Release Notes - November 3rd 2021

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Nov 3, 2021 2:30 am
Design

Mobile friendly
Several pages are now optimized for mobile devices.

Changes to the homepage
There's a list of posts from public games on the homepage. If you're new to PbP then this is a chance to see what it's all about. There are all sorts of systems played publicly - taking a look at a public game might help you see if a system is right for you.

Your list of games is available from the homepage.

Posting improvements

Quick reply
Add rolls and preview your posts from the quick reply.
You can quote multiple posts using quick reply.
Paste images from your clipboard into game posts.
Previews show above your quick reply.

Rolling
Dice notation now allows you to roll multiple dice types.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847468766149476394/900336645046411285/unknown.png

Minor/major edit
Editing a post counts as a minor edit, but uncheck the "minor edit" checkbox and it will send a email to game subscribers and a notification for the other players when you've made a major edit.

@mentions
Give your gaming buddies a nudge by using @name.

Please don't abuse this by @ing people in every post, eh?

Post polls More info...

Individual posts now support polls using the poll tag. Where should the party go next? Which system should you use for your game? Is this a pointless feature looking for a use case?

The post author and GMs see the result before posting.

[poll="Which feature would you like to see next?"]
WYSIWYG editor
Push notifications to your phone
Full-text search
Easy to edit custom character sheets
Image manager
Built-in battlemaps
[/poll]


Which feature would you like to see next?

WYSIWYG editor
Vote to view results.
Push notifications to your phone
Vote to view results.
Full-text search
Vote to view results.
Easy to edit custom character sheets
Vote to view results.
Image manager
Vote to view results.
Built-in battlemaps
Vote to view results.


One page support
Click the "x of y" pager to display the thread as a single page.

GM character sheets More info...
I've added the gmExcludePcs option for people who never roll for PCs, and the ability for GMs to add a list of sheets for their own use (gmSheets array).

"characterSheetIntegration":{
"gmSheets":[
{"5e rules":"custom/20680"}
],
"gmExcludePcs":true
}

e.g. Say the GM has access to this custom sheet with common SRD stuff on it.

https://i.imgur.com/3Ks3g2S.png

Then they can use that sheet in every game to get shortcuts to those options.

https://i.imgur.com/2kJkqq8.png

These can be shared across games. If a GM can see the sheet's contents, then they can use it.

I can imagine someone building a standard custom sheet for 5e and sharing it. Then other DMs could add this as one of their gmSheets to get access to everyday 5e things (e.g. in 5e, conditions are often added as spoilers to posts, so players don't have to look them up).

New tags and tag changes

Abilities
https://i.imgur.com/dcL5GZU.png

Use a hash for titles. Renders as collapsible sections.
https://i.imgur.com/6I6l1LT.png

Snippet
https://i.imgur.com/55J4Kdu.png

Snippets renders like a spoiler, but that's not the point - the point is how they integrate.

https://i.imgur.com/uLmZoPz.png

NPC tag
If you post and put an npc tag in the post containing the title and avatar then it renders that post as if you'd created that character.

[npc="Trev the Tap"]https://i.imgur.com/s6xRmWR.jpg[/npc] Lorem ipsum dolor sit...


https://i.imgur.com/tkbOPKI.png

If you also selected post as, or there are multiple NPCs then it renders the NPCs within the post.

https://i.imgur.com/P3czmMf.png

https://i.imgur.com/0Sa82S3.png

The tag works for players too so it might be useful for familiars, hirelings, or other guest posters.


Roller integration
The new tags integrate with the character sheet on the advanced posting page.

Feats/Abilities and Spells are already built-in for 5e, but it would pick up the new abilities section and snippet tags too.

https://i.imgur.com/r8cyBg6.png

Choosing a snippet adds it to the post text, choosing one of the abilities adds it to the text as a spoiler.

https://i.imgur.com/hTvc6Nu.png

Notes on character sheets
Notes now work on character sheets. This can be used to keep secrets with your GM and still share your sheet with other players.

