Cannot utilize an action against a target

[Dochalliday]

After multiple reinstalls/app data purges and much assistance from my friends who are veteran Fantasy Ground users, I continue to have the same problem. Whatever character I am on if I attempt to make a targeted roll of any kind it will not act as if I have a target selected. My friends have logged on to the same server and used the same characters to use targeting successfully. One friend, while assisting me in troubleshooting my problem attempted to load up my original character and received an ambiguous error message. He can however load other characters and use targeted effects properly while I cannot. As I said I have reinstalled multiple times to no avail. Thank you, any help would be appreciated.

[Griogre]

What ruleset are we talking about? Please give a step by step example of how you mark a creature as targeted and then how you make a roll against the targeted creature. If the others can do it, probably there is some small (and very frustrating) mis-step in the process.

[Zeus]

Its either going to be something small with the process your following as Griorge has suggested or it could be down to a corrupted cache copy of the campaign your connecting to.

It might also be worth asking your DM to release your PCs so that you can disconnect and reconnect as a new Player (using a new name). This will help identify if the issue is tied to your player within the campaign or a local issue with your install/setup.

[Dochalliday]

What ruleset are we talking about? Please give a step by step example of how you mark a creature as targeted and then how you make a roll against the targeted creature. If the others can do it, probably there is some small (and very frustrating) mis-step in the process.

Ruleset is 4e. I left click on a target which then places my colored circle around it. I then open up my powers tab/combat tab and drag the dice onto the chat window. My character then takes a roll, but it is un-targeted. My friends say they can see my colored circle around that which I am attempting to attack/heal. They also asked me to try dropping the dice onto my target, but that simply yielded no results (even with a properly targetted drop directly onto the enemy).


Its either going to be something small with the process your following as Griorge has suggested or it could be down to a corrupted cache copy of the campaign your connecting to.

It might also be worth asking your DM to release your PCs so that you can disconnect and reconnect as a new Player (using a new name). This will help identify if the issue is tied to your player within the campaign or a local issue with your install/setup.

My DM created a new campaign, which I connected to and had the same problem. I did not change my name upon connecting though. I suspect it is a local issue as my friends have logged into characters and successfully used targeted abilities while I have not been able to with the same characters. I have also deleted my cache multiple times in the process of troubleshooting this, is there a different way I need to address that possibility?

[malloc]

I'm Dochalliday's DM and wanted to weigh in with some more details that might help diagnose the issue.

The problem first manifested in the middle of a 4E session. Of note is that this happened midway through the session, and he had been able to use "roll-against-target" mechanisms prior to this.

Here is a list as complete as I can manage from memory of things we tried:

Restart Doc's FG2 - does not work
Restart my FG2 server - does not work
Delete Doc's cache folder - does not work
Delete Doc's campaign folder - does not work
Doc reinstall - does not work
Other players use targeting on their own characters - works as expected
Doc tries to use targeting on a different server character - does not work
Another player tries to use targeting on Doc's character - player cannot open his character, getting a stop sign icon and the message "Error"
I host an old campaign, converted from 4E_JPG to 4E, and Doc attempts to use targeting on a server character from that campaign - works
I create a new 4E campaign and throw together a minimal character (weapon + power), Doc attempts to use targeting on this character: does not work


From this data I was feeling like the problem is probably on my end, but I'm uncertain of how to diagnose it any further. The results from the last two tests we tried in the list above are particularly strange to my mind.

My other players had no issues, so it feels like something went wrong with Doc's player identity. The suggestion to try using a different player name is a good one that we'll try tonight; beyond that, any other possible things to look for?

[Griogre]

Ruleset is 4e. I left click on a target which then places my colored circle around it. I then open up my powers tab/combat tab and drag the dice onto the chat window. My character then takes a roll, but it is un-targeted.

Dragging the dice into the chat window is likely the problem - dragging dice into the chat window directly bypasses *all* targeting. There are three ways to do targeted dice rolling in the 4E ruleset, of which two are commonly used. I'll go through all the different ways.

1) Using the Targeting Rings.
Probably the most used and simple. Just like you are doing, you target the creature(s) you wish to attack so a ring of your dice color appears around the token on the map. Next open you mini sheet and just double click on the attack or damage die to apply the roll against anything targeted. You do the same thing with healing powers. So first target just like you were doing and then double click on the dice in the mini sheet instead of drag rolling. When you double click the dice will be throw for you in the chat window. You can also double click on the power on the full character sheet but you have to open the sword or effect area so it is generally easier to use the mini sheet.

