PDA

View Full Version : Ideas and Requests



M.A.T.T.
December 17th, 2004, 08:25
Thought I'd start a topic for people to post ideas that they would like included and make suggestions for future modifications.

here are a few I thought of:

1. Background music for atmospherics
2. Sounds effects (i.e. dripping water in that dungeon crawl, distant scream)
3. Voice comms
4. More tokens
5. More / commands (i.e. predefined emotes, predefined moods)

None of these are essential and I’m sure there are many many things that will be worked on before any of this, but thought I’d throw them into the mix :)

M.A.T.T.
Circle of Four (https://www.circleoffour.co.uk)

M.A.T.T.
December 17th, 2004, 08:28
One other thought:

It would be nice if the gold coins/tokens that are displayed when you minimized items had the unique name under them in text. For quickly identifying which is which.

M.A.T.T.
Circle of Four (https://www.circleoffour.co.uk)

Dupre
December 17th, 2004, 08:53
Thanks for the feedback. We'll see what we can do.

We plan on focusing on the strengths of the software rather than expanding to other territories, such as voice messaging.

About tokens, we'll probably draw some, but here our intention is to provide a file service where everyone can upload their token packs etc.

M.A.T.T.
December 17th, 2004, 09:00
Thanks for the response, It's alway nice to see a developer reading thier own boards.
All too often you feel things you say get lost in the ether on these boards.

Good Work all round.

Have you guys forged any ties with Fluid about Dundjinni, it could be a start to something fabulous between you guys 8)

Your software compliments eachothers rather nicely.

M.A.T.T.
Circle of Four

M.A.T.T.
December 17th, 2004, 10:57
Ok Ok - it looks like I'm a raving madman talking to himself now but... I keep thinking of things

1. Time of Day Indicator (little icon displayed for players, to compliment colour ambience, GM controlled)
2. Weather Indicator (maybe with graphic effect too, GM controlled)

Dupre
December 17th, 2004, 13:21
Good ideas! We'll get atleast some of these in the 1.03 patch.

Amaril
December 17th, 2004, 14:59
OK, I know that these are ideas that some users desire, but I can't help but feel they are features that should be made available as add-ons. I'm hoping that this program will stay as light and streamlined as it is by sticking to the core purpose of emulating a tabletop. I think users and developers might sometimes forget that less is more. Too often do applications end up being overstuffed with little features that clutter the application and increase the learnning curve. Additionally, they tend to add to the list of bugs needed to be fixed which detracts time from development on the core functions of the application.

Things such as background music and sound effects could be left for users to play on their own respective systems, not something to include in a software application. I would rather see these added features made available as add-ons instead of part of the core application.

Again, I suggest keeping the core application available for those who want the basics and offer add-ons for those who want the extra features.

richvalle
December 17th, 2004, 15:21
I was having the same sort of thoughs as Amaril.

Specifically:

1. Background music for atmospherics

Good idea but too much I think. Its not really a 'table top' thing.

2. Sounds effects (i.e. dripping water in that dungeon crawl, distant scream)

Actually, if it could be done without too much trouble (people having different wav players ect) this is a nice idea. There are many times a dm says something like "You hear wolfs howling in the forest". Now you could hear them. Its not too far from the table top experiance

3. Voice comms

This was talked about in another thread. There are other free apps out there that do this and so no reason to add the functionality into this.

4. More tokens

As long as its easy to add your own or, as the devs say, import others its not too big a deal. It could be a nice addon pack later on. Pay $5 for extra artwork or something.

5. More / commands (i.e. predefined emotes, predefined moods)

Sounds ok.

1. Time of Day Indicator (little icon displayed for players, to compliment colour ambience, GM controlled)

Nice idea, not sure how important it is though. Usually time jumps around too much ( in our game at least). A sliding bar going from midnight to midnight the next day that the dm could slide around might work.

2. Weather Indicator (maybe with graphic effect too, GM controlled)

Nice idea. Nothing like looking at some snow to remind characters they should be cold! :)

My 1.5 cents.

rv

Dupre
December 17th, 2004, 15:32
Keep them ideas coming.

About sounds in general, we decided to drop sound support during development. The dice actually created a real-time generated sound when in contact with the desktop.

For now though, we are focusing on visual presentation as far as improving immersion goes. About the other ideas, I personally like the time of day indicator and weather eff^H^H^H indicator. :wink:

M.A.T.T.
December 17th, 2004, 16:06
I do agree, keeping this program streamlined and running fast is very important. Some of my suggested features could slow things down - but they would be nice.

As I said not essential, but could be fun!

WolfStar76
December 17th, 2004, 16:33
I have a request regarding the grid layer for images.

I like that I can size it how I want, but I wish I had the option to "line up" the gride to my image.

Example - in the demo there's a map of the Temple ground floor.

If I want a grid that's the same size as the tiles that's easy to do. I just "box" one of the tiles.

However, at this point, when the grid appears, it no longer lines up with the rest of the tiles (I'm guessing because the first colum and row of grid boxes start at 0,0 instead of building "around" the box I drew)

This creates something of an eye strain when you're trying to see the grid over the tiled floor of the temple.

An option to either see a grid mask as I'm sizing the grid, or to "drag" the grid for better alignment would be much appreciated.

WolfStar76
December 17th, 2004, 19:56
One of the biggest requests of my friends was the ability to move/resize the chat window.

Playing around with the demo (slow day at work) I note I can't resize the other windows either - like, the demo story book. It'd be a nice option to have.

While I'm at it - an option to minimize all or close all windows would be nice too. The interface gets clustered quickly. Then again, that could be becaue I'm click-happy. :)

This combined with the suggestion earlier to label minimized items would be great. :)

Ged
December 17th, 2004, 20:23
One of the biggest requests of my friends was the ability to move/resize the chat window.

Playing around with the demo (slow day at work) I note I can't resize the other windows either - like, the demo story book. It'd be a nice option to have.


Resizing the chat window is a bit problematic issue because we wanted to make the dice rolls show identically in each client. If some people would have bigger or smaller chat windows than others the dice would have to bounce seemingly from thin air or move differently and obtain the correct result with some kind of cheating. However, we are considering some ways to enable resizing - no promises at this moment, however.

The other windows (at least most of them) can be resized. Press the control-key while dragging the window with the left mouse-button. I wonder why you didn't find it ... ;)

Ged
December 17th, 2004, 20:25
I have a request regarding the grid layer for images.


A number of grid improvements are in the works.

WolfStar76
December 17th, 2004, 21:10
Good news all around. :)

I can see the issue with the chat window - you make a good point, as I hadn't though about the die rolling. Short of scaling the size of the dice to each client I can't think of a fix either, and I imagine that scaling would be a pain in the arse.

Really happy to hear about the grid improvements in development. :)

Thanks for the replies!

M.A.T.T.
December 21st, 2004, 11:15
Any chance of a Demo of the Campaign building module?
I'd very much like to see how this is done before recommending it to my other DM's etc.

Lizard Lips
January 1st, 2005, 16:42
I've been playing with the demo... this program really is a fantastic piece of work. I know sound has been dropped at the moment (which is probably for the best), but I think a few small sound effects could really add some polish to the experience.

I'd really like to see a sound for the die hitting the table, and it would be nice to have some sort of "page rustle" when a book or window is opened.

I know it doesn't seem vital from a usability stand point, but I think little touches like these would do wonders to recreate the mood of table top gaming.

RazorCut
January 2nd, 2005, 07:24
I agree. If the program is going to use 100% of my CPU for static graphics, it would be great if such flare were added in to make the CPU usage worth it.

Spell flashes, weather effects (rain, lightning flashes), etc. would be really sweet.

-R

farless4
January 4th, 2005, 00:53
Adding in sounds and graphics is nice, but a wolf howl is a lot different from a warg howl and a dragon and a wyvren sound different in my head. Adding in the sound support seems like it would take away from the imagination inherent in this sort of roleplaying.

The point I'm trying to make is... I think this software is great because it is trying to emulate a tabletop that I would use for gaming. I've never played on a table that has built in speakers or displays.

I've seen tables with their own dice in a compartment and some space for putting writting/drawing tools.

Adding in all sorts of "cool" graphics and sounds is, in my opinion, a step in the wrong direction. It seems as though it is going more towards a dedicated gameboard rather than a tabletop.

*As for voice/sound support, I suggest using Teamspeak in conjuction with the FG software.

Amaril
January 4th, 2005, 01:11
Adding in sounds and graphics is nice, but a wolf howl is a lot different from a warg howl and a dragon and a wyvren sound different in my head. Adding in the sound support seems like it would take away from the imagination inherent in this sort of roleplaying.

The point I'm trying to make is... I think this software is great because it is trying to emulate a tabletop that I would use for gaming. I've never played on a table that has built in speakers or displays.