On the fly battlemaps
Organize your OtFBM text by using comments prefixed with "--". The dropdown image menu in game posts will give you an example.

Tavern enhancements

1. Closed by default
Games are now closed for recruitment by default. Opening a game for recruitment is an active decision. This allows GMs to get their game details ready before applications arrive, and reduces the number of spuriously open games.

2. Allow GMs to link the game to the tavern thread
https://i.imgur.com/Qdf6ZQ3.png

3. Encourage application through the tavern
If there's a linked tavern thread, then we change the application section for open games by making the Games Taven and PM links larger, and shrinking the "Apply to Game" button to a link-button.

https://i.imgur.com/w65mP4o.png

4. The tavern thread Example...
If a tavern thread is linked to a game then we enrich the first page of the tavern thread with the game description, tags (not user-defined tags yet), and a link back to the game details.

https://i.imgur.com/LieGk3H.jpg

Other changes
* "My characters" is now searchable.
* Access public forums from game details
* Top menus show more entries
* Dice rolls available on creating a thread
* Frames removed from profile pictures
* More features can be performed by secondary GM
* GMs can turn off player character sheet integration
* "Unread" moved to the left, now reads "Mark as unread"
* Dice back on homepage in dark mode - now always clickable to last unread post
* Code blocks remove extra lines
* Top-level subforum headers now on the left
* Notifications remind new users to post in introductions (until they have)
* Landing page text changed
* Characters bottom menu redesign with selecting a name to posting box
* GMs can access the advanced posting page of locked threads
* Advanced Rules Definitions translates curly quotes
* Better support for not closing the post on a HTML angle bracket
* Post "private" (like notes but not indicated as a note) is now on the notes menu
* Menu added to custom character sheet.
* The gender radio buttons have been removed from settings and replaced with a pronouns textbox.
Last edited November 6, 2021 6:54 am
Nov 3, 2021 2:57 am
Overall very nice. A lot I have not looked at yet.
Some notes:

Heading (H2) size on announcements is very large, especially since they will spend most of their time collapsed. Why `font-size: 2.2em`? 1.8em like the other headers is fine. Maybe 1em when collapsed?

Why the 1rem padding on the notificationMsgs? Inheriting the default is fine. I have not tested with more than one notification (yes, I know about the open games), but can not see why it would be different.

Pin, Lock, and maybe move buttons are massive. Do they need to be that big? Why `font-size: 2em`? 1em is fine. Why force 24px in height and width? None seems fine but a smaller value would work too.

Code blocks are not monospaced, so text alignment is not possible.
Code blocks are stripping out backslashes, so ascii art (for maps maybe) is not possible, even after color hack to force monospace.

Thanks for all this work @adam.
Nov 3, 2021 3:54 am
A preposterous number of improvements. Many thanks, Adam.
Nov 3, 2021 4:19 am
Reading this update log is like Christmas. Given how early Christmas stuff starts, might not be an exaggeration.
Nov 3, 2021 7:31 am
Awesome! I can't wait to play around with it all
Nov 3, 2021 12:56 pm
This is just too cool. Love the way it looks on my phone.
Nov 3, 2021 11:04 pm
Thank you to everyone for the feedback and praise. It means a lot to us.

However, there are a few issues - mainly around thread lists on mobile devices not looking as nice as they could. This is just to let you know that we are listening and hope to polish out some of these rough spots soon.
Nov 3, 2021 11:24 pm
Adam says:
Thank you to … This is just to let you know that we are listening and hope to polish out some of these rough spots soon.
You guys’ve done well and we all really appreciate it, and as a wise man once said…

Cheers. Ta. Todo.
Nov 4, 2021 12:48 am
The polls have some more nuance to the options, correct? Like being able to see the results before voting and selecting more than one? How do we utilize those?

Also, excellent job! Loving the changes
Nov 4, 2021 6:52 am
Naatkinson says:
The polls have some more nuance to the options, correct? Like being able to see the results before voting and selecting more than one? How do we utilize those?

