Question from someone looking at FG for the first time.

[Chaindog]

I like what I see in the demo, but I have a few questions:

1. I see the counters that I presume are used as minatures just have letters on them. Is it possible to add your own pictures on them or group them in some fashion... such as 20 goblins not just being token e,f,g,h, etc.?

2. How are PC sheets stored? If, for example, I have a player that can't get online for a session, can I pull up his previously saved sheet and NPC him for the night? Can I have another player run him?

3. How easy is it to add new content, such as spells into the database?

4. Assuming decent connection speed (DSL), how much lag is there in the game? Is it very playable for clients on dail-up?

Thanks,

Chaindog

[richvalle]

I like what I see in the demo, but I have a few questions:

Hi Chaindog!


1. I see the counters that I presume are used as minatures just have letters on them. Is it possible to add your own pictures on them or group them in some fashion... such as 20 goblins not just being token e,f,g,h, etc.?

Yes you can add your own counters. They are just small pictures stored in a Token's directory. As the dm you can keep yours hidden as well and then have some that are shared with the group.

As of right now though there is not a way to seperate out different counters from each other. For example if you use one Goblin tokens and pull it in 20 times from the box onto the map there is no way in the software to keep track of which is 1 and which is 20. There have been some user created tokens with numbers on them to help out.

Also, we have been told the way the token box works is getting a major upgrade in the next patch.


2. How are PC sheets stored? If, for example, I have a player that can't get online for a session, can I pull up his previously saved sheet and NPC him for the night? Can I have another player run him?

If the player has connected at least once to your system you should have a copy of his character sheet on your side.

Note: as of right now there is no easy way for one person to run two characters. I'm not sure there is an easy way for you to open up the missing players character sheet in game either (anyone??). You could run a 2nd instance of FG as a client and connect to yourself and run the missing character that way. That would have some advantages (you could play the character that way. Do it well enough and people might forget he is missing. :) ) and disadvantages (it would be cumersome switching screens all the time).


3. How easy is it to add new content, such as spells into the database?

Not too bad. Its all in xml and you can change it to your hearts content. Folks here willing to help you get started or with any questions as well.


4. Assuming decent connection speed (DSL), how much lag is there in the game? Is it very playable for clients on dail-up?

Thanks,

Chaindog

The only real lag I've seen is when loading a big map and that can be reduced by the dm 'pre-loading' the map or even sending the maps to the players via email and having them 'install' them on their system before the game (with the warning not to peek at them of course). Everything else, dice rolls, chat messages ect worked very well. The game does crash every now and then... reconecting lets you back in. Thats the worse thing I've seen so far.

Several folks have asked about play over dial up but no one has come back to say how it works so I can't help you there.

rv

[lkj]

I use dialup. I have not yet played for an extended period, but the hour or so we spent playing around with it, it seemed to work fine. I'll let you know when I have more experience.

AD

[Goblin-King]

Going to add a couple of comments that others didn't answer...


2. How are PC sheets stored? If, for example, I have a player that can't get online for a session, can I pull up his previously saved sheet and NPC him for the night? Can I have another player run him?

You can very easily pull up the character sheet as the GM. At the moment, one user is limited to one instance of the character sheet. It is possible to modify the ruleset so that you have additional sheet types usable for this, but it's not in the default d20 ruleset.


As of right now though there is not a way to seperate out different counters from each other. For example if you use one Goblin tokens and pull it in 20 times from the box onto the map there is no way in the software to keep track of which is 1 and which is 20. There have been some user created tokens with numbers on them to help out.

Also, we have been told the way the token box works is getting a major upgrade in the next patch.

Yep, from 1.04 forward you'll be able to drag and drop a text string on a token and it will show up as the tooltip for it.