lets no go up in arms about this, if a closed group has decided among themselves to play with only painted miniatures its their decision. I have seen this been enforced and it never goes well for the wider community, but a closed group is not a wider community.
Oh it certainly shouldn’t ever be something that’s enforced, especially in a wider community. We just do it as a group. We agreed to it as we thought it’d immerse us more in the game (it does, at least for us) and it’d help get us through our piles of shame. Though I’m not sure you can call us a group these days. Too busy with work. We’ve had a handful of games (Infinity or otherwise) all year!
Hah! I remember myself. “I want to play this guys (tohaa. It was 2019). They what?..” “This guys are cool (looked at discontinued acontecimento starter)” “May be French guys” And... to be honest it is pleasant to know, that you can buy most of the line of your sectorial. Sectorials looked for me more interesting, with their thematic. I didn’t know about links and so on. So, for some people have gaps in the model line can’t be fixed like that. Ok, with CodeOne it may look less problem. I ended gathering tohaa... and I’ve gathered them almost all (except Sukeuls and one parachutist or something like that. I had to sell all of them and lots of other stuff during pandemic and further not pleasant events) Now I don’t want to struggle like that and don’t know what to do... Still like the game, but you see the problems.
Ok, but when does a sectorial become officially not supported? The only one I can think of that had an announced "end date" is MRRF, where they had an official send-off, they're not listed in the store, etc. That's easy to explain to a new player wondering what that sectorial in the app is. But if you look right next door in Caledonia, another that I "know" is unsupported, it's still in the store even though at the end of this month it's going to only have 8 units listed, none of them basic line infantry. That's more than "mild issues" if you want to collect that army.
I get that you feel you have to defend your company but it feels very disingenuous how often you argue with players who more or less unanimously agree there is an issue that makes them enjoy the game/company less, and because they like they game they'd like it dealt with so they can enjoy it more. Nobody's perfect, you're allowed to see that problems exist. Just go on the subreddit and search "new player". Almost all of the first page of results are questions about what we're talking about. As for the latter, it's not really theory when literally all of the wargaming companies that're more financially successful than CB operate like this, and they operated like it before they earned all their money too
Caledonia was officially retired in 2020 at the same time as Steel Phalanx, it was announced during the release previews of N4. Some Caledonian units remained in the store due to popularity in Vanilla or high sales.
Indeed. Discontinued armies was announced to be so. With Steel Phalanx it was said in almost the same moment, that they would return. Here I can’t (and don’t want, to be honest) to blame CB, that they don’t warn people. Now they are giving us at least some time, a month or so, to order products that are going to be gone. But I am NOT and would not be happy about the fact of discontinuation.
I couldn't find the info on the forum, I saw Koni's schedule on a discord, here's the respot : And this :
We also have a group where we like and practice "only painted" by free will. We even avoid to proxy like the devil avoids holy water. (but I admit, we have exceptions, mainly for people who are new to the group). And I think that heard of something more stupid in life. Yeah, I am pretty sure.
If I was CB I would sell entire Tohaa range as stl files for 3d printing directly from their website. It just makes sense because Tohaa will have a redesign in 3+ years probably, so this way they continue to make money with zero effort on their part since they already have 3d models. And when they redesign Tohaa they can just advance the story, make it that many of the old units don't exist or just completely change the visuals which IMO would make new models desirable. In general CB should embrace 3d printing and fast. Even large and established studios like Mantic are doing it now. So I would make Tohaa entirely 3d printable army as a test and see what happens.
And you'd find 100% of the stl files for free on discord and 4chan, just like all the other files after 2-4 months, nevertheless, CB has never want cleaned up to stop it, it's maybe ok for CB. For me, a better thing to do would be to follow the example of book publishers and place a pre-order in P500 format for example, printing starting at a certain sales threshold, or refunding customers if after a year there still not 500 pre-orders.
The trick to keep customers is to give quality and keep them happy. I were a Unit9 supporter for months, despite seeing their releases for free here and there, until I got tired of repeated models, stressing supports (why use a single one if you can place six in a semicircular projection? Ease of removal comes to mind... not to mention seeing all models in the same inclination and angle...) and late second previews. I even dilated my patronage of Cyber Forge half a year despite not having any kind of interest in their 40k-adjacent releases or their spaceship ones, but lately not even their "cyberpunk" releases were interesting to me. Plus, most groups incentive support of the artists by banning releases until two months have passed. So the question is not "will this company be able to sell these models forever?", but "will the company sell the models at first for enough time to get a return in the development investment, and some profit?" The fun thing is that, by volume of sales, physical models should be cheaper because you get your investment return over a greater time, but then intermediaries get in the way and prices go up (and even then, at least in Spain, CB's Store is a good 10-15% more expensive than local retail they sell to...). A good example of a company that went from physical (cast resin) only to a mix of Patreon STL & physical models is Raging Heroes, they don't mix their lines, and produce a nice monthly release with basic yet attractive YT videos (with the 3D models "painted" in 2-4 base colors and music at the background). I can tell you one thing for sure, however. I won't buy a single Siocast model (and if I'm forced to eat one in a mixed box, it will go straight to resale, even if the secondhand market is so dead not even the Necrons wake up)
So what, in five minutes you can find any STL for free and yet so many 3d printing patreons have thousands of patrons. For example I buy Last Sword patreon every month they have elf release even though I can pirate it. Why would I pirate and risk getting incomplete files or some virus when I can pay 10 euros? It is stupid. And like I said CB has nothing to lose, models are there just upload them and whatever money you get it is money you wouldn't see otherwise at all.
Careful. This is a touchy subject around here. I have sung the very same song myself once on these forums and there was much… fire. Better to leave it lie and let CB do as they will do than wish for what they might. It’ll only upset others and the forum needs to cut down its salt intake wherever it can. On a completely different note: is there an actual time tomorrow for the updates to the army builder?
For starters they have to lose retailers and CB has a strategy to support retailers and local game stores.
Could anyone print me metal miniature? I guess not... An idea with preordered miniatures for several people sounds better.
You can't support a store with miniatures you don't make anymore. My local store knows people are going to play with printed figures and don't mind. They sell them the stuff they can't get.
Lol. Dammit. I tried. I tried to deflect the conversation when I asked about when exactly the rules were coming tomorrow. T-minus 20 seconds until forum meltdown.
