Darkness Within, FTL D6, Production Update (Patreon)

Alright everyone, today we've got quite a few things to talk about, but first things first, if you're a Tier 2 patron then make sure to take this poll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/46162264

With that out of the way, let's get into the meat of this update!

Darkness Within

The first preview of Darkness Within, our new AoF campaign has been released, and you can download it now here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/43388556

This preview contains the prologue and the first chapter, including the first 2 missions. The only thing that's missing is the cover art and the interior illustrations, so the final product is definitely going to be prettier, but it's already playable!

I think that both the story came out pretty awesome, and it's full of twists and turns, so I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone likes it. :D

FTL D6

Another week has passed, and a new version of FTL D6 is ready, which comes with lots of refinements to the core rules and finally also with the D6 factions book!

Most of these changes are to stop some unintended exploits, as well as making light ship spam less useful, and making heavy ships more powerful.

Here's some of the most important changes:

• Fleets can now take as many squadrons as total ship upgrades in them, instead of double the ship number
• Clarified how ramming works, mentioning that ships must stop once they reach contact
• Re-worked heavy ship turrets to be stronger, and light ship turrets to be weaker
• All heroes and titles have had their price cut in half, making them a little more useful
• Ablative Armor has been re-worked to only stop damage from overlapping enemy ships
• Weapons with the Overheating rule are now stronger to mitigate the downside of self-damage
• Fragile has been re-worked to receiving +1 damage once per round

I've played the game a couple of times over the past week using the various factions, and it's been pretty fun, so hopefully you'll like it as well. At this point the core rules feel pretty stable, so I'm going to start focusing on the Full Rulebook, which should have a complete D6 version ready within the next 1-2 weeks.

Production Update

Work on the January models is moving along steadily, and above you can see a preview of the Technomancer model. As soon as we have more previews we will show them off, but everything is very much WIP right now.

For the special March release we've started working on a couple of massive models, and two of them are already completed. You can see some previews above, we've kept them blurry not to spoil the surprise, but they will be revealed once we get closer to release. ;)

We've also started working on the Sci-Fi Saurians concept art, and above you can see some early concepts for the Saurian Warriors. The idea is to put some protective armor on them, whilst still keeping the gorgeous model underneath visible. Right now we're still experimenting with various helmet styles, and we'll keep you posted as things move along.

Improving Patreon Experience

One of our main goals with OPR is to make the customer experience as smooth as possible, however things have been a bit of a mess with Patreon lately. We know that some of you don't like that we deliver models at the end of the month, and that the information on our Patreon page isn't very clear.

Due to the current production environment the changes are going to come in gradually, but starting in March here's everything that's going to change:

1) We will provide pictures and details of everything that will be released the next month one week before the end of the month.

2) At the beginning of each month we will update the Patreon banner with an image of all of that month's releases as a showcase.

3) We will start delivering all of each month's models on the 5th day of the month, and new joiners will get their models within 48hrs after that.

4) We will start delivering the welcome packs on the 5th day of the month, and new joiners will get their models within 48hrs after that

5) All of our welcome pack models will be fully pre-supported, and all of the models in our backlog (Battle Sisters & Dwarves) will be pre-supported as well.

6) Starting in April we will be providing loyalty rewards every 3 months, giving our long-term supporters an extra-special model as a thank you.

7) Starting in April we will also be providing throwback models as bonus, giving players a taste of some of our older releases for free.

Everything is still very much in the works, but we're hoping that despite the recent turbulence these plans will get you pumped for the future of OPR. :D

In order to try and already improve the Patreon right now, we've gone ahead and streamlined the about section a little, and we're going to start testing the delivery of the welcome packs every 48hrs in the coming weeks.

We're very excited to see that the number of supporters is growing at lightning speed, and at this rate we're going to be hitting reaching the 1000 patrons goal pretty soon, which means everyone is going to get a 50% store discount as well!

If you have any suggestions on what else we can do to improve the Patreon experience please let me know, all of your comments are of huge help.

Cheers,

Gaetano