COMP/CON: Official

Hello everyone!

If you haven't seen the latest Kickstarter update, I'm proud and excited to tell you that COMP/CON is now an official part of LANCER!
I'd like to take a little time to explain what this means for the project and its future:

First, COMP/CON is going to move over into Massif's itch.io page. I'll be working with the itch support staff to ensure that it's a smooth transition for you, the user. This includes the github repo, which will be moving into Massif's github organization page. This is all just organizational, though -- I'll still be maintaining the repository and the project will still be (and will always be!) open-source and open to contributors.

You'll also notice that C/C has been moved away from the pay-what-you-want model into being completely free. This is thanks to the Kickstarter backers, and those of you kind and generous enough to contribute in the past. I really cannot express how thankful and humbled I am to have you appreciate the project and our work enough to donate. In the future, I'd like to do something special for you all. In the meantime, however ...

I'd like to talk about the future of COMP/CON. I'll start with the big picture, then work down to what you can expect in the coming weeks and months.
Ultimately, the COMP/CON project is going to have three (six?) faces:

• The desktop app you're currently used to, which will expand to include a full suite of GM tools and a homebrew content editor
• A website at www.lancersrd.com, which will contain the LANCER SRD/Compendium
• Mobile apps! Four of them, in fact. iOS and Android tablet versions of the desktop app, as well as iOS and Android phone versions. The phone apps will likely be pared down a degree to mainly serve as active play and reference resources. They'll likely have very similar functionality to what you see in the desktop app at the time of this writing (of course, we'll try to cram as many features as we can into everything).

 (What it will not have: a web app. Unfortunately we decided it's just out of scope, at least for the time being.)

The desktop and tablet apps will, eventually, themselves consist of three parts:

• Pilot Management: This is what you're seeing if you download the app today. I'll go further into detail on the updates in the pipe later on.
• GM Toolkit: We want COMP/CON to serve as a primary resource for LANCER GMs. ari's hard at work on a NPC builder (take a look at this sneak peek for an idea of what they're cooking up), but we also want tools like encounter builders, campaign journals, narrative generators, reserve helpers, combat trackers and helpers, setting and character tools, and lots more.
• Homebrew Editor: The LANCER community has already created some amazing homebrew content, and we want COMP/CON to not only accommodate this content, but be an active and powerful tool in its development and distribution. We're planning on a fully-featured editor to add new manufacturers and licenses, but also editors for Pilot traits like backgrounds, talents, triggers, and CORE bonuses. This will also extend to GM-facing content like NPC templates, rollable tables, and custom rulesets. 

In the near term, work continues apace: current focus is on the Active Mode, which is meant to toggle COMP/CON from a build manager into a digital character sheet (and back again). Currently, on the beta branch, you can test out the first piece of that: the oft-requested trackable stats feature. The next update will give you the ability to activate a pilot (enabling tracking but locking down free attribute reassignment), and future updates will provide and extend an Active Mode "Combat Panel", in which C/C will track your configuration and loadout to handle math, keep track of statuses, and display all of your actions and abilities within its UI. 

Pilot Roster/Management mode doesn't end there, though -- we're going to be rewriting parts of how we handle user data, to allow for cloud saves (send pilots and configurations to your GM, party, or between your devices without having to import/export and throw files around) and image hosting (so you can include your sweet custom pilot and frame artwork). We'll also be expanding item data so that you can make per-item notes and edit items that have explicit settings (like Pilot Weapons), as well as item description generators for additional flavor (like Hardsuits).

There's more -- lots more -- and we're adding new stuff all the time. Take a look at our project board to see what we're planning and what we're working on.

Also, if you're at all interested in COMP/CON, have concerns, or have feature ideas, please stop by the LANCER Discord and check out the #comp-con channel. Ping me at @beeftime or @Comp/Con Dev !