Ad Astra Games and Kickstarters: The AVID Assistant Trailer!

A project long in the making is about to be revealed.  The Kickstarter for the AVID Assistant program - a tablet-based application that will help players manage the AVID for ship orientation, shooting bearings, and mapping firing arcs in 3D.

I plan on launching the Kickstarter this month. Stay tuned for this announcement, and PLEASE share this video as far and as wide as you can!

Where's Ken?

Ken is recovering from a previously scheduled medical procedure and will be taking next week off to recover.  Please be patient if orders take a little extra time or emails go unanswered until he heals.  Get well soon Ken!  More information is here.

Traveller Tuesday: Previews of the SSD Book!

If you're a follower on my Patreon, you'll get to see the preview of the Squadron Strike: Traveller SSD book.  This is what's in it - and this one covers two ships that are a decent match to each other:

A class history (new to Traveller and Official Traveller Canon) with a gorgeous image of the ship.

A 3D SSD for the base variant, a 2D version of the base variant, and a 3D variant to add more variety to your scenarios.

https://www.patreon.com/creation?hid=1677318&u=168452&alert=3

Upcoming Convention Demos: Genghis Con, Denver CO

Brian Trotter is running two Squadron Strike demos at Genghis Con, which runs from February 12th to the 15th in Denver, CO.  His events will use the ships from the Empire/Directorate War, which are available on the Patreon and are meant to teach the ins and outs of the game.  His first event starts at 9 AM on Saturday, his second at 9 AM on Sunday.  His Saturday event already has 4 signups, so get in quick!

If you'd like to contact Brian before the event, he can be reached at btrotter@gmail.,com

If you're running an event at a con, or are looking to promote an Ad Astra event at a convention, please post on the forums here - and email me from the link at the bottom of this page. I'll be happy to post up game descriptions and convention announcements here.

Bonus points if you can send me photos and play by plays of your events afterwards!

Traveller Tuesday: Final Art Approvals From Marc Miller!

Can you name all the alien ship classes?

If you're a fan of Traveller, this picture should make your central circulatory organ thump a little harder.  

The amber-colored ships are Aslan, and this is the first time the smallest Zhodani ship and the Imperial Atlantic cruiser have been rendered all the way through.

If you're a follower of our Patreon (www.patreon.com/StarShipsRUs), there will be something special up for you tomorrow!

Traveller Tuesday!

My bad - I completely forgot to hit the publish button on this one yesterday!

The most gratifying question I get about Squadron Strike: Traveller is "When can I buy it?  When is it coming out?"  Or the ever popular "Shut up and take my money already!"

The answer to that is "Soon!"  I'll turn on the ordering page when I've got files sent to the printer, because at that point, I'll have approved text for everything and will be doing page layout, and I'll have some expenses coming up. Right now, that's looking like February; I'd hoped to get that done by now, but a lot of little deadlines slipped.  Nothing that's a project killer, but enough that each one cascaded more than I could make up with an editing sprint.

Here's the current status of the project:

SSDs exist for all fifteen of the ships, and their primary variants.  I've got class histories for each of them that have been approved by Far Future Enterprises.  If you've ever enjoyed the class readouts for Battletech, these are similar.  I've got those in proofreading now, and plan on hitting page layout shortly.

We've got roughly 10,000 words of Traveller setting and background material, written from different in-universe perspectives that Marc has approved.  And we've got about 2,000 words of Traveller-specific rules for Squadron Strike, available on the Patreon for early review.

Mike Llaneza and I are going through the last of the seven tutorial scenarios and fixing nitpicky stuff - and punching up the fictional interludes and scenario lead-ins.  Alpha testing of those scenarios has shown that they work, but we have to be a little more careful in how we word things.

We've got more scenarios than we'll have space for in the product, some are going to move to later products.  We'll find out which ones when the book is in layout.

Traveller Tuesday: Three Questions, Three Answers

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I've been asked a number of questions about Squadron Strike:  Traveller.  Here are some of them and their answers:

Will It Be A Boxed Game Or Supplement?

Depending on the person asking the question, the hoped for answer varies.  The answer is "Both".

ADA 15000 -- Squadron Strike: Traveller is a replacement boxed set for Squadron Strike. It has the same SS rulebook that the current boxed set has, and the same play aids, maps and plastic components. What will be different is the setting book and SSD book and the box miniature sheets. 

ADA 15001 -- Squadron Strike: Traveller Folio is a supplement - it has the SSD book, countersheets and setting book for Traveller and is meant for people who already own the Squadron Strike Boxed Set.

Will Ship {X} Be In It?

