More Infos About DDI / Campaign Tools

[Tarrl]

I am def happy that they are focusing a couple things at a time, I so hope they do not abandon ship on the game table. I think that has a huge upside. Especially if you want to game with friends from afar or just jump on and get in a game.
One step at a time right.
cheers.

 

[Kishin]

Hmm. Campaign Tools are always useful.

Little disappointed because I had fun playing with the Visualizer at GenCon, but not at all surprised.

Also, I don;t understand why everyone was so hyper for the VTT. MapTool already fulfills that function MORE than admirably, and almost certainly offers more flexibility. (And besides, it comes pre programmed with options to calculate 3.5E diagonals as well as 4E movement, radius/cone/burst/blast/wall drawing tools, etc. al)

 

[Shemeska]

They've figured out that splitting effort between many projects results in everything sucking, but massive focus on one or two things provides great software like the character builder. I will be delighted if that's what comes from this decision -- especially if they return to the remote table afterwards.

That assumes that they have the available resources to really devote time to those projects. Having spoken to one of the in-house team members, I have a different perspective on the whole situation than I did before. For starters I'd like to retract any negative opinion I had about the in-house development team, and instead look at management and the earlier outsourcing firm that was originally hired to make Gleemax and the major DDI tools (VTT, visualizer, dungeon builder).

I'm not remotely in the same industry, but I was rather surprised at some of what originally went on, the amount of money sunk into Gleemax, the management decisions behind a lot of things, and the fact that as of not all that long ago, there were more managers than developers working on the DDI. From what I gather, rather than intentionally deciding to focus on one project at a time, it's more a case of the resources simply aren't there in the number of people available to code versus keep updating the character builder, test new code, etc.

I came away with a lot of respect for the in-house team, but not optimism of seeing the visualizer or VTT (though the dungeon builder will apparently be salvaged as part of the Adventure Builder/DM tools they just announced). Assuming who I spoke with was being truthful, and I have no reason to believe they weren't.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm with PKitty. I'd rather them get one thing right than seven things wrong. I'd rather have the 4e Bard than the 3e Bard, even if I don't have any particular personal use for the bard.

Those who want to play D&D online, get thee to MapTool, and Ventrilo.

I'm actually looking for another player or two for my MT 4e campaign next Saturday afternoon. It's not the same as in-person (in fact, quite a bit wonkier in some ways), but it's not bad at scratching that itch.

Heck, MapTool will probably continue to be my table of choice after the VTT, because it's friggin' FREE, whereas the VTT requires the DDI rigamarole in some capacity.

I'm looking forward to the VTT, but having some campaign tools will probably be more useful for more people anyway, so it's a good idea to focus energies on that (and a great idea to get a survey to find out what the fans want).

Use, abuse, and love MapTool. It is a lovely thing.

 

[Scribble]

I hope they do eventually get the VTT rolling because:

1. It would be on the D&D website.

2. It would have a lobby.

This means it has one distinct advantage over Maptools. You don't have to be looking for a way to play D&D online to know about it. You don't even have to know you CAN play D&D online to know about it.

Chances are a new player will log onto the D&D website for more info. Once there he'll see he can jump into the VTT lobby and find a game to play in without even having to figure out how to get together a group of 5 other nerds.

As for the DM helper... I'm somewhat excited. Not enough info to realy know what it plans to be. Chances are though, I won't be able to use it for game prep. I'm betting it will bea standalone ap, like the CB.

I do most of my campaign prep durring free time at work, and unfortunately, can't download/install any programs to my work computer.

 

[darjr]

My interest int the VTT falls behind the other things, so I happy, but the lobby was and remains a great idea. It was the killer app of the VTT for me.

With MapTool and something like chat or forum software couldn't something similar be done.

I also hope they complete it eventually.

 

[guivre]

I hope they do eventually get the VTT rolling because:
1. It would be on the D&D website.

2. It would have a lobby.
(

You mean you assume it will have a lobby. There are no specs for WotCs VTT, no feature list, not much at all tbh. Considering that it's vaporware at this point that's not surprising.

What is surprising to me is any furor over the game table failing to materialize. From the little information we saw it was not very impressive, particularly not compared to the free (and commercial) VTTs available from other sources. It's a dungeon tile map, projected into 3D... that's more limiting than feature-ful.

BTW information about other VTTs is already accumulating on the WotC forums. That will likely increase. IIRC I've already seen someone looking for online games. WotC is about to miss the boat and your points above will be met on their own forums but for existing VTTs.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

If the campaign tools include a dungeon builder and homebrew-helper, thats what i want. I would have been ready to be surprised by the VTT, but lets admit it, Maptool is pretty awesome in its own right - there would have been a lot of competing to be done.

Players > Builder
DMs > Campaign Tools (Information management, hombrewing, dungeonbuilder)
Group > VTT

seesm like a good thing to me.