Latest news from Ares!

Ares have just sent an email to all backers of the KS project about production details and expected release dates. I was going to post the whole message here but it says to "backers only" so I though it best to summarise only. They have modified their production of ships to greatly improve the ship detail, they have sorted out teething problems with packaging to ensure all ships arrive intact and undamaged and they are expecting release in early September! So there's at least a proper date to work with now and the I have to say the new products look substantially better detailed than the originals which weren't too bad anyway.

Taking into account all the factors above, we expect to be able to ship the production out of China at the end of August or in the first days of September

Normally, the shipment takes about 4 weeks to get to our warehouse, so this means at the moment we expect to ship out your rewards around the end of September.

Just got the E-mail and for me these are the important bits in bold....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...kvXljH68#t=34s

Looking at the photos of the improved detail, I am totally fine with shipping delays. I would rater get the higher detail ships later then the originals sooner. I would have been put off if the original detail ships were the final design. They looked nowhere near the quality or detail of Wings models. I now have total faith that we are getting the best quality product from a very dedicated group of people. Great Job!!

:salute:

The pictures do show a marked improvement in ship detail.

I hope the delay doesn't hurt some here who have events planned in early fall.

Looks like Ares is a little behind schedule but the results I saw are worth it. At least we have this site and the company of others with similar interests to get us through. :minis:

While the improvement is wonderful I'm not particularly happy about the delay. And I'm going to guess there will be another delay so that the game ultimately slips until late Fall. Ares is going to miss a huge opportunity to market and sell the game at GenCon.

I should have expected this would happen. It happened with Leviathans so many times I lost count and it also happened with Fantasy Flight Games and the X-Wing game.

While not happy about the delay (not happy at all), at least they're not keeping us in the dark until the last minute.
I would like to see bi-weekly to weekly updates until product reaches the stores.

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

While the improvement is wonderful I'm not particularly happy about the delay. And I'm going to guess there will be another delay so that the game ultimately slips until late Fall. Ares is going to miss a huge opportunity to market and sell the game at GenCon.

I should have expected this would happen. It happened with Leviathans so many times I lost count and it also happened with Fantasy Flight Games and the X-Wing game.

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Not surprising - but I agree about the detail on the minis, looks much better! Keep in mind that the time frame for the delay is for shipments to KS backers. So the general public may not see the game until mid October. They may be looking at hitting shelves for the Christman shopping season now. Hopefully Ares will get something out in time for fall miniatures conventions, Fall-In here in the US East coast for example.

In the meantime I'll buy some of the next X-Wing series!

Eric

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Originally Posted by 7eat51

I hope the delay doesn't hurt some here who have events planned in early fall.

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Well at the moment its completely screwed them up. still, it was only showcasing the game at one of the biggest shows in the country so its no biggie :dazed:

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Originally Posted by DeRuyter

Keep in mind that the time frame for the delay is for shipments to KS backers. So the general public may not see the game until mid October.

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The product won't arrive in the US until late September so KS supporters there probably won't see anything until mid October. Those outside the US, who knows?

It would be nice to think that KS supporters everywhere will have a fighting chance of getting their goodies before they are available to the general public, but I suspect that will not be the case :dazed:

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

Ares is going to miss a huge opportunity to market and sell the game at GenCon.

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I'm sure they are aware of this more than any of us!

I held off on officially running any games of SGN at Tacticon on Labor day, but I had the organizer set aside my Wings table for some time blocks just in case. Looks like I will be just running some demo games with the pre-production stuff. While that is not ideal, I'm more than happy to wait a bit longer for better quality minis! After all, it's all about the :minis:

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Originally Posted by David Manley

Well at the moment its completely screwed them up. still, it was only showcasing the game at one of the biggest shows in the country so its no biggie :dazed:

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That's what I feared, David. I remember you specifically posting on this recently. I am sorry to see you won't have your stuff in time.

Well with luck Roberto can sort me out with the prototype kit again :salute:

Hmmm....I guess NAVCON and ROCKCON are both questionable at this point.

After seeing many of the pre-order prices I will be very ticked if the KS Backers do not get the product at least a full 1-2 months prior to general public release. That includes them selling at any CONS. IMO that was part of the promise/contract that they made with the KS backers. While we did get some exclusives really I could have waited and bought everything at or below what I pledged with KS. The one non-tangible was that backers will have their products before it is available to the general public.

