So, I saw an ad on TMP for Zekim Design Studios. Their website seemed a bit low-tech, but I decided to take a chance, and as I've been shopping around to update the chit components in my old and battle-worn Dirtside set, I downloaded their counter-making software and made a set of Dirtside II counters. With a little work and tweaking, I managed to gave the old Dirtside counters my own personal facelift, and sent them off the be printed and cut. The result just arrived this afternoon, and it's amazingly great! This is just to give a little idea of the quality that they produced for me – I'm pleased beyond measure!
If other people are interested in getting sets of these without going through the hoopla of making them up themselves, I'll ask Jon Tuffley if he'd mind if I distribute the files for Zekim's counter-making application. I'd be happy to make my version of the counter plates available to any other DS2 gamers out there who were interested, so long as he's okay with it; not quite knowing the score, I just made them for myself and didn't put the design plates into the Zekim public catalogue. Total cost was about $130 USD for color-backed 1mm clear acrylic, which I thought was quite reasonable, especially considering that the next closest number came from Litko Aerosystems at over $300. USD They came out great – all are back-laminated clear acrylic with black felt backers. Easy to handle, though they're a bit "fuzzy" right out of the bag (the faux velvet backs shed around the edges where they've been cut the first time they're handled); they'll break in nicely, though, I think. There are some very minor alignment problems on a few of them, but it's the kind of thing you notice once and then forget – it's typical of any kind of multi-part assembly like this.
I took the liberty of tweaking the counters for readability (as I have several color-blind opponents), and making some other discreet changes: the damage chits are all circular, for example, and the standard game chits are 5/8" instead of the original 1/2", which I always felt was a tad fiddly. I made my own special artillery counters, including a "Harrassing Fire" counter, and separate GMS/L and GMS/H counters, to keep my missile barrages organized. I also left out some of the counters I rarely use, like "Destroyed Buildings" and so forth. If I get the chance to roll them out "down the club" this weekend, I'll post photos of them in action.
The procedure took just about three weeks from start to finish. Zekim got held up in their production department, and immediately contacted me to tell me so, and actually threw in a whole extra set of counters (the color-laminated chipboard variety) as compensation for the lost time, which was quite decent of them! The chipboard counters, frankly, look just as good as the acrylic ones, and are a far less expensive option to boot, though I'll prefer the acrylic for durability's sake.
So there it is! The Dirtside games can keep on rolling!
