"Robotech Miniatures Game Support Petition" Topic

OK, seeing as Palladium/KS and HG seem to be moving forward with a Robotech minis game, I was thinking we should make a petition list of the things that, while obvious, we fans want in such a game.
Please respond to this topic in support of this project.

With Palladium doing it I would not bother, worst RPG system I have ever seen.

1) Bring Mech Dude back in as the miniatures designer
2) Focus on one era at a time and have all the in-game units available before starting on another era.
3) Design the game to be fast and furious and free flowing.
4) Produce only the highest quality miniatures possible. And really, the highest quality, it will pay for itself in the end. Pewter minis please or hard plastic.
5) Produce the minis line and game books simultaneously. Yes I know this one may not happen, but at least get the most common units out right away. 
6) No "Collectible" shenanigans along the lines of the Clix collection.

1) Edgar AKA Capt Flash

"2) Focus on one era at a time and have all the in-game units available before starting on another era."

This seems to be the only one I'd disagree with. And that depends on what you mean. If you mean to have everything to cover one era before moving on to another then I disagree. It seems that if you had a playable force available in one era for each side then it would be enough to move on.

I agree with you if you mean don't put out three models and then move on to another thing.

But I think catching everyone's favourite period before covering the minutiae of one era would be better as long as people can reasonably game with each era as they come out.

Make a quality product.
Don't go cheap and then blame the market for not wanting to buy junk.

Don't do "market research" like the last time by asking a handful of roleplayers what they think of wargaming products.

I kinda like the Palladium RPG products…
Also, I am not a robotech fan, at all, but I do hope this is not 'collectable' and/or uber-priced, for the sake of those that do want in.
Complexity needs to be less than the Palladium RPG products if this is going to sell.

I've been playing Palladium games since the mid eighties, Robotech and TMNT were two of the first that I got into. If they go ahead with this I'm on board for sure! I think they should go with 15mm for the scale, just with the popularity of the scale, although it would make the mecha fairly large and they would have to do them as model kits.

Does anyone know where there's info on this? I checked the website and didn't see anything. Is it on the forums?

Hard plastic, high quality. Focus on quantity sales vs nickel and diming….

If they are the same scale as Battletech, I'm in. Otherwise, probably not.

Easy.

Get ahold of all the Nichimo 1/200 molds. Tool up just for stuff that is missing. This saves uber-cash in long run. Cash reserve means more money to keep company/project alive. Potentially could also mod the molds if need be.

Send to injection. Repackage in organized sets.

Start selling tomorrow.

Case closed. Problem solved.

I'd be in as long as they picked a modeling scale that makes sense and is common enough that the Robotech stuff could actually be used with other lines which means more sales). I would hate to see them come up with some new scale, like 1/463rd or 1/257th scale or 9mm or what ever.

And keep it a fast game. The combat scenes in the cartoon were awesome and fast paced, not slug fests like Battletech. Don't let someone who exclusively writes RPGs write the dang thing!

Ah, I see they mention 1/285th on the Palladium site. Awesome. I will buy a bunch!

Okay, I found it yeah it's 1/285th so it will be compatible with Battletech.

High quality miniatures. If the minis are the same low quality as the Rifts minis they're useless to me.

I refuse to pay good money for a crap product.

Quality components .
Common with other similar products your own scale /size does not help .

Capt Flash and Pictors Studio have hit the nail on the head.

That being said all the "Yeah 1/285th". That mean they will not be compatible with Battletech. Unarmored Zentrans ate the height of the BT Atlas. So the light BT Mechs in RT scale are the size of the biggest BT figures.
Just some scale for thought.

Multi-part plastic for sure. Given that battlepods and the zentraedi equipment is larger by default, they'd get plenty of cross over sales from people like me.

I would "petition" that they actually just get it done. I will be surprised if any models actually appear for sale. Otherwise I second everything Captain Flash has said.

I don't think Palladium rules would be good, but I am less concerned about the rules – there are already a lot of rules out there that are fine. Just get us the figs.

I think Augustus has a good point, but as someone who has assembled and painted a lot of those Nichimo models, I think new models would be good way to go – even with the delay and uncertainty.

Is this what you're talking about?

UPDATE: Robotech® Tactical Role-Playing Game (Sept. 27, 2012)

This week has been jumping with activity on this front as Palladium works to nail down a formal agreement with the force we want behind the design of the game, packaging and sculpting. Emails and telephone calls have been flying, I have a draft agreement to review tonight, and follow-up calls to make tomorrow with this group as well as Harmony Gold. It is an adrenaline rush that should result in products that will wow and delight Robotech® fans of every stripe. Starting with plans to bring you more RPG products and gorgeous 1/285th game pieces for all eras of Robotech®.

From -> link

Yes, this has the potential of being very good news, but unless the new rules are fast and easy enough to get over 2 dozen mecha on the table, I'll stick with what I'm using and will only be interested in the figures. Considering the 4 pack of skelebot figures on their webshop went from $4.00 USD to $16.00 USD and now up to $18.00 USD in the past year, I'm wondering if Palladium can offer "gorgeous 1/285th" mecha figures at a price that won't scare off most folks.

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

The Nichimo models serve a purpose but they are really dated. The original ones are really brittle and difficult to assemble as they are 20+ years old. The newer run of them have flaws as the injection molds are worn out, most noticeably on the zentraedi pods. Almost every pod I have from the newer run have indentations and warping on the cockpit.

