I think I wouldn’t have felt so bad if IA was the next Sectoral instead of Tungusta. I kinda felt like them coming out with Tungusta was adding insult to injury. We taking this away from you and oh btw you don’t get a new sectoral for a year. Sorry not sorry FU. So next time you decide to take something away, at least give back some kind of olive branch.
Again, releasing IA at the same time, or even too soon afterwards, would have competed with their own product. They didn't want to do that; they wanted as many Yu Jing players as possible to buy into the new JSA, then have them buy into IA when that comes out in a year or so (Unless they decide to shitcan Yu Jing and have JSA stage a coup/conquer them).
While I do not think the internal competition is quite as big as they (or at least PS) seem to think*, a summer release would have been both logical and in order without cannibalising sales. The "you have to wait 1 year" is... bad. * Edit: to clarify, I think the internal cannibalisation with other factions is a lot bigger than they might think, meaning I think the degree at which JSA is cannibalising Tunguska is closer to how JSA would cannibalise IA.
All of you need to keep in mind that as of their last presentation, CB was planning to release something like 4 or more sectorials this year. IA is not off the table for 2018 yet - as there are still 2 sectorials (or more) unannounced for the year.
Could be another Japanese sectorial if they're turning them into a full on faction and phasing out Yu Jing
It kinda-sorta is, sorta. See, Tunguska is next, leaving 3. One of them is assumed to be a new 2-player box, with smart money on TAK and Vedic. We know that Number 5 isn't Tohaa, and is unlikely to be CA, leaving Varuna, Ramah, and IA/WB. It's almost certainly Varuna (Probably well timed for Aquaman to be awful and make people want something good involving water). IA and Ramah are next year at the earliest, White Banner ditto since it's gonna be alongside Svalarheima.
Here's the thing. Imagine Player A has 100% YJ and 0% JSA. They will have no more reason to switch to JSA than any other random PanO player. Player B has 100% JSA and 0% YJ. They will go out and buy some of the new JSA models but have no more reason to switch to IA than our previous PanO player. Player C has 50% JSA and 50% YJ. If they have money they'll pick up both JSA and IA (assuming you make both compelling). If they have less money they may just pick up one and this is where the implication of cannibalisation comes in. Except they're only in this position if they don't have money for both. There is no cannibalisation as the money available at a given moment is the limiting factor. Look at how supermarkets price multiple lines of similar products (coffee for this example). There is a saver brand, normal brand and premium brand coffee. Any one person only buys one pack of coffee as they only drink so much but by making a product available at each price point they take the money that is available from a given customer (and a bunch of other tricks to try and make you want the more expensive one but that's not the point here). Now where things get more interesting is that in the case of player C they are only going to buy 50% of the available JSA models as they already have 50% of them. So these 50/50 players are giving you less revenue per new player than if you can draw someone over from PanO. In this sense the mercenary groups are actually where the value is as they draw players from one faction pool over into a new faction pool by providing a half way point that is playable. From an economics point of view the best thing for CB to have done would be to create 3 merc forces all of which drew on JSA and an existing (non-YJ) faction. They could all have been themed around the Uprising and support groups that sprang out of it as well to help give some unity to the whole range. You also leave the JSA units in YJ because you inherently want faction bridges (maybe reduce AVA on a few to help tell the narrative of limited access due to desertion/secession). More revenue, no one gets pissed off with the company generating ill will and negative press everywhere and you still get to evolve the fluff around the Uprising itself.
You're definitely right, following that line of logic, leaving more JSA profiles in Yu Jing than just Ninjas even at a reduced AVA would be the most valuable. Have the narrative involve some Japanese remaining loyal (and proving it, by fighting against the secessionists, for example; plus it's also way more believable than 100% of a population being brainwashed utterly). That way you can bring in even more revenue by drawing players into NA2 JSA, then further into the Merc companies (which includes Ikari and their additional Yu Jing Wu Ming connection), and then into Yu Jing (since those players will already have some JSA and could feasibly have bought some other YJ/ISS models for Mercs). A far better solution, and one that would have resulted in a happier playerbase and a more reasonable narrative. Alas...
Let's be real here, the Kuge even "brainwashed" the rest of the human sphere (aside from Yu Jing) to support them. Having Uprising happen the way it did was such a ridiculous asspull.... But the point wasn't to present a nuanced story with multiple angles. It was to present Yu Jing as the villains, full stop, against the heroic Japanese. Hence the fact that the writer never even considered that the JSA are functionally using civilians as human shields, a war crime... nobody in the setting has anything to say about it because the author had no conception of the story where the JSA could be anything but justified and righteous.
@Balewolf Sorry, forgot that all Chinese people are inherently racist and genocidal. Should have remembered that before I considered Yu Jing a faction with some redeeming qualities.
You're acting as if we're all idiots for being surprised that Chinese characters are being portrayed, universally, as relentlessly morally bankrupt and tolerant of brutal totalitarianism and ethnic cleansing.
Except they aren’t, but, hey, why read the story as written... “the relentless, legalistic, merciless security service acted like an implacable, unyielding, pitiless security service in their attempt to suppress a province/territory in total and complete rebellion of every man, woman and child. I’m upset!” @Balewolf, expecting people to read and know the fluff prior to this specific event is a bridge too far.
They are. They're portrayed as being so willing to kill Japanese civilians that they will alienate themselves from the rest of the Human Sphere and ruin their own chances of suppressing the Uprising in the process. When given the choice between "kill civilians and definitely lose" and "don't commit ethnic cleansing and possibly win," they chose the former. Madcap, cackling evil for the sake of evil. And unlike the ethnic Japanese, there aren't any Chinese-descended characters portrayed outside of the Yu Jing faction.
Since you've seemed to miss the point of 3 or so other threads where it's been stated that that is repeatedly not true: There are parts of YJ that are brutal, awful people. Lots of these people are in ISS. They have shown this numerous times in the past. They specifically state the people who destroyed that area in Uprising. They have specifically stated that the figures responsible are on trial. You've complained that YJ is down to 2 named characters (though saying Sun Tze doesn't count because he's a recreation). The fluff shows that both characters would not/do not agree with what has happened. Have you even read the fluff?
Yes. Sun Tze is there to show what Aleph thinks and I don't hear about Xi refusing orders or anything of the sort. The orders for what the Yuandun division is doing come down from the Emperor; it's showing the whole apparatus to be hell-bent on genocide.
Sun Tze is independent of ALEPH and shows what he thinks, no more, no less. And the Yuandun is deadest on suppressing a wholesale revolt and pacifying a region entirely in revolt, whilst continually asking the rebels to lay down their arms and return to the fold.
