Show Me How to Win!

Ken Burnside sat down with the Show Me How to Win! YouTube show for a quick demo of Squadron Strike. Check it out!

Actual Online Play of Squadron Strike: Traveller

This is a play through (with a fair bit of explanation of the rules of the game) of the third tutorial scenario for Squadron Strike: Traveller.

Playing the Imperials is Traveller Line Developer Michael Llaneza, while Ken Burnside (the game designer) is playing the Zhodani. Daniel Kast of Majestic 12 Games was watching and prompting us by asking questions.

We have a lot of discussion about Traveller and many of the design decisions (and discussions of false paths we took along the way), along with the Traveller Curse.

Apologies for the awful sound quality, we're still learning how to do this. Any suggestions for tools or techniques we should look at are much appreciated!

Stars' Reach New Stretch Goal Rewards: Free Squadron Strike Rules

With the Kickstarter for the Stars' Reach miniatures nearing its deadline, we're offering new incentives to support our friends at Twilight Game Designs TJ. 

To celebrate the Stars' Reach passing its $3500 stretch goal, every supporter will receive the Squadron Strike Starter Kit PDF FREE. The starter kit includes a self-contained tutorial that leads you through seven scenarios of our Empire/Directorate War setting, starting in 2D and advancing you to full 3D in easy stages. You also get all of the ships data sheets that you need, along with print-and-play versions of the components and play aids. 

But wait, there's more! If the Stars' Reach Kickstarter reaches its $5000 stretch goal, every single supporter will also received the complete Squadron Strike rule book PDF. This tome covers the full array of defenses and weapon characteristics available in Squadron Strike, along with the UFO/teleportation movement mode, vector movement, fighter rules, and much more. Yep, this will be FREE for everyone. 

Support the Stars' Reach project now!

1st Stretch Goal Met by Stars' Reach Kickstarter

Congratulations again to our friends at the Stars' Reach miniatures Kickstarter for hitting their first stretch goal. Every fleet box is going to have an extra heavy cruiser--for free!

The question is whether all of you can push Stars' Reach over the next stretch goal, so that everyone gets a free dreadnought or carrier in every fleet box. Because hey, free stuff is cool!

Stars' Reach Miniatures Kickstarter--Join in Now!

Ad Astra Games is excited that the Stars’ Reach miniatures Kickstarter is fully funded and is surging toward exciting stretch goals. (Getting more miniatures for free is pretty exciting!) To show our support, we’re producing a Stars’ Reach supplement for Squadron Strike.

Starting from pencil sketches by Travis Melton, the ships were digitally mastered by Charles Oines, who has done the 3D ship models for all of Ad Astra Games’ space games. The physical masters have been cast and Acheson Designs has the molds ready to go. This Kickstarter should see product shipping very quickly.

If you don’t play Squadron Strike yet, you’ll be happy to know that ship stats for Stars’ Reach will be available for several space combat systems. This means that you can easily take your fleet and migrate from game to game. Let’s say that you’ve been using your Stars’ Reach miniatures to play Colonial Battlefleet, but when you move to a new city, you join a group playing Squadron Strike. There’s no need to learn how to design good Squadron Strike ships; you just pick up the Stars’ Reach module and start playing!

And, since the Squadron Strike ship design engine automatically generates both 2D and 3D versions of every ship, you can ease new players into the Squadron Strike system.

Support the Stars’ Reach project now!

Rocket Punk: 2nd Beta

Do you like your Cold War safely in the "distant" past of the 1980s? Have you always yearned for the timeline where the Apollo program was a cover for Project Orion?

Have we got the setting for you...

https://www.patreon.com/posts/7987994

New AVID Assistant Codebase Open Beta!

The AVID Assistant Version 2 is now up for testing, with a new lead developer. (Jon Barson is still working on the project, never fear!)

You can find the new AVID Assistant here:

http://services.adastragames.com/avid/beta

===

Hello all, I'm Mike. I'm the third and first programmer on this project. I'm the third one to head up this effort and the first one on AVID Assistant 2. AA2 started life as a private project of mine and doesn't share any code with AA1.

I first met Ken at Origins 2002. I was on my way to run one of my 12-player games of Twilight Imperium when Ken tried to recruit me into play Delta V (the playtest version of Attack Vector:Tactical). I'm also the guy behind SSPDF, the software that takes the output from the SS Ship Spreadsheets and turns them into PDFs.

Design Philosophy of AA2

1) The purpose is to speed up game play.
2) Real world usability is more important than looking pretty or being clever.
3) AA2 is a game-aid and not the game.
4) Where there are multiple valid design choices, add a configuration option if possible

Variations

There are three variations on AA2 planned.
1) AVID Calculator
This is the variation that is releasing today. It is generic enough to support all of the AVID based games on the market. It's roughly equivalent to the AVID Assistant Version 1

The most important thing to remember is that the AVID Calculator only cares about the Now. It doesn't care about the past or the Future. Think of it as a pocket calculator for firing arcs.

