My inactivity and the site

November 23, 2011 7:45 pm by Keleth

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As you may have noticed, the administrative activity on the site has been nil for a few weeks now. As many of you may know, I've been going through some rough things in real life, and about 3 weeks ago, one of the major issues (the ability to work legally) was resolved. So for the last few weeks, I've been focusing on my resume and job hunting, and now that the major chunks of that are done, and its mostly about applying for jobs and waiting for responses, I have time again.

These last few weeks have been mostly void of my general net activity, MMOs, etc, and I've put in only the most minor work here on GP. Now that I have time again, I'm getting back to work on GP full steam, and even once I get a full time job, I'll be working on the site. So give me a bit to reacquaint myself with the bugs that needed fixing, and we'll be back underway.

Radar Upgrade!

October 7, 2011 6:45 pm by Keleth

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With the ongoing game, I realized the map system was cool, but lacked a few things. I figured I could add them later, but I think everyone will appreciate the updates; I know I am.

The maps should work a little better; there were some areas you could drag icons and have them disappear (as far as a player was concerned, the GM knew where they went). This should be fixed now. In addition, I've added some new stuff. There are now boxes that show what game the map is attached to, and a section where the GM can add details about the maps. This could mean including a legend, layout information, enemy information, etc. There is also now a system that tracks icons' history, meaning when they're created, edited, deleted, or moved. On the maps, there is a box showing the last few actions taken, and a link that will show you all actions taken. You can now keep track of where things were moved and who moved them! And don't worry GMs, players won't see icon creations, edits, or deletes, just when they're moved to the map, around the map, or off the map.

I'll also be adding a color wheel in the next few days that'll let GMs specifically choose what color they want to change a tile, though I will keep the "predefined" colors as well as add a few.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this! *Co-GM*

September 27, 2011 6:58 pm by Keleth

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Running a game can be taxing... so invite a friend to run with you! I've added in the ability to add GMs to a game. A co-GM can do anything a GM can do, including adding other co-GMs, except for closing a game or removing a co-GM.

This means you can run a multi-part game, with a GM in charge of each part, or create an epic battle of two teams working opposite sides, to meet at a final stand. The possibilities are endless, in that they end where your imagination does.

Now, adding the co-GM feature meant rewriting the way a lot of the base code worked, so I took the opportunity to rewrite a bunch of base code. The site has been in development for years, and some of the legacy code is messy, to say the least. Most of the code updates were minor changes, stuff that shouldn't be able to go wrong, but as always, if you find an issue, put up a post and I'll get on it ASAP.

Live chat, now with a delay!

September 26, 2011 12:25 am by Keleth

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So I pushed this project up a bit faster then originally intended, but Gamers Plane now has a live chat system. Well, a delayed live chat. Due to the server GP is currently on, I can't really go for an all out live chat system, or a very efficient one. But I've built a system that would let you play via chat, complete with a list of who's in the chat room and a built in dice roller. I am looking into integrating a game's deck's into the chat system as well.

I'll be expanding it over time, but right now, its pretty basic, limited to text and dice rolls. Also, chat is limited to games; to get to a games chat room, you just head to the game's info page, and click "Join Chat" on the menu.

Its also built so once a session ends (end being 1 hour without a new message), the system logs the chat and puts it onto the forums. The game's GM can decide where they should go, and if no forum is chosen, the system will create a new subforum to put them into.

This brings us another step closer to being both a way to play games online, and a way to log your real life games on a secure online location!

Core forum changes means more features

September 20, 2011 9:37 pm by Keleth

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So after working on how the forums tracked what threads you've read and looking into the future of this site, I decided to fully redo how the forums track your every step. And what has come out of the stalkiness is a more versatile system that'll make the next feature possible, which will allow the feature after that.

The next feature coming up is pretty basic but a necessity: moving threads between forums. I will be setting it up so GMs can move threads between forums in their game, allowing them to archive threads, move them around if they want to split a group up, or anything else you want!

And I'm adding in this basic feature because I'm putting in the finishing touches on an in-site chat system! A feature I didn't intend to put in till much later will actually be making its debut shortly. It's already in testing, and while it's no AIM or GTalk, its got all the features a PnP gamer wants: text and dice rolls. More features coming soon! Well... soon after it launches anyway.


If you find that you're reading a thread and it/the forum is still showing unread posts, or you use the "Mark as Read" buttons and it doesn't work as expected, put up a bug report and I'll fix it ASAP.