We've got quite a few DnD games going now that have been using Gametable.
One thing that your Maptool and Gametable both are designed around is the presence of a mousewheel. That makes sense since most of the development is probably done by people on real pcs.
However, at our games everyone brings a laptop to the game and we use the mapping tools instead of a battlemap.
The laptops (some of which are Macs and lack even a second mouse button) don't have scroll wheels. So tools designed around the presence of the mouse wheel are either non-functional or incredibly awkward.
For example, how do you increase the radius of a radius template without a mousewheel?
One other UI item that would be very nice, would be to have a status bar somewhere (such as at the bottom window border) that would provide "hints" on using the current tool.
For example, the polygon tool was a bit confusing to me. A single line of text at the bottom that looked like:
Poly Tool: Right click to add a vertex, left click to close the poly.
That would have helped a ton. Additionally, for the radius tool:
Radius Tool: Mousewheel or +/- to increase the radius size. Left click to place.
The other suggestion for those relying on the chat of the maptool would be to have a separate chat window instead of overlaying.
On the token list, it would be nice if that worked liked an expandable tree view where each token ould have an arbitrary number of extra text fields. You could click a token in the token list and it would show all those additional fields. This would allow at a glance to see things like Init roll, HP, etc.
Using Gametable, we've been using the pog labels to track all of the items (for example, a player can enter his HP and Dmg in his pog label so that healers can see who to heal), but we sorely need a better interface to make all those viewable. The token list would work great for that.
Another great feature would be able to left-click the "radar" view in the lower right to move your view.
Anyways, great work guys. Between you and Gametable it looks like these maptools have finally entered the modern world.
- John
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RE: Mouse wheel
You are very right. Actually the templates are under development, and I we're taking the mouse wheel out of the equation. We're also refactoring all of the drawing tools to work more consistently and intuitively. The mouse wheel will eventually only manage zoom level, which can be changed via a menu option.
RE: Status bar
Hints for the status bar is a great idea ! I love it ! We already have a status bar, but don't use it for much (right now it shows the cell x, y under the mouse). I've been trying to think of a good place to put instructions like that and the status bar would be perfect. Here is the new tracker for it: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1389814&group_id=132209&atid=724899
RE: Token List
Using an exandable panel sounds like a good idea as well. When I put in the token properties (RSN) I'll see what I can do about putting that in. Another thought we had was a pop-out info box when you hover over a token, but making them immediately visible in the token panel might be useful as well.
RE: Click mini map
This is planned (although I can't find the exact tracker atm). Good idea though :)
Thanks for the feedback, and helping make the tool even better !
-Trev
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Heya,
Fantastic project here so far.
We've got quite a few DnD games going now that have been using Gametable.
One thing that your Maptool and Gametable both are designed around is the presence of a mousewheel. That makes sense since most of the development is probably done by people on real pcs.
However, at our games everyone brings a laptop to the game and we use the mapping tools instead of a battlemap.
The laptops (some of which are Macs and lack even a second mouse button) don't have scroll wheels. So tools designed around the presence of the mouse wheel are either non-functional or incredibly awkward.
For example, how do you increase the radius of a radius template without a mousewheel?
One other UI item that would be very nice, would be to have a status bar somewhere (such as at the bottom window border) that would provide "hints" on using the current tool.
For example, the polygon tool was a bit confusing to me. A single line of text at the bottom that looked like:
Poly Tool: Right click to add a vertex, left click to close the poly.
That would have helped a ton. Additionally, for the radius tool:
Radius Tool: Mousewheel or +/- to increase the radius size. Left click to place.
The other suggestion for those relying on the chat of the maptool would be to have a separate chat window instead of overlaying.
On the token list, it would be nice if that worked liked an expandable tree view where each token ould have an arbitrary number of extra text fields. You could click a token in the token list and it would show all those additional fields. This would allow at a glance to see things like Init roll, HP, etc.
Using Gametable, we've been using the pog labels to track all of the items (for example, a player can enter his HP and Dmg in his pog label so that healers can see who to heal), but we sorely need a better interface to make all those viewable. The token list would work great for that.
Another great feature would be able to left-click the "radar" view in the lower right to move your view.
Anyways, great work guys. Between you and Gametable it looks like these maptools have finally entered the modern world.
- John
Welcome, welcome !
RE: Mouse wheel
You are very right. Actually the templates are under development, and I we're taking the mouse wheel out of the equation. We're also refactoring all of the drawing tools to work more consistently and intuitively. The mouse wheel will eventually only manage zoom level, which can be changed via a menu option.
RE: Status bar
Hints for the status bar is a great idea ! I love it ! We already have a status bar, but don't use it for much (right now it shows the cell x, y under the mouse). I've been trying to think of a good place to put instructions like that and the status bar would be perfect. Here is the new tracker for it: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1389814&group_id=132209&atid=724899
RE: Token List
Using an exandable panel sounds like a good idea as well. When I put in the token properties (RSN) I'll see what I can do about putting that in. Another thought we had was a pop-out info box when you hover over a token, but making them immediately visible in the token panel might be useful as well.
RE: Click mini map
This is planned (although I can't find the exact tracker atm). Good idea though :)
Thanks for the feedback, and helping make the tool even better !
-Trev
As a side note, the Status bar drawing tool instructions have been implemented. It's available in ALPHA build 62
By the way, the new alpha has, apparently, gone all mouse-click for all templates.
This is now available in ALPHA build 64.