Monday, October 24, 2011

Entering the Final Stretch.... Prototype v6 is Ready!


Mercenary - Harbinger Gunship
Art by Stephen Huda

Hello. Welcome back!

This is a milestone for me. After four years of on again-off again announcements of ‘the last art is in!’, we really do have all the art on hand. It’s not all paid for – Karl Olson and Stephen Huda need their moolah before we can print these. But I should have that part finished by mid-November. There is also the matter of paying Paul Skowronek his bucks for the four additional edits as well as others (about $40) and getting the final payment to David Dryburgh for work he did a long time ago.

Please hit the PayPal button if you have five or ten dollars to spare…. I want to get these debts cleared before the end of November and need all the help I can get. I have nearly run out of stuff to sell on Ebay (well, not if you count the unpainted Warhammer:40K Leman Russ with all the electronic special effects, but who knows what that would sell for?)

- The Draconis Combine’s BARS (Bulldog Automatic Reloading System) is done. Stephen Huda did an outstanding job, as usual. I owe him nearly a hundred bucks, but should have it paid off by mid-November.


Draconis Combine - BARS
Art by Stephen Huda


- Karl Olson has finished the Mercenary Hessian hovercraft. At a weapons expo, you never know what you will find!



Mercenary - Hessian Hovercraft
Art by Karl Olson

- Bill and I tried to get together one last time for the final push. Sunday the 23rd should have see the remaining art and text entered, along with the special art section and the Master Unit List. As it stands, we did not get together, but I uploaded all the remaining data to Bill via OpenDrive and he put it in. There are some glitches – words misspelled, etc. But Prototype v6 is up and ready for download.

- All writeups are done. Everything we need for the current layout is complete. All the art is on hand and inserted (although we are looking at replacing current art with bolder versions for a better look and I forgot the color plates – two more have been commissioned). Please go over it with the proverbial fine tooth comb.

- Also, we will try to post the current Errata List for you to download. If you find an issue, please look over the list of things we’ve already found and see if your ‘find’ is there. If it is NOT, then please post it in the comments section on this blog along with any suggestions you have for correcting it. We will add it on this end to the Errata List

- The official window for finding errors in the final Prototype is one week. That’s seven days after the Prototype and Errata List go live. After that window closes, I will begin fixing the errors. It will take about another week, during which time I will be open to stuff you spot at the last minute. Please, please, look hard and do it as soon as you can.

- Upon correcting the errors, I will begin the laborious task of going through the entire TRO, adding boldface and italics in appropriate places. This should take at least a couple of sessions over at Bill’s house – I don’t want to tie up his main computer and don’t think I can do all of them in one sitting (I would probably go blind and crazy at the same time!)

- Still selling stuff on Ebay. I just listed two very rare Revised Dual Land artist's proof Magic cards signed by the artist.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve


Errata List



The names are not always coherent depending if you look on the left or the right page, they can be in capital letters or not, be the full name or a part of it, have a - or not.

More annoying is the Capellan Griffin.
The weapons are listed as being on the left side but the picture shows them on the right one.

-----------------------------------------------------
The drawing of the Vagabond is captioned 'isomerus'. As an aside, will the handwritten captions on Eric Ou's illustrations be removed?
On the Ural page there's a missing word or phrase :-
'While most drivers shouted at each other to turn back.
Groves quickly[missing word or phrase] his Ural and left his bickering comrades behind.'
And again on the Grffin GRF-3L page, the title reads 'Grifn'


[ Bill, the Griffin header needs to be corrected – it says ‘Grifn’. We already addressed the conflict between data and image with the last error report.]

[At the top of the Vehicle text, we have several pieces that do not follow the standard format. That is my fault – I should have gone through and fixed them all to say ‘Type/Model: Name’ rather than leaving them all caps with no lead-in. This is probably the case for the entire TRO, so let’s get in there and fix that when we get together next.]

