Physical items

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Draco, Mar 28, 2018.

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  1. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    Not yet but they have shown us during telethons some of what they are making and truly they looked awesome and will be well worth the wait. And if you decide to come play I am Majoria in game and would be truly honored to help anytime. :)
     
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  2. HoustonDragon

    HoustonDragon Avatar

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    Email to support@portalarium.com and they should be able to assist you.
     
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  3. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

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    I personally have great confidence we will get the best physical goods possible. Here's why:

    [​IMG]

    I had the opportunity to be at Portalarium in February and March for the telethons, launch, etc.

    I watched as Scottie Jones patiently and with the utmost care created the prototypes for the physical items. Every minor detail is important to him and the team. He worked on items until midnight and beyond in many cases. He hand-made the box prototype to know exactly what it would look like in production. He worked (literally) feverishly right up to the deadlines placed on him. He's a perfectionist and they intend for us to get perfection as well. He showed us the items on the last postmortem and I think most of us were blown away.

    If they are packing more into the box too, I'm sure they believe it is worth it and I trust them.

    [​IMG]

    Also, prototyping the items perfectly by hand is one thing. Placing the items into mass production is another thing and we can hope the production facility (wherever/however that is done) does a perfect job too. I imagine Portalarium has very high standards for this.

    In the past years, we've watched the Portalarium team have a vision in mind for something, get our feedback, and then iterate over its production. The difference with physical goods is they get one shot at this ... they can't patch the boxed goods to us if we don't like what we receive.

    As a side note, when I visit Portalarium I hear the developers' voices and see their faces. They are energized, passionate, and focused about what they can deliver to us digitally and physically. Their attitudes say it all to me; they have the utmost respect for us backers. They won't deliver us any cheesy mimeographed items or things with burrs on them. They'll include what we expect and more.

    Whatever the wait is for the physical goods, it's worth the wait to me.

    Thanks for listening.
     
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  4. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    Yeah man, @Scottie for the win! Whenever I hear him talk about whatever he is working on, it's so obvious how meticulous and passionate he is about it.
     
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  5. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Thanks, friends, so very much for your trust and confidence... These last several weeks have been incredibly intense as we try to make sure these physical goods are right... What you saw me display during the Telethon was merely the tip of the iceberg... Everything from careful layout in Photoshop and InDesign, to running around town locally and online gathering samples to make sure the embossed gold collector's label lives up to our expectations of quality... Personally hand-carting the 14 reams of different parchment through the pouring rain (literally yesterday! Hah!), to load them in my RAV-4 and drive them down to our local printing company to begin the process of getting the Property Deeds and Tinkerer's Certificates printed perfectly... Hand-crafting the prototypes for the two booklets at a local copy-shop to ensure that our printers understand the specifics of the final product (and so that you fine folks could get a preview gander at them). And of course working closely with Dallas and Rild as we wrangle the various manufacturers and fulfillment places, to ensure all of their ducks are in a row...

    So, yeah,...I've been living in crazy-town for the last many weeks... And like Winfield said, I was literally doing a lot of this while I was sick as a dog... (those four, poor fans of the game that stayed at my house got to see me at my worst!) Some kind of prolonged sinus infection yucky-ness. Fun stuff!

    Just last night I got over a bit of a hump as I finished the awesome "Akalabeth" portion of the "Epic Origin" booklet (photos of little lead miniatures and all), and have moved onto the "Story of Mondain" part (not as "messy and complex" as the Akalabeth gaming module session, but still mired deeply in the 1970s none-the-less... ^_^)... Now, all I have to do is finish that, get back the stickers so that Richard can begin the month-long process of hand-signing everything (OMG he's gonna snap his arm off during all of that), create the back of the Runic Card containing the handy keyboard-shortcut chart, and then lean on the folks here to give me the final version of the "Adventurer's Manual" text so I can at last finish the final layout for that and incorporate all of Denis' new artwork!!! Once all that's done, the rest will be handled by the fulfillment house as it assembles everything we've done!

