Kickstarter Update 33

Considering the content of the latest Kickstarter update, GTG should be shipping by July.  Does that mean at everthing (including Obliveaon) is officially done and is ready for printing except for the uber box?  If so, what happens if GTG isn't happy with the uber box's next iteration?  Can we at least expect to get Obliveon in our hands in July?  Maybe I'm a little too impatient, but I don't want to see the rest of this product line get pushed back (again) because of a box.

As Christopher commented to someone else in the update the box is not the cause of the delays 

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Christopher Badell Collaborator 1 day ago

I am sorry to hear that there are some of you who are not excited about the Ultimate Collector's Case. That said, the overwhelming response has been positive, so we're still upbeat about it. 

For those of you who believe that the case is the only reason for the delay, worry not! It's not just the case! It's also that designing eleven heroes, five environments, and an entirely new mode for such a big game takes time. Totally on me, design-wise. Not the case's fault. I'll talk more about the design and its ups and downs next Tuesday.

And for folks who have ordered the case but are now sad that it's not everything they'd hoped, wait until you have it in hand to decide. At that point, if you're still disappointed, there will probably be a healthy after-market for it, as we're certainly going to have to sell it for a higher MSRP than we offered it for on the Kickstarter. It's hefty!

Don't worry, everyone. The end of the Multiverse is still on its way.

Sorry.  Maybe I didn't phrase my question properly.  The update says, "At this point, our very realistic shipping expectation is that we will have everything out to everyone before the end of July."  My question is if GTG still isn't happy with the uber box design, will it postpone everything further?  Or is there a chance Oblivaeon will- assuming it's ready- ship in July sans box?

Depends on on what they decide. There are several options and none of us know outside know all the factors that contribute to that decision. I doubt they themselves will know until that bridge comes to pass.

And to be clear you are asking for a definitive answer on a situation that may not happen, whatever they say will piss off some portion of the backers so why answer until they know for certain?

My aim isn't to rally the people against GTG or anything.  I was just curious if anyone knew what the contingency is if this scenario happens.  Sounds like we're all in the dark, though.  As a backer who wants the game more than the box, I'd like to play Obliveaon as soon as it's ready.  That being said, maybe I'm in the minority; maybe most of the fan base would prefer to wait.  IDK.

I personally don't mind waiting. The game will get done when it's good and ready, and I have faith that GtG, if given enough time, will make OblivAeon skull-explodingly good. :)

Here is my assumption, so take it for what it's worth (re: not much). If the game is in their stockrooms and ready to ship but the box won't be there till the following week, they might very well choose to start packing and shipping all the games to backers who didn't get the big box and wait for the box to ship to the rest. If the games are there way ahead and the box is delayed for quite a while, >G will likely decide to eat the extra shipping costs and ship all the games to everyone then ship boxes to box people seperatly when they have them. Either way, I really don't see the box ever being a prime reason for any significant delays in the game itself.

Frankly, the box was extremely ambitious, and anyone whos carried around 3 full boxes of SotM cards to game nights for the past few years should full well know just how sturdy and heafty this box needs to be. The KS update has really given me full blown 110% confidence that they will get this box right which is incredibly important. Given how significant this box will be for the sanity of those of us who own everything, I personally am ok for a longer wait if thats what it takes. This box is that damn important in all honesty.

And not for nothing, but I'm chomping at this bit just like everyone else for this thing to get into my hands. >G has decided to hide quite a bit of information about certain things in Oblivaeon, even from Playtesters! So trust me when I say that I feel you. I have faith that >G will do their best here as they have always strived to do.

Also this expansion is going to be full of awesome.  It may be incredibly ambitious in the number of decks and format changes, but things are looking really good.  We're going to nail this one.

It so will be. 

I don't know.  It seems like the box design is overly complex.  I can fit the entire hero, villains, and environment decks in Smash Up's Big Geeky Box with a bit of room to spare.  It probably won't fit OblivAeon.  That said, add a couple of inches to the depth and add some space to the top and you could fit a shelf that would hold the instructions, tokens, and oversized villain cards.  Build it like a standard board game box and you've got an eligent, simple design.

During the Kickstarter I was excited at the initial concept art of the collector’s box, but when I saw the samples in update 33 I lost a lot of that enthusiasm.  I hope they can come up with a good design that doesn’t look overly complex and holds up over time.  Guess we’ll have to wait till July.

