Have you played with the DDI VT?

[Spatula]

The voice chat is just terrible. It's very low quality and there's no way of controlling individual volumes so you get some people you can barely hear and others who are booming in your ear.

You can control individual volumes. I think you click or right click on the "volume" icon near their token on the left side of the screen?

Also, I am assuming that the map tile and PC/monster token selections are limited because it's the beta.

One fairly foolish design decision regarding the icons is that they are each a set size. If you give a Medium monster a Large icon, it will be large on the map. Some automatic scaling would be nice, and would open up image re-use. For example, having a "black dragon" token that could be used to represent a black dragon of any size category.

 

[Kzach]

You can control individual volumes. I think you click or right click on the "volume" icon near their token on the left side of the screen?

I wasn't aware of that. Now that I am, however, it still doesn't seem to work.

Also, I am assuming that the map tile and PC/monster token selections are limited because it's the beta.

Yeah but they don't intend on opening it up. So you'll always be stuck with whatever tokens they decide to put into the VT.

 

[jshaft37]

I run two on-going games on the VT, and despite its shortcomings, I think it works just fine for what it is. I am not able to play any local games, so the VT has luckily filled that void for me. Maybe I'm just dumb, but getting on the DDI VT had a much lower barrier to entry for beginner users, so I went with that option.

FWIW the volume adjustment has always worked just fine for me. I think the voice features are pretty good. Audio is always clear and don't have lag, as long as the users have a mic of reasonable quality.

 

[Spatula]

I wasn't aware of that. Now that I am, however, it still doesn't seem to work.

Hm, it worked ok for me.

Yeah but they don't intend on opening it up. So you'll always be stuck with whatever tokens they decide to put into the VT.

That's somewhat annoying. But if you have the full library of WotC art to choose from (as opposed to the current highly limited selection), I don't think it's a huge problem. I wonder if they are afraid that people will upload copyrighted or potentially offensive images.

 

[samursus]

I've been in the beta since it started and was one of its earlier propponents, but in the last months or two I haven't been playing. Mostly it was because of time constraints, but I was beginning to find the lack of importable images/maps to be making combat a bit, well, bland. I know that you don't need such eye-candy to have an enjoyable game, but when all you have to look at is the same small set of map tiles, no matter how imaginative your DM gets, after awhile everything starts to look the same, even if it is not.

I had few problems with the voice chat feature, though I saw that other players in my groups had problems intermittently.

As far as features go its still a bit lighter than I'd like, but the learning curve is very shallow.

Personally, I think they need to work out how they are going to do the import thing sooner than later, so that DM's will be inspired to create fun games for people to play in.

 

[MrGrenadine]

I currently play in a weekly 4e game with Klooge.werks, and previously played a multi-year campaign (Runelords) with Maptool, both also using Ventrillo for voice chat. Although I haven't had the chance to use the WotC VT yet, I'd love to try it, but its going to need a hell of a lot of bells and whistles to match my terrific experiences with those two pieces of software.

Klooge, especially, is very robust--beautiful maps (you can import maps and character portraits of your own), comprehensive character sheets that calculate attacks and defenses, easy weapon switching, multi targeting any defense, automated hit or miss messages, automatically rolls saves at the end of your turn, effects and conditions are auto-calculated and end when they're supposed to, max ranges for weapons and spells are tracked, etc etc.

And if the software doesn't have an item or spell you need, even a non-programmer like me can figure out how to add the feature. Its outstanding.

But, if the WotC VT can one day improve on all that? Yeah, that would make me a fan.

 

[Mirtek]

That's somewhat annoying. But if you have the full library of WotC art to choose from (as opposed to the current highly limited selection), I don't think it's a huge problem.

Except when you have to buy it piece by piece from them.

I wonder if they are afraid that people will upload copyrighted or potentially offensive images.

It's 100% sure that people will upload copyrighted pics. If someone needs a monster or NPC picture for their home game they just google and use the picture they like best from the results. They would do the same with any VT that allows using your "own" pictures.

In a home game or with VTs like maptool that's no problem, since it's strictly private and not hosted on any company's servers. Since WotC is fearing to be hold liable for their customers uploading copyrighted material to their servers (which the customers are only doing because WotC first forced them to upload everything they want to use to their servers), they deprive the users of a much wanted feature.

