Envelopes of Cash: The College Football Recruiting Game

A Man, a Plan, a Canal, Envelopes of Cash
8 months ago – Thu, Sep 07, 2023 at 03:41:09 PM

Quick note to say the games are a day or so away from queuing for the transit through Panama to get from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.  

However, Roseanne Rosannadanna was correct when she said "It's always something.  If it's not one thing, it's another." 

In this case, the latest complication for Envelopes of Cash reaching your home is that there are delays in getting into the Panama canal queue.  According to the folks at Ark Transport:

The canal conditions are worsening. All of the vessels are experiencing some manner of delay. However, there does not appear to be a discernable rhyme or reason to why some vessels are delayed significantly longer than others. At this time, the carrier has not posted any change to the transit of this vessel. Despite this I think it is reasonable to assume at least a 1 week delay.

As best I understood the schedule, the original arrival in NYC (after which the journey switches to train transport) was set for September 15.  So if we're lucky, the delay won't be beyond a week.  If all holds, I do think you will have your games in hand (at least for USA customers) before Big Game between ACC rivals Stanford and Cal (Nov 18).  Fingers crossed!

In digital news, the game is in great shape.  We are in beta and are queued for final release.  BGA's queue may last longer than the Panama Canal's but the game is fully playable in its current state.  If you need a BGA account, make one here:  https://boardgamearena.com/?h=3ld8  

The game can be found here:  https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=envelopesofcash 

ABC,

Andy

Short Pictorial Update
9 months ago – Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 05:59:30 PM

The ship set sail on August 17.  Our estimated date of arrival in New York is September 14.

Current best estimate of position:

ABC,

Andy

Slow Boat from China
9 months ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 07:56:12 AM

Ok, so I am happy to announce our games are now onboard a ship (of Liberian registry) known as the CCNI Andes.  I take that as a good omen since the ship is Andy's.  The sailing date was supposed to be August 13, but I've been informed the ship will now depart Ningbo on August 15.  Which is tomorrow (as I type this) but it is already 11pm on the 14th in Ningbo, so it may sail today before we go to sleep in the US.

Thanks to friends of EoC, Zac Santangelo and "Kicking Game" who both provided help on how to track a ship's progress online.  You can see (with a lag of a day or three) where the ship is in its progress by using this link: https://www.marinevesseltraffic.com/vessels/CCNI-ANDES/CURRENT-POSITION/9718935/636092898.  Clicking it today shows the ship was not yet in Ningbo 2 days ago, which may explain why the departure from Ningbo was pushed back two days, but the folks at Ark Transport have assured me the ship is in Ningbo currently and the 600 games, 100 packs of sleeves, and 1 pack of spare parts is all onboard and ready to set sail when the Andes does.

So yay.  the direction is wrong but perhaps we can celebrate with this classic, "On a Slow Boat to China": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMVtDI4o8s.  This Kay Keser Orchestra version is not the famous Lee/Crosby rendition, but it has a great 1940s swing to it.

ABC,

Andy

p.s. in Digital news, the game is cooking along, now in Beta, and the bugs are arriving far less frequently as we push forward.  Come play today!

Shipment has begun
9 months ago – Mon, Aug 07, 2023 at 06:19:21 AM

Today I received word that our games have arrived at the dock in Ningbo.  Here's a bit of the paperwork such a process generates.

Note that the 100 sleeves will be packed into the shipments of the 98 of you who ordered sleeves  (and 2 leftover for, I don't know, sleeving my copy?  ping me if you want a good deal on 120 sleeves.  :-)  ).  The accessories are a small number of spare parts in the event of damage, etc.

I am told the games will be on a ship on August 13.  I am also told they will be able to tell me the name of the ship but we will have to track it ourselves, there isn't a company-provided tracking tool to watch the ship in real time.  Perhaps one of you kind backers knows how to track a ship and could share in the comments.

Good news also on the digital front.  The game has been promoted from Alpha test to Beta test.  Now anyone on BGA can play (if you need a BGA account, use this: https://boardgamearena.com/?h=3ld8) and people can start getting rated in their abilities.  I've been told an interactive tutorial is in the works, and then once we move from Beta to Final Release, I will set up an online tournament.

So a happy Monday update for you all and always be crootin!

Andy

p.s. There is no truth to the rumor that I am working on an EoC expansion pack called "Realignment"

Further Updates.
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 06:58:49 AM

I have received the following news from Gameland in my response to whether we had an estimated date for shipping the games from China:

Hi Andy,

 Yes, our workers are packing the goods today.

 The ETD is 13th of August.

-------------

Ok, so the day  when your games will have been put into shipping pallets and delivered to the freight company is drawing near.  And yes, I am aware Gameland also said this would happen in mid-March, and also mid-May, but I am optimitic this time that soon I will be able to tell you they are actually en route and thus we are entering the next stage of this journey together.  I do not yet know the name of the ship they will be put on, but when I have that info I will share.

But wait, there's more.  As some of you may recall, very late in the process of printing, I discovered some small text/graphical errors on a couple of cards and in the rulebook, but it was too late to get the fixes into the final printed version.  I was not sure how I would best address this, but I have settled on a solution.  When you get your game, you will find in the same package 5 stickers and one additional printed sheet of rules.  The five stickers will be designed for you to place onto 4 cards and 1 head coach tile.  if you're a sleever, this will be zero issue.  if you prefer to go without sleeves, this mean a few cards will be slightly thicker than the others but EoC does not really rely on drawing cards blindly from a deck, so I do not expect this will be an issue, but it will be your choice whether to put the stickers onto the cards or not.  One of the stickers will go into the rulebook, to fix a graphical error.  So, for example, you will have a card like the "Booster in Human Resources" with an incorrect icon on it, and the sticker will be designed to fix the error.

So you will be receiving a sticker that looks like this:

You will have the option to place this on your Booster in HR card, to cover up the incorrect once-per-turn symbol and instead have a program upgrade ("always on") symbol.

The same will go for the other typos I have fixed and small text tweaks I have made since December.  One of these stickers will go into your rulebook, to fix an example with a confusing illustration. 

Finally, there will also be a single sheet with slightly modified solitaire rules, based on extensive additional work I've done since December when we submitted the files for printing.

This isn't perfect and in total it's going to add about $1,000 to my fabulous tax deductions (i.e., financial losses) from the game, but I hope it will go a long way to giving you the option to modify your game to fix the errors if you prefer, or to leave the game as is and simply adjust when the cards are played.

ABC, Andy