I've seen tables with their own dice in a compartment and some space for putting writting/drawing tools.

Adding in all sorts of "cool" graphics and sounds is, in my opinion, a step in the wrong direction. It seems as though it is going more towards a dedicated gameboard rather than a tabletop.

*As for voice/sound support, I suggest using Teamspeak in conjuction with the FG software.
I wholly agree with this. It's the cleanliness of Fantasy Grounds that I find so appealing. I pray that SmiteWorks will adhere to the K.I.S.S. rule. just because a handful of people think something would be "cool" doesn't make the product better in its functionality. Multi-talented applications tends to be more like jacks of all trades and masters of none or so overridden with features that it's too time consuming to learn how to use.

The same goes for "pretty graphics" as seen with Fluid's Master Tools application. So much time was spent on graphics and sound that the application became vaporware.

Remember, folks: Form follows function. The application's function should be built before its design and not to accommodate its design.

Lizard Lips
January 4th, 2005, 01:13
I agree with farless. Personally I would like sound support for music, effects, etc. but I'd rather the dev team concentrate on ironing out bugs and adding to features necessary for games to run smoothly.

I would like to see two sound effects though .. the die rolling sound and maybe some sort of paper rustling when opening sheets. Both are "effects" we hear in real life at the table, and I really notice their absence in FG.

Amaril
January 4th, 2005, 01:40
I agree with farless. Personally I would like sound support for music, effects, etc. but I'd rather the dev team concentrate on ironing out bugs and adding to features necessary for games to run smoothly.

I would like to see two sound effects though .. the die rolling sound and maybe some sort of paper rustling when opening sheets. Both are "effects" we hear in real life at the table, and I really notice their absence in FG.The paper rustling effects could get annoying and the die rolls would be tricky (I think) to time with the movement of the dice (otherwise it would just look and sound bad).

However, audio effects do enhance the audio/visual feedback to the use of the user interface providing the user with contextual feedback such as the clicking sound when IE navigates to a link or URL. Having a similarly "clean" sound in Fantasy Grounds would be a good addition.

Lizard Lips
January 4th, 2005, 03:30
Ok, I can see how the paper could get annoying, but I believe the die rolling sound was something that the devs had working and then disabled (it played a sound when the die hit the table, so the roll and the sound were synched. At least that's what I think I read in another thread)

I just got done GMing a demo game, and I really think the software needs sound. Trying to look up notes and monsters, pay attention to the map, and answer questions was difficult without sound cues to tell me where to turn my attention. I think a soft sound effect when a token was moved on the map (I'm fond of the sounds used in the Map portion of Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War) would help a GM know when players were moving things on the board. Also a soft chime or tick when a player hit enter in the chat window would let me know when I need to address questions.

Finally, would it be possible for there to be a "whisper window"? My players expressed concern that I'd get overwhelmed with all the info coming back and forth through the main chat window. Some of their questions were things that were low priority... it would be nice to have them shuffled off to the side until I can get a break to look at them.

Ilwan
January 18th, 2005, 17:50
After having played 5 times now, me and my group have some request, that would improve FG.

:arrow: The players are missing the possibility to write in the the notebook, when they are not online. A long description or history of a character that is to be revealed during the campaign can not be stored before play. Also the notebook doesnt accept copy/paste as the GMs storybook feature does, so even writing text in word or wordpad cannot be copy/pasted into notebook during play nor into chatbox. A dragable textbox formatting for the notebook would be useful also.

:arrow: As DM my rolls are being revealed to the players along with the modification. I dont want my players to see modfications, only the result. The shady GM-dice have no effect if roll is showed anyway.

:arrow: When making dice macros (ex: /die 1d20+3 Attack Roll v. AC:) it would be nice to set the dice to an X or something. I like rolling the dice when I attack, but I want the text to go along automaticly. It would be something like "/die 1dX+3 Attack Roll v. AC and text appears after rolling dice. That would enable more hotkeys possiblities like having a row of hotkeys for damage (/die 1dX, 1dX+1, 1dX+2, 1dX+3 etc. Damage Rolls) that would cover almost all damage issues, along with the DM being able to actually "roll" damage, without writing text and setting modifications manually.
Monsters and NPCs Attack Bonus is not dragable from their info sheets. That feature would be much more important than the CR (that actually is dragable).

:arrow: Tokens box becomes very crowded when using many tokens. I use self created monster token (20 pieces 50x50 px) and NPC Tokens (20 pieces 50x50 px). If the box would have the a "Add New Category" feature like the maps section for different kind of tokens, U could manage them much better. Different Token boxes for different use would be very nice.

:arrow: The Common modifier overview cannot be dragged into hotkeys, only the single modifers. I could use the overview on a hotkey,

Well that was what we have talked about so far. We are enjoying FG alot these days and hope we might get lucky that maybe some issues have chances to be part of future patches.

THX for listening

Dupre
January 18th, 2005, 18:24
:arrow: As DM my rolls are being revealed to the players along with the modification. I dont want my players to see modfications, only the result. The shady GM-dice have no effect if roll is showed anyway.


If indeed the players are seeing anything more than shadows of dice, then it's a bug. Your players are seeing the description string along with the dice result when you as a GM roll the dice?

Thanks for the feedback.

Ilwan
January 18th, 2005, 21:07
edit

Legacy
January 18th, 2005, 21:08
Ok I have had the chance to use FG three times so far and besides the prior listing (a number of items which my group stated) here are some additional feature requests:

Label the mini's (icons). Provide a tag for each mini on the map so they can be differentiated. With a large number of tokens tracking grew difficult and a bit confusing. Especially as players wished to target and eliminate specific opponents. A text field would be ideal.

Provide a status that can be assigned to a given mini. I have seen this implemented a couple of ways with other tools... the most effective for gaming purposes was the state being inserted in parenthesis after the mini label... for example... unconscious, invisible, held, fatigued... etc. This list could be updated for individual campaigns.

Facing arrow for the mini's or similar convention that identifies which direction the mini is facing. We were using tokens which slowed down game play as both the character and facing token had to be moved (and approved by me). This grew worse as we began using a third token to identify different creatures. I would like the management of minitures to be as effortless as possible so we can focus on the game play vs. the miniatures management.

Capability to add text on the map. A layer that enables the GM and players to add typed text labels to the image (map) while in play. Persistence between games is not necessary but would be nice. The ability to add text alone would be an improvement vs. using the current drawing tool to add caveman like scrawlings. :lol:

Initiative utility tool shared with players. It would be nice to add the ability to share the initiative tracking sheet with the players... BUT not all the stats (such as HP's, AC, etc). I have added a story item called Initiative that lists current round, sequence of initiatives, and who has acted (updated after every action) and then shared after each update - needless to say its a bit clunky but enables the entire group to see who is acting when, the round we are on, and who has acted. It would be nice to be able to share an initiative sheet that shows initiative, name, and effects (I dont always share all effects or time an effect lasts) with the players. Essentially a shared initiative tool is what I would see as a boon here. Not an automated tracking tool but something that can share initiative data with everyone at the table.

Ability to customize what is shared and what is not shared. An options box for the GM would be nice. Every DM runs differently and it would be nice to auto set a number of assumed functions.


Hope this helps! As we progress in the campaign I will be adding more. As a side note, reading this thread I would like to throw in my two copper. Personally I would rather see the program enhanced for utility (such as labeling of mini's and a better initiative tracking tool) before adding flash such as sound. I have used nearly all the tools on the market so far and found this one the most suitable for virtual table top gaming. Of course that is also a bit of personal preference. :)

I will say non-optional sounds can grow quite annoying. One tool I used did have sounds and while really cool in the beginning, it is one of the main reasons why I abandoned the use of the tool. We use Teamspeak and make whatever sound effects I need available that way.


Cheers,
Barry

Ilwan
January 18th, 2005, 22:41
:arrow: As DM my rolls are being revealed to the players along with the modification. I dont want my players to see modfications, only the result. The shady GM-dice have no effect if roll is showed anyway.


If indeed the players are seeing anything more than shadows of dice, then it's a bug. Your players are seeing the description string along with the dice result when you as a GM roll the dice?

Thanks for the feedback.

When using a /die macro the players see my modifiers. Everything in purple text color is visible to them. A manual roll is invisible until I drag the result in the chatbox




:arrow: When making dice macros (ex: /die 1d20+3 Attack Roll v. AC:) it would be nice to set the dice to an X or something. I like rolling the dice when I attack, but I want the text to go along automaticly. It would be something like "/die 1dX+3 Attack Roll v. AC and text appears after rolling dice. That would enable more hotkeys possiblities like having a row of hotkeys for damage (/die 1dX, 1dX+1, 1dX+2, 1dX+3 etc. Damage Rolls) that would cover almost all damage issues, along with the DM being able to actually "roll" damage, without writing text and setting modifications manually.
Monsters and NPCs Attack Bonus is not dragable from their info sheets. That feature would be much more important than the CR (that actually is dragable).