Of course the big question is if it be big enough to fit the new Sentinels of Earth-Prime.

Ben

With sleeves!

I had to step away from playtesting a few months because of real life. Had the pleasure to see that some of the issues that had me railing for the longest time were finally addressed. Playtesting also shifted in gears and is going very fast at the moment. Taking a step back also means realising that the scope of this expansion is bigger than the original core set.

Comparable number of heroes 11 instead of 10, but their interaction need to be checked not only amongst themselves but against all previous deck with an attention to the risk of power creeping. To complicate things more these decks had to be tuned to two character cards at once as some ofthose were rushed and imbalanced in vacuum and finalised before the deck.

Greater number of environments than core set 5 against 4.

A whole new villain mode that needs to be epic AND accessible. There is only one try at this as no expansions will patch it's holes. This is the scariest one and has come a very long way. Truth is it probably wont be universaly acclaimed, but it is fun and epic and still takes too much setup and play time.

If I'm honest with myself, I'm still really excited about Oblivaeon... BUT it's mostly because 11 new heroes and 5 new enviroments. I will play Oblivaeon mode a few times for sure, 3-4 times for certain. That being said, I don't even play Vengence mode all that regularly. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way.

If >Games ever needs some cash I'm sure a "Heroes of the Altnaverse" expansion of 10-15 alternative heros from other 'verses or twisted concepts would sell like hotcakes.

Also FWIW I bet I'll play Oblivaeon on the Video Game more than the physical in the long run.

You're definitely not the only one that feels that way.  OblivAeon will be a little better for me--my game group won't play Vengeance because they hate being responsible for more than their own hero, and I can control OblivAeon all by myself--but smaller, faster game modes are a bigger draw for me.  Even with the app, it takes me maybe an hour and a half to get through one Vengeance game; I can get through two or three normal games in the same amount of time.

I'm actually just as interested in SoEP for exactly this reason, since it adds 4 new villains and environments as well as 10 new heroes.  I'm definitely buying it; the only reason I'm only backing that for $1 is the shipping cost.

Yeah, I realized the other day that I'm really itching for new villains.

Like, the current villains basically fall into four categories for me: Pushovers, Challenging enough to be consistently interesting, So challenging you only play them once in a while, and Too unfun to play at all. And that second category could really use some more villains in it.

I'm sure they weren't going for this, but part of me hopes the Scions will be playable as solo villains. :B I mean, that would just be a tremendous influx of new content on top of the heroes and environments!

We should be getting an update next week (I think). I am so excited to see what is in store for us!

I’m sure there will be enough content in the expansion for us to figure out a way to play the Scions as villains, if Christopher doesn’t already do that. Challenge issued!

You are in the majority my friend!

Honestly I played Vengence maybe once or twice when it came out and never did again. Couldn't convince my game group to give it more goes and it was more hassle than fun.

I will say that after VotM released that the Vengence format became so much smoother since, in my opinion, the decks were better designed and the influx of different difficulty setups really added to our ability to set up fun games that were not a quagmire to slog through. We still don't play the format all that offten, but we certainly break it out from time to time which is far more than we used to.

OblivAeon will be vastly different than the Vengence format. You can see that just from the Kickstarter hints and previews. It's going through a lot of iterations right now, but the main goal is to create an epic-ness that you won't be able to find in the Standard or Vengence format. If >G nails that feeling, I'll bet dollars to doll hairs that it'll find your table top more than 4 times.

One of my favorite "on-the-side" things to do is a 2v2 game - two heroes vs two Vengeance/VotM villains. Quick, brutal, and works pretty darn well! Synergies are important enough that 1v1s aren't really that fun, but then, I'm not much of a solo gamer. YMMV.

I guess I’m in the minority then, I love playing against the vengeful 5. In fact I’ve played 50 regular vengeance games and 50 advanced games in the video game alone… that’s by far the more of any solo villain in the game.

Villains is great as well, but feels more like a bunch of separate fights than 1 big fight; still, it adds a ton of replay value to the format.

I’m not going to disagree that more solo villains is for me a huge reason to buy SoEP…that’s probably what I’m looking forward to most actually.

I can vouch for that. It works surprisingly well!