To Map in VTT or not to map in VTT

[kalmarjan]

A few VTTs out there have the ability to be used a mapping tool as well as a virtual game table. I'm curious about:

1. Which VTT do you use?
2. Does it have the ability to allow you to map in it?
3. Do you use that ability?
4. How quickly can you produce an encounter map with it?
5. How is the quality of the map?
6. How usable was the map?
7. Post an example?
8. How long did it take?
9. Do you prefer this method versus creating the map in an external application?
10. Any additional comments you would like to add?

1. Fantasy Grounds
2. Yes, but that *ability* really sucks in my books. Sorry FG.
3. If I had to, really really fast. Think about as fast as drawing on a Chessex battlemap. Only problem is I ONLY have a fine fine pen.
4. With a small pen like that, even with a tablet, it sucks.
5. Very usable, once I explained what the map represents. Like on a chessex battlemap. Oh, why can't FG have layer styles, drop shadows etc. LOL
6. I would post an example, but what's the point. You get the picture. I don't want something like that linked to me. I am a professional after all.
7. Map was done in seconds. Like I drew it on a battlemap
8. Hell no. I prefer making maps in Photoshop. End of story. Maybe even illustrator if I am feeling razzy. In FG? Only when I need something on the fly.
9. FG is not a mapping tool. I am cool with that. I wish that there was a way to make the "marker" bigger though, and change the color. That way, it would be more versatile. Nothing says scary like having a nicely rendered map of the lake of the four moons, then have something like a random encounter come up... and you need to place some stuff on a blank page. Then you have to scribble to show the bushes and stuff. But you are scribbling with a 0.01 pen. That does not even bleed for heck's sake. Ah forget it. I will just draw an "X" here. That is a tree, K? This wavy line over here is the river. Yes, it is really thin, but I only got this really really fine pen, so back of mister!

I am not knockin FG, I LOVE the program. I just wish I had a bit better drawing tools is all.

Sandeman

[Redrobes]

1. Which VTT do you use?
2. Does it have the ability to allow you to map in it?
3. Do you use that ability?
4. How quickly can you produce an encounter map with it?
5. How is the quality of the map?
6. How usable was the map?
7. Post an example?
8. How long did it take?
9. Do you prefer this method versus creating the map in an external application?
10. Any additional comments you would like to add?

1. ViewingDale
2. Yes*
3. Always
4. Few minutes - depends on the map complexity.
5. See* or here
6. Very
7. See*
8. 3 mins 49 secs movie (simple dungeon)
9. Of course. You still need an image editor for creating the tokens/stamps/icons but nothing else comes close for a token compositor.
10. You can change any part of it later. Nothing is fixed like in a bitmap editor. Maps generally much higher res than most image editors. Like the best of vectors and bitmaps in one.

* See this thread for the movies

[RPMiller]

Very cool stuff!

I hope you don't mind if I add some additional questions since I haven't really looked at ViewingDale?
These are all specific questions for what I use so they are especially of interest to me.

1. So can you do hex maps as well?
2. Does it support vision blocking in addition to the fog of war?
3. Does it support light?
4. How does it handle custom dice mechanics?
5. Does it support macros?
6. Can you assign properties to tokens and have those properties picked up by the macros?
7. Does it have any sort of initiative tracking system?

[Redrobes]

Very cool stuff!

I hope you don't mind if I add some additional questions since I haven't really looked at ViewingDale?
These are all specific questions for what I use so they are especially of interest to me.

1. So can you do hex maps as well?
2. Does it support vision blocking in addition to the fog of war?
3. Does it support light?
4. How does it handle custom dice mechanics?
5. Does it support macros?
6. Can you assign properties to tokens and have those properties picked up by the macros?
7. Does it have any sort of initiative tracking system?

1. Yes
2. No
3. No but I feel like it should. It supports dark tho - its easy to have shadows but not clear areas that brighten than base. I have had a few maps of late that could have done with that so I think this might get added. I think this is different from MapTools light tho. I don't think MapTool does light the way I would like to have light.
4. Its an expression parser which handles any resonable sized dice. Thats free so give it a try.
5. Yes - try it.
6. No - its definitely staying game agnostic
7. Not a built in calculator type thing but its easy to do init order via tokens.

[RPMiller]

Thank you for the info. I'll take a look at the expression parser. The dice used in the Hero System give any VTT a run for its money and most fall short of providing everything that we need to have the VTT handle all the dice in an effective manner, so I'm very curious to see what it can do. Perhaps if you ever have time to run a demo that I can connect to and we can chat about it and and I can give you specific questions that would be great.

Regarding #6, a VTT can still do this and be system agnostic if the user is allowed to define the properties that are used to begin with. MapTool recently implemented this and it works great. There are at least 4 different systems that I've seen people using with it.

Anyway, thanks again for the answers and I don't want to derail my own thread, LOL, so I'll ask further questions in PMs or you are welcome to contact me for a demo session. I am interested in learning more as I wasn't even aware of it when I was first looking into VTTs.