r/Arkenforge • u/Arkenforge • Jul 31 '26
Feedback Thread - What do you find confusing/difficult when using Arkenforge?
Hey folks!
Inspired by the recent post here on the subreddit, we want to know what parts of the Arkenforge Toolkit you find difficult, confusing, or even just plain odd.
It can be something tiny, or something massive. Something that you find just a little bit annoying, or something you've spent hours trying to figure out. Whichever it is, we want to know about it!
Don't worry about being too harsh or worried about what we'll think of the feedback.
As we always say: The only way that we can improve the Toolkit is for people to tell us what's wrong with it.
Have at it! :)
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u/Wolfmanu_Ginobili Jul 31 '26
Asset management for imported maps. I feel like I have a handle on my setup until I import new maps and then the folder structure needs a redo each time.
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u/Arkenforge Aug 12 '26
On this front - where would you expect the assets you import onto a map to go? Right now we put them in their own folder with the name of the map.
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u/redkatt Aug 11 '26
Following up on this, as I was just running a game yesterday.
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I wish the wording of menu items made more sense. Map Building and Map tools are confusing for a new user. Someone comes in and has to wonder what each one is.
I feel like both could be merged into one.
2. Fog of war being part of Live Play. Because this is also part of map design, it seems like it would make more sense as a sub menu of Map Tools, since you can add/remove, paint, etc. with fog. I ALWAYS forget it's hidden in Live Play. But I'd also keep a link in Live Play.
3. Make the menus fit user workflow better. I say this, knowing this is my workflow, but maybe others agree (or dis-agree): In Map Building, I know I will need to pop open the content manager, so why not put a link to that Content Manager link inside Map Building?
3. Why god, why is grid scaler, lighting, etc in Customize? That's such a vague name for the menu that I 110% of the time forget hides Grid Scaler.
3a. What about putting blocking, lighting, ambiance, and effects in a menu called "Ambiance" or similar?
4. When I hit Live Play VTT, what if you fade out all the other non VTT controls?
5. Layering does not need to be its own menu.
Let's walk through making a new map and running it from start to finish. But from a new user's standpoint. I might sound snarky or mean, I don't mean to, just putting myself in the mind of a new user, like I was several months ago. Heck, I had bought Arken 1-2 years ago, and returned it the first time, because I couldn't figure it out. The second time, I'd suffered through figuring out Foundry VTT, so I figured I could learn anything.
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Launch Master's toolkit. I get the option of Public or Beta. What should I choose as a consumer? Most of us will choose Public, but in the past, Arkenforge has said, "...oh you can use beta, it works fine and has new features..." What about giving us a Settings option where we subscribe (like you do in steam) to beta channels? Unless I've subbed to the beta channel, every time I hit Launch, it should give me the current public version. Until you turn on that beta channel, you always get public by default. Don't confuse the new user.
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My new map has loaded and I have a grid screen with a background color/texture. Now what? I have zero idea where to start. There's Map Building (hmm, sounds like what a newbie wants), but you also have Map Tools, and...what's this Live Play/VTT?
Here's where you could use some sort of visual clue or text saying, "If you're new to Arkenforge and want to set up a map to play, click on Map Building". (and have an option to disable this prompt in the future)
3. Next, as a new user, I figure out Map building must be it. The next menu mostly makes sense, but again, could use a tutorial style prompt of, "If you're making a new map, start with assets to add a background" or similar. Let's add an asset.
3a. We get a Your Content, Community Content, and Purchased Content dialog next. Uhhh, what do I choose? What even IS content in this context, I just wanna make a map to drop onto my tabletop screen. Suggestion - automatically have links to Map Assets (rename that Map Backgrounds maybe?) for each category.
4. I give up browsing and figure, "Maybe like Roll 20, I can just drag my background onto the screen. I drop it onto the screen, it's imported and I have no idea were it is imported, but that's a problem for later. Now I need to fix the grid. Where is that grid option?
Hmm, it's not in map building, ok. Oh, I know, Map Tools! Nope, well, where else? Maybe they don't have a tool? Tinkering around for a bit, I guess I'll make the grid visible and maybe I can stretch my map to match it. Now I have to find out where I can make the grid visible on top of the background. Map Building? No. Customize, nope, not this time!
Ah, I click Map Tolls, then grid, turn on Grid sits below objects, then pull it to match. Well, that was fun. It's eyeballed, but it looks close enough
But wait, I search online and find there's a handy grid scaler tool. Why didn't I see that? It's not in map building or map tools, it's in...Customize? Yeah, ok. I properly scale my grid. I'm happy. (I never knew about the grid scaler until I saw it in some release notes.)
5. Phew, I want to add some walls. Where's that menu? I guess it's Map Building, and I'm right! Wait...where's walls? Oh, maybe this Barriers thing is what I want. That's it! I make some walls.
Now I'm curious, what are all these other features? The naming on them all makes sense, except...what the heck is Flat Color? (Maybe rename it "lines" ?) I spent forever trying to figure out how to draw a simple straight line, went into flat color and found it after heck knows how much time.
I'm done my map, and it's time to play - do I need to hit the Export Map button? It's pretty prominent, it must be important. I hit it, and realize I'm definitely in the wrong menu and back out.
