First FGU game not that great

[Steve Geddes]

It seemed to be set up right but players kept getting disconnected without noticing. There were times some of them saw red question marks instead of the tokens, maps or pictures. They couldn’t see the monsters and clicking the hide/in hide button didn’t do anything. We could usually solve the problems with them disconnecting and restarting FG, but it takes ten-fifteen minutes for them to join and be able to select their PCs, so it’s really frustrating when it happens mid battle.

I like the look of the YouTube videos, but it seems on reflection they’re all fantasy classic. People keep saying the two versions are not that different, but I’m not sure how true that is - my experience is very different from what I see there. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how clever the program is if the players can’t see anything with it.

We’ll try another couple of weeks. Hopefully the upgrades will increase stability. 🙁

[Relampago]

FGU is early access. If you see desyncs we often just drop the client and reconnect. Not ideal but again early access. It is more time consuming but we are enjoying the campaigns we use it in.

[LordEntrails]

There was an update late last evening. Did you and every player update right before your game started? What version is showing in everyone's launch screen?

[bigpunk157]

FGU is supposed to help with the load in memory that our computers have when we load larger games and support things like animation better in engine. It will eventually give us a lot of other great things, but for now, it's p much spaghetti code. Just go play normal FG for now like the rest of us unless you wanna help bug test for the devs.

[JohnQPublic]

FGU is supposed to help with the load in memory that our computers have when we load larger games and support things like animation better in engine. It will eventually give us a lot of other great things, but for now, it's p much spaghetti code. Just go play normal FG for now like the rest of us unless you wanna help bug test for the devs.

We've been having no problems at all since switching from Lobby to LAN. Everything we've tried, works. (5E)

[Steve Geddes]

There was an update late last evening. Did you and every player update right before your game started? What version is showing in everyone's launch screen?
We didn’t for this game. We have now for next week’s (the update happened shortly before we played and I couldn’t get on to everyone so figured we’d use the march 30 version, rather than lose time in the session starting with an update).

Sunday night we had a trial run which had seemed to work okay - slow to load but otherwise fine. I didn’t anticipate the problem of people dropping out mid game.

[Steve Geddes]

FGU is supposed to help with the load in memory that our computers have when we load larger games and support things like animation better in engine. It will eventually give us a lot of other great things, but for now, it's p much spaghetti code. Just go play normal FG for now like the rest of us unless you wanna help bug test for the devs.

I’ve paid for FGU though. That doesn’t give me access to Fantasy Classic, does it?

[Steve Geddes]

We've been having no problems at all since switching from Lobby to LAN. Everything we've tried, works. (5E)
We spent a couple of hours trying to get port forwarding to work on Friday/Saturday night (the user here called damned was extraordinarily helpful and generous with his time). There wasn’t much success though.

[Steve Geddes]

FGU is early access. If you see desyncs we often just drop the client and reconnect. Not ideal but again early access. It is more time consuming but we are enjoying the campaigns we use it in.
I like the look of it too. The problem really is how long it takes for a player to connect (5-10 mins generally from joining the game until they can select their PC token). When it happened for like the sixth time right in the middle of combat we called the game early and all logged off to update.

Fingers crossed that works for next week.

[JohnD]

I’ve paid for FGU though. That doesn’t give me access to Fantasy Classic, does it?

No FGC is a different product.

[ddavison]

Hello Steve,

Sorry to hear that your group had such a rough go of it. We hope to push updates regularly to address these issues. There was a new version pushed Sunday that should help quite a bit. Early Access has been a little bumpier than we would all like, but we seem to be working through issues at a steady rate.

[Steve Geddes]

Hello Steve,

Sorry to hear that your group had such a rough go of it. We hope to push updates regularly to address these issues. There was a new version pushed Sunday that should help quite a bit. Early Access has been a little bumpier than we would all like, but we seem to be working through issues at a steady rate.

No worries. When we aborted the game, I did ask everyone to update to that latest version, so we'll see how it goes next Monday.

I'm not really complaining (although it is disappointing) as I knew I was buying the experimental version. I just didn't quite get the memo that it was so experimental as to not keep players logged in (I was expecting the odd invisible monster or miscalculation). It does look very nice when I have it running on my laptop with nobody else connected (and perhaps if the Port-Forwarding option was a little easier to implement, there might be no problem).

Ultimately, we'll give it another couple of weeks before we go somewhere else. I really like the fact I can pay to have a paizo AP (nearly) completely pre-loaded. That feature is worth being patient.

