Vampire Hunters

Pledge Manager Tutorial 2
about 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 07, 2017 at 11:35:39 PM

Hello Backers!

This is the second part of the Pledge Manager guide. We will post them all before the Pledge Manager goes live, when the reviews are complete. This one is for EB Hunters that want to get an EB Slayer reward. If you recall, Slayer is the sweet spot reward, offering the most savings.

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EB Hunter Guide

This information is only useful for EB Hunters that want to get an EB Slayer reward. You will also need to read the General Guide, for some basic information.

Important: The only pledge you can switch to is the regular $135 Slayer Pledge. If you are trying to get an EB Slayer Pledge, do not press the “switch pledge level” button, which is accessible in many places.

1) At the welcome screen you can select your region. This enables the survey to show shipping costs before you enter your full address at the end. You must select the correct region at this point.  

2) Just Get Started! If you want to get an EB Slayer, it is done on the next screen.  

3) Do not press the “switch pledge level” button. You do not want a regular $135 Slayer Pledge.

EB Hunters will have an extra first question, which is about getting the EB Slayer. Think of it as upgrading your EB Hunter Pledge by adding the rewards you are missing, the ones that are unique to Slayer.

1) Here you basically have two options, either to upgrade or not. However, there is one upgrade option for each location. This backer has already clicked the radio button at (1a) to upgrade. They chose this particular option because they are in the United States (1b). The location must match the location you selected on the front page. For example, this backer should not select the first upgrade, as it is for Australia.

Of course, EB Hunters are not forced to upgrade. Simply click the first option (1c) if you want to stay with at EB Hunter.

2) Click the “Next: Add-ons” button to move on. At this point, you can follow the General Guide.

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The tutorial is over, but we can anticipate a couple of questions.

Is this a real Slayer Pledge? Do I get the Slayer exclusive minis? If you take this upgrade, your reward would be exactly the same as if you chose the EB Slayer pledge during the campaign. You get all the rewards you would expect, including Slayer exclusives and KS exclusives.

Why isn’t the upgrade price $45? Why are these EB Slayer upgrade prices different? Remember, you are not changing your pledge. You still have an EB Hunter Pledge and will therefore be charged for EB Hunter Shipping. So the upgrade price is actually the $45 difference, plus the difference in shipping. The difference in shipping is location dependant.

What happens if I make a mistake? We will do our best to help out, but we cannot make any guarantees. This will be our busiest time, as we will be finalising many of the product components. Be aware, we might not be able to fix your problem and we might not be able to fix it in time for regular fulfillment – you will be responsible for any additional charges. Pay attention to two things: do not switch to a regular $135 Slayer Pledge, and make sure to pick the upgrade that matches your location.

Good Hunting!

Pledge Manager Tutorial 1
about 7 years ago – Sun, Mar 05, 2017 at 11:48:46 PM

Hello Backers!

We have created this Pledge Manager with help from BackerKit. It may look like there are simpler ways to do this, but neither we nor BackerKit could make them work. Specifically, if any backer can switch to a pledge level, then all backers can switch to that level. We cannot add any restrictions. So we cannot simply let EB Hunter backers switch to EB Slayer.

We will publish 3 tutorials for the Pledge Manager

1) General Guide. This is for Hunters and Slayers. It is easy and similar to many other Pledge Managers.  

2) EB Hunter Guide.  

3) $1 Backer Guide.

We will post them separately, to keep each tutorial as short as possible. This Update is the General Guide.

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General Guide

This is useful information for all backers and has some specific information for Hunters that want to switch to Slayer. Backers with Hunter or Slayer Pledges only need to read this tutorial.

You will all receive an invitation to the Pledge Manager from backerkit.com. This invitation will be sent to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account. We will post an update when the mass mailout starts and everyone should get the email soon after. Check your spam folder if you do not see it. If you do not get an invitation 5 days later, please contact us. Follow the instructions in the e-mail to log-in.

1) At the welcome screen you can select your country. This enables the survey to show shipping costs before you enter your full address at the end. You must select the correct country at this point.

2) If you want to switch to a $135 Slayer pledge, press this button and select Slayer. Very important: This will switch you to the regular, $135 Slayer Pledge. DO NOT USE THIS IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE FROM EB HUNTER TO EB SLAYER. There are other options for $1 and EB backers that will be shown in other tutorials. You will be warned that this is permanent. Do not upgrade unless you want a $135 Slayer Pledge.

3) Once steps (1) and (2) are complete, press the Get Started button.

Here is the next page of the survey.

1) From here you can add Optional Buys, which are also called Add-Ons.  

2) To add one to your pledge, start by pressing the View button.

1) The View button pops up a screen showing what is included and any shipping fees. Here you see it cost $1 to ship Brith, but a smaller Add-on like Nyx has no shipping.  

2) Enter the quantity you want to buy …  

3) … then press Add to Cart.  

4) Continue Shopping will take you back to the general Add-On screen. You can change the Add-Ons in your cart at this time.

Here is the view of the top right of the Add-On screen, where there is some useful information and buttons.

1) As you place Add-Ons in your cart, you can see them here.  

2) Shopping for Add-Ons, is completely interactive. You can add and remove them at will.  

3) Some Add-Ons require shipping charges. You can see the charges when you view details of the item and you can see the total here. In this case, Nyx ships for free, but the larger Brith costs $1.00. The charges are location dependant, so you may see different numbers.  

