General questions about Fantasy Grounds, and a bit of patience.

[Larsenex]

Greetings,

I am pretty sure this type of thread gets posted at least once a day so bear with me. I currently have pro level with Roll20. I like the interface and the dynamic lighting is very cool.

I stumbled upon some customer service threads and suffice to say I am looking to change where I spend my money.

Some info about me. Im 52 and have played table top since first edition D&D and have played all thru 3.5 then migrated to pathfinder.

I am currently running the playtest and while I am not happy with everything in the Playtest Ill likely make that my game engine of choice.

I never made the migration to either 4E or 5E but I was seriously considering 5E prior to hearing about the playtest. I am saavy with computers, not so with macros but can self teach and learn quickly. I have lots of questions about macros and utilities for FG like I use in Roll20 but that can wait for now.

I will be the DM and have a core group of friends who we play with on weekends.

Now Questions >>>



Will FG ever get a solid 64 bit engine that can utilize newer multi thread processors?
When will this change be done (if ever)?
Will FG Fully support the new Pathfinder 2E like it does for D&D 5E? (This is a huge deal for me.)


I have done comparisons and such and FG looks to be a solid Virtual tabletop. I just think the engine needs to be updated. I have no issue forking out hundreds of dollars for the product as long as i can use it for what I want which will be the new Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

My computer Ill host is beefy as I built it from the ground up. This should run FG.

8700K Oc'd to 4.8
32 gigs corsair 3200 ram
500 gig nvme drive and 500 gig samsung ssd and 5 terrbyte platter drive.
GTX 1080
Last but not least a 400 mg/sec internet connecton


Thanks for reading This is my first post and hopefully not my last here on your forums.

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the forums and FG Community!

The FGU is a ways off, hopefully this year but might have to get pushed.

FGU is supposed to have 64bit upon launch AFAIK, later this year ::Fingers Crossed::

And it is being designed to support the current level of everything or slightly more. We've been telling people to buy FG for what it is now and don't waste the time on what it MIGHT be. :)


Edit: Also FG is a 12 year old code base so you don't need a beefy computer to run it. You need to watch for video cards that don't handle Directx 9 though.

[Ken L]

Pinder's looking around so he's the dev to ask about the 64 bit engine and multi-threading. IIRC FGU will still mostly be single threaded as well.

The engine and general user interface is super dated and I complain weekly about this, oddly I haven't been banned yet ;)

In Roll20 it's sunny or else. If you complain, and your topic gets too much attention they'll lock it.

[Bidmaron]

Welcome, Larsenex. I never did Roll20 but I am like you in that I went to PF from 3.5 and am likely to go to PF2. You have found a good home, here. I think your questions have been answered but Trenloe, one of our real heroes and experts, is doing the FG implementation of PF2, and it is utterly amazing at how far his ruleset has come and how quickly he rolls in the Paizo updates to PF2.

[Larsenex]

Thank you all for the quick replies!
I have posted several tech questions over on Roll20 and the 5 pro folks who answered were very helpful. I have not had any negative experience there but the internet as a whole seems to be telling me some devs there are not uh,..as nice as others.

One thing that I do need to know is this. >>>


If I jump in and purchase ultimate right off (in order to support developers and such) when the new Unity engine does launch will past owners be updated to the new engine for free or will there be a cost to upgrade?
Has anyone run into the 32bit memory wall I have seen in graphic intense games like Civ 5. I have seen games run out of memory and freeze.

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, FGU will be 64bit and will erase the current issues with memory and networking etc.

The Pathfinder 2 ruleset which is currently in playtest from what I have seen(I don’t play Pathfinder) is at least as good as the 5e and Savage Worlds rulesets which are the ones I have most experience with. You can get the PF2 playtest ruleset free with the license. You can also dip a toe in the water by taking out an Ultimate subscription which will allow you play with players who only have the demo. It is only 10 dollars or so and Smiteworks has a 30 day money back guarantee. So if it doesn’t work out for you it will have cost nothing.

FG doesn’t use macros, but uses the much easier to understand and use ‘effects’. But that’s for another day.

[Moon Wizard]

Larsenex,

Welcome to the forums.

I'm sure some of the community members will be here to add more information; but I'll answer your questions as best I can. Also, you should check out the Help section at the top of the web site which includes the user manual and wiki (including links to videos and more) as well as the Fantasy Grounds College (on Discord). Finally, there is a FG Con occurring in a couple weeks, which is hosted by the community; where you can sign up for some one shot games to try things out.

