The Roll20 Team
Greetings all!
I am pleased to share the first in a weekly series of forum posts/blogs from the Roll20 Dev Team. The Roll20 Community Corner will feature updates from our Dev Team on the development of the site, along with some cool things we think you might want to check out from from our incredibly passionate and talented community, like API Scripts, Sheets, Marketplace Packs, and more.
So, without further ado...
Roll20 Community Corner #1
This week we take you inside the inner workings of Roll20 with Lead Developer, Steve K., followed by a peek at the new community-made “Demon: The Fallen (cWoD)” Sheet, and details on using, building, & contributing to the Compendiums. We’ve also shared one of our new favorite community-contributed Addons, along with a recent change to Volo’s Guide, enjoy!
Developer Spotlight
Hi rollers, here’s what’s new in the Tech Corner.
On the Production Server:
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Upgrades and Polish to the Addons System
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Underlying marketplace upgrades to support Addons
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Bugfix: Fixed our tagging system so that Addons and Bundles are more searchable.
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Worked with Fanburst to resolve issue with their API not serving complete files and some players not hearing their tracks.
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Minor update to purchasing system layout.
On the Development Server:
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WebRTC Video and Voice Chat improved connection protocol.
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Underlying page and folder infrastructure upgrades
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Unifying of token drag and drop functionality across methods
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Bugfix: The “None, but Stop All Tracks” play on load option now now properly stops the playlist as well as all songs on player bookmark drop.
Our live production changes this week mostly revolved around better support for our new Addons option on the marketplace. A lot of this was driven by Tales, but it’ll add a lot of flexibility to all of our marketplace creators.
Outside of those changes we focused on polish, polish, and more polish. We’ve squashed some long standing super-annoying bugs like the Jukebox not receiving complete files from the Fanburst API, not stopping playlists correctly on page load, and many more.
Phil B has been jamming on WebRTC upgrades on the Dev server. The biggest challenge we’ve been facing with Video and Voice chat is that the native WebRTC we were using was having a tough time knowing when it failed to connect or a connection dropped. We’ve moved the connection process into our Firebase servers so that way we have more direct control over when calls connect and reconnect.
A lot of my (Steve K’s) week has been spent unifying how a lot of our underlying systems work. Things like how default token settings get applied when you’re dropping a token from your Art Library vs a new file from your desktop vs a Compendium drop. I also have spent a fair amount of time making Roll20 smarter about some assumptions we made 5 years ago when we first started making Roll20, to pave the way for some great things to come.
Community Highlights
Demon: The Fallen (cWoD)
Looking to better fit your favorite demon’s Attributes and Abilities in cWoD? Look no further, community contributors Bryan Axlesen, Matt Zaldivar (V20 template), Brian Shields, and Benjamin Bandelow (Exalted code) have created the Demon: The Fallen (cWoD) Sheet just for you!
This new Sheet works with classic World of Darkness and was designed after the Core paper sheet. Willpower and Faith can be directly rolled from the sheet and the Dice Pool section was kept and updated to fit Demon Attributes and Abilities from the V20 sheet.
Wanna try this Sheet? Create a new game and search Demon: The Fallen (cWoD) from the sheet dropdown and click to add!
Compendium Wiki
Our wiki is a vast resource for Roll20 knowledge, this week we’re sharing a few important notes specifically from our Compendium wiki. We’ve heard the call for more Compendiums and below are details on how you can help us make that a reality!
As of December 1st, 2016, Roll20 has opened the ability for community members to build their own Compendiums for available OGL systems outside of D&D 5th Edition SRD and the Pathfinder SRD. A volunteership program is now available for potential members to volunteer to become a Compendium Editor.
Editors should have a firm grasp of the rule system they would like to prepare and ideally have some familiarity with HTML, wiki writing, and/or authoring Structured Data. Structured data is strongly suggested to begin a Compendium.
If you are interested in helping, please see the How to Become a Volunteer & Building A Compendium via JSON Import section of the wiki to learn how to apply.
On the Marketplace
A new feature to Roll20, Game Addons are smaller content packages that are meant to enhance your existing games. Check out 2 of the new products using Addons from our Marketplace below:
Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Game Addons had not been fully developed when the Roll20 version of Volo’s Guide to Monsters came to the Marketplace, but we are excited to share...
Volo’s Guide to Monsters is now also available as an Addon!
Visit your Game Settings to use Volo’s as an Addon in any of your games!
Pixel Tarot Deck
New from our community-contributed Addons, Pixel Tarot Deck features a full deck of tarot cards, featuring classic imagery with a pixel aesthetic!
Includes a mat map for displaying the cards, documentation about readings and card meanings, and more.
That’s all from us for this week. Have a wonderful weekend gamers, see you next Friday!
-Avacyn
