There are many suggestions like these, but this one is mine

These are great! My responses are inline below:

For the time being, we're somewhat stuck with "grid based" template. This is due to a very strict Integer match choice by the original development group. We do have a plan to replace integer math on the map with decimal math allowing for templates to be placed arbitrarily.

There are really two paths to this. One is to fix the map so we can go gridless/hex/whatever. In this model, we'd simply allow the same template to be placed unlocked from the grid.

The second path is related to the polygon work we implemented to handle the new fog of war and lighting models. This system allows for grid-free placement and detection of tokens however, it wasn't designed to create the kind of templates that the area effect system handles. That being said, it's still quite likely to be related to the final solution.

Suffice it to say, this is on the short list of features we're planning.

Now we're talking. The idea of painting "template" tiles or effect zones ties into Path Two from above. This is part of the second phase of the Feature Library. Basically, you'll be able to draw zones of effect on the map. These zones will be able to have their visibility toggled for players similar to hidden monsters. A hidden zone can still cause trigger events such as damage on enter, hinder movement, etc.

The extended template system should be accessible to players and GM's alike.

This gets in the "Vault" concept we're working toward. We have a small team (one guy + me sometimes) working on a new networking model which by-passes most all NAT and ISP issues. This also introduces a master server + facilitator model which will enable a cloud attached storage solution to contain/buffer campaign data. This also includes a requirement/concept of off-line access to character and/or campaign files for pre-loading.

Yeah, agreed on nearly all counts. Some of the network concern parts are resolved with the cloud direction. We are looking at allowing remote GM'ing. Once this is available, you'd be able to connect to a "headless" D20PRO on our cloud network and GM a game which spawned on our hardware/network. There are lots of small and annoying issues with this model which we're investigating, but in the meantime, know that this is important to us.

Additionally, we're looking at this for GM hot-seating -- i.e. you GM today, I'll GM tomorrow. Additionally, we're looking at how to grant more than one connected player GM rights. Some of the trick to this comes down to encoded content. D20PRO uses a GM's license to encode/decode content purchased from the Marketplace and/or private data (creatures, etc) sent to players. This gets tricky when you might have more than one "GM".

Thoughts so far are around separating the concept of Host from GM. This comes form the board game concept. As an example, I can invite you over to my place to play a game. I own the game, but you might actually run it.

The chat log system does need some extensions, however, it does support more than one channel, including private channels. You can also keep all of these channels open as long as you want. they get tabbed, but are otherwise accessible. Tearaway UI would be ideal here and maybe will come out of the UI pass that is woefully needed.

amen. I'd say more, but geez this is a huge sore point for us. As an example, Kril and our Marketplace manager just schooled me on how to do some funky attack combining which lets you model things like flurry of blows, dual wielding and the like. Something that is 100% front line information which has been occluded to the point that few know how to do it. (ask Kril if you're curious or need this now!)

So yes, this is priority. @edwardcd has been asking for suggestions on tutorial/training videos over here:
http://forums.mesamundi.com/index.p...ike-your-input-response-form.3460/#post-13911

definitely stop in and make lots of suggestions.

** NOTE: I hit a 10,000 character limit on this post -- egads!

continued below....

 

Actually the requirement is that the wall line passes through the tokens midpoint or covers more then 50% of the token. The other option was light bleed into unwanted areas. But yeah, this is totally a known issue and one which will likely get a fix with the next pass on the Shadow casting engine.

However, in the meantime, if you plan your fog of war around the mid-point of a grid unit rule, you can avoid this in nearly ever case.

A trick that works with the current system is to put a thin line into a grid unit which doesn't pass through the middle. This can create a light block without turning off the players light. Check out the "hidden" tunnel on the Studio Basement SC map for an example of this.

I think you're suggesting a "go now" then "go back" kind of mechanic. That seems doable. Right now, clicking on a character and pressing 'G' pops them to the front of the line so they can move, act, etc. What about if we stored the original location of the creature in the init and a second press of 'G' on the creature while active would send it back to it's original ordering?

Possibly. I haven't dug into this code at this stage. Additionally, I'd like to avoid % timers which are woefully inaccurate. One of my favorite XKCD's is of the Windows timer GPS: You're 90% to your destination, 50% to your destination, 99% to your destination, 12% etc...

One of the reasons many "streamed data" games use a completion bar is the tendency for variable routes to impede speed.

Maybe a progress bar instead of a Mac OS era ( not OSX )hour glass?

Nope totally you. hah, nah, that's borked in the worst way. The Feature Library corrects this and then some. The upcoming feature library lets you define spell, template, duration, modifiers, and everything else in one breath then export, save, name, rename, whatever and load between campaigns without breaking a sweat -- well, unless you're me, then you sweat way to easily anyway...

We're on it.

OMG yes. HTML backed, with a version checker -- working on it.

To quote the old knight guarding the chalice in that movie... we choose poorly.

We choose a wordpress theme which has the worst load times since my 286 sans math-coprocessor days. The tape drive on my C64 loaded buck rogers faster than our website loads. I've made it out out retirement home parking lots faster than ... wait. overboard. yeah it's slow, we're working on replacing the theme.

Publishers. We do this through the marketplace. Alternately you can export creatures from your library and share the d20_ctr files. These creature files can be imported into d20pro just like herolab or pcgen (only it totally works all the time!)

Better image tools is on the board. we're also looking to separate tokens from portraits.

Yup. makes sense. could easily be a player request pause, GM gets decision unless option is enabled in the game to allow players to pause without confirmation.

Two ways come to mind to handle this -- one, a player issues a pause as an interrupt (similar to the above interrupt action concept) and that player is granted control along with the GM; or two -- the player issues a pause command and all action stops in the game with notification to all that the game has been paused by "player". In this model, I'd attach a chat log to the pause window to allow for folks to gripe/complain/discuss or whatever needs to happen to resume play -- GM would still hold the override keys.

We opted to put the D20PRO Software topics below the Gaming Discussion to promote gaming over software as a topic structure. Other than that, you found a good spot for this, the other spot would have been feature requests -- two topics down.

We tend to monitor the whole board so this or Feature Request work well for this type of talk.

Hope the answers are to your satisfaction!

At this stage, the biggest draw back we're facing is man power. We're limited in how fast we can respond to our desired growth and the growth requests from the community by the number of staff/developers we have. D20PRO is not a bread winner yet. It's not going away, but it's also not paying salaries at this time. My wife and I are still funding the development while we grow the business and the product. A large portion of my investment is donation of dev time. D20PRO gets roughly 90% of my time these days but it needs much more.

So, if you've got friends, colleagues or gifted acquaintances, we're looking for help to grow this product into so very much more!

- Owlbear

 

Wow amazing post T (Owlbear), thank you taking the time

exactly, you found the right spot for your post...

 

Regarding the lighting/irregular wall question. This is a segment from RappanAthuk which I've been attempt to rework



as you can imagine, a character carrying a light source through that mess is going to be a pain in the bugbear.

The current solution is kind of funky looking but works rather well.



Obviously this can be improved still, but it's something for now!

 

Part of the reason I wanted to be a part of D20PRO was the "we are gamers, who wanna make cool things for gamers.." feel that the company and team exudes. I can't really think of a time where anyone involved has ever given someone a response of "that's the way it is." answer to anything, unlike a lot of big companies and the like.

They are always willing to listen, explore and consider possibilities.. May not always be able to do everything, but certainly will entertain, explore and discuss the idea or concept involved...