Content Update 8/16

[Daniel V]

Hey all, I'm here to give a bit of a general update on upcoming content, insofar as I can, and touch on a few points of interest. Information has been sparse, unfortunately, for various reasons (largely the sheer number of hours Rob works). But I can at least give you all a general roadmap of content, and a bit of context on some stuff.

As for who I am, I'm Daniel, and since the start of last year I've been data file team lead (the one team that isn't one person, woo!). I'm in charge of us getting the book content in the system and into your hands, and making sure it's the best quality we can make it.

A disclaimer, I'm not here to argue about this content vs. that content, or how things are packaged/priced, or the status of bugs are. I like talking to you all, I like helping you all out, and I understand that not everyone agrees with all decisions or finds use in everything. I respect that, as I am also a person with opinions. That said, let's get to it.

As a general guideline, Paizo release dates are always our target to coincide with for releasing materials. If that isn't going to happen, I'll post in the appropriate forum with a bit of info on what's up, and what's being delayed will also be part of the release notes.

The other general reminder to give is about bug reports. I have to slot in bug work in around other projects depending on their scope and severity. We've done solid work on the backlog over the past year, and I've been trying to keep us on top of new ones as much as possible, but book release deadlines are always first priority. Sometimes its also a case where we need to have discussion on solutions, and depending who all is involved that complicates them. Not saying it isn't frustrating to not see your bug fixed, since they impact games, but I have to ask some forgiveness there as there's a variety of factors.

Onward, to content!

Starfinder Enhanced comes out mid-October. We just got the materials, so we're about to get a start on that once I can look it over. A lot of content there, including some updates to classes (for those unaware, envoy, solarian, technomancer, and witchwarper are getting updated versions, outline of the book here ). How we'll be presenting those needs some discussion, but existing characters will be maintained as they are and content still usable without the changes as well.

While on the topic of Starfinder, as I'm sure it's a big question, decisions on what to do about the SF2 playtest will be closer to its launch. It's a case where we certainly would like to support it, but it's a year out and with no details yet on the content or what else might be releasing around that time, it's too early to make any calls for certain. Also just to be clear, this is specifically about the playtest, not SF2 proper. I'm pretty excited though (Zon-Shelyn???)

SF APs are another rough point I know, which I might as well touch briefly. They wound up falling behind a few years ago, around the time of us being all hands on deck to get PF2 ready to launch for Gencon iirc. I know there was a lot of further work there after the launch too, and a rapid release schedule, and it wound up just becoming a deeper and deeper hole. I don't really have info to share on them currently, and with SF2 on the horizon now it's pretty uncertain. Don't take it as not caring about or supporting SF, I would love to get them in, but it's a deep hole and extremely limited personnel.

Switching gears to PF2, remaster stuff approaching in mid-November. Not a whole lot to share there currently. We've had some preliminary info, but once I look over the actual content we'll discuss how we're approaching it. A lot depends on the scope of changes, so once we have a better idea there, we'll let you all know.

We've also been working on integrating the Vault further with the character content. Not much in the way of details I can share there yet, as it's still coming together, but its been looking nice and I'm appreciating the functionality.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for being here and letting us be part of your gaming!

[TheMaskedFerret]

Thank you very much for the update and the candor.

[silvernean]

Hi

I love seeing some news about what is coming! I'll get to PF2 one day but not before my current PF1 campaign is done (so probably not for another year or two the way we play)

I can't see anything recent about finding a way to connect Hero Lab Online with Roll20. Is there any work being done on this?

Is the API going to include PF1 some day?

Is there going to be another way to export a character so that it can easily be imported into Roll20 and other VTTs? (Do you know if there is any work from the other end to meet you half way?)

[thaX]

The inability to just purchase the data file for books and not have to have the uptick in pricing to include the Vault aspect isn't sitting right to me. Have there been any progress in separating this two products or is the integration a reason for the price hike? (and why is there separate Vault entries in my store for the book data I already had before the vault's introduction?)

[Daniel V]

Well, I can speak on it a bit, from what I know. Bear in mind that I do not deal with how packages are set up or the store or any of the architecture there, which are all also major parts of why it's structured the way it is as well. But that said, I'll give you all my usual speaking my thoughts knowledge of it.