On to your questions:

1-2. Our development team is working on a large update to the core engine, that will have some multithreading (primarily networking), as well as being 64-bit. However, there is no announced time-frame for the release; and we always advise people to buy FG for what it is today.
More information here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?43254-Fantasy-Grounds-Unity-FAQ

3. The Pathfinder 2.0 Playtest is being supported as early access product (due to the constant changing going on in the playtest itself); and several playtest modules are available in the store.
More information here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?44968-Pathfinder-2-0-Playtest-Feedback&highlight=playtest

Regards,
JPG

[Bidmaron]

FG uses xml and lua scripting to accomplish what Roll20 folks would do with macros but it is much more powerful. I believe you will love it.

[Zacchaeus]

One thing that I do need to know is this. >>>


If I jump in and purchase ultimate right off (in order to support developers and such) when the new Unity engine does launch will past owners be updated to the new engine for free or will there be a cost to upgrade?


The only information we have on this is that there is likely to be a scaled charge with those who have had the license longest paying a higher upgrade fee. The size of said cost is unknown.

[Bidmaron]

There has also been developer discussion of a possible Kickstarter but we know even less about that.

[LordEntrails]

Ken's a penguin you know? That's why we have to put up with his complaints. (We're not allowed to be specists here!) That and how he keeps talking about those new linux mints. I guess penguins have fish breath?

Seriously though, just to add to what others have said. The PF playtest material is on FG and free.

We don't call them macros, but rather extensions. They are written in XML and LUA generally and most functions are exposed in their so you can make customizations you want.

There is lots of help around these parts. We always hope people try to search for their own answers, at least for a few minutes, but there are the forums and wiki here, plus a Discord channel, lots of videos, and FG College that does free classes and is a very active support community of it's own.

Finally, don't hesitate to jump in, FG has a 30 day money back guarantee so if it doesn't work for you, all you have to do is contact support.

Note, rumor (and RUMOR ONLY) is that FG licenses might go on sale sometime between now and this weekend. No promises, but if you are not in a rush, wait a few days just in case.

[LordEntrails]

The only information we have on this is that there is likely to be a scaled charge with those who have had the license longest paying a higher upgrade fee. The size of said cost is unknown.
To add, or comment, on this; SmiteWorks (the owners of FG) have always been exceptional at customer care. So you are right to ask, right to be concerned, but I will say I have complete faith that they will be fair.

[Larsenex]

Thank you for the replies!

This has been very helpful. I like the 'table-top' appearance FG has and I am really eager to see if the team is rebuilding a new engine in unity or recompiling the previous engine >> both are very very labor hour intensive and I hope you devs are treated well for such hard work.

[Ken L]

If I jump in and purchase ultimate right off (in order to support developers and such) when the new Unity engine does launch will past owners be updated to the new engine for free or will there be a cost to upgrade?


I wouldn't recommend purchasing ultimate off the bat. Try subscribing an 'ultimate' for a month or two to see if it fits, as well as to try out all the features of an ultimate. FG isn't for everyone as it has a steep learning curve. If it does, you can straight buy the platform and not worry about a subscription anymore; a bit of a rarity in the SaaS emergent scene.

Regarding the cost for FGU, IIRC the devs said that if you recently purchased FG within a year or some time frame, it'll be free, with a gradual cost incline for others pending the age of their license (in years).

[JohnD]

Welcome! I don't know anything about Pathfinder 2 (my game is Castles and Crusades), but I've been using FG for over 6 years.

Give it some effort to work through the learning curve and you'll find it worth your investment.

[lostsanityreturned]

The FG PF2e playtest is still fairly rudimentary in nature lacking a lot of the automation and polish that the 5e ruleset has but it is looking good as it comes along. It is a big task.

Certainly playable though, it just won't show off how automated and smooth FG can be like 5e does... yet...

I haven't run into memory issues personally. To be on the safe side it is possible to "unshare" image files with players, don't load more than one decal extension at a time (think of it as a wallpaper/backdrop) and put your custom tokens in the host folder rather than shared folder (players don't need constant access to them generally)

This said, if you get the ultimate license you will have the basic and SRD content for 5e as well. So feel free to have a play around to see what can be done.

[shadzar]

I am saavy with computers, not so with macros but can self teach and learn quickly. I have lots of questions about macros and utilities for FG like I use in Roll20 but that can wait for now.

First thing, don't think in terms of Macros like roll20 or MapTool. just think in terms of XML. when the full version of PF2 comes out of beta, then FG will ahve it fully fnctional where you mostly jsut have to point and click to do anything.

