Tabletop Simulator Early access

Started by Staggerwing, April 19, 2014, 06:36:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Staggerwing

(Wasn't really sure where to put this so I picked this. Mods feel free to move)

Some of you (maybe even many) may know about this already but the potential for Minis games caught my eye:

QuoteTabletop Simulator is the only simulator where you can let your aggression out by flipping the table! There are no rules to follow: just you, a physics sandbox, and your friends. Make your own games and play how YOU want! Unlimited gaming possibilities!

If you're into classic board games, we've got 15 to choose from, like Chess, Poker, Chinese Checkers, Dominoes, and Piecepack. If you are into tabletop gaming we've got a starter RPG Kit with various role playing animated figurines that you can setup and battle with your friends. The RPG Kit is ever expanding, so you can expect to see new things to come to really take your tabletop gaming to a new level. And if you're a creative person, you can create your own games by importing images onto our custom board and decks feature.

Tabletop Simulator is for everyone! Play a simple board game with grandma, have poker night with the guys, or start your epic RPG adventure with your regulars. Play almost any tabletop game you can think of! Being a multiplayer-focused game, up to 8 players can play at any given time. You can also play a solo game of Solitaire if you just need to relax by yourself.

Early access started yesterday on Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160








Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

TheCommandTent

#1
Very interesting concept.  It sounds like alot will be left up to what player's creativity brings to the game.  There seems to be potential here.


Or it could just turn into a game for people to troll each on by constantly tipping over the table. :)
"No wants, no needs, we weren't meant for that, none of us.  Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

Toonces

I've thought about picking this up if our group ever re-starts our Pendragon campaign.  It would make the tactical battles much easier to play through, for sure.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Barthheart

Yeah it looks more appealing to minis play than to regular boardgame play.

With VASSAL and SunTzu being free I'm not sure how many wargamers would pay for the same abilities.

And I'd hope you could turn off the table flipping thing...  :P


skeptical.platypus

Quote from: Staggerwing on April 19, 2014, 06:36:33 PM
(Wasn't really sure where to put this so I picked this. Mods feel free to move)

Some of you (maybe even many) may know about this already but the potential for Minis games caught my eye:

QuoteTabletop Simulator is the only simulator where you can let your aggression out by flipping the table! There are no rules to follow: just you, a physics sandbox, and your friends. Make your own games and play how YOU want! Unlimited gaming possibilities!

If you're into classic board games, we've got 15 to choose from, like Chess, Poker, Chinese Checkers, Dominoes, and Piecepack. If you are into tabletop gaming we've got a starter RPG Kit with various role playing animated figurines that you can setup and battle with your friends. The RPG Kit is ever expanding, so you can expect to see new things to come to really take your tabletop gaming to a new level. And if you're a creative person, you can create your own games by importing images onto our custom board and decks feature.

Tabletop Simulator is for everyone! Play a simple board game with grandma, have poker night with the guys, or start your epic RPG adventure with your regulars. Play almost any tabletop game you can think of! Being a multiplayer-focused game, up to 8 players can play at any given time. You can also play a solo game of Solitaire if you just need to relax by yourself.

Early access started yesterday on Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160


I think I am missing something about this project. I'm having a hard time understanding what is compelling about adding a physics sandbox to, say, monopoly or chess.

What is your vision for how this thing would work with minis? 
The Law of Unintended Consequences, Seattle Pride Variant: The only city on the planet that can guarantee your purchase of recreational marijuana is from a stoner making $15/hr.

Staggerwing

My vision is that the debs say you can. It's in the article. The options may be limited now but supposedly you will be able to add stuff down the road.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

skeptical.platypus

Quote from: Staggerwing on April 23, 2014, 06:43:51 PM
My vision is that the debs say you can. It's in the article. The options may be limited now but supposedly you will be able to add stuff down the road.

I'm sorry, I didn't ask that very well. From a player or DM perspective, how are you thinking of using Tabletop Simulator with minis? A virtual table top with a physics engine for paper and pen RPGs?

I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around this game/thing/product, but I love tabletops and I love simulators, so I'm desperately afraid I'm missing out on something enormously cool.
The Law of Unintended Consequences, Seattle Pride Variant: The only city on the planet that can guarantee your purchase of recreational marijuana is from a stoner making $15/hr.

Barthheart

It's just a virtual table where you can play games. The physics engine just allows you to move the pieces and roll dice in a realistic manner.

Minis would look and "feel" pretty good used this way, but for a regular board game I'm thinking it's not much of a draw.

If somehow you can "animate" your minis it would look cooler too.

skeptical.platypus

Did anyone else just hear an angelic choir singing "a-ha!"? (I defy AP style to work with me.)

Well, if you did, that was me suddenly getting it. Tabletop Simulator is actually a 3-d sandbox to visualize Internet Flame Wars.

Yes, that's right. Tabletop Simulator -- where I can play chess with Steelgrave, strut all over the board like a pigeon, stomp the pieces, flip the board, and declare victory. And six of you can lob actual sexual activities at us from the gallery, instead of just innuendos.

