foundryvtt
patreon
Patreon Prioritization Poll - Version 10 Feature Vote!
🕑 Added 2022-01-08 17:21:01 +0000 UTC
Hello Patreon supporter community. Thank you all so much for your continued support of Foundry Virtual Tabletop during 2021, it was an amazing year where we accomplished a lot as a team. Early next week, we will be posting a “State of Foundry Virtual Tabletop” article which is a companion to this poll and celebrates some of those achievements.
Our team is excited to begin planning and prioritization for Foundry Virtual Tabletop V10 which we will begin work on towards the end of January. A key part of every major Foundry Virtual Tabletop release version is for us to prioritize a major feature that is chosen by you, our Patreon community. Previous Patreon feature votes resulted in the addition of Active Effects (v7), Overhead Tiles (v8), and Card Support (v9).
The most-voted feature in this poll will be prioritized as one of our major features included in version 10. In addition to the choice of the Patreon community, version 10 will also incorporate a number of key features and enhancements which our team feels are most important for the growth of the software.
Many of the exciting choices that were present in the V9 poll, but did not win that vote, remain available as options to vote on. In addition, we have added several new choices in the poll that were not options last time: a Standalone Player Client, Advanced Vision Modes, and an Adventure Importer. A few options which were offered on the V9 poll have been removed from this iteration: Advanced Wall Types, Event Triggers, and Advanced Weather Effects. While we are enthusiastic about the possibility for each of these features, our team agreed that the timing is not right for us to focus on those options during the V10 development cycle given their relationship to other ongoing work.
Feature Choices and Descriptions
The choices are listed alphabetically below with some details about each option. Please pick the one feature that you would be most excited to see added to Foundry Virtual Tabletop in Version 10. The poll will remain open until Monday, January 31. Please voice any comments or questions you have in the comment section below.
Thank you again for your generous support of Foundry Virtual Tabletop!
Adventure Builder and Importer
The Adventure Builder and Importer feature will provide new tools for content creators to assist with packaging complete adventures consisting of many individual documents and data structures. This feature will also benefit Gamemasters with a brand new UI/UX for importing adventures into Foundry VTT.
- Content creators will be able to package collections of content together (Scenes, Actors, Items, Journal Entries, etc…) to define an “Adventure”.
- Adventures can be packaged and distributed via modules.
- Gamemasters can import adventures into their existing world which would load the complete set of content for that adventure.
- Adventures that are imported would maintain all of their pre-configuration and relative references between individual documents.
Advanced Measured Templates
Advanced Measured Templates will improve upon the existing Measured Template system, adding several new features including:
- Linking Templates to a Token so the template moves when the Token does (for things like auras of effect).
- Template placement that integrates with the targeting system to auto-target creatures inside the placed template area.
- Templates with areas of effect that are limited by Walls.
- A core framework for rendering spell animations inside template shapes with built-in support for common effects like fireballs, ice blasts, lighting bolts, and more.
Advanced Vision Modes
Advanced Vision Modes is a system that builds on top of our new Adaptive Lighting added in V9 to introduce advanced rendering for Token vision, including:
- Token configuration options to choose the “Vision Mode” for each token.
- A set of vision configuration parameters and pre-configured vision modes to choose from that support basic rule options like darkvision, infravision, nightvision, full greyscale, or others.
- Improvements to overhead and roof tiles allowing for tiles to be revealed by the vision polygons of controlled tokens.
- An extensible framework in our API for defining custom vision modes and shaders.
Improved Canvas Interaction Tools
Improved Canvas Interaction Tools is a system for more advanced canvas interaction tooling which provides GMs and players with more tools to use to draw attention to the scene, including:
- Pings which provide a visual alert to other players that a specific area of the game canvas is of interest, including the ability to pan the canvas to the ping location.
- Pointers which temporarily emphasize the location of a player’s cursor, to help others follow along with what that user is doing.
- Scene Transitions which allow for switches between scenes to be animated using a customizable animation transition function.
- Token Pan Lock that would automatically pan the canvas to keep it centered upon a controlled Token location.
Journal System V2
Journal System V2 represents an overhaul of the Journal system to significantly improve the functionality and user experience of working with text documents inside Foundry Virtual Tabletop. Improvements envisioned as part of Journal V2 include:
- Markdown editor support
- Custom font support
- A new Journal overview UI which provides a multi-panel view for viewing, editing, cross-linking documents, and search.
- New custom HTML blocks for collapsible sections and secrets which can be revealed to specific users
- Improvements to Map Notes to take advantage of new Journal functions.
Placeable Items
Placeable Items would introduce a new canvas layer and object type, allowing for:
- Item documents to be placed into a Scene and visually depicted on the canvas.
- Each placed Item can have its own visual artwork similar to Tokens.
