Trends, Statistics, and Predictions!

By Absol197, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

7 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

I definitely noticed it, but what that means is incredibly inconsistent, so much so as to be nearly worthless. It's something to take note of, but by now I'm fairly certain we can't draw any conclusions from these "fake updates."

Oh I didn't see Dr. Lucky's comment. Thanks for pointing that out.

I think FFG is well aware of the delays, and they are doing the regular updates... even with nothing on it! I think as soon as they have a solid date, we will know. I hope it's soon.

I hope it doesn't mean Dawn of Rebellion is coming before the other "on the boats." I took a risk and pre-ordered all 4 of the on the boat books on the same order, figuring they'd be hitting stores at the same time. I don't want my shipment getting held up because they end up getting separated.

7 minutes ago, Split Light said:

I hope it doesn't mean Dawn of Rebellion is coming before the other "on the boats." I took a risk and pre-ordered all 4 of the on the boat books on the same order, figuring they'd be hitting stores at the same time. I don't want my shipment getting held up because they end up getting separated.

Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure they are going to be staggered, likely one a week or two a week. We just have no indication which ones will be first. The "pseudo-update" to Dawn doesn't actually mean anything. They happen a lot.

1 hour ago, Absol197 said:

Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure they are going to be staggered, likely one a week or two a week. We just have no indication which ones will be first. The "pseudo-update" to Dawn doesn't actually mean anything. They happen a lot.

Well, I can always cancel the pre-order and redo them separately. I was just hoping to cash in on free shipping from Miniatures Market for a big order. I'm still holding out some hope they'll come together. These four books have been in the production queue for so long, I'd think they just want them out as soon as possible.

I would LOVE it if they all came together, because if they don't, the book I'm wanting the most out of Amy FFG book ever will be last in the order. But historical precedence is that when multiple books are ready at the same time, they're staggered at one per week. That's why I think we'll have that happen again.

But I'd love to be wrong :) !

Articles....... Need....... Articles.......

11 minutes ago, SithArissa said:

Articles....... Need....... Articles.......

I know :( . But at this point, I think it's fairly safe to say that we won't be getting any for our beloved Mystic book. by my calculations, we're already between ~76.44% and ~86.93% of the way through it's production, without a single one. Why put out a pre-view article when the book is going to be available so soon anyway?

I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am :( ...

18 hours ago, Absol197 said:

I know :( . But at this point, I think it's fairly safe to say that we won't be getting any for our beloved Mystic book. by my calculations, we're already between ~76.44% and ~86.93% of the way through it's production, without a single one. Why put out a pre-view article when the book is going to be available so soon anyway?

I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am :( ...

While we are frothing at the bit for the book, there are ppl out there who only frequent the front page or get emails when new articles are up and never visit otherwise. Also you cant just rely on us fanatics for sales, and the only marketing I see are FFGs own posts. Just seems a little strange to me that the entire push for 4(?) books consists of 1 article each when others have had usually the announcement as well as 2-3 previews.

Well, the other three DID get three preview articles. They just all happened back in 2017 (except for the final Dawn article). The Mystic Book is the only one that hasn't gotten any promotion after its announcement.

Maybe we'll see an article for the Mystic book once it starts shipping. But as I've said before, an acquaintance of mine writes these articles, and they started doing the three-article method worth his first book, which was No Disintegrations. Only he didn't write the one(s) for Unlimited Power, the backup writer did. So what that means in terms of of previews I don't know. It may mean all that got written were the announcement article and the release article. It's certainly looking more and more likely with each passing day that that's the case.

I'll grant that we could be on the Nexus of Power track: NoP got its only preview article exactly a week before it's release. Which is nice, but it also means we'd need to be shipping first, so if this is the case we're still two weeks off from our one preview. At minimum.

Edited by Absol197

@Absol197 have you factored in the order of which products are listed here

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/upcoming/

(Filter for rpgs)

Into your predictions of the release order of the 4 on the boat books?

I'd guess

Dawn of rebellion/fully operational/ciphers and masks/unlimited power for the release order

Dawn of rebellion is the only one updated on Feb 1 with a non update, but I think the listed ordere changed. It's not alphabetical, and other than the placement of dawn of rebellion it is chronological in order of initial announcement, and dawn of rebellion is the only book targeted at all 3 lines so it makes sense that they would prioritize it on that basis.

16 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

@Absol197 have you factored in the order of which products are listed here

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/upcoming/

(Filter for rpgs)

Into your predictions of the release order of the 4 on the boat books?

