Anyone using Syrinscape?

[MaxSupernova]

I bought this program two years ago, and I was a later adopter (after the Kickstarter). The program was and still is barely functional for my needs.

You keep posting your "STOP ASSUMING!" bits, and you keep getting upset when people get frustrated with your information sharing (or lack thereof), or with your development process, or with your community management.

Perhaps your continual need to keep posting that should be a hint that something might be broken. Having to repeatedly tell users to stop making assumptions in light of the lack of information should be a hint that we're feeling a lack of information.

So, it's been two years. The complete lack of communication on what is going to appear next, when it will appear, or what level of functionality it will have is a running joke here. The fact that everyone knows who is waiting for the calendars that were promised, and there are little holy wars over calendar versus export, and all of that? That's a sign that people have no idea what you are doing. New users come in waves and we have to answer a whole new round of "Where is this functionality?" "Where is that functionality?" every few months, and we have to answer them with "Hey, get in line, we're all waiting and have no idea what's going on." The cyclic sets of comments and jokes about what features people want next, and what priorities they are, but we've done that a half dozen times while we wait? That's a user base that has resigned themselves to wait in the dark and make jokes from their complete helplessness. You as a leader should think about that. Your users are designing a forum culture around your company's lack of provision of features or information about those features. It would be absurd if it wasn't so frustrating.

It's been two years since I bought this program. Two years. There's no ETA or published plan for when any of the major functionality that's been promised or requested will be available. I have no information on when it's going to get any better.

Don't get me wrong. I love this program. I want this program to be amazing. It could be so freaking fantastic. But it's been two years of "could be, might be, you're slowing things down by asking".

So when, after two years of waiting and dumping my data into a program that I can not get it out of again, waiting for features that I have no idea when or if they are coming, I see a completely contextless line in a release document about how an unrequested feature practically no one will use is now added, I think I have a reasonable right to be frustrated. I think I have the right to express frustration about what's going on without being condescended to by the very person that's in charge of the issue.

"Hey, that function only took a couple of hours! Don't worry! It's a test case for other cool integrations! We're still working hard on the important stuff!" would have been the end of it, because it would have at least acknowledged that you're aware of what your outward face looks like. Please don't get righteously indignant at my frustration with your product management. You as a business owner don't get to decide how or when people express their frustration, but you do get to decide the tone with which you respond.

"Trust us" only works for so long when the user community is completely in the dark. I have to have reason to trust you, and quite frankly you haven't shown me any reason to. The information we get from you is to shut up and stop bothering you so that you can code and then silence. It seems like everything ends with "you're delaying something important by questioning." The public face of your company is that your user base is an annoyance.

I won't project this outwards and pretend to speak for anyone else but myself. If you want, you can pretend that it's only me and that banning me or telling me to stop using the product, or write yet another frustrated-sounding post about how busy you are and how you don't have time for this and it's obviously my fault.

You can pretend it's only me that's frustrated, but I think you'll be wrong.

My apologies for daring to let my frustration show at an inconvenient time, in an unapproved manner.

[Erdrix]

I have to agree with AEIOU, I put a whole AP on hiatus because of the lack of a calender, that I was hoping we would have had six months ago or more. If it's so close to being ready then why is it taking so long to get it?

Anyway...

I can do the same thing, and more, as Syniscape with Scene Sound for free and with being able to embed files with Foreign Object I can use a saved soundscape, click on it during game, an instance of Scene Sound pops up and starts playing to soundscape. Eazy Peazy!

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by Erdrix

I have to agree with AEIOU, I put a whole AP on hiatus because of the lack of a calender, that I was hoping we would have had six months ago or more. If it's so close to being ready then why is it taking so long to get it?

Anyway...

I can do the same thing, and more, as Syniscape with Scene Sound for free and with being able to embed files with Foreign Object I can use a saved soundscape, click on it during game, an instance of Scene Sound pops up and starts playing to soundscape. Eazy Peazy!