I just found out that it is possible to do that. For that I use the weapons part of an empty charactersheet. As weapon I for example put in "Damage Roll" and set the attack to 0 (or anything else). Then I drag the bonus to the quickslot and am suddenly able to choose my kind of dice with the text label "damage roll" added after throwing it). Great, but could be done more transparent I guess.

WolfStar76
January 19th, 2005, 16:11
You can macro your die rolls and still have them be invisible - its not noted in the manual but if you add a ? to the die roll hotkey it'll work. For example

/die ?1d20+3 Reflex Save

That would cause a hidden roll on a macro for the GM. This doesn't (obviously) work for the players, however. :)

Legacy
January 20th, 2005, 22:05
Some issues with the character sheet based on my own usage and feedback from my group:



Skills section is too restrictive. We use a plethora of different resources that typically add new skills and there is next to no room for adding new ones or updating existing ones. I have typically seen that few people go through and fill out the entire skill sheet, they only add what is needed. With this in mind, I would find it preferable that the skill section should be blank lines that are filled as needed. Though this solution is more preference than anything else. In short, the skill section needs the ability to alow players to pull from any source and add skills.

Feats section - too small; all of my players wanted to put a brief summary of the feat with the feat name in a list format to make it easy to look up and reference feats.

Special abilities - too small. Same features requested as the Feats section.

Weapons list - too short and no section for additional modifiers. Not sure if additional modifiers is truly needed but it is a bit short. I think another three rows would be ideal.

0's are not captured. Looking into the xml there is a setting for 0 values not being displayed. I have a player who would rather see the 0's.

It would be nice if an additional tab was added for the Feats & Special Abilities wtih a full tab devoted for skills. Perhaps the top half could be the default skills from d20 and the second half would be for any custom skills that the player is using from whatever source.




I do realize customization can be performed to update the above but the above is something I think would be common through across a number of users and time is a precious commodity for me and my group!

Still an awesome program! :D

Cheers,
BTS

Bagpuss2
January 21st, 2005, 00:06
I'm not sure but I think all the text boxes on the character sheets are actually scrollable. So you can put in more info than fits on the sheet.

Legacy
January 21st, 2005, 04:41
Doh! you are right. Not sure why nobody caught that yet... must be too much reliance on the eyeball. yes, the feats and special abilities is scrollable.

Though skills space is still an issue!

Thanks for pointing that out.
BTS

richvalle
January 21st, 2005, 13:16
I'm not sure but I think all the text boxes on the character sheets are actually scrollable. So you can put in more info than fits on the sheet.

Thats true, but I still find it annoying that you can not see all the feats at one look. The section is still too small.

rv

Bitr_Haag
January 24th, 2005, 15:48
After running through a short session with one player only, here is the immediate feedback on the game. Some of this is repeats from comments above but I felt it important to include to help the Dev's prioritize what they are consistently seeing.

Before going further, I have to say that the session was a LOT of fun. Fantasy Grounds is great and, based on the forum, looks to be even better in the future. That being said, here are some notes:

1. Players being able to access their notes offline is important since we couldn't find a way for players to save any changes to their local character. Since I trust my players (roommates and friends) with their characters, they are all using local characters which they can't change while playing (ie finding a sword +1 won't save in their inventory).

We are using the Notes section to keep track of changes they need to make after they are done playing. However, after they disconnect from the game, they can't access their notes to change their local character. If anyone has a work around (short of keeping notes in a .txt file outside of the game), please let me know.

2. The inability to resize the chat window was a minor annoyance for those with high resolution windows. I read about the complication in a different post by the Dev's but I think this would be a big win for some users. Personally, a lot of my dice rolling is turning into macros:

/die ?1dX....

I would imagine most of my players will quickly macro the majority of their dice rolls so the graphic issue of dice rolling in the chat window is something my group, in particular, can do without. I'd rather be able to resize my chat window.

3. The player "emotes" or "action" still has the colon ":" after the player name. I understand the the DM is the only one w/ the ability to narrate but my player wanted to say:

Ashtir walks closer to the arguing guards

without it showing up as:

Ashtir: walks closer to the arguing guards

or as:

Ashtir: I walk closer to the arguing guards

I think leaving the "player action" coloring to the text and removing the colon (and maybe a space?) would be an easy solution that would make the action text appear a lot better to everyone else who is reading. As a DM, I'd like my players to be able to partake in the action from a role-playing perspective instead of reporting their actions.

4. My player LOVED when I changed the lighting to night time. He had no idea what was going on but when I reported that it was getting dark and then adjusted the lighting, it really took him by surprise and he loved it. I didn't need more, but I'd suggest beginning to investigate more options, like underground lighting, torch lighting (campfire's a bit bright to me), maybe lighting (sporadic flashes?), or cloudy lighting (periodic dimming and brightening of normal daylight?). This suggestion may be over the top but I wanted to report the positive feedback on the lighting.

5. Just to leave my feedback on a contested issue, I vote "NO" on sounds for now. I'd like to see some of the other aspects of the game improved first. Some of my players will be listening to their radio (or computer) while playing the game so sounds may be missed, etc...

6. Finally, my purpose behind FG is to allow my remote friends to join in and play a game we used to play "back in the day". I'm hoping FG will allow the players to role-play more than we ever did in the past b/c no matter how hard we tried we always broke character and a female elf just doesn't sound right as a male teenager going through puberty (neither does a dwarf but at least you don't feel as foolish!). :P

But with FG, each player can get into their character more b/c it's all text. Actions (emotes) are going to play a huge part in allowing a player to display body language as part of their character which is why I'm hoping the colon issue can be quickly resolved.

Great game thus far!!

Ged
January 24th, 2005, 16:00
3. The player "emotes" or "action" still has the colon ":" after the player name. I understand the the DM is the only one w/ the ability to narrate but my player wanted to say:

Ashtir walks closer to the arguing guards

without it showing up as:

Ashtir: walks closer to the arguing guards

or as:

Ashtir: I walk closer to the arguing guards

I think leaving the "player action" coloring to the text and removing the colon (and maybe a space?) would be an easy solution that would make the action text appear a lot better to everyone else who is reading. As a DM, I'd like my players to be able to partake in the action from a role-playing perspective instead of reporting their actions.


Just a quick response: Hold Control AND Shift down while hitting enter or write /e before the sentence. This way you could get

Ashtir walks closer to the arguing guards

Legacy
January 25th, 2005, 05:30
Ok had our session the other night and came up with the following feedback... both from my perspective and some from the players.



Labels for minimized GM items. For example, I minimize an NPC sheet to get it out of the way along with several story elements. It would be nice if there was an auto label based on the title of the item. This would enable sizing down of several items and then clicking on them to expand as needed. I know the hotkeys can be used but I reserve them for items that are used throughout the campaign/adventure while I minimize those items for a given scenario or scene.

Allow for alignment of dice at the point where the mouse pointer is. I love the dice but with multiple items open they overlap to the top and block the view. I end up manually moving them out of the way. Personally I would like to just line them up at the top of the screen (left or middle) or bottom left hand corner to get them out of the main space. I like to spread stuff out and when doing PnP am noterious for taking a lot of space. Currently my space is at a premium as its only a 19" monitor :(

Hide icons placed in a mask from the players. I want to preplace icons to save time but when I place icons in a masked area the players can see them. Quite funny as one of my early tests a player stated "Holy $##t! Whats that dragon doing there?" as soon as I put the dragon on the map.

Way to mark a mini as acted. We place the "X" token on the board and then move it so it is half under the icon. When placed on top it falls back into the box. Ideal would be the capability to right click on an icon and mark it with a graphic or color. Then at the end of the round the GM could do a mass clear. My group is a very visual group and focus more on the map than on chat in combat.

Ability to flag and identify in chat when an NPC is taking an action. My thought on this was to add a bit more dynamic capability to the initiative sheet. Instead of clicking on the player icon and flagging the character to go, have a next button on the sheet. When clicked it would move down the list from top to bottom. Each click would close off the end of the previous character's round and flag the beginning of the next character. If at the beginning, it would insert into chat "Beginning of Round with an incremental counter." At the end of the last character it would flag "End of round". The counter could be also displayed on the initiative sheet and modified by the GM. This approach would enable the tracking of rounds, tracking of who is acting now, and who has acted. A nice little utility for taking some of the work out of melee tracking... I find myself always getting lost at some point or another and my players typically remind me where we are at! :)



Well just a few ideas that came out of our last session. The last item, initiative tracking, was something that ended up being far more here than when we discussed it. I was originally thinking of taking NPC sheets, minimizing them and giving them the same initiative flagging ability as the NPC desktop portraits. I think the above is a good starting point for a more dynamic and usable solution.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
BTS

Legacy
January 25th, 2005, 05:44
Got a case of sometimers... sometimes I remember and sometimes I dont!

