Suggestions for Version 2.0

[Diana]

I just DMed my first Fantasy Grounds game. (v. 1.05f)

Things to keep doing in v. 2.0:

1. Very pretty table top look.
2. Easy for players to get started.
3. Nice touches like pointers and pointer colors that matched player dice colors.
4. Hot Keys.
5. The alias server was very helpful.
6. Support for the FG community, the forums, and the game calendar are excellent. Kudos.
7. Nice player combat turn flag/bell
8. Decent image sharing, masking, dice rolling, chat interface.

Features that might be improved:

1. ***Stability*** Multiple players crashed out during the game, even though I was running only FG, Ventrilo and a Firewall.
2. FG does not play nice with other programs while hosting and it will not run in a window.
3. Players had issues with character sheets and portraits showing initially.
4. Hot keys should have labels, so instead of seeing 1d20+2, I can label the key with a name like "orc attack".
5. Playing sounds would be nice, since FG did not get along well with other programs and froze when I switched windows, it was awkward to play sounds through Ventrilo.
6. Chat text window should be resizable and movable, plus allow pasted text.
7. ***Sharing the map was extremely awkward on my 1024 x 768 monitor. I did not have enough screen real estate to see enough of the map, read the chat window, and use the game tools at the same time.*** For all of the players to see the map, I had to cover the chat window and keep refreshing my small map window so each player could see his position during combat. Maybe FG2 could have a scrolling image window and more flexible interface that would make that constant host refreshing unnecessary. (See OpenRPG for an example.)
8. Documentation, especially instructions about how to create adventures could be improved.

New features to add, esp. with scripting:
1. Flexible OpenRPG style one click die roller nodes.
2. Widgets for party-wide automated skill checks and saving throws with one click.
3. External or dedicated server hosting like in OpenRPG might help with stability/hosting issues.
4. More robust file structure. I made a back up copy of my campaign and all of the image links were somehow duplicated within the image list in game.
5. Easier more intuitive interface for adding adventure content.

-Diana

[Valgard]

Hi, just a quick note to say that you can edit the hot key names. Just right click on the one you wish to re-name and then click on the pen icon. Once you've typed the new name press return or enter.

Ian

[Griogre]

You also can run FG in a Window if your monitor resolution is in better than 1024x768 which is FG's "default" size. I usually run in 1280x1024. Out of curiosity how big was your map in pixels? In FG it is better to make the map size smaller in pixels and then zoom in so you can display larger areas rather than a large map that won't allow you to zoom out. IE you might find halfing the size of the map works better for you. You map square size also has a big influence on how much you can show on the screen, the square size determines the size of the tokens. There is a trade off on you tokens vs how much map you see: Pretty Tokens (large squares and tokens of 50MM plus) vs Small tokens and more map displayed.

Here is a screen of a recent out door battle I ran which spilled over on to two maps. The screen is in 1280x1024. I made this screen so I could see the token placement for the next session so the chat is deleberately covered up. When I was actually running I had the maps tiled or minimized. I use smaller tokens than many with 32 pixel squares for medium creatures. Pretty much every thing on the maps other than a couple of dismounted PC's on the top and 3 huge creatures on the bottom map are large creatures 2x2 square creatures. The terrain maps are 640x600.

https://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m222/Griogre/Fight.jpg

[kalmarjan]

I just DMed my first Fantasy Grounds game. (v. 1.05f)

1. ***Stability*** Multiple players crashed out during the game, even though I was running only FG, Ventrilo and a Firewall.

I am finding that if I search my computer and get rid of all the pesky "thumbs.db" files in the images, drawings, tokens and portrait folders the crashing issue seems to go away. Get your players to do the same, and see if that helps.


2. FG does not play nice with other programs while hosting and it will not run in a window.

Like mentioned above, I use FG in a window along with firefox, and DM Genie. I have also been able to use FG with those programs in addition to Photoshop (which is a huge resource sucker.) If you have problems, a good program to have running in the background is freerampro. Get it here. (https://www.download.com/FreeRAM-XP-Pro/3000-2086_4-10516960.html)


3. Players had issues with character sheets and portraits showing initially.

Again, try to eliminate those "thumbs.db" files, and see if this helps you out.


4. Hot keys should have labels, so instead of seeing 1d20+2, I can label the key with a name like "orc attack".

They beat me to posting that.


5. Playing sounds would be nice, since FG did not get along well with other programs and froze when I switched windows, it was awkward to play sounds through Ventrilo.

This has come up before, and the consensus of most FG users was that we did not want the sounds yet. We would prefer a stable application. Then we could look at adding sounds.


