License Differences

[Jharii]

Can someone please explain to me the differences between the full + lite licenses as opposed to full ultimate?

The differences listed:
Host an unlimited number of unregistered players (limited only by your connection speeds)
Host games for registered and unregistered players together.

How does this relate to my players? Does this mean that I can distribute the lite client as long as it is only used to connect to my DM client? Or does this mean that they demo client is all that is needed? Do I get any lite licenses whatsoever?

Finally, what advantages would there be to purchasing the Full Ultimate as opposed to the Full + 8 licenses for about $140?

Thank you in advance.

[ddavison]

The Ultimate license retains all its capabilities after purchase and no matter who connects, whereas the Full + 8 Lite licenses is limited to only ever allowing those 8 people you gave the Lite licenses to. If those people go away and new people come on board, they would need to acquire new Lite or Full licenses in order to join. The Lite licenses are better than an unregistered license since they can connect to any Full or Ultimate license, whereas the unregistered license can only connect to an Ultimate license. In addition, the Lite license can be upgraded to a Full license for $23.95 and an unregistered license would have to pay the full $39.95 to get up to a Full license in the future.

If your group is pretty static and you pool your resources to get a reduced cost, the Full + Lite licenses are probably your best deal. If one DM is footing the bill and they want to play with whoever they want in the future, then the Ultimate is probably the way to go.

[Jharii]

Okay, thank you very much. That about clears it up, but a couple minor questions just for clarification.

Is the unregistered client and the Lite client identical as far as functionality? I.e. Can they use this for their character management, etc. without being connected? Also, can I install the Full Ultimate on my home computer and my laptop? Would you recommend a laptop over a netbook?

Maybe if I share what I am trying to accomplish, it will help with a recommendation:
There are probably going to be 10-14 players in total across 2 parallel campaigns. Some of these players will be together and possibly at the same computer. There will be, at times, a few groups of 2 or more players sitting around the same computer.

Based on your description, it may be better going with an Ultimate license, and if they every want to play with other DM's, they should just get a Lite license.

My apologies if I seem obtuse regarding this. I just want to make sure that I make the right decision if I am about to drop $150 on a product.

[ddavison]

The unregistered license has no capabilities at all without being connected to an Ultimate, so the Lite license is slightly better. Most rulesets provide very little functionality to Lite licenses, if any, though. Many people leave a host running over an evening or so in order to allow people to log on and make their characters or they launch the host an hour or so before the game officially starts to allow for character sheet tweaks to occur without interrupting gameplay. Based on your setup, I would recommend the Ultimate license.

For installation, it is not technically allowed by our license agreement to have copies installed on multiple machines; however, we understand that this is a common requirement for people with multiple machines and we don't bother to police it. A laptop would be better than a netbook. The screen resolution of most netbooks is not quite sufficient to run things and you typically want a more powerful setup to run your host environment.

[Valarian]

There's also the firewall aspect to consider. The host (GM) needs to be directly connected to the internet or (more likely now) have his router forward the internet traffic going to port 1802 to his computer. There's instructions on how to do this for several routers at www.portforward.com

Try the demo version. It's a few versions behind but gives an idea on the functionality and, if you can connect a player using the demo, you should be okay doing so for the Full version (or the Ultimate - whichever you go with).

The licenses are basically as follows:
Ultimate license - GM version. With this version you can host a game. The GM foots the bill and any player can connect (with Full, Lite or Unlicensed licenses). Useful for running open demonstration games or for where player turnover is high.
Full license - GM version. With this version you can host a game. Players can connect as long as they own a license (Full or Lite).
Lite license - Player version. Can only connect to a game for playing. Can't host a game.
Unlicensed - Version allowing demo of any ruleset to new players, or to allow cheapskates (technical term) to play in your game. The unlicensed version can only connect to a GM running an Ultimate licensed game.

[Jharii]

Excellent. Ultimate has been purchased. Thank you for your help ddavison.

Valarian, thank you as well. I'm not worried about getting everything connected. I have a heavy networking background.