2) Squadron Strike

This is the next variation that will be added. It will support multiple unit types (Ships, Missiles, Torps, etc...) as well as Mode 0, 1, and 2 plotting.

3) Attack Vector:Tactical
This is the final variation to be released.

Features

Coordinate system:
AA2 uses a coordinate system to track where the ships are. I simply place a poker chip in one of the hexes on the map and call it the Origin Point (0,0,0). The coordinates are written using the AVID directions. For example: (4A, 3B, 5+) would be 4 hexes in direction A, 3 hexes in direction B, and 5 levels above the Origin Point.

The coordinate entry system is very lax and accepts lazy entries. For example, it will accept (3F, 2D, 3E, 3-). The software will then normalize it to (5E, 1F, 3-)

Multiple ships:
AA2 can support an infinite number of ships. The practical limit is much lower unless you really like scrolling through ships and have lots of memory on your device. Ships are arranged into Squadrons with each player leading a squadron.

Multiple positions per ship:
Ships can defined a current location, mid-point, and EOT location.

Shared data:
While it is possible for each player to enter in the coordinates for each ship every turn, it is faster to sync data via the internet. AA2 connects to a database at Google that allows players to share data. This is done without accounts.

To share data, one player goes to the setup page and enters a password in the Game Password field and clicks Game Id. The server will then generate a Game Id. This password and Game Id is shared with the other players in the game, allowing them to share data.

Tutorials:

A series of tutorials on how AA2 works can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLERSjWVN0GpcMBPP_TpHD8DaY5W7uJe9b


Plan going forward
1) Release Web App of AA2 as a beta build
2) Gather feedback and make improvements
3) Release the Android/iOS Apps
4) Release the Squadron Strike Web App as a beta build
5) Gather feedback and make improvements
6) Update the Android/iOS Apps for Squadron Strike
7) New Kickstarter for AV:T version
8) Release the AV:T Web App as a beta build
9) Gather feedback and make improvements
10) Update the Android/iOS Apps for AV:T

So how fast is this going to happen? I really don't know. This release is actually a few days ahead of what I had planned and I'm already testing out the Android App on my phone.

The 3D rendering code is being worked on by Jon/Tom and there isn't a timeline for completion for it.

Feedback

I need feedback. Complaints, compliments, feature requests, improvement suggestions, etc... are what keeps me motivated to work on this project.

avid@adastragames.com is the email address to use. Please note that this address is for the AA2 software only. Questions about anything else will simply be forwarded to Ken at design@adastragames.com.

All feedback will be added to our issues list and discussed at the development team's monthly meeting.

I'll try to have a monthly update from this point forward, most likely after one of our monthly meetings, to keep folks updated on the progress and to act as a running FAQ.

I can also be found on the Ad Astra Games Fans page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/182343092121997)

Pocket Avid Calculator - YouTube

youtube.com

Moving Sale

Ad Astra Games is relocating to Troy NY in June, and to help reduce the amount of things we're packing up and moving, and to cover some of the moving expenses, we're holding a moving sale from, well, now, until Midnight of the 23rd.  We're packing up everything on the truck on the 27th and 28th, and want to make sure there's time for product assembly before then.

To get the benefit, enter the discount code MOVINGSALE for a 10% discount when finalizing your order!  The discount will only apply to physical products - PDFs won't be affected, and some things we re-sell for other companies won't be affected either.

Squadron Strike: Traveller Kickstarter Launches

Nobles and spacers of the Imperium!  We have Zhodani incursions in District 268!  Report to your information officers for a full briefing!

Good hunting.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1386934735/squadron-strike-traveller

Upcoming Convention Appearances

I will be at TotalCon this coming weekend - February 19-21st, demoing games and with product to sell.  Swing on by (www.totalcon.com) for a demo, to see the new tee shirts I've got in stock, or to chat for a while.  I'll be in the main hall at one of the sales and demo tables from 9 AM to 7 PM on Friday and Saturday, and from 9 AM to noon on Sunday.

I'll have previews of Squadron Strike: Axanar and Squadron Strike: Traveller available to look at, along with an assortment of products, including copies of Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and its supplements.

The following weekend, I'll be at Fire & Ice (www.fireandiceconvention.com) up in Manitowoc, WI - the setting for "The Making of a Murder" on Netflix, again, demoing products, having some to sell and hanging out to play games.

I look forward to seeing people at both conventions - feel free to swing by.