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View Full Version : Suggestion: DM Chatbox Improvements



Ablefish
January 16th, 2006, 21:08
We had our second session on FG last night, and everything went pretty smoothly. We're really enjoying being able to game again. I haven't seen a breakdown of what to expect from 1.06 or when, so I'll just toss out a few ideas that came to mind last night.

1.) The drag'n drop target area on the chatbox should be heightened. It's so nice being able to quickly drag a chatframe onto the chat input line, but it can be a little fiddly - why not have the whole chat object serve as a drag 'n drop target?

2.) When I'm speaking through NPCs I find it very easy to forget to switch back to my GM persona if one of the players asks a question. (It's funny to read in the chatlog later, but annoying during the game)

I think all it would take is having the 'active' speaker displayed in the text frame. Just the name and a semicolon will do the trick. The ability to click on it and change on the fly would be useful too. That would save some real estate down below where the speaker name icons are listed.

3.) It would be nice if a map/drawing frame would default to the aspect ratio of the picture you're opening. And the resizing seems a little clunky... I'm ctrl-pulling on the corner to try to reveal a non-square image and the image is resizing(zooming) at the same time. Feels like I'm pulling on both ends of a rope.

4.) It'd be nice if the 'table' could be bigger than the monitor resolution. And we had the ability to move our view of it. (Perhaps the hotbar and side icons should retain their position...) This would allow us to set up maps/combat trackers on alternate sides of the chatwindow and have more open at any one time. I don't use a 1600x1200 resolution, so I often run into problems having a reasonably sized map and the combat tracker open without overlap.

5.) I'd love it if the combat tracker included AC by default. That's usually the only piece of information that requires I have the PCs mini-sheets open.

That's all that came to mind last night, thanks.

JP

Snikle
January 17th, 2006, 01:11
One thing that came to mind while I was reading his ideas.

How about a DM que on the chatbox? Oftentimes I find that I am typing a long message (like a room description or something) and a player asks a quick question, if there was a que box that you could type a message and it would hold the message until we dragged it into the regular chatbox it would be nice. That would leave the regular chatbox open for chat, while still allowing the DM an oppurtunity to type in a longer message. Not sure if that was clear or not....

richvalle
January 17th, 2006, 02:13
One thing that came to mind while I was reading his ideas.

How about a DM que on the chatbox? Oftentimes I find that I am typing a long message (like a room description or something) and a player asks a quick question, if there was a que box that you could type a message and it would hold the message until we dragged it into the regular chatbox it would be nice. That would leave the regular chatbox open for chat, while still allowing the DM an oppurtunity to type in a longer message. Not sure if that was clear or not....

There is something like this already... If you hit the Tab key you will switch to another 'chat' box while your first one is retained. Hit Tab again and you switch back. Perfect for when someone asks you something while you type.

rv

Snikle
January 17th, 2006, 05:02
No kidding? Gah! that is awesome, I just tried it out! Thanks! Here I thought I knew FG pretty good. LOL