Am I using this right?

[Molchar]

I just down-loaded the demo, attempting for my PnP group to find out if FG is the virtual desktop for us. I am mostly impressed, perhaps even excited, however I have a few questions. Please comiserate with my n00bness here.

1. I realize there are license issues involved, and I further realize the FG product wishes to maintain a certain universality in terms of the gaming system being used. That said, once one explicitly selects his character to use the D20 system, we feel there is less-than-adequate pre-population of certain items on the several character tabs. This would include certain means to run "wizards" when creating characters to establish ones initial chosen abilities and, if applicable, spell lists, etc. With such functionality, plenty of reference opportunities remain for using the Player's Handbook, DMG, etc... To borrow a term from information technology, and completely hack the English language in the process, I guess we're saying it doesn't seem to be "spreadsheety" enough based on wide and specific correlational scores and allowances already known under "D20".

2. The text chat serving is obviously a handy component, and would use it. However I am curious as to why there is not an integrated voice server, such as with the funtionality in systems like Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach, or even more generic systems like Ventrilo or Teamspeak. The reason we feel this is important is due to the highly verbal nature of PnP. Certainly no one would argue that the ability to speak to each other is not part of the traditional PnP table top, ergo our curiosity for that not being included in a product that claims to replicate such. This is not meant as indictment, to be sure.

[richvalle]

I just down-loaded the demo, attempting for my PnP group to find out if FG is the virtual desktop for us. I am mostly impressed, perhaps even excited, however I have a few questions. Please comiserate with my n00bness here.

1. I realize there are license issues involved, and I further realize the FG product wishes to maintain a certain universality in terms of the gaming system being used. That said, once one explicitly selects his character to use the D20 system, we feel there is less-than-adequate pre-population of certain items on the several character tabs. This would include certain means to run "wizards" when creating characters to establish ones initial chosen abilities and, if applicable, spell lists, etc. With such functionality, plenty of reference opportunities remain for using the Player's Handbook, DMG, etc... To borrow a term from information technology, and completely hack the English language in the process, I guess we're saying it doesn't seem to be "spreadsheety" enough based on wide and specific correlational scores and allowances already known under "D20".

2. The text chat serving is obviously a handy component, and would use it. However I am curious as to why there is not an integrated voice server, such as with the funtionality in systems like Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach, or even more generic systems like Ventrilo or Teamspeak. The reason we feel this is important is due to the highly verbal nature of PnP. Certainly no one would argue that the ability to speak to each other is not part of the traditional PnP table top, ergo our curiosity for that not being included in a product that claims to replicate such. This is not meant as indictment, to be sure.

Howdy and welcome.

1. One thing you can do for the wiz. spells is drag and drop them from the d20 book into the spell list. This creates a list of spells sorted by level. What I would like to see is for that list to be linked back to the spell, so if I click on a spell it brings up the spell details.

I'm not sure what else you are looking for here. I don't think I'd want anything else automated as too many people house rule wizards (including me).

2. The fact that there is such free 3rd party software as Teamspeak means they don't need to build it in. If anyone wants the voice they can use it and for those that don't use the chat.

We use Teamspeak ourselves and many others here have said they use voice software as well. No need to invent the wheel. :)

rv

[Molchar]

richvalle - thx for the reply and welcome.

RE: 1 - Could you elaborate on the "too many people house rule wizards" posit? Are these automated routines that imbed in the interface and are triggerable by sheet value changes? Further, even if customizable, aren't there default behaviors for the brown-wrapper D20 system?

For example if awarded in a game by a GM enough XP to acheive my next level, are there ways for the sheet/tabs to change to indicate new training/learning slots currently unfilled? etc. - all under the aegis "I'm playing D20 and abide by the ruleset as is."

RE: 2 You make a fair point on the voice chat. I would still hope someday it was integrated and automated.

[richvalle]

1. There was a lively discussion a while ago about how much FG should be automated: none, a little, everything. The issue is that the more you automate the less flexable the game becomes. Or harder to play it the way you want to. As it is, I don't have to make any changes to FG to play the way I want because FG does not try to force any rules onto me.

I know of one persons game that uses non-standard XP charts for leveling for example. Most of his other stuff is d20 3.x standard (but not all). Right now he could use FG as is because its all free style.

Though I do know what you are saying and others have said the same thing.

You would be glad to hear that something along these lines are coming up in the next version (1.06). Smiteworks is adding a scripting language to FG and adding some scripts as well (The Devs prompted the discussion to see what their customers wanted). So there will be some minimal amount of automation added AND you should be able to add more with the scripts.

Whew...

2. Sorry, I don't see the need. I'd rather the dev's worked on things like the above or adding other features to the software. Right now the software is WAY better then when I bought it and keeps getting better. I don't need voice support when I can get that elsewhere for free.

Heck, I'd rather see them port the software to Mac's/Linix (which I don't need) so that the use base could become bigger or even add sound support (another popular request) which I've argued against. :)

Later, let us know what you thing of the demo as you play with it.

rv

[Molchar]

Thx - I've passed this along to our resident DM. I feel that the advantages you refer to are better appreciated by him. I like the idea of scripting - I'm hoping there's a spreadsheet-like system. In the interface they'd just need to fire on change events to data controls, look at the script list, do what it says, update interface, etc..

I do hear what you're saying on any point that has to deal with distracting the dev's for wider core function.

[sunbeam60]

At the risk of becoming Cato on these boards, let me once again support the notion that FG doesn't involve itself with voice support. Skype works fantastic for our group, so much in fact that we don't ever think about it. While we experience the occasional FG crash, Skype stays rock solid and allows us to quickly communicate the need to for reconnects. If voice was built in people would just disappear. Now, instead, we get the occasional "oh, bummer, FG is out, just a second guys", because our voice line stays on.

I'd much rather see the developers focus on scripting and opening up the program for modification, plus all the other cool features they've got planned.

Bjorn
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I also think that FG should stay away from voice

[Bumamgar]

I agree!

My group uses Ventrilo for voice support, and it is extremely handy to be able to communicate regardless of the status of Fantasy Grounds. Although FG has been rock-solid for all but one of our members (as long as I don't try to use map-masking), it's still extremely handy to be able to communicate outside of FG.

For example, I'm often making modifications to the character sheets and ruleset. This means my players nearly always have to download updates when they connect to the server. Since I'll have the Ventrilo server up and running they can still talk and let me know stuff like "yeah, I'm here for the session, but it's still downloading the ruleset" or we can also deal with any meta-game issues as we all wait for the new items to download.

And, as I noted, there's one member of our group who I suspect has some computer hardware issues, who has FG crash on him once a session or so (but who also seems to have to re-install Windows every other week as well, so I'm not going to point the finger at FG for his issues). With Ventrilo running, he just says "FG crashed, re-connecting" and we continue the battle. He doesn't miss anything cause he can hear whats going on.

Focus is key to any great software product. FG shoudl continue to focus on creating a kick-*** virtual tabletop, and leave the VoIP work to the companies that focus on it :)