D&D 4E Major iplay4e update! Manage campaigns, full text search, UI redesign, tablet view

[jigsawsaint]

A major update is available at:

iPlay4e - play 4e Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) online!

Campaign Management
Campaigns group together players and characters for sharing and easy reference. All it takes to create one is a name and an optional campaign world. Once you have a campaign, you can add other players by entering their Google email address or their iPlay4e handle. You and the other players can add your characters to the campaign, where they are all visible at once - including status like current hit points and power usage.

Browser Interface Redesign
There's a whole new look and feel for iPlay4e on the desktop. The full-screen character sheet has been refreshed, and is no longer hidden behind an obscure icon. Characters are stacked vertically to avoid side-to-side scrolling, and default to a combat bar view that lets you monitor the health of several characters at once. The View menu lets you expand them all or open each in a separate window.

Full Text Search
The search feature has been changed to return characters and campaigns based on what you type. Need a level 7 defender for a guest player? Search for "defender 7". Want to see all paragon tier fighters? Search for "fighter 11-20". Want to see all of the campaigns in your favorite setting? Search for "forgotten".

More Mobile Functionality
All of the site's features, including characters, campaigns, and search, are now available on your mobile device.

Optimized Tablet Interface
A variation on the full-screen sheet, this interface is optimized for use on tablets. Now you know why Apple developed the iPad - to be the coolest character sheet that ever existed!

User Handles
Use the new Settings menu to specify a unique handle for yourself on iPlay4e. Your handle will appear in the campaigns you join, and others may use your handle to invite you to new campaigns. Perfect for setting up play-by-post games where you might not want to post your email address to a forum.

Google Wave and other Embedding Features
You're already able to embed your character on your web site, on Epic Words, or as a gadget in Google Wave, Google Desktop, and iGoogle. Now you can embed your campaigns as well!

Special Note
The new campaign features replace the old "sharing" functionality of iplay4e. If you were using shared characters before, you will want to set up your campaigns as soon as possible.

 

[Baumi]

Funny, I used it yesterday for the first time and today it got updated

What an awesome tool!

 

[jigsawsaint]

Another minor update

We just pushed a minor update to the site:

• Hit point interface is much improved thanks to feedback from all you lovely people. Most functions are available directly on the main screen now.
• Sharing issues are resolved. There was some confusion about capital letters in people's Google account IDs, as well as gmail vs. googlemail problems. All fixed!
• Embedded campaigns now have a sign in/out link directly visible, so you can sign into iPlay4e directly from the embedding site.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[mkill]

Feature requests:

* Bookmarks / Favorites: A feature to remember builds that you like. Basicly a button on every character page that adds the character to a list that you can access from your home screen.

* Vote / Rate characters: Voluntary feature (opt-in). Let viewers award 1-5 stars to your character if they like it

* Lightweight editing features: Rename characters, add equipment or notes

* Character portrait upload

* Build history: Upload different versions at different levels of the same character (shows up as one character in the search)

 

[jigsawsaint]

Great list, mkill, I've absorbed it into the roadmap. Some individual comments and workarounds follow:

* Bookmarks / Favorites: A feature to remember builds that you like. Basicly a button on every character page that adds the character to a list that you can access from your home screen.

Workaround: just bookmark the pages. Let your browser do the work.

* Vote / Rate characters: Voluntary feature (opt-in). Let viewers award 1-5 stars to your character if they like it

Definitely cool; should be a part of a broader "social roleplaying" deal. Leave comments and so on.

* Lightweight editing features: Rename characters, add equipment or notes

Note editing is in the next release, which you can see a preview of here:

iPlay4e - play 4e Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) online!

Money editing will also make the cut. Equipment, not so much, because I don't have access to any sort of list of equipment options. Note editing can be used for that, though.

Probably won't introduce renaming of characters. I'll really trying to stick to things you'd expect to use regularly during a session. Changing your name, like leveling up, is something I'd expect you to do using Character Builder.

* Character portrait upload

Or at very least, provide an image URL for us to display.

* Build history: Upload different versions at different levels of the same character (shows up as one character in the search)

Yeah. I'm thinking something like a checkbox labeled "retain old version?", checked by default, when you use the "Upload replacement" function.

I really have to think through the implications. What you'd want, if you searched for "fighter 4", is to have "retained" versions of people's characters show up. This would help ensure you could always find the race/class/level you were looking for.

Also, you should be able to "replay" how the character changed over time.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Ferghis]

Hey, thanks for the great website. I like it very, very much. The iphone viewer is also excellent. Also, I love your "white noise" graph of the dice algorithm. Really great work, overall. I know that you request feedback to be reported on the google talks iplay4e page, but you seem to have taken the above feedback to heart, and I'm not sure I can track down the various threads to submit these things independently. So here's this.