You can write your own material for play, but that does require coding, and there is a few YT and Titch streams that can help with that, but they ar primarily focused on 5e. The same concepts for "coding" thigns into FG for 5e will be how you code them into PF2 when it releases.

Rob2e has a show on Sundays on Twitch.tv/rob2e called All Things Fantasy Grounds and it is hosted by the founder of Fantasy Grounds College, which is not a part of Smiteworks, but fan based group of people trying to help people learn how t use FG. www.fantaysgrounsdcollege.net


rob2e is about 60+ years old. i dont remember, but he was there when dirt was invented as he tells it. He only coded in BASIC programming language all those years ago, and is now considered the "coding king" of DMs Guild for 5th edition D&D. so if he can learn it with little to no background in programming, then you should't have much problem. and BASIC programming language is as much as yo need of experience to code inside of FG. to do the external coding of things like the LUA scripting, that gets a bit funky and most of that will be done by Smiteworks when PF2 is released or other people here on the forums in the Extensions section of the Armory, will have all sorts of things to make PF2 run better after it gets released.


the main thing to do is learn the basics of FG, where things are, how to interact with the program, and Rule #1. don't put anything on a map until you first put it in the combat tracker. NPC, PC, trap, everything goes into the Combat Tracker first, and then on the map. that is the way FG is designed, unlike roll20 where you can just drag and drop it onto a map, because the "engine" that runs FG is the Combat Tracker window.


all the API macros you find on roll20 to add to your games like say the audio alert for a critical failure roll, are done by extensions in FG, and people have done tons of those. though FG doesn't support sound currently and i don't know if DORCORE extension supports Pathfinder2? You would have to ask Dulux-oz about that.


so just look for Pathfinder 2 extensions here in the forums and people will have done most of the coding for you.

and if nothing else, you can use FG with real books and dice while waiting for all the special math calculators to be added with the full release of PF2.

[dulux-oz]

i don't know if DORCORE extension supports Pathfinder2? You would have to ask Dulux-oz about that.

All the DOE's (not just the DOE: Sound) are not *yet* compatible/working with PF2, but I'm working on it. They *should* be ready by final release of PF2, if not before hand.

[shadzar]

and there you have it, you would never have to write a single "macro" since everything you could possibly need and more has been done for you... and believe me when i say EVERYTHING because you should have seen the stream about it, it does more than most people could imagine doing with Fantasy Grounds, from tracking the moon, to tracking other planets, weather, sounds, special calendar.....


if DOE doesn't do it, then it probably isnt needed for an RPG. :rofl:

[dulux-oz]

if DOE doesn't do it, then it probably isnt needed for an RPG. :rofl:

Well, not quite - there's a couple of things I still need to complete/work out (currency conversion being one, and the new expanded dice engine being another) but... thanks for the vote of confidence. :)

[Trenloe]

Welcome to the forums Larsenex.

Summary info on the Pathfinder Playtest here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/Pathfinder2/

And lots more info in the Pathfinder 2 sub forum.

The FG Playtest ruleset is under development, with weekly updates. It is completely usable at this stage, with all of the usual (non RPG system specific) FG functionality present. There is also a lot of Pathfinder specific info already there - PC and NPC sheet, all 800 feats, spells are slowly being entered, auto calc of proficiency bonus (already updated with the v1.3 change) and a lot more. It is just the complex changes underlying the ruleset that are not there yet, and are being worked on. Like I say, it’s completely usable, just hasn’t have the polish that 5E has. We had nearly 2000 PFRPG2 sessions on FG in August, and will have more than that during September.

[Nylanfs]

I think you mean 8 billion feats. :D

[Larsenex]

Your replies have been amazing! Truly some of you should sell bridges. Thank you for the warm welcome.

When the Pathfinder 2 rules eventually get codified and published and all is good in Golarion, can an Ultimate user/DM create custom dungeons/outdoor adventures?

While I love Paizo's modules I will tend to use the shell of the adventures and change things out a bit to keep the players on thier toes with the content. Roll20 can let you create entire campaigns from scratch (its a huge amount of work but also better and easier then it was 20 years go against writing it out by hand.).

Assuming we have all the critters, and rules available can FG allow a DM to create his own adventures?

[Zacchaeus]

Your replies have been amazing! Truly some of you should sell bridges. Thank you for the warm welcome.

When the Pathfinder 2 rules eventually get codified and published and all is good in Golarion, can an Ultimate user/DM create custom dungeons/outdoor adventures?