There are 15 ships in SS Traveller.  If the product sells well, we intend to do more shipbooks.  The Tigress isn't in ship book 1, but is on the list (and exists in a rough draft form as a stress test of the design engine.)  The Atlantic, P.F. Sloane, Skirmish, Plankwell, Gionetti and Fer de Lance are the Imperial ships in this product.  The Zhodani ships are the Kefchenzh, Zhdiak, Zhdavldlits, Vlezhdatl, Driafria, and Viepchakl..  The Aslan ships are the Elsyel, Hroilri'ea and Afleasea Ftaohraruilr.

Will There Be A Ship Design System?

All of the ships are built with the stock Squadron Strike ship design system.  This means some of the internal components don't take up the same mass as they do in standard Traveller, and trying to convert Squadron Strike build currency (hull spaces) into Traveller dtons isn't always going to work - but we went out of our way to make sure that if a capability existed on a ship in Traveller, it will exist in Squadron Strike.  

Or, more simply:  Yes, you can design your own Traveller ships in Squadron Strike using the tools provided, but there's no straightforward direct conversion.

Traveller Ships Up on the Patreon

Last month, we posted some of the proposed rules text for the Squadron Strike Traveller adaptation to the Patreon, covering the things that are additions to the core rules that Traveller needs. Some of those rules may migrate to the Squadron Strike core rulebook on future printings.

This time around, we're showing actual ships, ready to play. To use these, you'll need a copy of Squadron Strike's boxed set, but everything else you need is built into the ship sheets.  The provided scenario is Decision at Yedab.

As usual, these are playtest ships.  Some details may change before we go to press, though the major details should remain the same.  These ships use the new point defense model described last month on the Patreon.

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Previewing the Squadron Strike Spreadsheet Release

Normally, the Squadron Strike spreadsheet updates on the 16th of March, June, September and December.  This December, I was still elbows-deep in the rewrite of the spreadsheet for the new point defense model, shown on my Patreon.  I've been toiling away at it ever since, along with getting things ready for Squadron Strike: Traveller.

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New analytic tools for designing ships in Squadron Strike.

One of the new features I put into the spreadsheet is an analytic display, shown in the graphic above.  There are eight of them, each one representing all 50 windows of the AVID.  The top row are offensive - the leftmost image is "how much missile spam can I put out" - the numbers are the typical amount of point defense resources needed to have a ~60% chance of stopping each missile.  Next to it is a similar display for torpedo launches, which weights torpedoes as being more valuable when launched from the front of the ship, and less valuable if launched from astern.

The two displays to the right of that are average damage per AVID window, and the user can enter the range, and an ECM/Profile modifier and see what the averages will be.  They're all conditionally formatted to make it easier to spot gaps in firepower coverage.

The bottom row shows how many new-style zone defense points a ship generates out of each AVID window, and then shows the strengths of the Deflector Shield, Ablative Shield and Armor on this ship, grouped by facing.

It's my hope that this will make it even easier for players to design the ships of their dreams.

Birds of Prey Story Packs

There are SIX new Birds of Prey items on the site today. They are the eBooks in what we call Story Pack format. A story pack combines all the background, scenarios, ADCs, MDCs and SOAR aircraft for a given product in a given era. Each product (Air Combat in the Jet Age, Airborne Alert and Fighter Sweep) has two Era-based story packs, one for the "Early Era" (1950s - 1970s) and one for the "Modern Era" (1970s-2000s or similar).

The Story Packs are intended for customers new to Birds of Prey, who have a historical interest in an era, or a particular family of jets.  It gives a lower price of entry to get in and explore. Maybe this customer might just read... or maybe they'll buy a rulebook and push around some box-minis to get a feel for how the game works, or how different jets perform under different circumstances. 

If you've already purchased the PDFs matching the print products, there's nothing new in them for you, and they're the same price as buying those PDFs. They're just organized a bit differently.  

If you have a friend who's interested in the history of fighting jets, this may be a great recommendation!

http://www.adastragames.com/products/air-combat-in-the-jet-age-early-era-story-pack-format-pdf
http://www.adastragames.com/products/birds-of-prey-air-combat-in-the-jet-age-modern-era-story-pack-format-pdf
http://www.adastragames.com/products/birds-of-prey-airborne-alert-early-era-story-pack-format-pdf
http://www.adastragames.com/products/birds-of-prey-airborne-alert-modern-era-story-pack-format-pdf
http://www.adastragames.com/products/birds-of-prey-fighter-sweep-early-era-story-pack-format-pdf
http://www.adastragames.com/products/birds-of-prey-fighter-sweep-modern-era-story-pack-format-pdf