- Players can interact with placed items to collect those Items and add them to their Actor inventory.
- This work would also include some infrastructure improvements to canvas layers to allow for custom layers to be more easily defined.
Player Client
The addition of a player client would create a new installable version of the software which is useful for players or game-masters connecting to a remotely hosted instance.
- This software can be installed specifically to help players use Foundry Virtual Tabletop. It would be an Electron application like the self-hosted full software and would provide players with a standardized Chromium environment.
- The player client would be free for anyone to download and entirely optional, connecting via a web browser will still be supported.
- The player client would allow you to save bookmarks to frequently connected game servers.
Simple Fog of War
Simple Fog of War would add a scene-level configuration for how the GM wishes to manage fog of war exploration in the Scene. Using the “Simple” mode would:
- Obscure the Scene by default
- Provide the GM with drawing tools (rectangle, circle, polygon) to manually reveal or hide certain areas of the fog.
- Present the same fog of war exploration to all players, instead of player-specific dynamic exploration (which is the current behavior).
- This work would also expose some additional fog of war customization options to the user, like fog color or texture.
Comments
Joe Engineer
Would love a good old mashup. Consider working with one of the free web map makers to generate walls and doors automatically from their tool. https://davesmapper.com/mixed https://probabletrain.itch.io/dungeon-scrawl https://dungeonmapdoodler.com/draw/#
Foundry Virtual Tabletop
When choosing options for the poll, we consider the subset of things that we would like to do that: 1. Would feel satisfying as a "major feature" 2. The software is in a good position to accommodate 3. There is a need/desire amongst the community Most of the issues in our backlog don't meet this criteria, they are either much smaller, we aren't in a good place to tackle them just yet, or they aren't highly sought after by users. This set of 8 were options that we felt met those criteria for being included in the poll. We're excited about working on any/all of them!
West_wolf_esq
So would it be fair to say of the 800 issues (that just blows my mind) the 8 in the poll are where the developers would most like to be focusing their efforts at present? I'm sure new and exciting issues and prospects will continue to pop up on the radar. Personally I am still in the honeymoon period with the dynamic lighting so will be stoked with whatever you guys release in the next major update
Foundry Virtual Tabletop
"Real bummer, because I see that as a baseline functionality of a VTT and almost passed on Foundry because it didn't have this feature." One thing to remember about this poll is that this is a very narrow subset (there are only 8 options here!) of the backlog of features (over 800 issues) that we want to add to the software. This means that we also think adding support for manually managed Fog of War is really important and is an important core feature to have. If we didn't feel that way, it wouldn't have been on the list. We don't add options to the poll strictly to see what the community thinks, these are things that we believe are important to add and we want to see which the community wants us to focus on first. "it doesn't look like this will be core functionality in Foundry for a long time if ever." I certainly can't promise anything when it comes to timelines, but I would definitely expect all of these features to be added to Foundry Virtual Tabletop at some point - as I said - these are all things we believe are important!
MNBlockhead
Wow, simple/manual fog of war is the lowest voted feature. Didn't realize how out of step I am with the Foundry community. Real bummer, because I see that as a baseline functionality of a VTT and almost passed on Foundry because it didn't have this feature. The availability of the SimpleFog module helped me make the plunge a little over a year ago, but its been a rough ride with periods of Foundry upgrades breaking it, etc. Hopefully the League of Extraordinary Foundry Developers will keep SimpleFog running strong, because it doesn't look like this will be core functionality in Foundry for a long time if ever.
weepingminotaur
Thing is, all of these features will eventually get implemented. It's just a question of what people want right now. I definitely agree that Pings should be part of core, but I also think Journal v2 is a more pressing option.
Guoccamolé
I agree. I really want to vote for “Simple Fog of War” as well as “Improved Canvas Interaction Tools” to check some simple boxes. However, the Journals V2 seems to make most sense as a foundation and prerequisite not only for so many additional features but to expand the power of adventure (et al.) content.
Guoccamolé
I agree with the reservations about Fantasy Grounds (FGU) client. But for luddites, configuration is not an option. And FoundryVTT would be offering the player client as an option for a turnkey (no fiddling) solution. As an option (rather than requirement as in FGU), a player client option could make FoundryVTT more of a no-brainer option for many more players/groups.
Guoccamolé
Simple stuff should be rolled directly into FoundryVTT. Modules are a two-edged sword. They’re great, but they can conflict, lag behind new FVTT versions, be hard to find (or choose, if there are options), or are unknown to new players. For simple, essential features, best to take them out of modules and roll them directly into FoundryVTT so the features can be totally relied upon, up-to-date, at hand, and easily found even by newbies.
David Berg
Some great options and a definate vision toward keeping this application as a leading tool for online role playing. Placeable objects/items appears as needed step that will take FVTT to new level and a much wider user audience. This feature seems critical for growing into a tool that supportis board gaming.
