As it becomes increasingly harder to get four or more players together for a game of VtES, I had a look at playing VtES on LackeyCCG. LackeyCCG is a tool for playing any CCG online (including a deck editor). Specific plugins for card games like Magic the Gathering or (in my case) VtES allow playing these games on LackeyCCG then. The utility itself is not that hard to learn, but it’s maybe best to have a friend or another fellow player to show you around in a one-on-one game before engaging in a 4 or 5 player game.
The utility has a built-in deck editor for VtES which is complete (all cards up and including Danse Macabre) and you can quickly create new decks. There are two drawbacks of the editor. The first is that there’s no (direct) import utility for decks from other utilities like Anarch Revolt Deck Builder, FELDB or Secret Library. There is an external utility (as part of the VtES plugin), which allows you to convert files from the FELDB format to the LackeyCCG format. The second drawback of the deckbuilder is that you have be aware of the target bin for your crypt and library cards. If you don’t concentrate you can easily load crypt cards into your library and vice versa. But once you’re accustomed to this behaviour, it’s not really an issue anymore.
Lackey itself is rather intuitive to use. You draw cards to your hand, play them and finally put them into the ashheap. You can tap & untap cards, gain control of the Edge, put blood counters on vampires or adjust your pool after a bleed. Pretty straightforward. Only the special cases, like how do I search my library for a particular card when using Magic of the Smith or how do I randomly discard a card from my hand require some explanation. (Since I am still a novice on LackeyCCG, I wouldn’t know how to do these things). But you can always ask the locals ..
I have played now a couple of VtES games on LackeyCCG, and I must say, that I like it! Sometimes it can take some time to get 4 or more players for a game, but usually it’s possible to play a game or two in the evening. The games last a bit longer than in real life, since it takes some time to hit the right buttons in the interface or to negotiate a Parity Shift, etc., but usually games are played without any time limits and are done in 2-3 hours at maximum. You can also watch a particular game as spectator (which I also did in the beginning) to get a feeling how things work on Lackey CCG.
I have taken the liberty to copy almost all of the installation and instructions as sydnelson has written down on VEKN.net. Thanks to him for putting together these instructions.
Installation Instruction
- Download the LackeyCCG program from one of those URLs:
- Windows — www.lackeyccg.com/LackeyCCGBetaWin.zip
- Mac/OSX — www.lackeyccg.com/LackeyCCGBetaMac.zip
- Linux — www.lackeyccg.com/linux.html
- ipad version — Coming soon on Apple store
- Unzip it to a folder of your choice.
- Start LackeyCCG.exe
- Go to “Plugin:war3000” tab and paste one of this two URLs:
- For fast PC/high resolution screens — http://www.lackeyccg.com/vtes/high/updatelist.txt
- For slow PC/low resolution screens — http://www.lackeyccg.com/vtes/medium/updatelist.txt
- Click on “Install or Update from URL!” and wait until all files are downloaded.
- After download finish click on “Load vtes plugin now!”
* if an error occurs (or the above message not show), try step 5 again.
Usability Hints
- To see your crypt face down cards on table, just mouse over desired card and press the Shift key.
- To see shortcut bar with macro messages like Bleed, Hunt, Strike, just press +plus/-minus button above chat window.
- If the program asks for a update, you just need to run Lackey Updater program (inside LackeyCCG folder). This only updates the program, VtES game updates automatically every time a new version comes, but you can manually update it doing step 4 above again if you like.
- To see your cards in left panel instead of bottom of game table or to see tokens menu or sound share tab, just press plus/minus button on right top corner of program.
- To see card images, just pass mouse over the card name and wait LackeyCCG download it or if you want to download all images at once you need to go to: Preferences > Miscellaneous and tick the option “Allow pre-downloading images for offline use?” and click on “Download all missing card images” on Plugin:vtes tab. The entire card images package has between 150mb to 190mb depending on with version of plugin you have (high or low).
- To convert decks from FELDB to LackeyCCG format and vice-versa you can use “feld2lackey.exe” (windows only) program include in LackeyCCG folder (only work with decks saved in txt format on LackeyCCG).
- If you or someone drop from game or if program crash, you can back to game and request to previous turn player load a autosave by pressing “Revert to Autosave 1” in the main menu.
- To talk with other players using voice, you can use the Skype program. Download Skype from URL below and configure your account in Preferences > Player Profile. To create a group chat in Skype just press blue phone button in your avatar on left side of game tab (only works if another players also have setup theirs accounts on LackeyCCG).
VTES ONE 
Did my first game yesterday, works smoothly!!
I used to play Vtes on Lackey all the time. I drifted away in 2009, in part cause the community was so small. I surprised and pleased to hear it’s still around, and will have to try and check it out. Any suggestions when the best time to find a game is?
A good time on week days is around 18:00 to 23:00 GMT I would say. On weekends this seems to be expanding to 15:00 GMT to 23:00 GMT. But I am playing only since two weeks on LackeyCCG, so I am not quite sure about the actual pattern.
Cool, thanks. I’ll have to check that out when I get some free times.
btw, this is the first time I’ve commented here, but I’ve been a fan of this blog for a long time.
I used to play on Lackey very frequently a couple of years ago, with a brief return few months ago. I must say the interface is superb, it could be improved (more stuff automatized), but it is more than sufficient as it is. Reason why I stopped playing was the community. Sadly, it seems that a typical user:
1. doesn’t know any VTES rules, and by that I don’t mean some nuances, but basic stuff like NRA, combat sequences, referendums etc., so you have to replay/backtrack every second combat because somebody tried to play grapple prerange, or backtrack whole rounds because people play cards they don’t meet requirements for etc.
2. and/or they don’t know any english, and by that I don’t mean grammar mistakes, but total gibberish. And then half of the table just switches to french or spanish.
3. many players simply leave midgame as soon as they are losing, because they suddenly got “busy and have to leave”, then reappear in a new game half an hour later.
4. some players were even outright cheating, for example playing a trick deck and reshuffling their library until they got the draw they needed (yes, it is an idiotic way of cheating, because you can see it in the game log, but hey).
Sometimes it’s unclear what is the problem exactly – for example if you have to remind somebody 5 times a turn to pay for his card costs (or Fame, infernality etc.), is he a noob, a dick, a cheater or he simply does not understand you? :) I am not so anal about rules, but my free time is limited and it’s a pity to waste it with games like that.
There are many decent players as well, but they mostly shut up and tolerate all of the above, because they need their VTES fix too much, and bad players are better than none.
I would happily return there, but only if I persuade my friends to play, or somehow find a closed group of decent players online.
Anyway good luck, perhaps your experience will be better than mine.
Vladimir,
first thanks for the detailed experiences you have provided.
I haven’t had that many negative experiences (yet?). Yes, people don’t know all the rules (playing Enkil Cog when they bleed their grandprey), they make mistakes (taking damage from Fame), etc., but that’s how it is in real games as well.
I also hadn’t had the cheating / drop-out issues. I remember having these problems a long time ago when trying to play VTES Online, when players frequently dropped out when say saw that their predator (or prey) trumped them. I would try to remember these player’s names and refuse to play with them in the future.
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