[On the Vagabond art, we have Eric’s signature and the original name of the ‘Mech – the Isometrus. I want to get rid of that but leave Eric’s signature. Furthermore, I want to go through all the art done by Eric and get rid of ALL the names, as well as reduce his big signature to something quite small but legible over to one side. It is currently too big and distracting; it detracts from the overall feel of the work to have the name of the piece listed along with the TRO number. Takes you ‘out’ of the TRO and back into the real world, if you know what I mean. The thickened art gets rid of the name]

[On another note, I think the header text listing ‘Heavy Mech’ or ‘Light Mech’ should include the apostrophe. Make them all ‘Mechs, not Mechs.]

[On the Panzer IX, get rid of the hyphen on the page header name. Comb through and find any others that have this issue. None of them should be hyphenated except for some BattleMechs and the Capellan machines, and that exception applies mostly to the vehicles with Chinese names.]

[Montgomery II Heavy should be just Montgomery II]

[Panther Battle Tank should be just Panther]

[The Panzerfaust text begins with ‘Assualt Gun’. We can correct that when we get in there to add ‘Type/Model:’. As a rule, unless the machine is a significant departure from a standard tank, leave off any descriptor but the name. If it is enough of a different beast, we should keep the name as descriptive as possible with as few words as possible. Panzer X Cruiser Tank is good. The Panzerfaust should be Panzerfaust Assault Gun, not Panzerfaust Mobile Gun (all tanks are mobile guns). Kangaroo Support should be simply Kangaroo. If they want to know what it is for, they can read the writeup.]

[Ural Transport Truck – in the Notables section, it reads “…Groves quickly his Ural…”. This is my goof, it should read “…Groves quickly accelerated his Ural…”]

[Cobra CBR-03 should read CBR-3S, in keeping with the current usage. My goof. I will go in and correct that when we get together next. It needs to be cleaned up in the text and probably in the HMP and record sheets as well.]

[BARS Fast Strike Tank - Power Plant is listed as Nissan 245 Fusion, should read Nissan 225 fusion]

[The text for the FWL Black Knight reads wrong for the placement of the MLs – does not match the art. Drop the new text in when we get a chance or repair it in place.]

[Need to replace ‘enmity’ with something else on page 7]

[Need to install new stats for the FC Roland – the armor has been modified on all variants to match the Prime model and the C version has another ton of LRM ammo and a corrected C3 link.]

[Need to install the art for the missing pics in earlier House entries.] [DONE]

[Remove the Shielding and Transmission portion of the stats section on the DC Tomahawk]

[Change the CM-33’s cargo bay to 9 tons and the loading equipment to 1 ton in the stats section, and correct in the writeup if needed.]

[add ‘and a new look’ to the ferro armor description of the DC Sentinel]


REV SIX

[Aerospace headers are misspelled ‘Areospace’]

[Assault ‘Mechs headers are misspelled ‘Assualt’]

[Forge heading is misspelled ‘Forgr’]

[House order has been Vehicles, then Mechs. Comstar follows this but WoB reverses it. Why?]

[Harbinger is misspelled ‘Harbringer’]

[Hessian text page is missing the smaller art]

[Master Unit List looks good but should come after the Index. I will gen a new index up using the page count you established by putting all of this together]

12 comments:

wolftech said...

Hi Guys, thanks a lot for this outstanding sourcebook!!! *thumbsup*

Pls. can you tell me the name of the vehicle on the front cover?

And some issues in the rev.6 (not found on your errata list):

p118 -> title should be FENG-NIAO and not FENG-NAIO

p158 -> header MACHETE is missing

Steven Satak said...

And thank you for spotting those errors! They are new ones, but appear to be due to the haste Bill made entering the data.

I expect there will be more, and hope you folks catch them. My eyes are crossing with looking!

wolftech said...

And the vehicle on the front cover... what is it?

Steven Satak said...

I have no idea whatsoever.

It was chosen by Vadim back at the very beginning. I located the owner of the original piece and got his permission to use it. I did not change it because it did not seem to need changing, and because at that time we did not have access to that type of artist.

Looking at my budget, we still don''t, so replacing it will be a matter of money. Since I haven't got any, it stays. Unless you can donate $100. At which point, I will contact Alex Iglesias and see what we can whip up.

wolftech said...

