Some suggestions from trying the demo

[Lazarous]

Hi,
I recently found out about this program and since i've been looking for a good program to do online rpg's i was quite excited when i tried the demo.
This program has a ton of good features, but its also lacking some fairly simple options that are preventing me from buying it.

Absolutely required
1.Needs a more robust drawing interface. I'd like to be able to change the color of the drawing cursor, change its size/shape, have a few simple shape cursors like line draw, square, circle, etc.

2.Chat window needs to be resizeable, need to be able to change the color of chat text (or at least the color of the name speaking), resizable chat font, selectable chat buffer length. A nice bonus feature would be being able to add avatars to your chat text (they would appear before your name).

Important
3.in-game map loading. I'd really like the ability to add pictures to my dm view on the fly and upload those to whoever is playing (full version might have this, but i don't believe so from reading the manual).

4.It would be really nice to be able to attach a small note area to tokens/player icons/enemy icons. I'm thinking a 2 line long box that you could write down things like (looks older) or (has a limp) or even (hp:21, init 4). Basically make it a bit easier to show pertinent information on the battleboard.

Would be nice
5.Not sure if the initiative board can do this already, but i'd like an ability to be able to click one button and increment a 'current turn' display that everyone can see. Ancillary features to this woud be to lock all tokens but the designated current turn player.

6.This is more of a long term wish, but be able to snap tokens to grid, and then max out token movement ranges per current turn (see above). Also, have tokens auto-unshroud with movement.

So, i was wondering if any of these features are already planned for inclusion at some future point with patches, or if they don't fit the designers view of how FG will be presented?

[Crusader]

3.in-game map loading. I'd really like the ability to add pictures to my dm view on the fly and upload those to whoever is playing (full version might have this, but i don't believe so from reading the manual).

I actually think this works. I have a vague memory that I did this not so long ago.

[richvalle]

3.in-game map loading. I'd really like the ability to add pictures to my dm view on the fly and upload those to whoever is playing (full version might have this, but i don't believe so from reading the manual).

I actually think this works. I have a vague memory that I did this not so long ago.

Yeah, you can drop images into the right folder on the dm's side and then share them with the clients.



Absolutely required

2.Chat window needs to be resizeable, need to be able to change the color of chat text (or at least the color of the name speaking), resizable chat font, selectable chat buffer length. A nice bonus feature would be being able to add avatars to your chat text (they would appear before your name).

The devs have said they can't resize the window/it would be difficault due to synch problems with clients having different size windows and then rolling dice.

I think the characters names show up as their dice color.



4.It would be really nice to be able to attach a small note area to tokens/player icons/enemy icons. I'm thinking a 2 line long box that you could write down things like (looks older) or (has a limp) or even (hp:21, init 4). Basically make it a bit easier to show pertinent information on the battleboard.

In the latest patch you can now type text into the chat window text bar and then drag and drop it onto tolkens (Note: I've not tried this yet so not sure how well it works).



Would be nice
5.Not sure if the initiative board can do this already, but i'd like an ability to be able to click one button and increment a 'current turn' display that everyone can see. Ancillary features to this woud be to lock all tokens but the designated current turn player.

A lot of changes have been asked for on the init board. I think either 1. some are being implemented or 2. something new is going to replace the init board.


rv

[gurney9999]

3.in-game map loading. I'd really like the ability to add pictures to my dm view on the fly and upload those to whoever is playing (full version might have this, but i don't believe so from reading the manual).

I actually think this works. I have a vague memory that I did this not so long ago.Yes you drop an image into the appropriate folder (in Windows Explorer) and the image is available in game in real-time.

**oops, richvalle already posted this**

[Lazarous]

Absolutely required

2.Chat window needs to be resizeable, need to be able to change the color of chat text (or at least the color of the name speaking), resizable chat font, selectable chat buffer length. A nice bonus feature would be being able to add avatars to your chat text (they would appear before your name).

The devs have said they can't resize the window/it would be difficault due to synch problems with clients having different size windows and then rolling dice.

I think the characters names show up as their dice color.
rv

From what i can tell by testing the demo client with a friend, the dice color has no effect at all on chat. Is this different in retail?

