[KazonPADD]

Wrong thread - sorry!

[Se7enofMine]

Damn you. I got so excited. My favorite posts are the project updates haha

What a letdown:p

[Iron Prime]

Me too! I think we're owed a spoiler now....

[MidnightLich]

I can probably arrange that. I have a status update that's about half done; I'll work on finishing that up for you.

-crp

[Iron Prime]

[Iron Prime]

Any new updates? Any chance Project Blues or Project Goa'uld will feature the Voth?

[winterflames]

I am made primarily of impatience and bacon.

[admiral-mogh]

[MidnightLich]

Jolan tru, my friends! It is time for the October 2018 status update for First Edition. I know that this has been a long-awaited update, so I'm going to get straight to the point. Stay tuned, because there are some big announcements in this post! But first, some overall news for you:

Playtest Manager - I'm proud to announce that Alan French [adf8] has accepted an offer to take on the new role of Playtest Manager. As the Playtest Manager, Alan is the go-to contact for testers and designers during the development process. The goal of having this new liaison is to allow the designers to focus more on the expansion's design, and have someone to ensure there is clear and consistent messaging about play testing. Alan's been working in this role for about a month, and we're still figuring things out, but so far it's nice to have someone taking over a lot of the project-to-project management.

Backwards Compatibility - After the release of Metamorphosis, we've been pretty quiet about the process of ending the link between Second Edition and First Edition via backwards compatible cards. An article will be coming on the front page, hopefully shortly after Worlds, outlining exactly how the process will work. However, I want to give you a timeframe: backwards compatibility for 1E will end on January 1st, 2019. As I said, details will be explained in a dedicated article on the site, but at least you know when the change is happening.

New Rulebook - James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) has been tirelessly working on and championing a new First Edition rulebook for years. I'm happy to announce that it's done, it's approved, and it will be coming to you very soon. We didn't want to release such a major update prior to the end of this year's competitive season, but as soon as Worlds is done, you'll be getting an updated rulebook and articles explaining everything involved. Please note that the intention of this rulebook is not to change any rules, but rather consolidate everything together in one place.

With all of that said, here is an update on all of our current projects. Our first two were planned to be out by now, but have experienced delays and now will be done when they are ready - hopefully not too much longer:

Project Keiko
STATUS: DEVELOPMENT PHASE
(Project Keiko is a scripted learn-to-play experience for new players.)

There are no updates on this project since my last update. It's something we really want to finish up, but everyone involved has been busy with other projects. I'd like to renew my call for volunteers to test so we can get another round of feedback before we finalize the project. Therefore, if you have a friend, family member, or coworker that you'd like to teach the game of First Edition, please let us know. I no longer have an eta on this project.

Project En Garde
STATUS: DESIGN PHASE
(Project En Garde is a pair of balanced decks designed to give great games against each other, and fit into tournament play.)

We're starting from scratch with this project. Originally, we were making decks based around MACOs vs Klingons, but that was set aside due to complexity concerns, as well as concerns that it was "too late" to be relevant. In addition, there were some personnel issues that required shuffling the team around a little, so it ended up being easier to start from the top than continue.

I'm now co-leading this project with Niall, with Paddy Tye and Dan Hamman contributing. The decks will both be themed, focusing on Federation and Cardassian and themed around the two-part episode "Chain of Command." The goal of En Garde is still to give casual, newer, and returning players a pair of decks that will let them play fun, kitchen table games with their friends. And once they are comfortable, they can take them to a tournament and compete without getting obliterated.

Now, I've got three (3!) products that should be released before the end of 2018:

ANNOUNCING: Enterprise Collection Remastered
(Formerly known as Project Shran)
STATUS: PRODUCTION PHASE
(Decipher's Enterprise Collection, remastered so all the cards feature the icon and updated gametext.)

The Enterprise Collection Remastered is technically a set of errata and not a new expansion, but this project features all eighteen (18) of the original Enterprise Collection cards in high resolution. They feature updates to their wording to clean up mistakes, new game text for cards that have changes, and all of the personnel and ships now feature the icon. This product will be releasing in mid-October, so expect it very soon.

ANNOUNCING: The Gift
(Formerly known as Project Blues)
STATUS: PRODUCTION PHASE
(The Gift is a Delta Quadrant themed boutique product.)

I'm proud to announce The Gift, a nine (9) card boutique product, will be coming out hot on the heels of the Enterprise Collection Remastered. This product, designed by James Monsebroten, Andreas Rhinelander, and Dan Hamman, is a little something sweet for fans of the Delta Quadrant. No matter what flavor of affiliation you enjoy, if you like playing in the DQ, you'll find something to love.

I can't quite give you a spoiler yet, but I'll give you a nice tidbit. Along with The Gift, there are going to be three (3) errata. Two of those errata involve a change to a mission's location; the other is going to bring back a toy for one of the affiliations that didn't get a card in this boutique product. You'll have to be satisfied with that for now, but you won't have to wait long; The Gift will be out in late October or early November.

Project Goa'uld
STATUS: PRODUCTION PHASE
(Project Goa'uld is a boutique expansion to celebrate the birthday of [REDACTED].)

Project Goa'uld is finished testing, and is in the hands of the art team and the proofreaders. This is another nine (9) card boutique expansion like The Gift, with a different focus. We're trying something new and focusing this expansion around a character (and his or her species) instead of a different theme. I'm really happy with the finished product, and I'll be sharing more about this with you after the previous two expansions get their time in the spotlight.

I can give you one hint about the expansion's name, which was decided today. It's a one-word episode title from the series that gave us the character referenced above. I expect that you'll see this project in late November or early December.

