Little irritating things that shouldnt be too hard to fix

[brisingre]

These are two minor things, one of which has been brought up many times before. First, I think that token movement should be attached to the arrow keys in addition to the mouse. Second I think that it would be good if +/- zoom worked more smoothly, and if it worked in tokentool. Finally, a SUQ (Stupid User Question.) Why doesn't tokentool scale the overlay rather than the art? This would help focusing a good deal. Some people use this for pencil and paper tokens, so it would be better to just have a radio button somewhere rather than making this the only way the tool could work, assuming you like the idea.

[trevor]

Good comments all, let's see:

First, I think that token movement should be attached to the arrow keys in addition to the mouse

We agree, I think I was supposed to add a tracker about that but it never got there, I'll do that now.

Second I think that it would be good if +/- zoom worked more smoothly

Do you mean more steps in the zooming ?

and if it worked in tokentool

Why doesn't tokentool scale the overlay rather than the art?

TokenTool was an overnight hack, really. We've learned a lot about it's usage since then

TokenTool is going to get a major, major overhaul once MapTool 1.0 is released. It'll do all sorts of nifty things such as transparency, variable sized overlays, improved overlay handling, better application layout, and so on.

Thanks for the feedback, this kind of stuff is super helpful !

[rkathey]

Arrow key movement for tokes would be outstanding.

Also, once one token is selected, the ability to tab between tokens would be nice (shift-tab to reverse).

<enter> on a selected token to pop up the right click menu then allow arrow keys to navigate the popup. (this might work already, can't bring it up now)

[trevor]

Were you guys like, eavesdropping at our last design meeting ? These are nearly exactly the keystrokes we discussed. The primary interest being making the tool usable almost entirely by keyboard.

Have the think about the keyboard though, it's globally mapped to start a chat. CTRL-Enter maybe ?

[brisingre]

Yes, more steps in zooming is more or less it. I was thinking about holding down the keys to do an almost analog zoom as is done now with the scroll wheel.

[trevor]

Is the gripe with the keystroke, the menu, or the mousewheel mechanism to zoom the map ?

[brisingre]

The gripe is a mixture of all of these. It is with the lack of presicion with the keystrokes and menu zooms, and it is with the fact that some people don't have mousewheels. Personally, I have one, and I am fine, but I feel that I need to keep this gripe in the light for the common good. I love the scrollwheel, but I feel that a good alternate mechanism is needed.

[trevor]

As a side note, the key and menu items use the same zooming scale that the mouse wheel uses.

It sounds like we just need to add a few more steps in there, which is fairly trivial to do. Does that sound about right ?

[rkathey]

Have the think about the keyboard though, it's globally mapped to start a chat. CTRL-Enter maybe ?

I would try to keep things the way most windows gui type programs work, the enter key activates whatever is highlighted. So, I would lean toward 'activating' the selected token when the enter key is pressed when a token is selected. In this case, activating the token pops up the right click menu (or a dialog box that sets properties for when you tie the token to a combat database )

On the other hand, once someone starts typing in the mapwindow and no other dialog boxes are up, I would popup the chat window capturing the keystrokes. Have the chat collapse once enter hit unless the mouse is in the chat window.

Does that make sense?

My 2 cents
rAk

[Guest]

a few things
1) the size can be an issue for some of my players, I think
2) zoom is backwards
3) players can see the token list and know what they're going against, at least the pictures of them even if you codify the names

[trevor]

Welcome

1) the size can be an issue for some of my players, I think

Which size ? Of the zoom ?

2) zoom is backwards

Oops. I'll get with the designers and get that straightened out.

3) players can see the token list and know what they're going against, at least the pictures of them even if you codify the names

Actually, players can only see tokens that are visible to them, that includes the token panel. That means the GM can have 100 or more tokens in their list, but the players will only have the 3-4 that are actually visible on their screen, and by visible I mean those exposed from the fog of war.

This of course assumes you are using fog of war Otherwise they could see the tokens anyway.