MechaTop

Still delays from China
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 02, 2021 at 04:34:39 AM

Dearest backer,

Unfortunately the Chinese manufacturer, one week after the announced delivery date, has not yet shipped. 😢

In addition to the inconvenience we are causing to our backers, and to the image damage this brings us, for us this delay is a concrete cost:

- we've been paying rent in a warehouse since December (which houses the books printed in Italy, the buildings, the boxes for shipping...);

- We can't launch new projects on Kickstarter until we deliver this one;

- We're not getting our investment back through product sales outside of pre-order. 

So this time we got really upset 😡 and turned to our trusted law firm to see what options we have. 

We are 100% right and in any other scenario we would have fought to get back the deposit paid at the signing of the contract (since they did not respect the delivery date) and then turn to a new supplier, or for have a big discount on the whole supply. 

Unfortunately, in our case, asking a new supplier to make the whole production from scratch would take a lot of time... 

So even if from a legal point of view we have all the reasons, they advised us to move with astuteness to avoid even worse scenarios:

Threatening them to want our deposit back, for example, or to ask for a discount on the supply could lead them to think:

"ok these guys are making a mess, let's focus on other projects where we have a better profit..." 

...and put MechaTop in the oblivion... 

That's not what we want at all: the material is all ready and we are therefore pushing, at the rate of 3 e-mails a day, to make sure that the last assembling operations are completed and the shipment organized. 

We are really exhausted by this relationship with the supplier, where we have to insist in this way to have what we are entitled to by contract. 😰

That's why when we see initiatives like the one organized by @DavidKiba our hearts are filled with joy. 🥰

Above all, seeing the enthusiasm that MechaTop generates in the players repays us for all the hard work and passion that we have put into this project! 🤩 🥳

Please be patient, we are doing our best to solve this situation in a diplomatic but resolute way. 🤓

Thanks for your support, we wish you a wonderful weekend

MechaTop team

First remote tournament match
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 03:16:48 AM

Good morning dear pilot! 🍀

Today we want to share with you the video we shot during the first game of the remote tournament of #mechatopteam (the photo contest we organized on Facebook).

We had to overwrite the audio in some places as the connection took a while to stabilize. 

We handled it as a video conference with Skype:

...despite the distance (Italy - USA) and the language barrier, we managed to play and have a lot of fun! 

Christian and Jesse had such a good time that they have already set up a rematch, after the tournament is over. 😎 🥳

Now it's the turn of the next contestants: we await the next volunteer couple who will want to challenge each other. We will be the host of the match, managing the battlefield and answering any questions about the rules.

...we also collected all the questions we were asked on Discord and via email, in a single document that we saved in the Mega cloud database, under the F.A.Q. folder. 🤓

The database is growing exponentially: thanks to your contribution now the "FAN CARD" folder contains 134 stat cards! 

Outstanding!!! 🥰 🤩

...don't forget to click on the clock icon to see all the additions since your last login! 🧐

...then...

For all those who have already received their digital rewards and are waiting for the next Kickstarter (the sequel to MechaTop with the special infantry rules) we want to tell you that the first version of the rules, which already convinced us, has been modified/revised 4 times! 🤓 🧐

We are game maniacs and want to create something unique, as frantic as the MechaTop round but just as simple and fun.  🥳

Our playtest team is more committed than ever to this mission! 😎

...but we can tell you that we are already very close to the goal! 

...then we were wondering: how many pilot/special forces miniatures (32 mm, 1/48 scale) do you expect to find in the next base set?

Less than 9?

From 10 to 15?

More than 16?

Of course, in the next Kickstarter, the stretch goals will be extra free miniatures! 🥳 🥰 🤩

Please let us know your opinion, it is very important to us! 

Thank you and enjoy! 

...and so we are officially late
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 07:33:43 AM

There's nothing worse than failing the deliver date... 😭

Although, on Kickstarter's advice, we had already added 3 months to our planned delivery date. (December)

The files needed for production had been sent to the Chinese manufacturer in early October 2020. 

They declared: 2 weeks to produce it and then we will ship it to you... 

In the following weeks we synchronized in their time zone to answer in real time to their emails and reduce the response time. 

At the beginning of November everything seemed ready to go but they (according to them) had problems with the second wave of Covid. 

Then there was Christmas, their Chinese New Year.... 

They were supposed to reopen on February 24th (as announced in the last update) but instead they reopened on March 1st and for the first week they couldn't be very productive. 

Today they sent us a series of pictures to show that everything is ready, only missing the assembly of the various components in the basic set. 

They estimate to complete the assembly process between March 20 and 25. 

We have asked them to arrange shipping already so that as soon as the material is ready it will be shipped immediately. 

We'll keep you posted on the next steps!

