Man, this game (tool?) is just great. In my personal opinion it stands as a shining paragon of what BYOND truly is capable of without displaying much, if any, of BYOND's downsides as a program. It truly is a crying shame that Shadowdarke has more or less left the community, because with some much needed love I think this program could easily be monetized and marketed through Steam's Greenlighting feature. I know that there are good tabletop environments out there, but the ones I have seen are usually geared towards the typical D&D or Pathfinder environment, leaving no room for complete customization.
If Shadowdarke still is apathetic about updating this wonderful program, is there any way somebody can get in touch with him to release the source code? I'm by no means a great programmer, but I am currently completing my last few semesters as a Computer Science graduate and I believe I have adequate knowledge to add some minor features and fixes to improve the overall experience for players.
If, by some miracle, Shadowdarke IS interested in updating his program, I would be more than willing to submit a list of features that need to be added and fixed to provide developmental clarity.
ID:1863312
 May 31 2015, 10:52 pm
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Thank you, Lummox! You are correct in thinking it's a pretty comprehensive program-- I wouldn't be still using it after over 10 years of play if it didn't possess such powerful features. For posterity's sake, I'll list some of the more nagging features that need fixing and/or need adding in so that, in the event Shadowdarke comes around, he can jump right in, give feedback, and call me a needy Nancy all in one fell swoop! Who knows; maybe some smart BYOND developers like yourself can help debunk some of the problems BTG faces.
PROBLEMS/GLITCHES - The user interface is in a bit of an awkward spot. I remember back in the days of having a tiny resolution (800x600, I believe) it was placed off to the side. I find the side area much more desirable due to the estate of our current resolution of widescreen monitors. However, I'm sure there are plenty who prefer the menu to be on the top-- perhaps implement a way to drag the menu to wherever you'd like? Or perhaps a way to have it be a pop-up menu? - Sound control (or lack thereof.) Sound files other than .MIDI cannot be stopped or even changed via playing another sound file as they just play over each other. I really want to use some fancy music in my games but I simply cannot due to the lack of control. Simply having a command that silences music for all players as an admin would be quick fix. - Link to the manual does not work; invalid URL. NEW FEATURES - On-the-go editing of dice values. The "roll dice" button functions as a quick way to roll dice without having the player to worry about the mechanics of the game, which is awesome. Having an option to edit the dice values freely without opening the contents of the sheet itself would mean worlds to GMs who use multiple dice macros within a sheet. It be something as simple as an editable text field to the right of the dice roll macro that is only viewable by GMs. - Linkable number fields. This proposed feature might seem a little bit advanced and audacious, but this would help automate features even more so that we GMs can have more time to be lazy. I propose that a new number field type be made-- we'll call it the "linkable number field." This linkable number field will function as an in-built variable which can be instantiated anywhere on the program. One small example would be if you were to increase a linkable number field amount from 5 to 7, all associated fields, once changed, that call to that linkable number field will automatically be increased from 5 to 7 as well. To reiterate, this is by no means a needed feature, just something I think would be handy. - While we're on the subject of advanced features, why not implement some fog of war like mechanics for dungeon exploration? The built-in opacity function would even work, although you would probably need to make a grid map feature for it to work well, as the current map feature works on a pixel-by-pixel basis. - Multi-windowed chat groups. Give an option to the players and GM to open the chatgroup in a new window. This is a minor grump if anything, but this would allow a special "departmentalization" between chatgroups so GMs won't have to wade through a sea of text to find what the trapped players in the dungeon are talking about. - Interface customization. With the introduction of interfaces in BYOND some years ago, could there perhaps be a way for GMs to customize the interface within the game for their players? This is pretty much the extent of it. A special thank you goes out to all who read through that maelstrom of text. | |
I am amazed and honored that people are still using BTG. I dug up the source code yesterday and I like your ideas, but I don't want to get your hopes too high. I have tried to get back into BYOND a few times in the last handful of years, but between work and family I don't have a lot of time to devote to any project.
I will give some time to BTG this weekend and see how that goes. If I don't make any headway, I'll look for someone to take over the project. BTG fans deserve better. The manual is available at http://shadowdarke.byondhome.com/tt/manual.html and needs a lot of attention as well. The domain name changed a long time ago to prevent potential security issues, and I never updated it in BTG. That will be the first change I make this weekend. :) | |
Shadowdarke wrote:
I am amazed and honored that people are still using BTG. I dug up the source code yesterday and I like your ideas, but I don't want to get your hopes too high. I have tried to get back into BYOND a few times in the last handful of years, but between work and family I don't have a lot of time to devote to any project. This is the best news I've heard in months! Thanks for looking into this, man! Also, about linkable number fields-- their ideal function would be usage in dice rolling macros, if I did not imply that point strong enough. Basically, it saves the GMs the work of changing dice roll values every time an attribute gets changed; something that happens quite often in a typical Pathfinder or D&D campaign. I'm looking forward to a possibility of some awesome fixes/changes! :D | |
Asguard wrote:
PROBLEMS/GLITCHES BTG's version 16 interface still uses the default BYOND interface. I've tweaked it a bit and will make a preferences setting so that people can put it along the top or the left side of the primary text output area. This will be a client based preference, so that players can have BTG set up that way whenever they log in to any BTG server. I will put some other settings in the client side preferences dialog as well, such as sound and music volume levels. If you have any suggestions for client preferences, please share them. :) - Sound control (or lack thereof.) I didn't get to work on that this weekend. - Link to the manual does not work; invalid URL. I've corrected it everywhere that the game references the manual. NEW FEATURES Once I get the linked fields working, this will be a snap without requiring any special work on the dice macro. To achieve your specific example, you could put a text line next to a dice macro, and tell the dice macro to roll the string typed in the text line. You'll also be able to make parts of a dice macro calculate based on other stats in the sheet, so that manual changes won't be necessary. - Linkable number fields... This is something I wanted to do a long time ago, and I will be working on it. - fog of war like mechanics... I don't plan to make BTG use the BYOND map interface, but I have some other ideas about how to implement FOW in the current browser interface. I've also fixed some problems with the browser based maps and icon dragging. I plan to do more work on it though. - Multi-windowed chat groups. I haven't worked on this one yet. - Interface customization. That shouldn't be a problem. I'll add some controls to the Game Settings dialog. | |
 But really-- this makes me excited to hurry up and finish my own Tabletop project. As for the client-side preferences, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but once I start hosting again and an idea strikes me, I'll be sure to let you know! | |
I sent Shadowdarke an email letting him know about this topic. Hopefully he'll weigh in. He's not around very much these days, but hopefully he'll drop by.