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So, I woke up with a big idea stuck in my head from a dream I had. In the dream my friends and I were playing a massive digital tournament of a Warhammer-like tabletop game. Possibly Warhammer. When I woke up it got me thinking about the idea again; I've had it before, I'll probably have it again, but this time it stuck for a while.
The idea is to make my own tabletop simulator of sorts. Like Tabletop Simulator, perhaps? But more designed for multiplayer online tabletop war games. A bit like Roll20 but in full 3D. Somewhere in between those two but with more features.
I'd want to make it open source of course, something like this should belong to the people to build and expand upon. Likewise people would be able to easily import their own 3D models to play whatever game they wanted.
The basics would be pretty simple. Miniatures on a flat tabletop that you could move singular or in a group, with measuring and turning tools. A strict log of actions to make sure your partner didn't cheat. Dice and AoE tokens for seeing if you can hit or if you miss. That sort of thing.
Then we add in the 3D stuff. Deformable Terrain wouldn't be too hard, just a deformable mesh. Then there'd also be flat hills you can build up if you prefer that style, and buildings to drop in. Further I think I'd want to put in a building constructing feature where you could plop down floors and add connected walls and more floors on top to make your own buildings. For those who play games like Space Hulk you could skip the 'tabletop' entirely and play your game entirely in a little 3D dungeon you built. Likewise D&D.
In addition to free movement Warhammer style, where you can move any direction by a distance, there would be the option to put down a square or hex grid for movement. D&D and Battletech type games would need those. They could even be just decorative if you wanted to move freely but have a strict grid underneath.
And that's the big idea!
Of course there's some problems. For one thing it's a huge project, and I'm already working on a pretty big project. I'm also not sure this one would be something I'd want to invest all my time into, since I'm a big fan of simulation and this would be almost entirely interface. But it remains a fact that nobody has built this sort of thing yet. I mean, like I said before, there's Roll20 and Tabletop Simulator, and a handful of 2D tabletop simulators I haven't mentioned, but there's no grand 3D tabletop game sim. And as they say, if there's something you want and it doesn't exist, you must create it!
Well I'll put this in an idea file for later. Maybe this will be a future project?
The idea is to make my own tabletop simulator of sorts. Like Tabletop Simulator, perhaps? But more designed for multiplayer online tabletop war games. A bit like Roll20 but in full 3D. Somewhere in between those two but with more features.
I'd want to make it open source of course, something like this should belong to the people to build and expand upon. Likewise people would be able to easily import their own 3D models to play whatever game they wanted.
The basics would be pretty simple. Miniatures on a flat tabletop that you could move singular or in a group, with measuring and turning tools. A strict log of actions to make sure your partner didn't cheat. Dice and AoE tokens for seeing if you can hit or if you miss. That sort of thing.
Then we add in the 3D stuff. Deformable Terrain wouldn't be too hard, just a deformable mesh. Then there'd also be flat hills you can build up if you prefer that style, and buildings to drop in. Further I think I'd want to put in a building constructing feature where you could plop down floors and add connected walls and more floors on top to make your own buildings. For those who play games like Space Hulk you could skip the 'tabletop' entirely and play your game entirely in a little 3D dungeon you built. Likewise D&D.
In addition to free movement Warhammer style, where you can move any direction by a distance, there would be the option to put down a square or hex grid for movement. D&D and Battletech type games would need those. They could even be just decorative if you wanted to move freely but have a strict grid underneath.
And that's the big idea!
Of course there's some problems. For one thing it's a huge project, and I'm already working on a pretty big project. I'm also not sure this one would be something I'd want to invest all my time into, since I'm a big fan of simulation and this would be almost entirely interface. But it remains a fact that nobody has built this sort of thing yet. I mean, like I said before, there's Roll20 and Tabletop Simulator, and a handful of 2D tabletop simulators I haven't mentioned, but there's no grand 3D tabletop game sim. And as they say, if there's something you want and it doesn't exist, you must create it!
Well I'll put this in an idea file for later. Maybe this will be a future project?