If there's a way to impart physics to puns, the Groghead Powers that Be just out to flat out buy the sucker and turn it into the first internet tabletop messageboard and multi-discipline gaming site with a physics model.*





*weakly weekly flogging of liberals results not typical, and may not represent your results. 
The Law of Unintended Consequences, Seattle Pride Variant: The only city on the planet that can guarantee your purchase of recreational marijuana is from a stoner making $15/hr.

GJK

Ok - so I realize that this is an old thread but just in case some others were finding themselves interested in it (as I was) and were wanting some feedback...here's what I posted to a BGG thread regarding this cute little toy:

QuoteAlright, I don't want to sound overly negative but I'm going to because my first online experience with this....SUCKED!

I figured out the controls and set up a game. I had a couple of people join in. I spent the time to go over some basics and we began. Things were going along so so until a net lag hit. While the lag was going on, my opponent swiped across the table (thinking that nothing would happen). Well, that sent cards scattering once the lag was over. But ok, we recovered and tried to resume from a saved game state. Then I learned that there appears to be a bug with hidden zones. My opponent (not new to TTS) was able to unmask my zone and let me know that it's a bug. Fine, we played on until suddenly two others joined the room and then flipped the table. On mic, they informed me that as a game host, I need to set a password for the room and learn to better protect my "area" or otherwise this will happen...and that they were doing it to teach us newbies a lesson and to "help us". And being able to hear their voices, they didn't sound like kids, just idiots.

My response to them before quitting and probably never trying this POS software again? If me and a friend were set up and playing in the park, would this "gang" come along and just flip our table at random? No, of course not because they'd feel the repercussions of their actions. VASSAL doesn't seem to have that problem and the "problem" as I see it is the mechanism in the software that allows for table flipping and the throwing of pieces. Sure, as a game host you can button that stuff down (I've learnt) but it's a gimmick to have that in there in the first place (IMHO). The interface is quirky (give me VASSAL any day) - it's hard to stack and to drop cards exactly where you want them and it's just too "fun" to just swipe the table or to start spray painting the area or what have you out of boredom awaiting your turn. My thoughts? It's a silly kids toy where you can pick up dice and cards and throw them (virtually) at one another and then laugh at the table flipping over. It's a gimmick. It's not a platform (as is) for serious players of this (or other) games. Again, IMHO. I wish that weren't so as I think that the basics of it all could be beneficial to the boardgaming community but as is; no. Much too frustrating. Perhaps once they've heard the complaints (I assume) and restricted some of the silliness that can go on, there will be a new and viable platform to play boardgames online virtually. Until then, nope...not going to mess with it.

So in short I'm sticking with VASSAL/ZunTzu.  The concept here is kind of cool but very gimmicky.  The "GUI" is clutzy at best as it's difficult to work with bits and pieces on the table and the silly table tossing thing is just a joke.  Sure, it's good for a laugh a couple of times but who wants to have that done during a serious gaming situation?

Again, this is still early alpha/beta access so I'm sure that things will change.  I'm still trying to research exactly how it is that you build a module for this thing.  If I understand it correctly, you need to know the Unity program and 3D modelling which puts it out of reach for most of us regular guys.  VASSAL can be tedious and a bit of a chore to build a module for but it's not out of reach.  ZunTzu is simple stupid to make a gamebox for but it isn't nearly as popular as VASSAL and Jerome (ZunTzu programmer) has all but disappeared as of late.  Still, I'd take those two options first for my next virtual gameboard presentation.
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

MikeGER

like Vassal its missing the three most important things for an evolutionary paradigm change

- rule obey checks/enforcement, guided/forecd-stepping through all the phases  (solitary games)
-  a decent AI (non solitary games)
- auto bookkeeping for convenience

...lets say for example i set up a nice game of TAL after several month , and i did a quick read of the manual again and watch a video
i would still like if i just cant f*&#k -up and spoil my game by attacking a wrong target, forgot a move, not adding a modifier from a temporary condition card, you name it ....   

 

Barthheart

If you have any Java skills you can actually program rules into VASSAL.
Asking for an AI seems..... odd.... there are no AI's in board games. I know you want one for solo play but dedicated programmers have a hell of anime trying to program dedicated AI's for single games... not going to happen for a general application like VASSAL.

Nefaro

This is currently 30% Off on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/


I just queried someone who owns it about the past table flipping and password protection complaints, and it reportedly has the options now. 

Supposed to have many modules available through the Workshop too.  There may be some interest in doing some Dead Of Winter multi-player, along with some other titles, so for $10 I'm up for checking it out.

GJK

I haven't tried it since my last "table flipping" episode but I'll give it another look later today. 

I think that it would work well for a miniatures game.  Unless it's changed, playing a card game with it was fiddly as all hell meaning that it was an exercise in click control to get cards to stack, shuffle and dealt.  I couldn't imagine playing a game that had lots of pieces or counters (especially stacked).
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Staggerwing

What's the 4-pack all about? Can you give the extra three copies to friends later on?
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys