| Vairdic | Moderation is now turned on |
| Vairdic | (a hush falls over the crowd) |
| Vairdic | Sorry folks, a bit of technical difficulties |
| Precentor_Martial | Hello all! Glad to see such a large group. We'll try and answer as many questions as we can. However, be aware that we are not as far along as we wanted to be and so our ability to answer questions is very restricted. As soon as we have reached a point where we can start openly disclosing details, we'll immediately schedule another public chat. Right now, while we'll try and answer some general questions, what we'll also do is note specific questions and compile that into a FAQ that we'll answer directly and post as soon as we can. |
| Vairdic | Unfortunately the GAMA Trade Show has taken up a fair amount of all of our time. |
| Absalom | <Q>With the ending negotiations for the IP rights, how much of a delay will we see in products that already in the pipeline. |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>Unfortunately that falls into the category of 'I can't yet say.' (I know it's frustrating...frustrating for us as well... ;-)...but you're going to likely hear that phrase a lot in this chat). There are delays, obviously, but exactly what they are and how it will specifically impact the line will be detailed in the near future. |
| trboturtle | <Q>Hoiw long have talks been underway? |
| Vairdic | <A>Talks have been underway for about the past 2 months in various forms. |
| Goose | <Q>Yeah; Whatever: How's the box set comeing? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>Very well, actually. We have miniatures!!!! It's been an incredibly hard and long road, but we've got miniatures locked in. There will be 24 unique miniatures in the box set. Even cooler, they'll be off the sprue, single-cast, and in a polly bag, so you'll pop off the box cover and be able to immediately start playing the game. The rest of it Adam and I are furioursly pushing on it to finialize. |
| RedLancer | <Q>What precipitated this move? Was the license up for negotiation or did Fanpro decide to sell it off/relinquish control? |
| Vairdic | <A>The license was up for renewal, and at the time, all parties agreed to discussions on the best direction for the product lines. |
| GhostViper | <Q>What changes will we as players see from the change in liscense holders? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>Unfortunately, we're not able to get into too many specifics. However, we are moving to alleviate some of the issues that arose during the FanPro tenure, such as not enough core staff so developers were doing operations work, much better communication and so on. Obviously we'll provide even better details in the near future about the 'differences' that can be expected.. |
| Keiran | <Q>Ok, I'm pretty sure I know the answer on this one ("We can't say"), but I have to ask this: Can you tell us, if and how this affects the licences for German CBT and SR? Do you know, if FanPro Germany will continue to hold the licence? |
| Vairdic | <A>All of that is still in negotiations at this time, so I can't answer. |
| roosterboy | <Q>Given that most of the people working on it will remain the same (at least at first), what does IMR feel they can bring to CBT that FanPro didn't or couldn't? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>As in the question I just answered, we are moving to alleviate the core issues that FanPro encountered. But again, more nitty, gritty details will need to wait. |
| Goose | <Q>Will we see TactOops by X-mas, or GenCon'08? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>Yes, that has been delayed. However, we cannot comment on specifics concerning the schedule yet. |
| Valendrigian | <Q>This has felt like a rather "light" fiction month here on BattleCorps. Has the negotiations been slowing down output of fiction here on the site? And, will we be seeing some more fiction come out in the next couple days before the month ends? |
| Vairdic | <A>Unfortunately yes, the negotiations have taken quite a bit of our attention recently, but We've taken the pause for GAMA to work to beef up the fiction for the end of this and all of next month. Look for "Love of Blake" either today or Monday by Steve Mohan, the next "Dog Soldiers" by Jeff Kautz on tuesday, and another Scenario/Story combo by Jason Schmetzer next friday. In addition, I've just recieved the next of the Wolf's Dragoon Jihad Stories (and it's quite good as usual). |
| RedLancer | <Q>What's the next product we can expect to see appear on store shelves? |
