Several people have noted both the dwindling number of people engaged in this project and the dwindling number of units left to choose from. Additionally complaints have been raised over having an open or closed development team and the increasing length of time it takes to produce a deck.
My suggestion is to make two decks concurrently. They will be the last decks of ships (but an admirals and upgrades deck or something else similar should still be done in the future). One deck will be designed by the entire community, the other by a closed development team. The community makes their picks and works on them while the dev team then chooses missing units to balance the game, add underrepresented classes, and create interest with opening salvos.
I would not set the number of cards at 72 per deck rather go with however many or few are necessary per deck. Both can be sold together to save on printing and shipping but should remain separate decks so clubs and tournament organizers can more easily ban them if they don't like the fantasy community picked units or the results of the closed dev team.
Nice thoughts, and we should always be looking at alternative ways of doing business, to see what may work out better. I have some concerns, however.
1. A deck done by the community will be a huge ogre to slay. It's hard enough getting about 10 people to work together (time zones, real life incidents, opinions, etc.) and to get 50 or so to do that ... well, you can see why I am ... concerned. 2. How does the dev team pick "missing units" when the open deck can't pick the ones the want in a timely fashion? 3. Selling together doesn't reduce printing price, because they are not "larger numbers of the same cards", but just "more cards".
Not setting the number of cards in a deck, makes #1 and #2 above even harder to get done.
My thoughts not withstanding, good idea to look for alternatives!
Großadmiral Swizzle
Browncoat by fandom; Cossack by blood; American by birth; Virginian/Husband/Father by wife; Libertarian by choice; Human by race; Christian by grace.