Is there a better construction material than styrene to make the ships with?

[Ben]

-Does anyone know of materials that would be better for construction? (fragility listed as one of most popular least favorite aspects in main survey)

Needless to say, alternatives like cardboard/cardstock (too flimsy) and wood (too rigid) are out.  I think plastic is the best choice and I have no problem with the “fragility” of the ships, but if someone knows of something that could be better, it would be interesting.

[Robert]

I think they are pretty sturdy for what they are. Plus this is probably the most economical option.

[Ben]

I think they are pretty sturdy for what they are. Plus this is probably the most economical option.

Agreed.  In the Podcast with James Ernest, he talked about how expensive it was to make the ships, which corroborates what people reported in the past with the “styrene format being cost-prohibitive to produce”.

[Robert]

You might be able to do metal. See products like metal earth. In my experience though that stuff is so flimsy and finicky it’s not worth fooling with. Laser cut wood is a good option but that is probably prohibitively expensive and might require glue.

A more realistic route for a reboot might be to ditch the buildable aspect entirely, and just have the ships molded in plastic and sold as “blind boxes”. There are a lot of popular collectible toys that use this route, some of them with games involved. Plastic toys are fairly durable and can be produced inexpensively, damage markers could be used instead of removable masts. I personally wouldn’t like this option for aesthetic reasons but I feel like this might be a way the game could be revived.

 

[Ben]

You might be able to do metal. See products like metal earth.

Wow!  Did not expect someone to suggest metal.  Looking up some stuff, looks very cool.  I would mostly be worried about the cost, and potential cutting hazard.  Also would probably be more difficult to color things in the way the current game is.  That would certainly be a cool option.  Only other metal ships I can recall are the ones made by burnthills for old_man, but those were huge aluminum ships.

A more realistic route for a reboot might be to ditch the buildable aspect entirely, and just have the ships molded in plastic and sold as “blind boxes”. There are a lot of popular collectible toys that use this route, some of them with games involved. Plastic toys are fairly durable and can be produced inexpensively, damage markers could be used instead of removable masts. I personally wouldn’t like this option for aesthetic reasons but I feel like this might be a way the game could be revived.

That makes sense, but definitely isn’t my preference either.  I feel that it could dampen some of the ships’ individuality, and make for a “cookie cutter” game in some ways.  Though with advancements and demonetization of 3D printing and whatnot, perhaps some version of that could work.  I also really like that the ships can be taken apart due to combat, with myself and others valuing the constructible nature of the game highly.

[Robert]

Metal is a good material for constructing models at a fairly economic price, but I worth painting the metal would be next to impossible to do well.

[Ben]

@Robert: They really do look cool.  They must be more durable than the styrene as well.  It would be a little funky to have metal ships for a game based on wooden ships in the Age of Sail, but it’s a neat option.

[Ed]

I use decent cardstock(old business cards)and ive tried gift cards but they can be slow going…took me an hour to produce a scorpion.I don’t build mine to be deconstructed but if I painted each part separately that may be possible.

[Author]

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