Anyway, two more requests!


The ability for a player to have multiple characters. This would be for henchmen, hirelings, familiars, beastly companions (mundane and otherwise), and in the case when a player is running more than one character... multiple PCs. As NPC sheets cannot be shared, I have created an adventure sheet summarizing stats and the player has access to that... kind of a kludge work around. In summary, it would be nice to be able to both share NPC sheets with one or more players (for ad-hoc hirelings and in-session gained allies under their control) and for a player to be able to create additional full and partial characters. Full for when running multiple PC's (I still play old school style at times) and partial for henchmen, hirelings, and beasts associated with a given character.

With the latter (henchmen, hirelings, and beasties) it would be ideal if they were associated and under the control of the player (and GM) only. Perhaps appearing as smaller portraits directly under the controlling player or some such device. Though with a large number this could become unweildy.

Ability for server side characters to access the server portrait directory. The players created server characters but were unable to access the portraits in my server directory. I ended up zipping the files and emailing them so they could select a portrait... quite a hefty number as I am up to 70+ portraits!



Cheers,
BTS

Mythtify
January 27th, 2005, 13:59
It would be cool to see rulsets from some third party publishers. Specificly, I would like to see an Arcana Unearthed ruleset (Malhvaoc press). An Iron Kingdoms rulest (Privateer press) would probaly be a good seller too. If you could offer some third party rulesets, it would widen the appeal of Fantasy Grounds.

Bagpuss2
January 27th, 2005, 15:12
About the other ideas, I personally like the time of day indicator and weather effect indicator. :wink:

You might want to add a phases of the moon option for werewolf senarios...

Bagpuss2
January 27th, 2005, 15:20
3. The player "emotes" or "action" still has the colon ":" after the player name. I understand the the DM is the only one w/ the ability to narrate but my player wanted to say:

Ashtir walks closer to the arguing guards

without it showing up as:

Ashtir: walks closer to the arguing guards

or as:

Ashtir: I walk closer to the arguing guards

I think leaving the "player action" coloring to the text and removing the colon (and maybe a space?) would be an easy solution that would make the action text appear a lot better to everyone else who is reading. As a DM, I'd like my players to be able to partake in the action from a role-playing perspective instead of reporting their actions.


Just a quick response: Hold Control AND Shift down while hitting enter or write /e before the sentence. This way you could get

Ashtir walks closer to the arguing guards

I'm not sure this isn't actually a bug he's talking about. Going through my chat log I noticed one player actions were always with the : and another were without even though both appeared in the action font colour. The ones with the : always seemed to start with a captial letter as well.

Here's an example from my chat log.


<font color="#005500"><font color="#000000">Balin&#58; Damn them ears offer no protection. </font><br />
<font color="#000088">Balin&#58; Points to body</font><br />
<font color="#000088">Erundiel begins to search area, using his longsword to poke at the barrels and the sacks that line the area</font><br />
<font color="#000000">Erundiel&#58; Search</font> &#91;1d20+8 = 25&#93;<br />
<font color="#000088">Balin&#58; Points to wounds</font><br />
<font color="#000088">Erundiel focuses on what Balin is showing him and notices that the dead man has no ring...</font><br />
<font color="#000000">There doesn't appear to be anything of value here, well unless you are a smith and could work the ore.</font><br />
<font color="#000088">Balin&#58; Eyes the ore</font><br />
<font color="#000088">Erundiel shrugs his shoulders as he looks at Balin...</font><br />

Balin seemed to be doing something different than Erundiel in entering actions.

msd
January 27th, 2005, 15:29
Balin seemed to be doing something different than Erundiel in entering actions.

FWIW for troubleshooting purposes, I (Erundiel) always use the keyboard for that. In other words, I always type and then hit Ctrl-Shift (or whatever the combination is) and then enter...

Perhaps Durak (Balin) is using the /e and there is a bug with the use of the flag but not with the keyboard?

Bagpuss2
January 27th, 2005, 15:35
I think Durak did mention that he tends to find the keyboard commands easier to use.

Durak
January 27th, 2005, 16:29
Not 100% sure what i did. But am sure i was using the alt, ctrl and shift keys in that session. I only used the /mood command.
I did notice that msd was not getting the : i was getting but thought nothing of it.

We will see on Friday :) for our game.

I am using a UK keyboard though, and know that some programs dislike the Numlock key on UK boards, either its NUM or its num. You think isnt much of a difference, but a game i play wont save them in num mode.

Durak
January 29th, 2005, 05:08
Okay tested all my chat options. it seems that using alt kill to enter action gives me a colon.

Also /a makes me the player say an action, rather than me the character.

In gm mode /a makes the dms name say is doing action rather than character name, or even dm title.

MSD didnt have any of my problems, so i think its keyboard related. Unless any americans are getting the problem.

Ilwan
January 30th, 2005, 23:02
At todays game, we missed the featurem that every player and DM could edit a shared note.

tarrasque
February 11th, 2005, 21:41
be nice to have a command like

/time

where it displays your system time in just your chat window..

for those of us who play past bedtime :)

and a way to edit macro text on the quickbuttons

Chris

tarrasque
February 12th, 2005, 00:38
another couple of things

when you try to connect to a game and it fails..couldnt it drop back to the play as a character / play as a GM screen rather than exit

and in a similar fashion..couldnt we exit to the menu rather than just exit to desktop

Chris

Bitr_Haag
February 12th, 2005, 19:51
After last night's game w/ some new users, the following functionality was suggested:

1. Chat window re-sizing (already discussed)

2. Adding color to text within chat to match the dice color for each player. Several suggestions were mentioned... Change the color of the dice results (ie 5+2) to match the color of the dice that was rolled. Or change the color of the player's name before the colon (ie Lortonk: ). Or finally change everything that player types to the color of his/her dice. This could result in some obnoxious colors I guess but it would helpe people immediately recognize who is saying what.

3. None of use could figure out why PC's have the ability to delete tokens; particularly ones that DM's put out there. Thought it might be a bug or something to be changed.

4. As the DM, I could not delete or erase an arrow, circle, cone, etc... that another player accidentally drew on an image I showed. I would imagine the DM should be able to delete anything drawn by a player.

5. I accidentally moved a token until it made contact w/ the side of the frame surrounding an image. Then, when I scrolled the map, the token stayed w/ the frame instead of remaining in its spot on the map. Maybe a bug? I was easily able to move the token back to its original spot.

That's all for now. Everyone enjoyed the experience. I hope to see a new patch w/ some cool enhancements soon!

M.A.T.T.
February 14th, 2005, 10:59
A few ideas that would be nice: (for the future)

A Next Turn button: When you click this, it automatically rings the bell 'ding' on the next players screen, denoted by the initiative order, and pops the flag up in the chat window.
(also could order the player icons at the top in initiative order so you can see when your go is coming)

Automatically enter characters on the initiative sheet when you make an initiative roll.

Map visibility: give an icon a radial area of effect to indicate how far they can see, which moves when you move the icon on the map. help to indicate torch light, darkvision etc and show the DM what is visible.

:)

Hayt
February 14th, 2005, 11:14
It's already possible to cue the next turn for a player. The GM right-clicks on the player portrait and selects that player's turn from the radial menu. The effect of this is to hightlight the player portrait name, show his or her name in the chat window and send an audio signal to that player.

I like the idea of having a visible area of effect on the map. That would be really useful.

M.A.T.T.
February 14th, 2005, 11:17
Yes I know this, but I was thinking.. an easier access button that the GM could just click to move through the initiative order, rather than looking it up, right clicking the player and then selecting next turn.
Also it would be useful for players to be able to indicate their turn has ended.

Hayt
February 14th, 2005, 11:21
Yes I know this, but I was thinking.. an easier access button that the GM could just click to move through the initiative order, rather than looking it up, right clicking the player and then selecting next turn.
Also it would be useful for players to be able to indicate their turn has ended.

I can see how it would be useful if initiative always followed the same order but, in practice, some actions take place out of initiative order and the order itself can be changed during combat.

M.A.T.T.
February 14th, 2005, 11:27
My point is that whatever the initiative is on the initiative sheet could be reflected, so if someones initiative did change, this would be reflect on the sheet and in the order, click next and whoevers turn it is next would be notified. The Player icons at the top could also move to reflect this.
Exactly like PnP DnD... :)

Although I do see this could become very complicated and be moving a little too much away from the manual feel of the application!

Hayt
February 14th, 2005, 11:58
Although I do see this could become very complicated and be moving a little too much away from the manual feel of the application!

Ahh – and there you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s Fantasy Grounds’ very simplicity that gives it such appeal.

