Agreed with MeepoSose here. No need to jump ship, SmiteWorks has always been quiet and slow. They'll get around to it and I'm sure they'll give your system of choice the consideration it's due.
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Agreed with MeepoSose here. No need to jump ship, SmiteWorks has always been quiet and slow. They'll get around to it and I'm sure they'll give your system of choice the consideration it's due.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MeepoSose
It wouldn't be the first time. In the corporate software landscape, licensing in a way that meets the customers' needs is a feature of the software itself. Several times I've seen an inferior product win out over a superior one because the licensing terms were more flexible. Especially with regard to concurrent vs named licenses.
There are a lot of things that factor into "the better product"
From the product itself, to licensing, to official support, to "addons and modules"
And I can say without question Fantasy Grounds is currently falling short on 3 of those 4, and questionably falling short on the 4th at this point. It is quickly becoming and inferior product.
I'd be interested to see the user numbers compared to the other main pay VTTs out there. Doubt any of them would release those figures though. I do agree though that a floating license scheme would serve to bring more people in. I was very close to purchasing Klooge when I first was looking years ago but after scanning the activity on their boards I settled with FG.Quote:
Originally Posted by unerwünscht
Don't get me wrong, I honestly believe with a little work Fantasy Grounds could become "The Best" product on the market again. A true floating license system would help a lot with that.
Visually (in my opinion) Fantasy Grounds is worlds above any of the other products I have seen. However some of the others at this point support things like simulated Miniature War games (I.E D&D Mini's and Warhammer 40K), something that is very difficult to actually pull off with Fantasy Grounds. I have also seen support in other VTT's for trading card games such as Magic and Naruto, as far as I know something that can not be done in any way with Fantasy Grounds.
Other things I have seen in other products that Fantasy Grounds just doesnt do: "Fog of War", PDF support, Voice/Video support, MP3 Support, Map Tiles, More robust token rotation, Token Binding (like locking one token to another token), Token Cycling (I.E. stage 1 standing, stage two hiding, stage three dead etc..), Automated map conditions (such as torch light, night vision, blindsight etc...)
This list keeps going, but I think my point is valid. Most of the features would be very easy for Smite Works to incorporate into Fantasy Grounds, but for whatever reason (and there are many valid reasons) they have not.
I can understand that there may not be enough users to justify the time required to make said changes. I can understand that Smite Works is only a few guys, working on Fantasy Grounds part time. I could even understand if it happened to be an issue of they dislike me so much they do not want to acknowledge any feature ideas that I come up with, but no matter what the reason, Fantasy Grounds has gone from "King of the Hill" in the VTT market to being a second rate application.
What I see has happened over the last year is slightly different. There is no one first rate application. The main VTs are getting differentiated by the niche where they excel. Fantasy Grounds is the front runner by a long way for atmosphere, text chat-based roleplay and campaign management within the GUI. That defines the way a large number of people want to play.
Other VTs lead the field in things like tactical miniature play, audio/video support, pdf and web support which can expose external file structures to the game, etc.
So, at the moment, talking of being second rate is premature as there's no one application that does everything better.
What's true is that none of the developers can rest on their laurels, the market is mature enough for each to understand where their feature set lags behind, and the arrival of that first rate application is probably not too far away.
Spyke
Isn't that what I said?
Nope. ;)
You said it had already become second rate. My point was that no single competing VT had broadly surpassed it (or any other) yet, though I strongly suspect that this will happen during the next year.Quote:
Originally Posted by unerwünscht
Spyke
Ok, now we are just splitting hairs :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Spyke
I do agree, tho others have more features, the "visual experience" of Fantasy Grounds still has me holding onto the hope that someone can light a fire under that *rear ends* of the Smite Works Team, and get them to open their eyes and bring Fantasy Grounds up to date feature wise.
In all honesty with programs like ventrillo and yahoo they can skirt around the audio/video features for now, and focus on the token and map aspects of the application. However the floating license issue at hand in this thread is truly what will make or break them at this point.
I can say with utmost certainty that the rented license scheme originally announced will generate a few more sales for them, but will bring about the end of Fantasy Grounds as a legitimate table top alternative. Tho from everything I have seen at this point the clock is ticking against them. They only have till Epic Table is released if epic table lives up to what it looks like it will.
Sounds good if both options are available. In this way, the players who might spend a small bit of money (at first) to have a taste of 'floating license' admission into the games..... may eventually be tempted to purchase ownership of a full or light license.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ged