When requesting a new feature, please try to cover the following items as much as possible. All are optional, however, and we'd rather you post a good idea rather than get frustrated answering all these questions.
*What does it do?*
What is the new feature you want and how does it add overall to Obsidian Portal? Be as descriptive as possible. "Track NPCs" is not nearly as useful as "Easily add an NPC to a campaign and sort them via tags like delicious" Feel free to reference other Web 2.0 sites like delicious, digg, and Wikipedia. We're not trying to copy everyone, but we don't mind "borrowing" where it makes sense.
*What does it look like?*
This is much harder than the previous question, but will help us as we try to envision what you're asking for. Do you want a new sidebar? A new page? Perhaps a popup window? Again, feel free to reference things you like about other sites.
We cannot promise anything, as some things are very easy, while others can be extremely hard. Still, we do promise to personally respond to every feature request that is posted. Your ideas are very important to us, and we take them very seriously.
I think it would be nice if there was a "My Campaigns" menu or something similar, I know it's a minor inconvenience but going back to My Profile > My Campaigns > Then choosing a campaign gets a bit cumbersome when managing multiple campaigns. I have 2 campaigns set in the same world, 2 different groups of players so I often refer back and forth. I suppose I could just bookmark them though, just a thought.
I too run/manage several campaigns that are based on my homebrew realm, having the ability to quickly share/move content from one campaign to another would be great! Its not that difficult to copy and paste between two, but it does become a pain. Wouldn't it be nice if I could develop a campaign setting wiki & then simply move relevant items/work over to my campaign pages? or when I develop something exclusively for one game and later on want to move it over to another. I did notice I could make a PC from one game an NPC in another, so why not whole wiki pages?
The ability to upload DnD Insider Character builder files and have them formated nicely (They have in it some XML header format so it should be easy to grab the groups).
It would be nice to have it kind of look like a character sheet inside the character tab. But if anything just listing the info would be nice so everyone could see each others characters.
Here's a short list of features i would like to see:
1. Markdown support in the wiki. Markdown is much nicer than Textile in the way it handles generated and preformatted HTML. This would probably be difficult to implement, but worth looking into because of the advantages of Markdown syntax.
2. A sidebar listing "My Campaigns" on the home page. Too many clicks to get to your campaign without bookmarking.
3. Premium campaigns instead of premium memberships. This is largely an aesthetic change, but an important one for marketing purposes. If groups can pool their resources offline to upgrade this campaign, they'll probably be more willing, as opposed to GM accounts reaping all the benefits to get a campaign upgraded.
4. File uploads for premium accounts. It would be nice to have an image gallery page that isn't just maps, but even just basic file storage would be nice.
That's all i have for now. Great site, we love it. Keep up the good work!
I saw last month's featured campaign had a video on their front page, but for the life of me I culd not figure it out nor can I find it again. The campaign was in Forgotten Realms I believe and dealt with a frozen north or south I believe.
It would be fantastic if, on every "edit" page, there is a "Save" button at the top. I find it inconvenient to have to scroll down far in order to click Save when I'm done editing a post.
in addition to a save button at the top (which i agree with), an inline page preview at the bottom would also be nice. Perhaps with a link at the top of the edit page.
I would like it if the GMs could edit whether or not the race/level parts of a character show up or not. I'm running Call of Cthulhu, so all my players are humans, and it's a level-less/race-less system. So all that's there is dead space.
An option button/drop-down menu to turn each part on and off would rock!
I would like to request that an option be made available to download a complete archival version of one's own campaign site complete with relative HTML. I sometimes worry about what would happen if the Portal servers suddenly went poof and, though I'd hate to see that happen, I'd hate more to have switched over and started keeping new notes on the Portal that then vanish into the ether.
Just a thought, but I don't think it would be that hard to give access to such a download for each person's own root folder.
Will a request get more attention if posted here, on as a new discussion under the "Feature Request" heading?
I've made a feature request or two that no OP manager has yet to post on... I thought this was just because they are too busy, but maybe Iv been posting in the wrong place. >=S
If this is the case why dose the "Feature Request" category exist at all?
Also, it occurs to me that the ability to hide the tags list might be helpful as mine has grown to unwieldy proportions and it makes every wiki page extremely long.
Character Journals:
The Ability to keep a journal of his travels not linked to the campaign. Can be used for them to keep track of what they might be doing/thinking etc.