6. Chat text window should be resizable and movable, plus allow pasted text.

Personally, I would not want to move the chatbox. It would cause issues with the dice roller, and other things. I agree about the copy and paste though. I think that V2 will have this functionality.


7. ***Sharing the map was extremely awkward on my 1024 x 768 monitor. I did not have enough screen real estate to see enough of the map, read the chat window, and use the game tools at the same time.*** For all of the players to see the map, I had to cover the chat window and keep refreshing my small map window so each player could see his position during combat. Maybe FG2 could have a scrolling image window and more flexible interface that would make that constant host refreshing unnecessary. (See OpenRPG for an example.)

There are the functionalities present already in FG for what you are asking. What I do is save out the map in my program at a 1 square = 25 pix ratio. This gives me a lot of room for what the players have. Then I share the map with the players at that resolution. Since you can scale the tokens on the map to fit the squares, it works out good. You can then use the control key to "zoom" into the map for yourself so you can save real estate. Another handy trick is to put the map on your hotkeys. You can close out the map and use the hotkey to get it back, and the tokens will be right where you placed them.

The image window already has a scrolling feature. If you zoom into your map using the mouse wheel, you will see what I mean.

As for your real estate problems, before last week, I played FG on a 15 inch monitor. I did it that way for almost 2 years. That was a resolution about the same as yours, so I know how you feel. :)


8. Documentation, especially instructions about how to create adventures could be improved.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. There is documentation with FG, but it is horribly out of date. More is slated to come with 2.0


New features to add, esp. with scripting:
1. Flexible OpenRPG style one click die roller nodes.
2. Widgets for party-wide automated skill checks and saving throws with one click.
3. External or dedicated server hosting like in OpenRPG might help with stability/hosting issues.
4. More robust file structure. I made a back up copy of my campaign and all of the image links were somehow duplicated within the image list in game.
5. Easier more intuitive interface for adding adventure content.

These things are supposed to come with 2.0. As for the backup copy of the campaign, did you rename your folder? When you say you backed up your campiagn, what did you mean. The db.xml file?

What I do is back up the entire folder and put it to a different drive. Perhaps that would help you. Or, if you are worried about corruption, then you could even zip the folder to prevent FG from reading it until you need it.

Glad to have you aboard, and I hope your FG time goes well.

Sandeman

[nezzir]

Check my post here for some suggestions on sound effects and music:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4979

it works really well if you have two computers but you can do it with one.

[richvalle]

I just DMed my first Fantasy Grounds game. (v. 1.05f)

Features that might be improved:

1. ***Stability*** Multiple players crashed out during the game, even though I was running only FG, Ventrilo and a Firewall.
2. FG does not play nice with other programs while hosting and it will not run in a window.
3. Players had issues with character sheets and portraits showing initially.
4. Hot keys should have labels, so instead of seeing 1d20+2, I can label the key with a name like "orc attack".
5. Playing sounds would be nice, since FG did not get along well with other programs and froze when I switched windows, it was awkward to play sounds through Ventrilo.
6. Chat text window should be resizable and movable, plus allow pasted text.
7. ***Sharing the map was extremely awkward on my 1024 x 768 monitor. I did not have enough screen real estate to see enough of the map, read the chat window, and use the game tools at the same time.*** For all of the players to see the map, I had to cover the chat window and keep refreshing my small map window so each player could see his position during combat. Maybe FG2 could have a scrolling image window and more flexible interface that would make that constant host refreshing unnecessary. (See OpenRPG for an example.)
8. Documentation, especially instructions about how to create adventures could be improved.
-Diana

Hello and congrats on your first game!

1. I don't think palyers crashing out has anything to do with what you are running on YOUR side. Was there something that you did just before the players dropped? I'm still having issues when I drop a new token onto the map. Every now and then it causes a player to drop off.

2. During out game last night besides FG I was running Team Speak, DM Genie and about 4 or 5 Windows Inet Explorers. Thats not counting things running in the sys tray like Skype. FG starts up in a window on my systems and I resize it to take up the whole screen except for the task bar at the bottom which I use to switch from program to program.

3. Hmmm, not heard that one before.

4. As Valgard points out you can rename the hot keys. You can also put in text with your dice roll. /die d20+2 Orc Attack and the text will show up with the roll. Also, if you want your rolls hidding (like when you roll a die) you need to put a ? in there. Ummm, /die ?d20+2 maybe.

5. This is an often requested and much debated feature. The general USER consensus (NOT the devs) is that this would be ok to add but they would rather see other things added first.