Cheers

[Weissrolf]

I’ve paid for FGU though. That doesn’t give me access to Fantasy Classic, does it?
I would prefer if it did, seems more fair to early adopters.

[Steve Flammang]

Did you realize that this is still early Beta access, so I think if you wanna complain about something not working as desired you should simply wait for the official release, FG especially mentioned this before release (so contribute to solving but don´t complain about something not working as you want).

[Steve Geddes]

Did you realize that this is still early Beta access, so I think if you wanna complain about something not working as desired you should simply wait for the official release, FG especially mentioned this before release (so contribute to solving but don´t complain about something not working as you want).

Yes, I knew it was a beta release. As I said - I thought that would mean some of the more esoteric gameplay features wouldn’t work or would work unreliably. I didn’t appreciate that “beta release” implied my players wouldn’t be able to log in. (And based on comments from FG, I don’t think my experience was expected by them either).

FWIW, I’m not unhappy with the fact I’ve spent money, nor am I “complaining”. I’m reporting my experiences in case there are others reading the forums thinking of buying FGU who may also be unaware of this issue. Perhaps it would be wiser for them to buy FG Classic and upgrade to FGU in a few months.

As for “contribute to solving” I can’t do much more than give them a few hundred dollars as I have. Not sure what that was even supposed to mean, really (?)

To be clear, I’m disappointed it isn’t working for us at more than a rudimentary level (and think that’s something worth telling the devs and prospective newcomers about). I’m not unhappy with my purchase, though.

[Trenloe]

I didn’t appreciate that “beta release” implied my players wouldn’t be able to log in. (And based on comments from FG, I don’t think my experience was expected by them either).
I agree. FGU had been in closed testing for a few months and there were nothing like the issue experienced once it was released to open beta. Plus the influx of stay-at-home affected people meant that the issues that have been uncovered have affected a lot of people and were exacerbated by the volume of new users wanting to game.

Hopefully the devs have turned the corner on the main networking issues and people will be able to get to play with "normal" beta type issues.

Thanks for keeping the devs informed of the issues you're encountering. Hope your next session goes much better!

[LordEntrails]

No worries. When we aborted the game, I did ask everyone to update to that latest version, so we'll see how it goes next Monday.
FYI, by next Monday their will probably be one or two updates. You will probably want everyone to update right before game time.


Yes, I knew it was a beta release. As I said - I thought that would mean some of the more esoteric gameplay features wouldn’t work or would work unreliably. I didn’t appreciate that “beta release” implied my players wouldn’t be able to log in. (And based on comments from FG, I don’t think my experience was expected by them either).
Connecting was working up until a few weeks ago (most everything appeared to be working). When beta testing showed that the existing network engine couldn't do what it needed to do. So a completely new engine was selected and implemented, and then proved to not be scalable with the influx of COVID gamers.

So, Beta testing did what it was supposed to, it showed issues that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately, the first resolution to the problem didn't prove as capable as planned.


As for “contribute to solving” I can’t do much more than give them a few hundred dollars as I have. Not sure what that was even supposed to mean, really (?)
I suspect this was referring to continuing to post issues and providing logs and troubleshooting info. By letting the devs know what's not working, the steps to reproduce, and the logs etc, this is helping immensely.


To be clear, I’m disappointed it isn’t working for us at more than a rudimentary level (and think that’s something worth telling the devs and prospective newcomers about). I’m not unhappy with my purchase, though.
Glad you are still here. I know you're skeptical (rightly so), but I have faith (based on 5 years here) that the devs have things back on track and will continue to address them moving forward.

[Steve Geddes]

FYI, by next Monday their will probably be one or two updates. You will probably want everyone to update right before game time.
Ah, I didn't realise the updates were likely to come that quickly. I'll make sure everyone updates half an hour before the game starts.
Cheers.

Connecting was working up until a few weeks ago (most everything appeared to be working). When beta testing showed that the existing network engine couldn't do what it needed to do. So a completely new engine was selected and implemented, and then proved to not be scalable with the influx of COVID gamers.

So, Beta testing did what it was supposed to, it showed issues that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately, the first resolution to the problem didn't prove as capable as planned.
Yeah - I'm a "COVID gamer" so part of the problem, really!

I've never liked technology at the table, but given it's likely to be a year or more before we can get back together, this is better than no gaming at all.

Glad you are still here. I know you're skeptical (rightly so), but I have faith (based on 5 years here) that the devs have things back on track and will continue to address them moving forward.
I've definitely had great customer support from FG (and I really like the look of the software - for me the connection issue is the only frustrating thing. I don't need all the bells and whistles to work, so fingers crossed next week goes much smoother. :)