charactergalleryupdates

[charactergalleryupdates]

Account Outage Resolved

Updates have been applied to the backend and everything should be working now.

If you run into any issues, please don't hesitate to shoot an email to trevor@trevorsacks.com.

Again, I apologize for any inconveniences that this outage may have caused.

- Trevor

[charactergalleryupdates]

Account Outage

Due to a server software update, account access is currently unavailable.

I'm working on some quick updates to try to get login and account characters working again, but it might take a couple of days. Until then, loading from local files or Dropbox should still work.

Character data is currently intact and backed up. If you need access to character data from your account, please email trevor@trevorsacks.com from the email the account is under and include the name of the character you'd like pulled. I'll email you back the character data in a loadable file.

I apologize for any inconveniences that this may have caused.

- Trevor

[charactergalleryupdates]

Update 3

(To check out these changes for yourself, pop on over to https://character.gallery)

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Regardless, I’ve got a bit gift for everyone today: the biggest update to Character.Gallery to date.

While I was going through my notes for this update, I discovered that I started working on this update back in February of this year. That means that I’ve been working on this update off and on for about 10 months. When I made the blog post for the last update, I told you that the next update would have accounts and a new character wizard. I am happy to report that I did not break that promise.

There’s been a lot of changes, so let’s get started!

New Features

Accounts - You can now make an account, and save your characters to it. Changes you make to a character saved and loaded from an online account automatically update, and the website keeps a full version history of every change made to a character, so you can rewind it to any point in the past. You can also share a character from your account with a special link. Right now, accounts are limited to 3 characters each, but I’m looking into possibly changing this in the future.

New Character Wizard - Now when you create a new character, you get a popup asking if you’d like assistance. If you click “Yes”, you’re then walked through the character creation steps from the Core Rulebook. Every time you move to the next page, the previous changes are pushed back to the character, so if you don’t need help any longer, you can just close the wizard and keep going however you’d like. There’s no provided database of character options, but each page of the wizard has links to the related pages on The Hidden Truth and Archives of Nethys, and can be copied and pasted into the wizard.

Printable Sheets - You can now print a character sheet for your character at the current level. These sheets have pretty much all of the important information relevant to that level, and should be able to let you play your character without using an electronic device at all. You can also use any PDF printer to make a PDF, so you can play offline.

Animal Companions - We were calling drones “companions”, that has been updated to reflect the fact that animal companions exist now. You can now add animal companions to a character. They work similarly to drones.

Shields - Shields are now supported, and can be found at the bottom of the Combat section

Point Pools - This is a new feature that I designed to make it easier to track all of the various types of points that you may need to track on a character, such as attunement or entropy. You can name each pool whatever you’d like, and can set a maximum and current number for each one. I hope these will be pretty useful for a lot of folks.

Backup Data Recovery - There are now certain points where the site will try to backup your character data locally, so if something goes wrong, it can attempt to be recovered. The site will offer to recover it automatically if you end up running into an error, or you can recover it manually by going to MIsc > Options, and then clicking on the Recover button next to “Backup Character”.

Error Reporting - There’s now automatic error reporting enable on the site, so that if something goes wrong, I’ll be notified immediately. If click the “Send Error Report” button, you’ll be given a a form to provide any additional info that you’d like to send to me. 

Changes

Analytics - I’ve turned Google Analytics back on, so that I’m able to get some better information about how many people are using the site, and roughly where they are, so I can figure out where to prioritize putting some resources in future projects and updates.

Auto-Save Timer - The site now waits for 10 seconds after you stop making changes before saving your character data: online if the character is on your account, locally otherwise.

Character Images - You can now select an image file from your device, and it’ll get resized and embedded into the character data or saved file. This will make it easier to use the site while offline. It’s also uploaded to your account if you save the character there.

Ability Descriptions - The details about abilities that you type in now show up in a small modal window when you click on the link, rather than trying to show them in a small “popover”.

Skills - You can now be set to use any ability score modifier, in case that gets changed by some character ability.

Feats - You can now add multiple feats at any level.

Damage Entry -There’s a Vitals button below your HP, SP, and RP bars. You can click on it to have one place to enter damage taken or healed, and it’ll automatically deduct from temporary hp, sp, or hp, as required. Oh, probably should also say that you can access your temporary hp from there as well, and then use the Round to recharge them at the end of every round.

Resting - In addition to damage entry, there’s buttons to automatically handle a 10 minute rest, and an 8 hour rest.

Weapons - These have gotten cleaned up on the Play section, they work much better on mobile devices. It hides the extra info you may not need to make an attack roll until you actually need it. This includes ammunition tracking, which has also gotten a few buttons. In general, the entire experience is a lot better on mobile devices.

