"Manage Characters" button

[brjemmet]

What happened to the "Manage Characters" button on the home screen?

[Zacchaeus]

There is no Manage Characters in Unity. You will just start a new campaign to create characters, or create them in an existing campaign or when joined to a DM.

[pollux]

I don't have a link handy, but I remember reading somewhere that the "Manage Characters" functionality was very strange and unusual from a programming perspective because it wasn't quite a campaign mode but shared many features of a campaign mode. It was also infrequently used, and provided no functionality that simply creating a "My Character Campaign" provides. So the dev team decided to remove the feature in order to make FGU simpler and cleaner, and the workaround as Zacchaeus noted is to create a campaign for your characters, which should work pretty much the same way once the campaign is created.

[Bidmaron]

How will the character get into the created campaign? The advantage of Manage Characters is that you can get to your in-game characters for the ruleset.

[Mortar]

Export the character from the creation campaign and give the exported character to the GM.

[Moon Wizard]

Also, in FGU, any characters in any local campaigns as well as any cached player campaigns will be available to import into a campaign you are playing in.

Regards,
JPG

[stewartl42]

This isn't working the way I expected it to work, so I have 2 questions.

I have an ultimate license and start a campaign, "Campaign A". I have 6 PC's.

If I then close that campaign, and my friend, who also has an Ultimate License starts a campaign, "Campaign B", and the same players join his game.

1) I would have expected for those players to be able to import their PC's from Campaign A into Campaign B. But it appears the GM needs to export the PCs and the 2nd GM needs to import them. Is this the expected flow?
2) If this _IS_ the expected flow, would a feature request to enable the players to load cached PCs from the client into new camapaigns they join as opposed to the GM-side, be worthwhile?
2) If the players type "/save" in chat, is says their characters have been saved. Where?

[Moon Wizard]

Some answers to your questions:

1) This is the expected flow. The Campaign A characters are only on your machine, therefore only you would be able to import those characters. The GM machine talks to each player as a central server; the player clients do not know about or talk to each other internally.

2) PCs will be available for you to import which are from local campaigns on your machine; or from campaigns which you played in using that machine. These are individual to each player. Since player machines can't talk to each other, a player can only import PCs on their own machine.

3) The characters are saved in a cache directory in the FGU data folder. The only way to access that data is to connect to the same campaign; or they can import a copy into another campaign they have joined.

**4) In your scenario above, since all the PCs are already on one of the player's machines, the player who hosted the "creation campaign" would need to import a copy of all 6 PCs to the new campaign. Then, the GM would need to release those PCs by right-clicking on them, and selecting Clear Owner. Then, other players could grab those PCs.

**5) The expected usage is:
a) You log into the GM's machine to make your character for that campaign.
b) OR, you make the character on your own machine (in a campaign), and then import a copy of that PC from your machine when you connect to another GM's campaign.

Regards,
JPG

[stewartl42]

Ok. So it appears I misunderstood, and as A player, if I join a campaign, my PC isn't stored locally on my machine, it's stored with the campaign data on the GM machine.


We have a group with 2 GMs (both with ultimate licenses) and a number of players for Adventurer's League games. so if we swap GM for those, it seems like it's up to the GMs to keep the PCs in sync, or to export the PC's at the end of every session for the players to manage.

In this case it seems like it would be easier for the Player's client to cache the PC data to allow for import, if they connect to a new campaign.

[Moon Wizard]

The player's client should already be caching the PC. If you change campaigns, then the player has to import the latest copy to the current campaign.

Regards,
JPG

[stewartl42]

That is not the behavior we observed tonight.

I ran an AL session as a cloud session, with 5 PCs.
At the end, everyone did a "/save".
I closed that campaign, opened a new cloud campaign,
The same player joined the new campaign, and clicked the import arrow, there were no characters for him to select.

As the GM, since I ran both Campaigns, I could see the character and could import them into the new campaign (which was incredibly painless, and much improved, BTW. Thanks!)

[Moon Wizard]

Then, that's an issue I need to look into. I've filed as task FGU-847.

Thanks,
JPG

[stewartl42]

Right. Should this be a manual XML import for them, or through the UI?

What I'm saying is, it wasn't in his UI as a character to import into the 2nd campaign.

I'm happy to help troubleshoot.

[Moon Wizard]

He might be able to open a new campaign, import the PC, then export it for the GM to do a XML import. Let me know if you're able to do it that way.

I'm mainly just tracking issues right now, since I'm swinging from ruleset code onto network code for a bit.

