Infinity Defiance, the new game from Corvus Belli

I'd like CB to communicate more and better than they do, period. They've started getting better at it, especially after introducing Belen on the Forum, but there's a lot more ground to cover and they fall silent way too often IMO.

And in this particular case, where cars are a huge non sequitur, I'm simply curious if there's an in-house QA step (white slip). If there is and CB takes responsibility for the completeness of the package, I'm cool with that. But if there isn't and boxes arrive already packed and wrapped from China, with no ability to check before shipping to us, I can be reasonably worried that a 3rd party vendor might have not done a good enough job or cared to.

 

Yes, always better and always more ... once a week or every two weeks is not enough. It's never enough.

Do you ask everyone from who you buy something, where they assembled it or if they have some kind of QA? And what QA they have? If you order something from Amazon or Ebay, do you ask them who is checking you package? If you are already worried about something you don't even know, man ... you must be worried a lot.

Volvo ... okay, but do you know where a BMW is finally assembled? Or a VW? Not even Mini are assembled exclusively in England anymore. A friend of mine works in a factory producing carbon parts for various sportscars manufacturers. A subcontractor. In the end you don't know where which part comes from and if it is manufactured by the manufacturer itself or by some kind of subcontractor. You have to trust the manufacturer that a) his quality management is working and b) he has all of its subcontractors "under control". It's the same for Defiance.

This sums it up pretty much. The only negative point here is it being a Kickstarter. But this is a kickstarter from CB who obviously you trust already. And if you (or whoever) don't trust CB to fulfill the Kickstarter, you shouldn't have bought into it.

So in the end I'd suggest ... relax, have a beer or a rum and lets wait the last weeks. IF and only IF parts are missing in the final product, we can all start complaining how someone could ever trust in something manufactured or packed in China. I'll gladly join.

 

Looking at the pictures they've posted in the updates, there are blue slips in every character baggie, but no white slip in the box.
However, based on the fact that cb has replaced parts even when I've been unable to find the white slip halfway through assembly, I see no reason to worry that their regular process won't work to replace missing pieces. Remember, they'll be able to match most orders to a pledge level, so can double check against fraudulent requests that way.

 

Your friend is still working for a subcontractor that ships their products to their customers for final assembly (or further assembly). Your friend's workplace isn't where they also assemble those sportscars, correct? It's not also the place that orders shipping to the home of the customer, correct? I don't know where BMW or Volkswagen assemble their cars, but I do know that if I were to buy one it wouldn't be assembled at Shenzhen Industrial (no relation to any real company that might exist) and shipped from there, even if Shenzhen Industrial were one of the subcontractors, it would be assembled at a BMW/VW owned and operated site, most likely in Germany, England or Poland - and then shipped to a retailer closer to where I live where they will hopefully make a cursory check that the car is road worthy (even if it is only driving it a short stretch to park it) before I pick it up.

See where I'm going here?

Nuada was assuming that CB (or CB's US partner) would be doing the final packaging, not the place on the other side of the notorious Chinese language barrier.
(Now, for the record, the Dark Souls Board Game was also done with drop shipping method and I had no problems with it, same goes for the Snapmaker 2.0 I backed which arrived impeccably packed even if there seemed to be two versions of the conveyor and one of them had to be replaced because that version had much less forgiving precision margins)

But yeah, you're correct that we should just relax with a beverage of choice and work on our backlog to clear some table space :)

 

I think it's also worth pointing out that they're using the same partner they use for Aristeia!, so they already have a good idea how reliable they are and I don't remember any horror stories of Aristeia! mispacks.

 

If there are mistakes in the final packaging, I’m sure that CB will send out appropriate replacements, regardless of who did the actual packaging.

 

That's a good piece of information. Had no idea that they've previously done this, with this partner and it worked out well. Probably should've been communicated better to those who don't follow Aristeia channels of communication.

Cheers, that calms me down a lot about this issue. Thanks.

 

Sadly I'm more than just a bit late coming to this kickstarter. Is there any indication whether they might open this up again for more orders at any point, or is this now locked out to original backers only? Thanks,

 

Actually, I don't expect them to discuss every business decision with us. What I was referring to was more to the fact that weeks go by without any updates and target dates go by without any comments from CB staff. But judging from the various replies you have posted, you seem to be more interested in arguing than proving some sort of point. Good day.

 

Yeah, they never said where the final assembly would be, I just assumed it'd be in Spain. Figured paper (and Mega) would ship to CB and then final product would ship out, possibly to hubs, but not shipping minis to China for assembly. Having it assembled in China might be as much about keeping CB's own production clear as it is reducing costs. CB's in house capacity getting ramped up to do Defiance at the same time as N4 might have been too much. Would have been nice to know, but wouldn't really change my buying so guess it's not a big deal.

Yeah, as I said, it's CB's rep on the line, not some anonymous Chinese factory, so they'll still make customers happy I assume. Unless there's some major issue, it's pointless to make much of the difference. Of course, it's the internet, and we're all waiting for something, so understandable to grumble.

 

Completely locked out. Your only chance is either buy it 2nd hand or find a store who participated as backers and have copies that are not spoken for yet.

 

some stores could get a shop pledge, but apart from that, im afraid that it will remain only for the original backers

 

It'd be easy enough for CB to send a box of minis to the vendor who then put that box inside the overall box with the cardboard and such as well. No clue if that's what they did, of course, but assumedly the company is making all non-mini materials anyway.

 

And I mean, let's be honest here, most of the big kickstarter games are manufactured and packaged in China without direct oversight of some outside force. Lots of them being more complicated than Defiance. (Packaging wise, Defiance won't have trays for assembled minis in the core box for instance.)

 

I just suggest to be reasonable about what to expect.

"weeks go by without any updates"? Well, I guess the number "two" warrants the use of plural, but that's about it. They started with weekly communication and dropped to once every two weeks. IMO that's enough. For you, it obviously is not. Fair enough.

And while it looks like I am positive on the whole in this thread, maybe you should check some Nomads threads. I just wait with being negative till there actually is something to be negative about.

I don't assume everything will go wrong that can go wrong.

 

As I've said before, part of the issue is setting expectations. Every kickstarter has issues with expectations. Most update once a month, some update every week or every 6 months, or whatever, and don't say what they will do ahead of time. Other times, there's just little to report so they wait too long.

From other kickstarters, there's lots of shipping problems right now with, well, ships. Also, the Chinese companies making the products are trying to appease a lot of clients with promises of their project being next, or finishing on X date and missing all the dates because they're just about keeping clients on the line, not actually organizing projects. They'll willingly bump someone for a more important client. Of course, even when companies know the factories are screwing around with them, they just keep going, not like you can just switch to a new place once you're in the project deep.

 

I fully expect some haute galician cuisine inserts! Considering the dates we are getting close to, a Queimada would be appropiate xD

 

Maybe not pulpi though

 

Maybe some jamón...