Ipad first impressions

[Globetrotter]

It looks clean and easy to understand where everything on the main page is. So far, I think this is a great start. I want to write the things I would suggest adjusting, although please do not think I am not very happy with this app. So far, I love the work you guys do and own 100% of the pathfinder data packages.

I think it would be great if the community added to this as well.

1. Changing weapons is difficult and slow. A quick select would be great. I don't think it is necessary to have multiple weapons equipped at the same time, so selecting a weapon could auto deselect another weapon.

2. The dice rollers are great (although I get an unusual amount of 20's when I roll). Could we combine the attack and damage rolls? That speeds it up greatly. So, when I hit the dice roller for my longsword, the dice roller shows my hit and damage in the same screen, in stead of me having to back out and then go into damage.

3. Can we have a section that details the class as well? This might seem redundant, but I would be great to be able to press the class at the top of the page and have a pop-up detailing the information, like you can with all the other attributes and feats.

4. For the consumables, and daily use powers, could we had a + symbol next to the value adjustment? Then we can just this the + and move it forward once instead of hitting the value adjustment, scrolling to the next number and then closing the window. Having the window is great to make larger adjustments, or back adjustments, but usually they move in increments of 1 (or for arrows more), and I think that would be faster.

5. Can you add a reach section to the weapons? Then when you are enlarged, the correct threatened area is shown.

6. A status window would be great too. So when you add a condition, you remember you added it. Maybe as simple as the condition button showing how many status effects are in [conditions (1)]. You could do the same things for adjustment to remind you that you have X amount of spell effects in place. - sometimes we forget such things

That's all that I can think about now. I know shadowchemosh mentioned the saving wait times, and a response already addressed you are working on it. of course, everyone has commented on being able to delete in the app.

I don't know how to sync this with my desktop yet, but I haven't read the instructions yet either.

I am looking forward to using this at my next session. I will have more comments after that. I really like all the information that is included; i don't even need to have my books at the table with this!!

Very happy so far.

[ShadowChemosh]

**Lead off with these of course all my opinion and just another take on how groups use HL***

Originally Posted by Globetrotter

1. Changing weapons is difficult and slow. A quick select would be great. I don't think it is necessary to have multiple weapons equipped at the same time, so selecting a weapon could auto deselect another weapon.

I agree with everything but this one as I want the exact opposite. Please just show ALL weapons on the list all the time. Its common for my group to carry multiple weapons which get used in combat and unless your TWF their is no reason to actually need to swap them.

For example:
Longsword.....
Heavy, Mace....
Greatsword...

Would all display the correct values without needing to be equipped. So now I would have to actually spend the time equipping the weapons which is takes time instead of just using them.

Worse for my monk player who currently has 9+ different weapons and like to flurry with different ones at different times. Now you equip more than one weapon and get the wrong values as HL thinks your TWF with them. (Note: if you equip both in the "Main" hand it seems ok other than showing a red warning message). Also none of the "Flurry of Blow" info shows in the front screen. But at least you can go to the "change" screen and see all the values.

Another note playing around for monks is that you have to actually "equip" "Unarmed Strike" to make it display on the main page. Again not something that can't be worked around but another of "show" all weapons on the main page would fix this.

Last note about weapons is that I currently have higher level Mythic characters and this means big magical weapons. The text for weapons is not shrinking itself and its becoming unreadable in places:
Image2.jpg

[Colen]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

I agree with everything but this one as I want the exact opposite. Please just show ALL weapons on the list all the time. Its common for my group to carry multiple weapons which get used in combat and unless your TWF their is no reason to actually need to swap them.

For example:
Longsword.....
Heavy, Mace....
Greatsword...

Would all display the correct values without needing to be equipped. So now I would have to actually spend the time equipping the weapons which is takes time instead of just using them.

This is actually the way we modeled things for Shadowrun - the weapon equipped state really means "show me the stats for the weapon in this state", not "the weapon is actually equipped in this state".

Would you always want *all* of your weapons displayed, even a random dagger you just picked up? Or would you want many displayed but some hidden? Bear in mind that the list of weapons on the main sheet also shows any equipped armor and other items, so having a long list of weapons at the top makes the other items much less accessible.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Colen

Would you always want *all* of your weapons displayed, even a random dagger you just picked up?

A random item kept for loot would get recorded in the Journal or my players put a "Custom Gear Item" in and mark it as Dagger and set the weight. But that would only be for a special custom dagger that they think is plot related.

Originally Posted by Colen

Or would you want many displayed but some hidden?

