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Update 0.9 Feature Prioritization Vote!
🕑 Added 2021-05-27 01:14:00 +0000 UTC
Hello dear Patreon supporter community. I hope you have been enjoying all of the festivities as we celebrate our birthday with our "Anniversary Week Celebration"! With the stable release of version 0.8.6 arriving this coming Monday, we are turning our attention toward the future and considering which major features we will develop and include in 0.9.x.
During our past two votes on feature prioritization, our awesome patreon community made their voices heard. The community selected priority for 0.7.x brought us the Active Effects (V1) system, which provided an official structure and mechanism for Actors to be modified by temporary effects which change their attributes. For 0.8.x the community poll led to the prioritization of the popular Overhead Tiles system, which added a new canvas layer above Tokens that can be used to display overhead obstacles like building roofs, tree tops, overpass bridges, or other obstacles.
As we now look toward the future of the software and 0.9.x specifically, we are going to once again call upon all of you great people to help guide and steer which one feature we should elevate above the others and focus first. Just a reminder that this poll is not for deciding whether a feature will be implemented or not, but rather which one of these features we should work to include at this time. We greatly appreciate those of you who give back to Foundry Virtual Tabletop, and we’re always thankful for direct input and feedback from the community.
We have 9 exciting options to vote on, and we can't wait to see which major feature the community champions as its choice for 0.9. To participate in that decision-making process, please choose the feature which you feel to be most important to you from the below list of options. The options are presented in alphabetical order.
The poll will remain open until Friday, June 11. Join the discussion in the comments section and let us know what you're voting for and why!
Feature Choices and Descriptions
Advanced Measured Templates which will improve upon the Measured Template system to add advanced template animations for common elemental and damage types with support for effects like fireballs, ice blasts, lightning bolts, and more. Additionally, there will be support to attach a Measured Templates to a Token which can allow it to be rendered as an aura effect which moves in sync with the Token that created it.
Advanced Wall Types which are made possible by the advancements in wall detection and vision handling in 0.7.x. This feature will implement new wall functionality like curved walls which allow a wall segment to be transformed into an arc which can smoothly connect two points with a curved segment. This will allow for rounded building or terrain shapes to be made using far fewer line segments which will improve the accuracy of dynamic lighting as well as (potentially) improving performance by reducing the count of Wall objects in each Scene.
Card Decks and Hands which will extend the Roll Tables system to include a special type of table represents a Card Deck. A Card Deck will have a special UI, and which cards have been drawn from the Deck will be tracked at the User level in the concept of a Hand as well as API to support typical operations like shuffles, draws, discards, and more. This feature will add official API support to use card decks as well as an interface for users to create their own custom decks.
Event Triggers (V1) which will add the foundation for a comprehensive system for scripted or triggered events. You will be able to define trigger regions on a map with a variety of triggering conditions including (but not limited to) tokens moving into or across the region. When the trigger condition is activated, the event trigger will execute a linked Macro which will be executed for all users, allowing for the configuration of sophisticated scripted events like revealing enemies, warping between linked locations, toggling lighting conditions, or activating a trap.
Improved Canvas Interaction Tools which will provide GMs and players a broader selection of ways to indicate their actions, where their attention is, and how they interact with scenes. Potential include the ability to ping position on the canvas, change the way canvas zoom works to be mouse-oriented rather than centred on the scene, mark the starting position for tokens at the beginning of a turn, and indicate which actors are on deck during combat. Additionally, GMs would gain new tools such as the ability to pull player vision to certain areas of the canvas (including changing zoom levels), and limiting a player’s view to be centered upon their controlled token.
Improved Weather and Special Effects which will expand and iterate upon the initial Weather Effects and Animations framework already included in Foundry VTT using advanced WebGL shaders (like the new ones used for lighting). This will incorporate a wider variety of built-in visual weather effects, and improve weather performance for large maps by optimizing the particle emitters used for weather. In addition to this, existing shader and weather effects will be expanded with greater customization options, and the ability to apply shader animations to tiles, templates and drawings.
