Meeting 2013 05 28

Board of Directors Meeting on May 28th, 2013

• Status: Non-Quorum
• Duration: One (1) hour

Attending:

• Andrew Maitland [Acting Chair, Silver Back for Admin, 2nd for Content/Data]
• Paul Grosse [Silverback for PR]
• James Dempsey [Silverback for Code]
• Jon from Battle Field Press (Publisher)

SUMMARY:

• Alphas will be released every 3 weeks; a Final 6.0 Branch will be release after the pending sets are finished.
• Data Sets being worked on Bestiary 3 (Paizo), Ultimate Equipment (Paizo), Advanced Races Guide (Paizo)
• Data Projects: Dragon Redesign
• Code Projects: Migration tool for Code and Data - this allows us to migrate to new standards without breaking user's sets; Finished the DEFINESTAT work (Andrew requesting MAXVALUE to be added); Remove old UI code
• Web: Holding off JIRA 6.0 update for a few weeks; Follow up with Anestis for Forum progress.
• PR Events: Convention Season! Brainstorming for Kickstarter ideas. David Bender Resigned from the Board of Directors as Advertising 2nd. Eric and Paul will handle those duties.
• Open Item: Jon is excited about the New Edition of Gaslight (D20, RSRD), and is working on an updated version of Sherwood (Pathfinder version).

RAW LOG:

• [19:18] <@[Chair]Drew> Welcome everyone to our Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday, May 28th at 19:18 hours
• [19:18] <@[Chair]Drew> (PDT)
• [19:18] <@[Chair]Drew> Our Agenda for today is:
• [19:18] <@[Chair]Drew> 1) Team Reports
• [19:19] <@[Chair]Drew> 2) Code/Data Major Project status reports
• [19:19] <@[Chair]Drew> 3) Upcoming PR events
• [19:19] <@[Chair]Drew> 4) Open Forum
• [19:19] <@[Chair]Drew> I'll go first since I might lose connection in a few minutes
• [19:20] <@[Chair]Drew> Data Team - Busy working on Advanced Races Guide and Bestiary 3 - James is also making headway on Ultimate Equipment
• [19:21] <@[Chair]Drew> Docs - we have a few outstanding items that require attention, but nothing major.
• [19:21] <@[Chair]Drew> OS - Stable with a small project of mine for improvement - backburner at the moment for a few other pressing items.
• [19:22] <@[Chair]Drew> Admin - Trackers - not much to say, these are moving along nicely. No major hiccups, though I'm always open to suggestions. I believe we are due to update for the next major release.
• [19:23] <@[Chair]Drew> Admin - Web - No report from Anestis on the status of the forums or such. I'll ping him when I get a chance
• [19:24] <@[Chair]Drew> That's about it for the team reports
• [19:25] <@[Chair]Drew> any questions for Admin or Content?
• [19:25] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Regards Admin, Jira 6.0 is out, but I think it is best to wait for a few weeks before we upgrade
• [19:26] <@[Chair]Drew> Your Call. ;)
• [19:26] <jamesd[Code_SB]> no other questions
• [19:27] <@[Chair]Drew> Okay, Paul let's hit you next so when James goes we can jump directly to projects.
• [19:27] * @[Chair]Drew hands talking stick to Paul
• [19:28] <[PR]Nylanfs> K
• [19:29] <[PR]Nylanfs> We have one new publisher request (Minotaur Games). which I'm in process of contacting
• [19:30] <[PR]Nylanfs> And we have a publisher that has requested a CD (Alluria) which I need to send a CD to.
• [19:31] <[PR]Nylanfs> And on the final note David Bender has chosen to step down as the monkey doing the social announcements and official forum postings.
• [19:32] <[PR]Nylanfs> So Eric and I will be handling those postings
• [19:32] <[PR]Nylanfs> Which remindes me I need to see if that is documented on the wiki
• [19:33] <[PR]Nylanfs> Other than brainstorming some ides for backer rewards for a Kickstarter campaign I think that's it from me
• [19:33] <[PR]Nylanfs> Any questions?
• [19:34] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Just wanted put out a big thank-you to David for his handling of the annoucnements etc over the past few years
• [19:35] <@[Chair]Drew> Ditto, he's been a valuable team player that will be missed
• [19:35] <@[Chair]Drew> Looks like you're next James
• [19:35] <jamesd[Code_SB]> ok
• [19:35] <jamesd[Code_SB]> It was great to get the alpha out - it is always a good motivation to get things tidied up :)
• [19:35] <jamesd[Code_SB]> I've implemented DEFINESTAT, from the data team's wishlist
• [19:35] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Next is the character migration for source and ability keys, then I'll go back to looking at removing the last of the old UI code
• [19:36] <[PR]Nylanfs> Yes, he's still going to be active as a user but he's been a big help in the PL team
• [19:36] <jamesd[Code_SB]> I've also been doing some setting up of tests to help the data team - automating things we did manually for the prod release sin the past
• [19:37] <jamesd[Code_SB]> So the new ant datatest target will produce the variable report, check for mismatches between PCCs and lst files and check for a clean load of all the basic sources
• [19:38] <jamesd[Code_SB]> I'm hoping we will have suficient changes to warrant releasing alphas at 3 weeks intervals now
• [19:39] <jamesd[Code_SB]> On other major projects, there has been a bit of actiuvity on the GitHub front with the Git mirrors that Henk set up of our main SVN repository being moved to a project page
• [19:39] <jamesd[Code_SB]> People are welcome to fork those and submit pull requests back for any changes they make
• [19:40] <jamesd[Code_SB]> We'll get the changes into the master svn repo for now
• [19:40] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Over time we will investigate the process to move to Git as our primary repo
• [19:40] <jamesd[Code_SB]> That's all from me - any questions?
• [19:40] <@[Chair]Drew> Who's making determination which pulls to allow?
• [19:40] <jamesd[Code_SB]> me
• [19:40] <@[Chair]Drew> cool
• [19:40] <[PR]Nylanfs> Is the setup for Github easier that SF is now? I haven't checked into it
• [19:40] <jamesd[Code_SB]> (or the relevant SB for non code stuff)
• [19:41] <[PR]Nylanfs> than
• [19:41] <@[Chair]Drew> GITHUB is better for the GIT stuff due to support there for such things as pull requests
• [19:41] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Feel free to give it a go - Git is harder in some ways than SVN to get set up, but works nicely and is a good fit for a distributed team like ours
• [19:42] <jamesd[Code_SB]> The big advantage of Github is primarily the social one - lots of developers around
• [19:42] <@[Chair]Drew> I would like to eventually set up the SF GIT as our main repo - but using GITHUB as the vetting grounds
• [19:43] <jamesd[Code_SB]> I thik that's somehting we need to discuss
• [19:43] <@[Chair]Drew> Agreed.
• [19:43] <@[Chair]Drew> For other projects, Data is 100% behind the Migration Project.
• [19:43] <jamesd[Code_SB]> there are advantages to have GuitHub as the goto place for our source too
• [19:43] <[PR]Nylanfs> I wonder how many projects on SF have casual developers like we do
• [19:44] <[PR]Nylanfs> ie the data monkeys
• [19:44] <@[Chair]Drew> We still would like the Equipment Variable Discussion.
• [19:44] <@[Chair]Drew> I suspect we're a bit more unique in the fact our project is in multiple languages per se
• [19:45] <@[Chair]Drew> A workaround for the Natural Attacks reach issue I think would be solved by adding REACH to BONUS:WEAPONPROF, but we still need a NaturalAttacks revamp
• [19:47] <@[Chair]Drew> And the last project which has a small hiccup is the Dragons Redesign project. If we can manage to disable the Stat Boost for monster classes or whatever the data team can determine is needed, that would make dragon manual advancement cleaner. That's it for me
• [19:47] <@[Chair]Drew> Questions?
• [19:48] <jamesd[Code_SB]> None here
• [19:48] <[PR]Nylanfs> I wonder if coding the stat bonus as an ability object instead of at the gamemode level would work better.
• [19:49] <@[Chair]Drew> It's quite possible, but not as clean looking as the UI method which displays the stats and can limit the choices if desired.
• [19:49] <@[Chair]Drew> also, the code version removes the stat boost if you level down
• [19:50] <@[Chair]Drew> something which data cannot do today
• [19:50] <jamesd[Code_SB]> yes, there are some significant benefoits to how it is currently
• [19:50] <@[Chair]Drew> I'd rather ask James nicely for a method to bypass it in the case of monster classes
• [19:51] <@[Chair]Drew> Okay Paul - what's upcoming from PR events and kickstarters?
• [19:52] <[PR]Nylanfs> Well there's the start of Con season. :)
• [19:53] <[PR]Nylanfs> Unfortunately I don't currently have any flyers to mail out
• [19:53] <[PR]Nylanfs> And on Kickstarter (or Indigogo) these are the things that I can think of for backer re-wards
• [19:54] <[PR]Nylanfs> t-shirts (we have some on hand from a couple of years ago and can get more made easily)
• [19:54] <[PR]Nylanfs> bumper stickers? A backer party at GenCon &/or some of the other larger cons.
• [19:55] <[PR]Nylanfs> The money would be used to pay for a Booth at GenCon ($1700+/-USD), flyers and CD's to hand out.
• [19:57] <[PR]Nylanfs> I can't really think of anything else that could be used for a reward, we could send out free copies but how is that different than now :)
• [19:57] <[PR]Nylanfs> Anyone else have some ideas
• [19:57] <@[Chair]Drew> I've been requested to do something
• [19:58] <@[Chair]Drew> make a set, or spend time with people... or something
• [19:58] <@[Chair]Drew> though I should be a top level reward, cause I don't have time to make more than a few sets.
• [19:59] <[PR]Nylanfs> Well that could apply to any of the top active monkey's :)
• [20:00] <@[Chair]Drew> On another note, I would like to make more how to videos, those seemed to be a big hit.
• [20:00] <[PR]Nylanfs> Yes Eric has already started a YouTube channel.
• [20:00] <[PR]Nylanfs> In prep for this
• [20:00] <[PR]Nylanfs> PCGenHelpVideo's I think
• [20:00] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Nice