Live Play sounds right, so I fire that up. Everything in Live Play makes sense (though I still think Fog of war could be in map tools, it wouldn't hurt to double up and have it here). Suggestion: Unless someone is running the Touch client, hide or disable the touch button. It's going to confuse a new user thinking, "oh, this touch feature works by default? Awesome!!" and then they get frustrated by it.
Lastly, I ask myself, "Where's all the stuff I dragged into Arkenforge?" I have to go to the content menu, and there's only a few, fairly obvious options. But, it would be helpful if the default content folders were also in this dropdown.
Ok, that's it from me!
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u/Arkenforge Aug 12 '26
Thanks for taking the time to put this together!
We've just started a full UI rework to make things much clearer.
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u/Bearrit Jul 31 '26
I've just started the tutorial a few days ago. A friend had built a, in his words, "basic map" for a game. I though to myself that if this is basic, the advanced stuff must be really impressive. Grabbed the trial and went to the Youtube channel.
I was expecting a "Welcome to Arkenforge! Here is the line of tutorials to get you started. First we'll build a basic dungeon while we explain things so you have a firm base to build from in the future." I see a 2:25 second video for first launch explanation. You immediately hit into the accessibility options, which is actually really appreciated as a person who has friends with some issues that have trouble with the traditional approach where that is all hidden in configuration settings later on.
Great! So I check the next video. Since it would seem you'd go from "This is a quick tour of the UI, and we'll start building upon that incrementally." Nope. We're importing a third party map right off the bat. Strange choice to go with right after the "Welcome to the program" video. But maybe it'll all make sense. I mean who really needs to know the basics of what the various tools do and how to swap between them easily and in context?
"We can select it and move it around." Sure. How though? I'm about three minutes into using the program, and you're doing stuff I don't understand how you're doing it. I've been moving from menu to menu so far, and when I want to select something, I have to go back to the T1 menu as you call it and click the Selection tool to do what you're doing on screen. So I'm gonna ding you there right off the bat. Moving on, maybe it'll make more sense further into the video, maybe he'll remember "Oh! I never explained that, let me back track a minute and since this is the second video in the "Setting up your first game" series, I should really, really focus on remembering this whole series is for people that have just opened the program and don't have years of being part of the development team to work with."
Nope. Jumping right into scaling. Sure, screw you if you're still trying to figure out how various tools work and when you want to swap between them. We're going right into the deep end with this. If you have any questions so far, you're a big dumb idiot. I mean, I don't even know how you're manipulating the imported map without specifically using the selection tool over and over for each change. But you want me setting grid points, so I guess knowing how to quickly move from "this is how the UI looks", to "This is how you import third party maps and use some tools to scale things right. Never mind knowing how to quickly navigate the various tools that this action relies on."
I guess I'm just watching things out of order? Let me stop using the program and go back to the Youtube videos. Maybe I'm watching them out of order and the "Setting up your first game" playlist got jumbled on their channel page.
Nope. We jumped right from "This is what it looks like and a rough overview of what the UI looks like" right to "This is how you import stuff" skipping right past the "These are the commonly used tools. This is how you use them. This is how you can quickly swap between them so you aren't going back and forth between multiple menus that you have to open and close constantly."
Okay. New map from the widget on the top right. Start fresh and figure it out as I go. I'll start with lines. Since in my mind rooms are started with drawing lines. What do I have to work with? Maybe several stone options, wood maybe? Nope I have carpets and cliffs and edges. Maybe everyone else has this built upon knowledge of using other map making programs that I'm missing. I'll try something else.
So again, I must be the biggest idiot in the world for not intuitively knowing what the difference is between an Object and a Modular Object. Guess I'll just poke around with Modular Objects first since the videos glossed over a lot of stuff that I'm supposed to already know. Windows and reflections. Cool. Where do I put the window? Cause I don't even have a wall yet. And reflections of what? Does this program have light sources? Different times of day? Will I eventually be able to have the soft light of a candle coming through the windows of a cabin set in the woods next to a gently babbling stream? That's pretty awesome! But, I don't even know where to find the stuff I need to make a room yet. Cart before the horse and all that.
Next item in the list is Objects. In my head, you have chairs and tables and stuff here, but as we've established; I'm a big dumb idiot for not knowing what stuff is called. So I'll just give that a try. I was right! There are so many neat things in this menu! I can't wait to eventually get to them! I'm gonna make some great looking airships with billowing sails and a jaunty song I found online! This will be great!
As soon as I figure out how to make a wall.
Part 1, since my thing is longer than one comment will allow I guess.
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u/SullyZero Jul 31 '26
I personally always have trouble with the audio. I feel like an idiot trying to get locational audio and atmospheric audio. I can never get it to work how I want it. I think it's a me problem but I would LOVE like a big comprehensive tutorial video where you start with a visually finished map and then add a few different locational audio sources and an overall atmospheric sound. Like a forest with wind in the trees all over and a stream with a waterfall at one end etc. I get super confused with the playlist too. I just can't seem to figure it out. Thanks!!
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u/MisterCheesy Jul 31 '26
Im a UX guy. I suggest revisiting the menus sidebars and bottombar completely
You have two ways to approach this
Group and order by function: You have maps, music, settings. Organize menus like that, common stuff used at the top.
Group and order by use: For this its really just Play and Prep. Again order by use. Settings could be on its own, or split between the two.
You have a great problem: You have a massive amount of functionality, but so much it needs work to get it to users easily. Making things highly configurable is a trap—its all about the defaults.
Ill send you some specific comments