Prepepared Map content not saving between sessions

[tamahandy]

Pre-prepared Map content not saving between sessions: Do not use blanks/spaces in the image filename

As a returning gamemaster (everything is updated to the latest version, it's going to be a 5E campaign) I recently wanted to prepeare my story/ map/ encounters and I was playtesting this with a 2nd computer who handles the three player characters.

As Gamemaster I had a map linked into a story, opened it from there, added a grid, a mask and a unmasked area as well as an encounter pin.

I then dragged from the combat tracker the three player characters into the map.

After that I logged of the player computer and then I logged off from the game master computer, as I wanted to see if everything stays as it is so we could stop at any time and return right where we left

Reloading into my campaign with the game master computer I opened up my Story and then clicked on the linked map and ...

I could see the complete map without any mask and the masked area, the grid and the encounter pin were gone. Also the ID field where I typed in the map name was again set to the default text.

What am I doing wrong ?

Thank you for your help, I googled the above forum title but did not find any help here/in the archives.
Also watched a video about pre placed NPCs, but it didnt used masked areas.

[dragonheels]

Hello,
I would say you would better create an encounter.
Then, drag and drop the token from your encounter to your map.
When the real combat comes, use the arrow down the encounter to get your NPCs in the combat tracker.
A double-click on any enemy from the CT will open your map, with the token on it

EDIT : oups I see you already had encounters

[Trenloe]

@tamahandy - welcome back!

Does anything save in your campaign? To test, create a new story entry and enter some data. Close FG, then open up FG again and load up the campaign - is the story entry you added there?

[tamahandy]

Hello dragonheels,
Yes, I had the encounter created and I do manage to get the NPCs loaded where they were initially placed but what if I have to close the campaign in the middle of the fight, which is what worries me.
But thanks, I doubled checked and sadly that works but the masked map as well as the location of players was gone again.

Hello Trenloe,
Yes, if I add text to the Story, it does get saved.

What puzzles me is, that way back (2017) where I was playing a Pathfinder campaign, it actually worked like "just leave- come back and mask and map and player location is just as I left".

Here some screens:
Preparing the Map, Encounter and mask
33180

Returning to the game, I did opened the encounter again and the pin showed and the giant rat was added, the 2nd one.
The first one was still in the combat tracker, but the map as shown is clear and clean apart that I opened the encounter to verify that what dragonheels wrote was really working.
33181

[dragonheels]

When DMing dd5, I usually don't open the encounter again once the combat has started. When we connect again for the next session, I start from the CT and the token are still on the map.
Strange.

[LordEntrails]

FG should pick up right where you left off. I do it all the time (every week).

Do you have any extensions loaded? You can check this by looking at chat as soon as you open your campaign or in the campaign launch/selection window.

[tamahandy]

Hi LordEntrails,

Nope, I do not load any extra modules.

5E ruleset, Core RPG, Wood Theme, that's all ...

I remember having it as you described as well, leave and pick up right where I left, it's just not doing it :-( ...

p.s.
It doesn't even keep the "shared" setting of the map, can the problem relate to some attributes of the file ?
I'm just running windows 10 though ...

[Trenloe]

Is it just one map that's doing it?

Does the same occur with a map from a module - e.g. the FG battlemaps?

If you create a brand new campaign does the issue occur?

[Zacchaeus]

Does the map you are using have a red lock icon on it on the top right of the image?

[tamahandy]

Hi Trenloe,

I tried it with a few other maps from the same directory, they all loose the shared status even though I had them shared . I didn't create a grid and mask though.
It does not occur with a FG battlemap.
It does not occur with a New Drawing.

...but you helped me find a possible root cause!

It's the file name I use.

I used filenames in Windows 10 with a lot of blanks/spaces and dashes eg. : The lost Dwarfenmines - 1st to 5E - GM lvl2.jpg

When I remove the dashes and the blanks/spaces from the name (The_lost_Dwarfenmines_ADV_lvl1.jpg) it loads the map with the mask and encounter and players on it just like I left it.

Not sure what causes this as the campaign is using blanks and dashes eg. : \Fantasy Grounds\campaigns\Dungeon Crawl - AD&D 1st to 5E\images
and other campaings that are there by default (5E, 3.4E and 4E) are using dashes in the campaign name, but the image names in those folders always use underscores/_ and do NOT use blanks/spaces.

Thanks a lot for the quick and friendly advice from everybody!

Do I need to report this as a "bug" or this is working as intended or should the information regarding the naming for images in self made campaigns be mentioned somewhere ?

[LordEntrails]

I think this should be reported int eh House of Healing. Sounds like multiple spaces ? might be the culprit. Not sure if the ampersand in the campaign name would impact it. I'll add info on this to my Adventure Module Creation best practices. Not sure where else (maybe the Wiki?) it should go.

[Moon Wizard]

Multiple consecutive spaces will always break links in images, due to the way XML will strip multiple spaces. Eventually, I might put a message to throw an error, instead of allowing those to load; but it has happened so rarely.

Regards,
JPG