Regards,
JPG

[twseifert]

So I just tested importing a character from my campaign into my friends campaign, and the imported character was completely blank. The character I created did use 2 modules that my friend's campaign did not have. Thee characters stats were reset to all 10s, and the race and class (both created from the modules the 2nd campaign did not have) were both cleared upon import.

[mlbrown]

We just did a test. I started a new campaign. My players could not see their character from the old campaign to import it to the new one.

I could see the other characters as the DM, but this is unworkable for Adventurers League where players may be participating in one off games. Especially with online conventions like FG-Con, players need access to their own characters including players who only have a demo license (and cannot host a campaign).

[Tenebrous Sage]

Is it possible, in Unity, to import characters from Hero Lab?

[damned]

Is it possible, in Unity, to import characters from Hero Lab?

No. And the devs have said its unlikely they will have the time to develop that tool for FGU.

[twseifert]

So I just tested importing a character from my campaign into my friends campaign, and the imported character was completely blank. The character I created did use 2 modules that my friend's campaign did not have. Thee characters stats were reset to all 10s, and the race and class (both created from the modules the 2nd campaign did not have) were both cleared upon import.

Update to say ,that I have not been able to successfully, create a character on my computer and export or save it on my end and import it into a campaign hosted by another GM. Every character I have tried to import has come up as a completely blank/fresh character sheet in the other GM's game, regardless of any differences in the modules used to create the character on my machine or which modules that GM had open on his machine/campaign.

I tested this by creating a 5e Character with all 20s for stats and nothing else, and just the standard/free included modules open in both campaigns and after import all the stats were rest to 10.

[Elf_Boy]

I'm not finding any way to view my campaign character in Unity offline like I could in classic. I'm perfectly happy to use a home grown campaign or whatever. When you play infrequently it is nice to be able to review a day before the game - or plan out level ups before game day.

[mlbrown]

To place a bit of a priority on this, our DM in a campaign running classic just had a hard disk failure (and of course, no backups). We all just downloaded our characters from the local cache to r eload in the campaign (side comment, learned it would be good if the notes were cached locally as well--not only for this, but for viewing between sessions). At this time in FGU, it would have ended the campaign for all intents and purposes.

[Elf_Boy]

Backing up my character data is important to me as well. In the 3 campaigns I am currently playing, 2x Unity 1x Classic, the GM's do not have any kind of back up process.

Asking the GM to email me an export of my character after every game isnt going to fly either.

Is there a way for me to load/save my data after each game in Unity?

As posted above it would be nice to be able to view maps, notes etc offline. One of my games is monthly making it harder to keep fresh on specifics.

[LordEntrails]

Have you checked your player campaign cache? Most likely your characters are there like they are in FGC. But since I've not joined a FGU game as a player, I can't verify this on my system.

[Elf_Boy]

I have -- if they are there it is not obvious.

[Moon Wizard]

As long as you don't join a campaign with the exact same name, your characters will still be located in the player cache. You can create a new campaign, and import directly into that campaign; or connect to a differently named campaign, and import from character selection screen.

Regards,
JPG

[Elf_Boy]

So where exactly is this file.... I've looked.

[Zacchaeus]

So where exactly is this file.... I've looked.

As Moon Wizard says, start a new campaign and open the PC window and then click the import button and you'll see all of the characters that you have on your local machine. Also as he says if you join a differently named campaign then you can click the import button on the join screen and again see all of the characters on your local machine.

The cache file is in FGData/cache/name of campaign; but you can't access it directly since it's encrypted.

[twseifert]

ARe we talking Classic or Unity? Because a couple of weeks ago the Import function in Unity was not working as intended. Unless it has since been fixed.

[Zacchaeus]

ARe we talking Classic or Unity? Because a couple of weeks ago the Import function in Unity was not working as intended. Unless it has since been fixed.

Since this is the Unity playtest forum we are talking about Unity. I haven't come across any import issues. But then again I haven't used it much.

[twseifert]

Since this is the Unity playtest forum we are talking about Unity. I haven't come across any import issues. But then again I haven't used it much.

Thanks. Sometimes hard to tell which forum it is when you get emails about new posts.

But when I import characters in the 5E Rule Set, the character sheets in the importing campaign are reset back to "blank"

[Elf_Boy]

I have tried that.

I see other characters, including all the ones from classic FG. I even see lower level, prior copies of the character I am looking for, but not the lvl 7 version. We leveled up 2 sessions ago so there has been enough game play to hopefully have cached it.

[Elf_Boy]

In two FGU campaigns now.

Cant view the character from either one.