Hooraa for Erdrix Another Calendar Crusader!
And interesting heads up on the Scene Sound looks promising.... here's a link for others to take a peak at it.
Scene Sound

[AEIOU]

I'm sure SyrinScape is reading this thread so constructive feedback for them would be really helpful for them to frame their future.

I have a small library of soundfiles from Kickstarters and other sources. Whichever sound solution I might adopt needs to be able to leverage that content the I already own.

I like handouts and fluff for the players. But I like to be able to modify or update it to fit my setting. Someone earlier commented that the sounds may not be what they hear in their head. The proposed editor from SyrinScape would resolve some of this. A sound solution needs to be able to be adapted to each GM's situation.

I don't want more programs running.... Between RW, d20pro, HL and a PDF, that's already too many. Keep things simple. Adding a link for a customized soundset to a snippet is ideal. Fire and forget.

[Erdrix]

I should do a tutorial on how I use Scene Sound in Realm Works. It's pretty close to "fire and forget". Just that when it's a looping soundscape you have to remember to close the program when you are done with it.

Cool thing is I can layer it. For example I have several premade soundscapes that I use for different environments, like forest_day, forest_night, plains_day, plains_night, camp and so forth. I only have to make those once and I can reuse them over and over.

So, I have those running in the background the whole time the party is in that area, then I make encounter soundscapes and these can be general use files as well. These generally include random grunts and yells and stuff like that and maybe a battle song. Anytime the party fights skeletons I just load up the skeletons fight soundscape. If I know the fight is going to happen before hand I just ad the file into a snippet on that encounter scene, click it, Scene Sound loads up in the background and autostarts playing. When the encounter is done simply close that instance of Scene Sound and the background soundscape is still going.

Looks like I kind of made a mini tutorial on it.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Erdrix

I should do a tutorial on how I use Scene Sound in Realm Works. It's pretty close to "fire and forget". Just that when it's a looping soundscape you have to remember to close the program when you are done with it.

Cool thing is I can layer it. For example I have several premade soundscapes that I use for different environments, like forest_day, forest_night, plains_day, plains_night, camp and so forth. I only have to make those once and I can reuse them over and over.

So, I have those running in the background the whole time the party is in that area, then I make encounter soundscapes and these can be general use files as well. These generally include random grunts and yells and stuff like that and maybe a battle song. Anytime the party fights skeletons I just load up the skeletons fight soundscape. If I know the fight is going to happen before hand I just ad the file into a snippet on that encounter scene, click it, Scene Sound loads up in the background and autostarts playing. When the encounter is done simply close that instance of Scene Sound and the background soundscape is still going.

Looks like I kind of made a mini tutorial on it.

That is good info. I used Scene Sound a long time ago and ran into lots of issues moving the sound between my main computer and laptop. Maybe by using Realm Works I can solve that issue. It does look like they have kept improving the software so maybe its better now....

Thanks!

Currently what is nice about Syrinscape is that I don't have to move stuff between computers as its part of your account. But I do have gigs and gigs of my own sound files I would like to use. Syrinscape was suppose to have that feature but not as of yet.

[Erdrix]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

That is good info. I used Scene Sound a long time ago and ran into lots of issues moving the sound between my main computer and laptop. Maybe by using Realm Works I can solve that issue. It does look like they have kept improving the software so maybe its better now....

Thanks!

Currently what is nice about Syrinscape is that I don't have to move stuff between computers as its part of your account. But I do have gigs and gigs of my own sound files I would like to use. Syrinscape was suppose to have that feature but not as of yet.

I do keep my sound files in dropbox, but admittedly, I use my desktop for prep and running, so I'm not sure how well that'll work.

But...

You can save soundscapes two ways: one was just saves the settings you set up and requires the sound files to be on your computer. The second way saves the files with it as a package.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Erdrix

You can save soundscapes two ways: one was just saves the settings you set up and requires the sound files to be on your computer. The second way saves the files with it as a package.

Oh yeah if the sound was part of the package that should make it really easy to move between computers. I will need to download the latest version and try it out again. Thanks!

