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Web Beta Feedback & Feature Requests Sticky

A topic by Lowlight Press created 65 days ago Views: 171 Replies: 14
Viewing posts 1 to 7
Developer(+1)

Welcome to the Dungeon Reader open beta!

If you've tried the app at your table I'd love to hear how it went. Drop any thoughts or frustrations below.

Helpful things to mention:

  • browser/device/platform specific issues
  • what's working well - esp. in terms of helping with focus and flow during prep & play
  • what feels clunky or counter-intuitive (performance-wise, layout, navigation, etc.)
  • bugs

🙏 Thanks for helping shape Dungeon Reader!

(+3)

Just tried it. I LOVE how quick it is to scroll and use and whatnot. One issue I noticed is that when sometimes, switching from single to two-page view, or vice versa, the page number jumps, requiring me to scroll back to my previous place in the document. For example, I'll be on single-page view on page 10 of a 176 page .pdf. When I switch to the two-page spread view, it jumps to page 18. I've also noticed that this issue corrects itself after a minute, and then I can switch back and forth quickly without page jumps...

Also, would like a feature to roll multiple dice at once. For example, an option in the dice roller to simply type "2d6" and get 2 6-sided dice to roll at the same time. And maybe in the future a feature to create custom narrative/oracle dice. Would help immensely with solo play. Example dice results would read: Yes, Yes but..., No, No but..., Fortune/Misfortune, etc.

Lastly, a request for this to be an offline program. A simple .exe to play when there's no internet connection or while traveling on an airplane, for example.

Thanks, and great work! 

Developer

Wow, thanks for the encouragement, and for the awesome feedback. I'll get digging into that page number jump issue right away - sounds very annoying. 

I've been trying to think of a way to add the multiple dice for ages, but the idea of a simple text input field seems kind of brilliantly simple. I'll give that some serious consideration for the next beta.

The offlline program is definitely the plan once the beta phase is through. I wasn't sure how much enthusiasm there would be for the project tbh, but the response has been amazing so far - so will def. see it through to a standalone app.

Thanks again for contributing - and Keep the suggestions coming! I'm really interested to hear how it can be improved for solo players. 

Developer

I've managed to patch that page jumping issue. 

Thanks for helping out!

(+1)

Haven't tried during a session yet, but looks amazing and planning in my next game. One question. I was browsing a pdf that uses a ton of hyperlinks. Anyway to make this app recognize those?

Developer

Thanks for the feedback, and please let me know how it goes in the session! Weirdly enough embedded hyperlinks are slightly messy to implement just because of how the marker overlay works - but certainly not impossible. I'll put it on the to-do list!
Enjoy your game!  

(+1)

Love the concept, easy to use, and I think it will really help with jumping between different elements within an pdf. 

Do you have any plans to support multiple pdfs in the UI? Like through some kind of tab structure? I find I usually have a bunch of different pdf's that I'm using during a session, and it looks like the app only supports one at a time, even if you try to open it in a new tab. 

Developer

Thanks for the feedback & apologies for the late reply!

Regarding multiple PDFs, that is def. on the plan as I figure out the standalone desktop version of the app. Right now, running multiple browser tabs side-by-side works ok, but there is one counter-intuitive quirk to keep in mind due to local browser storage: the app stores a single document as the global "most recently opened" PDF - so when you open a fresh tab it will automatically load whichever file was opened last, rather than remembering that specific tab's previous book.

That said, your saved work is completely safe. Annotations, highlights, and bookmarks are strictly tied to each PDF file's unique ID. Just keep in mind that refreshing an individual tab will jump it to whatever book you opened most recently.

Hope that makes sense

(+1)

Totally! I'll give it another try with multiple tabs. Makes sense to work on ironing out a single pdf before moving to multi-pdf. Looking forward to the progress.

Developer

🍻

(+1)

I just wanted to share that it seems to expect d20 based systems for monsters. I tried notating a Savage Worlds adventure and I couldnt figure iut hoe to make the monster selection tool note the abilities and skills properly.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, spot on - that's just a reflection of the sort of modules I tend to use. I haven't got around to giving the auto-parser more general powers. As it is now it would get totally confused with the Savage Worlds attributes. Ultimately I really want Dungeon Reader to feel natural across all systems, so I'll def. start to take think about how to pull that off. Meanwhile, you can always manually add any custom attribute on the annotation card and star* the most important ones to pin them to the top. 

 Keep an eye out here & I'll let you know when the stat parser gets an upgrade.

I really appreciate you taking the time to give it a spin!  

Looking forward to it!

(+1)

Hello! Gave the app a try with a new system (since I needed to reference the book loads more), here are some collected thoughts on it, I hope they help. This project is very interesting and I think it could be huge for the hobby, thank you for developing it!

  1. The highlight feature worked beautifully for me, and I love having different colours and being able to sort with them. However, as far as I can tell, the highlighted text is ordered by when you highlighted it. Any chance of allowing to move their highlights around and/or ordering them by page number? 
  2. For the dice roller, I absolutely love being able to "leave the die" on the page to have it later to reroll -- WOW! 
  3. In an indexed PDF, if you collapse a sub-section and then collapse > re-open the section it is from, the sub-section gets opened. Personally, I'd rather it be kept collapsed. 
  4. I love being able to place pings and linking them somewhere else in the PDF -- lots of books do the “refer to X table!” -- and not having to scroll around to find it is a godsend.
  5. I think the d100 should not be only the tens -- otherwise there’s no meaningful distinction from a d10 except its size.
  6. In the search function, putting spaces in front of and after the word should limit the search accordingly (eg. “sin “ would return “sin” and “basin” but not “singing”).

I'm definitely going to keep using it while playing this game, which speaks more than any praise I could conjure! Cheers :) 

Developer(+1)

Hi - thanks for your support and for taking the time to write such detailed feedback! It's great to hear that it's proving useful. 

All your points seem like definite improvements: 

  • Ordering the highlights by page number makes definite sense, and will be a snap to implement.
  • The sub-section persistence in the Table of Contents feels like a smart move - I'll def. look into what's involved there.
  • The d100 issue is a carryover from pairing it with a d10 - I've had it on my to-do list for a while but will fast-track that simple fix for the next patch!
  • The search function / exact matching is very feasible, and will def. improve precision.

Thanks so much for helping shape things - these are all fairly simple adjustments but real enhancements in terms of streamlining navigation and ease of use. Please keep the thoughts coming!