David knott 242 |
Can you give descriptions of the Deh-Nolo, Hesper, and Bryrvath?
Deh-nolo: A brain collecting aberration
Hesper: A radioactive fey
Bryrvath: A light absorbing aberration that drives its victims insane by emitting light of various "impossible" colors.
KingOfPregens |
GM Facepalm wrote:What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?Close, they’re the baby Skittermanders.
No, the thing coming out of the baby skittermander is its secondary mouth. Only the developing stage has them. Adult skittermanders lose their secondary mouths.
Rysky the Dark Solarion |
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:No, the thing coming out of the baby skittermander is its secondary mouth. Only the developing stage has them. Adult skittermanders lose their secondary mouths.GM Facepalm wrote:What is that thing coming out of the skittermamder stomach? Is that suppose to be a feeding tube for the infantile stage?Close, they’re the baby Skittermanders.
Oh really? Neat!
Karpomatic |
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:Karpomatic wrote:It really gets old seeing people with their copies and I'm over here "pending." WTF?Be thankful you don't have to wait until the 18th to get your PDF.Could be worse.
/eye Doom Patrol
I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day. If you're a subscriber then your order gets filled first. Normal preorders should start shipping on the release date.
Rysky the Dark Solarion |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
There's no "staggering", Subscribers get their PDFs as they ship, which they are constantly doing from the first day of shipping.
Holding off and trying to ship ALL the subscriptions, with each shipment made up of different books from different lines, on the same day is ridiculously unfeasible.
Also, if Preorders shipped on street date they wouldn't be Preorders.
Redelia |
I think what he's actually after is releasing all the pdfs at once. This would be doable, but I think it would end up losing a bunch of subscribers, which would badly hurt Paizo's bottom line, since they couldn't release the pdfs to subscribers until the last shipping day.
captain yesterday |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dean HS Jones wrote:I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day. If you're a subscriber then your order gets filled first. Normal preorders should start shipping on the release date.Ambrosia Slaad wrote:Karpomatic wrote:It really gets old seeing people with their copies and I'm over here "pending." WTF?Be thankful you don't have to wait until the 18th to get your PDF.Could be worse.
/eye Doom Patrol
As someone that fills online orders I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty it's not that easy.
Patience, your book will come.
My order hasn't shipped yet either, but as a very wise person once told me "it'll get here when it gets here" - my dad, as I waited for my novelty glasses I ordered from the back of a comic book.
So, no worries!
gbonehead Owner - House of Books and Games LLC |
Steve Geddes |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I just think they should release all the subscriber orders at once. This staggered crap is nuts. How can people have the book for weeks and others are still pending. Pack up and hold all the subscriber orders until they are all ready to ship then send them all the same day.
They are packing thousands of orders of varying size/weight/complexity and they have half a dozen people. Piling all the orders in a corner til they’ve finished everyone’s package would slow things down considerably.
It sucks to be at the end of the queue but a subscriber still gets their book early 99% of the time. I try to focus on the streetdate when my order spawns, rather than the early, lucky people who get their books on day one of the shipping window.
Paizo shift the order of the batched orders around a little, so some months you’ll be early and some months late in the process.
The reason they don’t release preorders later than subscribers is that it would disincentivise purchases. I get preorders and odds and sods orders most months and add them to my subscription. If doing so meant my order was delayed, I’d very likely order less.
Lanitril |
I just think it would be super neat if they released all the PDFs at once? Whether that means they charge me before it ships or not. I'm to understand that's not completely as easy as one would think?
But maybe we can steer it back to what this book is about?
Skittermanders.
So people with the book, how do you intend to use Skittermanders in your game?
Squeakmaan |
Interestingly my copy of the Adventure Path shipped but not my copy of the Archive. I'm wondering if they combined it with my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription, since I seem to recall combined shipments going out later. Odd, but 1 week before street date vs 2 weeks before street date is hardly a hardhsip.
Lisa Stevens CEO |
6 people marked this as a favorite. |
There's a big back order. To get the book out this early they had to order it before they had a full idea of how popular Starfinder was going to be, which means they weren't able to order enough to fulfill demand. The pdf will be available from the 18th but physical copies will take longer to get a hold of.
There are quite a few copies going into our distribution network to be released on the 18th of October. We are sold out and jumped on a print run back in late July when it was clear we didn't print enough. The reprint will be here in November/December, depending on how the kind the printing and shipping gods are to us. But there are a lot of copies going to friendly local retail stores, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and many other places, so go talk to your retailer of choice and hopefully you can get one on the release date.
-Lisa
Luthorne |
are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?
Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!
Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.
Franz Lunzer |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
zergtitan wrote:are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!
Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.
From the monthly shipping thread:
End Shipping Estimate: Friday, October 13th
So some time this week, you'll have the PDF, in all likelihood.
Marco Massoudi |
Luke Spencer wrote:There's a big back order. To get the book out this early they had to order it before they had a full idea of how popular Starfinder was going to be, which means they weren't able to order enough to fulfill demand. The pdf will be available from the 18th but physical copies will take longer to get a hold of.There are quite a few copies going into our distribution network to be released on the 18th of October. We are sold out and jumped on a print run back in late July when it was clear we didn't print enough. The reprint will be here in November/December, depending on how the kind the printing and shipping gods are to us. But there are a lot of copies going to friendly local retail stores, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and many other places, so go talk to your retailer of choice and hopefully you can get one on the release date.
-Lisa
Thank you for the info, Lisa.
Are the print run numbers going to be higher from the "Pact Worlds" hardcover release (april 2018) onwards or will that decision being made later still (after the first AP is finished in june 2018)?
