In which James talks about recent changes to the site, once again copy/pastes a change-log, and talks about upcoming coding-related things on the horizon.

Hi all,
Time for another report from your friendly neighborhood Seneschal with the latest ins and outs related to the site.

Deployed Code Changes

Below is a list of most of the code check-ins done to the site since my last report. This is a non-exhaustive, automatically generated list, and does not contain code changes that have not yet been deployed to the main website, nor does it list code changes that are outside the scope of the main website.

Here are some highlights:

1. A new ACC Competition Archetype that facilitates running ACC competitions using the Open Challenge system
2. A new Brackets Competition Archetype to support competitions ran in a brackets format
3. Pending Cluster Overview
4. Additional Character Slots: Alts and NPCs
5. Snapshots, including support for ACC, Fiction Competitions, and manual snapshots
6. Warbanner Request Form
7. Lots of updates to libraries and the framework used by the site
8. Minor changes and bugfixes

James Entar:
      Update Chat Links
      Restrict challenge venues to active ones
      API updates
      Manual SA Fail Button
      Enable YouTube embed in reports/competitions
      Fix edge case that caused Promotion Assesments to error out on very old dossiers with legacy data
      Fixed edge case that could cause an error trying to check whether someone has permission to promote a GM
      Don't send reminders for closed ACC battles
      Initial Brackets Competition support
      Fix a bug where former name search would only work when logged in
      Don't override 'late subscription' logic on bracket comps
      Add Fiction Center to Main Navbar
      Start implementing bracket seeding methods
      Add some logic to mailing list checkers to make it consider gmail addresses with and without periods as equal
      Send notification e-mail on competition comments
      Overview of pending clusters
      Trash carrying fractional gaming clusters at weekly reset
      Additional Character Slots backend
      Split out CS admin into a page for each character, finish up Character Slot backend admin
      Fix Char Slot Bug
      Fix CS sandbox
      Implement frontend logic for SA course prerequisites and course tags
      Show account balance on slot purchase screen
      Snapshots backend
      Additional Character Slots front-end
      NPC loadouts, hook up Character Slots to admin menu
      Update wiki link on character slots page
      Resolve slotted NPC society rank requirements through owner; don't unit-stamp member-owned NPCs
      Prevent NPCs sharing items
      Snapshots: ACC Implementation
      ACC snapshot tweaks
      Various small fixes
      Upstream library updates
      More possessions paperdoll images
      Link to society wikis from progress page
      Library updates
      Upgrade to Rails 5, plus related fixes
      Kill IRC with fire
      Re-enable brackets comp archetype
      Update degree requirements
      Only show ACC battles claimed by you or unclaimed ACC battles as 'requiring your attention'
      Snapshots for FictionCompetitions
      Some minor bugfixes
      ACC Competition Archetype, allows creating comp matches through Open Challenges
      Remove debug statement
      Change ACC pending battles logic a bit
      Fix 'snaphot' being spelled wrong
      Enforce previewing on ACC posts
      Fix 'last post' warning always showing up
      Manual admin setting to make a competition skip credit awarding to prevent double awarding credits when resolving grading issues
      Hotfix ACC judging preview not working
      Implement site-based Warbanner request form
      Update Kallisto rules
      Link up WB request form
      Kallisto rules
      Lib updates
      Improve Welcome Mail Logic
      Update blocklist
      Promotheus updates for new SA degrees
      Hook up accounts index page to view permission rather than manage
      Update Kallisto rules
      COPPA instructions on join form
      Prevent preventing both early and late subscription
      Manual Snapshots
      Notify CoC on self-resignations
      Link Skills + FPs to their Wiki description
      Add links from last commit in new window/tab
      Automate bonus Clusters of Ice
      Update bonus cluster label
      Properly tag Open Challenge battles with competition
      Fix query error
      ACC hall API endpoint
      Fix mobile CS editor z-index issue which prevented changing feats

On the Horizon

This section provides some sneak previews of upcoming site changes and the larger things on the Seneschal Office's todo-list in various stages of completion, in no particular order.

1. SA Revamp
   Status: ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ (On hold pending some GFX items from the Herald)
   *An effort by the SA staff to streamline the organization of the Shadow Academy and make it easier to get to and find information, and to create a more focused new member experience. *
   This is done on the coding side. The only thing left to roll out is a revamp of the SA landing page that will replace the current "Message from the Headmaster". This new landing page will feature some GFX that's currently being worked on.

2. Skins
   Status: ▮▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯ (On hold until after GJW)
   Integration of Possessions Items with Dossier Graphics.
   Coding has not yet been started, but Vyr and I have brainstormed a lot on how this is going to work. I'm probably picking this up after the GJW.

3. Possessions: Item Upgrades
   Status: ▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯▯▯ (On hold pending content)
   A proposal to implement Upgrades, which basically can be described as pre-written aspects provided by the Regent Staff (members can't submit custom versions), that don't necessarily need to have a downside like regular Item Aspects.
   This is currently on hold at Evant's request until the Regent staff has enough decent content to drop into this feature. Once this is the case, this should be fairly easy to implement as we can leverage the existing Item Aspect infrastructure.

4. Graphics Society
   Status: ▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯▯▯ (On hold pending Society Development)
   A new Society to provide our artistically capable members with a new outlet of creativity and activity.
   This is currently on hold until the final details, point values and rewards for the society have been worked out. Once this is done, translating everything into Promotheus rules should be fairly easy.

5. Random Bug fixes and Things That Come Up™
   A wild Dark Council member appeared. It uses Feature Request!
   [FIGHT][ITEM][PKMN][RUN]

6. The big "When we get to it" list
   Random small or less small things the Seneschal office tackles when they have spare time. Feel free to mail/message me with any suggestions for this list.

   • Re-work character sheet states to bring them in line with competitions (so withdrawing a sheet doesn't render it unavailable anymore)
   • Look into ways of letting people know their CS metadata (name, unit, saber) is out of date before taking snapshots or issuing an ACC challenge
   • Automatically progress character age based on site fictional year
   • Ability for Regent Staff to manage inventory for inactive stores
   • Ability for Regent to manage "Brotherhood" possessions
   • NPC Armory for Clan and Plot NPCs
   • Add an extensions overview to ACC battle pages
   • Ability to exclude NV2 and below from "percentage of the DB with this rank/course/award" statistics

Closing

As always, we've seen lots of fixes and additions being applied to the site, and even more interesting things to come. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to e-mail me, Telegram me, or throw in a comment.

James L. Entar
Seneschal of the Brotherhood