I'd guess

Dawn of rebellion/fully operational/ciphers and masks/unlimited power for the release order

Dawn of rebellion is the only one updated on Feb 1 with a non update, but I think the listed ordere changed. It's not alphabetical, and other than the placement of dawn of rebellion it is chronological in order of initial announcement, and dawn of rebellion is the only book targeted at all 3 lines so it makes sense that they would prioritize it on that basis.

The order is effectively meaningless - the first three shift around a bunch. Both Fully Operational and Cyphers and Masks have spent time at the front of the group, and Dawn is currently linked to Age of Rebellion (see the announcement article - it lists Dawn as an Age book), so it lives with them.

And while I do think Unlimited Power will be last (:(), the fact that it's last in the list doesn't mean anything. The lines themselves are listed in alphabetical order within a given production stage: Age products, then Edge products, then Force products. That's why the Edge beginner game is between the three Age books and Unlimited Power.

And as I've mentioned before, the "mini" or "pseudo" updates where the "Most Recent Update" field changes but the book doesn't advance don't mean anything, either. I've noticed them a LOT, and I've studied whether there's any correlation with those updates and incoming changes to production status. There is no verifiable connection, unfortunately.

However, you are right that they may not release the upcoming books in the same order they were announced (although I think the local Engineers will riot if their book, which is closing in on a full year(!), is passed over!). I do agree that if they decide to do that, releasing Dawn first would make the most sense. My personal bet is that they release Fully Operational and Dawn of Rebellion simultaneously, and then stagger the other two. But since I have no data to support that, I'm leaving my "official" predictions as they are: one book per week, in the order they were announced.

Edited by Absol197

:o

You...you guys...

DAWN OF REBELLION IS SHIPPING NOW!!!!!

US release date February 22. Well, at least I was right about the date of the first new release, although I feel horrible for our Engineers who have been waiting so patiently...

Edited by Absol197

I'm both happy and disappointed! I've been looking forward to Dawn of Rebellion for the new character options and New era details, but being able to build a starship is the one thing that I've wanted to do since I first read the crafting rules for weapons and armor.

I'm still excited to buy this when it does arrive at the game store though!

Edited by terrak37
I had something I forgot to mention.

Hmm... Thinking about this a bit... New installment of Phee's Personal PredictionsTM incoming!

So, I'm assuming three things (well, two really; the third is basically confirmed at this point): 1) They want all these books out as quickly as possible; 2) They do NOT want to release two books of the same line on the same day; 3) Dawn of Rebellion, as an Era book, is considered to be a book of all three lines.

So that means that Dawn cannot be released at the same time as any other book, and Fully Operational and Cyphers can't be released at the same time as each other. So by releasing Dawn first, they open up the opportunity of getting all three books out in three weeks instead of four, by releasing Unlimited Power at the same time as one of the other books.

So my "unofficial" prediction is that we'll see Dawn on February 22, Operational on March 1, and both Cyphers and Unlimited Power(!!11111!) on March 8.

Now, I think this is less likely than them just deciding to stagger all the books, but I thought it was an interesting idea, so I wanted to share :) .

1 hour ago, Absol197 said:

:o

You...you guys...

DAWN OF REBELLION IS SHIPPING NOW!!!!!

US release date February 22. Well, at least I was right about the date of the first new release, although I feel horrible for our Engineers who have been waiting so patiently...

Thank you for the condolences, but being right in my prediction that dawn of rebellion was the first is a small consolation, in a Bayesian posterior sort of way it lends credence to the idea that the books will be released in the order they appear on the upcoming page which strongly suggests that the engineer book will be released on March 1. It also means that the "on the boat" for the remaining 3 books is a lie, they're already at the warehouse ready to be shipped, so we don't have to worry about the fail boat sinking or losing a cargo container. :D

On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 8:47 AM, Split Light said:

I hope it doesn't mean Dawn of Rebellion is coming before the other "on the boats." I took a risk and pre-ordered all 4 of the on the boat books on the same order, figuring they'd be hitting stores at the same time. I don't want my shipment getting held up because they end up getting separated.

Well, my gamble failed. Dawn of Rebellion is shipping, release date of the 22nd. The other books are still on the boat Time to cancel my bulk order with MM and order individually. Good News/bad news situation (but mostly good news). :)

I can't complain to much, this means it should make it in time for our upcoming new campaign start.

Edited by Split Light

Looks like your prediction of only announcement and release articles is also in the stars @Absol197. Sigh. I know the book should be out soon but a small tid bit to keep my ravenous hunger at bay would have been appreciated.