Having been around games like this now for awhile I will be suprised if we see anything before end of October. My guess is HMS Victory and Constitution are probably moved off unitl Spring early summer as well.

On the bright side I am very happy to see that the quality is improving especially after comparing some of the pre-production pics to other models that are out there. These new pics look great.

No matter what is said (or what I complain about), thank you Ares for Sails of Glory.

Far better than the Wizards of the Coast way... "we're not telling you anything until we announce at DAYS before release the game's been delayed for months, and oh by the way BUY OUR CRAP... then once we get a large fanbase built we're gonna just not say anything and quietly stop production..."

Keeping people posted, even with BAD news, about what's going on speaks to company culture and character.

Aaron, I am hoping to have it by Rock-Con. I am slated to run a game on Sunday. We'll keep fingers crossed.

I am very disappointed with the announcement, ok the quality shown is better on that section of the model, sloppy paint against good finish will enhance any proposal! what about the other aspects of the model?

I find that I agree with the forum concerns of timescale and missing the main conventions that promotes for Christmas sales.

Martin, that's not just a PAINT change but looks to my eye like a TOOL RESCULPT--which is a HUGE thing to do this late in the game. Still, even if product can't make it to be available, I'd at least hope they'd be packing demo materials and fact sheets to let people see how the game works, try it out themselves and generally build interest and demand... keep stoking the fires, if you will.

That's also the weak link of doing business in China, a lot of the time... whole lotta places competing to hire labor and machine time and "money talks, BS walks", so the priority goes to whoever signs the biggest checks and everybody else just gets nudged aside until the high-paying jobs are done.

:cry: Aaaarrrggghhh! ...I do like the improvements, just not the wait. Guess I'll just learn to be patient...:dazed:

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Originally Posted by Diamondback

That's also the weak link of doing business in China, a lot of the time... whole lotta places competing to hire labor and machine time and "money talks, BS walks", so the priority goes to whoever signs the biggest checks and everybody else just gets nudged aside until the high-paying jobs are done.

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We need a state or territory without a minimum wage law to compete with China.:takecover:

And I'd expect the same competition for production time there, with the same "money talks BS walks" attitude... though we're generally better about even-handed enforcement of contract law in court.

Maoism: a bastard child of Capitalism and Communism that inherited the worst traits of both parents and the best of neither.

So, the bottom line here seems to be, when quoting a delivery date, pad it with an extra month or two. If you deliver before the date, your a hero.

If I remember correctly, Scotty from Star Trek used the same formula.

The problem is, nobody remembers to do that... or production and marketing/PR don't talk to each other for the left hand to know what the right's doing.

I was kind of disappointed about the delay. But to be honest, I did expect something like this happening in such a complex task. And since the delay is due to the ships making a huge step forward in terms of appearance I am totally happy, better than having a delay and no improved ships.

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Originally Posted by Hobbes

I was kind of disappointed about the delay. But to be honest, I did expect something like this happening in such a complex task. And since the delay is due to the ships making a huge step forward in terms of appearance I am totally happy, better than having a delay and no improved ships.

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Overall I concur. It is giving me time to finally complete many projects I have had in storage for years.

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Originally Posted by David Manley

Well with luck Roberto can sort me out with the prototype kit again :salute:

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And indeed Roberto has confirmed he can, so we are OK for Colours :happy: :drinks:

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Originally Posted by Old Ironsides

Hmmm....I guess NAVCON and ROCKCON are both questionable at this point.

After seeing many of the pre-order prices I will be very ticked if the KS Backers do not get the product at least a full 1-2 months prior to general public release. That includes them selling at any CONS. IMO that was part of the promise/contract that they made with the KS backers. While we did get some exclusives really I could have waited and bought everything at or below what I pledged with KS. The one non-tangible was that backers will have their products before it is available to the general public.

Having been around games like this now for awhile I will be suprised if we see anything before end of October. My guess is HMS Victory and Constitution are probably moved off unitl Spring early summer as well.

