DDI Virtual Table Beta Tour and Future

Dire Bare · Jan 26, 2012

w_earle_wheeler said:
I predict that the "voice-changer" will become universally derided as an annoyance as a result of poor enunciation and ambient background noise running through the coked_gnome.voc filter.

Seriously, if this is the best VT that WotC can preview at this point, they need to just hang it up, turn off the lights and lock the door.

Really? Despite the favorable beta tester reviews and numerous folks excited about what the D&D VT can do NOW, much less what it might be able to do later as upgraded?

If what you've heard doesn't excite you, fine. Just remember there are other folks who are excited about an easy-to-use, official D&D app. With cool voice changer fonts to boot!

SteveC · Jan 26, 2012

I've looked at the DDI Tabletop now that I'm back into DDI, and even though it has some issues, it's definitely usable, and drop dead simple.

Can you do a lot more with Maptools? From what I've seen, yes. At the same time, when we tried to set up Maptools we simply couldn't get it to work on some of the user's PCs with their security settings, and I found configuring things Byzantine and arcane. I could get it to work, but I had a bit of the feeling that you get in the stereotypical Linus board when you come to it with a starter question.

So I'd say WotC is definitely on to something, but this is very much still a work in progress. I would use it, however, since it seems to just work for the folks I game with.

w_earle_wheeler · Jan 26, 2012

Dire Bare said:
Really? Despite the favorable beta tester reviews and numerous folks excited about what the D&D VT can do NOW,

See, that's not how I read the review. I see someone who is trying very, very hard to put a positive light on something that they feel a bit underwhelmed by.

The simplicity of the table is nice, but as it is now -- or as it is now described -- it really isn't going to cut it.

However -- if WotC is playing things closer to the chest in order to avoid over-promising again, then there's no telling what is going to come.

Only time will tell, but I will stand by my prediction with the information given.

Argyle King · Jan 26, 2012

Seems pretty cool to me.

I find it a little strange that the beta for a table based around 4th Edition is still going while 5th edition is in the works, but the virtual table looks nice. It just makes me curious about how similar 5th will be to 4th since -imo- it doesn't make a lot of business sense to continue putting money into this project if it won't be easily usable with the new edition which is being put together.

Dannager · Jan 26, 2012

w_earle_wheeler said:
See, that's not how I read the review. I see someone who is trying very, very hard to put a positive light on something that they feel a bit underwhelmed by.

Where is this coming from? I didn't feel underwhelmed by it at all, and I've tried a number of different VTTs. It is accessible, straightforward, and does a lot of things that VTTs have not successfully implemented before.

Do you have any grounds for accusing the reviewer of shoddy reporting?

Gringoire · Jan 26, 2012

mudbunny said:
For some people (including 2 in my home group), having to install maptool and skype is *very* technically challenging. The fact that with the VT, you click and it runs, you have a *large* barrier that doesn't need to be overcome.

Maptool doesn't need to be installed. Just double click. If this is technical i think that your member group should not use pc to play.

Gringoire · Jan 26, 2012

ardoughter said:
The gang that played with me in college 20 odd years ago, well we still meet and play occasionally but I tried to get them onto Maptools 2w years ago or so and no go. Not interested in the learining curve.
We had our first shakedown session on the VTT last Monday and it looks like we are going to start a regular campaign. Not all of them are DDI subscribers but the VTT is pretty easy to use and there really no hosting issues. No port forwarding and that lark.
Now I know that there are other solutions that one can consider better then the VTT but I could not persuade them of that.

In 2 years over than 100 new maptool versions have been released solving bugs, introducing new features and making the game more simple. You don't need to draw lines to see if you can hit a monster because there is the vision blocking layer that makes you see only ehat your pg sees and what he can hit. You can drow walls, you can show piece of map dinamically when pg discover them... Guys maptool is incredibly better than this solution proposed by DDI. Go on youtube, write maptool 1.3 and look the magic. And it is totally FREE!

UngainlyTitan · Jan 26, 2012

Gringoire said:
In 2 years over than 100 new maptool versions have been released solving bugs, introducing new features and making the game more simple. You don't need to draw lines to see if you can hit a monster because there is the vision blocking layer that makes you see only ehat your pg sees and what he can hit. You can drow walls, you can show piece of map dinamically when pg discover them... Guys maptool is incredibly better than this solution proposed by DDI. Go on youtube, write maptool 1.3 and look the magic. And it is totally FREE!

I have played about with Maptools and am very impressed with it, that said I found it to have a steep learning curve and troubleshooting conection issues could be a bitch. I would be quite willing to use but the people I wanted to get to use it would not touch it after that one session.

The VTT just works, no faffing about. It is limited but we got a pretty decent session going and it had just enough functionality. In some case tools like maptool has too much functionality. There was another vtt I mucked about with, can't remember what it was called but it was coded on .Net that I liked even better.

Now I am going to run another session for my friends next Monday and I done up a map for the Vanguard Tower and hand drew a fairly basic map of Restwell Keep for a Chaos Scar campaign. Not sure how long it took me, I had a lot of interuptions but hour and half tops.
I really really would like more colours, brushes and some fill options for the drawing tools but it is simple enough that I could knock out an encounter on the fly if I had to. Not sure if I could manage that right now with maptools.

Aberzanzorax · Jan 26, 2012

This seems to be inferior to maptools in every way except one, but it's a big one.

Actually connecting/being able to play.

My group used maptools (two of us majored in computer science in college) and routinely spent 1-2 hours at the beginning of a session getting everyone to connect (due to map loading, port forwarding, etc etc issues).

It was to the point where we eventually gave up on it. I'm going to revisit it when I get a new computer in a month or so, but the connection issues were a major factor.

Now, that said, using macros, vision blocking and fog of war, lighting, uploading maps, being able to use just about any image on the web, and other features are all just awesome.

WotC's product is underwhelming, but may survive on two merits:
1. Being part of a bundled product anyway.
2. Easy of connectivity.

ShinHakkaider · Jan 26, 2012

Aberzanzorax said:
WotC's product is underwhelming, but may survive on two merits:
1. Being part of a bundled product anyway.
2. Easy of connectivity.

I'll agree with you that it's underwhelming alright. Partially because to that first thing you listed. It's bundled with a bunch of other services that are useless to you IF you dont support 4E so there's that.

Also I've never had any connectivity issues (the few times that I've used Maptools. I may have just been lucky though..) with MapTools either. Then again I've never used it in it's earlier iterations.

Gotta admit the ONE thing that I was hoping that WOTC would deliver on was the virtual Gametable and that it would be system agnostic so that anyone would be able to use it. But that's not really the case here. Not willing to shell out for a months subscription to try it out either.

I'll stick with MapTools and D20 Pro then but I'll be keeping an eye on this in case there are further developments.

DDI Virtual Table Beta Tour and Future

Dire Bare

Legend

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself

w_earle_wheeler

First Post

Argyle King

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Dannager

First Post

Gringoire

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Gringoire

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UngainlyTitan

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Aberzanzorax

Hero

ShinHakkaider

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