A Few Tools That Might Help

Dalna · Post by **Dalna** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:49 am

First off I want to say these programs are awesome, I think its really great. Thank you all for making it and keeping it free for all of us.

1) First tool or feature I think would be good is a LEECH tool. This tool would allow for any file to be transfered and allowed to be saved by another one while using Maptools. Like when I saw the demo by Drpond, it was great, but I could not nearly match what he did becuase he has spent hours downloading items and making them. Ofcoarse there would have to be a switch on the person (DM) that these files canor can not be saved. Another thing is maybe a monthly art package...that will install the current months donations so its more of a one step process. The forums are nice, but it would take forever to download each one and find them.

2) I really think if we had 1) that you can also allow for MP3s or WAV files to be shared and played in the conjuction with the game. As a matter of fact, maybe also make a communication module or maybe see if you can find a free group voice chat program you can link the game to. This way you would not have to rely on text stuff as much.

3) I think text should be reworked. In many games you can use a pulldown grey area that is semi-opaque. This would allow players to see more of the map. Also I believe the macro buttons should be removed and placed somewhere else, with the chat as it is now with the macros...you need to take alot of screen space for chat/text information as it is now. Macro buttons could be seperate or only appear when desired by an option button in the view menu.

4) Maybe you can incorporate a compression routine. This might improve information transfer if the data was compressed while it is transfered. Just an idea to speed the times when a new campaign is loaded or a new map.

Well thats all for now...will try to think of other features/tools that might be helpful.

Post by **trevor** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 1:56 pm

Hi Dalna, welcome to the forums ! Thanks for the ideas:

1) Monthly art packs sounds like a good plan. Also, Dorpond has some really neat projects that we're thinking about making "packs" out of, such as his docks, endless road, and others.

2) This is definitely planned. Look for it probably during 1.2 or (at the latest) 1.3 development

3) I'm open to ideas of where the buttons should be put, one idea was to put them to the right hand side of the chat panel.

4) The biggest bandwidth consumer is the image data. Other data is being packed pretty tight already.

Thanks again for the ideas, and please please post more as you think of them !

Dalna · Post by **Dalna** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 3:06 pm

Well the quick resolution to the macro buttons right away is to have an option to show them or not. Why not reduce them to 12 and use the function keys to activate them..you could actually have 4 sets of 12...(Normal, shift-Fkey, ctrl-Fkey and shift-ctrl-Fkey) 48 macros would be plenty even if you assigned a few for commands of the program. They really only need to be seen when programing them...after all they are user assigned...if you dont like the F-keys...use the number keys with shift or ctrl. Either way...I think having the ability to hide them without hiding the chat area would be best.

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:23 pm

trevor wrote:I'm open to ideas of where the buttons should be put, one idea was to put them to the right hand side of the chat panel.

Since chat is usually a couple of words per line, I would prefer the chat to be along the right hand side, similar in size to the left area and have it collapsable and sizeable... maybe even undockable.
As it is now, in order to read quite a bit of the text, the chat window has to take up quite a bit of the bottom of the screen...

Post by **dorpond** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:11 pm

Welcome to the boards Dalna!

Dalna · Post by **Dalna** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:27 pm

I kinda like the semi opaque idea...you can read the text but it doesn't hide the map either. the text just needs to be a dfferent color according to the background color...kinda like a fogging area. The macro buttons could really be anywhere...as long as they coloasp and don't increase the chat area size. What about making each area of controls be in its own colaspable windoe or maybe they can colasp to the side they operate from to increase the viewable are of the view area...anything to maximize the view...I know you can hide all the controls..but then you can not do as much...if they were tied to the edge of the screen and you put your mouse over them they could open up giving you the controls to use and still allow you to select things. Just a thought...I just hate the idea of using MapTools just for visuals and running another program for otherthings...some on tangled web are going to use maptools just for maps and such and openrpg for the rest. One program or suite of intragrated programs will always be better.

Another idea, but probably not going to be implimented is allowing the windows to be seperate items. This would allow the people who have dual monitors keep the map on one and all the controls on the other. Most good graphics card do give you this option. But that is upto you all if you think it is feasable.

snikle · Post by **snikle** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 8:28 pm

What about lining them up like this (see image).
I also like the idea of having 12 core buttons based on the function keys, then 12 more with shift+fKeys, etc

http://gallery.rptools.net/v/contrib/sn ... e.jpg.html

dLANbandit · Post by **dLANbandit** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:03 pm

I would rather have the buttons be a X by X grid window unto itself, not part of the chat, and it would have a dynamic number of tabs, that I could name.

That way I could have a skill tab, an attack tab, spell tab... and what not.

Post by **trevor** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:07 pm

dLANbandit wrote:it would have a dynamic number of tabs, that I could name.

That way I could have a skill tab, an attack tab, spell tab... and what not.

Good idea, I'll add in a tracker for that

dLANbandit · Post by **dLANbandit** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:17 am

Even better would be if one of the tabs was variables like in the Dice tool. That would let me speed up my calculations for all my fighter feat adjustments(things like 3.5ed DnD power attack), and when I play a wizard I could easily calculate my level into my spells.

Post by **trevor** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:15 am

dLANbandit wrote:Even better would be if one of the tabs was variables like in the Dice tool. That would let me speed up my calculations for all my fighter feat adjustments(things like 3.5ed DnD power attack), and when I play a wizard I could easily calculate my level into my spells.

Heh, almost sounds like an integrated dicetool

dLANbandit · Post by **dLANbandit** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:19 am

yea almost but not quite the mass die rolling powers

I guess if it were easier to integrate the tools instead of having .....

the more I think about it the more I like the concept of having it be a separate but connected tool. I mean that is what happened with a popular web browser, Mozilla. It started being separate tools, that you could integrate.

Heroman · Post by **Heroman** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:23 am

Opaque chat would be cool. Undockable window (to it's own frame would also be cool (I use dual display, so can handle that). Why not it all?

Maybe you could borrow from some WoW mods for the buttons and allow for a free-form positional bar which also allows you to determine grid size (so 1x12 is a horizontal, 12,1 is a vertical, 6,6 is a square).

I would love to see a powerful integrated die roller.

-Heroman

RPTools.net

A Few Tools That Might Help

A Few Tools That Might Help

Buttons

Re: Buttons

Extra points

Re: Extra points

almost