[Elf_Boy]

Just a FYI,

This is still not working for me. I dont know if this is a more general issue or specific to this computer/install.

When I open an Campaign and go to import I get a blank screen, with an option at the bottom to import from file.

I am the sole user on the computer and I am an Admin user if that affects things.

[Kelrugem]

Just a FYI,

This is still not working for me. I dont know if this is a more general issue or specific to this computer/install.

When I open an Campaign and go to import I get a blank screen, with an option at the bottom to import from file.

I am the sole user on the computer and I am an Admin user if that affects things.

It is indeed still not working correctly :) But it will be addressed :)

[matjam]

This is currently super cumbersome.

Every game I run, most people send me their XML because they can't figure out how to import from their local campaign (though that does actually work).

After the game, there is no way for anyone to get their character. I have to manually export each one to an XML file and send it to them.

Feels like the most annoying thing now the lua performance is mostly fixed.

[Trenloe]

After the game, there is no way for anyone to get their character.
See the instructions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?60638-Another-dumb-noob-question&p=531980&viewfull=1#post531980

[deer_buster]

See the instructions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?60638-Another-dumb-noob-question&p=531980&viewfull=1#post531980

That make it into the FGU wiki?

[matjam]

See the instructions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?60638-Another-dumb-noob-question&p=531980&viewfull=1#post531980

Doesn’t work for me or any of my players.

Like I said. Importing local characters INTO a campaign you connect to is fine.

Getting a character OUT of a campaign you connect to does not work.

[Trenloe]

Doesn’t work for me or any of my players.

Like I said. Importing local characters INTO a campaign you connect to is fine.

Getting a character OUT of a campaign you connect to does not work.
A player doesn't export directly from the GMs campaign. Like I describe in the post I link, the player data is cached locally on their computer and when the player opens a campaign on their own computer (not connecting to a GM's instance) then they can import characters from games they've joined on their computer. On the player's local campaign (so the player is running their own campaign like a GM), in the Character selection window, click the import button to go to the character import screen and all characters for the ruleset being used will be available to import into the local campaign.

See below. This is an FGU campaign loaded up on my player computer. I go to Manage Characters and then click the blue up-arrow "Import Character" button to take me to the window shown below. This shows me all characters I have used when I've been connected to a GMs campaign - it details the campaign name as well. To add them to my local campaign I click the green "+" button on the character tile. Then it's available in this campaign to edit and also upload to a GM campaign when I connect to them.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=38371

[Elf_Boy]

See the instructions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?60638-Another-dumb-noob-question&p=531980&viewfull=1#post531980

This doesnt work.

Or at least it does not work for me.

[Zacchaeus]

Just a small addendum to what Trenloe is saying above.

What he says is absolutely correct but currently there is a kink whereby any characters created in someone else's campaign are not showing up in the import character window. The only characters which show up are those created by the player in one of their own campaigns. This is a known issue and is being looked at (at least as far as I know it is still not a fixed issue). The only workaround then would be for the DM to export the characters from their campaign and send the file to the players who can then import into another campaign.

[Trenloe]

Thanks for the info Zacchaeus, I wasn't aware of that.

@matjam and @Elf_Boy - sorry for the misleading information. Hopefully this will be fixed soon...

[matjam]

It's not just any characters created in someone else's campaign. It's any character imported into a remote campaign that you join.

I made a video to clearly demonstrate the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlh8aMYAMSA

Once a character is loaded into a remote campaign, any changes to that character cannot be retrieved without the DM exporting the XML and sending it.

[Kelrugem]

It's not just any characters created in someone else's campaign. It's any character imported.

I made a video to clearly demonstrate the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlh8aMYAMSA

Once a character is loaded into a remote campaign, any changes to that character cannot be retrieved without the DM exporting the XML and sending it.

yeah, that is normal that changes in other campaigns are not applied to the local file of your character in any other campaign (like the creation campaign). Basically, a character is saved campaign-wise (roughly) (not speaking about the xml files which you can save separately anywhere). Importing it into another one's campaign is basically making a copy of that character, so, it counts as new character there. And since it is a character in another person's campaign, the bug mentioned by Zacchaeus applies :) (when this bug gets fixed, you need to reimport that character as player in your "manage character campaign". When you apply any changes, then you need to reimport it later into the play campaign and so on)

EDIT: So, that character file is not "global" over all campaigns. I hope it is clear what I mean :)

[matjam]

Yeah, what I'm saying is when you hit "import" it should also consider all characters you have available in cached campaigns as candidates for being imported.

That would solve 99% of people's problems. They could just keep importing each time and just would need to occasionally clean things up from time to time.

