General UI UX Improvement Suggestions.

[thelogicmatrix]

Hi there, I am a games artist and have a bit of experience in UIUX and general user flow design and I'd like to point out a couple of things that I found to be rather glaring in FGU.

1. Grid Visibility.
The grids use a color picker to determine the color and vilibility of them. THis is adjusted with A which means Alpha. However, the average person will not think that the color will allow them to change the visibility. Make the Alpha slider be accessible from the grid tab, Not inside the color picker.

2. Dice Color
The dice color system is functional but it is rather tedious to get the color you want. Implement the color system from the grid for the dice, for both text and plastic. It will make it a lot more customisable and make the program a lot more cohesive.

3. Assets and Images and Maps
Assets now hold images and maps and you cant use images and maps to import into the new map system. Images and maps is redundant remove it.

4. Importing Images and assets
Make it easier for people to import images into the game, have it allow for drag and drop when the thing is open, and also use file explorer's import to import images rather than the in engine dialogue or the current open the native folder method.

5. Image and asset management
Make it possible for the users to delete stuff in game, most users will not have the technical know how to find the root folder and delete stuff from there

That's it for the main UI UX failings that I caught. Now for some suggestions as to more quality of life upgrades or general issues that I have noticed.

1. Complex dice roll on monster attacks
When I set a ballista to deal 3d6*10 damage, it rolls 3d610 instead.

2. /roll and /r
Either allow the user to change commands or allow /r to be used for rolls, it's what lots of people go to for rolls.

3. Shaders/FX
If possible, allow the GM to modify the strength of the effect, for some of them they can be rather overwhelming and cause too much distortion or noise.

4. Intuitive custom damage or npcs
This one is a big ask but would improve the product a ton. Make selecting the damage either create a drop down and the option to type in custom stuff, or better have a drop down as you type allow for the GM to then click on and pick stuff that pops up as you type. Generally, just make it easier for GMs to create custom effects.

5. Improved gameplay flow
This one is basically something that probably won't happen because it essentially is massive in terms of work and the kind of things that would need to be done, but it would make FG literally the best table. Essentially, make it an RPG. What do I mean by that, well essentially make it so that when it's your turn you can then move forward, this automatically expends your movement and when you move your character there's a path that shows the distance covered. If you don't have anything targeted and are warned if you are going to target an ally with an attack. AoE spells would have drawn rages that basically when used allow you to select things in the radius or the selection. These are things that can be turned off of course but if they worked, they would essentially make playing on FG a breeze, and save GMs headaches with players forgetting to target enemies. As I said this wont be easy but it'll be massive, and make FG amazing.

That's all for now. Main things are to think of the users as people who don't know most technical things and make things easy for them to figure out. Having to spend loads of time searching the web to use something that you just want to play a game on is not the experience that any product wants. I hope I helped, and will be happy to give more advice if I think of anything.

[LordEntrails]

Nice ideas and welcome :)

In general feature enhancements should be added to the wish list if they are not already there. And you can always add links here to the ideas there so people can find and vote on them, or even add a link in the item back to this post for discussion. See; https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/

On a3, I don't see them as redundant. Assets are for building maps. Maps/Images list is for pre-created maps or illustrations that are used in the campaign and generally linked from the stories. Plus there is the challenge of having to deal with legacy. Yes they could be consolidated, but then when I go to run a map from a module I would have tens of thousands of assets to look at to find the maps for the module I'm running. Yes it could be solved, but would add more clicks etc.

b1 & b2 are going to depend upon the ruleset. But can be done already (edit: i think) if you learn to use the FG syntax. See Dice Expressions https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/688330/Rolling+Dice

[Kelrugem]

Actually, images and maps are not redundant from a technical/coding point of view :) Images&maps are a combination of asset files, while assets are just single image files. That even now allows that you can make copies of images&maps and export them even when they are from other modules, which was not possible in FGC, because images&maps do not directly rely on the files now (though you still need access to the file of course in order to be loaded) There is for example the thread of Joshua where people can share their created maps, impossible to do like this in FGC :) When images&maps would be like the asset files, then none of this would be possible because then it is like in FGC, also loosing the ability to combine different assets in FGU. So, please do not consolidate both :D

But that is also the reason why you cannot drag&drop files into the image list

[Zacchaeus]

Hi thelogicalmatrix, welcome to FG.

1. The grid visibility can also be toggled on and off using the eye icon. There isn't a need really to use the alpha channel if all you want is to remove the grid. I imagine that most people will recognise what is happening to the grid when they move the alpha slider - they may not know that is what the A stands for but it's pretty obvious what it does. I like the idea of it being in the toolbar though, rather than in the colour picker.
2. This is the same colour picker that is used in Classic. I - think - that it is something that the devs would like to make better; but it's there as a stop gap perhaps until something better comes along. Something for after release I think.
3. Images and maps holds the images and maps for the campaign and it's where you would access images and maps that are in say and adventure that you are running. It is much easier to access those assets from there during play that it would be trawling the assets. Assets contains everything that the DM would need if they are creating their own maps or if they are allocating tokens. It's is considerably more efficient that the system in Classic which requires modules containing assets to be open to access them. In Unity all assets are available to the campaign even from modules which aren't open. This allows the DM to add a map to the campaign quickly and easily 'on the fly'. The DM can also access their own collection of assets from here as well whereas in Classic they would need to add the asset to a windows folder rather than accessing it directly from within the program. In short Images and maps is integral to the campaign management.
4. I'm not sure I understand this one so well. I don't see a difference between using file explorer and the in built one to import files.
5. Not sure about this one either. You can right click over anything and select delete and it will be removed from the campaign. I'm probably missing your point somewhere.

[thelogicmatrix]

For the File importer, it's tiny and requires me to navigate file trees. In file explorer I can easily opena shortcut, saves me about 5-7 clicks.

[thelogicmatrix]

The Issue I had with this is that I tried to drag a boat from the images and maps to a map as a layer but it didn't work and it left me confused and annoyed. Many people will make the same mistake, make it not be something that can be a mistake.

[Zacchaeus]

The Issue I had with this is that I tried to drag a boat from the images and maps to a map as a layer but it didn't work and it left me confused and annoyed. Many people will make the same mistake, make it not be something that can be a mistake.

I just tested this and when I drag the rowboat and drop into the map it automatically creates a new layer with the rowboat. Can you state the steps you took that caused your problem?

[Kelrugem]

I just tested this and when I drag the rowboat and drop into the map it automatically creates a new layer with the rowboat. Can you state the steps you took that caused your problem?

I think they meant they tried to drag the boat from the images&maps window list (as a image entry there) instead its asset of the assets window :)

[thelogicmatrix]

I just tested this and when I drag the rowboat and drop into the map it automatically creates a new layer with the rowboat. Can you state the steps you took that caused your problem?



I mean from the images and Maps list. I imported something there. then tried to dag from images and maps onto a map

[superteddy57]

Thank you for the suggestions and many of them have been discussed and contemplated. We currently have a priority system in place while in Beta and are working on those items. I personally like reading these to get ideas myself. Keep the discussion going and keep working the ideas.