(suggestions on how to make this feature more obvious are also welcome)
Perhaps a line of text somewhere at the top of a worldbuilding screen along the lines of “Showing Characters/Magics/Locations/etc. from All Universes (Change)”, where the ‘change’ bit is a link or dropdown to swap universes?
I think the button is small and it’s function isn’t immediately apparent in my opinion, I think that’s why I missed it. If it were longer and had one of those drop down menu arrows and the default text on it was ‘All Universes” then it would be a little more clear as to what it’s function might be.
I think it would be nice to be able to do something where we can focus on a certain story within our universes. Something like Universe A (puts focus on that universe, which includesa drop-down menu of the stories that take place in that universe), Story A (allows us to focus on things within said story).
THAT WOULD BE SO HELPFUL I CAN'T EVEN…
It would be better if we could also assign roles to characters within the stories, especially when you're trying to write a story where the character's roles change as the story progresses.
I think it would be nice to be able to do something where we can focus on a certain story within our universes. Something like Universe A (puts focus on that universe, which includesa drop-down menu of the stories that take place in that universe), Story A (allows us to focus on things within said story).
I know that we already have the ability to focus on our universes, but it can be expanded upon. We can then select what story we wish to focus on from a drop-down menu.
It would be better if we could also assign roles to characters within the stories, especially when you're trying to write a story where the character's roles change as the story progresses.
Yep. For now I've just been listing each of their roles.
It would be better if we could also assign roles to characters within the stories, especially when you're trying to write a story where the character's roles change as the story progresses.
Could that be done via the tag field? You could put several tags in for one character, such as “antagonist” “mentor” “love interest” etc. and search for them via those tags.
I use the tags for a different set of categorizations though… Sheepishly hides. I think my story is too complex for my own good.."
@Starlight-Unicorn What system do you have in mind for the roles thing?
Roles as to how up front/important the characters are.
One character, for example, is the main protagonist for awhile, but then drops into nearly nonexistent, and then is somewhere in the middle.
I'd like to keep track of that more easily, (I do use lables like Protagonist and antagonist, but that doesn't always define what I'm looking for.)
I tend to use more of a level, (currently it's more of a code) but that's confusing for me… even though I came up with it..
I thought you could already add in roles?
I use the roles field for actual roles, (Good, bad, healer, Alpha, Beta, ect.)
@andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer) I'm just going to mention this again for your magnificent tally system: A Timeline Fuction.
They are a must have for organizing story lines! :) Thanks!
@andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer) I'm just going to mention this again for your magnificent tally system: A Timeline Fuction.
They are a must have for organizing story lines! :) Thanks!
This would also be helpful….
If y'all have examples of other timeline systems you've seen/liked and/or timelines you've drawn by hand for planning, I'd love to see them. Timelines are technically super hard to build, but designing a timeline system that works for everyone without being so complicated only some people can use it is also pretty hard. It's a design work in progress, but I'd definitely like to do timelines sometime. :)
I know this would be a huge project to take on but it would be really great if you could develop a relationship mapping feature, so we can see how our characters are connected without having to draw and redraw it out on paper
I know this would be a huge project to take on but it would be really great if you could develop a relationship mapping feature, so we can see how our characters are connected without having to draw and redraw it out on paper
Agreed, this would be just as useful as the timeline, (Though I could personally use the timeline more..)
A family tree function would be very helpful at minimum.
I use the roles field for actual roles, (Good, bad, healer, Alpha, Beta, ect.)
Same here. I've been listing their roles.
Can the links thingys (link characters, link item, link location, etc) be turned into normal text fields that you can link if you want. Cuz sometimes we may want to type out something concerning the link ( like maybe ths relationship of a character and their father or mother) please and thank you
Can the links thingys (link characters, link item, link location, etc) be turned into normal text fields that you can link if you want. Cuz sometimes we may want to type out something concerning the link ( like maybe ths relationship of a character and their father or mother) please and thank you
What I’ve done is create my own custom fields. So for example, instead of using the (link) Race field, I’ve added an Ethnicity field that I can type a description in as well as linking to my race pages if I want.
Can the links thingys (link characters, link item, link location, etc) be turned into normal text fields that you can link if you want. Cuz sometimes we may want to type out something concerning the link ( like maybe ths relationship of a character and their father or mother) please and thank you
What I’ve done is create my own custom fields. So for example, instead of using the (link) Race field, I’ve added an Ethnicity field that I can type a description in as well as linking to my race pages if I want.
^ you can edit the fields of the character settings.
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For the timeline, maybe having the ability to create a calendar system would help? Specifically for those with non-earth worlds. Like, have a drop down menu for how many days are in a week, and then have a text field or a list of text boxes to name each day? Then, have a similar thing for months: how many months are in a year, then make a list of the names of the months, and how many days are in each month.
As for formatting, something similar to google calendar might work well, at least for history-type things. Maybe have a zoom-in/zoom-out feature with levels like a 1-day view, 1-week view, 1-month view, 1-year view, and then a multi-year view. You could also possibly have it switch between a calendar-like appearance and an actual 'timeline'-like appearance, like a button or something. In this system, you could add holidays, as well as important historical events, and maybe connect the events to a certain page type. So, a religious holiday would be blue, and a government holiday would be green, character's birthdays would be red, the years buildings were built would be grey, etc. If the main page associated with an event has a picture, you could also add a little thumbnail photo to the bubble or whatever it ends up being on the timeline.
