Greetings, soon to be weekend people! We have some extended dev updates this week, addressing the recent freezing issues and big module patches... Developer Spotlight New and improved patching system for games Changes to character sheets and attributes to improve performance and resolve performance issues caused by Firefox 58 New Dev Tools so that we can cut down development time and get changes out faster Hi rollers, Steve K here. This week we pushed out a major revamp of our patching system. Our previous system worked well for small patches, but we discovered when trying to patch our very large modules, like Storm King's Thunder or Curse of Strahd, that the patching process was simply taking too long. Several weeks ago we overhauled the queuing system that handles load balancing on our server and provides a lot more useful information to you, the end user, while the patch is in progress and insuring that the patching always starts in a timely manner. This week we released an entirely new take on how the patch data was being applied in a method that sped up very large patches by as much as 10,000 percent. We know that many of you have been waiting for patches to official WotC game material for a couple of months while we got this new system polished. We're sorry that it took so long, but when it comes to manipulating your game data it's something we have to do perfectly. That meant a longer than normal QA processes, beta tests, and a short run production test. We're really happy with the results and this new system should pave the way to fast and reliable fixes for any updated game content in the future. After Firefox's 58 update, the version following the large Quantum update that had so many positive performance related effects on Roll20 users, we got a large number of complaints from Pathfinder and 5E Shaped sheet users. Firefox had made a change to how their predictive text and autofill functions work. This is a normally useful feature for completing forms where the browser remembers your address so you don't need to type it in over and over again. Unfortunately it was having a very bad reaction to those two sheets in particular because they have thousands and thousands of fields, causing the entire window to seize up as it tried to be unhelpfully helpful. We were able to diagnose the issue and put in a fix on our end to prevent that functionality on character sheets. While Roll20 sheets will no longer remember that you like to play Elf Rangers, it will hopefully improve initial loading speed across the board, especially for users who were also having problems with 3rd party software like LastPass. Steve K. Roll20 Lead Developer Community Highlights Character Sheets: Take a look at the new Agon sheet - it's a simple, functional sheet for a Greek mythology themed RPG from the creator of Blades in the Dark! Please use and contribute to it if you feel so inclined! On the Marketplace A huge congrats to Devin Night on his 100th token pack!! Devin's become a staple in the VTT artist community, and seeing these milestones of success and perseverance are amazingly heartwarming. Roman Soldiers and Knights by Devin Night This week we also have two more giants of quality releasing tile and map sets - with MapSmyth's Arcania set, as well as Aaron Z. Arrick's Mega-Rooms. If you haven't checked out their works before, you need to see these: Modular Dungeon Maker: Arcania by MapSmyth Aaron's Map Tiles: Mega-Rooms by Aaron Z. Arrick WOTC Highlights Your loyal Production Coordinator Trivia here! On the patching front: Just about every WOTC Module has been updated! All your NPC's and Creatures should have their spellcasting completely updated. Farewell red text! Enjoy your easy 1-click spellcasting, adventurers~ Trivia Roll20 Production Coordinator Your weekly reminder that Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated, a series of map and tile packs span 3 themes with over 100 tiles each: City , Dungeon and Wilderness is available on the Roll20 Marketplace! The Roll20 team has also created 5 unique new maps per themed pack for you, including Dynamic Lighting , Advanced Fog of War & Rollable Tokens for quick tile flipping capabilities. You can pick your favorite theme or go for all three in the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated: 3 Pack Bundle and save yourself 10$. Go forth and build yourself an adventure! That's all for this week, have yourself a happy weekend~ -Alex
