Candi's Ever Growing Suggestion List

I anticipate needing a thread to myself :P

I have a lot of experience GMing Ply By Forum games, and often make my own forums for a particular game. Because of this, I know a lot about what I want and why I want it in a forum for a particular game. I realize this site aims to be more general than what I usually create (and that's awesome!) but I hope my experience results in some useful suggestions. As we use this site to set up and run an RPG, every time there's a feature we wish we had we're compiling a list and as that list gets long enough I'm going to put it here. As things get implemented I'll edit the post the request was in and strike it through (just to track for myself what I've now got access to).

General Suggestions
- Games should have an "Application Sent" tag.
- I really just want a page that explains how things work so I don't have to guess my way around (for instance, what does game "Open" vs "Closed" mean?)
- There should be a link from the game page directly its forum (preferably right at the top in a nice big button "Game Forum")
- Got a fatal error message when submitting a character to a game (but the submission still worked)
- Add character avatars so that a single player can have multiple avatars for their characters in different games, or if a GM is posting as multiple characters in one game.
- On that note, avatars don't seem to be working in the forum posts (they only display on the user pages)
- Mass email all players in your game button for GM
- Subscribe (and receive post notifications by email) option for each thread (or, at least, the threads in games that you are involved in)

Savage Worlds Specific
- Savage Worlds is more generic than Western. Please change "Shooting Irons & Such" to "Weapons & Spells"
- I'd prefer Edges and Hindrances as two distinct sections
- Include a section for tracking money to keep it separate from Equipment or being tracked in Notes
- Include a section for tracking experience
- Include a section for tracking how much damage various weapons/spells/attacks do, in a table format instead of an open text box
(ie: Name - Range - Damage - Notes, where notes is an open text box and each entry is a line in a table).
- Toughness and Parry don't accept non-number characters, which makes tracking toughness due to armour and parry due to shields more difficult. Certain things bypass parts of those values, so breaking them down would make playing easier (just making an open text field below each would be sufficient so players could enter "5 + 2 (shield) + 1 (armour)" below the full number so that the break down is obvious)

i agree with all of these ^-^ the later ones not just for Savage Worlds

Thanks for all the thoughts. Lets see what I can address immidiately:

General Suggestions
- I'm currently working on a notifications system, which would tell you when people apply to your game, when they submit characters, etc.
- I really do need to add more help/tooltips around. They're coming.
- At the bottom of your screen on any page relating to your game should be a red bar that has links to characters, tools, and the forums. If you aren't seeing this, its a bug.
- Do you know what the error was? It'll help me find the problem much faster.
- When I first started working on this site, the server I was on didn't really allow me to do much with images for security issues. I have two items planned in regards to this: adding avatars to character sheets, and allowing GMs to show the character avatars instead of the player avatars on game forums.
- I will look into the forum avatar issue.
- I keep going back and forth on mass emails. There is the issue/concern with spamming. Maybe something like one mass email a week?
- The forums have a LONG way to go... subscriptions, improved search, better displays. Custom building a forum was REALLY hard.

Savage Worlds Suggestions
- That is actually a mistake. I notice I accidently changed Deadlands to Weapons and left it on Savage Worlds. Reversing that.
- v2 of the Savage Worlds char sheets (and its subsidiaries) will have itemized Edges/Hinderances in separate lists.
- Having a separate section for small things like XP and money will come soon, also in v2. The original goal was to get simple versions of the character sheets up ASAP, and then move to more complex, robust character sheets.
- Advanced weapons coming in v2.
- As I've never played Savage Worlds, didn't know how Parry/Toughness work. I will make these changes as soon as I figure out the best way to do so.

A lot of the Savage Worlds suggestions also apply to other systems, and the same responses apply there (v2).

Glad to hear that you're already working on most of this!

