Over the Arkham Files universe 52 Investigators have been used, if The Investigators of Arkham Horror is a yardstick.

1 hour ago, jvdvalk said:

Over the Arkham Files universe 52 Investigators have been used, if The Investigators of Arkham Horror is a yardstick.

Should be 53 by now (and probably growing): the initial 52 of that book covered the 48 originally released with Arkham Horror the boardgame + the 4 new released with Mansions 2nd edition. Since then, we know of a new investigator coming with Path of Carcosa, and considering that basically all the other investigators have been released both for Eldritch and Elder Sign, in case they decide to expand these lines more, I'm assuming it's a safe bet that new investigators will be introduced in the next years

As a games night organizer, i've found that everyone has found a character they've found likable or interesting to play from the current set. And as a player, i don't really feel the need for more playable characters, even if they're nice to have. I get if some want their favourite from another Arkham Horror Files game imported, or use the minis in other games, but as it stands, i think they'd be fine if they introduced new-old or new-new characters primarily in order to complement or reflect rule changes and new mechanisms, or to introduce an interesting ability, rather than just for the sake of it. I think they can afford taking time releasing new playable characters. (That's not saying the new expansion doesn't come with interesting new abilities. I'm looking forward to try them out).

^^^^^^ I agree - more scenarios a priority over more investigators!

5 hours ago, Julia said:

Should be 53 by now (and probably growing): the initial 52 of that book covered the 48 originally released with Arkham Horror the boardgame + the 4 new released with Mansions 2nd edition. Since then, we know of a new investigator coming with Path of Carcosa, and considering that basically all the other investigators have been released both for Eldritch and Elder Sign, in case they decide to expand these lines more, I'm assuming it's a safe bet that new investigators will be introduced in the next years

I suppose you could maybe add Calvin Wright to that list as well, although they never really did anything with him after initially introducing him.

It's funny... when it became fairly obvious that AH was "done", I remember thinking that none of the other games would ever reach the point where they'd have the full 48, much less need to create more. It's crazy that we're at that point now with both EH and ES.

1 minute ago, KBlumhardt said:

I suppose you could maybe add Calvin Wright to that list as well, although they never really did anything with him after initially introducing him.

He's an Ally in Elder Sign so they haven't completely forgot about him. He was always a somewhat independent character, so I think that an Ally role is the one he's going to get in other games, if any.

1 hour ago, tsuma534 said:

He's an Ally in Elder Sign so they haven't completely forgot about him. He was always a somewhat independent character, so I think that an Ally role is the one he's going to get in other games, if any.

If (or when? who knows) they go with Calvin as an Investigator, we'd have for the first time the same character featured both as an Ally and as an Investigator (not counting his appearance as investigator in one of Arkham's leagues of course)

18 minutes ago, Julia said:

If (or when? who knows) they go with Calvin as an Investigator, we'd have for the first time the same character featured both as an Ally and as an Investigator (not counting his appearance as investigator in one of Arkham's leagues of course)

I guess that's what I was saying, is that I'd maybe count Calvin as one of 54 investigators that have been released (by including his league appearance)... but I know that's a bit iffy. It's wishful thinking on my part as it would put us at 6 of 8 potential investigators needed for a full complement for one more "big box" EH expansion or another Elder Sign expansion.

Great news! Really looking forward to all the new features and content.

I should get my friends together to play all the scenarios I haven't been able to play yet, like the DLC and so on.

13 hours ago, Samea said:

I suspect that FFG just do not have the programmers to do everything they want with their digital products, are working to remedy that situation and will need some more time to get this going.

Upstaffing in software is a bit paradoxical. If you have 20 programmers and hire another 10, you do not get 30 programmers - for the next couple of months you have 10 programmers, with the other 10 teaching the project to the new hires. You have no choice but to hire either slow and steady or put a few things on ice for the near future...

Agreed. I know that FFG has been adding more programmers to staff. I believe it mostly to be app directed, but the more active games they have, the more they'll need minions to keep up with formatting minutia like card formatting. I think the more they look at what tech can accomplish for them, the more bodies they need to tackle new projects, none of which is instantaneous.

