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D&D 2024 Just Got Easier to Use! (NPC In-line Editing)

1754487288

Edited 1754487422
Dean
Roll20 Team
From faster editing to an improved interface, we’ve upgraded the D&D 2024 sheet to make your games easier to run. Watch the video   or dive into the full breakdown right here! Fast Editing is here! One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we’ve heard is that editing your sheet takes too many clicks . We’re fixing that right now! In-line Editing (Phase 1) has just launched for D&D 2024 NPCs . From the Stat Block layout, click Edit. You can quickly click or tab through all fields. No more modals! Changes to attributes will automatically update the associated modifiers. We’ll be gathering your feedback before expanding to Phase 2, and then to full PC support in Phase 3! We’ve rebuilt editing from the ground up on new tech that allows us to go further than ever before. Some of which you can see in our… Sneak Peak at Phase 2! In-line Editing (Phase 2) helps you see what’s really going on with your characters! It introduces smart calculations.  Let’s say you’re building an NPC and set their Dexterity modifier to +2. Then, either on purpose or by accident, you type +4 into the Initiative box. In Phase 1, that would simply override Initiative without warning or context. But in Phase 2, a small broken link icon  appears next to Initiative. It’s the sheet’s way of saying “Hey, the math here doesn’t line up!” Hover over it, and you’ll see exactly what’s going on: the sheet is telling you “Initiative is normally +2 from Dex, but you manually entered +4, so we’re logging the additional +2 as a manual bonus. Click here if you want it gone.” It’s not stopping you, it’s just letting you know there’s a deviation, so all your decisions stay intentional! If you’re intentionally deviating and don’t want these reminders, no problem, just toggle Automation off, and deviate to your evil GM-hearts content! Give us your feedback directly! We’re hosting a live D&D In-line Editing Feedback Session on Thursday, August 14 at 4PM ET in our Discord. Join the dev team to share your first impressions of in-line editing and let us know what would make editing faster and easier for your games. Your feedback will directly shape future improvements! Join the Discord Stage Event A Better Interface is Launching This Month We’ve taken your UI feedback seriously, and are upgrading the experience this month. Here’s a first look at some of the design updates coming in August. Search Bar A search bar is being introduced to help you find exactly what action or entry you’re looking for. Expand / Collapse We’ve added expand/collapse icons to streamline how you view more details. In Combat tabs you can now easily see item descriptors without cluttering the sheet! Smarter Icons We changed the Edit icon to be more clear, and we moved the “send to chat” icon to help reduce icon clutter. (icons highlighted below) Spell View Defaults We’ve made the Spell List View the default, and made it easier to navigate! All Together Now! There’s a bunch of other small changes that really help you quickly spot what you need. We think these changes look great all together, let us know what you think! Note: These are some quick-win upgrades. Further changes to modals, onboarding, and deeper usability are in the works. D&D 2014 Sheet is Here to Stay The D&D 2024 sheet fully supports both 2024 and 2014 rules. It is built for flexibility and new features. It’s the best choice for playing all that D&D 5E has to offer and mixing 2014 / 2024 content.  But to be very clear.. The D&D 2014 sheet is here to stay! We know many of you will keep playing 2014 for years, and that your current solution works for you. The D&D 2014 sheet is not going anywhere. The current experience will be fully supported, maintained, and it is still a great fit for many games, especially those reliant on automations and Mod Scripts that we’re still actively developing into the 2024 sheet. Even better, 2014 sheet users can enjoy some of 2024’s new features, like Shop and Treasure Sheets . Multi-sheet support was built into Jumpgate (our VTT overhaul) from the start!  Just enable multi-sheet in your 2014 game, and add a D&D 2024 sheet just for loot! Want to see what’s next? Check out our D&D 2024 Public Roadmap !
Changes look really good!…
Love that editing NPC's are much easier now in 2024 npc sheets.  Anything that can be done to streamline it is always a good thing.  Will look forward to playing around with it.
Ok, I haven't had time to check out phase 1 yet, but I'm impressed by the changes to the sheet UI and look forward to being able to kick the tires on that. And highlighting conflicting data/formula while leaving the option to intentionally override? Very nice indeed. But for me, the best is shops support for the 2014 sheet.  Be still my beating heart!  I'm ecstatic over that.  I'd like to be able to move to 2024, but it's not happening any time soon, so this is great news.
1754507616