EternalDeiwos
Making content more portable with the adventure builder/importer would make maintaining modules so much easier. Bonus points if those features can be triggered/accessed outside of foundry (i.e. CLI tools) so that they can be pipelined.
Christian Klein
My thoughts exactly!
weepingminotaur
That's the thing. This poll isn't asking us to choose one feature at the expense of the others in perpetuity. It's asking us to choose what we want right now, rather than down the line.
weepingminotaur
A lot of what Advanced Measured Templates does is already covered by modules, depending on your gaming system (DF Quality of Life, SIFT, Active Auras, Midi QoL). I'm not saying I wouldn't be happy to see this stuff in core, but I am already able to replicate almost everything mentioned above using modules, so. ;)
weepingminotaur
I hear you, but almost everything in Improved Canvas Interaction Tools is already covered by modules (Pings, Scene Transitions).
Remi Ouellette
I'm hosting on Debian... works perfectly ... i never used any applications.
Nheyx
+1 :) no player client please
Christian Ovsenik
As part of a paid module team, providing support daily to users, and a GM, I really hope we never see a player client. That was one of the many reasons I moved away from Fantasy Grounds. We already have issues supporting custom setups like The Forge. The worst case is that some browsers have issues and people are told to download the app instead. I feel like the issues described with browsers for players are easily addressed: enable hardware acceleration, disable plugins, update your browser.
Joseph
Ughhh, "Improved Canvas Interaction Tools" definitely should be done, but it also seems like the smallest change from any of these listed, so will never win out over getting a bigger thing done...
Joseph
Wait what? Really? People gm, regularly, outside of the application??
Kristian Serrano
It also avoids browser extensions interfering and a tad more real estate.
Sven “DrMcCoy” Hesse
Fair enough
Gage Eakins
I agree. Journal v2 is really needed as the journals are not flexible enough as it stands. It would be especially useful to get some better table tools for formatting and styling.
Nheyx
Additional idea: An option of automatic translation of texts (articles/journal) it would be possible in the future? :)
Johannes Luber
I'd like to have Journal v2 first, if there is no upgrade path to such adventure module content. Granted, both sound good and eventually, I want them both.
Ian Brockbank
Adventure importer/editor, please! Having run the same adventure for multiple groups last year, it would have been really useful to be able to prepare a baseline adventure which then gets the players added. I ended up copying the folders then going in and stripping everything back again in the new location. Also, having this would allow me to do prep on my local computer without worrying about internet connections and then upload.
Ryc O'Chet
On devices a standalone client also hides the URL bar and navigation buttons - which stops people accidentally navigating away from the game - it's lightweight enough I'm actually surprised nobody has done this as a hobby project and donated it across! :-)
Matthew MacGibbon
right. when i first started using foundry, i was basically advised to not use the electron app, but minimize it and still connect via browser. and this sounds like a troubleshooting nightmare, to be honest.
Matthew MacGibbon
you'd still have to deal with updates, and other such things. this sounds like a bit of a technical support nightmare to be honest. and historically people have been advised to not use the electron application, but to still use web browsing. especially when asked for debugging information.
Matthew MacGibbon
im not sure i buy it. especially for the least technical players out there. getting people to install a client, even if its a chromium thing, generally means more technical support, not less.
Matthew MacGibbon
I agree. I want to know more about Advanced Measured templates. Im leaning toward it or journals, and id like to know more about what advanced measured templates would offer.
Cyd_LaGoblin
What could be done with Advanced Measured Templates?
weepingminotaur
Lots of great features here, but Journal v2 is definitely getting my vote.
Chris Barrett
Occasionally players have issues with their browser of choice, at whatever installed version it is. Sometimes performance, sometimes extensions causing issues, etc. So, at least personally I see this as an aid for the least technical players out there. In some cases this also makes it easier to just run Foundry, without anything else eating resources. Just opened up your lightweight laptop? Run the Foundry client and just play. Instead of launching your Web browser and potentially having far too many windows/tabs open, eating resources. But you don't want to close those ones because you swear you'll get to them eventually.
Chris Barrett
I'd love to see easier support for licensed content, in the form of the adventure importer/exporter, to help get more parties interested in Foundry VTT. _But!_ I worry that the more official, for-pay content there is in FVTT at this stage, the less flexible it can readily be to change APIs for the better. For fear of breaking that old content, or needing to hire a growing number of people to update it.
Richard Simões
It'd be a service to less technically-inclined users who would otherwise have trouble ensuring their GPU is enabled for their browser.
Richard Simões
It means being able to drop items on the canvas as tokens.