It will still be a bit of a wait but it will be worth it! 

We assure you! 

In the meantime we decided to organize the first Mechatop remote tournament, involving the first 8 winners of the Facebook contest #mechatopteam 

Below is the video that summarizes all the teams:

...and this is the video of the tournament name extraction (between the 8 winners):

And this is the tournament board with the names positioned:

All participants are very excited and we will be sharing the matches on video. 

Preview of the first match:

Last we want to show you a video where Christian explains how to play MechaTop remotely:

Thank you for your attention and patience! 

See you soon

MechaTop team

MechaTop news
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 08:20:22 AM

Good morning dear pilot! 🥳

These days we didn't have any update from the Chinese manufacturer as they are closed for vacation: Chinese New Year. 

They will reopen on the 24th and we will be ready to solicit them every day!

In these days we have finally defined how to manage the MechaTop world tournament. 🥰

The "tournament" topic is the one that gave us the most trouble: we wanted to do something not too demanding (for those who don't have time to play at least one game a week) but not too light either... With a few games per month.  😢

So we have found a solution that satisfies everyone! 🤩😎

Here are the specifications of the MechaTop world tournament:

When?

After the summer, in early October 2021 

(we want you to have lot of time to play it and become an expert in it)

How long will it last?

6 months, until mid-April 2022

How to participate?

Through the Tournament ID code related to each basic set of MechaTop. 

(Just send us an email with your lineup cards for a double check on the scores).

The team must be 1,800 points and composed of one to a maximum of five units.

How many matches are there in total?

There is no minimum or maximum number.

Each player starts with a fixed score that will increase (in case of victory) or decrease (in case of defeat).

A higher score will be awarded when meeting new opponents and a higher penalty when fighting the same opponent again and again.

It will be possible to contact other Brave Pilots to perform remote matches in order to always face new opponents (and earn more points in case of victory). 😍

At the end of the qualifying period, the top eight pilots (with the highest scores) will face each other in elimination matches. 

Also we would like to inform you that we have uploaded 3 new Kaiju to the Mega cloud: Godzilla, Gamera and Kumonga... 🦖🐢🕷

...and the total number of cards has reached 340!!! 

(Thanks also to the powerful contribution of some Brave Pilots! 😎🥰)

Soon we will also release the new Excel file for simplified creation of Kaiju and super robots over 50 meters tall.  🥳🤩

That's it for this week! 

We wish you a fantastic weekend! 🥰

MechaTop team

Assembling in progress
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 11:48:19 AM

Good morning dear pilot,

sorry we haven't been in touch for a while but we've been very busy on multiple topics!

First of all we want to share with you the latest photos from the manifacturer in China: 

...the production is nearly finished and then it's time to assemble each box with the various components.

Even the cardboard tokens in fact will be already separated and inserted into the appropriate compartments of the box.

Then they have to add the 12 custom dice, the 50 button tokens, the rule book in hardcover...

Hopefully this process won't take too long and they will ship all the mass production to us as soon as possible.... Let's keep our fingers crossed! 

After this quick production update, we'll tell you about the topics that have been keeping us busy these past few days: 

- We have prepared everything for shipping: as soon as we receive the material from China we will be ready to ship it to you. We have printed out all the orders and divided them by the size of the box required. We have bought the boxes for shipping and prepared all the address labels to be applied to them. 

- We are continuing to test the infantry mode (which will be released in the upcoming Kickstarter) with new changes that bring it more and more in harmony with the mecha mode. The rulebook is getting as big as MechaTop's so we are thinking of making 2 books: one for the infantry rulebook and one for the second part of the campaign trilogy. 

The infantry rules, in fact, in addition to regulate every aspect of the characters (climbing obstacles, hiding ...), also provides new skills and a special section for the customization of cyborg units! 

The second campaign book instead will contain a section for how to progress "Self Existing units": level up transformers, Kaiju... 

- Francesca is working on including infantry miniatures in the next edition!!! She is working with a sculptor  and in parallel is also looking for a 3D artist for possible scenarios or semi-robotic miniatures! 

- Christian is already working on the big ships rulebook: for this reason he made some last minute changes also to the infantry rulebook that the playtest group is testing... His goal is to create a harmonious game where infantry, mecha and big ships fight at the same time in the fast MechaTop turn. For example, a ship will board another ship and infantry units will invade it and fight in the corridors... 

- We have also created a new folder on Mega that contains the cards you are sending us! (Thanks for sharing!)

- Then as a last thing we want to share with you the enthusiasm of the brave pilots that on Facebook are sharing their first MechaTop formations: #mechatopteam

In the following video the summary of the first three weeks of the contest:

That's all for now!

Have a great rest of the week! 

MechaTop team