The fun doesn't stop in 2018; here are the projects in the Original Series block, all of which are aimed to be out in the first 2/3rd of 2019:

Project Delenn
STATUS: DEVELOPMENT PHASE
(Project Delenn is the first expansion of Block 5, the TOS block, and focuses on and .)

I've made no secret about how different we've worked to make Project Delenn, and how high my hopes were for the expansion. That's still true, but the initial reaction from the testers wasn't very good. And, in hindsight, with about a month and a half of testing behind me, I understand the reaction. The design team - James Monsebroten, James Heaney, Jason Drake, and I - are proud of what we put together, but we kind of couldn't see the forest for the trees from inside our year-long design. But that's okay, that's why we have testing. We've been working to adjust the file to better address tester concerns and expectations, and I'm confident we'll turn out a fantastic first set for the Original Series block.

One of the risks of challenging assumptions and rules is that there will be a lot of resistance to any subsequent changes. I'm proud of the fact that we didn't let fear of change stop us from attempting new things, even if it means some of those changes won't ever see the light of day. I was disappointed to see so much dislike for the file after putting so much of myself into it, but the comments aren't directed at me. Instead, the testers are doing a good job of pointing out things we missed because we were too close to them.

Delenn is built around Federation and Non-Aligned, and features some new versions of main cast members, new crew - including Khan and his supermen - and a ton of new dilemmas. We're going to have a hard time pairing everything down to a size we can release, but I'm confident in the progress we're making. One of our main goals is to make sure that there is stuff in the expansion for players that don't care about , so the hope is everyone will find something they can love in the finished product.

I'm tentatively planning for Project Delenn to see the light of day in the first quarter of 2019.

Project G'Kar
STATUS: DESIGN PHASE
(Project G'Kar is the second expansion of the TOS block, focusing on the Romulans.)

For those of you that don't know, Dan Hamman [SirDan] has been doing double duty as our Warehouse Manager and as a First Edition designer for years. Unfortunately, between both of his kids playing softball, and working insane hours at his day job, Dan has had to step down as the lead of Project G'Kar. I've decide to promote two other members of the design team - Paddy Tye and Niall Matthew - to co-lead designers, with myself serving as mentor. As mentor, my job is to make sure they are being training on how to manage an expansion, rather than leading the project myself.

The project itself hasn't changed: it's still going to be the second expansion of the OS block, focused on Romulans, and developing the themes laid down in Project Delenn. We're having our first team meeting this week to get back on track, and while we're a little behind, I think we'll catch up quickly. I'm looking forward to working on Romulans, since Dan has led so many of their expansions over the years.

Project Londo
STATUS: PRE-DESIGN PHASE
(Project Londo is the third expansion in the TOS block, and will feature Klingons.)

We're about 30-40% of the way through testing for Delenn, which means soon it will be time for James Monsebroten to fire up his team for Project Londo. James is ready to run his own solo team, and this Klingon-focused expansion will be a lot of fun. James and I are having fun coordinating plans for themes to run through the block, and if he can do some of the stuff he's told me he's thinking, it's going to be a great end-cap to the Original Series block.

And finally, there are our two exploratory projects:

Project Warrior
STATUS: EXPLORATORY DESIGN
(Project Warrior is an exploratory design project looking for ways to do to ground combat what Tactics did for ship combat.)

Our team of exploratory designers, Allen Gould [AllenGould] and Jon Carter [pfti] are starting to play around with ideas tried in Metamorphosis. The project was born from the attempted conversions of the Assault and Maneuver cards, which weren't satisfying in the original file. Allen and Jon will be working hard on this, trying to innovate, over the next few months. There isn't much to say about this right now, as it's low priority, but I hope to have a better update for you next time.

Project Annika
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Project Annika is an exploratory design project looking for ways to play Borg along with other affiliations.)

Due to personal obligations, the team has had to push pause on this project. I've seen some of their early work and I'm excited for them to pick it up again when circumstances allow. Here's what I had to say last time: "Project Annika is investigating the idea of Borg cards being in non-Borg decks and/or non-Borg cards being in Borg decks. Jorn Engstrom (admiral-mogh) is the coordinator for Project Annika, and he and his team have a lot of big, exciting ideas. That's idea for these exploratory projects, because it's all about trying things without deadlines or fear of failure. Now, they'll test and try their ideas and hopefully get a better sense of the possibilities."

Thanks for reading this report; there was a lot of new information. The last quarter of 2018 is looking to be fairly epic for fans of First Edition: a new rulebook is on the way, two new boutique expansions and a new, updated version of the original Starfleet cards. I can't wait to bring you more information on projects like Project Gou'ald and Project Delenn - the future is looking pretty great for 1E! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments, anything I can give you more information on, or just if there's something you'd like to see more (or less of) in future updates.

-crp

[Iron Prime]

Thanks for the updates! I'm sure I'll have questions later after a re-read but for now I'm excited to see info and Project Blues The Gift!

[AllenGould]

Backwards Compatibility - After the release of Metamorphosis, we've been pretty quiet about the process of ending the link between Second Edition and First Edition via backwards compatible cards. An article will be coming on the front page, hopefully shortly after Worlds, outlining exactly how the process will work. However, I want to give you a timeframe: backwards compatibility for 1E will end on January 1st, 2019. As I said, details will be explained in a dedicated article on the site, but at least you know when the change is happening.

[Armus]

RSVP 2EBC.

[jadziadax8]

RSVP 2EBC.

RSVP, like for the funeral?

[Armus]

RSVP 2EBC.

RSVP, like for the funeral?

Ask Moskop, he'll explain it to you.

[DarkSabre]

Excited for the news