Remember this is how my group does it but we would not want/need things hidden. If we really did for some strange reason I have an adjustment in my addon that allows me to do that. I have not tested it in the app but I assume it works. Hmm need to test adjustment that allows weapons to be re-sorted in the list to see if they work still on the iPad.

Originally Posted by Colen

Bear in mind that the list of weapons on the main sheet also shows any equipped armor and other items, so having a long list of weapons at the top makes the other items much less accessible.

True but usually on a paper sheet these are shown on a different/2nd page so its not that bad to scroll down as they don't seem to be referenced as much as weapons.

I will have in-game feedback after this weekend hopefully.

Originally Posted by Colen

2. Would it be OK if it always rolled damage, even if you missed or rolled a 1?

My thought is yes. This matches exactly how many players roll the dice. My group learned awhile go to do anything they can to speed up combat and one method is to roll attacks and damage at the same time. If the attack misses you just ignore the damage.

Now here is where a GUI interface can help and match the dice as you will need to get it eventually roll Multiple Attacks as this is very important for higher level play. Have each attack and damage be a different color. So say your first attack is always Red, 2nd is Green, 3rd is Blue, etc as this is the same method most gamers use at the table. Matching the color of the d20 with their damage dice so it can all be rolled at once.

One other note here for programmer/DM's like me is before I would allow this App to actually replace dice I would want to see a proof of 10,000 d20 rolls to make sure it really comes out to about 5%. Without this feature I don't let software dice at my table. My DM tool I use has this built in and I am happy to show players any time they want even show it roll 100 d20, 1,000 d20, 10,000 d20 and 100,000 d20.

Originally Posted by Colen

4. This is funny because incrementers used to work like this, but I switched to the spinning wheel view because it was a complete pain to adjust it by more than one. We probably need a button to go up one and a button to go down one, right?

Yea I am back and forth on which of these is nice. But most things are being done in a single increment. I could see "Adjustments" wanting the wheel but a spell you cast once a round. A special ability is mostly used once per round or per day. So a simple "+" makes more sense for those.

Again will see what its like at the game table.

Originally Posted by Colen

6. Any conditions are actually shown at the bottom of the screen right now, but it's not that visible. I'll try to find somewhere that's more prominent for this, I just don't want it being a huge thing, as many characters will have adjustments toggled semi-permanently.

See the adjustments/conditions is very important as its very easy to forget right now in HL. I have made a habit to remind players at the start of the game to Look and make sure all the adjustments/conditions are set correctly before we start or some spell or effect that ran out last session is left on.

[mxyzplk]

Originally Posted by Colen

This is actually the way we modeled things for Shadowrun - the weapon equipped state really means "show me the stats for the weapon in this state", not "the weapon is actually equipped in this state".

Would you always want *all* of your weapons displayed, even a random dagger you just picked up? Or would you want many displayed but some hidden? Bear in mind that the list of weapons on the main sheet also shows any equipped armor and other items, so having a long list of weapons at the top makes the other items much less accessible.

It would be perfect if

1. the overall area was constrained/scrollable, so there's no "long list penalty"
2. we could drag and drop to order-rank our weapons. I'd personally rank them favorite melee, favorite missile, favorite alternate melee, favorite one-hander for use in grapples, etc. Some of the problem is that right now the random picked up dagger is listed above our awesome artifact sword.

(now- there is a problem that many weapons, especially magical ones, do something to your character when wielded - that might be hard to model with "all equipped.")

[wurzel]

Had the first gaming session using the iPad today, went very well. Only one thing did I really miss: damage rolling for spells. My monsters bombarded the players with nasty magic, and I had to switch between the tablet and the real dice continuously.

[Globetrotter]

Shadow, I think I agree with you. Having the weapons section scrollable with all weapons equipped would be nice. How would you adjust for wielding one-handed, off-hand or two-handed? That would be troublesome.

I don't like the over-text that you have displayed as well. Forgot about that one.

[chiefweasel]

I have the same issue with the text for my weapons as well.

[Mathias]

The text overwriting issue is a bug. Please report bugs the same way you'd report any other Pathfinder bug (just make sure to flag it as iPad specific).

This one's already been reported through the bug reporting mechanism.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Mathias

The text overwriting issue is a bug. Please report bugs the same way you'd report any other Pathfinder bug (just make sure to flag it as iPad specific).

This one's already been reported through the bug reporting mechanism.

Yep no problem. I figured to wait until this weekend as I have a game Saturday and this will get put through its paces I hoping. So may as well report them all at the same time.