Me and Jeppe recently had the opportunity to have quite a long chat about the game. You can listen to the recording here:

http://boardwars.eu/special-podcast-interview-with-paul-and-todd-of-ffg/

If we can, we want to make this a yearly thing, so if you got any critique or comments (other than the audio quality), let me know.

I'm excited! Downloading it now to listen to over the next couple days in the car

Without hearing it, I'd love for it to be more than a once a year thing - more like 3-4 times a year or with every expansion it'd be awesome to hear what they thought about the new expansion and what they enjoyed!

I listened to it last night great interview. From where in the netherlands are you from ?

I listened to it last night great interview. From where in the netherlands are you from ?

I'm actually not Dutch but Danish. I moved from Denmark to the Netherlands five years ago and currently live in Haarlem nearby Amsterdam.

Very good stuff. Thanks.

I'm interested to know if the question relating to the unequal distribution of deployment cards in boxed expansions was cut by yourselves or if it was declined by Paul/Todd?

Great interview, thanks for posting!

I LOVE the idea of the Dice Decks.

"When we do our testing, we have these dice decks, that we have created, where instead of rolling dice for attacks, we have a deck for each die for each player, that has 12 cards, two of each face. That theoretically evens out, how many times you see the good and bad faces of a die."

That's great. I want that for tournaments!

Just finished listening. Great interview! Lots of fun info in there.

I really liked hearing how long they work on an expansion from theory crafting to us. Jabba's Realm has been in production since October.

I also really liked hearing about the units they consider benchmarks to have new units compete with as being valuable units to take but still different. The Jabba discussion here was great too - I definitely think he's competitive to the rebel care package and it may not be an automatic given to take Jabba everytime (and I honestly don't know how great he'll be in empire since two of his abilities specifically only work on scum units - but he can draw a card every turn and will get you more vp's and can still synergism with another scum unit you bring in - rancor? Greedo?) but he's competitively costed enough and has enough utility to make it a debatable issue and that's how it should be for all units. Everything should be worth playing competitively just in certain synergies.

And it's good to hear what should be obvious to us, they do know that certain units aren't competitively priced/abilities. And they want to fix that - it just takes time.

It was also really neat to just hear tid bits about how different departments in FFG work together and how Paul's duties are split. That's just interesting to me and all.

Overall, I'm very excited for the state of the game and it's future in Paul and Todd's hands! Big thanks to Jace and Jeppe and Paul and Todd for doing this interview

P.S. - maybe twice a year?

Edit: posted this and then saw derbaer's post about dice decks - that was a really cool idea

I'm interested to know if the question relating to the unequal distribution of deployment cards in boxed expansions was cut by yourselves or if it was declined by Paul/Todd?

We cut it. The interview was running long and we don't wanted to exhaust the guys. Also, we were very certain that they would have given the dodge answer on that one.

P.S. - maybe twice a year?

Since we already got another request for more frequent interviews ... maybe.

I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm really hoping to get some news on the IA app that was mentioned recently.

I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm really hoping to get some news on the IA app that was mentioned recently.

Basically they say "We can say exactly what we've said already. We're working on it, and its coming, and it's going to be fun."

Due out in 2017 means that it will probably follow up the Endor small box aka the end of the Original Trilogy. Seems like good timing, then they can do a mini campaign with the release of the app followed by a full campaign utilizing the core + existing expansion components.

Then perhaps tag team new content from Rebels/Rogue One with releases of new co-op campaigns.

Thanks for doing this, it was fun to hear the current developer's thoughts and process on the game. A lot of my theories about the design process were confirmed by this. Glad you guys have an in with FFG now.

Personally disappointed you guys didn't ask about the current status of time periods in campaign, a lot of players are very apprehensive about that and would've appreciated some commentary on this subject.

Why did you guys break your own rule about not asking about future content so much? A lot of questions could've been rephrased (as Jeppe figured out halfway through) to focus on existing content but went unanswered because it was phrased "Are you going to fix X" instead of "why is X the way it is now?". Just something for you guys to think about for future interviews.

Why did you guys break your own rule about not asking about future content so much? A lot of questions could've been rephrased (as Jeppe figured out halfway through) to focus on existing content but went unanswered because it was phrased "Are you going to fix X" instead of "why is X the way it is now?". Just something for you guys to think about for future interviews.

Definitely taking that into account for next time. Also it might seem obvious in hindsight, but to be honest, it didn't really occur to me at the time.

It's like any type of public speaking or interviewing, when you are rehearsing you know in your mind exactly what you are going to say, and then once you start that all goes out the window

I also would like to see a few more 'hard hitting' questions next time, I get it, you don't want to burn any bridges.. but now that you have built the relationship it is time to take advantage of that

I really enjoyed the interview. Thanks for doing it!

Good interview.

