Questions about TTS and HeroQuest

[Azure]

A simple and short post about the HeroQuest community as a whole. Considering that HeroQuest "Reprint" 2020 will soon come out, have any of you tried HeroQuest using the TableTop Simulator game on STEAM ?

(I am always playing HQ on TTS because I have a dedicated group of players online.)

During all of 2019 and 2020, I tried to bring people from YeOldeInn to join our channel on Discord and invite them to try HQ on TTS for themselves. I even created a few tutorials for that matter.

So here are my questions for you, fellow players.

1- Do you plan to purchase TableTop Simulator in order to play HQ ?

2- Have you played//are you part of a group that plays HQ via TTS on a regular basis ?

3- Have you been successful in finding the proper information on your "quest" to play on TTS ?

4- Do you need more information or details to get everything set up?

5-Would you recommend TableTopSim to friends or other community users ?

6-Are you looking for a dedicated HeroQuest group ?

Thank you.

[Kurgan]

Thanks for your query. I would be happy to share my honest thoughts, I hope this doesn't come across as overly harsh or overly negative, but I have been very frustrated with this program (and I wish those lucky enough to be able to use it all the best in getting together some kind of group to play together).

1- Do you plan to purchase TableTop Simulator in order to play HQ ?

I foolishly purchased TTS some time ago precisely because I wanted to play HQ easily online (and the screenshots made it look GREAT). I say "foolishly" because I found it to be a very glitchy, bug-ridden program. While the concept is great and there are a lot of mods, many of the mods are poorly maintained, it has a high learning curve for use, and the thing requires many restarts, lag/freezing, crashes and tweaking to get working. THAT was back when I was using windows 7.

When I "upgraded" to Windows 10, I couldn't get the program to work AT ALL. I even posted on the steam forums asking for help but got a lot of various answers pertaining to installing, reinstalling and uninstalling different Visual C++ distribution packages and the program itself, which seemed an endless rabbit hole of non-function that led me to give up on the program entirely. My laptop isn't brand new, but it met the system requirements and my online service is just great. As neither a coder, nor game developer myself (professions I respect for the challenges involved), I figure having that extra knowledge shouldn't be necessary to enjoy what purports to be a one-size-fits-all expandable module for board games online. Again, great concept, poor execution in my experience. My consolation is that the program wasn't very expensive.


2- Have you played//are you part of a group that plays HQ via TTS on a regular basis ?

I've never played TTS with another person. Back when it (barely) worked in Win7, I tested it by myself, and installed various HQ related packages (many of them didn't work at all, some worked partially and a few worked but still left something to be desired).

When I play HQ and I can't do so in person (pretty much the last 18 months) I've done so over Zoom using my own set and whatever components the other players have, using our webcams/phones.

I originally checked out, bought and toyed with TTS precisely because it was being talked about so much by others, suggested as an online "solution" to playing HQ remotely (especially if others didn't own the board game... the game app was certainly cheaper than a real set) and the screenshots made it look very good, even some online videos made it appear inviting. Sadly, the actual experience was far less than stellar.

3- Have you been successful in finding the proper information on your "quest" to play on TTS ?

I found all kinds of stuff on the TTS community but finding stuff that was not broken was a trial and error challenge. Also, everybody had their own interpretation of the game, so creating my own homebrew version would have required me to make my own mod, something I didn't have the patience to do, especially when the program stopped working and tech support was lacking.

Tons of people have posted HQ mods for TTS on steam. Tons of very active forum posts addressing tech support issues, but nothing that has allowed me to get the game working on the current OS I'm forced to use.


4- Do you need more information or details to get everything set up?

I want to be notified when the program properly supports Windows 10. Until then I'm done monkeying-around with drivers and installation packages. The less frustration installing the program, mods and running it in order to actually play, the better, but at this time I'm unable to do any of it, and my patience is at an end. Sorry to sound like a broken record there, but it's true.


5-Would you recommend TableTopSim to friends or other community users ?

I would not currently recommend it. I would suggest that it provides a concept that someone else could use to create a better version of the program that performs the same function. I think one of the problems is the apparently requirement to store mod related components on some kind of off-site cloud storage that is unstable. I suppose having a peer to peer autodownload function for this would be considered too risky, but maybe there is a better solution.

Ultimately whatever program replaces TTS, would need to have the ability to support all of the official game components as well as being able to easily support homebrew rules and custom content. At base level this means matching the actual physical components, with specials like 3d animated "painted" pieces, dice towers, ambient music/sounds and the like being a secondary option for those who like such things.


6-Are you looking for a dedicated HeroQuest group ?

I would love to be part of such a group, but if it relies upon TTS or any pay-to-play service, I am not interested in that.

I think digital representations of HQ are done better in say, "Isometric Hero Quest" and even the mods for Vassal, although having Zargon/Morcar always be a computer and low visibility of some of the in-game objects is a problem for those games. The original PC game is rather different than any physical version of the game, almost to the point of being a unique game itself and really shows its age.