| Vairdic | <A>Handbook House Davion of course released last week, beyond that we cannot comment. |
| trboturtle | <Q>When is the sonnest IMR could take control of the licence, assuming talks finished up quickly? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>It 'could' be as soon as next weeek. And we are prepared to immediately launch forward to get things back on track; a LOT of work is being done behind the scenes to prepare. However, it IS business negotiations and so it could take longer. |
| RoundTop | <Q>First of all, congrats on the licence transition. It is always good to see a property closer to its fans. My question is with regards to the release schedule for the new box set. It is still set for around late August or has it been pushed back. As a corrolory, is Starterbook: Sword and Dragon set for simultaneous release? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>We just can't say. However, we are continuing to move on this product in particular, especially as we've finally secured the miniatures. So, as soon as the talks are concluded, we can move instantly; this includes StarterbooK; Sword and Dragon. |
| trboturtle | <Q>Will this change effect the storyline any? |
| Precentor_Martial | <A>Very unlikely...but I'm a big believer in never say never until the dotted line is signed. ;-) |
| ATimson | <Q>Adam, what's your role in all this? You seem to have moved beyond "the Shadowrun layout guy"... ;) |
| AdamJury | <A>Well, I've been spending more time working on Classic BattleTech than Shadowrun over the last year or so [Total Warfare, Brush Wars, Handbook: House Davion, TechManual, BOX SET~!~!~] and since I do a lot of 'behind the scenes' stuff for FanPro LLC on a freelance basis, I was privy to this situation early ... and naturally, I wanted to keep working on these awesome games with these great people. So, I hope to be very involved in the future, not only with core layout duties, but getting Holostreets off the ground, and also adding Elven exotic dancers into Classic BattleTech. Don't tell anyone about that last bit, though. |
| Valendrigian | <Q>It has been about 5 or 6 months since the last MilSpec entry. Will we be seeing the rest of those any time in the near future or has that project been abandoned? |
| Vairdic | <A>The news section has always been a difficult area to secure content for. While we do have all the milspecs articles in, we have been trying to beef up the entire section. We feel that the merging of talent from the seperate companies will help streamline the various projects however, so things like the news section and Holostreets will have a larger brain pool to work from. |
| Valendrigian | <Q>Elven exotic dancers :D -- That a sneak peek at the 3072 headliner for the Canopian Pleasure Circuses? ;) |
| Vairdic | <A>I can not comment on upcoming product ;) |
| Der_Soeldner | <Q>What is with the next Commando Events? Will they moved in the future or canceled, or will they run on the relased dats? |
| Vairdic | <A>The scheduled events are in review at this time so we can properly match up the events to the release schedule. |
| KeVinK | And time is needed to teach the Commandos those exoatic Elven dances, I imagine |
| Casazil | <Q>ANy idea if commandos will continue be called commandos? |
| Vairdic | <A>That is being looked at at this time. |
| Der_Soeldner | <Q>Will IMR publicate Print Products? |
| AdamJury | <A>I believe the way to phrase it is "Not just yeah, but he... heck yeah!" |
| GhostViper | <Q>Does that mean that IMR will publish hardcopy fiction such as is currently on Battlecorps? |
| Vairdic | <A>Not at this time beyond the anthologies. |
| GhostViper | <Q>since ROC does not seem interested in publishing any classic battletech novels is there a possibility of another publisher producing any? |
| Vairdic | <A>The ROC (nor any other licensees) license is not under discussion at this time. |
| Der_Soeldner | <Q>Includes the licences the Dark Age Timeline? |
| Vairdic | <A>That is controlled by WizKids and is not under discussion either. |
| Precentor_Martial | Okay, looks like we're done. Thanks for your obvious interest in all of this; you attended, after all. ;-) While we did get some questions answered, we're well aware that we did not answer nearly as much as you'd like...we were unable to answer as much as 'we' wanted to respond to. As I mentioned at the top of the hour, we've noted your questions and will be building a FAQ based off of those questions, which we'll post as soon as we are able to; at that time, we'll also schedule an immediate public chat again. Again, thanks for attending and see you soon! |
