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sakmerlin37

April 22nd, 2014, 00:43

Hello all - I noticed after updating that there was a Numenera ruleset included in the included rulesets! Awesome & thank you! But... (and there is always a "but") how in the heck do you add a module for the library? I tried coding the library with a just the "Credits/Legal" page and have not been able to get it to show up for choosing; here's what I have:

db.xml

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<root version="0.1">
<library>
<numeneragm>
<name type="string">Numenera Corebook</name>
<categoryname type="string">Numenera Essentials</categoryname>
<entries>
<chapter_000_credits>
<librarylink type="windowreference">
<class>numeneragm</class>
<recordname>..</recordname>
</librarylink>
<name type="string">Credits/Legal</name>
<text type="formattedtext">
CREDITS
Writer/Designer: Monte Cook
Rule Developers: Monte Cook and Sean K. Reynolds
Additional Writing: Shanna Germain
Lead Editor: Shanna Germain
Editor: Ray Vallese
Proofreader: Michele Carter
Cover Designer and Lead Artist: Kieran Yanner
Graphic Artist: Sarah Robinson
Artists: Samuel Araya, Helge Balzer, Mark Buhalo, Chrom, Florian Devos, Sara Diesel, Dreamstime.com, Jason Engle, Kali Fitzgerald,
Guido Kuip, Eric Lofgren, Patrick McEvoy, Jeremy McHugh, Brynn Metheny, Michael Perry, Roberto Pitturru/Fabio Passamonti, Scott
Purdy, Lee Smith, Matt Stawicki, Mark Tarrisse, Keith Thompson, Prosper Tipaldi, Cory Trego-Erdner, Shane Tyree, Bear Weiter, Adrian Wilkins
Kieran, Yanner
Cartographer: Christopher West
Alpha Playtesters: Shanna Germain, Ray Vallese, Colin McComb, James Bell, Erik Mona, Danica King, Sean Reynolds, Stan!, Hyrum Savage
Dedicated to JD Sparks (Jay Peterson), who journeyed with me all through the lead-up to Numenera, helping to form my view on
science fiction, fantasy, and everything that is cool about wild and wonderful ideas.

Copyright 2013 Monte Cook Games, LLC
Numenera and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the USA and other countries. All Monte Cook Games character names, and the
distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Printed in Canada.
</text>
</chapter_000_credits>
</entries>
</numeneragm>
</library>
</root>

definition.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<root>
<name>Numenera Corebook</name>
<author>Copyright 2013, Monte Cook Games LLC</author>
<ruleset>Numenera</ruleset>
</root>

I was hoping to just get it to show up in my Library in order to just enter in the data/create chapters/etc; however, the above does not accomplish that. (Of course, I created a "numenera_corebook.mod" file and placed it in the ~\modules directory).

Which brings up the most frustrating thing: all the MAJOR changes put into Fantasy Grounds. Honestly, I was EXTREMELY frustrated to lose all the work I put into my own material for my own group, only to lose it with the last round of changes. In fact, my group quit playing because of their frustration and I have not touched this program since then, choosing to rely on pen & paper instead; actually, we just quit playing altogether, which REALLY upset me. Now, I am hoping to get a group into two games: Numenera & MERP, both of which I would rather run on FG.

I REALLY like the idea of FG and want to give it another shot, and that is when I run into MORE frustration: every tutorial is out-of-date; there are NO simple guidelines for doing anything short of adding a module as an adventure; and, all the work I am now putting in to add content might be wasted with another update because it is my work rather than "official Smiteworks" releases.

I have invested over $1,000 US in this software, more than my RPG books (I buy used or get them from friends who quit playing, etc.), more than ANY other software company I've ever used and have had MORE frustration than in any other piece of software (except, maybe, than in MS Windows) in trying to use this for something it was advertised as capable of doing, which is playing pen-and-paper-style games on the computer.

Bidmaron

April 22nd, 2014, 00:52

Go to you tube and look up Duluz' tutorials. They are not out-of-date.

As for your problem, your .mod file is a different name than your 'name' tag in the xml. Try taking out the underline character.

How did you lose work? I think the issues have been minor and the system should auto-upgrade the datasets, but I don't know anything about MERP or Numenara.

sakmerlin37

April 22nd, 2014, 01:07

Thank you for the reply, Bidmaron. I made the changes to both the definition.xml & the db.xml (ie., making the .mod file name & the name tag match) and still does not work.

Who is Duluz and how would I know to find his/her materials? I really did not need them before, has the game changed that much (or, have I forgotten that much!?!)? Are they official Smiteworks tutorials or are the videos linked on the wiki & did I miss them there (Answering my own question: I missed them on the Wiki)?

Example: I lost all the work I put into creating an add-on for the Savage Worlds Adventure Deck; specifically, I created a Suzerain Adventure Deck from the PDF I own. I started a thread about this after the major change in late 2013 and Phantomwhale offered to help troubleshoot the changes, but I cannot take him up on that, he most likely has more important things to do for the FG community, in his life, etc. However, there was no change log available to help those, like me, who had added these features in their games and who could not easily find out where the changes were made in order to fix our own material to be compatible with the new structure.

sakmerlin37

April 22nd, 2014, 01:12

Okay, went to "Dulux Oz" channel on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-pNvUFwsrAHTtuQna02FEA/videos?flow=grid&view=1) and nothing there shows or demonstrates what I need there: the closest is the on entitled 01-B01/02 about the GM Desktop (which is how to run a game successfully). Did I miss the one I need?

