Fantasy Grounds Unity engine

[immotus]

Speaking strictly as a Dungeon Master, my primary concern is Campaign, Module, and Session Management. Sometimes, FG is a beast to manage during play... the user experience is weak. You have to download extensions just to get it to remember window placement and configuration. Hopefully things like these will be addressed in FGU. And, that brings up Campaign and Module management.. I realize that FG is trying to stay system neutral but, it would certainly be nice (remember that user experience thing) to have dedicated campaign management. Working in FG feels like throwing things into a pile and then sorting through the whole damn pile every time you need something. When you are trying to organize everything by [Prefix][Name][Suffix]... well, its clunky and, you forget things and then its a bitch to go back and insert something. Not to mention everything gets these long convoluted titles that are not intuitively navigable. It's all very static. I would work on that user experience if I were you.

[Zacchaeus]

FG remembers the last position of each window you have opened between sessions. Unless you are talking about the Chat window and dice tower with which there is an issue and which is addressed in the next patch.

If you have suggestions as to how you'd like to see campaigns and modules managed managed, add them to the wish list (link in my signature) or upvote suggestions that are already there.

And welcome to the forums.

[immotus]

I'm sorry you are right about the windows...

What's causing my problem is that I shrink the application into a window itself and the sub-windows get moved and rearranged to conform to the overall window size. They need to recover their previous user defined positions when space permits. .. that is basic user interface behavior for a good experience. If a user sets a window position he/she probably wants that position until he changes it again... shrinking the application work space should not be treated like a user defined position.

Since we are on the topic of the interface at the moment... There should be a secondary navigation bar for docking the various content panes. Display 'real-estate' is a precious commodity and many people don't have and don't use multiple monitors. Instead of trying to share the whole display with 20 content panes the application should be allowing the user to dock content panes in use and close and recall them with a click/touch from the secondary navigation bar. This way the user could have everything be bigger or smaller as needed. You know, keep a couple important things open on the main content pane and dock the rest into a secondary navigation bar... simple and effective space management.

The devs could do a lot more with docking of windows to make the experience better for the users.

Just sayin..

Thanks for the welcome.

[Laramie Wall]

Speaking strictly as a Dungeon Master, my primary concern is Campaign, Module, and Session Management. Sometimes, FG is a beast to manage during play... the user experience is weak. You have to download extensions just to get it to remember window placement and configuration. Hopefully things like these will be addressed in FGU. And, that brings up Campaign and Module management.. I realize that FG is trying to stay system neutral but, it would certainly be nice (remember that user experience thing) to have dedicated campaign management. Working in FG feels like throwing things into a pile and then sorting through the whole damn pile every time you need something. When you are trying to organize everything by [Prefix][Name][Suffix]... well, its clunky and, you forget things and then its a bitch to go back and insert something. Not to mention everything gets these long convoluted titles that are not intuitively navigable. It's all very static. I would work on that user experience if I were you.

I guess I don't see these problems. I am running BarrowMaze, as a HackMaster campaign, and I guess I don't feel that my user's experience is "weak". Sure, I have a few extensions, but I think they are all for most part minor conveniences more than necessity. To that end, I am essentially creating my own campaign/ modules since I'm working from a hard copy. I just have to put in a little work ahead of time. And if it weren't system neutral, I'd instantly be running to a different platform. I'm sorry you feel like it's "throwing things in a pile", I haven't had that experience with their file system.

I hope your experience improves, and again, welcome to the party.

[Andraax]

This way the user could have everything be bigger or smaller as needed. You know, keep a couple important things open on the main content pane and dock the rest into a secondary navigation bar... simple and effective space management.

You mean, like the hotkey bar across the bottom?

[Zacchaeus]

I'm sorry you are right about the windows...

What's causing my problem is that I shrink the application into a window itself and the sub-windows get moved and rearranged to conform to the overall window size. They need to recover their previous user defined positions when space permits. .. that is basic user interface behavior for a good experience. If a user sets a window position he/she probably wants that position until he changes it again... shrinking the application work space should not be treated like a user defined position.

Since we are on the topic of the interface at the moment... There should be a secondary navigation bar for docking the various content panes. Display 'real-estate' is a precious commodity and many people don't have and don't use multiple monitors. Instead of trying to share the whole display with 20 content panes the application should be allowing the user to dock content panes in use and close and recall them with a click/touch from the secondary navigation bar. This way the user could have everything be bigger or smaller as needed. You know, keep a couple important things open on the main content pane and dock the rest into a secondary navigation bar... simple and effective space management.

The devs could do a lot more with docking of windows to make the experience better for the users.

Just sayin..

Thanks for the welcome.

I think this might be the kind of thing you'd be wanting to upvote https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=40864

Also as Andraax says above there are 96 available hotkeys on the taskbar. Use those to 'pin' images, story entries, quests, reference pages, even Library buttons. Almost anything can be pinned there and can be quickly retrieved with a single click or a key press.

[immotus]

You mean, like the hotkey bar across the bottom?

Yes but, more intuitive.

For example let's say I am in the Library window looking at the tables from the Player's handbook. It's more intuitive to grab that content pane and pull it (that very content pane) down to the dock than to pull that little shield button down there. Because, maybe I already closed the library window... now all I have is the content pane itself ... but, I can't dock it.

That's the one I want, that's the one I have open but, I am dumb and I forgot to think ahead that I might like to dock it ... now I have to open back up the Library and click on the PHB and look for the little shield button(shortcut) to drag down there.

The window itself should be a shortcut. That's the whole point of the window , right? And, If I minimize it into a button .. well I should be able to dock the button ..

These are things I expect out of complicated applications that have a lot of widgets, windows and whatnots. I'm sure I am not the only one.

I think this might be the kind of thing you'd be wanting to upvote https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=40864

Also as Andraax says above there are 96 available hotkeys on the taskbar. Use those to 'pin' images, story entries, quests, reference pages, even Library buttons. Almost anything can be pinned there and can be quickly retrieved with a single click or a key press.

Excellent ... hopefully it gets more votes.

[Andraax]

For example let's say I am in the Library window looking at the tables from the Player's handbook. It's more intuitive to grab that content pane and pull it (that very content pane) down to the dock than to pull that little shield button down there. Because, maybe I already closed the library window... now all I have is the content pane itself ... but, I can't dock it.

Don't understand that - the Tables button already exists in the pane on the right. Why would you want another one on another bar somewhere else?

[Zacchaeus]

Docking windows comes up now and again. The main problem is that the windows in FG aren't actually windows; they're a sort of template or something like that. (not a techie here just remember stuff that's posted on the forums by the Devs now and again). So the issue with that is that windows can't be docked like in other applications which can use libraries that are available in Windows. A further issue is that the windows aren't the same in each ruleset (apart from some like the chat box). This means that not only would the client have to be completely re-written but also every ruleset. So, no small undertaking.

[immotus]

Don't understand that - the Tables button already exists in the pane on the right. Why would you want another one on another bar somewhere else?

No, I am referring to a different Tables button. In fact, there is no button to this Table of Tables. There is only a shortcut and its only in a specific place. You can drag the shortcut to the Hotkey bar at the bottom BUT only when you have the PHB module open. Otherwise you are digging through the pile looking for a Table of Tables named Tables ... which is the same name as the Primary Table of Tables named Tables. I am sure that the ability to create Groups came into existence for this very thing. Unfortunately, that table of tables I am referring to is not in any group; at least not that I can find.

That brings up another issue ... Namespaces. That's where the [Prefix][Title][Suffix] kludge comes into play when trying to organize your content.

...
Ah! HA! There is a group! Its just not organized consistently.