Bug Fixes

Fixed several issues with mobile layouts and functionality

Fixed some issues with default drone data

Fixed an issue where dice rollers wouldn't work

Fixed some issues where character data wouldn't load

Fixed an issue where notifications wouldn't dismiss automatically

Fixed an issue where the menu didn't close when loading a character

Probably a couple others that I’ve forgotten about...

Things to Come

I don’t have all of the next updates completely planned out, but I have been learning quite a few things about Vue over the last few months. The next big thing I’m needing to do is a significant rewrite that should help make things a lot more stable. I’m also wanting to do an overhaul of the Equipment and Society sections. I’m still planning on working on some concepts with some ideas for Starships, but those are still going to be a little ways off.

Thank You...

So let me go ahead and wrap this up. I hope that everyone’s able to benefit ton from all of the work that I’ve been putting into Character.Gallery. I’ve been listening to all of the feedback that you folks have been giving me, and I’m extremely thankful to everyone who’s reached out with any ideas, every one of you who have stuck around, and every one of you who are just now discovering my little project that I work on in my free time. Every single one of you have helped to make this the best project I’ve ever worked on.

Thank you. And have a very happy holiday season this year.

- Trevor

[charactergalleryupdates]

Update 2

(Want to check out the updates for yourself? Head over to Character.Gallery)

I’d like to apologize for the delay between the last update and this one. This is a relatively small update at the moment, as some of the features that I was working on just weren’t ready, and I wanted to go ahead and get some major bug fixes and improvements that I’ve been sitting on out into the wild. With that said, let’s begin.

New Features and Changes

Drones/Companions - This is still fairly early and primitive, but you can now track your Drone’s stats. Click the “Add Drone” button for the first level you get a Drone under the Planning tab, and then you’ll have a new Drone tab in that level. You can fill out the basic information for the drone here, and it’ll put a new card on the Play tab. If you run into any bugs, or have any feedback on this, please let me know.

Per Level Skill Ranks - Skill Ranks are now tracked per level, under the Planning tab. This will allow you to see exactly where and how many ranks you’re using each level. If you open an older character, all of the ranks will be put into the first level, and you’ll need to readjust them.

HP, SP, and RP Adjustment Popups - There’s now an edit icon on the HP, SP, and RP, fields. Click these buttons, and you’ll launch a small popup that will let you type in a number, and then you can click either “Increase” or “Decrease” depending on if you’ve taken healing or damage. The number field should get focus automatically, so it’ll open up your on screen keyboard automatically on a touch device. There’s also a “Reset” button, if you need to reset to the full amount.

Timestamped Filenames - When you save your character to a file or to Dropbox now, the file name should now be the Character’s name, followed by the date and the time. This allows you to save multiple version, and be able to keep them track regardless of which device they may be from. It also allows you to sort the files easily by the date and time they were saved.

Languages - There’s now a place to put the Languages that you know. It’s located in the Bio section under the Basics tab. If you’re opening a new character, this will be blank. You can fill it in as you’d like.

Removed Google Analytics - I’ve removed Google Analytics to try to better protect your privacy.

Enabled Option Persistence - Turning off the dice rollers now persists when you reload the page. Other options will be able to do this as well when they get added in.

Switched Data Providers - We’re now using thehiddentruth.info as our data provider for Spells and will be using them for more things in the future. (Thanks Mark!)

Bug Fixes

Some of the bugs that have been fixed in this update:

Spells being linked to previous levels

Armor upgrade slots don't update the list of upgrades

Inability to save characters to LocalStorage in certain situations

Tried to load the character image multiple times when updating it

Skill ranks being calculated incorrectly after level 10

Unable to rearrange items in inventory reliably

Menu auto-hiding when switching tabs not working

Trying to add a purchase the society journal didn't work

Things  to Come

Right now, I’m looking forward to having the New Character Wizard, as well as the Online Accounts system up and running for storing characters in the next update, barring any issues that need to get fixed immediately. Once those are working, I’ll have some time to get Offline Support and Character Sharing working. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to tackle Starships and shared Starship sessions sometime after that.

Thanks

I’d like to personally thank you for taking the time to read this update. I know it’s been a long time since the last update, and I am sorry for that. I’ve been spending a lot of the time I’ve had to work on this project on the New Character Wizard, and unfortunately I’ve been slow to push out other updates because of that. I will try to do better in the future.

- Trevor

[charactergalleryupdates]

Update 1

First of all, I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who’s provided feedback and suggestions for Character.Gallery. I’ve been taking everything to heart, and trying to make what changes I can to make things even better and easier to use. This update is a big one, and I’ve got a lot of things to tell you about, so let’s get started.