Journal System (V2) - An overhaul of the Journals and map note systems to improve the UI and UX for Journal entries, including ability to dynamically link to specific sections of Journals, additional fonts, collapsible sections and more. Map Notes would be expanded to allow creation of notes directly on the canvas, include ability to use any image as a Map Note, and limit the visibility of map notes based on controlled token.
Placeable Items which will allow Item entities to be placed inside a Scene. Placed items can be activated or picked up by an Actor, potentially triggering scripted actions. Placed items will be able to use image or video artwork and to have their appearance customized with color tinting or other image manipulations, having many of the features of the Actor Token framework applied to them.
Simple Fog of War which would provide an alternative to the default dynamic fog of war system. Simple fog of war would provide GMs with options to manually manage fog exploration by concealing or revealing areas with a brush or polygon.
Comments
AnneGwynneRobson
Simple Fog of War gets my vote because I'm pivoting to using Foundry basically as a digital battlemap when playing in-person and it would make it a lot easier to unmask as players move minis into areas.
Tigon
So many great options!! While I personally would like to see the journal overhaul because it will DRAMATICALLY reduce my world building prep time as a DM I also see a ton of value in improving performance with Advanced Wall Types, placeable items and event triggers, despite my own wishes I think core functionality being able to support Cards probably benefits the application the most as a whole. Not only does Card Deck & Hands enable Foundry to then support many many games that have card mechanics, as well as in-world games at taverns and such, but if implemented properly, it could open up Foundry to be used for other card games such as MtG, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and the likes. Which could open the door to getting a licensing deal with WOTC for Foundry Ready books and adventures AND digital Magic The Gathering card packs, potentially opening a door for the D&D Beyond team to run a MtG arm as well. Journals would benefit ME the most, but I believe Card Decks & Hands will benefit Foundry the most, so it gets my vote.
Anthony Harris
Pretty sure this got added in 0.8. From the 0.8.0 release notes: "Foundry Virtual Tabletop supports a new "No-Canvas" mode which can be enabled via the Settings menu which bypasses rendering of the game canvas but still allows the remaining functionality of Foundry Virtual Tabletop to fully function. This is a client-side setting, designed to allow for individual users with less capable computer hardware to still interact with the other aspects of Foundry Virtual Tabletop without the additional hardware requirements that the WebGL canvas involve."
excel
I'd love to be able to rank vote some of this. Would make for more informed choices too. Journals, cards, canvas would be my choices (cards #1!)
cyril ronseaux
Damn! I only have one vote. Too bad, so many good things to come! Cards, Journals v2, Measured templates, canvas interactions... oh please please, all of that :D
Del Benjamin
Cards Please!
Daniel S.
Zoom/Pan options
David Prothero
I'm voting journals too. I think it adds to the versatility of the tool. Makes it more useful for DM's to not have to switch between their own notes and the VTT. Makes the VTT a useful note organization tool even for DM's running in-person games.
David Prothero
Ha, I've done this manually. Use a screenshot tool and paste it into Discord whenever there are material changes to the view.
David Prothero
What's the module Daniel S.?
Denise Atwood
Have you tried one of the other's screen sharing in Discord (or other) for the one slow computer to see the map? I know it's not ideal for combat but it's a sacrifice either way
Bradley Kriss
100% agree with this. I don't want to bash the current journal system because it's pretty good but I would love it to be expanded to support more styles, easier linking/embedding of other entries, ect.
Johnnie Marsden
My vote is for improving journals. A large portion of these improvements are looking to add to prep time. Triggers and wall types are not needed. Making the core experience better with an enhanced journal system will benefit directly game prep and play without additional DM workload. Thanks!