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I think we are still going to see the KS backers getting their stuff first. As for it being sold at Cons and at some store at the same time, you know that is going to happen because they had a Retailer pledge level. I bought at that level, so I'll be selling at least a few sets from KS day 1.

As for the Victory and Constitution slipping, I don't think they will be delayed the same amount. A lot of this delay is coming from things besides the ships. There could be a slight delay from the first ships being pushed back, but there should not be any more "design" delay added in like on these first ships.

I hope the makes sense.

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Originally Posted by Lead mountain

I am very disappointed with the announcement, ok the quality shown is better on that section of the model, sloppy paint against good finish will enhance any proposal! what about the other aspects of the model?

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We should be seeing full ship photos in about two weeks. They need to have the production bases under the ships to give us final photos.

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Originally Posted by The Royal Hajj

I think we are still going to see the KS backers getting their stuff first.

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US ones anyway, unless they can sort something clever from China. It never ceases to amaze me how cheap postage rates are from there; I've regularly bought large piles of stuff where the postage has been comparable (if not cheaper) than UK internal mail, and almost as fast.

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Originally Posted by David Manley

And indeed Roberto has confirmed he can, so we are OK for Colours :happy: :drinks:

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That is good news. :clap: Best wishes on a good time.

I will be interested in hearing how your event goes and any new lessons learned. I will be running my first event in late October.

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Originally Posted by Gunner

So, the bottom line here seems to be, when quoting a delivery date, pad it with an extra month or two. If you deliver before the date, your a hero.

If I remember correctly, Scotty from Star Trek used the same formula.

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"I told the Captain I would have this diagnostic done in an hour."
"And how long will it really take you?"
"An hour!"
"Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you?"
"Of course I did."
"Oh, laddie, you have a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker."

"The tank can't handle that much pressure."
"Where'd you get that idea?"
"What do you mean, where did I get that idea? It's in the impulse engine specifications."
"Regulations 42/15: 'Pressure Variances in IRC Tank Storage'?"
"Yeah."
"Forget it. I wrote it...A good engineer is always a wee bit conservative, at least on paper."

[LaForge, and Scott, "Relics", _ST:TNG_]

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Originally Posted by David Manley

US ones anyway, unless they can sort something clever from China. It never ceases to amaze me how cheap postage rates are from there; I've regularly bought large piles of stuff where the postage has been comparable (if not cheaper) than UK internal mail, and almost as fast.

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The KS backers are having their kits mailed out via UPS or FedEx as individual packages. The "Stock" shipments to the EU will be boated over as normal. So, you guys should still get your KS kits before the general public.

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Originally Posted by 7eat51

The pictures do show a marked improvement in ship detail.

I hope the delay doesn't hurt some here who have events planned in early fall.

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This is now looking like a slight risk for me to commit to running SoG:
http://millenniumcon.org/

I would think that we would have the items by November for Millenniumcon.

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Originally Posted by Coog

I would think that we would have the items by November for Millenniumcon.

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You can't commit to running it until you have it. Cancelling an event is bad form. They open up pre-registration a month before the event, with pre-registration for game masters even earlier. It would also be nice to have played the game more than once before running it because I'm supposed to be quick response authority when running it. I have to be well versed on the game...not someone who received it November 4th for an event on the 8th.

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Originally Posted by Andy Blozinski

You can't commit to running it until you have it. Cancelling an event is bad form. They open up pre-registration a month before the event, with pre-registration for game masters even earlier. It would also be nice to have played the game more than once before running it because I'm supposed to be quick response authority when running it. I have to be well versed on the game...not someone who received it November 4th for an event on the 8th.

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Let me clarify. I did not say commit to anything. I'm just simply saying I think the game will be out in time.

I had planned to run several sessions at Hurricon at the end of September.

My back up plan was to run a WSIM event with the same set up.

Instead of showcasing the new game, I will be setting up a video presentation with the current Ares videos available.

What would be great is if I could somehow get them on a DVD so I would not have to depend on a WIFI link.

Anyone have any ideas?..

In short, the game will go on and I think we can still have representation for the new system as well.

I also like the idea of running some WOG as I didn't think I would have time during this con.

ROLL ON SEPTEMBER!!!

Latest update....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_YRR...=youtube_gdata

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