Dec 20th: Q&A with CTO Morgan Buck - New Voice & Video, Windows, Doors and More!

Why not implement a toggle to either hide it completely (if no one uses Charactermancer) or show it IF the XP threshold is active and not sooner. Other than that, why not just ADD A LINK to the charactermancer in the settings (instead of this big red button)? Morgan B. said: Saul J. said:    - Will the problems with the Big Red Always There Red Button for the charactermancer be fixed? J L. said: Q: The red Charactermancer icon in the AD&D 5E character sheet should be disabled until the player actually can go up in levels. Otherwise, the unwitting player finds themselves going up in levels they are not ready for. I will say the flashing icon is an improvement! Keeper of Secrets (KoS) said: I would like to hear more about: The Red Charactermancer button We want to balance all of your concerns with the Charactermancer level up button with the survey data we have showing us how much difficulty players have finding that button when they need it.  So first off, the button is not going to go away completely.  That said, we get how it causes confusion for some games.  We'll be working with folks on the forums to hammer out a solution that keeps that utility accessible for games where it makes sense, but either hides it or deprioritizes it (by removing the red or by some other mechanism) if you're not qualified for it or the game is set up not to use the Charactermancer.  

Bianca R. said: I have a  rather  annoying Problem. For some reason i am unable to level up characters beyond 3rd level via  character manner . I am having one on ************.  These Spam bots have gotten out of control over the last 10 months. What kind of prevention is going into stopping bot accounts? The issue is not just from nefarious links in the forums, there are bots being used to falsely fill games (whether to fraudulently show more players or simple trolling).

The Spam bots also highlight an extemely egregious security issue with Roll20, there is still no two-factor authentication.  If bots are attacking Roll20 in the Forums, without a doubt, there are mass attempts to access player's accounts. If there are bots on a website, there are bots collecting all of the emails and attempting to brute force through the passwords.  At this point a breach in security is a matter of when , not if it will happen. 

Well that's disappointing that none of my questions were answered.  Most of the responses seem to lack specificity and there is no acknowledgement of where Roll20 could have done better.  "Balancing concerns" about the level-up button always being turned on meaning that Roll20 was unaware of these concerns before they made the decision to turn it on for everyone?  Or that they were aware of these concerns but the decided to push forward with the change even knowing the trouble that would entail? Perhaps this was the wrong forum to ask any questions that might show Roll20 in a less than positive light?  Will there be any focus on process improvement on Roll20's side that takes forum user's feedback into account?  That is what would be most valuable to me at this point. -Adam

At least they announced to move away from the Product Portal and that the Team would engage more here in the forums not only for announcements... so at least they gave us this... What they are going to use next, after the product portal is yet to see... Adam Caramon said: Well that's disappointing that none of my questions were answered.  Most of the responses seem to lack specificity and there is no acknowledgement of where Roll20 could have done better.  "Balancing concerns" about the level-up button always being turned on meaning that Roll20 was unaware of these concerns before they made the decision to turn it on for everyone?  Or that they were aware of these concerns but the decided to push forward with the change even knowing the trouble that would entail? Perhaps this was the wrong forum to ask any questions that might show Roll20 in a less than positive light?  Will there be any focus on process improvement on Roll20's side that takes forum user's feedback into account?  That is what would be most valuable to me at this point. -Adam

The Foegetter said: The Spam bots also highlight an extemely egregious security issue with Roll20, there is still no two-factor authentication.  If bots are attacking Roll20 in the Forums, without a doubt, there are mass attempts to access player's accounts. If there are bots on a website, there are bots collecting all of the emails and attempting to brute force through the passwords.  At this point a breach in security is a matter of when , not if it will happen.  Indeed! 2-factor-authentication is needed! Or at least another step in account creation that the bots are NOT able to do... (maybe a captcha to click on things that are being recognized?)

When are we going to get customizable compendiums? That's what we actually need to be competitive with Beyond.

Arĉjo said: When are we going to get customizable compendiums? That's what we actually need to be competitive with Beyond. Or even Foundry...

Morgan B. said: TheMarkus1204 said: What about the Integration of Onebookshelf which was greatly announced a while ago and then kept silent? Is this still a thing? Very early in the year you're going to start seeing community content from DMsGuild and Pathfinder Infinite converted for Roll20 available on their respective shops.  With that bit of functionality, DriveThru creators will also be able to sell Roll20 content, either as a standalone or bundled with other content.   We're still planning to automate the process of making your Drivethru RPG PDFs available to you on the VTT.  In order to do that we have to work through how to associate a Roll20 account with a Drivethru RPG account.  Doing that in a non-annoying way is tricky so its slowing that process down, but we'll get there! How did Roll20 know about the changes to the OGL and how it affects VTTs before anyone else did?