Just now, SithArissa said:

Looks like your prediction of only announcement and release articles is also in the stars @Absol197. Sigh. I know the book should be out soon but a small tid bit to keep my ravenous hunger at bay would have been appreciated.

I agree. You don't know how much I agree... :(

On 2/2/2018 at 8:56 AM, Absol197 said:

The "pseudo-update" to Dawn doesn't actually mean anything. They happen a lot.

I think the "pseudo-updates" mean more than you give them credit for. I haven't studied the RPG release patterns in the depth you have, but I watch the miniatures lines (X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault) very carefully along with the the RPGs. As far as I can tell, the "pseudo-updates" are caused by any of several things that the FFG webmaster does on the back-end (most of which, we'll probably never know the significance of). However, one of those things seems to be locking in a real release date (which admittedly doesn't always happen).

The point being, often the "pseudo-updates" don't mean anything (or at least anything to us), but when they happen around the time a book should release, they usually do mean the book will move to "Shipping Now" the next week. At least, that's been my experience with the miniatures and it worked out this time with Dawn of Rebellion. I'm willing to bet the same will be true if any of the other three "On the Boat" books get a similar "pseudo-update" in the coming weeks.

Edited by Dr Lucky
1 hour ago, Split Light said:

Well, my gamble failed. Dawn of Rebellion is shipping, release date of the 22nd. The other books are still on the boat Time to cancel my bulk order with MM and order individually. Good News/bad news situation (but mostly good news). :)

I can't complain to much, this means it should make it in time for our upcoming new campaign start.

I mean, you could wait and see what happens with the other books before the release day. (Unless you aren't willing to wait the 3-4 weeks to have them all in the same order.) That's my plan, because I made the same bet you did. :-)

The staggered release is pretty much confirmed now. It’s good to have movement but still no fully operational :(

Our group is gearing up to start a new campaign, but we're in a bit of a holding pattern waiting for the books. One player really wants spy type, and another an engineer, so they want those books. We might just start anyway and give everybody a free respec when their new relevant book comes out.

30 minutes ago, SacredRebirth said:

I mean, you could wait and see what happens with the other books before the release day. (Unless you aren't willing to wait the 3-4 weeks to have them all in the same order.) That's my plan, because I made the same bet you did. :-)

I'm holding off for the moment, there's still plenty of time to get in preorders, but if it comes down to it, I'm willing to buy separately to get them. We're trying to get a new campaign started and want access to whatever books we can get.

I'd just buy from my FLGS, but I'm actually legally blind so I can't drive, and it's on the other side of the city. Mail order is just way easier. I might see if another player can pick a book up for me though. A few of our group members live close to the store.

Edited by Split Light

Like many on this thread, we are about to start a new campaign. I also pre-ordered them together, but from CoolStuffInc. I just wish we had 100% confirmation of the species coming out before deciding to wait. A few preview articles would be greatly appreciated! I could work with a player to shift to a new spec once the splat books drop, but I find tweaking species after start to be more problematic. No disrespect to herculean effort on the unofficial species menagerie, but I prefer the published ones.

8 minutes ago, OriginalDomingo said:

Like many on this thread, we are about to start a new campaign. I also pre-ordered them together, but from CoolStuffInc. I just wish we had 100% confirmation of the species coming out before deciding to wait. A few preview articles would be greatly appreciated! I could work with a player to shift to a new spec once the splat books drop, but I find tweaking species after start to be more problematic. No disrespect to herculean effort on the unofficial species menagerie, but I prefer the published ones.

Well, I can run through what we know (and what we can assume) for you real quick!

We know that at least, Dawn of Rebellion is going to include gigorans, the white, wookiee-looking things from Rogue One. And if they didn't include lasat, I'll...do something scandalous, I'm sure :P .

For Fully Operational, they told us all three species during the preview articles: bith, kaminoans, and skakoans. The first two I'm sure you know; the last, in case you need a reference, is the green-skinned guy with the giant metal thing around his mouth in Attack of the Clones who tells Dooku "The Techno Union Army is at your disposal, Count."

For Cyphers and Masks...I'm gonna have to pass. I'm pretty sure one of the articles mentioned at least one of the species, though.

And for Unlimited Power, while we don't have official word yet, from what's said in the announcement article, we can be fairly sure that at least tholothians and thisspiasians are included. These species and their homeworlds, culture, and technology are all mentioned in the announcement article, and many of the new gear items included are related to these species, making them very strong likelihoods. The third likely candidate is the vurk.

How's that for ya :) ? Hopefully that's helpful!