• [20:01] <[PR]Nylanfs> One thing I would REALLY like to be able to get done is a seminar (at GenCon probably) showing people how to make a dataset or to answer general questions
• [20:01] <[PR]Nylanfs> It would need to be more than just me though :)
• [20:02] <@[Chair]Drew> I'd love to, but that's outside my budget
• [20:03] <@[Chair]Drew> it's expensive traveling across country
• [20:03] <[PR]Nylanfs> PCGenHowToVideos, but it's just in the process of getting setup.
• [20:04] <BPI_Jonathan> That could be a KS in itself
• [20:04] <[PR]Nylanfs> Well that could be worked into the Kickstarter as some of the stretch goals. Party with the Head Monkeys level. :)
• [20:04] <@[Chair]Drew> heh... hear that James? You'll be flown here to a con. :P
• [20:05] <[PR]Nylanfs> Fly Drew, James, Kar, Barak, Stefan, Tom
• [20:06] <[PR]Nylanfs> Of course that would be quite a stretch goal :)
• [20:06] <@[Chair]Drew> okay, we have any open business? (Open forum)
• [20:06] <jamesd[Code_SB]> Yikes! yes a stretch goal indeed - airfares from here aren't cheap
• [20:06] <[PR]Nylanfs> We can smuggle you in a cargo container :)
• [20:06] <@[Chair]Drew> $500-$600 round trip for me
• [20:09] <@[Chair]Drew> Jon, anything?
• [20:09] <BPI_Jonathan> Anything what?
• [20:10] <[PR]Nylanfs> Any open issues, or things you want to bring up?
• [20:10] <@[Chair]Drew> Comments, questions, or otherwise?
• [20:10] <BPI_Jonathan> Gaslight new edition due to for imminent release.
• [20:10] <@[Chair]Drew> Cool, what makes it new?
• [20:10] <[PR]Nylanfs> Yea :)
• [20:11] *** razmatic has quit IRC: Ping timeout: 250 seconds
• [20:11] <BPI_Jonathan> 8 new organizations, 15 new classes, 10 new spells and of course the reliquary where we have all the magic items of Gaslight's Earth that we currently care to give.
• [20:12] <@[Chair]Drew> What system is the new version for?
• [20:12] <BPI_Jonathan> Same as the original.
• [20:12] <@[Chair]Drew> Nice.
• [20:12] <@[Chair]Drew> Did you want it in PCGen?
• [20:13] <BPI_Jonathan> Yes. of course, or I wouldnt be here. :D I have had some trouble getting here lately (timing has been off). Also I am currently working on a Pathfinder variant version of Sherwood.
• [20:13] <@[Chair]Drew> Fun times. :)
• [20:14] <@[Chair]Drew> Send a copy my way and I'll see about having it entered in... I might find a volunteer to handle it.
• [20:15] <BPI_Jonathan> As soon as I can
• [20:17] <@[Chair]Drew> Awesome.
• [20:18] <@[Chair]Drew> Okay, I think that concludes open business
• [20:18] <@[Chair]Drew> *bang gavel* Meeting closed. Thanks for coming everyone.