Thanks for the answer. I asked that question because another guy from a German BT forum likes the vehicle on the cover and he wants to know, if there are more information about that.

It's a really cool cover and there is no need to change it :-)

Schottenjaeger said...

Sorry to come in so late - I know you're probably busting ass on this right now. It's a tribute to your vigilance and care that I found so few new issues here, considering how fine the teeth are on my comb :P I'm hunting mostly stylistic issues, but I found a few misspellings as well.

Pg.7: "Chasses" used in the vehicles heading, line 5: on the same page "chassis" is used in the Mechs heading, line 3-4

Pg.9 pluralization is inconsistent on line 1 of paragraph 2 (..he chose to focus on inexpensive.. machines, rather than the costly BattleMech.)
Would do better as "rather than costly BattleMechs"
Weak ending to paragraph 4, same page; consider "..was that the ability to bluff can be a critical asset on a battlefield."

Pg. 20 (Nemera tank): Capabilities, Par 1, Line 7: "..our analysts think.." is weak - consider "project".
Deployment, Par. 3, line 1 "Blue Team's BattleMech's", should be "BattleMechs"

Pg. 22, Deployment, lines 10-11; "..Clan units rarely make large use of conventional forces.." is stilted. Consider something along the lines of "rarely use the conventional forces the Sher Khan is built to hunt.."
Variants , lines 3&4: "considered by some to be overly complex" - passive, run-on sentence. Consider "Some experts/analysts consider the.. feeds to be overly complex."

Pg. 26, Capabilities, Par. 1, Line 9; "surprising reliable" should be "surprisingly".

Pg. 28, Capabilities, Par.4, Line 2: "..provide Ammunition transport.." (unnecessary capitalization)

Pg. 29, Weapons & Ammo "Artillerys" is clumsy. Consider "Artillery" or "Artilleries"

Pg. 32, Deployment, Par. 1, Line 5. "Jaegers" misspelled as "Jaegars"

Pg. 40, Overview, Par. 1, line 2: "..a principle customer.." should be "principal".

Pg 48, Capabilities, Par 1, line 5. "..operate, and frequently lead to.." should be "..led to.."

Pg.49 Equipment, Shielding and Transmission; tonnage incorrectly displayed (dropped down a line)

Pg. 50, Overview, Par. 1, Line 1; "..has recently experienced resurgence..", should be "..a resurgence.."
Capabilities, Par.5, Line 1; "Finally the..", should be "Finally, the.."
Deployment, Par. 1, Line 3; "Having proved.." should be "Having proven.." or "With their mettle proven"

Pg. 52 Capabilities, Par. 5 Line 1; "..the profile is" should be "the [noun's] profile is.."
Par.5, line 3 "..defensive ambush" should be "..defensive ambushes"

Pg. 56 Notable Crew, Par. 1 Line 8; Sentence is unfinished. "..the roar of the big cat's"

Pg. 92Overview, Par. 1, Line 4; "..shared Information..", should be "information"

Got to pg 110 and had to call it a night; got work tomorrow. Skipped several double-spaces and odd paragraph indents.
I wish I could contribute more to the project, but money's been tight: I'll see if I can't find some way to help out more.

Steven Satak said...

@ Schottenjaeger: thank you for the extensive review and suggested fixes. I am dropping them directly into the Errata database. We will get to them in a week or so.

Steven Satak said...

@Schottenjaeger: Please contact me at ssatak AT yahoo.com.

Anonymous said...

Problems noticed with the Capellan Culverin Omnimech:

Prime Config, the Left torso has 14 crits (2 from the AC 20 overflowing from the arm, as the arm only has 8 crits free after the stealth armor's 2 crits). Suggest moving the DHS there to the Right Arm, which will keep the crit-space allocations legal.

Alpha Config, similar problem with an extra DHS in the left torso (15 crits from XL (3), Ammo (3), 2x DHS (6), CASE (1) and Stealth Armor (2)). Suggest moving a DHS to the Left arm to make the crit-space allocations legal.

