FFG...I hate this new format for posts. Why is it that we can no longer comment on a news items page? Why do we have to leave the page, come in to the forum, and create a new topic simply to comment on a news post? This is lame.

Totally Agree!!

Pander by the Way no plastic Shops and Troops is a NO GO!!!

Actually, I'm a big fan of this format. I was sick of seeing people being whiny on the front page about things that had nothing to do with the game itself. I recall some dude that would complain about a Tide of Iron expansion not being released on every news item. This past week FFG announced a new novel and the only comment was a criticism about how fast the other novels weren't being released.

If you care that much about a game or piece of news, log in and go to forum.

FFG takes enough **** on their own boards, it doesn't have to get smeared all over a big announcement that they've been preparing for months.

sepayne7l said:

The Old Man said:

For a point well said (albeit a tad too passionate), sepayne71 deserves the claps. If people want to love or hate FFG's latest product, forums is a good place to read about it. Between Fortress America and the Forbidden Alchemy apology, having footnotes at the bottom by customers or would-be customers that put down their enterprise and their products distastefully has crossed a line. Don't get me wrong: I favor constructive criticism, and I also favored the beginning of this post; but as I scrolled down and read sepayne71's response, I reflected and realized FFG should have the right to tidy their news releases. It's good business and others are free to speak still in the forums as they please.

What a bunch of BS. If FFG would pay just a little more attention to detail they wouldn't have people complaining on the front page. This is a whitewash so that they can remove the deserved negative criticism they recieve when they roll out a flawed product...looking at you Mansions of Madness...or an unedited, mistake ridden announcment...looking at you Warhammer:Invasion. This is the same as trying to bury a story on the back page when you dont want the public to read all of the critical remarks your getting for your mistakes. What a crock.

If FFG's forum users would pay more attention, they'd realize this is entirely the wrong forum for these complaints.

Adam said:

Wow...if posters posting about forum users would pay more attention they would realize that the link on the news page says..." discuss this article in our forums". The link leads here. Right here. Right where I am at now. So, here I am...discussing it just as the link suggested I do. You must work for FFG. You pay attention about as well as their editors.

Except you aren't. Nowhere in your post do I see mention of Rex. You are discussing the general format of all new posts, which should be discussed in the company's general forum. Otherwise, we'd have threads like this in every single game forum after a few weeks, all saying discussing the same thing. If your post has nothing to do with lions wearing eyepatches, it is in the wrong place. The forum I linked you to is for suggestions about the site, which would be a better place to suggest they revert to the old format, if that is what you prefer.

And for the record, I was only parroting the phrasing of the post above me, not asking to trade insults. At least half of your post is way out of line, and I'd appreciate it if we could keep things civil.

I don't have to mention Rex in my post. I was asked to "discuss this article...". This article has an obviously large elephant in the corner. The new format being used for "this article" is a drastic change to the way things were done previously. Yet, there is no mention as to why the change was made. So, I hit the link and I was brought HERE. So, HERE I shall discuss what I believe to be the most important aspect of "this article". I would appreciate a lot of things myself...just parroting.

[slash] ignore thread.

Adam said:

This thread is now about lions wearing eyepatches.

So what's the deal with the Hacan? One of the six Great Races, big ol' pictures on both game boxes and yet we've not had a whisker of official fiction about them! Clearly FFG are fans of the fuzzy merchants since they're an odd mascot for a space opera, being amongst the less "alien" looking, so it's odd that we don't know that much about them.

I'm curious to know, from a story perspective, the chain of events that led to a caste of space merchants from simple trade to seriously considering a political coup of this magnitude. Out of all the Great Races, their active involvement doesn't make a whole lot of sense; better to work in the shadows then to get your paws dirty I would've thought..

Is there much official fiction out there on any of the races? I've read the story in the TI3 book and the one in the back of Rex. I'm sure the expansions have a little story in their books, too, but where else would you find TI fiction? I mostly want to know about the Hacan, so it wouldn't help me much, but I'd probably give any TI fiction a glance at least.

[slash] unignore thread

There has been a (with very bad reviews) rpg several years back from FFG about the TI universe. Maybe you can find some more info about the background.

IMO in theory the setting has potential to become an excellent one, (a mix between Dune and Star Wars) but when you count the very light information the last years there is not much love from FFG anymore for it I guess.

Treguard said:

I expect their design was initially inspired by the Kilrathi (?) from the Wing commander series, at least graphically. They're both talking lion people at any rate. I don't really know much about Wing Commander, other than it had talking lion people in it though, and Mark Hammil was involved in voice work for one or more of the games. I vaguely recall one lion-person with an eye-patch, too =P

The fluff on the back on their race sheet in TI3 discusses a certain highly addictive "spice" that they farm on one of their three home planets, which is somehow connected to their strong trade empire (apparently, the "spice" must "be evenly distributed in a timely fashion.")

I've got the game in. Each race sheet has a story / description on the back of it that is pretty cool. The Hacan's role in the story of Rex comes about because the Lazax were using trade embargoes instead of military action to punish those who defied them through separatism. This upset the Hacan because they were losing trade -- and though not directly stated, I could see how this would irk them, as each punishment against another race is a cumulative punishment against them, despite their uninvolvment. It is well written overall. I'd sure love to know more about the setting now.

I especially like that the new Bene Gesserit (the Xxcha) actually sound like the "good guys" while the Atreides (Jol-Nar) are perhaps less so, not that any of it is so black and white. The factions all sound like good fits for their abilities without being shoehorned into every facet of the roles they inherited from Dune.

Adam said:

I agree. The fluff on the back of the race sheets does a lot to make the factions "fit" into the racial abilities they've been given, without making them thiny veiled clones of the Dune factions they came from. The setting is less about Machiavellian politics and more about the chaos of civil war (a shift towards the action side of things), but there's still plenty of room for all the things that made Dune such a great game, mechanically.

Rex will never completely replace Dune (did anyone seriously expect that it would?), but it is a great homage and it will keep the game engine alive for a new generation of gamers, so all in all I'd say FFG done good.

Treguard said:

This thread is now about lions wearing eyepatches.

So what's the deal with the Hacan? One of the six Great Races, big ol' pictures on both game boxes and yet we've not had a whisker of official fiction about them! Clearly FFG are fans of the fuzzy merchants since they're an odd mascot for a space opera, being amongst the less "alien" looking, so it's odd that we don't know that much about them.

I expect their design was initially inspired by the Kilrathi (?) from the Wing commander series, at least graphically. They're both talking lion people at any rate. I don't really know much about Wing Commander, other than it had talking lion people in it though, and Mark Hammil was involved in voice work for one or more of the games. I vaguely recall one lion-person with an eye-patch, too =P

The fluff on the back on their race sheet in TI3 discusses a certain highly addictive "spice" that they farm on one of their three home planets, which is somehow connected to their strong trade empire (apparently, the "spice" must "be evenly distributed in a timely fashion.")

Mark Hamill actually starred in the live-action/CGI cutscenes of the Wing Commander III, IV, and V video games, not just voice work. (as did Tom Wilson, aka: Biff Tannen from "Back to the Future") They also starred Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys-Davies.

I miss those Wing Commander games. (not the movie; it was terrible.) Apparently, there was also a short-lived animated TV show which also starred Mark Hamill, of course just as a voice actor.

But yes, I agree. I thought of the Kilrathi immediately when I first Twilight Imperium.

Sorry about that last post. Apparently, there was some sort of glitch in the system. That whole first section was supposed to be a quote from earlier in the thread.