Family Man with a technical background and enthusiastic world builder kids.
Hi guys,
Just picked up the humble bundle pack the other day (also got the FGU pack). My kids, 9 and 6, love sourcebooks and I got my son (5) a ton of dungeon tiles, arcknights, etc for his birthday and he is in love with his tabletop worldbuilding even more.
He's been very hype about RPG maker, and other WYSIWYG tools, and I was hoping that this would be a good avenue to expand his technical skills. Both kids are very enthusiastic about the acquisition of this software, but after watching multiple tutorial videos, they were very clear that they just don't understand it or how to begin. I realize they are not the target audience, but I also think that based on their experience with other software that they are representative of casual users in a sense.
I have extensive professional experience with multiple CAD, CAM, and graphic editing software packages, and I have been digging in to see how I could help them and understand the software myself. I think I can see how it developed the way it did, but I would offer a few pieces of harsh, but constructive criticism.
* The selection model is TERRIBLE. It is hard to know when you are in selection mode and what is selectable (Autocad style problem), it is hard to locate the selection point for common items (inkscape style problem), and the lack of a clear path to select and then choose your action is still a problem I'm digging through the manuals on. The right click "do it" option was hard to locate, reminds me of bad CAD/CAM software, and often seems to fail mysteriously. Diving into the manual and I'm offered options like layer tag filtering. Bro I just want to pick the dang hillfort I just placed. Right click, no option to select. Really? Right click twice and I'm accidentally placing symbols instead of looking for options.
* Lack of a default interaction mode is very frustrating. Being trapped in a command with no way to get out is a big no-no. No default interaction mode means I'm constantly making double mistakes, placing objects repeatedly by accident, repeating useless attempts, and generally getting frustrated when trying to learn the software instead of growing as a user. There is no escaping a command, no matter how many times I hit escape. Autocad requires you to at least hit enter again to repeat your process; which can slow you down but avoids this nightmare.
* Basic transformations are too obtuse and time consuming. A basic function of any graphics editing program is to place something then move and rotate it. It took me way longer, as an experienced professional, to figure out how to move and rotate after the fact, and the experience seems 20 years behind the UX curve. Moving and rotating in autocad are a big hassle, but I could figure it out in seconds. I don't see any reason, in this kind of product, for the lack of an inkscape style, visual handle, click once to move and scale, click twice to rotate model, other than lack of trying. Problems in this area are very tied into the obtuse selection model problem.
* The overall UX organization is just difficult to comprehend and the lack of ribboning and labels doesn't help. Tooltips are unreliable to get to appear, the symbols are only mildly informative. Menu customization seems to be present, but how is apparently another research topic and not an intuitive right click / WYSIWYG as to be expected in modern software packages, nor is an obtuse model like MS Office menus quickly locatable.
* Layering and Sheets organization seem to be missing the basic UX / workflow needs that one would expect from any CAD/CAM system. As best I can tell, working with sheets or layers requires locking the program behind a modal dialog box. If this is the case, it is a bad dated design. These tools should be dockable, or at least usably floatable.
It seems like there is a fun piece of software underneath the problems, but this software could be so much more to casual users if CC4 brought a modern and intuitive UX and selection model to the situation. It may be I have failed to grasp core concepts so far, but that speaks to the obtuseness of the software. Many programs introduce multiple UX models to help cater toward different user groups and software migrants, and I think that would be a wise avenue.
All that said, it looks like the company and the community is very devoted, the underlying value prospect is there for the most driven users, and I wish everyone their bests in their endeavors. Hopefully this will eventually become an avenue that levels my kids up to be prepared for hard hitting technical skills, and / or the software evolves to become more friendly and intuitive.
Comments
My daughter gets really pissed off if she isn't automatically an expert at anything she does.
Then here I am getting pissed of at CC3+ many many times. Then I remind myself, you cannot be good at something until you put in all the work. In real life with carpenty and renovations there is nothing I won't tackle and complete with expertise....because I have put in countless hours of work. So I step back from CC3+, watch or read something. Then get back at it. This program has most everything you need to make amazing maps, once you put the hours in.
I think it could almost be a college level course to become an expert at this program. Then again with about ten hours work, you can produce really good overland maps. With about 100 hours work you can do amazing maps. I think at about a thousand hours a person could do professional quality maps.
I am sure some of those other maps can produce really good maps fairly quickly.....but I think they really top out, because they don't have the advanced features of CC3+
I probably consider myself one of the worst mappers on the forums. Working to change that with putting in the hours.
Hello, Jolly. I don't intend to be mean, but I wonder what your intent was. Was it simply to join the forums dedicated to a particular piece of software and then complain about it? I don't see the goal or the potential reward. Are you trolling?
Again, no offense intended. I'm sure there are others here that are equally confused.
I very much appreciate @JollyWizard taking the time to compile and report his frustrations when using the software. His list is a very good summation of the common frustrations voiced about the software over the years. The software is slowly changing to get better to try to accommodate some of these kinds of items, but it's hard to fight 30 years of software entropy. I definitely hope that CC4 will be easier to use.
My number one frustration with CC3+ has always been the totally non-discoverable Do It "feature". It's closely followed by the equally non-discoverable context menus on toolbar buttons. I always forget to right-click on things and so will never "naturally" discover those items. If I don't use the software for a few months I have to go consult some training materials to rediscover right-clicking on things that I wouldn't otherwise want to.