The Gashapon toys that Bandai puts out are much better on detail. The downside is they only focus on the macross guys and none of the zentraedi. The rubbery palstic is also kind of a pain to work with. But if teh whole range was made avaialble in the Bandai types I'd vastly prefer them over the Nichimo kits.

All I want to see out of a Robotech game is affordable models that don't suck. I tried to help make that happen but eh.

Palladium can still make that happen *if* they chose to, but too many times a great idea gets ground down and turned into junk because companies want to cut corners and save a few bucks and don't realize that wargamers respond to a good quality product far more favorably than a cheap one.

In no particular order…

1) No tournament style organization.

2) No power-creep etc.

3) Fast and flowing.

4) Reasonable cost…preferably in hard plastics.

5) If you can't do high quality miniatures – don't produce them. We don't need a half-ass range of 1980's lookin' poorly cast minis.

6) As mentioned, don't make this into Battletech: The Next Generation.

7) If it's a quality game, you should have components allowing players to recreate episodes/battles/engagements from the original series.

I agree that the products must be good quality. I don't buy junk just because its "official."
I'm not interested in an RPG, but would buy a miniatures ruleset, and would prefer a multiplayer simple and fast game over a tournament style game. I am burned out on "Win at all costs" type games.

1) QUALITY models. Skimp here and the whole project *will* fail. See also RIFTS minis. This is not negotiable.

2) Make sure you have playable forces from one era before starting the next.

3) Rules need to be conducive to running big battles, lots of models per side. If I only want to play with 3-4 models per side, I'd play the Robotech RPG (or Battletech).

4) Even big battles need to be fast and furious, lots of action, not lots of dice rolling to figure out what happened.

This is Palladium, so there is a good chance that none of their marketing claims (like "fast playing, innovative, and true to the source material, using high quality miniatures") will be true.

Expect a slow-playing and uncredited modification of some other game that doesn't feel like the shows and uses models that would have been embarrassing in 1980.

I think Farstar nailed it…too bad.

I wouldn't mind being wrong, but I doubt that will be the case.

I'm going to hold my judgement until more stuff happens. Palladium can, and has, put out some really good product. These last several Robotech RPGs books are a case in point IMO.

Rules wise I think Palladium is talking to someone who will make the rules. I don't get the impression that this person is a RPGer type <shrugs>.

Miniatures wise, I'll hold my judgement, again, until I see the product. I've never seen any of Palladium's miniatures before but I have seen Black Horse's "official" Robotech sculpts. They were pretty decent for the time. I doubt that Kevin will go for ugly and overly expensive. He might be a lot of things but stupid isn't one of them.

I think Kevin has a real chance to do something special here and really, truely turn Palladium's fortunes around. We'll see what he does!

To set some fears to rest. The game will be fast paced and use all the models you are hoping for. Don't expect the miniatures to be crap. The group involved with the miniatures and game are quality cutting edge designers and creators. Palladium only is involved with approvals and dealing with HG. This is not a half baked endeavor. keep up the great ideas. People are listening. And should you have ideas on scenarios that you would like to see. Please let them be known here.
Tom
Robotech Battles
robotechbattles.blogspot.com

This is great news, but I'm particularly interested to see what happens on the scale front. BattleTech is purportedly 1/285, but scale creep has been a major problem in the line. There are pros and cons to being BT-compatible. If you're compatible, then you get legions of BT players to buy up your products as a substitute for their own (and rightly so! many of the best Mechs in BT came from Robotech and the like). The downside is you inherit the scale problems and lose some control over the direction of your game. So any big 1/285 scale stompy robots minis line has to answer the question: true scale or BT-compatible scale?

I'd prefer to see true 1/300 scale (which BT sells as Battleforce scale now). But I think I'm in the serious minority here.

I'd love to see injection-molded plastic minis. The quality tends to be far higher than pewter, but obviously you need to get the sales volume up for this to work. And you're entering a market that BT (justly or unjustly) saturates.

But most of all, what I want to see is something that's been 3d modeled and rendered, NOT sculpted by hand. The minis world is undergoing some major changes right now, and in the era of John Bear Ross and Mark Mondragon and others, the time when a manufacturer could get away with kitbashing by hand is drawing to a close. RoboTech units especially are begging to be 3d rendered.

If they scale with Battletech, that fanbase buys the living bejeezus out of the miniatures. That pads the bottom line and contributes to the overall success of the product. Pure and simple: If you build it, they will come. Make it too big or too small for BT games, and they won't come and the Robotech fanbase alone has to shoulder the burden of making the game succeed.

Don't use GW's miniature price structure.
Do look at a company like Reaper for price structure & QC.
Don't base cost on the mini's game value.
Make it easy and cheap for both gamers and modelers.
Make it cheap enough for us "Army Builders".
Don't skimp on variants and "spare parts" sets.
Don't forget support vehicles and other combat units.
Decals.
Consider bulk packs for massed units like Battle Pods.

Along with all the mecha, do consider non-mecha subjects that are unique to Robotech…Zentradei Soldiers with weapons, Invid "Enforcers", Lunk's truck, GMP robots(with Green haired GMP girl on hovercycle would be nice), and Cyclones. Bulk rate resistance fighters can be proxied by pre-existing brands, hold them till last.