[liz]

Hi everyone! I was working this weekend getting ready for Gen Con, but I was heads down and didn’t take a look at the forums until today.

@everyone, as Rob said, the functionality for Syinscape integration was already built in from before, so getting it ready for them to use took a few hours for both testing and verification. This will be the same mechanism we’ll use for integration with other third part apps going forward.

Let me first be clear that our priorities have not changed. The vast majority of our time is spent on the Content Market and the web version, plus various pieces that are needed to meet those objectives. As users have seen in product updates over the past months, we’ve also been opportunistically adding various small refinements when time allows, just as we said we would do at the beginning of the year. This initial integration step for third-party apps is simply one of those quick-and-easy enhancements. It does not reflect a change in the team’s priorities.

Like Rob, I was disappointed to see the rush to judgement. In the future, please ask if something is not clear. I think that between my posts and Rob’s, we’ve demonstrated our willingness to provide clarity if users are ever confused or unsure about something. If you don’t want to post your question on the forums, you can always send me a PM asking for clarification. If it’s something where I think many people might be similarly concerned or unclear, I can post on the forums. I don’t think that will happen often, but I’m happy to offer my availability up to the community.

As for frustrations about “soon”, man do I get that. I was just on a podcast talking about Realm Works, and I really wanted to give my “best-guess” estimate for the web version and the Content Market based on what I’ve heard recently from the development team.

As many of you know, I’m married to Joe (the lead developer on the web version), so I know first-hand how progress is going, as it’s a part of our evening “how was your day, dear?” conversations. However, those conversations have also made me more aware of something else: (1) we’re building this from the ground up, (2) it’s huge and complex, and (3) it’s breaking new ground that other programs haven’t touched before. Because of this, there are many unknowns that we don’t run into with our other products, like Hero Lab or Army Builder.

Following the Kickstarter, we provided a lot of information about development progress, and our best-guess estimates. Unfortunately, that led to two issues. 1) Users would critique development decisions based on incomplete information or draw incorrect assumptions based on the information we provided. This required a lot of development resources to respond to and correct the false assumptions and misconceptions. 2) The “best-guess” estimates were interpreted as promised release dates and when we “missed” them (for the reasons I mentioned above), it led to a lot of (understandable) frustration among our users.

That experience forced us to change our approach. Instead of providing estimates and extensive information on development progress as in the past, we’ve instead focused on showing visible progress as we hit milestones – for example, the sneak peek of Realm works on the web a few months back and now the imminent preview at Gen Con. Unfortunately, it seems some people want it both ways, and that merely creates a double-bind that can’t be resolved. Since providing details didn’t work well and, more importantly, ended up consuming a fair amount of critical developer resources, we’re not doing that for the time being. I hope that clarifies things a little on why we’re not sharing estimates right now.

What I can do is provide some basic, qualitative information. While there hasn’t been much visible movement to show on the Content Market, significant progress is being made. The best analogy, and one we’ve used many times before, is an iceberg, where only a small portion can actually be seen above the water. The Content Market is a huge iceberg, and a lot has (and continues to) go on beneath the surface. Virtually all the pieces that consumers will ultimately see are built upon the foundation beneath, so there’s nothing of substance to show off right now. Once we focus more heavily “above the water” in the months ahead, we’ll be able to show off visible progress.

All that being said, there may be ways we can improve how we share our progress without the drawbacks we experienced before. I’ll be mulling everyone’s feedback over while I’m at Gen Con (including the PMs I’ve received over the past few days). Please understand that I won’t be able to respond to posts/PMs much this week because of the Con, but I’m reading them.

[Cornelius]

And now back to the original question: Do I use Syrinscape?
No.

Will I use it?
As others said the price is a bit high and I do not know if it will actually add something to the games I play. Until now I have refrained from using sounds during play (other than those grunts made by the players) as I feel it may diverge the game from what I want: To tell the story.

So I am interested in what others who do use sounds feel that it adds to the storytelling.