iPad App

[Laerun]

The screen real-estate and interaction with the maps and such would be difficult to see and control. Even a smaller laptop with a 14-15" screen is very challenging. The UI would have to be adapted to work well on 3rd party apps, and might not be ideal for targeting, and for other functions. The need is apparent but the adaptation of dev time may not be quite in the cards yet.

[LordEntrails]

If that idea does not capture what you want, you can add your own that more closely details what you are hoping for.

[The High Druid]

If the players could bring the portable device of their choice, I think FG would take off. Each session, we get people suggesting that we used another product that is web based in such a way that it will work across most mobile platforms now. If I hadn't already invested in FGU Pro, I'd probably be swayed. As Omicron seems to be rearing it's ugly head and taking us back to early 2020 days... the need for smaller form player devices is increasing.

This wouldn't necessarily solve your problems. If you switched to one of the web-based platforms like Roll20 or Astral, and you're all on the local wifi, you'll all be trying to download the same data at the same time using the same connection. You may well end up getting bandwidth issues, especially if you have a large or animated map. You'll find plenty of discussions about performance on the Foundry reddit as well which mention bandwidth being a factor at least for remote games.

[Zarestia]

It's interesting to see where this thread started and where the ideas... haven't gone. None of the informer.com polls quite satisfy what I've been searching the FG website to find. The biggest blockage I have to getting anybody I game with to use FG is the fact that they'd all have to bring computers. We like to game face-to-face (now mask to mask but you get the idea). FG would be an ideal way to cut down on a lot of the tedium of RPGing. It would also keep us "socially distant" without being socially isolated. As it stands, we generally creep back to should-to-shoulder because nobody likes to move to the map, move a character, and then move away. If the players could bring the portable device of their choice, I think FG would take off. Each session, we get people suggesting that we used another product that is web based in such a way that it will work across most mobile platforms now. If I hadn't already invested in FGU Pro, I'd probably be swayed. As Omicron seems to be rearing it's ugly head and taking us back to early 2020 days... the need for smaller form player devices is increasing.

If there is poll that specifically asks for iOS/Android device support, please direct me to add my votes. It's the only way I can keep using FG.

D

Here's a bit older thread discussing how people use FG for face-to-face play. You might get some ideas there which could work for you and your group.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...t-the-tabletop

[Mytherus]

That’s a “neat” thought but with a small dev team and a lengthy “wanted features” list on top of the standard bug fix and maintenance tasks how would smite works have dev time or resources for an iPad app?

How many FGU users want this for a feature more than just “eh, if it existed I’d try it”?

[sturtus]

It's a business decision, not a technical decision. I think it can be assumed that FG users would not be interested in an iPad app, but building a tablet version would be an investment to capture new users and customers in order to increase profit margins. It's a business growth consideration. The technical hurdles and investment costs come after the business audience/growth research. If the profits exceed the technical costs to produce a client-only tablet MVP (no gamemaster), it's obviously a good investment. Otherwise, it's not. If, after market research, it's found that there is demand for an iPad app and it's still not something the business wants to pursue, that's up to the business owners to decide if they want their product to work on iPads or not. Sometimes a business just doesn't want to do something and that's fine. But to say this is too technically difficult is not really the issue.

[damned]

It's a business decision, not a technical decision. I think it can be assumed that FG users would not be interested in an iPad app, but building a tablet version would be an investment to capture new users and customers in order to increase profit margins. It's a business growth consideration. The technical hurdles and investment costs come after the business audience/growth research. If the profits exceed the technical costs to produce a client-only tablet MVP (no gamemaster), it's obviously a good investment. Otherwise, it's not. If, after market research, it's found that there is demand for an iPad app and it's still not something the business wants to pursue, that's up to the business owners to decide if they want their product to work on iPads or not. Sometimes a business just doesn't want to do something and that's fine. But to say this is too technically difficult is not really the issue.

That may be true in a a very simplified binary world.
There are many other areas that could or would impact this also.
For example if the UI were to change because of the iPads inability to nicely deal with a right click how does that affect the user experience of everyone else that has learnt how to work with right click? User acceptance is a huge factor in the success of changes.
Or if the display on an iPad is considerably different because of the limitations of its physical size and the iPad user gets the ability to use the program but the experience is so different and potentially underwhelming that it actually hurts the products overall perception.
Or if the changes required to support the app on iOS also require changes to the DLC there is then flow on work required by the third parties that develop the DLC and the potential challenges in getting them on board.

[sturtus]

All of those concerns are totally valid. The touch UI would be a really big obstacle and require a lot of design and user testing. Still, Without the investment into research and testing, who is to say?

[Marquis_de_Taigeis]

if using any operating system tablet, i would suggest your looking at very limited functionality, possibly being able to read a reference book in prep for running a game, or maybe looking at a character sheet.

use of battle maps / actually in game GMing / building and designing modules - homebrew would not be really functionable on a tablet

i have tried using an iPad through steams remote play, but size of screen was very non user friendly.

[damned]

I think that any tablet app would need to support

Full Character Sheet
Full Player Map access/use
Combat Tracker
Full Campaign Tools access

I think without those features it would be very limited.
I think map combat on a 10" screen and touch controls on busy character sheets are big impediments and probably require some out of box thinking to achieve.