For those that are interested

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/18/organize-the-galaxy/

I just got mine. It looks cool, but the tile spaces are incorrectly sized. They are significantly bigger than the actual tiles. I feel like they went off of the TI3 tile sizes (which were bigger). This is a disappointment.

59 minutes ago, flipperoverlord said:

I just got mine. It looks cool, but the tile spaces are incorrectly sized. They are significantly bigger than the actual tiles. I feel like they went off of the TI3 tile sizes (which were bigger). This is a disappointment.

Do you have pictures you can post here? How much is significant?

Yeah, I'm interested to know as well.

I'm at work, so I should be able to take a picture when I get home, but I can anecdotally say the mat's spaces are aproximately a quarter inch too big in diameter (I know that diameter is not the technical term, as the tiles aren't circles, but hopefully you know what I mean).

It sucks, but the mat can now actually fit a 4 ring galaxy when that becomes an option through expansions, so that's nice I guess. It's a pretty bad oversight though imho.

2 hours ago, flipperoverlord said:

I just got mine. It looks cool, but the tile spaces are incorrectly sized. They are significantly bigger than the actual tiles. I feel like they went off of the TI3 tile sizes (which were bigger). This is a disappointment.

The TI4 tiles are slightly larger than TI3 tiles (as seen here ), so this seems especially strange.

33 minutes ago, MMilty said:

The TI4 tiles are slightly larger than TI3 tiles (as seen here ), so this seems especially strange.

Exactly. This is very confusing to me. TI4 tiles are bigger than TI3 tiles, not smaller. So either Flipperoverlord was not using the correct edition tiles on his new mat, or the mat's tile spaces are too large for TI4 tiles and would be much too large for TI3.

I must have my wires crossed as to which edition has the smaller tiles. I know for a fact that my TI4 tiles are smaller than the mat's spaces. I can share a picture when I get home.

When I made the comparison to the TI3 size, I just thought that would make a reasonable explanation for the incorrect mat sizing, but this is obviously not the case, as has been pointed out. I should have actually made sure that fact was correct before posting it.

2 hours ago, flipperoverlord said:

When I made the comparison to the TI3 size, I just thought that would make a reasonable explanation for the incorrect mat sizing, but this is obviously not the case, as has been pointed out. I should have actually made sure that fact was correct before posting it.

No worries. I don't doubt they flubbed, I'm just trying to figure out how in the world they made such an oversight. I'm heading to my FLGS to, theoretically, pick up my mat after work. I'll now be using their demo copy of TI4 to see for myself how poorly the tiles fit, and will not be purchasing it if they do not.

Thanks for the heads up. I wouldn't have bothered checking prior to purchasing otherwise.

edit: My store is oddly delayed in getting back to me to confirm they actually did receive the mats today (they originally said they did). I'll report back by 5pm CST on whether or not I got my mat, and if I did, with my own pictures of the size discrepancy.

It won't let me upload my picture. I assure you the size is how I described. I am literally looking at it right now on my table.

3 minutes ago, flipperoverlord said:

It won't let me upload my picture. I assure you the size is how I described. I am literally looking at it right now on my table.

It's less about believing you and more about others being able to see just how mis-sized they are. Can you upload the image to imgur.com and post the link to it?

Edit: Alternatively, you can try sending it to me in a PM and I will attempt to post it.

These two links should showcase the error enough.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kpIwVBYEHUeTdmODhad1AxdjdNOWw5enRDQmZlNm9XUk53

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kpIwVBYEHUQy0tTXl1NHd4eEdtN3Q4RkdTdDI2dUlGVWFr

1 minute ago, flipperoverlord said:

These two links should showcase the error enough.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kpIwVBYEHUeTdmODhad1AxdjdNOWw5enRDQmZlNm9XUk53

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kpIwVBYEHUQy0tTXl1NHd4eEdtN3Q4RkdTdDI2dUlGVWFr

Thank you for those. You were not joking; that is way off. Even if you center the tile in Mecatol, the third ring will still be very misplaced. I'm definitely not buying this now. I know for some it won't be that big of a deal, but for detail-oriented freaks like myself, this would bug the **** out of me.

Given TI4's development history and the number of big design changes it went through, I wonder if this reflects the earlier $250 version where they might have planned for the tiles to be even bigger. My guess is at some point, the mat and game itself were both in development, and the tile measurements were handed to the mat mockup person prior to them being finalized.

Who let this out of QA, FFG?

3 minutes ago, Smog said:

Thank you for those. You were not joking; that is way off. Even if you center the tile in Mecatol, the third ring will still be very misplaced. I'm definitely not buying this now. I know for some it won't be that big of a deal, but for detail-oriented freaks like myself, this would bug the **** out of me.

Given TI4's development history and the number of big design changes it went through, I wonder if this reflects the earlier $250 version where they might have planned for the tiles to be even bigger. My guess is at some point, the mat and game itself were both in development, and the tile measurements were handed to the mat mockup person prior to them being finalized.

Who let this out of QA, FFG?

