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Questions from potential customers

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by kcdnd, Apr 24, 2010.

  1. kcdnd

    kcdnd New Member

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    Anyone have any comprehensive video tutorials or video of a "normal" gaming session of DnD (any edition would do)?

    I am game master and 8 or more players are going to buy the software I go with. I am a huge video tutorial fan (see http://www.techsmith.com/learn/default.asp for an example of awesome video learning center) and would love to see some sessions before I demo or buy. I prefer not to demo Fantasy Grounds II, Battle Grounds, and d20 Pro (three packages I'm researching) before buy as I can determine based on seeing people play.

    Anyone know if licenses are perpetual or do I need to buy a license for each major upgrade?

    Can you put a lot more screenshots online versus the small amount you have now?

    The marketing video looks cool but I want more visual details. :D

    I did notice Fog of War is not supported yet (bummer).
    I like that huge maps are supported (I love big maps).
    I like the auto-calculating combat for 3.5E.
    Thanks,
    Paul
     
  2. Yaourth

    Yaourth New Member

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    Hi Paul

    few answers from a new user after one month on the trial. I'm not able to make a video tutorial but if you are interested, i will post some screenshots next weeks as my group begins to play.

    The license seems perpetual. There's some infos on the download pages about switch from v1 to v2 without re-ordering : "If you wish to upgrade to v2 your v1 licenses will be automatically upgraded after you install v2 on top of your current installation and and create an account for v2 when prompted.". Of course, an answer from dev team would be more accurate ;)

    About other softs, i've tested Battleground and Fantasy Ground before d20pro. I've bought d20pro. Basically, each GM have is own preferences but i've many connection bugs with BG and Fantasy Ground is really really time-consuming to use. It's a very beautiful soft, full of great ideas but... no Pathfinder ruleset, the 3.5 one is no longer supported and i need to keep the hand on the game like in an IRL game.
    d20pro works fine, no tricky bugs and it's as close as possible to a real game with paper and minis. Many features from FG could be nice to have but, after few tests, i find all i really need. The main lack for me is the handouts management (need to lauch external pdf or html reader to see the docs from d20). I will really appreciate to send some pdf or html pages to my players. I think that the interface could be more user-friendly for the GM too but on the player side, it's just perfect (except the character management).

    An important point : the fog of war IS supported and works perfectly. I've just use it this afternoon with 4 friends who want to test the game. It's not a dynamic FoW like in Battleground, with light sources computing, but you can manage it like in a real game, revealing large or small areas. No bugs, no lag.

    Big maps are supported too but... does your net-connection support it ? You'll need to have a very good upload broadband.

    Autocalculating works for many things : skill test, attack, damages, init... you just need to record the stats for the creatures and characters. But don't forget the main thing in d20pro : judge always valid decision, like in IRL game. So i think you can't auto-run a fight. But you can preset attacks and effect for each creature and character.


    So, briefly : d20 works really fine, it's lighter than Fantasy Ground but you have the main tools.

    For the missed-features : character-sheet management from players (GM must change the datas), hex-maps, pdf/html handouts ingame.
     
  3. kcdnd

    kcdnd New Member

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    Thanks for the great information. I just wrapped up last four hours playing with Fantasy Grounds, now I'll try d20Pro.

    What about hex-maps?

    With PDF/html handouts what do you do with d20Pro? Upload in advance to web server and share the URLs in chat window or e-mail?
     
  4. kcdnd

    kcdnd New Member

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    Anyone know if there is a tutorial that's text based? Something that walks me step-by-step through the demo material that's available in demo software?

    I spent a few hours this evening reading through the online guide and playing around with the software and so far I can't reveal sections of map due to fog of war, can't find Boxed Text anywhere, and some other quirks. I managed to create a creature, put it on map, move it around, and kill some creatures.

    The online manual is okay at explaining things but what I would like is something that pulls all the pieces together, simply put I'd like a walk-through.

    The dice functionality, look, and feel is nothing close to Fantasy Grounds II which I played with for several hours today. I spent 15 minutes just playing with the dice today in FG2 and d20Pro dice are dull in comparison. The look and feel of d20Pro is colorful but doesn't have a table top feel to it.

    Unless there is more of a tutorial I'm pretty much done playing around with d20Pro. I am kind of let down as I was hoping to take advantage of the auto-combat system to speed up my games and check out Hero Labs products.

    I'll research Battlegrounds next...
     
  5. Yaourth

    Yaourth New Member

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    Hex-maps are not available in d20pro. It's a shame for particular purpose like exploration in large area but not a problem for majority of games. I hope this feature will add in next releases.

    For Pdf/html, when I post this type of file in handouts, the players have to click on a link and their computer auto-launch the external reader. It works, no bug, but it's not very smart to switch between Acrobat, Firefox, d20pro... during a game session. From now, i'm using JPG files only for handouts. The file is showed in the handouts window in d20pro and it's easiest to manage for all players.

    For the "dull" look compared with FG, i 'm agree with you. But the soft works fine, no bug, no crash and no lag (at least with 4 players and an DM). I think the dev team target the proficiency instead of the eye-candy.
     
  6. Dan

    Dan Member

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    You may want to sign up for a tutorial session on our Looking for Game page: http://d20pro.com/online-gaming.php Each tutorial is a 2-hr walkthrough and Q/A session. These really help you get to know the software. More tutorial videos are coming.
     

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