Also, is the drawing interface being looked at for improvements?

Its nice to know you can load images on the fly, albeit in a slightly weird way.

edit: trying to test out that chat window text->token in the demo and having no luck.

[richvalle]

[quote=richvalle]

From what i can tell by testing the demo client with a friend, the dice color has no effect at all on chat. Is this different in retail?

Also, is the drawing interface being looked at for improvements?

Its nice to know you can load images on the fly, albeit in a slightly weird way.

edit: trying to test out that chat window text->token in the demo and having no luck.

I'll have to check when I get home but I'm 99% sure about the dice color/Character name thing.

The drawing tools (or lack of them) has been often compained about. Ummm, don't quote me but I think the devs said there were synch issues with allowing different colors/size of drawing tools but they would look into it.

The naming of tokens is definatly not in the demo. The demo is from an old version of the sofware and there have been quite a few improvments. It still gives a general idea of what the software does but the details are getting pretty fuzy by now.

rv

[Cantstanzya]

The color of the text does not match the color of the players die. The color of the text is dependent on what the text is. Green if for Out of Character chat, red is for emote (an action), purple is a wispered text ect.. I kind of like how this is setup and as a DM I have noticed that it does make it easier to read. You really should give it a chance before thinking it should be some other way. I personally don't thing they should change it so the text matched the color of the die, but I have suggested in the past to have a little portrait left of the palyers name in the chatbox. This would give a visual of who is talking while at the same time keeping the textcolor scheme the way it is now.

[richvalle]

I think the characters NAME in the chat window is the color of his dice. No??

[Cantstanzya]

To tell you the truth, I never noticed. I'll have to check it out when I get home.

[Lazarous]

The color of the text does not match the color of the players die. The color of the text is dependent on what the text is. Green if for Out of Character chat, red is for emote (an action), purple is a wispered text ect.. I kind of like how this is setup and as a DM I have noticed that it does make it easier to read. You really should give it a chance before thinking it should be some other way. I personally don't thing they should change it so the text matched the color of the die, but I have suggested in the past to have a little portrait left of the palyers name in the chatbox. This would give a visual of who is talking while at the same time keeping the textcolor scheme the way it is now.

I've done a fair amount of online dnd, and from my personal experience you absolutely *have* to have control over chat text colors, if only for the character names. It becomes much much easier to parse incoming text streams when you can see who is talking without having to read anything. Being able to change the default colors of the various chat types like ooc and emotes is also helpful, but not required.

Also, unrelated to this quote, it seems strange that adding more tools to the draw interface could cause synch problems considering pretty much all the tools i want are already there, just not as part of the drawing tool. Masks and pointers have essentially all the tools i want, just need to transfer those over to a draw interface and add a color selection.

[richvalle]

Found what I was thinking of!


5) I'd love to see more functionality with the "draw" command. Currently we can do a single-width black line. Would it be so difficult to add varyiny widths, colors, and perhaps the ability to draw certain shapes (or straight lines)? Is this being talked about for upcoming patches?

6) I draw. I make a mistake. I want to erase what I've drawn, but not lose all my scrawled notes and what-not. I can't do it. If I erase, I have to erase *everything* on the map. That seems...craptastic. Is there a way to erase (e.g., an eraser) mistakes without wiping out the whole drawing layer in one fell swoop?


There are two main reasons for the current implementation. First, a thin black line is easy to synchronize. One player can draw over a portion of the picture, and another draw an overlapping line in the mean time, and everyone will see the same thing no matter what order the clients get the data sent over the net. The same applies if a player comes late to a session with a drawing already created. Second, having more complex drawing operations available would mean a lot more complex user interface.

I agree that more drawing options would be nice, so we'll keep your ideas in mind.

[Cantstanzya]

I've done a fair amount of online dnd, and from my personal experience you absolutely *have* to have control over chat text colors, if only for the character names. It becomes much much easier to parse incoming text streams when you can see who is talking without having to read anything.
You don't *have* to have control over the text colors. FG is just different than what you are used to. Like I said, you should give it a chance before just saying it should be the way you are accustomed to seeing it. Honestly when I first started using FG I also thought the text should be the color of the characters dice, but now that I have been using FG for awhile it has grown on me and I like what they have done with the colors. It is all just personal preference, but give it a chance.