I’m sure a lot of people on these boards have tried KloogeWerks, which tries to do what Fantasy Grounds does but takes it further by including all sorts of bells and whistles. Problem is, it’s all those bells and whistles that - whilst supposedly making the DM’s job easier - actually ends up making KloogeWerks much more difficult to get to grips with.

It also takes much longer to set up a campaign with KloogeWerks, and has a much steeper learning curve for players who would probably much rather spend their time gaming than learning how to use software.

I’m all for keeping Fantasy Grounds as simple as possible.

M.A.T.T.
February 17th, 2005, 09:24
here'e a nice but simple idea.

A welcome note: So when a player joins the server they can see info typed by the GM. i.e. Expect time the game will start etc, breif discription of the campiagn or a recap of the previous session. Something to read while waiting for the others to join basically!

richvalle
February 17th, 2005, 14:05
here'e a nice but simple idea.

A welcome note: So when a player joins the server they can see info typed by the GM. i.e. Expect time the game will start etc, breif discription of the campiagn or a recap of the previous session. Something to read while waiting for the others to join basically!

Yeah, I had that thought too. Kind of like a mesage of the day thing but it could be more involved. It would be really nice for times when you had to put up somethng like:
GM: Give the kids a bath... will be 15 min late.

:)

rv

M.A.T.T.
February 17th, 2005, 14:11
Also noticed that when the player connect to a campaign and the maps eventually copy locally - the player can open this on his/her machine and see the full map....as a jpg or whatever.
Maybe this could change??

richvalle
February 17th, 2005, 15:59
Hmm, I think that was done for speed reasons. Some of those maps (dundjinni) are pretty big and would take a while to load up 'on demand'. I was wondering if a player could pre-open a map but hadn't checked.

I guess we either have to trust the player not to do so or lock the file somehow. Or maybe just a message getting sent to the dm that the map file had been opened would be enough. When a player gets hit by blue bolts of lightning every time he opens a map he should get the idea. :)

rv

Neumannium
February 20th, 2005, 23:16
After playing through a short few encounters with a player in my group, I noticed a couple things, all related to the map window.

1. When in drawing mode, I would like to be able to change the width of the pen. The line I get now is very, very thin, and hard to see when a grid is present.

2. When in drawing mode, I would like the option to draw straight lines and shapes, in addition to the current 'freestyle' pen. I really think the ability to whip up maps and battle-maps in seconds is one of the greatest things about the software, but without more control over the pen, it is quite difficult.

3. Pointers. The GM needs more than 1. I would especially like the ability to create more of the square/circle/cone pointers at one time (the fact that they show their diameter is awesome). I use them for lasting spell effects and the like, and also showing the size of individual monsters (I draw a 10' sqare around a token to indicate a large creature, for example) and being able to only have one 'shape pointer' at a time is a pain.

All in all though, we were both freaking out at how cool this software is!

Keep up the great work!

Neumannium

M.A.T.T.
February 22nd, 2005, 14:11
Neumannium, you have some good points.

I especially agree on the pointers issue. being able to have an area of effect in place, whilst still being able to poing with an arrow for example is very very useful.

It would also be useful to be able to move pointers - for example if I'm using a map that already has a grid as part of the image, I can set down a light source area of effect and rathe than redraw it as the characters move, being able to move it or lock it to a token would be very useful.

richvalle
February 22nd, 2005, 15:25
It would also be useful to be able to move pointers - for example if I'm using a map that already has a grid as part of the image, I can set down a light source area of effect and rathe than redraw it as the characters move, being able to move it or lock it to a token would be very useful.

I had a thought about this. I really like the idea about the light source thing but the problem is going to be that FG does not know what a wall is, so the 'light' will go though walls, doors ect and reveil what is on the other side.

rv

M.A.T.T.
February 22nd, 2005, 15:28
Yeah - it wouldn't work in that manner as a .jpg would give no distinction. But it would help to have the circle there for the GM to reveal what can be seen in mask mode.

M.A.T.T.
February 25th, 2005, 09:09
Don't recall mentioning this before, but it would be nice.

When you connect to a session the currently shared maps and images should automatically share. This would mostly help when people dropout during a session and connect back in.

Also it would be useful if the DM could set things to preload prior to players connecting.

:)

Crusader
February 25th, 2005, 10:00
Hello everyone,

I found out about this software just two days ago, and bought two licenses to try it out yesterday. It looks very promising indeed.

Anyway, I have an idea of a feature that I would find useful, and that is to mask different areas for different players on a map. If the players split up and explore an area in different groups it would be nice to only show the groups those areas that they explore. To make this easier to handle, it would also be nice to be able to group different players in different groups (containers so to speak) and do the unmasking per group rather than per player.

richvalle
February 25th, 2005, 13:15
Hello everyone,

I found out about this software just two days ago, and bought two licenses to try it out yesterday. It looks very promising indeed.

Anyway, I have an idea of a feature that I would find useful, and that is to mask different areas for different players on a map. If the players split up and explore an area in different groups it would be nice to only show the groups those areas that they explore. To make this easier to handle, it would also be nice to be able to group different players in different groups (containers so to speak) and do the unmasking per group rather than per player.

I was thinking about what if the party split up too but more from a comms point of view. It would be nice if you could set up 'wisper groups' or something so you could send messages to different groups and not just single players. This would be great when used with the above idea for unmasking.

rv

Ilwan
February 25th, 2005, 16:07
I could use a faster whipser command. Some of my players have long names like "Karasanthas". Typing that in a whisper is a pain in the ... Would be happy to type only /w kar , instead of the full name.

richvalle
February 25th, 2005, 16:56
I could use a faster whipser command. Some of my players have long names like "Karasanthas". Typing that in a whisper is a pain in the ... Would be happy to type only /w kar , instead of the full name.

What if you could do /w (left click)

Where you could click on the icon of the char you want to send too. If you could click on several at a time that would take care of the above, though it would start to get tiring to have to do multipule clicks all the time.

rv

kalmarjan
February 28th, 2005, 08:12
The ability to have odd dice, like for HD on some creatures (The Jermlaine comes to mind with d3-1)
I tried /die ?d3-1 and nothing happened.....
Sounds?

Hell no..... The problem with all the other programs I have seen, like CC2 and Etools Rewrite is that a bunch of people get a "cool" idea in their heads, the DEVs jump on it like, Oh no, we need it now, and the software becomes a bloated, cumbersome dinosaur and the original point is lost.

The thing I like about this program is that it is KISS. Just like at the table. If we wanted mood music, we played it in the background. But only if it did not interfere with the game. Die roll sounds, Paper shuffling...... seen it done before, and it does get old really quick.
The seperate Whisper window would be cool.

Also, is there a way that I could add some more ambiance settings?

Lastly, two things that I am confused by......

When I started FG, I made a campaign, and that is all well, but I want to export it as a module. How do I go about doing that?

And lastly, How do I add monsters to the ruleset? Do I have to make my own ruleset?

Thanks for the time....

Sandeman

tarrasque
February 28th, 2005, 11:50
How do I add monsters to the ruleset? Do I have to make my own ruleset?

go into the ruleset directory & make a new director for your custom rules

i.e sandeman d20

make a subdirectory called database

then copy the base.xml file from the d20 folder into sandeman d20

modify the base.xml file like this

<staticdata source="rulesets\sandeman d20\database\xcritters.xml" />

the ruleset directory is called `sandeman d20` & the custom monster file is called 'xcritters'


i just copied the monster file from the d20 directory & deleted all but one entry..then edited it for the first new critter, then just add new ones as i go along

Chris

kalmarjan
February 28th, 2005, 16:03
Okay, when I do this, will I be able to change rulesets within the game, or will I have to restart FG?
Would it be good to keep all the critters and just add to them?

Ah.... the fun!
:)

BTW, Tarrasque..... Are you available this Sat for a game? The RTTTOEE will officially begin this Sat :twisted:

Sandeman

Aesir
May 6th, 2005, 05:57
I'd like to see a Skills reference added in, similar to the Feats reference (so the core d20 reference material is available all from within FG).

I didn't realize it was missing (or did I miss it?) until I went to create a new character by hand from within FG. Up until this point, I'd used another program for character generation/tracking - but I'm trying to simplify my life and reduce the amount of software needed to setup and play a campaign.

Sigurd
May 6th, 2005, 11:45
I'd like an altertnate reference for players by number. I can see this for two cases.

1) The shortcut. I want to whisper to 'pl1' and have "Horatio Eustinia the Third" get the message. He should see his own name.

2) For some modules I'd like to assign chars based on necessity. Players will get essential chars first.

I imagine it might also simplify scripting down the road.

S

Fibonacci
June 29th, 2005, 22:23
I would like to be able to roll multiple die types at once. A d8 and a d6 for example. Possibly a die cup where I could put how many of whatever kinds of dice in the cup and throw them all at once. I have been just rolling one and then the other but playing Savage Worlds rules (still worrking on the char sheet) you do this for almost every roll.