[Kelrugem]

Yeah, what I'm saying is when you hit "import" it should also consider all characters you have available in cached campaigns as candidates for being imported.

That would solve 99% of people's problems. They could just keep importing each time and just would need to occasionally clean things up from time to time.

As far as I know that is the target but not currently working (that is what Zacchaeus said) :) So, we need to wait, but it will be treated and should then work as you want it to be :)

[Elf_Boy]

Something that would be really awesome, as an added feature, would be if the GM could allow offline changes to auto import back to the campaign.

It can be annoying I can only really work on my characters when I need to be paying attention to what everyone is doing and saying.

[Trenloe]

Something that would be really awesome, as an added feature, would be if the GM could allow offline changes to auto import back to the campaign.
Auto import, no. But you can import your modified character and start using that. I do this all the time in adventures I play in - import character, select it, play! The old PC can remain in the Character Selection screen (allowing the GM some reference to compare and see what the new PC changes are) or the GM can delete it from the campaign completely.

[Xydonus]

On the subject of the 'Manage Characters' function, this was something that I personally won't miss, but I know a few of my players liked for quickly wanting to reference something on their character. Lot of my players come from Roll20, and Roll20 allows anyone to edit/view their character without input from the GM. While FG's classic MC function only allowed read-only, it is going to be something a couple of my players will likely miss but can easily live without.

Shame regardless.

[Trenloe]

The functionality in FGU (when the current wrinkle is ironed out) will give similar functionality that manage characters did, with an easier to use process. Players won't be worse off than they are now.

[matjam]

I would honestly just prefer a list of characters in all the campaigns, local and remote, in the launcher.

I don't need to be able to edit them there, I just need to be able to see them and do things like "extract from encrypted zip cache of the remote campaign and add it to this local campaign that I'm using to manage my characters".

[Trenloe]

... and do things like "extract from encrypted zip cache of the remote campaign and add it to this local campaign that I'm using to manage my characters".
You won't see them in the launcher, but you will see them in the Character Import screen of your character management campaign.

This is what I'm trying to get across in this thread - this is what you *should* be able to do. There is an issue preventing this working correctly at this point. But this *is* the design goal (being able to import any player cache characters, or character from other campaign on your computer into a campaign) and will be operational once the issue is fixed.

[matjam]

You won't see them in the launcher, but you will see them in the Character Import screen of your character management campaign.

This is what I'm trying to get across in this thread - this is what you *should* be able to do. There is an issue preventing this working correctly at this point. But this *is* the design goal (being able to import any player cache characters, or character from other campaign on your computer into a campaign) and will be operational once the issue is fixed.

Your point was not lost, at all.

[Elf_Boy]

Auto import, no. But you can import your modified character and start using that. I do this all the time in adventures I play in - import character, select it, play! The old PC can remain in the Character Selection screen (allowing the GM some reference to compare and see what the new PC changes are) or the GM can delete it from the campaign completely.

This, and/or interoperability with D&D Beyond API (Like how Discord and D&D Beyond now work) would be a really awesome new feature. I understand this is not how the system currently works and this would be a future (if ever) thing.

With D&D Beyond API support then the whole offline view/edit could be handles in that site rather then in FG.

[Trenloe]

The non-local character import should now be fixed.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?54466-FGU-Early-Access-Updates&p=535998&viewfull=1#post535998

[DGM]

Players being able to import characters to campaigns without DM actions is essential especially for West March.

[Trenloe]

Players being able to import characters to campaigns without DM actions is essential especially for West March.
That can be done. See the instructions here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?60638-Another-dumb-noob-question&p=531980&viewfull=1#post531980

[Elf_Boy]

Thank you for fixing this.

Makes my gaming life much easier.

[JoakimEdman]

Hi there Greater Deity with your infinite wisdom. :)
(English is not my main language and i do have Dyslexia so i apologize for any inconveniences

Me and some of my fellow players rely miss the "Manage Charters" Button in FGU.
It was perfect for planing ahead before next session, how wounded, what items and spells you had, check character and discuss tactics.
Planing on what stats, skills feats, new spells to get next time you levelled up.

Only aspect that would have improved on it would have been if you could check some of your fellow players Characters.

We would be rely happy if you could reconsider the removing of the "Manage Characters" button.

Good luck with all your fine work and the bug hunting. May you always succeed. :)
Best Regards Joakim

[Trenloe]

Me and some of my fellow players rely miss the "Manage Charters" Button in FGU.
It was perfect for planing ahead before next session, how wounded, what items and spells you had, check character and discuss tactics.
Planing on what stats, skills feats, new spells to get next time you levelled up.
You can do this in FGU. This is what I (and others) have been saying in this thread.

