saying. 

Update 54:

Update 55:

Beasts of War Video:



As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Let me know your thoughts, feel free to criticize me (as long as you are willing to take some back yourself), and Get those boots on the ground!


2 comments:

  1. The only thing I can fault Hawk for (i.e. think they made a poor decision) was in not utilising the Kickstarter updates feature to make sure all Kickstarter backers knew everything first, rather than going to Beasts of War etc, which only caught a few people. In the heat of the moment it was an easy mistake to make, and Dave has already aplogised.

    The fact that some backers aren't getting their goodies before retail is unfortunate, but hey ho, poop happens! It's not the end of the world, and it is hard to imagine what Hawk could have done to avoid that without scuppering their contracts to retailers which would have really hurt the game launch, which in turn would have hurt the wider community as retailers would have felt burnt and then been less supportive of the game in the longer term.

    As it is we've got a good game with fantastic components now loose in the world and we are all better off for that.

    Some people on Kickstarter need to learn patience and reign in their sense of entitlement I think. Once they have launched a small company and run it successfully for a couple of years and then run their own Kickstarter *then* they can criticise. Until then I think they should just STFU because their opinion is worthless.

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    1. I agree with everything you have stated. People who have backed many projects that have done worse understand and some actually understand the issues, while many people feel that Kickstarter is a store which it is not.

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