Also, would a deck of cards would be asking to much?

Before either of those, however, I would really love to see some documentation on your xml or, better yet, a tool to work with the datafiles that could read and generate the xml files.

TheYeti1775
July 13th, 2005, 14:02
Things I would like:

1. No sounds, especially if you get around to supporting Voice chat within it. Each player has their own method of "getting into the mood".
The only sounds I could see are the /wolf howl like ones. Have a core of these that are common, and let user's add their own in to that directory. Make it simple, : /sound filename : have the directory be a default directory only.

2. For the dice rolling and resizing the chat window:
Make a dice box; use a corner for a small box to roll in.

3. Quick help for all the "/" commands.

4. On the Character Sheet
a. Quick Saving Throw Buttons - yes I know you can put them to the 12 hotkeys, but that takes a quarter of your hotkeays right there. If you can click a button on the sheet to roll a 20 with that modifer, it would be cool.
Further expansion of this would be to the skills as well.

b. Agree with the others expand the Skills into a full sheet with blanks as well. And put Feats and Special Abilities on their own page.

c. More obivious scrolling like a scroll bar or arrows.

5. Window reszing as stated already.

6. Multiple PC's per player
By using the Player1 Character1 or Player1 Character2 for your whispers and stuff

That's all for now.

Yeti

richvalle
July 14th, 2005, 02:48
Things I would like:

4. On the Character Sheet
a. Quick Saving Throw Buttons - yes I know you can put them to the 12 hotkeys, but that takes a quarter of your hotkeays right there. If you can click a button on the sheet to roll a 20 with that modifer, it would be cool.
Further expansion of this would be to the skills as well.
Yeti

Yeti,

Do you know that you have 96 hot keys? Besides the ones you see by default there are 12 when you hit shift, alt, ctrl, and combos of those: shift-alt, shift-ctrl etc.

rv

TheYeti1775
July 14th, 2005, 04:58
Things I would like:

4. On the Character Sheet
a. Quick Saving Throw Buttons - yes I know you can put them to the 12 hotkeys, but that takes a quarter of your hotkeays right there. If you can click a button on the sheet to roll a 20 with that modifer, it would be cool.
Further expansion of this would be to the skills as well.
Yeti

Yeti,

Do you know that you have 96 hot keys? Besides the ones you see by default there are 12 when you hit shift, alt, ctrl, and combos of those: shift-alt, shift-ctrl etc.

rv

mmmm :oops: nope :oops:
:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:
Have to try that next time.

gurney9999
July 14th, 2005, 20:47
don't feel bad... I didn't know about the "tokens not being masked" problem until richvalle saw the goblin trap I had laid for him... DOH!

BRiM
July 18th, 2005, 19:37
My biggest pet-peeve is the lack of good tools for unmasking. I suck with a free hand tool. Plain and simple. I'd love to see a box tool for unmasking areas (and maybe a circle tool for times around the camp fire and such). I accidentiall revealed a hidden area to a PC just this morning... Imagine my surprise when he asked, "Hey, I'd like to open that chest over there, can I get there?" So much for the hidden treasure room.... poor free hand skills.

BRiM

Ram Tyr
July 18th, 2005, 22:05
Ok, so I have some thoughts I thought I would add. I know that many folks have added their thoughts after limited experiences but I want to note (full disclosure) that I have been a PC in only a handful of sessions and haven’t actually DM’d a session yet. I have fooled around with creating a campaign in preparation for one day…

If any of my ideas are unreasonably difficult to program, sorry in advance.

1.
I also think the unmasking feature could use a bit of improvement. I suggest, I think compatibly with the above suggestion, simply creating an option for DM’s to key unmasking to the grid over the image. Unmasking would become a lesson in clicking on a cell to unmask. Cells would either be masked or unmasked using this process. To unmask a portion of a cell the DM would have to select the “handdrawn unmasking” option.

Another feature might be to allow the DM to set the “range” of the unmasking tool. For example, a DM with the unmasking tool’s range set to 0 would only unmask one cell at a time. A DM with the unmasking tool’s range set to 1 would unmask the selected cell and each of the adjacent cells. (Any cell available for the next available movement out of selected cells. If we assume 5’x5’ square cell, that is the cells available to a character located in the selected cell with a movement rate of 5’. With the range set to 2, the cells that a character could reach with a movement rate of 10’ would be unmasked.)

This would allow the software to utilize something already part of the software for the unmasking function.

This in combination with a layer to track light sources would be wonderful. (Including sources carried by the party.)

2.
Another map issue. I think it would be cool if the DM could “associate” two images to each other. I think of them as a DM version and the player version of each map. (If this is possible already, please let me know.) Currently, my plan would be to make two versions of each map and only share the player version. I would reference the DM version for hidden icons. (Traps, etc.) The only reason I need both images is b/c the players place their tokens on the player version. It would be great if there is a way to associate my DM version to the player version so that when opened (1) the players see their version and the DM sees the DM version, and (2) the DM sees the players/npc tokens on the DM version and players see the tokens on their version.

3.
I know that tokens have been raised before on this thread. Generally, I agree that the community can generate great tokens on their own. However, this assumes that they can add custom tokens. I posted here:
https://forums.fantasygrounds.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4247#4247
about a problem I had with tokens and received no official replies. Since this post I have not tried to use any custom tokens out of fear of needing to reinstall FG and losing information. (Consider this an invitation to let me know what I am doing wrong if the problem has been corrected and I should not be having this problem.)

All in all, I want to be sure to say that I’ve had a good time in each session using FG. Thanks.

TheYeti1775
July 19th, 2005, 12:02
Most of us use various images to load as maps right.
Not all of these come with grids.
Yes I know there are Grid overlays, but would it be possible to have an option for the DM to say this is scale 1" to 30ft and let the computer auto grid it for you.

It's probably already there, like all those extra quick keys. :oops:

Makes it easier for us scan and use guys.

Yeti

BRiM
July 19th, 2005, 21:30
Grids and snapping and all that other stuff would be fun, but the mostly, I'm just looking for a better selection tool... These tools have got to be right out of the windows API, it's a lasso tool that removes the gray mask. I just want the other selection tool (or tools) to be available. I've never seen an app that had a Lasso tool that didn't also have a Box Tool and in many cases a Circle Tool... I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see at least those two.

PS, I'll be buying a new full lic on Thursday!!! Can't wait!

BRiM

Leonides02
September 1st, 2005, 12:08
I gotta say that what I'm really missing is sound support. When I tabletopped with my buds I used to create sound environments that really helped with the immersion of the game. I've lost that now since we moved away from each other, but with FG I'd hope to regain it. Imagine setting the "night atmosphere" and describing the crickets chirping, the camp fire burning, etc. and then being able to open up a link and "share" it with all the players with a simple .wav player?

Man, that would be just about perfect.

joshuha
September 13th, 2005, 21:23
I gotta say that what I'm really missing is sound support. When I tabletopped with my buds I used to create sound environments that really helped with the immersion of the game. I've lost that now since we moved away from each other, but with FG I'd hope to regain it. Imagine setting the "night atmosphere" and describing the crickets chirping, the camp fire burning, etc. and then being able to open up a link and "share" it with all the players with a simple .wav player?

Man, that would be just about perfect.

I agree here. Sound would soooo help the mood. Support for WAV/MP3 the same with all the other media, just have the clients download it to a local folder upon connecting.

Snikle
September 13th, 2005, 22:05
I third the request for mp3/wav support, not sure if I would use it all the time, but it sure would be cool to be sitting around the camp fire with the crackling fire and the crickets chirping in the distance.....

Another thing I wish to have is that tokens that are in an area that is masked, for the token to therefore be masked as well. It would be useful too if they were saved with the map. So a DM could go in prior to a game and put the token for that goblin trap in place before the game (or heck a module could have the tokens already in place) and it would be hidden from the players until the DM unmasked it.

kepli
September 14th, 2005, 08:09
Saving the list of creatures with their Initiative, HP, Wounds, etc when closing would be nice (unless I miss something here :wink: ).

Leonides02
September 14th, 2005, 10:34
Glad there are other people on the forum who are clamoring for .wav / mp3 support. I mean, there are far crappier programs out there competing for FG's audience which offer it (not naming names), and I'm thinking of jumping ship just because they have sound and FG does not.

Are there any plans to include it soon?

M.A.T.T.
September 14th, 2005, 11:07
Sound FX and ambience would be really great - but would it be the first thing on the list of things to address? Smite works has to prioritize the requests and features they plan to implement.
I'd rather have a great streamlined virtual tabletop before I had the ability to play a few sounds to my players.