[Lazarous]

I've done a fair amount of online dnd, and from my personal experience you absolutely *have* to have control over chat text colors, if only for the character names. It becomes much much easier to parse incoming text streams when you can see who is talking without having to read anything.
You don't *have* to have control over the text colors. FG is just different than what you are used to. Like I said, you should give it a chance before just saying it should be the way you are accustomed to seeing it. Honestly when I first started using FG I also thought the text should be the color of the characters dice, but now that I have been using FG for awhile it has grown on me and I like what they have done with the colors. It is all just personal preference, but give it a chance.

As i tried to convey by saying i've already played a fair amount of online dnd, i have used clients that don't allow you to change the colors of names or text, and there is a huge difference between those and clients that do let you change colors of text and names, especially in a narration and talking-heavy game. Further, coloring text is ridiculously trivial, even simple irc clients let you do things like that.

[Cantstanzya]

Hmmm, I guess the developers should just make this the same way everything else is, after all that is the best way right? I get the point, you've played your share of online D&D and what has worked best for you is when you can change the textcolor of the different player. But my point is that you haven't really given this a chance in a campaign setting. It is my experience that the way the textcolor works in FG works fine.
Yes, coloring text is trivial, but if they were to go off of your suggestion of using the players dice color as their text color that wouldn't work either. You have players changing their dice color 3 or 4 times a session because their rolls are lousy, just like the way they would change to a different dice around a real table. Fantasy Grounds isn't an IRC program it is a tabletop emulator. The look and feel they are trying to go for is what you would get during a real P&P session, and I'm sure you know people change what dice they use depending on what they feel is lucky. If you re-read my first reply you would see that I have suggested that a small icon (portrait of the character) preceed their name so, like you said, you could glance at who was talking without having to read it. You see one thing that the text coloring does now is it allows you to see when someone does an action, which is something I always read, or is talking out of character, which is something I mostly ignore.
Again, I think you should give it a chance or at least listen to some of the people that has used FG for awhile before you say it should be this way or that way. Keep in mind, if everyone did everything the same way there would never be any improvements.

[richvalle]

Well, as long as you are looking for input from other people... :)

Text color to me is... non-existent. I don't even notice it. I read everything that shows up on the screen and am more interested in the name that shows up next to the text then the color. At some level I know that the different colored text means different chat types but I just don't pay attention to it.

Also...

There are 3 folks on Adventuresomedreams.com that are color blind. There have been some requests to have map changes made because they could not read the text on the map. Ummm... not sure what that has to do with this but since we are talking about colors I thought I'd throw that in.

So... Text color is important to Lazarous, non-important to me, Catstanzya likes it the way it is and we have at least 3 folks who might not even notice a change. Which way do the devs go with this one? :)

I'm not sure it is worth the effort to make it totaly optional. Well, that could be because it does not mater to me and Lazarous has a different opinion. There are definatly other things that should be done first I think. Maybe later down the road they can change things so there is an option to have the text stay the default way or let it be the color of the dice that should make most people happy. I think that would be a non-trival task though.

rv

rv

[msd]

Text color to me is... non-existent. I don't even notice it. I read everything that shows up on the screen and am more interested in the name that shows up next to the text then the color. At some level I know that the different colored text means different chat types but I just don't pay attention to it.

Totally agree that, IMHO (accent on the *my* and *humble*), it is a non-issue.

Assuming for the moment that it was an issue, I still find it difficult to believe that it should be anything other than low priority. I think there are far more important things to attack first.

[Lazarous]

Shrug. Each person has different features that are required for them to purchase any product. I posted here to both convey my requirements and find out if they were being looked at by the developers - that both improved drawing tools and a customizable chat interface are not high on the priority list gives me the info i needed.

[msd]

that both improved drawing tools and a customizable chat interface are not high on the priority list gives me the info i needed.

It shouldn't...I'm not a developer.