I use deadline on a daily basis, and am graced by being able to talk to the developer himself.
I am not at liberty to say just much, of course, but i think it’s fair to expect a MUCH better vray integration for whenever the next point release is scheduled for (i have no clue, so don’t ask XD).
I can assure you we’re working hard to iron away nagging things and implement new ones: the job we’re delivering in days is relying heavily on some of those features.
At the moment, even with a deadline looming (pun not intended…) and some small issues here and there, the experience with it is most enjoyable.
Of course Vlado also helped out greatly on his side, but for us forum lurkers that’s nearly a given…
I used deadline almost every day at my old job. It offers much more functionality than backburner ever dreamed of. It has support for most software capable of command line rendering. We used it for both max and after effects. I found the support for its vray integration to be very good and the people at frantic were very responsive to problems.