If you look at their careers page, you'll see how they are opening a new series of positions in Madison, WI, and they are still hiring in the digital sector for Roseville. So, they are still in need for more people!

And let's not forget that with today's software environments you have to update and test your product constantly to stay on top of new devices , software and OS versions, while making sure it still works with everything it ran on before. This is actually a lot of work, from reading up on changes to implementing and testing necessary adaptions, even if absolutely nothing changes for the user.

Blessed are those who develop for a single (and unconnected) target device. For they shall never question what they're doing with the skillset they have painfully acquired.

1 hour ago, Aelitafrommars said:

Blessed are those who develop for a single (and unconnected) target device. For they shall never question what they're doing with the skillset they have painfully acquired.

Seems like you just quoted the introduction to the first digital version of the Necronomicon...

I'm really happy a new expansion is coming. It would be nice if FFG would produce a roadmap of their plans.

At this point with the game, I would love to see a campaign come out. With the App in a campaign mode they could create a Legacy game that starts small and builds up, but still allow the same character to be played in a standalone scenario. The app could track health, sanity and which weapons a charter carries into the next phase.

I thin the game is very popular - at the very least it has a loyal following, so I hope new scenarios and product keep coming - at a regular or at least defined pace.

You discuss the new expansion and we are still waiting for the release of „Beyond the Threshold“. Not to mention the DLC Scenario that isn’t translated either. Great isn’t it?

58 minutes ago, GregorS said:

You discuss the new expansion and we are still waiting for the release of „Beyond the Threshold“. Not to mention the DLC Scenario that isn’t translated either. Great isn’t it?

Not sure what you mean. I've had the expansion for several months. Currently available on eBay at an increased cost. I would agree that larger print runs or regular second printings would be good.

I wonder if FFG should utilize Kickstarter to get a better idea of their market and get new product to everyone who wants it

1 hour ago, GregorS said:

You discuss the new expansion and we are still waiting for the release of „Beyond the Threshold“. Not to mention the DLC Scenario that isn’t translated either. Great isn’t it?

Where are you from? I can understand that you're frustrated about that. Did you contact FFG?

On 25/6/2017 at 11:56 PM, kyozu said:

Where are you from? I can understand that you're frustrated about that. Did you contact FFG?

The expansion and DLC has been translated only to English, I think. Any other language is still waiting... thanks to FFG

4 hours ago, gran_orco said:

The expansion and DLC has been translated only to English, I think. Any other language is still waiting... thanks to FFG

The thing I don't understand is why everyone blames FFG for this. FFG is not responsible for other language editions, which are given to other companies (Heidelberg Spielvergal, Asmodee Italy, and so on). This means that these companies should be interested in the product, pay for it, hire people for translating the stuff, and then release the product. I don't know if Mansion's any different from other products they released over the years, but for example in Italy expansions for Battlelore, or Wiz-War, or the revised Curse of the Dark Pharaoh for Arkham have not been translated because there was no interest from Giochi Uniti (who had the distribution at that time). For other reasons, I think Eldritch Horror in my country is behind 2 or 3 expansions, or so (there were problems with rights and the transition to a different distributor, I think). Neither of these occurrencies was FFG's fault, and it was always due to their partners (lazy, or not interested, or whatever). So, complaining about FFG not releasing the expansions in other languages seems a bit of a non-sense to me (unless, as said, I'm missing important pieces of the story, which I'm all here to learn).

Then: no one should in any case complain about new expansions coming for the English line: the coming of expansions means the line is still active, and it's a good thing for other countries to get the previously released expansions. Had the main focus for this game dead, I hardly believe expansions in other languages will land.

In any case, this type of problems is a reason more to have your friends learn English and play in the original language.

Regardless, you can download the app, enable the products in the collection and play the scenarios even without owning the physical components of the expansions. Tiles are easy to proxy, you won't be playing with the new investigators, and some of the cards will need proxy or substitutes, but a good 90% of the adventure will be in any case playable (puzzles, clues, and so on are all handled by the app)

16 minutes ago, Julia said:

The thing I don't understand is why everyone blames FFG for this. FFG is not responsible for other language editions (...)