6. It was made as is because of dice rolling issues. If you are ever able to see a client logged into a host and see both screens you can see this. Roll a die and it shows up EXACTLY the same on both screens. But, if you allow each person to have different size boxes things are going to get wonky. I think some of this might change in 2.0 but I'm not sure.

7. Oh man did I have this problem too! I was constanty moving things around and then missing text that people typed because something was sitting on the chat window.

So... I cheated. I was able to get a 2nd monitor from work and bring it home. Most vid cards these days have 2 ports on them so I hooked it up and turned on the 2nd monitor support inside winxp. I was going to use both windows for FG but now I use DM Genie on the 2nd window and since I don't have to keep the combat tracker and monster pages open during combat I have no issues.

NOTE: if you try this you have to change your vid settings when using FG. There is one setting that allows windows to treat both monitors as one big dislplay. I can't remember the setting... I can check it at home if needed. If you don't change this then when FG gets onto the 2nd monitor it becomes really choppy.

8. Yep. Though I've found that the skill sets needed for writing programs and the ones for writing documentation are not usually found in the same people. :) Or the desire to write that documentation anyway. A programer will always want to go and make the program better (and thus invalidating any documentation already created).



New features to add, esp. with scripting:

5. Easier more intuitive interface for adding adventure content.

-Diana

That would be very nice.

[kalmarjan]

1. I don't think palyers crashing out has anything to do with what you are running on YOUR side. Was there something that you did just before the players dropped? I'm still having issues when I drop a new token onto the map. Every now and then it causes a player to drop off.



Rich,

Try getting your players to clean out the "thumbs.db" files on those directories. Do it yourself as well. If you look at your folders in thumbnail view, Windows will automatically generate these annoying files. They are "supposed" to make your system run faster, but if you can stand a split second delay before you see what is in your folder, then you really do not need these files.

Try it out, and see if there is a difference.

Instructions on how to do it are here (https://www.real-knowledge.com/thumbsdb.htm). Instructions on how to set your Win XP to stop making these annoying files is here. (https://www.tweakxp.com/article36702.aspx)

I found out that I had 3.2 Gb worth of those crappy files after preforming a search across my drives. Did not make me happy. :)

Cheers, and hope that helps...

Sandeman

[richvalle]

Thanks kalmarjan!

If it gets annoying I'll do as you suggest. In truth this only happenes to us about once very 4 or 5 games. The players are able to log back in quickly and don't have problems after that so I've not bothered with looking into this.

rv

[Griogre]

By the way, Congrats on your first game, Diana. Sorry for the somewhat incoherant post but it was very late last night when I posted that. :p I see that others have much more coherently posted.

Kalmarjan that is interesting about the Thumbs. 3.2 gigs? :eek: You must use that view a ton.

[richvalle]

I thought your post was ok Griogre! And the screen shots are lovely. I don't even want to know what res you are running at!

rv

[Griogre]

Not nosebleed resolution, ;) I can't see anything at too high a resolution. 1280x1024 on a 19" Sony Trinitron CRT. I've debated getting an LCD but I really like the Trinitron. I fell in love with them when I use to have a 21" one for work.

[Pilsnerquest]

I've only had the player version of FG for a short time so this may be possible and I don't know it, but, a way for a person with the full version to sit in as a sort of "guest DM" who could watch an experienced DM in action with FG might take some of the ouch out of the learning curve.


Pilsnerquest

[Diana]

Thank you for all the suggestions. They are very helpful and I'm really impressed with how friendly the FG community is.

In terms of image size, my map was 1023x842, 79 K, which worked flawlessly in OpenRPG but was cumbersome in FG. I will look in folders for ThumbsDB files.

As for client crashes, it was hard to tell what was happening. All of them were during combat sometimes when players moved their tokens or rolled the dice. One player said that he crashed out after he rolled a lot of the animated dice at once.

My screen size is limited by my monitor, so I will have to work around it. It's good to know smaller maps, ie. 25px squares can work fine.

I'm glad to hear hotkeys can be labeled. Thanks!

Diana

[richvalle]

I've only had the player version of FG for a short time so this may be possible and I don't know it, but, a way for a person with the full version to sit in as a sort of "guest DM" who could watch an experienced DM in action with FG might take some of the ouch out of the learning curve.


Pilsnerquest

You can sit in a game as a watcher but you will have the players point of view. I.e. you won't see everything that the dm sees.

rv

[richvalle]

Thank you for all the suggestions. They are very helpful and I'm really impressed with how friendly the FG community is.

In terms of image size, my map was 1023x842, 79 K, which worked flawlessly in OpenRPG but was cumbersome in FG. I will look in folders for ThumbsDB files.