That being said, things are continuing to progress and the app is a lot more stable and useable than when it first appeared. That is great and fair play to Smite Works for all they've done so far, so maybe it is time that we started just dropping some grander idea's into the mix.. lol

sound fx and a few graphical fx would be great!

richvalle
September 14th, 2005, 14:59
Another thing I wish to have is that tokens that are in an area that is masked, for the token to therefore be masked as well. It would be useful too if they were saved with the map. So a DM could go in prior to a game and put the token for that goblin trap in place before the game (or heck a module could have the tokens already in place) and it would be hidden from the players until the DM unmasked it.

I was going to agree with this... but then had another thought.

What might be better is to be able to have tokens on the map that the dm can see but not the players. Part of this is already implemented in that the dm can see the map pins but the players can't (if you havn't checked out the pins do so. They are almost as great as zooming is!)

This way you can have the ambush in place and not have it revealed when you unmask an area. Or... you can keep track of that invisable wizard during combat. Things can be hidden in a room the pc's are in and unmasking the room does not reveal them.

To show the tokens to the player you right click on the token and then click on share.

Hows that sound?

rv

Cantstanzya
September 14th, 2005, 17:17
This way you can have the ambush in place and not have it revealed when you unmask an area. Or... you can keep track of that invisable wizard during combat. Things can be hidden in a room the pc's are in and unmasking the room does not reveal them.
rv
That does sound good. Maybe make it so that when you drag a token to the map while holding the shift key down would make it invisible to the users. This way you wouldn't have to put it out and then make it invisible.
And yes, it would be great to have it like the push pins so that it could be saved. I am currently using the push pins and this is a great addition to the software.

richvalle
September 14th, 2005, 19:15
AND you could use it for secret doors... when they are found you can drop a big S or use a door token onto the map to show where the door is.

Re the pins... I'm using them in WLD and they are fantastic for a dungeon setting like that. Type up some stuff for each room and drag it over there. Really cuts down on the amount I have to flip though the book to see what the characters are walking into.

rv

Snikle
September 14th, 2005, 19:23
Ah yes, I do like that, great idea. Drag and drop a token while holding the Shift key makes it invisible, then a right click on a invisible token and select share. What about also putting a yellow or red halo or glow around invisivle token on the map or something?

"Type up some stuff for each room and drag it over there" Dang thats a great idea, have to try that later tonight!

kalmarjan
September 14th, 2005, 20:14
If you do a search on these forums (in the armory,) wou will find that I have already made tokens for secret and concealed doors.

Hope that helps.....

Cheers,

joshuha
September 14th, 2005, 20:57
If you do a search on these forums (in the armory,) wou will find that I have already made tokens for secret and concealed doors.

Hope that helps.....

Cheers,

Yeah but they want to put them on the map ahead of time if you read the thread. Currently you cannot do this as tokens show as visible in masked areas. Even then, the ideal solution would be as discussed, to allow them to be put on the map as invisible (with a marker indicating this) and then right click share.

richvalle
September 14th, 2005, 22:09
If you do a search on these forums (in the armory,) wou will find that I have already made tokens for secret and concealed doors.

Hope that helps.....

Cheers,

Yep! I've been thinking of grabbing them and giving them a try too.

Thanks,

rv

gurney9999
September 19th, 2005, 22:08
(I don't think there is currently a way to do this...)

I would like to be able to link tokens to Personality entries. So when you open a personality, in addition to having a way to speak as the personality (the speaking bubble), there is a little token symbol. So ahead of time a DM can drag a token from your token bag to the personality page and link it to the personality's token symbol. Then when you are hosting a game, you drag the token symbol from the personality page to a map, voila... token of monster/NPC appears on the map.

kepli
September 20th, 2005, 07:35
:lol:
I was about to post the same request ... (ok, maybe a bit different)

Link a personality/monster description to a token. When you click right on the token you can select the information. This could also be used to update the information by dragging dammage etc on the token or something (or the description). Might be difficult to manage in large battles though. Just make it an option, not a requirement.
Now the token and descriptions are totally separate.

In that effect ... flashing token that denotes it is next <grin>. This needs more thinking ;)

Ged
September 20th, 2005, 08:52
I would like to be able to link tokens to Personality entries.

Link a personality/monster description to a token.

Something of this sort is planned for the future patches. In the case of the default ruleset, it will most probably also be tied with the combat tracker.

richvalle
September 20th, 2005, 11:44
How about an option to have the quick keys take up 2 rows instead of one? The text in there gets pushed off and its hard to see what is what.

rv

WolfStar76
September 20th, 2005, 12:12
I was just reviewing some of the other requests here (skimming mostly) and some of the mask disucssion reminded me of a feature I've wanted.

It would be GREAT if we could RE-mask areas. I know others have mentioned lack of skill with the freehand tool to unmask, I know I've had a couple instances where I've accidently gone to, say, move the map, only to unmask a sliver of the map they party hasn't seen yet.

So far that hasn't been used to my detriment, but now I have a couple ugly little unmasked spots that don't belong. My only option to repair, however, is to remask the whole floor, and then redo everything the party has seen (yuck!).

Having something similar to the drawing tool's eraser would be nice for masking, that way if I "oops" the mask, I can fix it easily.

Ged
September 20th, 2005, 12:26
It would be GREAT if we could RE-mask areas.
...
Having something similar to the drawing tool's eraser would be nice for masking, that way if I "oops" the mask, I can fix it easily.
Remasking is to be addressed in the future. In the meanwhile, if you notice you are unmasking an area you don't want and still hold the mouse button down, you can hit escape to cancel that unmask selection.

kalmarjan
September 20th, 2005, 12:33
kalmarjan wrote:
If you do a search on these forums (in the armory,) wou will find that I have already made tokens for secret and concealed doors.

Hope that helps.....

Cheers,


Yeah but they want to put them on the map ahead of time if you read the thread. Currently you cannot do this as tokens show as visible in masked areas. Even then, the ideal solution would be as discussed, to allow them to be put on the map as invisible (with a marker indicating this) and then right click share.

:oops:

Didn't see the other post, sorry about that!



Remasking is to be addressed in the future. In the meanwhile, if you notice you are unmasking an area you don't want and still hold the mouse button down, you can hit escape to cancel that unmask selection.

Secrets of ..... the UNIVERSE!

Learn something new every day. Cool!

Steel_Wind
September 21st, 2005, 01:17
Fiery Dragon's Digital Miniatures would serve as an excellent base for a massive token release for FG.

The work is largely done. It's a matter of resizing and dropping around a "frame" for the counter. Much of this process can be automated.

Craw
September 21st, 2005, 20:11
As a player, several times I have been in the middle of typing a multi-sentence piece of dialogue only to have to respond to something immediately. It would be great to have a drag & drop feature from the notes window or some other are to pre-type stuff. Cut & Paste functionality would also work for this. I tried it the first session I played in (with notepad) only to discover that there is no way to paste the text.

Text tags for the markers would be great also. Marking "moved", and various status (stun, sleep, held etc.) states would be helpful.

Ged
September 21st, 2005, 20:17
As a player, several times I have been in the middle of typing a multi-sentence piece of dialogue only to have to respond to something immediately. It would be great to have a drag & drop feature from the notes window or some other are to pre-type stuff.
You have two chat buffers at your disposal. The TAB key switches back and forth between them. If you keep one of them empty, you can always use that for quick responses even if in the middle of writing a lenghty piece of dialogue. Another place where you can temporarily store text is the hotkey bar. Just drag and drop the text to a free hotkey slot, and when you want it, just drag and drop it to the chat line (or if the text is already finished, directly to the chat window).

Schiz
September 21st, 2005, 22:33
maybe a small idea.. not really a must, but it would look better...

people can now scroll down as far as they want... and maybe it would be better if people could only scroll down till the end of the text or until that end signature is at the top of the window/scroll/piece of paper

Craw
September 22nd, 2005, 21:45
You have two chat buffers at your disposal. The TAB key switches back and forth between them. * * * Another place where you can temporarily store text is the hotkey bar.

I discovered the hot key workaround on my own, but the TAB key I didn't know about. Is that in the manual and I just missed it or is it another one of the nice features that simply is not documented.?

Ged
September 23rd, 2005, 06:16
You have two chat buffers at your disposal. The TAB key switches back and forth between them. * * * Another place where you can temporarily store text is the hotkey bar.

I discovered the hot key workaround on my own, but the TAB key I didn't know about. Is that in the manual and I just missed it or is it another one of the nice features that simply is not documented.?

This feature actually is in the manual, page 9: voice buffers :D

Craw
September 23rd, 2005, 15:37
I glazed over that section because I thought it had something to do with voice chat support. DOH!

gurney9999
October 5th, 2005, 04:09
I'd like to be able to change the pin colors, so I can easily identify (without hovering) what pins are linked to images, story pages, other maps, etc.

dLANbandit
October 7th, 2005, 16:25
Maybe a solution would be to seperate the 2 tools. There are a number of ways you can do this to varring degrees. The most extreem would be to create a die box that everyone rolls in that can't be resized but can be zoomed into. Thus leaving the chat box to resize at will.