PS - Please do not take my questions as any kind of attitude, I have a brain injury & I do, indeed, miss a lot, especially on days like today.

Bidmaron

April 22nd, 2014, 01:22

No, problem there, skmerlin. What kind of a tutorial are you looking for? (maybe I'm the one missing something).

Phantom has always seemed pretty helpful, and he might be able to help. If he can't I'm sure he'll tell you.

Here's what I'd do on your module:
1) Take an existing module and add a '2' to the end of the filename in the folder and in the definition .xml file. Make ONLY that change.
2) Load FG and see if it shows up. (It has to)
3) OK, now take that module and change its name to what you really want it to be on both the folder containing the file and the definition.xml file.
4) Load it again.
5) Now, go into the legal section of the client.xml filie and make the changes you want.
6) Reload it. If it won't load, you have an error in the xml you entered. You might try one of the web sites that are available that checks xml syntax.
7) Once you get the legal working right, then proceed to edit content, taking it slow and trying it a piece at a time.

sakmerlin37

April 22nd, 2014, 01:29

@Bidmaron

What I usually do is take an existing, known working .mod and unzip it. I then copy the file names & types verbatim to the current project; for example, for the Numenera Corebook, I took the Savage Worlds GM module (swdeluxe_gm.mod) and the Rippers' GM module (rippers_gm_final.mod) and opened them.

Here's a list of what they have:

1. db.xml
2. definition.xml
3. images (directory) ("images" & "refimages" respectively)
4. tokens (directory) (only in SW GM module)
5. thumbnail.png

I've written many different mods and they worked previously; however, most were broken after that update about which I spoke earlier. This is my first attempt to write a mod since then. I have an idea... let me check something.

sakmerlin37

April 22nd, 2014, 01:57

*smack* I finallyl figured it out... I did copy the file & name it <name>2.mod & changed it in the definition.xml; however, it STILL did not show up. That is when I remembered that I just recently installed Windows on my machine in order to play in the upcoming FG Con and 7zip was adding the path to the folders!!! After I changed that, I can now see the item in the Library Module; I cannot see any text; however, I can at least activate the module now!

Here's what I ended up with:

db.xml:

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<root version="2.0">
<library>
<numenera_corebook>
<name type="string">Numenera Corebook</name>
<categoryname type="string">Numenera</categoryname>
<entries>
<chapter_000_credits>
<librarylink type="windowreference">
<class>referencetextwide</class>
<recordname>..</recordname>
</librarylink>
<name type="string">Credits/Legal</name>
<text type="formattedtext">
CREDITS
Writer/Designer: Monte Cook
Rule Developers: Monte Cook and Sean K. Reynolds
Additional Writing: Shanna Germain
Lead Editor: Shanna Germain
Editor: Ray Vallese
Proofreader: Michele Carter
Cover Designer and Lead Artist: Kieran Yanner
Graphic Artist: Sarah Robinson
Artists: Samuel Araya, Helge Balzer, Mark Buhalo, Chrom, Florian Devos, Sara Diesel, Dreamstime.com, Jason Engle, Kali Fitzgerald,
Guido Kuip, Eric Lofgren, Patrick McEvoy, Jeremy McHugh, Brynn Metheny, Michael Perry, Roberto Pitturru/Fabio Passamonti, Scott
Purdy, Lee Smith, Matt Stawicki, Mark Tarrisse, Keith Thompson, Prosper Tipaldi, Cory Trego-Erdner, Shane Tyree, Bear Weiter, Adrian Wilkins
Kieran, Yanner
Cartographer: Christopher West
Alpha Playtesters: Shanna Germain, Ray Vallese, Colin McComb, James Bell, Erik Mona, Danica King, Sean Reynolds, Stan!, Hyrum Savage
Dedicated to JD Sparks (Jay Peterson), who journeyed with me all through the lead-up to Numenera, helping to form my view on
science fiction, fantasy, and everything that is cool about wild and wonderful ideas.

Copyright 2013 Monte Cook Games, LLC
Numenera and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the USA and other countries. All Monte Cook Games character names, and the
distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Printed in Canada.
</text>
</chapter_000_credits>
</entries>
</numenera_corebook>
</library>
<reference>
</reference>
</root>

definition.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<root>
<name>Numenera Corebook</name>
<author>Copyright 2013, Monte Cook Games LLC</author>
<ruleset>Numenera</ruleset>
</root>

Mgrancey

April 22nd, 2014, 03:19

Sure you aren't using an old version of your module, as I copy and pasted what you had and it worked. I noticed that in the first post you had the class for the link as numeneragm, but had it fixed in this previous post.

I also noticed that the ? and XML in the first line have a space separating them and generates an error in Notepad++.

Trenloe

May 16th, 2014, 19:23

For a limited time Numenera PDFs are available from Bundle of Holding: https://bundleofholding.com/index/current

A free FG ruleset and now cheap PDFs - get your FG Numenera on! ;)

joeru

May 17th, 2014, 14:01

Thanks for the pointer, had been thinking about buying the game and got the whole bundle now. :)