As for client crashes, it was hard to tell what was happening. All of them were during combat sometimes when players moved their tokens or rolled the dice. One player said that he crashed out after he rolled a lot of the animated dice at once.

My screen size is limited by my monitor, so I will have to work around it. It's good to know smaller maps, ie. 25px squares can work fine.

I'm glad to hear hotkeys can be labeled. Thanks!

Diana

The maps I'm currently using are about 2000x1555 and 900k. And I've had 2 of them open at the same time (it takes four of these for one map of the area of the dungeon).

rv

[Pilsnerquest]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilsnerquest
I've only had the player version of FG for a short time so this may be possible and I don't know it, but, a way for a person with the full version to sit in as a sort of "guest DM" who could watch an experienced DM in action with FG might take some of the ouch out of the learning curve.


Pilsnerquest

You can sit in a game as a watcher but you will have the players point of view. I.e. you won't see everything that the dm sees.

rv

I figured that was probably the way it was. It would be a nifty addition for someone to be able to "sit-in" with an experienced DM.

Pilsnerquest

[DarkStar]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. There is documentation with FG, but it is horribly out of date. More is slated to come with 2.0


There was a Wiki started by someone (can't remember right now), but even though I think it's a good idea, it's destined to fail, because it's located on some remote (unknown to the masses?) server. Since anyone can start a Wiki now, maybe you could (yes, I'm talking to you, devs :) ) install a Wiki under fantasygrounds.com domain and let us (that's community members) update the articles. Who can write a better documentation, than the users? It's more than a documentation, it's a tips & tricks repository, too. And instead of answering the same question a dozen times, we could simply tell those n00bs to RTFM!!1!1one!!1 :D

[Stuart]

Tip 1: DM's - your tokens can be placed on hot keys (saves opening up the token box and hunting thro' your individual token bags)

There you go ... I've started.;)

[Griogre]

Tip 2: You can right click on the a tab at the bottom of the storybook, image book or personalities to add additional tabs or change colors. You can move entries from tab to tab by dragging and dropping the item you are moving onto the tab where you want it. I don't think that is anywhere in the manual.

[hamlyntp]

Hi all, I have had FG for a few months now and did not get around to testing it last night with my group, the problem is my 'group' is only 3 players big, Dm included. As we play 3.5 D&D we have always had each player run 2 PC's each, I was dissapointed to find that when we tested the software last night in preparation for our first game we found we could only load 1 each. As 2 of us have the full version and 1 the lite, we thought we had paid ample amounts of hard earned cash only to find that it is not suitable for our gaming in its present state. I hope this is one of the features that will be looked at in the new version. Sorry for moaning all, other than this issue I am pleased with the way the program works, although a cut and paste facility would be great addition.

[langers77]

Hello all, just been flitting through the posts as I am new to this aswell. This program works well and provides lots of gaming potential but I seriously hope v2 allows multi pc's for the same reason as hamlyn. Also, I cant find any documentation on how to set up hot keys. Is there anyway of getting the hot key to total any dice roll ot performs?? Like I said, new t this, soz :-/.

[richvalle]

Hi all, I have had FG for a few months now and did not get around to testing it last night with my group, the problem is my 'group' is only 3 players big, Dm included. As we play 3.5 D&D we have always had each player run 2 PC's each, I was dissapointed to find that when we tested the software last night in preparation for our first game we found we could only load 1 each. As 2 of us have the full version and 1 the lite, we thought we had paid ample amounts of hard earned cash only to find that it is not suitable for our gaming in its present state. I hope this is one of the features that will be looked at in the new version. Sorry for moaning all, other than this issue I am pleased with the way the program works, although a cut and paste facility would be great addition.


Hello.

Both of these have been heavly requested for the next version. You might want to go here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5031 and put in your two cents.

I know the cut and paste should be better. We are all hoping more then one character sheet will be in as well. I'd like it for things like familures and NPC's.

rv

[Griogre]

Hello all, just been flitting through the posts as I am new to this aswell. This program works well and provides lots of gaming potential but I seriously hope v2 allows multi pc's for the same reason as hamlyn. Also, I cant find any documentation on how to set up hot keys. Is there anyway of getting the hot key to total any dice roll ot performs?? Like I said, new t this, soz :-/.
Mostly for hot keys you just drag and drop what you want on the key. Pretty general answer I know - so pick a specific example of what you want on a key and ask and I or some else with give you set by step intructions. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy. You can't do somethings though.

[Stuart]

Type into the chat box /die 1d6+5 and then drag this onto a hot key ... rename as you wish ... click .... and the dice are rolled.
Tokens can also be dragged onto the hot keys but this is more useful for DM's I guess.