About the next update: A letter to the devs.

Hello Roll20 Dev team!!! I know you are probably thinking about what features to add/change and how to do it for the next update, and since you have said the next major update would likely focus on usability improvements I decided to compile a bunch of the frequently requested features along that theme into 1 thread and make pictures of how I think they should look. I will also add a few of my own, and make some suggestions for (hopefully) simple changes that I think make more sense than the way things are now. 1: To start us off we have the chat pane. Most of this works incredibly well, is very simple, doesn't need much work. The only major change I think needs to be made,(and I think would cover something that is frequently requested) is the speaking as box. Can we get a @{selected option for it? I frequently see people asking for something equivalent to the /emas for players, but if it is a token they control, why not use the @{selected} function in that box instead? If you don't have a character selected, it just defaults to your name. Of course you would want to keep the other options there too, but would this be so hard?(I really don't know) 2: Next we have the art pane. Oh how it needs work.... The changes are summarized nicely in the picture, but in case anyone might miss what they are: A: Ability to search for multiple types of assets at the same time(ie. for tokens and portraits) B: an option to bring up your list of tags, in case you forgot what you tagged the item in your library as and C: the search always stays at the top. While we are adding the option to bring up the list of tags you have used, lets add it to the tagging dialog box inside the library window (D). 3: Next is the library window itself. Oh how I hate it. I refer you back to my earlier thread about tag vs folder pain points( <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/832545/the-pain" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/832545/the-pain</a>... ), and leave you with a picture of my suggested upgrades. 4: On to the Jukebox pane. Since this is the only place in roll20 where you can play music, wouldn't it make sense to have the master music volume control on this pane instead of the settings pane? 5: And now we come to the decks and tables pane. A: I think macros should be moved to this pane. Sure they work fine where they are, but they don't really seem to fit as a settings kind of item, and I figure it makes more sense to put them here than any of the other panes. B: I also think that the deck size option should be moved under the deck heading on this pane, and possibly under the specific deck it controls, since I saw someone asking about having different sized decks in the same campaign. 6: Rollable tables? They are awesome. But if a player wants to have a table with 100 random attack emotes to call in his macros, the GM has to set it up for him. Sad GM. Lets give players the option to have their own rollable tables too, and maybe share the ability to edit with others? 7: We are all the way to the settings pane now! And it's looking good without all the stuff we moved to other panes. Now the question is does it make sense to have some campaign settings inside the editor, and different campaign settings outside? I really am not sure. But logging out, and rejoin as player/gm? These tried and true features should be promoted above the experimental features section. 8: Characters and tokens... I see an awful lot of requests in the forums to break up the controlled by, and edited by options, so lets do that. If only it were as simple to code as to edit the photos...If you have control of the sheet, you can make rolls and such, but you cannot edit any of the attributes. I have some vague notion that maybe you could do this by applying css to disable any inputs, but I'm really not sure. 9: Ok, this still has to do with character sheets. Does it really make sense to still have the attributes section show in a game using a character sheet? I know you have said the character sheets are a presentation layer for the attributes and abilities system, so obviously you cannot just delete them, but do they need to be shown? Couldn't we use this space better by making all the roll buttons on the sheet automatically transfer over to the abilities tab as sheet abilities that you can't edit, but you can select to show in the macro bar or as a token action? The right side would stay the player created abilities like it is now. 10: And this one still has to do with tokens. At least a little. Dynamic lighting is awesome, but it would be nice to have more options as far as how to use it. I am guessing based on what little I know about how the system works that these would be the hardest to implement, and take the most resources, but WE WANT SO BAD! A: A way to tint the light different colors would be cool. Sure you can use an aura, but that doesn't fade out like light does. You just end up with a hard transition from regular looking floor to colored floor as you approach the light. B: A decent system for implementing darkvision. Thank you for reading! I love roll20!

That's very well organized and presented. I agree most or all of those suggestions would improve usability. One small place I felt you missed something, on Point 2 on the graphic, you don't have "Everything" as an option, which it is currently an option in the Art Search drop-down. Perhaps you're thinking that check marking all 3 boxes -- portraits, maps, tokens -- would be everything. But it's actually not the same. Everything is a more broad image search and pulls up lots of images that don't come under maps, portraits, or tokens. Another suggestion that would fit with your trends -- particularly in Point 7 -- wouldn't it make sense for the GM's choice of "Character Sheet" setting could be within the Settings tab inside the game, rather than on the Campaign Details Settings Page (out of game)?

I had assumed that everything would be covered by selecting all 3 boxes. As far as the character sheet, if you select custom, it gives you a place to input the html and css for the sheet, so that really wouldn't work if moved into the game editor. I was thinking more about if it would make sense to move those settings out of the game. I really can't decide if it makes any sense to do so though. I actually think maybe they should just be called token settings and possibly given to everyone to choose how they want it displayed instead of having it set for everyone by the gm. The video/voice chat option would work outside the game though.