4) Press Next, when you have all the Add-ons that you require.

Note that the list of Add-ons is long and includes additional pledges. If you add an additional pledge, it does not need to be the same as the one you already have. For example, a Slayer can add an additional Hunter Pledge.

The next two screens are simple. You enter your address and then confirm your pledge and pay the amount owing.

Important: The only pledge you can switch to is the regular Slayer Pledge. If you see a “Switch Pledge Level” button, like the one in the first image above, on any screen, it will only switch to the $135 Slayer Pledge. Do not use this button unless you are sure you want the $135 Slayer Pledge.

Good Hunting!

Pledge Manager and Delays
about 7 years ago – Sat, Mar 04, 2017 at 10:09:49 PM

Hello Backers!

We have a lot of information to pass on. Some will come today, more will follow shortly. Let’s start with the hardest announcement, production delays.

As you can imagine, the schedule is not completely up to us, as we have to arrange for an available production slot with Ludo Fact. As you know Ludo Fact, is a popular manufacturer at the moment and they are very busy, so it is hard to get a slot that works well for us. Obviously, we want one that is neither too early nor too late. We have finally arranged a firm slot with Ludo Fact, and so we can share the production timing details with you now.

The slot we have is a close match to our estimated completion time back at the start of the project. Close, but not perfect, so there will be a short delay. We are confident that we can ship all the rewards in one wave, starting at the end of August. This means that it will begin arriving on your doorsteps in October, perhaps even September if you are close to the factory where the games are packed.

We will make good use of the extra time. The Pledge Manager will be open longer than planned, around 6 weeks, depending on when it actually opens. We will be able to perform more play testing. Let us assure you that development is going well and we are confident in these dates.

Here is the production schedule:

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The Pledge Manager defect is fixed, our review and testing is complete and we have submitted the database to BackerKit for them to review. If they find no problems, the invite e-mails will go out immediately after their review is complete. With a little luck, we are less than a week away from opening the Pledge Manager.

The Pledge Manager supports many options that you have asked for or expect:

• Changing your pledge to Slayer.  
• Changing EB Hunter to EB Slayer.  
• Adding extra Hunter or Slayer pledges as optional buys.  
• Fair shipping charged by volumetric weight for your pledge to your region. 

This comes at a price: we must warn you, it is a complex Pledge Manager. We will post guides for using it tomorrow and the day after, before it goes live. You must be careful, please read the tutorials.

We think that for most of you it will be easy, though.

Backers not changing their Pledge Level: It’s easy. Just add optional buys if you want them, verify your address, pay for shipping and the optional buys and you are done.

Backers switching to Slayer: It’s quite easy. Switch your pledge first and then carry on as above.

Other Pledge Level changes, including EB to EB changes: These are the harder scenarios. Do not switch your pledge level! Instead, add the special upgrade package to your pledge. BackerKit does not allow us to control which pledges you can switch to, so if EB Hunters can switch to EB Slayer, then anyone can.

All will be revealed in the tutorials.

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You will see the shipping prices when you log into the Pledge Manager. As you know, we are not marking up, or averaging the shipping charges. We have to be honest, they are little higher than the estimates. Here’s an example for the most popular location:

• Hunter shipped to USA: $18. Estimate was $10 - $15.

The other changes are similar. Obviously, heavier pledges in larger boxes will be more. We are not happy that the actual costs do not fall in the ranges estimated by the shipper when the KS was open, but there is little we can do, other than promise to be more cautious next time.

Pledge Manager tutorials to follow soon.

Good Hunting!

Pledge Manager Woes
about 7 years ago – Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 05:56:54 PM

Hello Backers!

One step forward, two steps back.  We have the detailed shipping information and have entered it into the Pledge Manager.  We have set up the Pledge Manager to allow you to upgrade Early Bird pledges.  But these two features do not work together!  If you upgrade, you are given the wrong shipping info.

BackerKit have been really helpful looking at this problem but the bad news is that it is a defect in the BackerKit code, not in our configuration.  BackerKit are working hard to fix this right now.  We are not trying to point fingers or pass the buck, so we won’t put pressure on them by telling you how long they said it will take.  It should be fast, then we need to repeat our testing.  More news to follow.

Good Hunting!

Some Progress and the Pledge Manager
about 7 years ago – Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 12:29:33 AM

Hello Backers!

We’re back with a short update, just to let you know we are still working hard. The rulebook, cards, scenarios and back stories have been our focus since we were last here and are going well, but we would prefer to give clear milestones showing our progress. So here’s one: all Map Tiles are complete.

Map Tiles come in two sizes. The larger ones are 25x25cm or 10x10 inches and are the main areas of the Dens. Between the core game and the expansions there are 14 tiles and since each is double sided, that’s a total of 28 different locations. Don’t forget the underground settings, such as the Tunnels in the core game! There are also 4 small double-sided Map Tiles for the lower areas, 8x18cm or ~3x7 inches. All in all, it was a lot of art to complete. They look great!

We are sure the Pledge Manager is on everyone’s mind. We are still waiting for detailed shipping information. We have sent the weight and volume of each package to the shipper, so the ball is in their court. Of course, we are contacting them frequently, as this is important. We do expect this information soon and since we have entered all the other data already, it should be quick to complete it. We’re not going to give a date, as we are dependent on the shipper, but trust that we are doing our best to push this along. We’ll revisit how long the PM is open once it is ready.

Good Hunting!