I've seen some questions / worries about the size and contents of the base kit, particularly with respect to the fact that both Polish and US ("Latin") layouts are provided.
The truth is, this is the result of multiple iterations of possible kitting as well as my goals for the set.
Goals for Prussian Blue- Full ISO-DE and ANSI-DE support available in some capacity, including German language modifiers.
- Full Polish Programmers' support.
- Full US default (aka "plain Latin") support, including English language mods.
- Basic 40s support.
- Alice support.
- UK support.
- Nordic support.
What we tried the first timeIn the first GB, we ran two different base kits. One was a Polish base kit, which covered goals 2 and 4, plus most of goal 3. An international kit was available for people who wanted to get full plain Latin alphas (rest of goal 3) or the UK layout (goal 6).
The second base kit, the German base kit, covered all of goal 1. With the international kit, it covered goal 7 too.
Some of the problems we had- Customers were very divided over whether they wanted plain Latin or Polish alphas. Having to buy an international kit to make the proper US alpha layout turned out to be a stumbling block for many.
- Nordic customers needed the German base and the international kit, but they didn't prefer the German language mods. Using the German base as a basis made sense because of the strong similarity between the alpha layouts of Germany and the Nordics, but that similarity doesn't hold for the German language mods.
- Overall, having two different base kits split the customer base. We were likely to land way under MOQ for the German base, and there was a high probability of cancellation. The Polish base might have made it, but it probably would have needed some buyout as well.
- Finishing this GB without being able to cover goal 1 at all would have been a huge disappointment for me personally. It was a hard call to cancel.
- In retrospect, given that one of our vendors from the first GB has gone bankrupt, and they would have been the chief supplier of the German base, it was definitely the right move.
What I wish I could doIdeally, I'd love to separate out alphas from mods, similar to a lot of KAT sets. But that's just not financially wise for a GMK keyset; having a core base kit is important.
Alternatively, I'd like to force Polish in base and sell a small Latin patch kit, but unfortunately that's not going to be helpful price-wise. GMK child kits, due to their smaller MOQ, inflate the price of keys considerably (same reason why it's tricky to separate out number pad kits), so you have to be careful about what you put in child kits versus base.
What's more, if I don't offer a German base at all, then a plain Latin patch kit becomes necessary for UK, German, and Nordic support
in addition to the kits they already need. Mixing a partial set of Polish subs and other languages will just look really screwy.
The new standard NorDEUKIn the intervening time between the old GB and this relaunch, GMK and international vendors have put together a standardized international kit with Nordic, German, and UK support, plus three Alt Gr (or Alt Graph) keys. Having a standard kit allows GMK to appeal more easily to those locales without requiring vendors to buy a ton of never-purchased extras.
Personally, I'd probably have designed this kit a little differently (removing the extraneous 5%€ key in particular), but that's how it landed.
So now we have a means of more reliably achieving goals 6 and 7, plus the alpha portion of goal 1. But in order to do so, we need plain Latin alphas in base.
I considered having the Polish alphas as the patch kit instead, but the feedback on that was not great either. Though I personally see the DE layout and mods as the core theme of the set, the Polish sublegends are unique and cool enough that they feel like the heart of GMK Prussian Blue for the wide audience.
The compromiseAs much as people tend to feel frustrated when they perceive a base kit containing more plastic than they need, that's kind of the point of a base kit in the first place; it balances compatibility, popularity, and price by supplying more than what's needed for a single board. Rarely does any customer actually use
every key in base.
So ultimately, I decided to put both the Polish alphas and the plain US versions of those letters in base. All in all, this is ten extra keys; the only Polish key I'm forcing is the numpad decimal comma (though the numpad decimal period is in the compatibility kit).
I knew that adding these ten extra keys could be a bit expensive, but with the audience as divided as it is, and with the locale support I want to provide, this was the best route.
To make room for those keys, I did a fair amount of trimming, though I did
add short spacebars for Alice support, as that's become far more standard in base.
Comparison to recent setsThe base kit may look big, but some of that is a bit illusory. I've taken the liberty of estimating the sizes of a number of recent GMK base kits. I am not sure how these all compare costwise, as they are run at different MOQs, by different vendors, with different custom color requirements. Also, some have new unique legends or new types of plastic.
Approximate Base Kit Content Comparison
| GMK CYL Keyset | Color Count | Key Count | Plastic Units (u) |
| -------------- ----------- --------- ----------------- |
| Prussian Blue | 2 | 153 | 188.25 |
| Delta R2 | 3 | 160 | 202.00 |
| Rainy Day R2 | 3 | 160 | 201.50 |
| Dune | 2 | 150 | 190.50 |
| Dragon Witch | 3 | 157 | 207.00 |
| Crème | 2 | 155 | 194.00 |
| Dandy R2 | 2 | 153 | 190.50 |
| Hi-Viz | 2 | 159 | 203.25 |
I really don't know what the GB price of GMK CYL Prussian Blue will be; much depends on MOQ, which we don't know yet. But I doubt we'll be too far out of the ballpark.