Wiki with external pages:
Would it be possible to have wikis from external sites within the wikis ie http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page As some general info on settings etc might be places like that
Share Characters:
Being able to set a character to shared to another account.
Meetup Dates:
The ability for the DM to work with the players to set up dates to meet up and see who, via RSVP, see who is coming. Will be set to only the DM and the accounts linked to said campaign (people playing it) can view and discuss this.
More Space:
More storage space than 1GB... perhaps the ability to link and use things like "Dropbox" which is a cloud based storage service. (2gb on free account)
1. Would it be possible to give access of selected wiki pages to some players but not others? PCs with knowledge skills get more info about certain things like campaign history, religion, etc. and I'd like to let those PCs have access without the muscleheads sneaking peeks.
While I can just tell some players not to read certain pages or even just give the restricted info privately to the characters with knowledge skills, I would like to keep all my info in the wiki for easy access by me and then just click a selection button that would disallow player x or player y from viewing that page.
I could give the smart players GM access, but then they'd get to see all my super secret GM only info as well. Any solution? Currently I'm trying doing a second campaign that just has the private info and invite the Knowledgeable PCs, but it's clunky.
2. I second and third and fourth the call for a sidebar listing "My Campaigns" on the home page. It's really annoying not to have that easily available.
Thanks. I love this site and just signed up as a paying member.
I was wondering if maybe it was possible to have a chat section with an attached dice roll generator, having the chat come up in a pop up window-possibly allow for an online way to game? I think it would tie in well with the rest of the site
WHERE:
Near the top, perhaps next to the Edit button. For most pages, especially Adventure Log and Wiki.
WHAT:
Opens a page that has formatted in a printer friendly manner without other banners and menus. Examples are on many sites, although only Gmail comes to mind.
-------------------------
I'd also like to second this idea:
uruzrune Apr 1st 2010
It would be fantastic if, on every "edit" page, there is a "Save" button at the top. I find it inconvenient to have to scroll down far in order to click Save when I'm done editing a post.
Please place an items tab inside the campaign. Currently the characters tab exists both inside and outside. Right now, if I want to see an item that I've created, I have to exit the campaign to click on the items tab. I must also click on every player's profile to find items that they have created. An item tab inside the campaign would be more convienient and could consolidate all the magical items in a campaign.
Hey ace work with this, makes my Call of Cthuhlu game a great deal easier to run!
Things Id like to see:
Exactly as Pord says, A meetup dates / Calendar Option. Maybe even a Calendar View of the Adventure Log. and Character Journals definately.
As nubecybot says, an ability to turn off Level and Race. Or the ability to rename them, so Level could become SCL for SLA Industries, and Race could become Class or Job Title.
Oh and while Im about it, please add SLA Industries to the campaign system choices list :) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLA_Industries)
A GM page that allows for the Tag Management of Pages:
It would list all the pages, and beside them, the tags that have been assigned to those pages. There would be little X's by those tags for easy removal. On the Far left beside the Name of the page would be a checkbox, so you could select multiple pages and Tag them all with the same tag with an Tag entry box at the bottom.
On the campaign specific forums, I find it more useful to know who the most recent contributor was than to know who the creator of the thread was. Obviously you could show both. We use Google Groups for another campaign in which I play, and it took me forever to figure out why I liked the forum better over there.
I often forget how many posts are in a thread and click on it only to see that mine was the most recent post! That is annoying. Of course, it might just mean I'm scatterbained.
Add a GM Only section to items! Everywhere else it is handy. I don't want to have the PC's know exactly what it does, but i do what them to know its provenance, rumors around it, etc.
Would it be possible to introduce the new feature that google wave has so you can put a wave on any site?
Would be good for adventure logs so people can edit/add and not loose what they put if 2 people have it open editing it
Comments
*What does it do?*
What is the new feature you want and how does it add overall to Obsidian Portal? Be as descriptive as possible. "Track NPCs" is not nearly as useful as "Easily add an NPC to a campaign and sort them via tags like delicious" Feel free to reference other Web 2.0 sites like delicious, digg, and Wikipedia. We're not trying to copy everyone, but we don't mind "borrowing" where it makes sense.
*What does it look like?*
This is much harder than the previous question, but will help us as we try to envision what you're asking for. Do you want a new sidebar? A new page? Perhaps a popup window? Again, feel free to reference things you like about other sites.
We cannot promise anything, as some things are very easy, while others can be extremely hard. Still, we do promise to personally respond to every feature request that is posted. Your ideas are very important to us, and we take them very seriously.