Another way might be to allow the DM to set the size of roll area. Then every time a die is rolled a shadded area would appear in the top portion of the chat window that the die moved around in. Thus it wouldn't bounce off invisible walls. The problem with this is someone might be reading when the die rolls and thus break their vision.

Just a few ideas. Don't know if they help.

DeadlyAccurate
October 12th, 2005, 13:35
You know the line that appears when a player moves a locked pin? I would also like that as the GM. If I start to move a token (which represents a monster) and realize I need to go back and refigure it, I have to remember where I started.

My husband would also like to be able to move a token in multiple directions and have it draw a line that way. In other words, "North 4 squares, then east 3 squares" (perhaps because the character is trying to avoid attacks of opportunity) and the line would show that.

Another one that I mentioned elsewhere: the ability to write text on the images. Moveable labels would be ideal.

Bakshara
October 13th, 2005, 02:19
First I would like a feature with which I can separate the chat for players. The best way, I think, to explain this is an example.

Let's say you have a party of 6 people. They are in a safe area, but there is a possibly dangerous area ahead. So, 2 split off and "scout ahead". I would like to segregate them into 2 groups. Group 1, the “scouting” group will only sees what they type. The same for the other group. As it is now one of the "scouts" exclaims because of some problem and the rest of the group knows they are in trouble. "Hey, maybe we should go help them." Actually they are too far away to know or hear this. Yet, of course, the DM sees both sides.

And with these splitting groups it would be nice to be able to de-fog parts of the map for them only.

I am a horrible typist. Room descriptions I get ready ahead of time as much as possible, but you can't cover everything. I would like to see a feature that would parallel what TeamSpeak does.

Next, I do not yet know if this is mod-able, but with the dice I would like 2 things. 1) In the radial menu, where you can pick several things from roll 2 dice to roll 20 dice, I would like a blank. So when you click this you can roll any odd number of dice. 2) I would like a similar feature for the sides of dice itself. In real 'table top' I do occasionally use my 30-sided dice. Also a 26-sided dice would be handy. Right now I just roll the 30 and re-roll anything over 26. Why 26? Sometimes you can't think of a name for your character. Roll a d26. That is the first letter. Roll again. This gives people ideas and creative names.

Bakshara,

P.S. I was previously using OpenRPG. FantasyGrounds is FAR superior! I REALLY like being able to switch maps without the server crashing. No problems with NAT, firewall, dynamic IPs. My group and I love it! More playing, less problems!

wavecutter
October 13th, 2005, 05:32
Highlighted sub folders in each directory like images. I have 4 different folders under images and it would be nice if the folder titles were displayed for easy location of files. Now I know you can divide them into tabs but this would add another layer to easily locate and identify specific files. I bevlive there are only 5 unique tabs with 5 color variations and only 7 tabs can be displayed properly per scroll. Even better would be to be able to create new instances of scolls.

Bakshara
October 16th, 2005, 04:21
I would like to have read/write access to my player's character sheets.

Why?

1) What if a "Cut Purse" successfully swipes something. I want to be able to edit it out and let them find it missing later when they look for it. It's just not the same to say, "Your ivory scroll case got stolen."

2) They have a bad run in with some Mind Flayers. I want to be able to drop that INT down a point or two.

3) One dies and the others get a Raise Dead cast on him. Well, CON drops one.

4) They have a nasty fight with a wraith. Edit their level down a notch.

5) She gets hit by a shadow. Drop that STR down a point. After time passes or a restore is cast. Push it back up.

The list goes on...

Thank you,

Bakshara

kalmarjan
October 16th, 2005, 13:43
I would like to have read/write access to my player's character sheets.

Why?

1) What if a "Cut Purse" successfully swipes something. I want to be able to edit it out and let them find it missing later when they look for it. It's just not the same to say, "Your ivory scroll case got stolen."

2) They have a bad run in with some Mind Flayers. I want to be able to drop that INT down a point or two.

3) One dies and the others get a Raise Dead cast on him. Well, CON drops one.

4) They have a nasty fight with a wraith. Edit their level down a notch.

5) She gets hit by a shadow. Drop that STR down a point. After time passes or a restore is cast. Push it back up.

The list goes on...

Thank you,

Bakshara

I'm not sure why, but I have editing access to all my players sheets. I think this is because all the players use the server character? Maybe your players are using local characters... If you want to be able to do this, have them copy their characters out (Print screen or whatever) and remake their characters in Server mode.

That should give you the control you are looking for.

Cheers,

Sandeman

richvalle
October 16th, 2005, 16:24
Yep, I've edited my player's sheets as well. They are server side characters.

rv

Bakshara
October 17th, 2005, 14:27
I'll give that a go. Thank you both!

Bakshara
November 18th, 2005, 17:56
I did that and it works great! I love it.

doc zebra
November 29th, 2005, 06:17
I know this has been mentioned on this thread before, but it was about a year ago. The major feature that I would like to see added is copy/paste. It really annoys me and everyone else in my group that you cannot paste text from outside sources (like an email where you worked out the background of your character with the GM, urgh!) into FG. :wink:

--Doc

gurney9999
November 29th, 2005, 15:23
I know this has been mentioned on this thread before, but it was about a year ago. The major feature that I would like to see added is copy/paste. It really annoys me and everyone else in my group that you cannot paste text from outside sources (like an email where you worked out the background of your character with the GM, urgh!) into FG. :wink:

--Docthat would be at the top of everyone's list I believe :)

Dupre
November 29th, 2005, 19:41
that would be at the top of everyone's list I believe :)

Us included :wink:

Lord Robert of Worcester
December 1st, 2005, 15:02
Being able 2 paste from word or even from the feat and equipem list on the game would speed charater creation imeansely.

Also being able 2 drag an iteam (such as a magic sword) directly from chat 2 yr character sheet would speed game play

Delondil
December 7th, 2005, 22:50
I know this has been mentioned on this thread before, but it was about a year ago. The major feature that I would like to see added is copy/paste. It really annoys me and everyone else in my group that you cannot paste text from outside sources (like an email where you worked out the background of your character with the GM, urgh!) into FG. :wink:

--Doc

I am hoping this materializes. The reason I haven't started any FG Campaigns is because I have over a gig of typed campaign material for other applications like GRIP and TRIS and the fact that I cannot clip my own writings and paste them into FG is really frustrating. I don't want to have to retype pages and pages and pages all over again to move the adventure over. The FG storybook thing where you type encounters also doesn't really work well for word processing. I'd rather be able to do my spell checks and so forth on another application, and move it to FG.

richvalle
December 8th, 2005, 01:57
There was an macro made that converts a Word doc into xml for FG. It should still be around here or over at www.adventuresomedreams.com.

rv

Delondil
December 8th, 2005, 03:34
There was an macro made that converts a Word doc into xml for FG. It should still be around here or over at www.adventuresomedreams.com.

rv

You're the best - Thanks! :D

lunatis
February 7th, 2006, 20:55
My top priority request for FG is the support of the Shift-Key in chat. I frequently use combinations like Shift+Control+Left for correcting my typos and it is so much slower to use the Delete or Backspace key. I know that Shift-Left and Shift-Right are used for changing characters, but couldn't this be done with Shift-Up and Shift-Down instead to preserve the basic editing functions?

I'd also like to have a shortcut for closing windows. It takes way too much time to get rid of windows that you don't need anymore. What about a right double-click on the window? Or a right click and and subsequent left click on the star icon? (just add an x symbol to it!)

Goblin-King
February 8th, 2006, 13:50
My top priority request for FG is the support of the Shift-Key in chat. I frequently use combinations like Shift+Control+Left for correcting my typos and it is so much slower to use the Delete or Backspace key. I know that Shift-Left and Shift-Right are used for changing characters, but couldn't this be done with Shift-Up and Shift-Down instead to preserve the basic editing functions?
This and clipboard support will be in the next patch.


I'd also like to have a shortcut for closing windows. It takes way too much time to get rid of windows that you don't need anymore. What about a right double-click on the window? Or a right click and and subsequent left click on the star icon? (just add an x symbol to it!)
You can use the radials without releasing the button. Press the right mouse button down, move up, and release. Or did you mean that even doing that, it's too slow? Closing by doing stuff such as double right clicking, I'm afraid, is a bit too prone for error for people who don't have a very quick and nimble mouse hand...

Paradoxic
February 13th, 2006, 17:37
For voting, could the check boxes be given a third, "X", state? So clicking simply goes 0->Check->X->0... assuming it doesn't already, heh.