I thought the benchmarks were interesting and the idea of power balance. I have always thought Hired Guns were particularly good for campaign but maybe not so much for skirmish.

I really think they are going to provide upgrades that directly address the overcosted units of Han and Chewie. They definitely have the attitude of not wanting to leave things behind in favor of power creep.

I really enjoyed the interview. Thanks for doing it!

Dido!

Smart guys that seem to have a good feel for the game and I tend to agree with there philosophies.

It's like any type of public speaking or interviewing, when you are rehearsing you know in your mind exactly what you are going to say, and then once you start that all goes out the window

I really think the main problem for me is coming up with good questions. I mean I got some decent ones, but I am no journalist and have no education in that field at all. I am an engineer, asking questions usually is restricted to probin business as to what exactly they expect.

I also would like to see a few more 'hard hitting' questions next time, I get it, you don't want to burn any bridges.. but now that you have built the relationship it is time to take advantage of that

Sure. Thing is, the answer will probably be that they can't comment. Some of the questions were actually worded more ... harshly in our internal document, but we managed to soften them up without compromising what the question was about. No need to be brazen when you don't have to be

But I agree, more difficult questions would be good to include next time. It's mainly a matter of thinking of them.

First off the interview was awesome and I am not trying to critique you, just offer some suggestions you can take or leave as you will. I appreciate the time and effort you both put into this and I think the response you got from the community shows you how huge of a success it was, well done.

But I think a fair question that they can comment on is, what is your opinion of the skirmish situation? What do you feel is the biggest thing holding back the game from blowing up like X-Wing? Is it because skirmish was a secondary thought, the cost to buy in, the unpainted minis versus X-Wings pretty ships, people would rather dog fight?

They have to have an opinion on the subject, they might just censor themselves, absolutely, but I think that given how candid these guys were the first time around they would have a hard time holding everything back. Then the follow up question they can blanket answer "You'll see" is What are you doing to fix this?

At least it might give us a little insight/hope to the community growing. However, now they will know this question is coming and have time to prepare their dodge rolls as I am sure they read this forum/post semi-regularly.

As someone who has put a lot of time into trying to grow his local skirmish community with -so far- little success I am genuinely curious to see what the developers think of the situation and if they can admit to any plans put in place to fix this long term. There are healthy IA communities outside of my smaller city absolutely, but by comparison to games like X-Wing or even the LCG's it is a small fraction. How can we fix this?!?! We are on your side FFG!

what is your opinion of the skirmish situation? What do you feel is the biggest thing holding back the game from blowing up like X-Wing? Is it because skirmish was a secondary thought, the cost to buy in, the unpainted minis versus X-Wings pretty ships, people would rather dog fight?

Some of this actually did come up in the interview, like the upfront cost for new players. Also, I think they don't have that much clue about that also. It's likely a combination. Also with the recently published maps, they definitely try to make competitive play much easier (also talked about in the interview).

Then the follow up question they can blanket answer "You'll see" is What are you doing to fix this?

They just flat out can't talk about stuff that is unreleased. If they say "You'll see." that's all they can say about that. I really don't want to get these guys into trouble. NDAs are a thing and they signed contracts. I didn't. I appreciate you wanting to know more of what they are doing right now, but for company policy reasons, it's probably not going to happen.

As someone who has put a lot of time into trying to grow his local skirmish community with -so far- little success I am genuinely curious to see what the developers think of the situation and if they can admit to any plans put in place to fix this long term. There are healthy IA communities outside of my smaller city absolutely, but by comparison to games like X-Wing or even the LCG's it is a small fraction. How can we fix this?!?! We are on your side FFG!

You are in the same boat as Jeppe. The fact is, IA is significantly more expensive than the LCGs or even X-Wing (if you can reign in your spending). Sure, you'll get much more gaming out of your purchase in IA, especially if you play the campaign. But for Skirmish, the value proposition is just not on IA's side. Though, they are aware and will try to do things that should help. The Skirmish maps were such a project. Just remember that from idea to release, there can be as much as 12 months or more. Skirmish maps probably weren't though of after late 2015 and are just now arriving. Stuff takes time. Be patient.

What they should totally sell is a Core Box-lite - all it contains is dice, and tokens, and rulebooks (no campaign book). If they started selling figure packs for all the other figures - Royal Guards, Officers, etc... then folk could get in without having to buy multiple core boxes. And for those not interested in the campaign, they could get the Core Box Lite, specific figure packs, and the pre-printed maps?

I have yet to understand the appeal of these skirmish FFG maps. Ya you don't have to set stuff up, but paying 25 bucks for a map that is in rotation for just a few months, then you might never use again?

Seems like a total waste of money. They should have just came out with cheaper paper versions through their print on demand service, I'd be all over that.

I have yet to understand the appeal of these skirmish FFG maps. Ya you don't have to set stuff up, but paying 25 bucks for a map that is in rotation for just a few months, then you might never use again?