Thanks
Mike
Thanks for all your hard work!
It would be nice to have it kind of look like a character sheet inside the character tab. But if anything just listing the info would be nice so everyone could see each others characters.
I'm new but this site looks great. Good work.
1. Markdown support in the wiki. Markdown is much nicer than Textile in the way it handles generated and preformatted HTML. This would probably be difficult to implement, but worth looking into because of the advantages of Markdown syntax.
2. A sidebar listing "My Campaigns" on the home page. Too many clicks to get to your campaign without bookmarking.
3. Premium campaigns instead of premium memberships. This is largely an aesthetic change, but an important one for marketing purposes. If groups can pool their resources offline to upgrade this campaign, they'll probably be more willing, as opposed to GM accounts reaping all the benefits to get a campaign upgraded.
4. File uploads for premium accounts. It would be nice to have an image gallery page that isn't just maps, but even just basic file storage would be nice.
That's all i have for now. Great site, we love it. Keep up the good work!
I saw last month's featured campaign had a video on their front page, but for the life of me I culd not figure it out nor can I find it again. The campaign was in Forgotten Realms I believe and dealt with a frozen north or south I believe.
Thanks!
An option button/drop-down menu to turn each part on and off would rock!
Just a thought, but I don't think it would be that hard to give access to such a download for each person's own root folder.
O.o
I've made a feature request or two that no OP manager has yet to post on... I thought this was just because they are too busy, but maybe Iv been posting in the wrong place. >=S
If this is the case why dose the "Feature Request" category exist at all?
The Ability to keep a journal of his travels not linked to the campaign. Can be used for them to keep track of what they might be doing/thinking etc.
Wiki with external pages:
Would it be possible to have wikis from external sites within the wikis ie http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page As some general info on settings etc might be places like that
Share Characters:
Being able to set a character to shared to another account.
Meetup Dates:
The ability for the DM to work with the players to set up dates to meet up and see who, via RSVP, see who is coming. Will be set to only the DM and the accounts linked to said campaign (people playing it) can view and discuss this.
More Space:
More storage space than 1GB... perhaps the ability to link and use things like "Dropbox" which is a cloud based storage service. (2gb on free account)
While I can just tell some players not to read certain pages or even just give the restricted info privately to the characters with knowledge skills, I would like to keep all my info in the wiki for easy access by me and then just click a selection button that would disallow player x or player y from viewing that page.
I could give the smart players GM access, but then they'd get to see all my super secret GM only info as well. Any solution? Currently I'm trying doing a second campaign that just has the private info and invite the Knowledgeable PCs, but it's clunky.
2. I second and third and fourth the call for a sidebar listing "My Campaigns" on the home page. It's really annoying not to have that easily available.
Thanks. I love this site and just signed up as a paying member.
Jacqueline
Thanks,
Rick
WHERE:
Near the top, perhaps next to the Edit button. For most pages, especially Adventure Log and Wiki.
WHAT:
Opens a page that has formatted in a printer friendly manner without other banners and menus. Examples are on many sites, although only Gmail comes to mind.
-------------------------
I'd also like to second this idea:
uruzrune Apr 1st 2010
It would be fantastic if, on every "edit" page, there is a "Save" button at the top. I find it inconvenient to have to scroll down far in order to click Save when I'm done editing a post.
Things Id like to see:
Exactly as Pord says, A meetup dates / Calendar Option. Maybe even a Calendar View of the Adventure Log. and Character Journals definately.
As nubecybot says, an ability to turn off Level and Race. Or the ability to rename them, so Level could become SCL for SLA Industries, and Race could become Class or Job Title.
Oh and while Im about it, please add SLA Industries to the campaign system choices list :) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLA_Industries)
A GM page that allows for the Tag Management of Pages:
It would list all the pages, and beside them, the tags that have been assigned to those pages. There would be little X's by those tags for easy removal. On the Far left beside the Name of the page would be a checkbox, so you could select multiple pages and Tag them all with the same tag with an Tag entry box at the bottom.
Anyway the sites ACE! Keep up the good work!
We might already be able to do this, but I can't figure out how.
I often forget how many posts are in a thread and click on it only to see that mine was the most recent post! That is annoying. Of course, it might just mean I'm scatterbained.
You could always show both too..
Would be good for adventure logs so people can edit/add and not loose what they put if 2 people have it open editing it
http://lifehacker.com/5529993/embed-public-or-private-google-waves-on-any-web-site