Adding in an 'eras' feature would most likely be useful in being able to create a timeline from a calendar system other than our own (in fact, based on how I'm picturing things, it'd probably be essential). Basically, in order to be able to use the timeline feature with their calendar system, people would have to create at least one 'era,' in which they would have to input: how many years are in this era (or, if it's the current era, how many years it's been since it started), and whether years are counted in ascending or descending order (like BC vs. AD). Any timelines created without a calendar system with at least one era created would just be defaulted to our current calendar system.
Then, for just basic story-planning, maybe you could have an option to turn off having specific dates/times, so the timeline is purely visual, and people can just drag and drop 'events' (kind of like the 'Scenes' page type, or maybe a rework/rename of it) on the line so they have a visual representation of roughly when everything happens.
Anyway, these are my ideas for what a timeline feature could have. Hope this helps!
^^^^ Thank you for putting it into words! I was having such a hard time!
OMG I NEED THE STUFF MENTIONED IN THAT FIRST PARAGRAPH SO BAD!!!
If y'all have examples of other timeline systems you've seen/liked and/or timelines you've drawn by hand for planning, I'd love to see them. Timelines are technically super hard to build, but designing a timeline system that works for everyone without being so complicated only some people can use it is also pretty hard. It's a design work in progress, but I'd definitely like to do timelines sometime. :)
So I guess @halfging3r said what most of us were thinking, except from what I can tell those suggestions were more along the lines of worldbuilding history and stuff as opposed to working on plotting and storylines. I know that I'd be using a timeline function probably more for the latter, so I figured it might be helpful to look at that aspect too? Ignoring the fact that this is pretty ugly and my handwriting borders on illegible, here's one I've done for my main character's storyline:
Based on this, some features of a timeline that I'd really appreciate would be:
What I've been doing right now (sporadically) is using project management software to plot out timelines for my stories. It sounds weird, but they're designed to keep track of several different people working on the same project with different goals and milestones along the way, so it can be (awkwardly) modified to create plot. So idk if there's any open source stuff in that direction, but maybe that would be a place to get inspiration?
(sorry that this is so obscenely long)
Most of these have been mentioned before, but I'd like:
Only having to add mutual relationships once. For example, if I add Character 2 as Character 1's sibling, I'd like it to automatically list Character 1 as Character 2's sibling, without having to add the relationship on both pages individually.
A place to write more information about characters' relationships, like how two siblings get along, when two best friends first met, etc.
The ability to unlock other page types of our choice, perhaps after a certain amount of activity on the site, without having to pay.
Most of these have been mentioned before, but I'd like:
Only having to add mutual relationships once. For example, if I add Character 2 as Character 1's sibling, I'd like it to automatically list Character 1 as Character 2's sibling, without having to add the relationship on both pages individually.
A place to write more information about characters' relationships, like how two siblings get along, when two best friends first met, etc.
The ability to unlock other page types of our choice, perhaps after a certain amount of activity on the site, without having to pay.
THAT LAST ONE!! I am already in love with the site, but I could honestly use some of the things, like creature, and magic, very badly. Unfortunately I can't afford them… It would be awesome if I ould somehow earn them through dedication and usage of the site.
Idk if anyone's brought this up, or even how possible it would be, but a category on the Universes for making maps?
Having a map-making tool has been suggested before, but I don't think it hurts to bring it up again. It would be right up there with the timeline tool that's been being discussed here recently, in terms of usefulness.
Actually, if/when we get both of those, it would probably be nice to be able to connect them. Like, have a layer that you can turn on/off for each timeline you have, and, if you have an event connected to a location on the map, it shows up as a little icon. I imagine it looking like a little bubble with a picture (if applicable) and the title of the event.
As for how the actual map tool would work, there are various map-making tools around the internet already with similar capabilities. Inkarnate comes to mind, and I've seen a post on the worldbuilding subreddit about a map-making tool someone's working on called GenBrush. I'm sure there are others, as well. So, yeah, it's definitely possible, though, I'd probably make it a separate tool, rather than embed it in the 'Universe' page. Maybe under the same category as the Documents and the Prompts tools, and maybe rename that category to "Tools," if so.
Even if there wasn't a "Paint the map yourself right here" type of tool, you could probably at least upload an image of one you've created yourself. Or, if you're creating an Alternate Earth, it might be handy to have some sort of way to use an editable version of Google Maps (maybe you select the area of google maps that you want, and then the sight basically converts that into a screenshot/jpeg thing that you can edit).
From there, it might be handy to have layers. The base map, of course, and then layers like biomes, where you can paint them in over your land masses. For uploaded images of maps, there could probably be some sort of sensor or 'magic wand' tool like there is in image editing software to identify land vs. water quickly. On top of that, you could have a political map, where you can paint country boundaries, similar to the way you'd paint biomes. I don't know much about coding, but I imagine you could probably make a way to do this with already-created pages, so that when you clicked on the country, it would bring up a little sidebar-version of that page on the right, or perhaps just bring you to the page itself, if you're on mobile.
In addition, you probably also add a 'places of interest' sort of feature, where you link various pages to various locations (like buildings, locations, towns, governments, groups, characters, etc), which would show a little icon similar to the ones shown on the 'timelines' layer mentioned earlier. Perhaps (maybe this would be a premium-only feature, I don't know) you could even embed maps within maps. So, if you have a big world map, but then you have a more detailed map for a certain city (or even part of a city), you could put the more detailed map in a special field within that place's page, and then the marker for that place on the map could have a little 'zoom in' button or something, which takes you to the closer map when you click on it/tap it.
The only other feature I can think of that might be helpful is the ability to filter various items, similar to how you can filter pages now, so that you only see what you want.
For all this to work, I'd imagine you could have a separate toolbar on the right, with different pages for different tools/features or something like that.
Anyway, point is: A map-making tool would be very handy. I kind of got carried away, sorry. I tend to do that. Whoops.