I see a notes tab (occupying the same area in which the powers are listed). This a separate and bigger area than the notes/conditions area. But I have no idea how to add (or eventually remove) notes. Is this something that remains to be implemented? This seems to be solved.

Possible Bugs:
A friend of mine uploaded two different characters that are playing in two different campaigns, under different DMs, and five iterations of each character appeared in the characters screen, but only the first of each character seemed to have any details. The other four only had the name and the top line of iplay4e menus shown. The other four did not show details such as defenses, HP, surges, and so on. All other characters (I can view about 10 in two different campaigns) were normal. Both I and my friend could see the "bug." I asked my friend if he had accidentally uploaded the characters more than once, but he said he was reasonably sure he didn't. My friend deleted the characters and re-uploaded them, and this solved his bug. On a different occasion I could see two iterations of the same character, and only the top of the two had any detail. The duplicate appeared in the drop down menu on the upper left corner of the screen as well. When I clicked on the first of the two characters (the one with the visible details), it appeared in full, and the duplicate dissappeared from the drop down menu list of characters. I also note that you are working on this issue.

The plugin for both Wave and Epicwords.com is usually too wide. I have a 1280x1024 monitor, and when my browser is set to fullscreen, I can't see the entire width of the plugin on epicwords, and I can only see the full width on wave if I minimize the inbox or search result panel. On epicwords, a vertical scrollbar appears on the right, but not on the bottom. It would be nice to do without the scrollbars, but I'm not sure if that's feaisble. The integration offered by the plugin is fantastic, and is one of the greater attractions of iplay4e, so this seems to be something that needs addressing.


Feature requests:
I've been told that you intend to grant DM access to modifiying character sheets. The main purpose of this is so that the characters of absent players can participate in a game.

Encounter (as opposed to daily) Item power uses. At the moment it looks like only daily powers of items are tracked.

On a separate tab, track history of modifications to the sheet (date and time of HP changes, rests, item and power uses, etc.). It would be nice if this panel also noted rolls, citing, if clicked through a non-dice button, what kind of roll it was (e.g. init, a specific power, etc.). Donors should get an unlimited history for their characters, while non-donors could get an arbitrary limit to the number of lines of history that will be stored.

Allow players to add short notes to powers, and save these notes. This allows players to make up for the fact that the sheet does not (and probably can not) account for all the feats and items that may affect a given power. Maybe this can be fit immediately above the DDI info, and immediately under the area where the power's attack bonus and damage are listed. For example, the Shield Push feat allows a fighter to move the target of a Combat Challenge attack if hit, and although the feat is listed among the feats section of the sheet, it would be nice if a player could note it in the details of the power itself.

Triggered powers should have a floating tool-tip advising of the triggering event. This would save time when searching for a power that triggers off a specific event. I realize this may be problematic due it requiring access to DDI, so if there was no DDI account, it couls simply say that the trigger is unavailable.

In the build panel, under Race and Class fill the empty area with a bullet list of race and class features (under each heading in the left hand column), so that the player can bring them up directly by clicking on them, instead of navigating through class or race, and then selecting the desired feature through the drop down menu in the description panel.

Likewise, show the name of the Background Option at the bottom of the right hand column in the build panel.

 

[SabreCat]

Ooh, how do you track daily item uses? I haven't been able to figure that out, thought it wasn't supported.

 

[Ferghis]

Sorry, I hadn't notice that item dailies aren't yet supported either. My bad.

I guess the "1 of 1" next to each item is something that will be used soon. At this point, I have no idea what it means.

 

[jigsawsaint]

Hey, thanks for the great website. I like it very, very much. The iphone viewer is also excellent. Also, I love your "white noise" graph of the dice algorithm. Really great work, overall.

Thanks!

I know that you request feedback to be reported on the google talks iplay4e page, but you seem to have taken the above feedback to heart, and I'm not sure I can track down the various threads to submit these things independently. So here's this.

No worries. I wouldn't post here if I didn't expect replies, and I keep pretty wide eyes open for mentions of the site on the net in general.

I see a notes tab (occupying the same area in which the powers are listed). This a separate and bigger area than the notes/conditions area. But I have no idea how to add (or eventually remove) notes. Is this something that remains to be implemented? This seems to be solved.

Not only that, but I just pushed an update that allows you to edit notes, appearance, traits, and companions - amongst other features and bugfixes. I just posted a new thread with more details.

Possible Bugs:
A friend of mine uploaded two different characters that are playing in two different campaigns, under different DMs, and five iterations of each character appeared in the characters screen, but only the first of each character seemed to have any details. The other four only had the name and the top line of iplay4e menus shown. The other four did not show details such as defenses, HP, surges, and so on. All other characters (I can view about 10 in two different campaigns) were normal. Both I and my friend could see the "bug." I asked my friend if he had accidentally uploaded the characters more than once, but he said he was reasonably sure he didn't. My friend deleted the characters and re-uploaded them, and this solved his bug. On a different occasion I could see two iterations of the same character, and only the top of the two had any detail. The duplicate appeared in the drop down menu on the upper left corner of the screen as well. When I clicked on the first of the two characters (the one with the visible details), it appeared in full, and the duplicate dissappeared from the drop down menu list of characters. I also note that you are working on this issue.

