Fg Sdk?

[cybersoniq]

Is there (or will there be) a SDK for the FG product?

Thanks,
Kris

[Spyke]

There's no SDK exposing the innermost workings of the engine, but there is a reference to the XML and the functions that are exposed to us to call from Lua:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/library/

Hopefully this will cover what you need.

Spyke

[cybersoniq]

Perfect, thanks.

Another question: I am considering purchasing the Ultimate License but I will will only participate as a player; a friend will be GM.

I would like for my friend to GM the games under my Ultimate License but would also like to keep my license key secret. Is this possible?

As an alternative, I was thinking of standing up a virtual machine hosted on my infrastructure where the FG host would run and allow my friend remote access to this machine. I would rather not do this if there is a better way.

Ideas?

[drahkar]

Perfect, thanks.

Another question: I am considering purchasing the Ultimate License but I will will only participate as a player; a friend will be GM.

I would like for my friend to GM the games under my Ultimate License but would also like to keep my license key secret. Is this possible?

As an alternative, I was thinking of standing up a virtual machine hosted on my infrastructure where the FG host would run and allow my friend remote access to this machine. I would rather not do this if there is a better way.

Ideas?

I'm fairly certain all of those uses breach the licensing agreement for the product. If someone else is going to be GMing they need to be the one purchasing the Full or Ultimate License.

[cybersoniq]

Humm.. I see. After reading the eula I may have to rethink my plan.

My goal is as I stated earlier: I will be the one spending the money for the product, but I am not (and do not wish to be) the GM, only a player.

The virtual tabletop sounds like a great idea. I have downloaded the demo, installed on a few systems and checked out the mechanics. I like it. Looking at the licensing packages the Ultimate made sense to me even though there will likely only be a few of us playing and if we do have someone else join, it will not be a big deal to have them download the product and join our game as unregistered, for simplicity. This seemed to me to be the purpose behind the Ultimate package. Why should it matter who actually acts as GM?

So, how could I make this work? Surely others have been in this situation.

Is this the correct place for this discussion? If not, who should I contact for help?

Thanks in advance.
Kris

[Spyke]

I'm not sure I follow this, Kris. If you only want to play then the Ultimate license would be useless to you. If you want your friend to GM then you're effectively giving him the Ultimate license anyway, so why not just give him the money and let him buy the license?

Or is it that you want the GM slot to be passed around a group of people?

FG is currently built around the concept of the host of the session being the GM, and the licensing is tied into that. Allowing the GM hat to be passed around the group has been requested a number of times in the past, but I'm pretty sure it would require a major rewrite, not only of the product itself, but also of the rulesets built for the product.

Spyke

[cybersoniq]

Ok here is a simplification, there are four of us who play on occasion, my wife and I and my friend and his wife. My friend is the DM, however he is not in the position financially to make these kinds of purchases for both him and his wife, but I am. My friend will DM 95% of the time, his wife may DM if he needs a break. I am willing to pay for the license(s), but not as a gift as I want to keep what I pay for. This is not an attempt to try to cheat or short change the company. As a software developer myself, I see enough of that as it is.

Hypothetically, if I had 4 systems in my living room, one for each individual, and I bought the ultimate license and installed the client using the license on one of the systems (system A) while installing the client as unregistered on the other 3 systems. If my friend sat in front of system A, would I be breaking the EULA?

I am not trying to be a pain about this, I am interested in the software and I have a particular set of requirements so I am asking the questions :)

Where can I find contact information for the sales team so I can pose these questions to them directly?

Kris

[Spyke]

The contact details are in the FAQ, referenced from the home page of the site:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php?faq=license_and_purchasing_issues

Basically, email [email protected].

I can see that your hypothetical case could be extended to the host machine being at your friend's house, but you'd still effectively be giving him your license key (he could view it in the registry).

But I still don't get your comment on wanting to keep what you pay for. If you ever decided to DM yourself, and didn't sit on the same machine that your friend used, then you would be handing out the license to two separate people. You've said you wouldn't do that as you have no desire to cheat or short change the company. Therefore, given that you could never do that once you've passed the key to your friend, why not simply give him the money? Once you've passed him the key you've effectively already made that gift.

Anyway, discuss this with Doug at Fantasy Grounds. As you say, in the end this is his call.

Spyke

[Spyke]

As a follow up, addressing your specific scenario above, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy the following as a bundle:

One Full license for your friend's machine (which his wife can sit at 5% of the time)
One Lite license for your friend's wife's machine.
One Lite license each for you and your wife.

This comes to $95.63 (or less) compared to $149.95 for the Ultimate. It would still be cheaper if you bought a Full license for your friend's wife (or yourself) as well.

This way you wouldn't be making so much of a gift.

Spyke

[ddavison]

Kris,

I understand your request. We do not currently have a way to share the GM responsibilities with someone else. Have you considered getting a single full license and 3 lite license and getting the bundle discount? With the discount, your total cost would only be $90.25 as opposed to $150 for the ultimate -- or for $13 more dollars you could make another of the Lites into a full license. You would basically be gifting the full and one of the lite licenses to your friends. Once installed, a license is considered tied to the person using it and is no longer transferable.

We have checks in place to prevent the same license from being used by multiple systems connecting to the same game and we may at some point start recording usage of the license key whenever it connects with our server to start gathering data on the total number of games played each month, etc., and to look for any highly abused licensed keys (should only look for massive signs of pirating.)

Other than that, the owners are all gamers as well and while we can't change our official policy on issues like this, we are also pretty flexible on common usage. We have no interest in trying to crack down on people that are making reasonable efforts to use the software in the spirit of the EULA.

Doug Davison
President
SmiteWorks USA, LLC

[cybersoniq]

Spyke & ddavison,
Thanks so much for your responses. I had considered Full/Lite combos but really liked the idea of the Ultimate for the ease of adding another player if the need arose, however I can certainly live with buying Full/Lite combos instead.

Thanks again and I look forward to enjoying many more hours of gaming via FG :)

Kris

[Spyke]

Welcome to the gang! :)

Spyke