By default holding down the Alt key overrides all targeting to cause the effect or roll to be applied against your currently active character.

2) Drag Rolling to Map
You can target a creature on the map that the DM has linked to the combat tracker. From your mini sheet just drag and drop the die or effect right on top of the creature on the map. It does not matter whether or not the creature is targeted by you on the map.

There is a trick to this. When you drag the dice or effect on top of the monster wait a sec until the tool tip with the creature's name appears. If you drop before the tool tip appears the drop might not work. If it does work the dice will be thrown in chat for you or you will get a notice the effect was applied in the chat window.

Most people use 1) and occasionally 2). You will use two occasionally for things like crits and to apply half damage on missed dailies. For example if you attack several monsters at once and get a crit on one and a normal hit on several others it is usually easiest to hold down shift and drag the crit damage die out on the monster on the map and drop it, then deselect the monster you did the crit damage too and roll the normal damage for the rest of the hits. Likewise if you use a daily that does half damage on a miss, roll you attack and then do the normal damage to any monster you hit. Then right click the damage "bubble" in chat and select 1/2 damage. Then drag and drop the half damage bubble onto the monster(s) on the map that should take half damage.

3) Drag onto the Combat Tracker
This is seldom used much anymore. You use to have to attack monsters in earlier versions of the ruleset this way and up until recently you use have to use the combat tracker to do third party effect drops. However sometimes it might be easier to find a monster on the tracker instead of the map. You may need to use the tracker to attack a monster that is invisible or hidden and so is not being shown on the map also.

Other: Targeted rolling is all resolved to and through calls to the DM's combat tracker. This means if the DM does not have his tracker open, targeted rolling will not work. Likewise targeted rolling may not work unless the player has opened his player tracker at least once to initialize the connection between the client and host combat trackers. It's also possible you had not opened your player tracker so your drag and drop attacking was not working on the map.

[Dochalliday]

That works, thank you for your help.

[Zeus]

Glad its working for you. As Griorge states methods 1 and 2 are by far the most common way of carrying out a targetted roll. There is an oddity however:


Another player tries to use targeting on Doc's character - player cannot open his character, getting a stop sign icon and the message "Error"
I host an old campaign, converted from 4E_JPG to 4E, and Doc attempts to use targeting on a server character from that campaign - works
I create a new 4E campaign and throw together a minimal character (weapon + power), Doc attempts to use targeting on this character: does not work


Point 1 seems to indicate a potential problem with the charsheet for the PC, if the character was released by the DM and thus selectable by another player, it should not have resulted in the Stop sign, something is wrong.

Point 2 and 3 result differences I assume are down to perhaps an inconsistent approach to targeted rolls? Did Doc perform the targeted rolls in the same way?

[malloc]

I'll have the other player attempt it again next time he is available to see if he still gets the error dialog. I suspect that as you say, points 2 and 3 are due to inconsistent applications of targeted abilities.

Thanks to both of you for your quick and detailed help on this issue.

[Jundle]

I'm using version 2.7.1 and am having a similar difficulty. The "PC" can select the npc target (a ring shows up). The "PC" can open up his mini window, select powers, double click on his attack, and it then shows his roll against the targeted npc's AC.

But, when the "PC" drags his dice onto the NPC, waits until the npc's name pops up from hovering over the NPC token, and then drops the dice on said token, the roll doesn't happen in the chat window.

Also, when the "PC" double clicks the dmg portion of his power, in his mini combat window, while the NPC is selected, the roll happens and the chat window produces a statement of how much damage happened to the NPC, but the npc's wound count doesn't change.

Am I, as the GM, supposed to change that manually? I don't mind if that is the case, I just don't know if that's the way the software is supposed to act or not.

So:
What should I try and do to fix the "PC" problem of dragging and dropping dice onto a targeted NPC and nothing showing up in the chat window?

Is targeted damage rolled by the "PC" supposed to auto change on the targeted NPC's wound list without the GM doing it manually?

[Jundle]

In the options, turning "Enable PC Actions" to Report and then to On fixed my problem.

[Griogre]

Another problem players with multiple characters have is not switching to the correct character before attacking or doing damage. If a player has the wrong character activated then the rolls will be informational only. When they make that mistake then all you need to do is drop the "to hit" bubble on the monster to see if it hits and then if necessary drop the damage roll on the monster.