Otherwise everything on it seems fine.

Steven Satak said...

@anonymous: Thank you! The errors have been red-listed. I am very new to designing Omnis, so a few mistakes were bound to creep in.

Rudel Gurken said...

Hi!
So i hope to further support your awesome project with some more errata.
If i’m nitpicking too much just feel free to ignore my post ;)
I concentrated fully on the stats.

Sometimes the armorfactors for ferrofibrous armor are rounded up (even if x.4) and sometimes rounded down (even if x.8). I didn’t incorporated this in my list.

Nemera, page 21
AMS and CASE are each listed as 5 tons

Sentinel, p. 33
10 free heatsinks are listed as 1 ton

Trebuchet, p. 35
LRM-15 w/ Artemis is listed as 3 crits and 7 tons (instead 4 and 8)

Daimyo, p. 37
In the weapon list a double heat sink is listed as 1 ton (additionally to the 14 double heat sinks with 4 tons in the upper section)

Privateer, p. 43
Jumpjets are allocated asymmetrically (1 RT, 2 CT)

White Knight, p. 45
The heat sink tonnage has jumped into the next row

Ural, p. 49
The shielding and transmission tonnage has jumped into the next row

Isometrus, p. 67
10 free heatsinks are listed as 3 tons

Fafnir, p. 79
The stats list the ER mediums in the arms but picture shows them in the torso

Hammerhead II, p. 95
8 tons of FF armor would result in 143 armor points instead of 142

Vulcan VL-7M, p. 105
7.5 tons of FF armor would result in 134 armor points instead of 133

Blackknight, p. 113
Armor stats mixed up: 2311 points 3 tons instead of 231 points and 13 tons
Picture doesn’t seem to match the distribution of the medium lasers as listed in the stats

CM-33, p. 123
Text calls for FF armor wich would result in 89 points (85 if light FF) and not 82

Griffin, p. 143
Jumpjets are allocated asymmetrically (3 RT, 2 LT)

Battleax, p. 145
Armor factor is missing (200)

Cataphract III, p. 147
Stats list ERPPC in RT but picture shows LT

Culverin, p. 149
PRIME is short of 1 ton, BRAVO is short of 3 tons

Roland, p. 165
Turret is fixed at 2.5 tons but no version needs more than 2 tons (Purpose?)
ALPHA CASE listed as 5 tons, Streak-4 listed as 4 tons
BRAVO rows mixed up

Werefox Martel, p. 173
Engine mass dislocated

Blackjack, p. 185
Fixed heat sinks mass is listed twice (upper part and middle part of the stats)

Bandersnatch, p. 189
Armorpoints in CT listed as 1 instead of 31

Oculus, p. 195
Cockpit tonnage dislocated, 0.5 ton cockpit would negate need for fractional accounting

Flagstaff III, p. 197
Mass of MG’s and MG ammo swapped

Auroch, p. 215
6 tons of armor would result in 96 armor points instead of 95
MG ammo (100) listed as 1 ton istead of 0.5

Catapult, p. 219
11.5 tons of armor result in 184 armor points instead of 200

Champion, p. 231
11.5 tons of armor result in 184 armor points instead of 183

Claymore, p. 237
Mass of the 4 light gauss have to be split between weapon mass (48 tons) and ammo (3 tons)

Harbinger, p. 241
Mass of the 3 MG have to be split between weapon mass (1.5 tons) and ammo (0.5 tons)
Mass of the 3 SRM have to be split between weapon mass (9 tons) and ammo (1 tons)

Hessian, p. 243
Mass of the 5 SRM have to be split between weapon mass (5 tons) and ammo (1 tons)

Jenner, p. 245
6.5 tons of armor result in 116 armor points instead of 115

Nimravus, p. 247
Maximum armor can be reached with allocating a 185 th point to the CT

Battlemaster, p. 251
Gyro tonnage dislocated

Steven Satak said...

@Rudel: I have entered your corrections in the Errata database and we will get working on it this weekend! Thanks!