[JackMorgan]

As an aside, does anyone know where I could learn about Tabletop Simulator? I keep seeing it recommended, but when I got a copy I can't stand the UI. I feel like I'm always grabbing the wrong thing and accidentally losing pieces off the edge etc. I've tried playing the puzzle game and the Majong and both were terrible. I then tried a community version of Race for the Galaxy that nearly drove me crazy.

[tomgp]

Yeah, it seems insane to me that the whole thing is predicated on the idea that simulated physics is the best way to play a board-game online. (i guess this is the nature of current game engines, when you have a hammer everything lookslike a nail)

If you're used to navigating 3d space in video games or whatever you can probably pick it up but my gaming group is almost exclusively non-videogamers and the idea of getting them to play games through this thing is just a total non-starter.

Also it feels like a bit of a slap in the face to game designers that every player needs their own copy of TTS (~$20 each) yet designers -- whose wokr and IP is the pretty much the whole selling point -- will see none of that.

[kruczek]

> it seems insane to me that the whole thing is predicated on the idea that simulated physics is the best way to play a board-game online

I disagree that's the approach of Tabletop Simulator. I mean, yes, it is a physics playground, but it is also much more. It includes some common actions like flipping, shuffling or drawing from a deck of cards. It includes grids to easily align game pieces. And most of all, it includes scripts which actually put some constraints on the "simulated physics" part, automating "maintenance" parts of a game, while also potentially enforcing game rules.

[tomgp]

Yeah, I know that but it the physics and 3d first and the other stuff is optional -- the price of entry is being able to navigate a 3d world with pretty janky physics inside a computer. It's certainly a flexible toolset (though there are some real gotchas in there e.g. how bags work (they're decks so don't forget to shuffle them, you know, like you have to do with real bags)) but I find the approach of somethign like boardgamelab[1] more promising, particularly in terms of accessibility.

[1] https://boardgamelab.app

[bbrik]

All I can say to you is that it takes a bit of patience to get good in TTS. I was very clumsy in the beginning. The community made games vary a lot in quality. You should look for mods that have a bit of scripting to help with setup and game admin, sometimes the scripts are broken, though. We do a voice call with all players during the game.

[the_jeremy]

It has a tutorial function that works well enough. If you're playing with friends with mics you can just ask them if you don't know how to do a certain action.