I missed it again! Damn you sickness! Why, oh why, didn't I just post my question up front so that it could get answered.  Guess I'll try again next year

The Foegetter said: How did Roll20 know about the changes to the OGL and how it affects VTTs before anyone else did? Most likely answer is that they have separate legal contracts with WotC. This is hinted at in the WotC announcement. Same with FG. This is probably something they have discussed at some length, probably through legal representation.

For example, the recent reserve was "The Dragon Bundle". Nowhere did I see anything that lists exactly what that included. When I "redeemed" it, I just saw a generic message. I still don't know what that included, that I was given access to, when I redeemed that: Tokens? Maps? Monsters in the compendium? Something else? I *think* it added some tokens but I'm not sure. And I'm not sure if that's all that was added, or that I was given access to. I haven't created a new game in a long time because I'm in the middle of two campaigns... so I wouldn't see anything that would only come up with a new game. I see nothing in the link you referenced that provides a list of EXACTLY what I was given access to. Previous reserves have also added things, and in some cases, I eventually found them either by spending a lot of time looking, or finding a post where someone else posted what was included (not staff). This should be more explicit. The announcement should say something like: The "X Bundle" includes: &nbsp; - tokens that you will find under the name X in your library &nbsp; - maps that you can add to your game by doing ... and so forth. The announcements should be EXPLICIT. Morgan B. said: Saul J. said: I can't make the Q&amp;A - I'm running my weekly game at the time. But, some questions I'd like answered: &nbsp; &nbsp;- I don't know about others, but I've occasionally gotten these "surveys" where I've been asked to test new features. Are we ever going to be told which, if any, of these new features will be implemented or the results of the surveys?&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;- What is the time frame for moving to the new voice system? I'd like to know so I can give my players a heads up. I don't want to see this suddenly dropped on us without warning like other things have been. &nbsp; &nbsp; - Will the staff ever post EXPLICITLY what is added or made available when the monthly reserve is given to us Pro/Plus users? Right now, I have to spend hours trying to figure out what's been added and where. Sometimes things get added to "Free assets", sometimes to "Subscriptions", sometimes to "Marketplace purchases" and sometimes just as folders in the "Journal". It's a guessing game every month!! You're giving me a great segue here!&nbsp; A big theme of 2023 is going to be significant ease of use and quality of life improvements on the VTT UI.&nbsp; The results of successful surveys will be rolling out with that.&nbsp; I'll be talking about this a lot more in an upcoming video, but expect to start seeing some big improvements and modernization.&nbsp;&nbsp; We'll keep making announcements along with the way.&nbsp; The next step is to make new Voice and Video the default for new games.&nbsp; We'll wait for those things to settle before we remove the old voice and video in any way.&nbsp;&nbsp; We've been trying to add context information on the Announcement forums about Reserve Releases and how to access them.&nbsp; The latest is here:&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194</a> &nbsp;.&nbsp; Is that the kind of info you are looking for there or is there something still missing?&nbsp;

Hi Saul! The link in your quote states pretty clearly that they are Art Packs and how to find them. The list of links to the individual items also state what they are and how to find them. Are you referencing a different link from&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194</a> &nbsp;? I know the actual Reserve link in the header is usually not useful and desperately needs a makeover, but the link you quoted seems to have it all. I usually wait until it is announced in the forum before I bother with it for that reason.

Nice

Here's what I see when I follow that link: I see nothing there that explicitly says what it's in the pack. Here's what I see when I follow the link in the original mail message that I received: There's nothing explicitly there, either. Yes, I can go searching, and find information. But, that's my point, I shouldn't have to do ANY searching. It should be EXPLICITLY there in either the announcement, or in the link that you follow from the announcement. Period. keithcurtis said: Hi Saul! The link in your quote states pretty clearly that they are Art Packs and how to find them. The list of links to the individual items also state what they are and how to find them. Are you referencing a different link from&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/11221213/december-roll20-reserve-dragon-bundle-by-tom-cartos-vicnedel-and-david-hemenway#post-11234194</a> &nbsp;? I know the actual Reserve link in the header is usually not useful and desperately needs a makeover, but the link you quoted seems to have it all. I usually wait until it is announced in the forum before I bother with it for that reason.

How very odd. Perhaps when I clicked on the link, I automatically scrolled to the top? My bad, though. Anyway, if you scroll to the top of that linked thread, there are links to each individual item. My guess is that Morgan was posting links in a hurry, due to the nature of the thread and got the wrong permalink. Again, I probably just autocorrected without even thinking about it. That being said, I totally agree that the announcements need to be made more clear from the beginning, not just in the forum followup.

I realize I’m about two weeks late to dinner on this one but does anybody remember Layer Up? What’s up with that?