Open Beta available again & Skirmish! VT development continues!

Smitemeister

Hi guys!

We know, it has been calm around Skirmish! for a while. Sometimes taking the step from turning a private passion into a public project - with all the calculations and general economic factors that come with it - can make you lose sight of what the project is about at its core. We needed to get some distance to reevaluate Skirmish! and where we plan to go with it.

As a result, we have completely shifted our focus back to development. We are now in the process of porting the Skirmish! client and its technology to a browser-based app while further improving the tech side. This step will not only allow Skirmish! to run on any operating system but also allow for graphical enhancements, more fluid controls as well as enable tablet and smartphone support. Furthermore, the new design also incorporates a (map) tab system and will allow us to implement cool features such as real time lights & shadows in the long run. However, as we also have our "normal" lives to attend to, the process will most certainly take us at least 6 to 9 months to complete. In the meantime we have opened access to the beta again for our supporters and anyone who would like to test the latest version of Skirmish! VT. We will certainly keep you posted as development progresses.

Thanks for your patience & support. We appreciate it a lot!

Cheers,
Chris

theboynurse

woo hoo-

JackBurton

Awesome! Out of the ashes of the phoenix! I have been stalking your site since your Kickstarter campaign. I actually ended up kickstarting mapforge because I saw it here. Glad to see you will be back. Please remember to alert your previous Kickstarters when you are ready to launch!

Frstrm

This is awesome news!  I unfortunately wasn't aware of this app until just after the last kickstarter effort ended.  I've been waiting in anticipation for any news regarding further developments.  Good Luck!

Smitemeister

Thanks for your support guys! We are working as hard as we can.

CmrdRamon

Your program is amazing. Currently I just need more option for dice rolling system and initiative process. Except that, count me in for your next kickstart.

About plugin, I'm ready to develop one. I would like to develop same dice rolling system than http://wiki.rolisteam.org/index.php/En:Dice. This system is clear, simple and complete.

You can send me explanation for plugin and I can do it.

Thank you for this great job.

Cmdr Ramon

xavi

Hey there!
I just wrote a guide for the current dice roller here: https://www.skirmish-vt.com/Community#/discussion/110/dice-roller-guide
It is now complete but should get you started.

About the plugins, it is not out of the window, but since we are in the middle of a next release probably the API would be totally different and any plugins made right now would become broken for the next version we won't release the current one.

Kepli

Glad to see you are back online ...

MadBeard

Nice to have you back. One question though. This new browser based app, is LAN going to be possible or would you have to be online to start it?

xavi

@MadBeard basically it will work as it does right now. You need to be online to login and join the server, but once that's done you are free to disconnect from the internet. The only difference is that you might do that from a special section of the skirmish site instead of having to install (and keep up to date) a separate client.

Kepli

I am already creating new adventures for my group. <span></span>
Have to get used to the controls again.

MadBeard

@xavi
That seems ok although it would be better if there wasn't need to be online for start the app.  It's not something that is crucial but probably for some people will matter this. Thanks for the reply

Smitemeister

@MadBeard The problem arises when you plan to work with established publishers and companies. They expect us to make sure the content (like maps, tokens, adventures or rule sets) they choose to make available for Skirmish! is protected. That is the main reason why we need to have the security check at start up.
We have designed the check to be rather simple and it really requires only very little bandwidth, so even a non-LTE phone will be able to connect you swiftly at start up. Afterwards you can turn it off again.

MadBeard

@Smitemeister

Ah I see now. That seems reasonable. Thanks for explaining.

Slagmoth

So tried to install and run this but the pathing said it didn't have permissions and Norton said it was unsafe. Would love to give this a try but seems shady thus far. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Smitemeister

Hi Slagmoth, in some cases Norton likes to give false positives. We don't like to clutter our software with adware (or any other form of junkware for that matter) so installing Skirmish! VT is 100% safe as long as you're running an installer obtained directly from our website. Try to temporarily disable Norton when installing Skirmish! and see if it solves your problem.

Kepli

I started it up again today and got suspicious empty screens in the client.
There is nothing on the left side (and I have the Show Left Panel activated) and when I open a game nothing is shown. I worked fine last time I worked with it on July the 7th. Any idea what is wrong here?

xavi

Hi @Kepli , maybe you don't have any permissions to see anything? Did the game have another user other than you set as DM?

xavi

Also make sure to check the server settings (the server owner field), it should be @serverowner or your actual username

Kepli

In the server the owner fields says @serverowner.
My user in the client Account Management is a DM and has DM permissions. There are no other users present.

When I load a game (the list doesn't show the games, but you can still select them and the pop-up with the description shows up), the mini map is only the drawn lines, but the map is there in the main screen.

Do you need more information?

xavi

Could you please take a screenshot? I'm a bit lost at the moment 

Deathanian

Very cool! Thank you all for putting this in beta. I just stumbled upon it and am already working on ways to mesh with my current tabletop system.

Smitemeister

@Kepli, if you want I can use the support account and connect to your server to see if I can solve your problem.

avinasharora

I see you guys posting the occasional forum reply, is development still continuing for Skirmish? and if so, is there another planned kickstarter soon?

I'm getting kind of sick of roll20 and I tested this with a few friends, it looks AWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME, like jaw droppingly good and I'm really eager to move forward with it, and help however I can. I know for the next kickstarter, my group will provide at least 15 backers, hopefully my entire campaign will participate and you'll get all 19 of us!

Smitemeister

Hi avinasharora, glad you're following us. We are currently performing a major software update which will enable Skirmish! to work with additional platforms such as smartphones, tablets and non-windows PCs. This update will also be the base from which we will determine our next funding endeavour. We actually planned to release some info during December but we'd rather give fewer but meaningful news than spam the same message over and over again in different words. But there will be some good news soon, that's a promise.

avinasharora

Exciting!! Well you've got our funding when it launches!

simonjhudson

Likewise.
I spent today re-learning Skirmish and got more done in an hour than I have achieved with Roll20 in 3 months of attempted use.
Our group has our pocket money when you are ready

CmrdRamon

currently, we play actively with a lot of pleasure to skirmish.  But because of one of my player which has linux, I’m waiting to the web interface. when do you think we can test it?

Smitemeister

Hi CmrdRamon, we are working as fast as we can to implement the missing features. We will give a new status report in April.

Lamiarex

It's past April, by half a month.  Any news?

tomlapierrejr

Hey guys!  Any news about Skirmish?!?!  Any news would be good news, unless you're no longer working on it.  That would suck!