1/30/2003 - It
has been a while but here is the
latest press release on FOTS:
The long-awaited Fire On The Suns:
Colony Development technical manual
has been released as a $3 pdf file.
This book is a compilation of
materials included in other tech
manuals and contains no artwork hence
the reduced pricing. However, the book
does contain a significant amount of
new material and, in total, has
descriptions for over 350 specific
technologies designed to improve the
output of your colonies.
Fire On The Suns: Psionics has been
placed on the back burner and will
likely be released as part of Fire On
The Suns: A Blaze of Glory, the RPG
supplement for creating characters and
adventures in the Fire On The Suns
Universe. FOTS ABoG is currently being
playtested as a future d20 release on
the OpenRPG Open Development II
server.
Early results are extremely
promising. Early sales of Todd
Zircher's Fire On
The Suns: Tactical Command 2nd edition
are also extremely promising and Ellis
& Company Publishing plans to
release several additional supplements
for TCOM2 modeled off FOTS The
Quintera Cluster War and FOTS The
Xaban Cluster products which are
nearing release. This has delayed,
slightly, releases of additional Fleet
Books for TCOM 1st edition. Todd has
also developed a node for TCOM or
TCOM2 for use on the OpenRPG server
for face-to-face combat between
opponents via the web.
In addition to everything else
Todd has been working on, he recently
delivered the latest update of the
FOTS Battle Engine program (v4.0). The
new program allows customizable
critical hit tables amongst several
dozen other options opening up
literally thousands of new
possibilities for FOTS weapons and
GMs. The new BEv4.0 is currently in
use in several of Greg Ellis' games.
Greg is, of course, the designer and
copyright holder of the basic FOTS
systems.
Last, but certainly not least,
Fire On The Suns New Technologies
Volume 4 has been released as a $3 pdf
file. Much like Colony Development,
this newest release has little
artwork, but over 200 new technologies
described for the Fire On The Suns
Universe. FOTS New technologies Volume
5 has also been compiled and completed
and will likely be released in
February 2003.
8/22/2001 - FOTS:
Colony Development and FOTS:
Psionics continue to be delayed.
The good news part of the bad news is
that all artwork is now available for FOTS:
Colony Development and it is
currently being reviewed for the need
for additional examples. We do expect
that it should be out by the end of
August rather than the end of July as
originally expected. Psionics
is in final edit and is also expected
to be released by the end of August or
the middle of September.
7/9/2001
- A press release from Greg, New Tech
# 3 is releases and lots of upcoming
stuff announced:
Ellis
& Company Publishing
is pleased to announce that "Fire
On The Suns: New Technologies Volume 3",
the fourth supplement for the Fire
On The Suns
scifi campaign game system, was
released today in print and pdf
versions ($20.00 print; $5.00 pdf).
NTV3
introduces 218 additional defined
technologies, including several new
race design options, to the FOTS
Universe - from Abrasive Materials
Science through Wraparound
Semi-Autonomous Combat Energy Fields -
in 86 pages including 14 full-color
rendered images. The supplement's
format has been changed to allow
easier and more convenient printing by
up-sizing the content to standard
8-1/2x11 format.
Ellis
& Company Publishing
also announced plans to publish "Fire
On The Suns: Colony Development"
and "Fire
On The Suns: Psionics"
by the end of July following a brief
delay incurred by a shortage of
quality artwork for inclusion in these
supplements. Work is also continuing
on "New
Technologies Volume 4",
"The
Quintera Cluster War",
"The
Xaban Cluster",
"Vampire
Wars",
"Tactical
Command 2nd Edition",
and several other supplements planned
for release later this year. Also
announced were plans to issue a series
of "Fleet Books" for the FOTS
Universe.
"The
new books are planned to be similar to
those done by Ground
Zero Games
for Full
Thrust
or an old product named
SeaTac,
now out of print, but originally
published by
TriTac Games,"
said Greg Ellis, spokesman for and
President of Ellis
& Company Publishing.
"But with the fleets done with FOTS
stats and designs."
Ellis
& Company Publishing
also publishes the "Dark
Skies"
and "Dark
Suns"
games by Eric Henry and has recently
been running a new FOTS-based
game entitled "Fire
On The Suns: Challenger".
"FOTS:
Challenger
is our version of the Survivor TV game
show," Greg said. "Eight
players fight for control of a Key and
a Gate leading out of a pocket
dimension they've been shoved into by
the highly-advanced Keepers. Only one
player can possess both the Key and
the Gate and thus win the game by
getting out of the pocket dimension.
The game runs very fast compared to
our big games, and that generates a
lot of excitement and tension between
the players."
FOTS:
Challenger
Game 1 is set to begin within the next
10 days. FOTS:
Challenger
Game 2 is still taking signups and has
3 positions left to fill.
4/25/2001
- An update from Greg Ellis:
Ellis
& Company Publishing
has released several new supplements
for the Fire
On The Suns
Universe. These supplements extend the
numbers of defined technologies in the
game to well over 12 hundred. The
supplements released thus far are;
New
Technologies Volume I -
From acidic atmosphere condensers to
wild weasels, this supplement contains
220 defined technologies for use in
games based on the FOTS
Universe.
Price: $5.00 pdf, $20.00 printed
New
Technologies Volume II -
From advanced bombardment techniques
to wormhole resistant engineering,
this supplement presents another 200+
defined technologies for use in the FOTS
Universe. Price: $5.00 pdf, $20.00
printed
Biotechnology
- Poorly understood this supplement
attempts to define what is and is not
biotechnology in the FOTS
Universe and how it works in that
context. In addition to presenting
nearly 100 defined examples of
biotechnology, this supplement also
presents 5 new example races plus new
details on the Hee'Dra and the Swarm.
On
schedule for production in May/June is
New
Technologies Volume III
which will include over 200 new
defined technologies. In addition,
slated for July/August are Colony
Development and Psionics, practical
treatments of the myriad technologies
which aid in the development and
enhancement of colonies in the FOTS
Universe, and a compilation of defined
psionic talents. Personnel, a
compilation of defined technologies
for "personnel" enhancements
is scheduled for a September release.
A full V_MAP-based standard game setup
for
FOTS
is scheduled for the 4th quarter of
2001.
Recent
enhancements to the FOTS CD include an
upgrade to the Battle Engine combat
program, capable of handling
individual ship, gunboat, fighter, and
missile combat between thousands of
opponents simultaneously, a new and
enhanced Sector Manager program for
players and GMs, an enhanced Mapgen
program for mapping the ever-expanding
FOTS
Universe,
and a newer and snazzier version of
Racegen, our exclusive program for
randomly generating alien races, now
including a new and updated generation
system and government and society
generation algorithms. Also now
available is our new "free"
Alien Name Generator which can be
accessed off the FOTS
website.
Future
FOTS
supplements planned are
The Quintera Cluster War,
and The
Xaban Cluster,
smaller supplements which will present
GMs with pre-generated races, ship
stats, fleets and empires for rapidly
creating a new game or for dropping
into an existing game. Vampire
Wars,
The
Creator War,
and several other projects are also in
development and slated for release
sometime in 2002.
The
FOTS
website
is currently undergoing an extensive
redesign and reconstruction so please
pardon our dust.