The first public release of Virtual Combat Cards (version 0.10) came out on 18 December 2008. Since then four major releases and several patch releases have come out. Most important, several people asking for features and proposing new ideas. Since the new release system has been implemented, issue tracking and releases frequency has improved a lot. But the releases notices have become more business and less revealing of the project direction. This post is here to inform the VCC community of what is going on.

VCC is nearly half a year old, and the version 0.90 has enjoyed more than 550 downloads and even without strong push on sites, patches have been downloaded well (0.91 for example more than 100 times). More importantly, slowly a community is forming around it.

One of the main challenges VCC project has faced is getting the news out. It is now on the first page of Google for “Dungeons and Dragon Combat Tracker”, but having it better placed would be great. This is a place where all users can help. Please spread the word. If you like VCC and are in a gaming forum let other people know. The more users the better, out of these user may come new programmers or people that wish to contribute.

During these six months, some other solutions have started to appear, and working together is probably a good idea. But this requires having Virtual Combat Cards open source. This process is taking longer than I expected but the end is near. This process will also ensure that VCC will have to be free (since my employer does not allow profit from IT derived projects).

So what is coming up? The following is under plan:

• Get the project Open Source.
• Change the way data is stored. The new system will likely use a small database system, and will allow users to register monsters only once and use them in several encounters. This will also allow more data to be included without requiring massive retyping of information.
• Update manager: initially this will only inform user that a new version is available; but in the future VCC may be capable of patching the software.
• Improved packaging and installation.
• Allow the system to remind DM of things like: ongoing damage, saving throws and sustain.

How can you contribute? You don’t have to be a programmer to help, the following is open to every one:

• Spread the word in other forums and report you happy experiences with VCC in the Testimonial forum.
• Visit the Contributing page;
• Send you ideas to the forum or submit feature resquest;
• Help out with the site, we currently have no web or communication expert on board. If you have an idea to improve the site post it this forum. This site is powered by Drupal
• Art work such as: logos, icons, splash screens and campaign banners are all welcome;

As always you support, feedback and ideas are more than welcome.