The Chat Window and die rolls...

[Zacchaeus]

If the information you want to provide is super important that you don't want the players missing it then create story entries and share those with the players. They'll pop up on their screen so it will be difficult to miss.
You could also use map pins. Create a story entry and at the right time drag the story to the map which will create a pin. Then share the pin with the players and they'll be able to click on it to get the entry.

[JohnD]

Are you playing in a strictly chat environment (i.e. no voice)?

[LordEntrails]

I get it, and see the value of such in a chat heavy game. Myself I use voice so there is little in the chat except for die rolls. I would suggest you make a suggestion on the Wishlist and then post a link back here for those that want to upvote it

[Niles]

I think is actually a really good idea, to have the rolls separate from the story elements. Would there be a way to keep the single chat window but have a tab where you could toggle between two chat screens?

[Waldbaer]

I think is actually a really good idea, to have the rolls separate from the story elements. Would there be a way to keep the single chat window but have a tab where you could toggle between two chat screens?

Actually I think this would make it uncomfortable because you would have to switch all the time. I like the idea of having two chat windows very much!

[Octavious]

I like that idea, to me is is a real pain that the dice rolls go on the chat and you loose the shared story lines.. Hey! why not have the dice and combat rolls come up on a side window attached to the side of the combat tracker ? or if no room put it as a scrolled window imbedded into the combat tracker at the bottom.

[LordEntrails]

I will say that any change to two chat windows would almost require such to be optional. Screen real estate is already at a premium for so many users that a second near mandatory window would be troublesome.

But a change like this (tabs and/or separate windows) is probably not something that would be looked at until FGU. Though Moon does surprise me often with the improvements he keeps making to FG 3.x.

[Talyn]

(I completely TL;DR this thread so if this has been directly stated already... eh! )

What about if the Chat frame had tabs? A lot of MMOs (and a few other online games) have a Combat Log (actual name depends on the game, whatever) so there could be a GM Option to enable that and all die rolls / script automation spew would go to that tab and the normal chat tab would have chat, <frame> output, etc.? A tab wouldn't use up much more screen real estate. I'm one of those for whom FG's screen real estate is a real issue, but a few pixels onto the chat frame isn't going to kill me.

That's probably doable in v3.x if Moonsie felt like tackling that sort of thing.

[Moon Wizard]

I've actually thought about looking at something like this quite a few times, but I decided not to tackle it. Specifically, it's a UI, workflow and story problem, not an implementation issue. As discussed in the thread, here are a few relevant points:

* Tabletop real estate is at a premium, and many people run FG on laptops and lower resolution monitors. So, adding another window does not work for everyone, since it takes up space better used for maps, trackers, creatures, etc.

* Tabbed chat windows solve the real estate issue, but at the cost of hiding information. If I'm looking at the chat window for story and talking, how do I know when a roll is made, and whether it warrants additional story/chat? And vice versa, when looking at rolls, how do I know when someone is chatting? Sure, you can flash a tab or something like that, but that's an annoying and not very satisfying solution either. (Just look at various MMOs and multiplayer games, people ignore anything that is not up front. It's a matter of changing context for users.) Finally, how do I know when a roll occurred relative to the narrative of the session in order to build a story that includes rolls?

I've batted some ideas around a few times, but never came up with anything I'm really happy with. I'm hoping that as we evolve FG over time, the chat window will grow smarter, and allow rolls and non-chat messages to be able to be summarized easier.

Cheers,
JPG

[Waldbaer]

* Tabbed chat windows solve the real estate issue, but at the cost of hiding information. If I'm looking at the chat window for story and talking, how do I know when a roll is made, and whether it warrants additional story/chat? And vice versa, when looking at rolls, how do I know when someone is chatting? Sure, you can flash a tab or something like that, but that's an annoying and not very satisfying solution either. (Just look at various MMOs and multiplayer games, people ignore anything that is not up front. It's a matter of changing context for users.) Finally, how do I know when a roll occurred relative to the narrative of the session in order to build a story that includes rolls?

As I still don't like the idea that you have to switch to another tab to see the die rolls, I nevertheless think separating chat and rolls would be a good idea. What about a functional tab which would give the GM the possibility to select if the rolls are displayed in chat or separately? This would do the trick I think. Something like click what you want to see in the window...etc.

I believe we are now only wishing for things that may be very complex to bring into whatever version ... but why not brainstorming it a bit around and maybe this is not so hard to do?!