Naresea
Not on the list, but maybe we could have a non-canvas fallback for players with slow / old computers? It wouldn't have to have any of the current canvas features, just rendering the map and tokens at the right position as images. The GM's computer / server could render the scene with dynamic lighting etc. for them, export the canvas as image and stream it to them. P&P scenes normally don't change at a rate where you'd need high FPS, and rendering one extra image every ~10 seconds or so when a token is moved shouldn't be too much of a performance impact. Atm I have one player who more or less prevents all others from enjoying the majority of Foundry's features since his machine breaks when the scene gets bigger than 1080p or I activate dynamic lighting. I like the list, but most if not all of the features on it are already implemented by modules and usable, whereas a "low-performance" mode would be something that probably can only be done in the core software.
Vesa-Pekka Palmu
How about finalizing active effects and the roof system? Both are only on the early stages and as it stands now the roofs aren't really useful.
Gaëtan Perrault
Honestly, I think we need a good "phone access" feature set in general. If would be cool if things like Journal Entries or Actors actually had permalinks you could visit in order to see them. That stated, I think that's a whole body of work unto itself.
Rob
I can only choose one? *cries*
Daryl
So many games are simply not playable at all without cards, and even more are considerably improved with cards. No more flashy things until cards are implemented.
Jon Michaels
I would love to see the Journaling system get an overhaul. It seems a bit awkward right now. I’m sure this is outside your imagined scope but I would love good phone access for journaling. I don’t need to be able to run the game from my phone. But allowing me and my players quick and easy access to write and edit notes at any time would be highly desirable for me. I came to Foundry from running mostly “theater of the mind” games on Discord. My players love the map. I don’t think I’ll be giving up Foundry but I miss the ease of jotting down personal notes at anytime and having it together with all my other game info. My players writing up backstories and interludes between games. It’s ok in Foundry but you have to be on a computer.
Gyro
Honestly approval voting when there are so many options is the better method...
Matthew MacGibbon
i know its not here, but id like to see touch support in core. now that we're getting out of the pandemic, i think foundry could really help in person gamers too. and that means touch support, whether it be a gaming table, or tablets.
John Fisher
My God, too many good choices this time around. Honestly if any of these other than weather or FoW get prioritized, we win.
Daniel S.
I know it's not on the list and there are a lot of suggestions out there, but among some other basic UI accessibility improvements I would really love to see is built in trackpad support for panning, without needing a module installed to do it.
Mark
Right now we have a bunch of addons that do the canvas interaction stuff, but it would be great if all that was just builtin instead of like 5 or more addons, some of which are out of date/abandoned... also seems maybe like it could be one of the easier tasks on the list?
Nick
i cant vote for all of them :( but cards get my vote. but id love to have cards that i can dish out active effects that affect the player when they either use a card or gain a card.
John Ackley
Savage Worlds uses cards for initiative, so Cards gets my vote.
Al Sterling
Cards... cards cards cards. Pretty pretty please. Cards.
Ryan Wolf
There are so so many cool things that Foundry can and will do. I would strongly urge people to consider voting for Card Decks and Hands. The current module was created because there are numerous game systems that really benefit from using Card Decks. The creator of that module has been incredibly busy with other projects and a new member of the community has stepped up to revamp it for 0.8. We got very lucky that there were a couple members with the skill to make it happen. Official card support would mean a lot to many users that play in systems with them. It is a baseline function that these systems need to operate at all. It might not be as flashy or as useful to some users, but for those that need it, it is the most important feature we can request. Vote for what you think is best but please at least consider card support as your choice.
Jeffrey D. Gordon
And Gun Rummy and Spades!
Ben
Please, even if it doesn’t “win” - implement card decks. There are sooooo many game systems that this would be useful for and sooooo many possibilities to expand capabilities in so many other ways. All the other stuff would be nice, but not having card decks in a VTT is like asking everyone to play at your table without writing implements.
Gage Eakins
I would love getting advanced wall features as the modules that add them are very clunky.
Charles Gill
Oof. Placeable items, event triggers and upgrading the journal would add so much beautiful functionality that right now takes a good deal of module work, but improved weather and lighting would be huge also.
Ian
and Castle Falkenstein, and Phoenix: Dawn Command...
Michael Parker
And Fiasco in a Box, and cards for Free League!
HedgehogBC
Card Decks! I need my Savage Worlds and Paranoia!