They do have at least some responsibility. Below I translate some of the statements from our publisher:

Quote

Mansions of Madness DLC - I can only say that we want to translate the material and we'll do it as soon as it's possible. There's an issue here that needs to be solved by FFG. When the app was created some elements were not taken into account.

From what I understand there are some technical differences between DLC and regular scenarios that obstruct the DLC translation. If true, this is FFG's responsibility.

Quote

Scenarios connected to the 1st edition elements: The translation is done, we have commissioned voice acting, the question is how long will it take FFG programmers to include it everything in the app.

Adding translations to the app may be easy or not but either way it's a task that needs to be done by FFG.

Quote

Delays in publishing localized versions come from a simple fact: FFG partners receive the files for translation when the game is done. And when the game done the english version goes to the printer while publishers like us start their localizations. That's why there's a few month delay between english version and other languages.
LCG games are one of the few exceptions. FFG purposely delays english release so the partners can be ready for a worldwide premiere.

Not saying that there's anyone to blame but FFG definitely has influence over the delay here. There are translation possibilities other than waiting before everything is done. For example, files could be send in several installments corresponding to the areas of the game that have already been finished. It would be less convenient but it can be done.

Quote

We are still waiting for the files.

Quote

We are still waiting for acceptation of our files.

For whatever reason, sometimes the delays on the FFG side of the table can be very plain. I imagine that as a part of a huge corporation they are subject to a hefty amount of bureaucracy.

I cant wait!

1 hour ago, tsuma534 said:

They do have at least some responsibility. Below I translate some of the statements from our publisher:

From what I understand there are some technical differences between DLC and regular scenarios that obstruct the DLC translation. If true, this is FFG's responsibility.

Adding translations to the app may be easy or not but either way it's a task that needs to be done by FFG.

Not saying that there's anyone to blame but FFG definitely has influence over the delay here. There are translation possibilities other than waiting before everything is done. For example, files could be send in several installments corresponding to the areas of the game that have already been finished. It would be less convenient but it can be done.

For whatever reason, sometimes the delays on the FFG side of the table can be very plain. I imagine that as a part of a huge corporation they are subject to a hefty amount of bureaucracy.

Regarding the app, it's quite possible that some text was fixed in the app rather than being available in a separate configuration meaning that it can't be translated without changing code and recompiling it. The way they stated there was an issue with the app that wasn't taken into account makes it seem this is very likely.

I don't think that internationalization of the app is quite the same as translating booklets, cards and other printed game components.

The text inside the app is not really text, but a huge collection of building blocks the app uses to generate its texts. So foreign publishers probably get a test version of the app with the English scenario and a big fat table or database filled with all the monster names, descriptions of attacks, clues from all scenarios, mythos effects and so on. These will be translated piece by piece.

As soon as the translation is done, the file can be sent to FFG and they have to integrate that into a new testing version of the software, so the foreign publisher can check, whether his translation works when the app is putting the pieces together. Problems can be grammar, text length and typos (especially when not with the visible text, but with placeholders).

This goes back and forth, with FFG waiting for new translations and translators waiting for a new test version, until both sides are content. This is happening between FFG and every single foreign publisher. At the same time, translators should have lots of stuff to translate and are not waiting idly, just to jump to work the moment a new test version of the app is available. And the software developers also have other stuff to do and will not prioritize a new test release for their partners over all the bug fixing, maintenance and upgrading for this and other apps.

This, in my opinion, is the reason why we hear stuff like "we've been working on stuff and just sent everything to our partners, now we'll have to wait for them to finish stuff" from both sides.

I have the impression that the workflow for app content internationalization is a bit improvised at the moment and that FFG's software department is understaffed for all the work they are currently doing. I guess in time this will work a lot faster and more efficient, but now everyone is still figuring out how to do it right.

Thanks Tsuma.

So, it seems like there are technicalities tied to how the app is built and that require a common effort from both FFG AND their partners to bring the expansions to life? If so, it kinda sucks.