-Marco
Luthorne |
Luthorne wrote:zergtitan wrote:are any of the other subscribers like me still waiting on their shipping notifications?Yeah, it's not that uncommon for it to not ship the first week...even if I would prefer it that way!
Edit: And if it was unclear...still waiting on my subscription.
From the monthly shipping thread:
Quote:End Shipping Estimate: Friday, October 13thSo some time this week, you'll have the PDF, in all likelihood.
I am aware, yes, usually it's a two week shipping window, though I think there's been a three week one a time or two if I recall correctly...? Anyways, it's nice when it ships the first week, but can hardly be expected! Unless you're Skeld, I suppose.
Franz Lunzer |
I am aware, yes, usually it's a two week shipping window, though I think there's been a three week one a time or two if I recall correctly...? Anyways, it's nice when it ships the first week, but can hardly be expected! Unless you're Skeld, I suppose.
Sorry, that was directed at zergtitan, not at you Luthorne. :D
Agent Eclipse |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.
Vexies |
6 people marked this as a favorite. |
The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.
There are many reasons they do this. One is a perk of subscribing to get it for free not necessarily to get it early. Two the system doesnt release the PDF until the account is actually charged. IF they changed it so everyone got the PDF at the same time then no one would get it until all the orders had shipped which would be a huge downer and a pretty big ding to the whole perk to begin with. If they released the PDF before the book actually shipped this simply opens up a window for disreputable people to cancel their order once they had the PDF and lead to loss of sales.
However honestly if your playing online through a app like roll20 like myself then the free PDF is the pay off here as its necessary for me anyway but I prefer to read and collect the real book.
Paul Watson |
For those pending, are subscribers guaranteed a copy by the release date?
No. It's highly likely but not guaranteed. We have had orders where the release date had happened by the time a small percentage of the subscriber base got their orders shipped. As the shipping process is essentially random, it is unlikely to happen twice in a row, but it still is frustrating when it happens to you.
Redelia |
The issue is that they give pdf access as soon as your order can't be cancelled. They would lose more subscriptions if people couldn't cancel orders before they shipped because they already had pdf access. So the only way to give pdf access at the same time for everyone is to not grant any of them until all subscriptions have shipped.
Xenocrat |
Ah let me add, for me and I know a few others as well.
It makes zero sense for some subscribers to get the PDF access before others. Shipping is a logistical nightmare on this scale but PDF access is not.
My guess is it's a legal or customer service issue, either via the Uniform Commercial Code or hypothetical litigation and customer service complaints/gamesmanship they don't want to deal with under contractual terms they introduce to lock people in upon delivery of the free pdf. There's really nothing to keep someone from trying to cancel (and tell their credit card company to reverse the charges) if they receive a free pdf and then cancel their physical order immediately after.
Paizo also does a lot of international business. Do you know the EU regulations governing this sort of two tier shipping and hypothetic bonus free good delivered in advance if someone cancels after the first "free" part is delivered? Do you think Paizo wants to spend money trying to find out or deal with it?
Vexies |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There are other potential avenues to get the Starfinder product. In the end its a choice of what makes most sense to you. Im sure Paizo is pleased that you purchase it not so much where. For them Subscriptions give them a steady stream of income that they can measure and reasonably count on. This helps them gauge interest and plan future releases as well as project budget.
The rest is just incentives to entice the customer to buy direct and support the company. Some get it early but all of us should get the PDF earlier than non-subscribers anyway and the added lottery of when will it ship this month kind of adds to the excitement (for me anyway) even when Im on the tail end of it like this month..
Hoping to see that notification today. :)
Steve Geddes |
KingOfNinjas wrote:Some months you get lucky and ship on the first day, and some months your order is last out the door.
i guess it's a subtle encouragement to subscribe to more product lines.
;-P
The algorithm is arcane and not easy to reverse engineer, but having a lot of subscriptions doesn’t seem to be a significant factor, as far as I can tell. I’m sometimes early and sometimes late in the queue (one year I even received my September shipment before my August one had arrived).
Steve Geddes |
5 people marked this as a favorite. |
It’s probably better for us to take discussion of the subscription itself to the product page of the subscription rather than this specific book. That will at least help potential new subscribers understand the various issues - they’re unlikely to see information here, once this book drops off the front page.
Timbo8705 |
Agent Eclipse wrote:The big problem here isn't that we are waiting on the physical copy to ship but that subscribers aren't even getting access to the PDF while we wait. It is insane that some subscribers are getting access to the PDFs while others are not. It does make you rethink the subscriptions.There are many reasons they do this. One is a perk of subscribing to get it for free not necessarily to get it early. Two the system doesnt release the PDF until the account is actually charged. IF they changed it so everyone got the PDF at the same time then no one would get it until all the orders had shipped which would be a huge downer and a pretty big ding to the whole perk to begin with. If they released the PDF before the book actually shipped this simply opens up a window for disreputable people to cancel their order once they had the PDF and lead to loss of sales.
However honestly if your playing online through a app like roll20 like myself then the free PDF is the pay off here as its necessary for me anyway but I prefer to read and collect the real book.
It's a pretty big ding to the whole perk being one of the only people who doesn't have access to it despite being a subscriber. If early access isn't part of the perk, it shouldn't be part of the perk for everyone, not just a select few whose orders processed slower. There is no understandable reason for anyone to have the PDF already if everyone doesn't have it. If that means they have to wait until the 18th when the street copies go live to unlock the downloads then so be it, but it's not right some people have now and others don't, despite having the same subscription. Why am I paying for a service if it's a coin toss that it's even providing what I'm paying for?
Redelia |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
What you are paying for is the hardcover book. Even if yours is the last copy to ship, you are getting what you are paying for (the hard copy of the book) and a free bonus (the pdf). On top of that, you are getting the pdf before it can be purchased.