    But, yes, for all those folks on this thread concerned that they are hearing no "specific dates" and such, I promise you there's no conspiracy or failure,...just a bunch of spinning plates that folks like me, Dallas, and Rild are trying to juggle, while simultaneously dealing with various manufacturer delays and hitches, most of them surprises when they happen, but sometimes inexorable "knowns" (such as Chinese New Year) that other issues push us into when we are hit by THOSE in some blind-sided fashion... No mystery here, just us not even capable of actually nailing it down to the day or specific week due to so many moving parts in the process, not all of which are under our control...

    I earnestly hope you folks love all this stuff... It's definitely been an arduous but amazing birthing process...

    Scottie ^_^
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2018
  6. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    You are awesome!!
     
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  7. Krakinbrews

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    Will definitely give it a shot. It would really be a letdown if i missed out. I have been an Ultima fan since my Atari 800 days.

    Thanks!
     
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  8. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    Absolute Worst Case Scenario is your loot is delayed... Also, remember nothing has shipped yet... they're still in the process of Producing most of the items... and the deadline you missed was set in anticipation of Physical Goods shipping out in April... That's now been delayed a couple of months... Please check with support, but I suspect you're fine.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2018
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  9. Razimus

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    We've all waited a bit, we can wait some more. Because Garriott is famous for his game trinkets I'm sure he wants them to be up to par with his previous games. So this will probably end up being a good thing, higher quality trinkets is what we all will appreciate in the long run. I can wait. Besides, infinity + infinity is still infinity lol.
     
  10. Echondas

    Echondas Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    I joined this game too late to qualify for these physical goods, unfortunately - but what I’ve seen presented so far equals what’s in my parents’ basement in a box (unless they tossed it) of the original Ultima games - cheers to the folks putting their life blood into making these possible for the folks that got this game moving before I even heard of it.
     
  11. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I think they mentioned that they would have extras folks could purchase. So you may still have a chance. :)
     
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  12. Hellscream

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    Some way i can get latest news on that? On it's day i bought a low Level pledge and i regret a lot, so i'd get physical stuff if available
     
  13. Scottie

    Scottie Master Artisan SOTA Developer

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    Yes! This is true! We will have a decent amount of extras available for sale to those who came in too late to pledge for them in the initial Kickstarter...which we will assemble into a basic "Retail Box"... It won't have all the "bells-and-whistles" of the Collector's Boxes achieved through the box-receiving Kickstarter pledge, but that essentially means that it won't have its items signed, it won't have the gold-embossed "collector's sticker", it won't have any of the property deeds or the certificate, etc... However, currently, what we ARE planning to include with it is the box itself containing the Adventurer's Manual, the DVD Installer disc & Soundtrack, an unsigned Cloth Map, and the Ankh,...just like the boxes in the old days...

    We are even making extra ankhs, maps, and "Our Epic Origin" (Akalabeth/Mondain) booklets that can be purchased by those who didn't receive them as part of the Kickstarter stuff...

    So, hopefully, when all the dust settles, there will be plenty of cool stuff for everyone to enjoy!

    Once the whole "physical goods" tasks are all complete, and we have a firm count about what, exactly, we are getting back, then we'll post a list of what's available, and how to get it!

    Scottie ^_^
     
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  14. Nikko

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    Yikes. We have been waiting almost 5 years for this. Is this couple of months here really worth complaining about? I think June 30th is pretty darn close, given the larger picture here. Do we want garbage, or do we want good quality items?
     
  15. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I couldn't agree more and after seeing all the great work @Scottie has put into making these items, I can wait a few more months! :D
     
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  16. Bluefire

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    Patience is a part of Sacrifice. (You sacrifice time and complaining to exercise patience). I, however, am not happy unless I have something to complain about..

    I somewhat eagerly await the "We have started shipping" announcement.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2018
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  17. Koldar

    Koldar Avatar

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    And scope creep. ;)
     
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  18. Floors

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    Does anyone know what the trinket is ? Is it a COTO ? lol :)
     
  19. Sir Frank

    Sir Frank Master of the Mint

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    Ankh
     
  20. HoustonDragon

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