I disagree with number 9, only because doing away with attributes while using a character sheet prevents gamers from adding and managing their own house rule attributes. Roll20's emphasis is being able to stay loose enough for people to do what they want and not feel locked into anything.

Fair enough. It would still be really nice to have easy access to all the rolls from a sheet to make them token actions without having to check the roll title, and call it inside an ability. How about just not showing the attributes that are on the sheet itself by default? Not sure if that would make sense, or what it would look like to have the 3 sections on the same tab. You could still have a way to add anything you need that isn't on the standard sheet, but it seems silly to have the same stuff shown once in a way that is easy to use/see/edit(unless you are using a crazy sheet) and then show the same information again in a way that is ridiculously awkward to use if there are as many as you see on a typical character sheet.

Hmm fair point on the art tab. I hadn't thought about that since I was just thinking about emotes. I wonder if players could be given access to the art tab for a limited number of things like their character tokens, and any table they make?

A new image for number 9 to address Kristin's concerns....

Id agree with Kristin on 9. Even using my own made character sheet, repeating tables don't show up, so I have players add ammo and guns manually to the Attributes so they can update ammo counts, and such. Losing the ability to add 'items that simply need tracked' without a whole character sheet box for it would be bad :) And for sheet rolls, Id prefer a tag on the character sheet itself to checkbox macro/token action. as for example we use no rolls on our sheets. So wed have a 1/3 of that tab always useless realestate. To follow your logic before, why double the places to find something? button on the sheet and button mirrored on that tab seems redundant. Better to be able to make a macro from the character sheet itself. But for the rest I can support 100%

It wouldnt be just a duplication since it would give you more control over what to do with the rolls. It does seem a little sub optimum though. You are probably right that a way to tell roll20 you want certain rolls from the character sheet to be token actions or to show up in your macro bar would be better than just duplicating all the rolls, but if you make it something visible, it will destroy the formatting on all the sheets. If you make it invisible, how will people find it? I wonder if it would be possible to add a right click menu in the character sheet to set rolls to token actions or shown in macro bar? Maybe it could also have some other useful options... Can anyone think of other useful things to put in a right click menu in the character sheet pane?

nice presentation here! Like the others said some tweaking of #9 and this is all +1 :-D

Great post! Roger A. said: 1: ... Can we get a @{selected option for [the chat pane speak as] 2: ... C: the search always stays at the top. 4: On to the Jukebox pane. Since this is the only place in roll20 where you can play music, wouldn't it make sense to have the master music volume control on this pane instead of the settings pane? 5: And now we come to the decks and tables pane. A: I think macros should be moved to this pane. 6: ... Lets give players the option to have their own rollable tables too, and maybe share the ability to edit with others? 8: Characters and tokens... I see an awful lot of requests in the forums to break up the controlled by, and edited by options, so lets do that. If only it were as simple to code as to edit the photos...If you have control of the sheet, you can make rolls and such, but you cannot edit any of the attributes. 10: ... Dynamic lighting is awesome, but it would be nice to have more options as far as how to use it +1 to all of this 7: We are all the way to the settings pane now! And it's looking good without all the stuff we moved to other panes. Now the question is does it make sense to have some campaign settings inside the editor, and different campaign settings outside? I really am not sure. But logging out, and rejoin as player/gm? These tried and true features should be promoted above the experimental features section. It drives me nuts sometimes how settings are split between the gear tab and the campaign settings. Also, can GMs please have an option to disable 3d dice for the campaign? They're pretty, but they're also laggy if you're rolling a lot of dice and in the case of secret rolls sent from player to GM (via API), the dice can still be seen which ruins the point of having the rolls be secret. Maybe I should start a thread for that.... 9: Ok, this still has to do with character sheets. Does it really make sense to still have the attributes section show in a game using a character sheet? I know you have said the character sheets are a presentation layer for the attributes and abilities system, so obviously you cannot just delete them, but do they need to be shown? Couldn't we use this space better by making all the roll buttons on the sheet automatically transfer over to the abilities tab as sheet abilities that you can't edit, but you can select to show in the macro bar or as a token action? The right side would stay the player created abilities like it is now. Please don't force anything from the character sheet onto the Attributes & Abilities tab. Until character sheets have gone through a few more generations of coding, I'm avoiding them like the plague. In the game I was in where character sheets were enabled, I didn't use the character sheet, I stuck to the Attributes & Abilities tab. Having stuff from the character sheet there would have made life even more difficult. So make it an /option/ if this happens.

Character sheets can be a little annoying if they lock some attributes, because you can't change them on-the-fly editing the tokens. I do think the attributes should stay in the sheet the way they are. On another note, adding proper playlists to the jukebox might be a good idea to avoid having to change every song manually or be stuck in an infinite loop of the same combat music. Nick.