Edited 1754509993
Gauss
Forum Champion
Ken S. said: But for me, the best is shops support for the 2014 sheet.  Be still my beating heart!  I'm ecstatic over that.  I'd like to be able to move to 2024, but it's not happening any time soon, so this is great news. To clarify, my understanding is that the shop support is not on the 2014 sheet. It is on the 2024 sheet, which can be used in the same game as the 2014 sheet. 
1754705701
Grenade Salad
Plus
Marketplace Creator
The big question I keep coming back around to is if the 2024 sheet keeps insisting on what you *can't* do with it. I'm currently using the 2014 sheet for a 2024 game, because all I have to do is manual entry and it's done. When we tried the 2024 sheet, the mandatory handholding for character data entry felt like a straitjacket.
Thanks for not touching 2014 sheet. I would turn to other platform if you would force players to use the terrible 2024 sheet. If you would edit the UI to be more useable and logical maybe more ppl would use it.
1754793053
Grenade Salad
Plus
Marketplace Creator
The only thing that I'd love for the 2014 sheet is the ability to import 2024 spells/items from the Compendium into 2014 sheets. All the elements of a spell are the same, so there's no technical reason it shouldn't work, and that would greatly reduce the manual hack-job necessary to use the much better 2014 sheets for 2024 games.
1754793615

Edited 1754793763
Gauss
Forum Champion
Ulric Hadrian said: The only thing that I'd love for the 2014 sheet is the ability to import 2024 spells/items from the Compendium into 2014 sheets. All the elements of a spell are the same, so there's no technical reason it shouldn't work, and that would greatly reduce the manual hack-job necessary to use the much better 2014 sheets for 2024 games. Hi Ulric Hadrian,  Just a note regarding the elements of the spell being the same. On the Compendium's back end they are not the same. The D&D 5e 2024 compendium information uses a very different format on the back end. The D&D 5e 2014 sheet wouldn't know what to do with it without being rebuilt for it. Unfortunately, the 2014 sheet is the product of a lot of "cooks in the kitchen" and years of patches. My understanding is that it is effectively held together with the proverbial spit and bailing wire.  Personally, I'd love to see an entirely new 2014 sheet built, one that looks like and functions (mostly) like the current one, but has a clean slate of programming, fixed a number of the 2014 sheet issues, and could handle the 2024 compendium.
1754998496
Grenade Salad
Plus
Marketplace Creator
Gauss said: Personally, I'd love to see an entirely new 2014 sheet built, one that looks like and functions (mostly) like the current one, but has a clean slate of programming, fixed a number of the 2014 sheet issues, and could handle the 2024 compendium. I'd only want that after a thorough review of why the Roll20 team (presumably the same team that would be making a new 2014 sheet) did such a poor job of it. Because, let's be real, they did, and until that's addressed, I'm reluctant to turn them loose on anything new to recreate the same mistakes.
1755026076
Gauss
Forum Champion
Grenade Salad said: Gauss said: Personally, I'd love to see an entirely new 2014 sheet built, one that looks like and functions (mostly) like the current one, but has a clean slate of programming, fixed a number of the 2014 sheet issues, and could handle the 2024 compendium. I'd only want that after a thorough review of why the Roll20 team (presumably the same team that would be making a new 2014 sheet) did such a poor job of it. Because, let's be real, they did, and until that's addressed, I'm reluctant to turn them loose on anything new to recreate the same mistakes. Do you mean did a poor job of making the 2014 sheet or the 2024 sheet? The 2014 sheet is a hodgepodge of development over years. Started with a community sheet, then was taken over by Roll20. Had features added (shoehorned into it) over time. It isn't the result of mistakes, it is the result of development across 10 years. Adding new features into something not initially designed for them.  If you mean the 2024 sheet, it is a completely new kind of sheet, Beacon. I would hope a cleaned up 2014 sheet would not be Beacon. While Beacon has some interesting potential, it is so alien to the Roll20 environment that everything has to be built from the ground up, including how it interacts with Roll20.  Roll20 has made some good non-Beacon sheets in the past. There is no reason they cannot do so with a rebuilt 2014 sheet. 
1755042684
Grenade Salad
Plus
Marketplace Creator
The 2024 sheet is poor, and it's not the performance problems, it's the entire 'the sheet knows best, trust the sheet' design philosophy, as opposed to the 'sure, enter what you like, YOU know best' of the 2014 sheet. I get why the 2024 sheet was made that way -- it let the platform attempt to restrict what character options could be used if they hadn't been purchased on Roll20, which is a great moneymaker, but I don't work for Roll20, so...
The 2024 sheet is poor, and it's not the performance problems, it's the entire 'the sheet knows best, trust the sheet' design philosophy, as opposed to the 'sure, enter what you like, YOU know best' of the 2014 sheet. We do plan to bring inline editing to the 2024 sheet as well, and this is the first step of that (it's easier to do this with NPCs). So we hear you!
1755123647
Grenade Salad
Plus
Marketplace Creator
I'd love to hear some behind-the-scenes as to the design process that lead to this being so far down the to-do list, but that IS great to hear. Best of luck!
1755924044

Edited 1755924982
The sheet still looks like Crayola vomitted all over it. Purple-scarlet-carmine-wheat-charcoal-grey-white-mint... it's too much. - Sometimes red is a hightlight - Sometimes red is a cosmetic detail - Sometimes red indicates damage - Sometimes red is just... sorta there - Sometimes wheat is a heading - Sometimes wheat is To Hit or DC - Sometimes non-interactives are outlined ... wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. If colour is meant to help focus our attention at-a-glance, then it has to be used  sparingly  and  consistently.