While I love Paizo's modules I will tend to use the shell of the adventures and change things out a bit to keep the players on thier toes with the content. Roll20 can let you create entire campaigns from scratch (its a huge amount of work but also better and easier then it was 20 years go against writing it out by hand.).

Assuming we have all the critters, and rules available can FG allow a DM to create his own adventures?

Fantasy Grounds is all about creating your own. You can create anything, NPCs, stories, encounters, treasure, treasure parcels, etc etc. You can also edit anything that isn't in a reference manual; so you can edit NPC, items, treasures etc etc as well. You can also export all of this stuff to a module which you can use in any other campaign that you want to use it in.

[Trenloe]

Assuming we have all the critters, and rules available can FG allow a DM to create his own adventures?
Absolutely. For most rulesets you can create all of the things you see in a commercial module yourself in the Fantasy Grounds GUI. The main exception to this is the Reference Manual - which is kinda-like a FG representation of the product PDF. For example, see the "Reference" windows in the 3rd, 4th and 5th screenshots here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=PZOSMWPZO2100MFG Reference manuals can be created if you're prepared to get into some XML - details here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Reference_Manuals And there are also some extensions available for some rulesets that allow you to create a lot of a reference manual through the FG GUI.

Depending on the ruleset there may be some small, niche piece of information that you can't enter through the FG GUI - but these are usually things that are rarely used. For the Pathfinder 2 ruleset, I've deliberately designed it so that everything (except reference manuals) can be created through the GUI - you can enter NPCs, feats, spells, actions, traits, afflictions, etc. through the interface - and then export these to a library module for later use. All of the "Standard" FG records that are generic to running a campaign (story, maps/images, encounter, quests, languages, etc.) can be created through the GUI and exported into a module - or used in the FG campaign where they were created.

One of the great advantages of FG you'll see over roll20 is how much more information the GM has at their fingertips and how you can set this up yourself, and/or use published products. It's all saved locally on your hard drive, so you can always have access to this - on a plane, underwater, wherever you have your FG computer! ;-)

[LordEntrails]

And when you get to creating your own modules, there are lots of resources to help you do so. Mr. Z has a bunch of videos, other have videos, their is the wiki, and their is the link in my signature. And then as you may have guessed, when you have a question their is this forum and Discord server.

[Bidmaron]

And when it comes to pre-packaged material, one of the coolest things is that with very few limitations, you can drag a record onto its own record list to create a duplicate. Then you can unlock the duplicate and change it to your heart’s content. Later, if you want you can revert the module back to cannon status at any time with the revert command.

You are entering a brave new world, my friend....

[JohnD]

Welcome. Once you get going you will wish you had started sooner.

[damned]

On the topic of pricing for FGU upgrades Doug has indicated that the process might be closer to this:

3 month purchase - upgraded for free
9 month purchase - upgraded for 33% of your license (not DLC) cost - DLC upgraded for free
18 month purchase - upgraded for 66% of your license (not DLC) cost - DLC upgraded for free
longer and you will have no discount but DLC will still upgrade for free

I cant remember the actual months/lengths/discounts but the free will likely not be for as long as 12 months

I dont think anything is locked in on pricing and there certainly has not been an official statement.

Oh - and Moon Wizard - Doug wants it ready for Christmas!

[Atua]

Which Christmas though ;)

[lostsanityreturned]

Which Christmas though ;)

Christmas two years back ;)

While it is frustrating for us as end users to wait for the product, I bet it is even more frustrating for them trying to get it ready -laughs-

[LordEntrails]

Oh - and Moon Wizard - Doug wants it ready for Christmas!
This made me laugh :)
It seems to me that Doug might run the company, but Moon actually decides when/how the real stuff happens. Kind of like my wife...

[Moon Wizard]

It's a team effort. Doug is the optimist; and I'm the pragmatist. ;)

JPG

[LordEntrails]

It's a team effort. Doug is the optimist; and I'm the pragmatist. ;)

JPG
Such a pragmatic reply!

[epithet]

It's a team effort. Doug is the optimist; and I'm the pragmatist. ;)

JPG
So, what the pragmatic version of the State of the Unity?

[Skillkoil]

The pragmatic version is probably, "No Comment" :p

[viresanimi]

Actually... you don't need coding skills for making reference manuals (I do NOT have such skills). There's an extension, that lets to make reference manuals. Just need a few organising skills. It's called the Author extension.

Vires Animi