Forrest A.M
The Player Client would Essentially just be a Pre-Configured Browser. As it states it would just be built on-top of chromium
Remi Ouellette
Please ... no player client! ... I love FVTT because I can have player connect with Chromebook ... tablet .. phone even .. I'm afraid that if we end up with a player client , we'll have to support different platform than some module with only work with one or thee other. I moved away from Fantasy Ground because it was client based ....
RunnerRick
My vote is for Placeable Items assuming that feature means the items could have AC and hp. For example, it would be great to track how many hit points Sauron's ring or one of Vodemort's horcruxes has left.
fantom
That would be the purpose of this poll, to find out how important it is for people.
Neil de Carteret
Journal System v2 sounds FANTASTIC though. Markdown support will be a game-changer (pun intended, sorry) especially if you can do wiki-style crosslinking. Yes yes yes.
Neil de Carteret
I don't get the "player client" idea - what's the utility of an installable client when you can just pop the URL of the remote instance in your browser it it will server you the entire UI?
Ravenknight
More journal stuff sounds just abour right for me.
Michael Chester
Speaking as a helper on the discord server, I feel like we see more troubleshooting issues from the ideosyncracies of the Electron browser (the current "GM client" and what the player client would be based on) than with any other reasonably common browser (Chrome/Firefox/Edge). All browsers display things mostly consistently, but the Electron browser has a GPU blocklist which is both slightly different to the one in Chrome and more fiddly to disable, and it's also not possible to make new windows in it the same way you do in any other browser, which means the Popout! module doesn't work.
Forrest A.M
Player Clients become more Useful if you have a Client who has a lower spec system or they don't feel comfortable messing with browser settings just for Foundry, like Hardware Acceleration. It's the only thing stopping my part switching to Foundry from Roll20 at the Moment. I voted for player-client for that reason, but other than that, it was a toss-up between Journal V2 and Adventure Builder and importer, as i believe that Journal V2 would be a first step for the Adventure Builder feature, and then adding the Adventures. That would hopefully speed up adoption and support from Publishers Directly.
Sven “DrMcCoy” Hesse
It would provide a standardized environment that's more likely to "just work". I've seen a few weird interactions with different browsers among my players, like Dice So Nice somehow not loading for them, minute-long delay between dice throws and the chat card appearing, even fog of war'd areas being randomly revealed (my current suspect is that it's partially connected to the Less Fog module), all of which were fixed or at least changed when the player switched their browser. Heck, on my laptop, but not on my desktop, there's even some weird interaction with Firefox and my mobile nvidia card on Linux, I get random second-long freezes. (I've opened up bug reports both with Firefox and Nvidia, but so far no takers.) All these could be worked around by "just" using a well-tested singular browser environment.
Jasper Cook
Yeah, this is a real problem and prevents the players in my game (and me in the game(s) where I'm a player) from using the Journal system as their main source of journaling. The result is that all of my GM notes are in Foundry, but my players use a shared OneNote. It's kind of a bummer, but gives a better/more stable experience for them.
Sven “DrMcCoy” Hesse
I mean, there's a Pings module. Is it really that important for that functionality to be moved into Foundry proper?
Sven “DrMcCoy” Hesse
For the journal V2, how about journal entries that can be editied by multiple players at the same time, Google-Doc-style? I've been giving my players journal entries for their own notes, and it's of course a bit annoying if two of them edit them at the same time and some changes get lost. Likewise, some kind of undo after saving, or even full-fledged versioning system behind the notes would be useful, in case some edits accidentally get deleted.
Daniel Marcotte
Yeah there's nothing more simple than connecting in the browser... Feels like there are more "players" than "gms" subscribed to this patreon, they saw the word "player" on the list and clicked on that... A player client is a huge step backward in my opinion. More client&server synchronization issues. It's already a huge pain to just keep the modules updated with your foundry installation, if on top of that we have to manage clients + their own set of bugs, that's not good...
James Lambert
I'm intrigued by the player client but a bit unclear on *how* exactly it'd be "useful for players and GMs". Could you elaborate?
GMKeith
On the surface I agree but it seems there is a call for it. Here is the Discord notification about a player client: Player Client would provide an installable version of the software which is useful for players or game-masters connecting to a remotely hosted instance.
Daniel Marcotte
More tools for GMs is the way to go in my opinion. Importing various content from patreons & external sources is a huge pain, they all come with their own modules (scene packer, moulinette, ect).
LeRatier Bretonnien
It is... Read Improved Canvas ... description
Bryant Biek
I am confused also.
Artemisthemp
How come stuff like Ping isn't on the list?
HavocHank
The adventure builder and importer seems like it'd be a great framework for potential future licensing of official adventures.
LeRatier Bretonnien
I do not undestand at all why people want a player client !! I am a bit disappointed, compared to the other nice features proposes !
Chris Winn
Let’s go player client!!