Same reason why their are no custom portraits in the new online CB as opposed to being able to use every picture you want with the offline CB

 

[Moorcrys]

They only thing that's kept me from starting up a game on their beta is the lack of dungeon tiles they have implemented. They only have some 'dungeon' dungeon tiles available so any non-'dungeony' environs look like absolute crap... the way I draw they do anyway. The only way to have wilderness or city locales at the moment is to draw them using the crude mapping drawer. If they made other tilesets available I'd use them - I'd even pay a few bucks to add some to the VTT. If I want to present some kind if non-map art I'd use photobucket or something. They have so many maps and so much art lying around I can't imagine that at some point they won't make it available within the VTT - those are the things that I think will make it the 'go-to' online tabletop of 4e players and generate revenue for them.

I like the interface - it's pretty intuitive to me and I picked it up quickly and the games ran smoothly. The import features are fine. Didn't have any voice trouble. Aside from the limited tileset availability, the only major issues I have with it are larger issues that have little to do with the VTT and everything to do with the CB and MB - the fact that you can't customize ANYTHING. No tweaked monsters to import, you can't even give a character an added feat that imports into the VTT, let alone rename a monster or add a deity name from your home campaign. I still find it very annoying that the tools they present don't allow you to even stray one inch from the database-entered material ... even just being able to rename something so that it doesn't grate against your own campaign world or game would be a step in the right direction. At least you can cross that stuff out on a character sheet and write in what you need. You can't do that on the VTT.

Cheers.

 

[Ferghis]

Yeah but they don't intend on opening it up. So you'll always be stuck with whatever tokens they decide to put into the VT.

Wow. I didn't know this. That's pretty annoying, for a DM. I don't mean to sound like I don't believe you, could you point out a source for this detail?

 

[Baron Von Mandrick]

I've played fantasy grounds and Fantasy Grounds 2 before getting into the VT table.

I now play in two regular groups on VT.

I like DDI's VT table. There are some real positives to the program.

1. The ease of importing characters

2. Built in chat. It was a pain for using Fantasy Grounds and a separate chat program. That feature alone is great.

3. It's also very intuitive as far as the interface goes, the powers are all there calculated for you, and you can check off as you use daily's and encounter powers.

4. The initiative tracker is helpful and good.

5. I don't know about one of the two groups I play in, but the other group I play in are my old friends and brother that used to all play D&D more than 20 years ago. None of us are great or really have the time to invest in making macros and things that would enable us to get the most out of maptools, so VT's simplicity of use is a huge plus for us.

6. The voice fonts are kind of fun to use in limitation.

7. All of the new classes, rules changes, items class tweaks or corrections get built into the CB and VT pretty quickly and it is automatic. We don't have to keep track of all the changes or track them down. They just happen. That's huge.

8. You can create your own campaign page, with it's very own private forums. Members can post playing time conflicts, keep track of the story, treasure, places discovered and explored, options not yet chosen as far as exploration. It has a calendar where you can keep track of upcoming game times. It's very convenient and is a part of DDI and VT. You don't have to make the website yourself.

While it is true that finding a magic item will make the character in VT change and you either have to do it manually there is another way, and that is going back into the CB and adding to the character, adjusting you character's xp and re-importing the character into the VT again.

With VT you can change each player's volume individually so that people with quieter mics can be adjusted and people with louder mics can be adjusted.

There are some drawbacks but I don't know whether it's because VT is still in beta or if it's that VT will never correct them.

1. The dungeon tiles are limited. I believe VT is working on that one.

2. It's hard to adjust for house rules and items. It isn't built into the program. I believe VT is working on that one as well, but not 100% sure.

3. There are very limited tokens to use for both monsters and characters. There is no way to import your own. I'm not sure if VT is working on that one or not.

4. It would be nice if VT had a way to add bonuses such as combat advantage to your powers calculation when you roll it. As it works now, we just have to remember we have a bonus to an attack roll, and make sure we announce it after we roll the number.

Overall I'm very happy with VT. I give it some slack because I realize it's in beta. I might not be as happy if it was a finished product. Overall it's allowed me to play in two weekly campaigns as opposed to zero. That's a huge plus for me.