Sort of. It's my understanding that this really only affected folks who tried out the "beta" version of the recent major overhaul, and that characters got duplicated when I went live with the overhaul. For the most part, folks (like you and your friend) managed to work around it before I was able to track down why it was happening.

Please let me know if you continue to see issues of this sort!

The plugin for both Wave and Epicwords.com is usually too wide. I have a 1280x1024 monitor, and when my browser is set to fullscreen, I can't see the entire width of the plugin on epicwords,

Oh, wow! I had pinged those gents about the new full-screen view, but wasn't aware they had begun using it. It previously always used the mobile view.

But I see what you mean. I'm not entirely clear on what I can do about it, unfortunately. The character sheets are fixed width (950px). Making them adjustable width would be a nightmare - not least because of the fixed width of compendium entries.

You could help out in two ways:

1) Ask the fine folks at Epic Words about increasing the container size when you're not using the "show mobile view" option.

2) Ask WotC to remove the fixed-width compendium entries, which would give me a better ability to adjust my own width.

and I can only see the full width on wave if I minimize the inbox or search result panel.

That's pretty much the intended use; I have to do the same. My thinking is that if you're in a D&D Wave, you're probably pretty focused on it, so maximizing the wave is acceptable. When you minimize the inbox/search results, its content is still just a click away since it turns into a dropdown.

The iGoogle home page, on the other hand, is smart enough to use the mobile view by default, but the expanded view when you maximize the gadget. Unfortunately, it seems Wave doesn't implement the same "context" functionality. The code's the same on my end.

Again with asking you campaign a third party Suggest to the Wave developers that embedded gadgets should be provided with the same context knowledge as iGoogle provides.

Feature requests:
I've been told that you intend to grant DM access to modifiying character sheets. The main purpose of this is so that the characters of absent players can participate in a game.

Exactly correct. This will be bundled in our combat management functionality, which is a couple releases out.

Encounter (as opposed to daily) Item power uses. At the moment it looks like only daily powers of items are tracked.

As y'all have already commented, we don't even support that particularly well. Overall uses, yes, but not "per item".

The problem is that we don't have programmatic access to the compendium data, despite the fact that we display it. So we don't _know_ that an item grants a power.

The intention is a whole "power customization" subsystem. Every power will be configurable - frequency, whether it's tied to a counter like item dailies, channel divinity, etc... We'll also be making it possible to "spawn a power" from any item, feat, etc. So you, as the human who can view the compendium data, will easily be able to create powers from items with a but of cut-and-paste.

On a separate tab, track history of modifications to the sheet (date and time of HP changes, rests, item and power uses, etc.). It would be nice if this panel also noted rolls, citing, if clicked through a non-dice button, what kind of roll it was (e.g. init, a specific power, etc.). Donors should get an unlimited history for their characters, while non-donors could get an arbitrary limit to the number of lines of history that will be stored.

Absolutely on the roadmap.

Allow players to add short notes to powers, and save these notes. This allows players to make up for the fact that the sheet does not (and probably can not) account for all the feats and items that may affect a given power. Maybe this can be fit immediately above the DDI info, and immediately under the area where the power's attack bonus and damage are listed. For example, the Shield Push feat allows a fighter to move the target of a Combat Challenge attack if hit, and although the feat is listed among the feats section of the sheet, it would be nice if a player could note it in the details of the power itself.

This will be part of the "power customization" subsystem I described above.

Triggered powers should have a floating tool-tip advising of the triggering event. This would save time when searching for a power that triggers off a specific event. I realize this may be problematic due it requiring access to DDI, so if there was no DDI account, it couls simply say that the trigger is unavailable.

Good one. I'll make it part of the power cusotmization.

In the build panel, under Race and Class fill the empty area with a bullet list of race and class features (under each heading in the left hand column), so that the player can bring them up directly by clicking on them, instead of navigating through class or race, and then selecting the desired feature through the drop down menu in the description panel.

Another good suggestion. Thanks.

Likewise, show the name of the Background Option at the bottom of the right hand column in the build panel.

Yep, not doing backgrounds just yet. On the roadmap, at the same time as portraits.

Thanks so much for all the feedback. It was well thought out and detailed. Much appreciated!

Cheers,
Andrew Reutter
iplay4e.com

 

[SabreCat]

I posted a dnd4e forums bug report about it, but I see the duplicate character lines thing too, and I never used a beta anything. It happens when I use the "replace dnd4e file" functionality to level somebody up.