File format changes

The file format has been updated to include versioning information, so we can track what things are changing between versions, and update characters of older versions. When you load a character, it’ll automatically get updated to the latest file format. Your data should be retained, but certain things may go into different places. (There’s a lot more granularity now, and there are places it can be difficult to figure out where things go.)

Ability Scores

Ability Scores are now separated into a base score, and bonuses for Race, Theme, Upgrades, and Temporary bonuses are all separate. Because the base score is also split out, we can now calculate your point buy totals to help you with character creation. We’ll get to Ability Increases a just a moment. 

If you load an old character, everything will just get put into Base, but you can split out the parts manually.

Advancement is now Planning

The Advancement tab has undergone quite a few changes, and is now the Planning tab. The goal was to plan out as much of the numbers about your character as the level as possible, so that all you need to do is change the Current Level, and have all of your important stats update instantly.

Rather than having everything in one giant block, each level is now split into tabbed sections, allowing you to focus on individual steps of leveling up. 

Stats shows you the numeric parts of your character for this level such as BAB, Saves, HP, SP, Skill Ranks, and Spells Known and Per Day. You might also notice that Ability Increases show up here too at levels 5, 10, 15, & 20. Just put in the increases you’d like for each ability, and they’ll automatically get included based on your Current Level.

Features is where you add details about Feats, Theme Benefits, and Class Abilities. There’s not a lot of change here, but there’s a bit more breathing room depending on your screen size.

Skills is where you assign your Skill Ranks for that level, so you know how many ranks you get each level, and what your total ranks for each skill is each step of the way. It also takes into account when your Intelligence goes up, and updates your ranks available accordingly.

Spells have been moved here, so you can list what spells you know at each level, and make changes each level as you learn new or forget old spells. They still link to Archives of Nethys for more info, as long as you put the name in as listed on the site. (Custom spell links are coming, and will probably be in the next update.)

Quality of Life Improvements

There are quite a few changes that will make things a lot less frustrating to use. 

Background Saving: Changes to your character are now saved in the background a couple of seconds after you make changes. Now you don’t have to worry about losing your changes if you reload the page. This was particularly bad on mobile devices, but shouldn’t be a problem any more.

Dropbox Import/Export: You can load and save files with Dropbox. You’ll need a Dropbox account, and you may need to allow popups for the window to open correctly.

New Character: You can now go to Character > New Character to start with a blank character. By default, it still loads Zenka to show you how everything works the first time you go to the page, but this lets you start from a clean slate.

Reorder Items in Containers: You can drag and drop the handles on the left side of each item to reorder everything in your backpack, so you can group items a bit easier. The order is saved as part of the character, and will persist when you save or load the file or reload the page.

Rearrange Play Tab: With the last feature also comes the ability to rearrange all of the blocks on the Play tab to suit whatever you’d like. Right now, these settings aren’t saved, but they will be in the next update.

Character Abilities: Your character’s abilities are all displayed on the Play tab, so they’re readily available to look up as you play a game. Just click on any ability to see what description info you’ve filled in. The abilities are split into Race, Theme, Feats, and Class. The Class abilities are also shown based on your Current Level, so as you level up, new abilities show up.

Hide Dice Rollers: You can go to Misc > Options, and toggle Show Dice Rollers if you don’t want to see them on the Play tab. This setting is also not saved at the moment, but will be in the next update.

Generic Dice Rollers: If you happen to like the ability to roll dice, but needed some extra dice, there are now a selection of dice you can just click on to roll. You can also put in a simple custom die to roll. (It’s pretty basic right now, but it can handle things in the format XdY+/-Z, where X, Y, & Z are numbers.)

Bug Fixes

I’ve also been working hard on fixing a number of bugs that make things display oddly, or calculate incorrectly. A lot of issues tend to fix themselves if you wait 3 seconds and reload the page, but if you dp run into any issues, please let me know about it. 

Things To Come

I’m still very much hard at work on making improvements and continuing to update. This is the character sheet that I use myself, so I tend to make updates and changes as I see problems while I’m using it. Please let me know if you’re seeing anything as you’re using it that would improve your experience.

Currently, I’m planning on adding the following things at some point in the next couple of updates (in no particular order):

Online Accounts, Character Storage, Automatic Syncing

New Character Wizard (walks you through making a new character)

Mechanic Drone/Companion information

Starships (I’ve got a few exciting ideas for this one)

Full Offline Support

Other Game Systems

Thank You

Finally, I’d just like to say thank you again for all of the feedback and support that you’ve given me. I wouldn’t have been able to make anywhere near as solid of a system without you folks telling me what you like and what you don’t like every step of the way. I’m seriously in debt to you all, and I hope that I can continue to make something that you'll find a pleasure to use.

- Trevor