The difference is that each player needs to create a campaign for the ruleset being used. Call if "My 5E characters" (if you're running 5e, or whatever you want to call it). Then you can load any PC from any campaign you've joined into that campaign - make any changes you need. Then when you join the GM's campaign you can import your edited PC from the "My 5E Characters" campaign. This is *exactly* the same as Manager Characters, without having to export the XML from the read-only Manage Characters cache and then re-import it into the Manage Characters 5E campaign.

To say again - the same functionality as Manage Characters is available in Fantasy Grounds Unity! In fact, in most cases the functionality in FGU is better.

[Trenloe]

I've made a video the "manage characters" functionality in FGU: https://youtu.be/30o7jjJpLoo

EDIT: Video has an addendum at 04:58 to cover character XML import/export.

[JoakimEdman]

Thnx a million, will try it and inform my fellow players, hope i understand it correctly.
Take care friend.. :)

[Ludd_G]

Is there any chance of getting some kind of filtering for the Import list? I'd love to have a list of campaigns, and any other character sources (modules etc) in a drop-down the same as is present for other categories (Images, Spells etc. etc.). It would really help me to rationalise the ever increasing list of characters. Also, for some reason I'm still seeing PCs from campaigns that I've removed from the Campaign folder, is this as expected?

I often have several Campaigns with imported version of various PCs for testing and building purposes and these are really starting to clog up the works! :D

Cheers,

Simon

[Trenloe]

Also, for some reason I'm still seeing PCs from campaigns that I've removed from the Campaign folder, is this as expected?
They could be from a player cache if you joined that campaign with a player instance from the same computer.

[Ludd_G]

Ah, good call. Is there a way to flush that cache out?

[Trenloe]

Ah, good call. Is there a way to flush that cache out?
Go to the <FG app data>\cache directory - and you'll see a directory for each campaign you've joined as a player. Delete the directories you don't want cached data and PCs to be available from in future.

Get to <FG app data> by clicking the folder icon in the top left of the FGU startup screen.

[LordEntrails]

Is there any chance of getting some kind of filtering for the Import list? I'd love to have a list of campaigns, and any other character sources (modules etc) in a drop-down the same as is present for other categories (Images, Spells etc. etc.). It would really help me to rationalise the ever increasing list of characters.
Check the Wish List, add it if not there. https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/

[Ludd_G]

Cheers Trenloe, I'll give that go and see if it sorts it out.

[deer_buster]

Is there any chance of getting some kind of filtering for the Import list? I'd love to have a list of campaigns, and any other character sources (modules etc) in a drop-down the same as is present for other categories (Images, Spells etc. etc.). It would really help me to rationalise the ever increasing list of characters. Also, for some reason I'm still seeing PCs from campaigns that I've removed from the Campaign folder, is this as expected?

I often have several Campaigns with imported version of various PCs for testing and building purposes and these are really starting to clog up the works! :D

Cheers,

Simon

They're imposters. Vote 'em out

[Ludd_G]

Haha! :D

[spliskamatyshak]

This clearly doesn't work on the Linux version of FGU.

Edit: Actually, doesn't work in Windows either. What are guys trying to sell here?

[LordEntrails]

This clearly doesn't work on the Linux version of FGU.

Edit: Actually, doesn't work in Windows either. What are guys trying to sell here?
Exactly what doesn't work? There are 70 posts before yours. There are videos, and techniques and discussions. If you say exactly what's not working for you we can help better.

[Trenloe]

This clearly doesn't work on the Linux version of FGU.

Edit: Actually, doesn't work in Windows either. What are guys trying to sell here?
Watch this video: https://youtu.be/30o7jjJpLoo

If following the process outlined in the video doesn't work for you, please give us details of *exactly* what isn't working for you.

[trbrelinski]

This is rather unintuitive. If I just want to create characters, why in the world would I create a campaign? I used the Manage Characters feature the most in FGC. I love making characters and thinking up different concepts of characters. Now it's all cluttered with campaigns. Very annoying.

[damned]

Welcome trbrelinski

There is no need to make lots of campaigns - create a single campaign and work from there.

[Trenloe]

This is rather unintuitive. If I just want to create characters, why in the world would I create a campaign? I used the Manage Characters feature the most in FGC. I love making characters and thinking up different concepts of characters. Now it's all cluttered with campaigns. Very annoying.
I suggest you watch the video. https://youtu.be/30o7jjJpLoo