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View Full Version : New to FG and have a few random questions.



BruceDM
September 28th, 2018, 21:10
Due to circumstances our local group of 8 players is being forced to join the virtual table top world. After looking at several options we decided on FG. Some of our players will be remote and some will still be coming to my house every Tuesday with lap tops in hand.

#1 question about the License. I bought the ultimate License along with all the modules and source books. Is the license restricted to 1 computer or can I install it on both my lap top and desk top? If I can install on both can both be running the ultimate license (one of our players doesn't have a lap top so he will be using mine. Or do I need to install a free version so their isn't a key duplication issue?

#2 While messing around testing stuff with the roommate, I managed to lose the settings option "Item: Identification on/off". It just disappeared from the menu (after I turned it on), now I can't turn it back on. Also, that doesn't seem to hide the cost of an item. If they find a dagger worth 10k gp, they are going to know something is up.

#3 I have looked over the extensions and picked a few I like, but one feature "the other guys" had that FG doesn't is DM notes for items. I would really like to be able to make notes on items that the players can't read. Does anyone know of an extension that does this? I didn't find one in the stickied community extensions thread.

#4 My game uses a unique calendar. can I just unzip the calendars.mod edit the .xml file and rezip it and change the extension back to .mod?

#5 I bought big steam bundle, I don't plan on running all the adventures from start to finish, but I would like to use some of the content in my existing campaign. I was unable to track down where those reside (I would like to extract the tokens so my players have access to them) and would be nice to not have to have the entire adventure open for just a few encounters/items/npc's.

Thanks for your time, I'm sure I will have more questions later.

LordEntrails
September 28th, 2018, 21:48
#1 SmiteWorks as said you can install it on both. I'm pretty sure you will get a license conflict. At least you used to.... As for a second install, the registry is used so you will probably have problems trying two installs. I've done it using a virtual machine. But you can also just remove the license key and run an update. But then of course you will have to reload everything when you re-enter the license key. Someone else might have a better idea...

#2 Item ID is now no longer an option, it is always on. Each item & NPC has an on/off icon for it. Most items are identified by default, except for DMG items. Not sure about the dagger example. When an item is not identified, I'm pretty sure only the non-id name is available, but been a long time since I checked... Anyone else have insight?

#3 No extension, but you can create a story entry and drop the pin on the item. The players won't have access to the link unless you share the story entry with them.

#4 yes... but I think you want to rename it so it doesn't get overwritten when you do an update. Their is a thread in the Workshop forum with more info and one of the community members is pretty good about helping people with custom calaendars.

#5 They are stored encrypted in the vault. What you can do is open the module/adventure, drag the item back onto the list, which makes a copy of it in your current campaign. Then close the original module.

Moon Wizard
September 28th, 2018, 21:55
BruceDM,

Welcome to the forums. Let me take a stab at answering your questions, and I'm sure others will chime in if I missed anything. Let me know if you have more questions.

1. We have stated that you can use your license on multiple machines, as long as you limit the usage to a single user and do not use them at the same time. Maybe GMs do this to work on their campaigns via one machine (laptop while travelling, or desktop while in office); but use a different computer for playing (desktop at home, or gaming machine at live session). You can't install ultimate and free on the same machine; so you'll need to update after adding/removing license key. Also, you won't be able to connect from the second machine to the first machine either, as you will get a license conflict.

2. The identification setting was reworked to always be available, with the default identification state to be "identified". There are some overrides for certain rulesets and DLC (such as 5E DMG which sets items to unidentified by default). When unidentified, the players can only see the "unidentified name" and "unidentified notes" fields. Try starting a second instance of FG and connect to "localhost" as a player; in order to see exactly what players can see.

3. There's nothing specific that I've seen. I think most GMs just keep track of these kinds of campaign-specific GM notes in the "Story" or "Notes" sections, as a reference when needed.

4. I wouldn't update the calendars.mod directly; as it will be overriden next time the general-addons DLC is updated. Instead, you can make a copy to a new filename, open it up, give it a different internal name, replace the calendars within with your own, and package it back up.

5.
All of the data modules included in the 5E bundle can be accessed via the Library sidebar by clicking the Modules button. All of the token modules can be accessed via the Tokens sidebar by clicking the Modules button. Just load/unload the modules you want open.

If you want to use the data from the modules, you'll have to keep the module open; or you can make a copy of a particular record by dragging the record link (icon in upper left corner of each record) onto the campaign list for that record type to duplicate the record. Any records that you duplicate are now part of the base campaign data; and the module is no longer required to be open for those duplicated records.

Tokens modules are GM only, so you'll need to assign the tokens or let them choose from screenshot or by placing a bunch on a map for them to choose.

Regards,
JPG

BruceDM
September 28th, 2018, 21:59
Thanks for the quick response.

As regards to the remove license key and then re-entering it. Would i have to reload all the source books and adventures? what about my campaign data?

LordEntrails
September 28th, 2018, 22:52
Thanks for the quick response.

As regards to the remove license key and then re-entering it. Would i have to reload all the source books and adventures? what about my campaign data?
Yes, so when you re-entered your license key and hit update, it would download all the DLC again. Which can take awhile, depending.

You campaign data wouldn't be touched. But jut to make sure you know, campaign data is stored local to the machine, so you need to copy it back and forth to your multiple computers. Please DON"T use a cloud/sync's folder such as DropBox etc unless you are very careful and disable sync'ing. Such applications have been known to result in corrupt campaign data if the application tries to update the data while it is in use. You can just copy it manually, or copy up/down from a shared location, or even write a script. There is a pretty advanced backup script on the forums here that we can find if you need it.

Andraax
September 29th, 2018, 00:12
... and one of the community members is pretty good about helping people with custom calaendars.

* Waves *

damned
September 29th, 2018, 00:27
with the calendars - use the existing calendar mod as your base but rename the physical file and the name in teh definition - otherwise it will get overwritten on an update.