Some Suggestions for software improvements

Hey Doc,

I think I can address a couple of these, and I am forwarding this to our developers to see what can be implemented in a reasonable time frame. Please keep in mind that I work on customer support and content, so I can't make any promises on what can be addressed when. We value your input and will evaluate each recommendation on its overall feasibility and value to customers.

Very good point.

We are working on this

A good workaround for this for now is to use an IM client, like Skype, to push the file out. Skype supports conference calls and many people use it with d20pro. During a conference call, you can send a file to the whole group at once.

This is on an issue list. Specifically, we need to prompt for overwrite/rename on libraries.

Fixed in 1.14 which should be out in the next week or two.

 

Great feedback docplutonium and thanks for the compliments. As gamers ourselves, we are always looking at ways to make d20Pro better be it adding new features or improving existing ones. I see us setting the foundation for a longer conversation but for now some a quick reply to your questions:

1) Spells - All your comments are spot on. The spell system predates the special effect system and although spells can take advantage of the new features part of special abilities it has some way to. We are working on this for v1.15 scheduled for a Summer release.

2) Saves - Agree totally. Wasn't planning to address before v1.15 but we'lI will take another look at it.

3) Blind Rolls - YES. The utility provided vs effort required equation made this one a no-brainer. As of v1.14 the Judge may start "rolling behind the screen", toggling this function on and off. Players will still always see their own rolls, so the Judge in your example would hide rolls and then trigger the Search. The message will be printed to the log but the die roll will be hidden.

4) Linked initiative - Interesting idea but need to think about this more.

5) Player editable creatures - v1.14 does allow the Judge to edit special abilities directly from the creature editor dialog but does not provide in game editing by Players. We realize the ability to edit during a game is a must have in the long run but there are a lot of considerations, especially if the Judge doesn't trust the players 100% not to tweak stuff. More discussion on this is needed.

6) Handouts - full fledged support for handouts is part of our long range plan. For now if using a single show at a time map isn't working please use another app such as Skype or a web host in the meantime to provide your players with handout images.

7) Save to Library - good point. At a minimum we'll add to the creature name to make it clear it is differentiated.

8) Wizard BAB - please see this post http://forums.d20pro.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=40

9) Player chosen spells - agree this would be great. #9 is a subset of #5. Solve #5 and get #9 for free. I'll tentatively commit to delivering this for v1.14 this summer.

 

I agree that above suggestions are pretty good, but I have a couple of my own that derive from a different arrangement. I run pbem games and this program seems like a pretty nice way to handle a lot of the bookkeeping. There are quite a few very nice features for me, so please keep that in mind when looking at the things I would love to see added/improved:

• Map navigation controls. The current arrow that shows up at the edges of the map is extremely clunky. On my machine, hovering the mouse for a very brief moment scrolls me to the extreme edge of the map. It would be much nicer to have a hand icon with which I could grab a location on the map and move that grab point around.
• Current screen export. I would like to have a mechanism to export the current map into an image file. The kinds of options for this might include format (i.e. png/gif/jpg, etc), player view (with appropriate fog of war area obscured) or gm view, and resolution (i.e. 1 square = N ppi, etc.)
• Importable character files. I find the character creation tool to be clunky. It would be nice to have a simple text file that could be entered in the same manner that spells/classes/feats/skills can be imported.
• I'm new to the program, so I could be missing something. I don't see a way to save the current state. I see that we can export a map, but that seems different from saving the current campaign, for instance.

Here are a couple of quirky issues I've seen on the Mac version:

• In the first screen of the char creation window, the override initiative box is not visible. If it helps, I can send a screen shot.
• There are two buttons on the map screen that let you zoom in or out. On my machine, clicking the button doesn't do anything until I move the mouse off of the button. This is inconsistent behavior with respect to traditional use of buttons (i.e. the effect should happen immediately upon button click).

I hope this is helpful.

 

Rushtong, I can help you with a few of these items:

Map Navigation Controls: You actually don't need a hand icon. You can drag the map around by right-clicking and dragging. Release when you are done. On a map, I believe this is CTRL+Click? If you use the right-click dragging method (I do!) then you might want to turn off the Autoscrolling option.

Current Screen Export: nothing so far, but I actually use a wonderful screenshot program called Screenhunter - no ads, very easy, and saves to clipboard or file (or both). Capture screen, window, or section. Just hit F6. http://www.wisdom-soft.com/downloads/setupscreenhunterfree.exe

Importable Character Files. We support this in 2 ways:
* Have your players create their character with the Judge login anytime on their own. Then in the Creatures library, click on Export and it will save their character into their d20Pro\user\portable folder. When they next login to your game as a player, they have a button which lets them upload their character to your game. After they upload, you can accept the character and it goes into Limbo, where you can look over it, edit it if need be, and then put it into play. To edit a character in Limbo, click on the character name in the Initiative panel. See screenshots for full details.





* Alternatively, you can use Herolab, which we officially import from. http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab

Save Current State: d20pro automatically saves your last state when you close the program. You can force it to save with the F2 Key or by selecting the button in the options panel. This saves the game immediately, just in case you lose power or the game otherwise stops unexpectedly. If you are running 2 separate games, then this gets a little problematic (since you only have 1 saved state), so I recommend either closing the map and saving it (which saves all effects, creatures, etc - everything but initiative) or installing d20pro twice, into two separate folders, and running a separate installation per group.

I hope this has been helpful to you. Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns!

 

Thank you Dan, the above ideas are helpful - I will certainly give them a shot. -

-Greg