[lestodante]

I would like to try Tabletop simulator but I never try. Because I never have time to do so.
Sad to read what Kurgan sayd about TTS.
Instead, I would not recommend Discord to anyone. I used with some friends to play Bang! or Kraplow! online, and... I really hate this chat program! The user interface is so uncommon, everytime we have to spend some minutes to have everyone able to understand how to join the chat and communicate. A couple of times someone closed the app and his microphone was still ON so we were able to listen him going to bathroom or his private talking (you have to exit the conversation first and then close the app).

[Daedalus]

1. No--I generally don't buy online games or gaming platforms
2-4. No
5. Probably not because of my lack of exposure
6. Not at this time

[StratosVX]

I remember seeing someone in the forums that used TTS to play HQ, but I cannot remember who it was. You might want to do a search of the forums. I would help out, but I don't have time right now to search. I will try to remember to do it later though.

[Kurgan]

It was Azure himself who posted those threads, here is one who has tried valiantly to each others how to use TTS to play HeroQuest which I think is admirable.

The problem I have is not so much with the TTS game's interface, but more with just getting the dang thing to even LOAD UP in windows 10! It was buggy and annoying in Win7, but in 10, it won't even start.

With some trial and error you can find some mods that work fairly well, but ever since I changed my OS, I can't even start up the program, much less load up the HQ board (so getting to the point of being able to play WITH someone online on TTS might as well be a trip to the moon as it is), so there you go.

Discord actually worked fine for me, but I've never tried using it to actually play a game, only to watch somebody else show me something in his game, or chat (chat rooms aren't all they used to be!). lestodante's story about the bathroom mic makes me laugh and cringe at the same time... ! The perils of doing stuff virtually.

If each person can find a solution that works for his group, great I say. If you do try TTS, I hope you have better luck than I did... and you can show me how to fix it!

IF everyone's copy was working properly, and the mods were all sorted out for HQ, and everyone knew what they were doing, then sure, I bet you could have a great game and it might go even faster than playing over web cams, because you wouldn't have to worry about getting the proper angle so everyone could see, confirming everyone's boards are synchronized, etc. (I don't even know if each person using TTS has to download the same mods, I'm just saying, however it works...)

[Azure]

@Kurgan
Thank you for your taking the time to elaborate this nicely written explanation about your hardships with TTS. I am so sorry to hear this.

My system is Windows 10. I used to play TTS on a 8-Gig RAM laptop. That's when I had the most problems and where the frame rate went below 24 FPS. Now I do have a refurbished gaming PC. 32 Gigs of RAM. Now I will share my experience + additional explanations.

First of all : it is true that TTS has given me some trouble in the past 2 years, but not to the point where the whole system became unbearable. I usually get booted out of a room on EVERY FIRST connection attempt to a game table with friends. On the second try, the TTS network usually remains stable enough to provide at least 2 hours of uninterrupted gameplay. Sometimes 1.5 hours when less lucky.

Secondly The long list of red notification messages are coming from the unusable/broken assets that people don't really take good care of. 95% of the time, these tokens/cards/pawns/figurines have been stored somewhere on a **shitty** GMail account inside a GoogleDrive space. When the email address of the user becomes obsolete; the assets also become obsolete - thus increasing lags/strange phenomenons/loading time/weird stuff happening on the table/random white cubes raining from the sky and passing through the game table.

Third The mod that I play the most is called HEROQUEST MASTER EDITION (by Cebi). All the assets are fully functional ----- I can even take you to a virtual tour and invite you to that specific table.
All the assets of the original box are there. Nothing lags and nothing is missing.

Lastly On a side note, the more numerous the items are on the table (tokens/figures/monsters/tools/special FX), the more unstable the whole thing becomes. Never jump in a game where there are 300-400 item counts ; guaranteed lag and guaranteed crappy experience.

I have seen some people reinstall TTS. It also happened to me a year ago. Albeit I might be kinda lucky...but If you really want, Kurgan, I can try my best to assess the situation with you and help you.

So far, I was able to play some HeroQuest (SOLO EXPERIENCE) in an isometric view, using photoshop.
Other than that, TTS remains the number one solution for me and my friends.

Anybody experiencing difficulties with TTS can contact me.

[lestodante]

Anyway I would suggest to edit the topic title in something less generic. You could add "Tabletop Simulator" or even just "TTS" to the title so it will be also easier to find with the forum search engine.

[Kurgan]

Thank you Azure for the kind reply. I have experienced the other issues as well, but now it's a matter of the program starting to load up but not finishing. It will start loading up and then halt and disappear. That's how I left it.

I am told it is possibly because I have the wrong combination of Visual C++ elements installed. Some homebrew apps and games require certain ones while others won't work if you have certain ones installed together. But after shifting them around and restarting multiple times and reinstalling TTS numerous times I gave up. If someone got it working for me, I'm not saying I would never play it online, I was just tired of trying after awhile. Others may have better luck.

Re: system reqs, the game only requires 4 GB Ram min and I have 16. And I too finally discovered HQ Master Edition being the most stable/complete at the time. TTS was designed for Win7 SP1. Again, it wasn't so much memory requirements as I think the program just isn't as stable or up to date as it ought to be. I understand it's not a big budget AAA title that gets lots of attention, but still.