Yeah I am pretty frustrated by it. I hope I can eventually get one that is correctly sized, and that can fit a 4th ring. That's not too much to ask for a product like this haha.

I mean, the tiles don't actually need to be touching, so it's not game-breaking or anything, but the spaces between tiles might look a little strange. Not sure how I feel about that which is sad because I was originally pretty excited for a mat.

26 minutes ago, Willange said:

I mean, the tiles don't actually need to be touching, so it's not game-breaking or anything, but the spaces between tiles might look a little strange. Not sure how I feel about that which is sad because I was originally pretty excited for a mat.

Which is honestly just awful in my opinion. I've never played a game of TI where the grid isn't touching. Without a border frame, the tiles get knocked around enough as it is; can you imagine playing without the board tiles supporting one another?

What really confuses me is that I've personally seen both Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen playing Twilight Imperium, and they didn't play with the tiles all spaced out. Who decided this was the preferred-enough setup method to warrant being represented on the official play mat?

edit: This is all obviously my opinion, and if others are happy with the spacing and tiles not touching, that's great! I've just never once personally seen a game of TI where the tiles weren't directly touching, so this is all a bit odd to me.

Bought one online because not many LGS out my way stock them, looks like they are smart and I'll be disappointed.

Cannot believe that FFG is selling a product which is essentially sub-standard.

I'll see how bad it is when I get it I guess but looks like I bought an expensive piece of garbage if this is true. I actually hope that FFG steps up for those mats which are so obviously mis-sized and replaces them.

You know, I agree it is bad. I don't like it and I will not get it because of it, but it is clearly not an oversight or an error in printing. It was intended. In fact, it was already like that during GenCon.

After reading this thread I remembered seeing some pictures during GenCon demos of the game being played with the tiles not touching each other. I thought it weird and thought it had something to do with demo purposes, the fact that people would get and lift the tiles often to take closer look and all that... but then I've searched for pictures and sure enough, they were using this play mat.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3704117/twilight-imperium-fourth-edition

1 hour ago, Mad Truckle said:

I'll see how bad it is when I get it I guess but looks like I bought an expensive piece of garbage if this is true.

I mean, it is true. The pictures are posted above; you can see it yourself.

There are a couple more pictures posted in the Reddit thread on the same topic:

As far as FFG replacing the mats? That's assuming they see this as a defective product. As discussed in the subreddit, FFG was apparently using these mats at GenCon. If you space the tiles out where there is a gap between each of them, then it works fine. The problem is that no one that I know ever plays that way, nor have I ever seen a game of TI played where the tiles aren't directly up against one another (in order to keep them from shuffling around).

It looks to me like the design was deliberate.

But shouldn't the mat prevent any shuffling anyway? I for one see no problem with spacing them out if that's the case.

Besides, it might be intentional due to expected future material shrinkage.

I've been using just a generic star field playmat that they have for Star Wars Xwing. Same size, and doesn't have annoying lines. Has enough room for 4th ring when we get 7-8 players.

20 hours ago, Smog said:

I mean, it is true. The pictures are posted above; you can see it yourself.

There are a couple more pictures posted in the Reddit thread on the same topic:

As far as FFG replacing the mats? That's assuming they see this as a defective product. As discussed in the subreddit, FFG was apparently using these mats at GenCon. If you space the tiles out where there is a gap between each of them, then it works fine. The problem is that no one that I know ever plays that way, nor have I ever seen a game of TI played where the tiles aren't directly up against one another (in order to keep them from shuffling around).

It looks to me like the design was deliberate.

Yeah, looks like I'll probably be disappointed but I have bought the mat so I might as well actually see how much it upsets me.

And as for FFG replacing the mats, yeah if it is intentional then no chance as nothing is actually wrong. But I am holding the slender hope that the company will acknowledge that this is not what the community wants and that it is not clearly advertised that the mat hexes are oversized.

But in the end, likely to be a junk purchase which is intensely frustrating and because I am Australia based its prohibitively expensive to get an alternative mat (notably the is a nice Kelsam one) because of shipping costs. Oh well.

I believe this was intentional. In the announcement it reads "... but provide a centerpiece that will immerse you in the epic space opera to come. With your unique galaxy surrounded by the starry void of space, you can enter the Twilight Imperium saga like never before. " My interpretation was that each planet tile would intentionally have additional space between them in order to add to the vastness of space.

I posted on the subreddit before following the link here. My post is quoted below:

"Every game we've played (~6) has been with the mat as our store got an advance copy. It's much nicer to have the tiles not touching, to have them floating in their hexes. This is superior to no mat, each tile touching; however, I have not used a frame before so can't comment with respect to that.

I'm really not sure about the complaints and concerns here -- touching without a frame would be much more likely to have tiles shifting and impacting other tiles. Not touching, but still enclosed in a space like is done with the mat, protects the tiles from bumping and shifting. We haven't had a single problem and have never even noticed that they don't touch. In my view, not noticing the mat outside of the pleasing visual is testament to how great it is. It does not seem intended to have the tiles placed touching."