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View Full Version : I Think Some Sort of Free Viewer Would Be Fantastic!



Elric
January 14th, 2005, 01:13
I think that if there was some sort of free viewer that allowed a person to join a game (demo or licensed) and see everything that's going on might get more people involved in the product.

Let's say you take FG, strip out all the ruleset stuff, the character stuff, the ability to chat, the ability to make edits and the ability to move tokens (and whatever) - all they can do is watch.

This way, instead of having people try to demo a product they aren't comfortable with - or even what it is capabale of, they could 'lurk' on games where people know what's going on in live play and see what's available.

I think this would cause people to say, "Hey! I want to be a part of this and actually participate!" - and then buy the product.

Just my thoughts... :D

Dupre
January 14th, 2005, 13:57
I like the spectator idea, but it would require a lobby server from which games can be joined unless the newcomer knew a GM that runs games.

Lobby server support was something we considered in the early phases of development, but a proper one takes some work and currently we have a fairly long list of features that we want to get in before we can give this another thought.

Elric
January 14th, 2005, 14:12
I like the spectator idea, but it would require a lobby server from which games can be joined unless the newcomer knew a GM that runs games.
This is precisely what I'm talking about. :D

A spectator would join a game just like a regular player would (known address, password (if required) etc.) but wouldn't be able to do anything except watch.

This way I could, say, advertise that the game I'm running allows lurkers, I could pass on the address, password and people could look in. No lobby involved - only allow straight access to an individual's games.

richvalle
January 14th, 2005, 14:54
but make sure full/lite licence could lurk as well if they wanted. This would be a good way to check out a game and see if its something you wanted to spend time making a character for/fit your gaming style.

rv

Cody
January 14th, 2005, 21:43
I would really like the ability to spectate.

Just last week I heard about a game that was just about to start. I didn't have time to make a character, but I would have loved to have been able to watch a while and see if it was a group I was interested in playing with in the future.

Just make sure that "allow spectators" is an option that the GM can turn on and off. I don't think it requires a lobby... spectators could join the same way players do.

Plus, I have this (perhaps insane) vision of being able to use FG for competitive miniatures games in the distant future. Spectating would be very important for tournaments and stuff.

jrh18
April 24th, 2017, 18:12
I like the spectator too, but for a different reason. I want to be able to display what a player sees onto a screen in an in-person game. My players don't all have laptops to bring with them to the game, but I happen to have a spare tv, or sometimes we use a conference room at work that has a tv too. Using the TV allow me to use Fantasy grounds and all the great maps and tokens to track the player's movements and show them to them. It essentially replaces a chessex map and miniatures. I would pay for this ability as like an addon or something. Price wise it is worth me not buying a chessex pad to use the TV or for my players to buy and bring laptops to an in person game. I prefer to use Fantasy ground to help me track my campaign, prep and then simplify the flow of combat in person (I hate math after a long day of work). It is critical that I be able to see the DM version of the map on my screen but shows the players the Player version of a map on the TV. I think this would open up a market for in person gamers. Most times I have played the place I play has a TV screen near the table we play at. Heck, there are even posts of people building the TV into the table.

jrh18
April 24th, 2017, 18:16
I like the spectator idea, but it would require a lobby server from which games can be joined unless the newcomer knew a GM that runs games.

Lobby server support was something we considered in the early phases of development, but a proper one takes some work and currently we have a fairly long list of features that we want to get in before we can give this another thought.

Wouldn't an alternative to this be to produce a web server with a web page? I don't know if that is somehow easier (especially with ISP's blocking port 80 and 8080 on most networks). The idea is to regularly update some HTML page that displays the images and chats generated by FantasyGrounds.

JohnD
April 24th, 2017, 18:21
FYI jrh18... you've resurrected a thread from 2005. What you want can be done using FG right now. Connect to your GM instance using an address of localhost which will give you a player client.

Talyn
April 24th, 2017, 18:21
If you know a game is running, some/most GMs would probably let someone join as a spectator. Oddly enough, that in and of itself isn't overly helpful because you're literally just spectating so you can't see anything other than what the GM shares (images, maps, etc.) and you don't have a character to be able to look over the character sheet to learn your way around and see what the players are clicking/dragging/etc. If GMs had a spare cache of pregens they could at least toss you one.

In the meantime, isn't watching a Twitch steam roughly the same thing? At least you get to see some other UI frames, etc. that you wouldn't see as a character-less spectator.

jrh18
April 24th, 2017, 19:34
Oh awesome thanks. I guess this is an RFTM situation.

patoarch12
April 28th, 2017, 23:57
This is probably a bad idea but until Fantasy Grounds has a server that would allow observers to join and watch games currently in session (or even players looking for a game to connect with hosts who have games up and could use more players) perhaps there can be a section in the message boards where people can post notices when they will be streaming their next game and the info on where to watch it?

Or maybe it can just be a common practice when people post ads for games on LFG that if they are planning to stream it live they can include that info on the post so people who might be interested in watching can observe.

LordEntrails
April 29th, 2017, 03:22
This is probably a bad idea but until Fantasy Grounds has a server that would allow observers to join and watch games currently in session (or even players looking for a game to connect with hosts who have games up and could use more players) perhaps there can be a section in the message boards where people can post notices when they will be streaming their next game and the info on where to watch it?

Or maybe it can just be a common practice when people post ads for games on LFG that if they are planning to stream it live they can include that info on the post so people who might be interested in watching can observe.
Like this? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33711-5e-Twitch-Stream-List-for-new-DM-s-and-players