To answer some of your questions back at me:
1. The bottom of the screen only has a "Contact Us" button - so bug indeed!
2. It happens every time I add a character to my game (or one of my players does):

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'enactedUpon' in 'field list'' in /var/www/gamersplane/games/process/addCharacter.php on line 16

PDOException: SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'enactedUpon' in 'field list' in /var/www/gamersplane/games/process/addCharacter.php on line 16

3. Regarding Mass Emails, I don't want an automated mass email I just want a button that lets me send one to my players (so that I can remind them that no one's posted in a while).

Ok, I'll look into that particular bug, and on mass emails: I think I can safely setup something for once a week. Automated or not, allowing mass emails at any time would quickly lead to gamersplane.com being added to spam filters (already having that issue).

Ok, that bug (should be) fixed.

I can confirm that submitting character's to games is now bug free :)

To add to the list though: poking around I can't get the Map thing to work. No matter what I do nothing happens when I click "Create"

Also, I think I found the bottom bar with Game / Forum etc on it. It only turns up when I'm on a page related to that game (which makes sense) but I didn't notice it because normally the bottom of the screen is something I don't pay attention to. If it displayed the games I am involved in (just the name that is a link to the game page - like the widget on the front page does) then the bottom of the screen will always be used for something, and so users won't overlook it when it changes.

1. The dice roller available in Advanced Mode when you post (and have enabled dice rolls in a thread) should give results before you post. As a GM, in one post, I will describe an NPC action, roll the relevant dice, then I want to post the resolution of that result (such as the attack result against the PC). Currently I have to Post to see the roll result, then edit the post to add in the resolution. Would be much much more efficient if I could get the result before I hit post.

So that's actually a topic I've been struggling with since I started the post dice roller. If its not posted and simply (for example) saved, people could get a roll they don't like and not post it, then repost once they get a roll they do like.

One possible solution could be something like this: add a "Save" or "Roll" button. It would essentially post it, but leave it temporarily blank with a placeholder. You could then keep working on the post. It would show the post when you hit the post button or after 5 minutes have passed (with a note that this post was autoposted).

Or am I overthinking how dubious people would be?

*I* think you're overthinking dubiousness, but I realize some people will want to prevent players from rerolling. I, personally, think that if players cheat on their rolls they are only ruining it for themselves (and if they are particularly bad at it, it will become obvious within short order and they can be removed). That said, you'll probably end up with complaints if it isn't "locked in" somehow to 'prevent players from cheating!!!'

In which case, if you could make it so GM's of the game can get results before they post then that would split the difference. It's typically GM's who need it anyway (as player roll results are resolved by GMs in most systems, so they don't need to know). And if players are worried about their GM cheating - then they should seriously ask themselves why they playing table top RPGs.

1. GM Notes! I'd love a spot in the game page to put GM notes -- or, even better - have every game page come pre-built with a sub forum called "GM NOTES" which has its default permissions set to only allow the game GM(s) to see it.

Bug?
1. When I try to change permissions for my game's sub forums, I click to add user permissions and no matter what I do, or how many times I click "add" nothing happens (i'm using Safari, latest version).

It actually stores the rolls with the post data, so getting rolls before the post is made would actually be a bit difficult... I think a "hidden" post that automatically posts after a period of time might be the best bet.

That would be fine too . If there was a button that said "Roll" and it "Posted with Delay" but brought you right back into the Edit screen and showed you your roll results that would be more efficient for GMs.

Also, regarding the permissions bug - it turns out GMs have Admin access to their forum (so I didn't need to give myself specific permissions to access it). It is still, however, strange that clicking "add" does nothing (not sure if it does it if you add permissions for a user other then yourself - but it should at least tell you that you have Admin access and so adding permissions for yourself is redundant?)

Good point, added it to the list :)

Languages.
There should be a spot for languages known on the character sheets so they're easily located.
Also religions, since some classes and games use them (like a paladin should have a deity, so should a cleric)

Boarder itemized details like languages/religions will be in character sheets 2.0.

I am liking and agreeing with many of these suggestions. These are things that Keleth and I have discussed in previous iterations of the site and I am confident they will be added in short order. Glad to see some activity, I must admit I was starting to lose faith and check back less often, glad I decided to check in again

i make a habit of checking at least every other day :)