Honest Question

I don't know what forum to put this in since the General question forum is gone.  So I'll ask here.  This is an honest question, I'm not trying to throw shade on Roll20. Is the Roll20 platform being actively developed?  Or is it in maintenance mode? Background My group and I left Roll20 3-4 years ago after playing here for several years.  I was a very active user and enjoyed the platform.  But I also like to test things.  So we checked out a competing platform.  Recently our campaign ended and one of the other players took the DM reigns and wanted to play here.  So we came back. Today I started looking at updates that have happened since we've been gone, and I'm shocked at how little has actually changed.  We left shortly after Dynamic Lighting was first implemented.  In the time that we've been gone, I only see a few major platform changes, and they were over a year ago.  Did I miss something? I know that some work was done on the Store, and Character Sheets, and they released the Compendium for content like source books; things like that.  But when actually playing the game, has anything changed?  I don't really see much. In my experience Roll20 is a good platform.  But most of the "most requested" suggestions are the same as when I left.  It makes me wonder what is going on. Edit:  Typos and to say that it's good to see The Aaron is still here.  He used to be one of the biggest assets the Roll20 platform ever had.  :)

Personally I think they need to improve in responding to glitches and user complaints, especially when you upgrade your account only to find certain features not working for you. I really like this site too. Right now I can't imagine using another. I just want it to work even a little better than it currently does, and I don't think that's expecting too much.

A huge number of things have been implemented, including (if you have been gone for 3-4 years) and entirely new Dynamic Lighting system (some like it, some hate it, as with any new feature). If you want a list, though, the best thing would be to check out the Change Log over the last few years. If you are looking for a paradigm shift sort of change, those are few: Roll20's operation is largely the same and familiar.

Still here. =D There's quite a bit that's been changing, but a great deal of it is behind the scenes or focused on very specific things. 

Thanks for the input, everyone. Keith:  I did skim through some of the Change Logs.  It's how I came to the tentative conclusion that not much has changed.  But I didn't check every one.  I focused on the 'named updates', so very easily could have missed something. I saw they changed to a new Dynamic Lighting system (did they do it twice?)  What caused that?

I can't quite remember the exact chain of events on DL. I'm reasonably sure that there has been a complete redo of the underlying architecture. More recently, and something I personally am excited for, they've been rolling out some big updates to character sheet capabilities. Character sheets can now do some roll parsing (even though I'd like to see even more capability). There are two exciting sheet features on the dev server. First is image attributes for character sheets (including read only access to the avatar and token). Second is a limited scope of jquery which is going to open lots of options to simplify our code for complex stylings.

Thanks for the info, Scott.  Looking forward to seeing more advanced character sheets.

Roll20's development is extremely slow due to an overwhelming amount of technical debt. This is and has been costing them customers for some time now. It remains to be seen if they truly begin to address it in the near future. The cause of two UDL releases is the utter failure to produce a functioning product the first time around. This too cost them quite a few subscribers, I imagine.

some of the most visible changes in recent times: Ability to upload your own sound files. This is HUGE. This feature release is under-rated. True full-copy of Pages with all Layers intact. This is HUGE (important, useful, practical, was highly requested). Ability to upload your own Status Markers, and reorganize the order of them. You can buy packs of Status markers now too. Marketplace feature called "Addons", addon products can be installed easily onto your existing games (adding purchased maps, card decks, etc). Somewhat better Pages menu bar that's easier to see more Pages and reorganize them (still no Folders for Pages yet though). Support for animated GIF's (usually-sometimes works, some glitches) for weather effects and animation tokens-monsters. Can be useful to players. Ability to move Player Video screens around the page, to the top or almost anywhere on the tabletop. Useful to players. Video-only mode. Use video in Roll20 but voice-sound from another app perhaps Discord. New quick dice toolbar to click/tap for more complex dice rolls, without having to type the code. This one is directly useful to Players. Card decks having multiple Backs. ----------- Not as cool as the above: Updated Dynamic Lighting is also available. It's ok, some glitches, looks pretty cool, totally not necessary to use DL at all in my opinion of RPG's. This feature is over-rated. I recommend using regular Fog Of War instead. Card Decks Bulk Upload, feature came out but is broken. Please fix it Roll20. Mobile app is in testing but not many of the regular website users seem interested.

Wow, Gold.  Good response!  My research showed only about half of those.  Thanks for taking the time to type that all out!  Unfortunately most of it isn't an improvement for my group.  But it I'm sure other groups find them useful and it shows some progress, at least. Teller:  I've seen others say similar things.  And my own research didn't show many changes, so I wondered if it was true.  It's part of why I asked if Roll20 was in 'maintenance mode'.  I was curious if they were working on a version 2.0 or something.

There is now a popular suggestion that now has 112 votes for roll20 to hire the aaron <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/9522317/slug%7D#post-10288016" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/9522317/slug%7D#post-10288016</a> I think there are a number of others they should hire as well, including Keith.&nbsp; If it wasnt for those 2 (and a few others) many more would have left roll20 for competitors.

Marcel said: There is now a popular suggestion that now has 112 votes for roll20 to hire the aaron Back when I was here before, this was a common sentiment.&nbsp; So either: They can't come to an agreement on money. Aaron doesn't want to make his hobby his work, and doesn't want the job. So I don't see a suggestion helping matters.&nbsp; :) But I can definitely believe that Aaron has personally kept people here.&nbsp; He kept my group here for over a year.&nbsp; I was frustrated w/ how long it was taking Roll20 to make what I felt were 'essential changes'.&nbsp; But I kept my group here cuz Aaron wrote some amazing scripts, and went out of his way to help me and others write their own, which kept Roll20 a better platform than the alternatives.

Teller said: Roll20's development is extremely slow due to an overwhelming amount of technical debt. This is and has been costing them customers for some time now. It remains to be seen if they truly begin to address it in the near future. The cause of two UDL releases is the utter failure to produce a functioning product the first time around. This too cost them quite a few subscribers, I imagine. The technical debt is absolutely true. They are also hampered by being browser based. On the one hand it allows people to get started very easily. But conversely, it limits their ability to innovate. I think any speculation about them losing customers for any reason is pointless. In actual fact, they are growing extremely rapidly in terms of raw number of users, and we don't have any date about exactly how many people have joined, left, subscribed, unsubscribed, etc. It's all anecdotal. I'm not sure what the "two UDL releases" is referring two. They had the old DL for several years. It worked mostly, but was kludgy and laggy in many ways. The new UDL has been in development for over a year and a half. It works mostly, but is kludgy and laggy in many ways. The key difference is that the old DL was a technological dead end. The new UDL is more modern and more future-proofed than the old. It already does much more than the old system and more is coming. It is now to the point that I would not want to go back.