Story window behavior changes

[bwatford]

I also think a filter selection to allow users to filter out advanced or simple story entries in the story pane would help alleviate the issue as "out of sight, out of mind."

[Zacchaeus]

I also think a filter selection to allow users to filter out advanced or simple story entries in the story pane would help alleviate the issue as "out of sight, out of mind."

Add your suggestion to the wish list. Link in my signature.

[Trenloe]

Many users have been asking for the ability to make reference manuals themselves, and then following on from that the ability to have story entries with the same functionality as reference manual pages - embedding images and frames, having multiple columns, etc..

The advanced story entries are very poweriful and will allow you, as a GM, to be much more creative and order information better in in single Story (Advanced) entries than in Story (Simple) entries.

this has screwed up numerous campaigns I was running. The only way to get rid of this ridiculous "advanced" story notations which aren't stories but reference books is to delete the books or make sure all stories (basically chapters in an ongoing campaign) listed under their own category which also means i can't have them all showing in the story section or the reference books show as well.

Trying to be constructive here and address your actual usability issue... It seems your only issue is the information overload with seeing all the Story (Advanced) records that are from the Book (reference manual) in the campaign Story data list. Would a toggle button that hides the "Book" (reference manual) advanced story entries in the Story campaign data list alleviate this issue?

[Trenloe]

As an example, here's the same information presented in an advanced and simple story entry.

There's a lot more functionality and flexibility in the advanced story entries (left image below). But the simple story entries are still available if that's what you prefer.

[GSKlein]

Many users have been asking for the ability to make reference manuals themselves, and then following on from that the ability to have story entries with the same functionality as reference manual pages - embedding images and frames, having multiple columns, etc..

The advanced story entries are very poweriful and will allow you, as a GM, to be much more creative and order information better in in single Story (Advanced) entries than in Story (Simple) entries.



Trying to be constructive here and address your actual usability issue... It seems your only issue is the information overload with seeing all the Story (Advanced) records that are from the Book (reference manual) in the campaign Story data list. Would a toggle button that hides the "Book" (reference manual) advanced story entries in the Story campaign data list alleviate this issue?

It could help but I still feel the update, the only update I've had problems with, changes the way stories / campaigns function compared to how they did and makes things more complicated. The editing and design of the books I find is still not very efficient or nice. They seem more cluttered and difficult to edit or place as a good book / campaign stacked together.

[rocketvaultgames]

I'm thinking both simple and advanced story entries have their place. I'm still partial to the old simple ones. Clean, concise, don't (didn't) take up too much screen real estate.

Part of the beauty of Fantasy Grounds for me is not having to run an adventure from a book, but instead from pinned links and navigation arrows for story entries that are in the same folder.

My suggestions are:
Keep both simple and advanced stories.
Fix simple story navigation arrows to respect folders as they did before.
Add a toggle to hide/show simple/advanced in the database.
Reduce the vertical padding in headers/footers to not take up as much space.

[Trenloe]

It could help but I still feel the update, the only update I've had problems with, changes the way stories / campaigns function compared to how they did and makes things more complicated.

The only changes around this are:

1. Renaming "Reference Manuals" -> "Books"
2. Adding a direct link to "Books" from the sidebar (making it much easier to access them).
3. Showing each reference manual page as a "Story (Advanced)" entry in the Story campaign data list.
4. The initial issue of the missing forward/back buttons in the simple story entries - which was quickly noted as an issue and has now been fixed.

I can agree that #3 is information overload and a way of filtering those records would be welcome. Otherwise, nothing else has changed. Stories /campaigns function exactly the same way as they did before.

[LordEntrails]

IMO, I think the idea of consolidating Stories and Reference Manuals into one thing is a great idea. I also think it's key to the continued effort to make FG better and more user friendly. Yes it will negatively impact me for a short while with my own campaigns and modules (I have thousands of hours into such), but I also am happy for the capabilities the new architecture will bring.

I also recognize that going from architecture A to architecture B often requires intermediate steps that may not be perfectly smooth. And this fits with world class software development practices for Agile development and Minimum Viable Products. And it's also expected that things like the missing next/previous buttons can get overlooked unintentionally (as they were).

Not that anyone is expected to, but for those concerned with future updates can always participate in the public beta test via the Laboratory sub-forum. This change was available for testing and user input for about a month before it went live.

[GSKlein]

I'm thinking both simple and advanced story entries have their place. I'm still partial to the old simple ones. Clean, concise, don't (didn't) take up too much screen real estate.

Part of the beauty of Fantasy Grounds for me is not having to run an adventure from a book, but instead from pinned links and navigation arrows for story entries that are in the same folder.

My suggestions are:
Keep both simple and advanced stories.
Fix simple story navigation arrows to respect folders as they did before.
Add a toggle to hide/show simple/advanced in the database.
Reduce the vertical padding in headers/footers to not take up as much space.

Yes...the old design was sweet. I've just tried to do the "books" idea and the formatting is not nice and does not translate well. Ah...for simpler times.

[Trenloe]

Yes...the old design was sweet. I've just tried to do the "books" idea and the formatting is not nice and does not translate well. Ah...for simpler times.

The "old design" is still there - as shown in my screenshot in post #24. And, as detailed in post #27 - nothing has changed as far as the original story entries are concerned - they are still there, you can still use them, they haven't been deleted. You have the option to use either - go with what is best for you, it's nice to have choices!