27
Mar

Stretch Goal Updates

 The State of the Reforge

Greetings Portallers! It’s time for a big update regarding the Reforged stretch goals and what we’ve been doing behind the curtains for so long. We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes crafting our stretch goals and making iterations on the site.

Below you’ll find a list of the current development items we’re working on. We’re excited to be bringing these new bells and whistles to the site and we can’t wait to see how everyone will put them to use.

Stretch Goals Roadmap

File Uploads

This the main feature we’re actively working on right now. It is slow going, but we’re making steady progress. We expect a small, private beta group to begin testing it within the next few weeks. As with most of our features, we plan to launch file uploads as a barebones feature at first and follow up with iterative enhancements as the future unfolds.

On a side note, some of you may have noticed a survey in your inbox not too long ago regarding how you use files in your campaign. For the file uploads and in general, we are going to gather solid data to help both design and refine our feature enhancements. Surveys allow us to collect and consolidate that information in an easy-to-understand format. If you haven’t yet received the survey, don’t worry, as we’ll be sending it out to more people soon.

High-Contrast Mode

We have gotten a lot of feedback regarding the new color scheme, particularly regarding the color of the text on the background within text entry fields. We have plans to implement a “high contrast mode” to provide yet another option for those who are having difficulty with the default color scheme. No custom CSS is required, and it will be available to everyone, not just Ascendant. However, I’m trying to focus on the file uploads first and get that out before splitting off onto other things.

Natural Editing

Natural editing has some groundwork laid and we’re toying with a few different implementations of it as we speak, but at this point there’s not very much beyond that. We’re going to be digging into development on this after file uploads are finished, however we have no concrete ETA. There are still a lot of questions to be answered regarding natural editing and data that we’d like to collect from you all, so expect some more surveys in the future as we make more progress on this.

Random Name Generator

The name generator is just about ready, however it has been set aside for the moment so that we can focus in on the other goals mentioned here. It needs a bit more polish before we integrate it.  The file uploads seem to be a more immediately usable utility for our users so that’s why we’re focusing on that right now instead of the name generator, but we do plan on getting to work on wrapping this one up soon.

Map Markers & More Custom Backgrounds

We have a system to deliver fresh content in the form of new map markers and backgrounds for your campaign (both Ascendant, and non) and are looking to start adding more. We know there is a need for more general-purpose backgrounds, as well as just more variety in general.

We hit a snag on this when our “get more backgrounds” guy took a new job that doesn’t leave him enough time to work on this, so we’re looking for someone to step in. If you’re interested, keep an eye out as we’ll be posting the job description soon.

Stretch Goal Meter

Stay Tuned

We apologize for the silence thus far, and you should expect more regular updates on the blog as we move forward on feature developments. Also, listen for updates on the Haste podcast as well as in our email newsletters. Thanks for sticking by us during this huge transitional period, we’re looking forward to the future and we hope you are too!

 

 

Please be advised that comments have been disabled because we are currently working hard on implementing the discussed features, and they are not open for discussion/debate at this time. If you have thoughts on any of this that you’d like to pass on to us please drop us a line via email and we’ll try to respond when we have a spare moment.

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