A large factor is the increasing integration with the character side that I mentioned we've been working on, which has been the goal from the start (but required getting the vault reader stuff set up first). Basically when looking at a thing on your character or when deciding what to add, it'll present as it is in the vault. So looking at feats for instance, you could click links for references and such to get more information. Yeah, you can have tabs and search AoN or whatnot, but we're trying to enhance both the presentation of the information and the utility we provide for immediate access. It does add a chunk more work to each book though, hence the price increase.

Not the crux of the decision, but a side factor is also that distinct purchase options would triple the content in our store, having both content, vault upgrade, and content+vault options for each book. So while mainly it's a number of mechanical aspects of them being rather integrated into the packages going forward, there's also a bit of a logistical side concern with not having a bunch of potential confusion from different purchase options.

There's vault entries for content you already own in the store to enable that for content you already own, but going forward new content will be fully integrated. I believe there was a bunch of extra work that went into making those distinct, but not really any option there for existing content.

I know it's a bit contentious on the feedback, with some not finding it useful (at least in its current form) especially here on the forums, while we've also got some very positive feedback from people who do use it as a reader. Personally, while I've used it in that I've been working on the integration with the character side, outside of that I haven't really used it very much yet in my games. So I'm not here to say oh this is the greatest thing ever everyone is going to use it all the time. It's a nice tool, certainly, but varies from person to person. What I am hoping though is that the integration features will prove far more valuable at large. That's what I especially enjoy from it and am looking forward to us rolling out to you all.

So yeah, I get that a price increase to the content is never really going to go over well, and the feature is currently hit-or-miss from user to user. I'm sorry if that makes people feel like the functionality of the product is no longer worth it, both from the employee "I hope we deliver a product that you find useful and worth the investment" standpoint and just the "I've been a user for much longer than I've worked here and have enjoyed sharing this with people and I hate to see anyone unhappy". But my suggestion is maybe ride it out a bit longer before rendering judgment, let us finish getting this integration set up and take a look at that. We've got some stuff to get hooked up still, but it's looking like in the next couple weeks (barring any unexpected turns or something like a lot of extra attention needing to be directed to SF Enhanced or PF2 remaster stuff - I don't expect either, but just saying because there's always a chance).

[Daniel V]

Originally Posted by silvernean

Hi

I love seeing some news about what is coming! I'll get to PF2 one day but not before my current PF1 campaign is done (so probably not for another year or two the way we play)

I can't see anything recent about finding a way to connect Hero Lab Online with Roll20. Is there any work being done on this?

Is the API going to include PF1 some day?

Is there going to be another way to export a character so that it can easily be imported into Roll20 and other VTTs? (Do you know if there is any work from the other end to meet you half way?)

State of the API stuff isn't something I've got much context on, but I can do some asking if there's any info to be had there, as iirc something might have been done there recently.

PF1 is pretty iffy I think, I suspect it's kind of a case of there being SO MUCH content and kind of a mess, just courtesy of it being old and structured differently from SF/PF2. That's a bar for a number of things that would be nice to do to PF1, we got it ported from HLC and working, but a number of improvements/features that would be nice are an absurd hurdle. But again, I don't have the best context in that area.

[KefkaZ]

Since Shadowrun isn’t even mentioned in any part of the post, is it fair to say you guys will not be working on any of the backlog of Shadowrun splat books?

And if the answer is no, will options be added so that we can add at least new items/weapons/spells manually?

[Daniel V]

I'm not really up on the state of Shadowrun or decisions that were made there (other than it's way behind). If there's not custom options for stuff, we might be able to do so I would expect. No promises on timeframe, as we're pretty slammed right now with SF Enhanced and PF2 remaster stuff, but I'll make a card to discuss that and see what we can do there.

[KefkaZ]

Originally Posted by Daniel V

I'm not really up on the state of Shadowrun or decisions that were made there (other than it's way behind). If there's not custom options for stuff, we might be able to do so I would expect. No promises on timeframe, as we're pretty slammed right now with SF Enhanced and PF2 remaster stuff, but I'll make a card to discuss that and see what we can do there.

Thank you. I understand the business decision behind prioritizing Paizo’s stuff. But it’s frustrating to not to incorporate any of the supplements, even manually.