At 11:33 AM 2/05/2003, you wrote:
> Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:37:03 -0700
> From: Rob Bowes <rob@wolflair.com>
>
> >It would be great if I could have the Inventory as the primary screen
> >rather than having to open it each time I change game systems.
>
>This is already on the todo list.
> >It was also be great if I could set the default fields to display in each
> >game's inventory when newly opened - it's a bit painful having to move/hide
> >certain fields, and with the number of games I intend to store it's going
> >to be something that I will get very frustrated about...
>
>You only need to set the columns and widths once for each game. Once you
>configure the layout the way you want it, CV remembers it and restores it
>every time.
I realise this, but if I achieve my (insane) goal of collecting all 130+
CCG in existence (we'll ignore figurines for now
that that's a lotta
work for me!
>Since CV is a tool that works for all games, there are inherent
>difficulties with optimizing the product for a specific game. CV uses some
>safe defaults and then allows the user to customize things to his personal
>preferences. This customization is typically a one-time thing.
>Unfortunately, it has to be done separately for each game system, since
>each is unique.
What I'm proposing is being able to choose my own set of "safe defaults" as
a starting
point for each game, because some of those in the defaults now are
currently "junk" to me, and not having Rarity in the defaults is a puzzling
omission (okay, I'm talking the Inventory
system, but that's my current focus, and building decks for all my games is
a pipe dream anyway
)))
>To add the functionality you are requesting would entail a LOT of work. And
>it would likely never work "great" for any game system, since each game
>would still require tweaking for most users. In addition, all that work to
Yes, but that's always going to be the case.
>When faced with a tradeoff such as this, we've always opted in favor of
>adding the functionality that will be used over and over again. Why?
>Because that's where the most value is realized by the user. I honestly
>think this is the best approach, but I'm happy to listen to counter-arguments.
Nope, I do agree with you - later. But for now I want stuff that assists me
during setup because that's where I'm at with CV
)))))
> >Futher, column drag and drop, and dynamic resizing would be a real
> benefit...
>
>Both are now added to the todo list...
))))))))))))
>As with the preceeding feature, though, both of those features would entail
>a lot of work. Yet they would typically be used only when the user is first
>configuring things the way he wants, after which they would be of minimal
>ongoing value. Would you prefer these features be added or something that
>you could use over and over again into the future?
Actually, I think you're wrong about the usage of those features. At the
moment people are setting their inventories up and probably have little use
for the buy/trade and price columns. As time goes on, and there are more
sites supporting CV and data interchange these previously "useless" fields
will become useful and important, necessitating a change in the columns
position, visibility, and size...
>Please realize also that we are a TINY company. Our development staff
>consists of two people. And I spend a LARGE portion of my time dealing with
>all sorts of non-development issues. So we really only have about 1.3
>developers on staff. The net result is that we juggle things the best we
>can and take our best guess on what to add. We rely heavily on user
>feedback to guide what's most important, as evidenced by the changes made
>in V1.1. But the bottom line is that we aren't Microsoft with a staff of a
>dozen developers to throw at the product. So the product has to grow in
>manageable, incremental steps - not huge leaps.
Your company is EXACTLY like mine - 2 staff doing everything. We have the same
issues with managing User expections, without the problem of having users who
actually know what they want
>And thanks for sharing your ideas for how to improve the product! Other
>folks here will confirm that we DO listen and incorporate your ideas into
>new releases. Unfortunately, it's an iterative evolution that simply takes
>longer than we'd all prefer.
Wish I could offer to help mod/maintain, but I really ought to look after
the paying work here first
R.
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