HoNoToGroABeMo Day Thirty-One: It Is Done
5 years ago
12:36 AM
... from Capital 7 Games.. I just stumbled upon this website after following a link from the WarpWar discussion list. I'm quite impressed. C7G is making use of three dimensional computer rendering to create a dynamic campaign mapping system for wargaming (CAMPAIGNER). This is a campaign managing software program that lets you run map-based campaigns for just about any table top war game.
For my money, the best campaign management software out there is BERTHIER, a free MS DOS program. BERTHIER does many tasks elegantly, most notable being logistics and supply (nobody's favorite chore), hidden movement, and maintaining a campaign log of activity. I don't really do many campaigns, but I have used this software before and I consider BERTHIER to be the logical default for a long range campaign manager. Contrasting BERTHIER with CAMPAIGNER would be a difficult task at this point. I'm reasonably well versed in BERTHIER's functions but CAMPAIGNER is not yet in public Beta. Based merely on what I can see, CAMPAIGNER does not appear to have the 'legs' that BERTHIER has-- tracking historical data, maintaining logs, logistics, supply, intelligence reports, etc. On the other hand, CAMPAIGNER looks to be a wonderful visual mapping tool for campaigns, which BERTHIER is "merely adequate" at. I am hoping to get on the public beta test team for both CAMPAIGNER and the next item, VIRTUAL TABLETOP, to get a better understanding of what the final product will do. I'm enthused!
VIRTUAL TABLETOP is nothing less than a virtual environment for playing out miniatures battles. In the words of the developer, (VT) "is a utility that allows two people to play a table top wargame (for instance Epic or Ogre) in a 3d environment no matter where they are. They can create the environment, with buildings, forests and such and then deploy their forces from a select list of models. Of course, the models will have to come from somewhere. The units that a person places can be moved and rotated and there is a dice tool that allows you to roll different dice in any number. You can create your own dice as well."
VT is quite the whiz bang Oh-Gee-Whiz program, and I can't wait for this to be ready!
Especially the Ogre Miniatures bit. The big drawback, of course, is that users will either have to rapidly prototype generic bits for the historica eras they play in (no sweat if you are a VRML modeller type... I'm not!) or rely on generic soldier bits (and what's the fun in THAT?). I hope this product catches on and army libraries start building up-- the DBA crowd already use something similar with DBA ONLINE, and that's an example of a product with wonderful fanbase support.
More on this after I tinker with it for a while. Here's a short video of how the thing is supposed to work.
Campaigner, Virtual Tabletop, and this video copyright 2006 Capital 7 Games
For my money, the best campaign management software out there is BERTHIER, a free MS DOS program. BERTHIER does many tasks elegantly, most notable being logistics and supply (nobody's favorite chore), hidden movement, and maintaining a campaign log of activity. I don't really do many campaigns, but I have used this software before and I consider BERTHIER to be the logical default for a long range campaign manager. Contrasting BERTHIER with CAMPAIGNER would be a difficult task at this point. I'm reasonably well versed in BERTHIER's functions but CAMPAIGNER is not yet in public Beta. Based merely on what I can see, CAMPAIGNER does not appear to have the 'legs' that BERTHIER has-- tracking historical data, maintaining logs, logistics, supply, intelligence reports, etc. On the other hand, CAMPAIGNER looks to be a wonderful visual mapping tool for campaigns, which BERTHIER is "merely adequate" at. I am hoping to get on the public beta test team for both CAMPAIGNER and the next item, VIRTUAL TABLETOP, to get a better understanding of what the final product will do. I'm enthused!
VIRTUAL TABLETOP is nothing less than a virtual environment for playing out miniatures battles. In the words of the developer, (VT) "is a utility that allows two people to play a table top wargame (for instance Epic or Ogre) in a 3d environment no matter where they are. They can create the environment, with buildings, forests and such and then deploy their forces from a select list of models. Of course, the models will have to come from somewhere. The units that a person places can be moved and rotated and there is a dice tool that allows you to roll different dice in any number. You can create your own dice as well."
VT is quite the whiz bang Oh-Gee-Whiz program, and I can't wait for this to be ready!
Especially the Ogre Miniatures bit. The big drawback, of course, is that users will either have to rapidly prototype generic bits for the historica eras they play in (no sweat if you are a VRML modeller type... I'm not!) or rely on generic soldier bits (and what's the fun in THAT?). I hope this product catches on and army libraries start building up-- the DBA crowd already use something similar with DBA ONLINE, and that's an example of a product with wonderful fanbase support.
More on this after I tinker with it for a while. Here's a short video of how the thing is supposed to work.
Campaigner, Virtual Tabletop, and this video copyright 2006 Capital 7 Games
