Realm Works Feature Survey – Charting the Future

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by rob

When the Kickstarter began, some people wanted printing, so we came up with what we thought was a viable solution for simple printing. The fact that printing would be simple was stated on multiple occasions, with anything more being something that would be determined by user demand after V1.0 came out, but I can definitely see how I conveyed that simple printing WOULD be included. The details about printing being dependent on some assumptions was communicated to some people, but I clearly failed to do so widely in the general comments. After the Kickstarter, when we realized a critical assumption for printing was not valid, the idea for simple printing fell apart. I haven't spent the time to dig through all of that stuff, but I'm pretty certain that discovery WAS communicated to backers.

I'm curious as to how "simple printing" and "basic printing" are being defined here. Does this mean the scope of what we can print in any print job will be limited? Maybe to a single article at a time? Or does it mean that certain things like page size and orientation will be pre-defined and unchangeable? Does it mean that we won't have access to certain printer features like duplex printing?

I'm not looking to complain or criticize, just to understand. Because that can mean a lot of different things.

[Chemlak]

I suspect (pure guesswork, ahoy!) that "simple printing" is things like "print this topic" and/or "print all player revealed snippets in this topic", but won't include various other linked info like stat blocks and maps, or the ability to print multiple topics per page

Complex printing would be things like "print all topics linked to <city> as one document, topic headers bold".

Things that you can tell your printer to do (like double-sided printing, for example) would be accomplished through the printer's settings, but the print code within RW has to be able to organise the data you want to print, and then send that to the printer. Considering the variety of possible "but I only want to print this" that RW encompasses, that's a non-trivial task.

(For the record, I'd really like printing. I read paper far better than I do a screen, and absorb the information far more readily, which is why I buy hardcopy RP books and adventures, even if I also want softcopy.)

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Chemlak

I suspect (pure guesswork, ahoy!) that "simple printing" is things like "print this topic" and/or "print all player revealed snippets in this topic", but won't include various other linked info like stat blocks and maps, or the ability to print multiple topics per page.

If I could selectively print individual topics, or collectively print all topics, I'd be happy with that as a hold-over. I can print statblocks and maps separately, since those items exist outside of RW anyway.

[EightBitz]

And to be honest, printing maps is going to be tricky anyway. I'd rather do that in a program better able to handle it anyway ... one where you can print a small selection or print the whole thing in different sections on multiple sheets.

[mirtos]

I agree with EightBitz about printing maps being complicated, and "simple printing" being enough...

the ability to select the topics via checkbox to be printed would be very nice....

[ruhar]

Originally Posted by Seregil

Oh dear God!

Everybody get your body armour, the Calendars are not in the top three. The End is Nigh! :-)

I did a quick scan to find out the status of calendars and I'm very disappointed and surprised that calendars is not #1 or even #2.

Originally Posted by MNBlockHead

Have to say that I was surprised that journal made it to the top and that calendaring made it so low. Disappointed, but I am impressed at the developer's engagement and transparency.

I like the idea of a journal, but I don't recall it being the battle cry of the hoards since Beta release. I guess old battle cries just drop down the list as new ones replace it. I'm going home now to bury my calendar dreams. *sigh*

[Chemlak]

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that journals came so high because as a GM whose players use player edition, their overwhelming message to me has been "we want to keep track of what our characters have done", and journals are a huge part of that (notes will do in a pinch, but they want to share the info). I don't imagine my group are particularly unique in that regard, so if all the GMs in a similar situation rated journals as highly as I did, then that would easily beat out those who want calendars.

[mirtos]

Originally Posted by Chemlak

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that journals came so high because as a GM whose players use player edition, their overwhelming message to me has been "we want to keep track of what our characters have done", and journals are a huge part of that (notes will do in a pinch, but they want to share the info). I don't imagine my group are particularly unique in that regard, so if all the GMs in a similar situation rated journals as highly as I did, then that would easily beat out those who want calendars.

That brings up an interesting question about the Survey. The Survey was available to everyone, players and GMs, correct?

Not a complaint mind you, but out of curiousity, do we have stats for number of players who responded vs number of GMs?

Because obviously that could skew results.. unless of course that was already figured in.

(im mostly curious at this point)

[rob]

Originally Posted by Chemlak

I suspect (pure guesswork, ahoy!) that "simple printing" is things like "print this topic" and/or "print all player revealed snippets in this topic", but won't include various other linked info like stat blocks and maps, or the ability to print multiple topics per page

Complex printing would be things like "print all topics linked to <city> as one document, topic headers bold".

That's a relatively accurate assessment. There are some wrinkles, but that's the essence.

If my idea actually turns out to be viable, we can leverage the same mechanism to provide some other capabilities that I think users will find very desirable. Of course, it also has a limitation that I think is minor, but some of you may object to it, even though it's the outside-the-box trick that could make the solution more useful and versatile in other ways. That limitation is yet another reason why I need to think it through more fully before talking about it openly. If I conclude that the idea will work, I'll let you all know and find out what you think about the limitation versus the benefits that become possible.

More on it next week...

[rob]

Originally Posted by Chemlak

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that journals came so high because as a GM whose players use player edition, their overwhelming message to me has been "we want to keep track of what our characters have done", and journals are a huge part of that (notes will do in a pinch, but they want to share the info). I don't imagine my group are particularly unique in that regard, so if all the GMs in a similar situation rated journals as highly as I did, then that would easily beat out those who want calendars.

That was my interpretation of the results as well. I didn't expect journals to come out so high. I thought they'd be a middle-of-the-pack ranking.