VDS 2.0
In case there are any lurkers wondering where VDS has gone, we're still on hold (as of 19/02) pending an announcement from the team. Around 90 former PodCaf members have joined a Reddit group, where discussion of possible alternatives to VDS, in the event it can't resume, are being discussed.
I posted the following there today:
Just want to thank all you spreadsheet whizzes for the effort you're putting into this, a tribute to the brilliance of the game that Chris and his team invented. I too am a spreadsheet whizz, if you count sheets of paper spread across my desk in a hopeless mess. I'm glad some of you aren't quite as old school.
It has occurred to me that there may be more than one reason Chris is currently incommunicado, and we should be careful about leaping to conclusions if VDS proper fails to materialise. I'm sure he or one of the game's other grandees will eventually let us know where we stand.
In the meantime it sounds as though a consensus is forming among those of us keen to find a substitute in the event that VDS doesn't make it. Shall we convene next Monday morning if there's no word from above by then? Can we try and agree on an official price list by the weekend? I really don't think we'll need to quibble too much on individual riders: they'll be the same cost for everyone and we'll just have to figure it out. I suspect most of us think Pog should be somewhere between 58 and 64, But the basic rules should probably be the same as last year (150 points, top rider limits etc) : we should be ready to post rider list and game rules on Monday; any fiddling can wait for a new look game in future years.
One last thing - the Cafe Fanposts are still operative, so if they're still alive by Monday it wouldn't hurt to put up an announcement with appropriate links to the spreadsheets and Reddit there. Thoughts?
Link to the current VDS thread in the Reddit group r/PodiumCafe2 :
https://www.reddit.com/r/PodiumCafe2/comments/1irrh8i/vds_20/