Also, excellent job! Loving the changes
Thanks. Yes, there are poll options - thanks for the reminder.

I've just added a guide to inline post polls to show how they work in more detail.
Nov 5, 2021 7:00 am
Overall I love, love, love what has been done here! Thank you for all your hard work.

The only thing that I have found slightly unintuitive so far is on the mobile version (which ROCKS!) - when I'm visiting the forum for one my games, I almost always want to jump to the last page in the thread. From the game thread list, it would be amazing if I could hit something to take me straight to the last page from there.
Nov 5, 2021 7:03 am
Click the icon instead of the words.

There are improvements ready to make the mobile experience a little more intuitive (shown below). We hope they’ll be live soon.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847468766149476394/905595859650109440/IMG_2481.png
Last edited November 5, 2021 7:14 am
Nov 5, 2021 12:58 pm
C1NDER says:
Overall I love, love, love what has been done here! Thank you for all your hard work.

The only thing that I have found slightly unintuitive so far is on the mobile version (which ROCKS!) - when I'm visiting the forum for one my games, I almost always want to jump to the last page in the thread. From the game thread list, it would be amazing if I could hit something to take me straight to the last page from there.
This is the only other improvement I would like to see from the mobile perspective. Otherwise, the changes are awesome and I join everyone else in saying thank you for your hard work.
Nov 5, 2021 1:09 pm
Maybe clicking on the thread should always take us to the last/unread post. That is the behaviour on the home screen and on the 'latest posts' pages, and consistency is a good thing.

If people want to get to the first post --for some strange reason-- they can click on the 'First' button easily enough, but most people will probably want the last by default, no? We can make clicking on the icon take us to the first, or add a little '1st' icon for that, but I don't think going to the first post is a thing many people will need very often.
Nov 5, 2021 1:12 pm
vagueGM says:
Maybe clicking on the thread should always take us to the last/unread post. That is the behaviour on the home screen and on the 'latest posts' pages, and consistency is a good thing.

If people want to get to the first post --for some strange reason-- they can click on the 'First' button easily enough, but most people will probably want the last by default, no? We can make clicking on the icon take us to the first, or add a little '1st' icon for that, but I don't think going to the first post is a thing many people will need very often.
It's certainly inconsistent. On the homepage - clicking the thread name takes you to the last unread post, yet on a forum or a "latest..." page - clicking the thread name takes you to the first page.

FWIW - I think it should always be the last unread post too.
Nov 5, 2021 1:24 pm
Adam says:
vagueGM says:
Maybe clicking on the thread should always take us to the last/unread post. That is the behaviour on the home screen and on the 'latest posts' pages, and consistency is a good thing.

If people want to get to the first post --for some strange reason-- they can click on the 'First' button easily enough, but most people will probably want the last by default, no? We can make clicking on the icon take us to the first, or add a little '1st' icon for that, but I don't think going to the first post is a thing many people will need very often.
It's certainly inconsistent. On the homepage - clicking the thread name takes you to the last unread post, yet on a forum or a "latest..." page - clicking the thread name takes you to the first page.

FWIW - I think it should always be the last unread post too.
I use first post. however unfrequently, it has it's uses, and I like that it's an option, please don't get rid of it completly.
Nov 5, 2021 3:48 pm
Quote:
FWIW - I think it should always be the last unread post too.
I hope you mean first unread.

And agree with Koldik. It shouldn't be removed entirely but can probably become demoted from default. I very rarely use it but I'm sure there are people who do!
Nov 5, 2021 5:19 pm
Such powerful new technologies! What hath man wrought?!
Nov 5, 2021 9:19 pm
So much easier to read and select everything on my tablet, great work all.
Nov 6, 2021 12:01 am
I love most of the improvements, especially on the mobile side, with exception of the member/user page. IMHO, the old page with everyone on one screen was so much easier on mobile than scrolling through them.

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