Battletech Gothic – early April Fools Day or real?

[sundancer 43388xp 2]

How? HOW?!

Apologies for missing last week’s update – I had a post written even, and just didn’t push the button. Totally my fault and I apologize.  I have some notes that I’ll include in the bold/italic for this week as I catch up from my absence.

That’s just… UUUH!

EU: Wave 1 and 2 are about 72% complete. It will slow down as they take their time with larger orders to ensure accuracy.

Almost there @limburger 😉

OUR NEW WEBSTORE IS LIVE!

Last week, the new webstore went live!  We are doing a small smoke test with about 10 select retailers to test the new direct-to-retailer program.  Once we’ve worked out any kinks from beginning to end, we’ll open up to all retailers and apply your credits for your shipping costs to the store.

AND YOU STILL CHARGE SILLY MONEY FOR SHIPPING! If that shipping rate is the same for vendors and merchants than it is no wonder BT isn’t being sold here much.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6441xp 2]

Any well run company would have got rid of such an incompetent staff member a long time ago. I suppose Sarah fits right in to the prevailing corporate chaos that is CGL.

It is funny that ‘waves’ are now a thing for delivery when they were never mentioned until they messed up.

The fact that Frostpunk has funded despite people warning backers in the comments just goes to show how dumb some people are.

[sundancer 43388xp 2]

I wouldn’t call them dumb. Many people are more like “See project, like project, set pledge, forget. New project, like…” I’m betting most of those don’t look at comments or anything. They just throw money at the screen and hope for the best.

[hutch 5304xp 1]

Arghhhh  my eyes hurt, make it stop.

[sundancer 43388xp 1]

No!

Look at it! LOOK AT IT!

[tankkommanderParticipant 6441xp 0]

GW’s lawyers must be happy 🙂

[sundancer 43388xp 0]

Why would they? Gothic is a non copyrightable term.

[limburger 21922xp 1]

@sundancer I saw that update and … I had a real ‘head  meet desk’ / ‘double facepalm’ moment.

It’s as if they spent all their time on making pretty pictures for this ‘new’ thing and ‘forgot’ about all their existing projects they still needed to manage.

@tankkommander
I believe those ‘waves’ are the result of CGL having financial issues and thus having to pay QML & co in batches.

Any other kickstarter that does waves tends to do it because of manufacturing convenience or something similar (Archon Studios tend to ship already completed bits in wave 1 and the new stuff in wave 2 for example).
The only other reason for waves is when there’s a late pledge option and the folk that take advantage of that get added in a secondary wave.

And yeah … I’m pretty sure that such mistakes would have resulted in someone getting fired in any regular company, but this is CGL. They’re making mistakes as a feature. They’d probably fire folk for daring to be productive, effective and efficient 😉

@grantinvanman nah, not needed. I’m more annoyed at the amount of stupidity and less worried about when I get my stuff.
I’m more excited for Port Royal which should arrive ‘soon(tm)’.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6441xp 1]

GW may wish to defend their Battlefleet Gothic trademark.

The word ‘gothic’ cannot be copyrighted, but it may be possible to make a case that the name Battletech Gothic, being so close to a GW trademark, would likely cause ‘confusion to consumers’.

[horati0nosebl0wer 19691xp 4]

I just got wind of this and it smells the same as the city which supports a local agricultural school. Damn it’s difficult to scrape that memory out of my mind.

Not sure if the company is going broke because of the issues with shipping but it seems like a cash grab that didn’t need to be made. The lore and universe makes Battletech stable and simple to just chug along with the fanbase. Trying to play Game of Thrawns via big stompy robots is graspable and didn’t need kaiju. I think this might be a bigger move to drop valuation of the company in order to post a loss and keep money with the potential of future lower sales.

Maybe the game idea has just played itself out after so many decades?

[grantinvanman 2523xp 2]

@tankkommander I literally thought this was a relaunch of BattleFLEET Gothic at first. Which was really exciting.

Battletech Gothic, not as much.

[frankeleeParticipant 1375xp 1]

GW may wish to defend their Battlefleet Gothic IP, but they and everyone else are free to talk to an American lawyer for $500 and find out why they have no chance of winning. And I know James has $500, so there won’t be a lawsuit.

Catalyst may have not done a PERFECT job delivering either Battletech campaign, what with their being late by an extra year to some continents, and probably a few hundred people with missing orders or missing pieces of orders still waiting for customer service to successfully help them. And I’m sure I will never get anything for my ‘Mech salvage boxes that had vehicles in them. But Catalyst has successfully delivered this project overall, and I’m not sure what warning people on a new campaign could accomplish. “Guys, they eventually deliver what they said they would to 99% of backers.” “Guys, they are making money hand over fist and will be solvent for a decade to come off their Battletech forcepack sales from this year alone.”

I think tabletop gamers should try making friends with people in the industry, or even just any manufacturing or sales industry. Every company has a failure rate, and yes the customers on the receiving end of those failures are often very unhappy people, but where is this belief that Catalyst are a fly-by-night con game or failing entity coming from? It’s another conversation on the internet that is 180 degrees off from what the conversation is back in the real world.

And as far as Battletech Gothic goes, I bet it will sell out. People really like these new plastics, they’ll shell out for some interesting new models. I think they’re also probably thrilled with breaking the internet over it, but the hype/controversy immediately went overboard for what is just another boxed product out of over 20 boxed products they’ll be releasing for sale this year.

[sundancer 43388xp 1]

@frankelee Oh I don’t think most of us OTTers here who backed any CGL KS think that they are trying to scam us. That would mean there was an intent to do so. I do believe that CGL Head wants to make Battletech a great game.

But they employ stupid people to make it happen. If you go back “bad communication” is like a blood red river flowing through everything. And after goth-knows-how-many-moons the CGL Tuesday Update stream on youtube still looks like someone just jumped in front of the camera with the least amount of work possible. Heck, I’m doing that for 250 weeks now and even my first few streams look technically more competent!

And of course it will sell out. It’s a shiny new squirrel and some people dig the design. And that is ok. What’s not OK is (IMHO) that this will take resources away from outstanding projects like the last three still not fulfilled Kickstarters. And if this is not just a box release but another KS then oh my the web will be in flames XD

If it will be just another box I’d reckon we won’t see many outside the US. That’s just a gut feeling based on current situation with tariffs and all.

We’ll see what will happen. I’ve got my pledge. I’ll paint and play my mechs and if my FLGS has boxes in stock I might by more stuff. (Urbi lance still calls me) But I will not pledge to another KS of theirs. That bridge has been crossed and nuked from orbit.

[pagan8thParticipant 12937xp 2]

Nuked from orbit is the only way to be sure!

[horati0nosebl0wer 19691xp 3]

I’m onboard with the hesitation that @sundancer makes mention of about the multitude of campaigns running concurrently. It looks too similar to what happened with Soda Pop and is going on with CMON.  There may not be issues in clear view but the consumer base has seen plenty of dud campaigns and keeps the slogan “caveat emptor” to mind.

To take this IP of galactic proportions in this direction is just jumping the shark.

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