Tokens in FGII

[Ged]

Inspired by this (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showpost.php?p=36749&postcount=14) post, here comes some information about changes in token behavior/use.

Tokens in the token box are scaled down to a maximum size. When picked up, they return to their real size and become semi-transparent to make positioning them easier. No more need to create token bags just to accommodate large tokens.
Tokens can now be incorporated into modules. Tokens in modules load only to memory, so they do not jam the token box forever and they do not remain on the client end afer the session.
Shared tokens from the host are uploaded to the clients but they go to a campaign specific cache. No token spam. Host tokens are uploaded when first used. They live in the memory only.
Tokens can be individually scaled on maps and images. In the d20 ruleset, this is handily accomplised with the combat tracker. Also the global scaling is still valid.
When moved on an image, a transparent token remains at the point of origin until the token is released. This helps to keep track of the displacement.
If the grid is set up, another transparent token appears at the position the token is about to snap to.
If the tokens are linked to the combat tracker (in d20 ruleset), the space and reach of the creature are visualized if defined (automatically if dragged from the monster book - manual is also possible). Check the attached image to get some idea of how these work - they become more apparent when used. (The mouse cursor is missing from the image as it is omitted when taking a screenshot.)
Creatures linked with the combat tracker (again, if defined in the ruleset), can be targeted, which is shown by an outline or several sectors of the outline if multiple creatures target the same foe, and has implications in the combat tracker (the K in the image has been targeted by "red" and "blue" - sorry for the simple tokens in the image).
Character portraits can be dragged directly to map or combat tracker and the required information is automatically linked to the combat tracker.
Tokens have three visibility modes: mask sensitive, always visible, and always invisible, which can be toggled so that an always invisible token marking a trap, for instance, can be revealed when triggered. Mask sensitive means, obviously, that token underneath mask is hidden...
Tokens placed on images are saved in the campaign (as well as their visibility status and links to combat tracker).


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/images/screenshots/tokens.png

[Cantstanzya]

Tokens have three visibility modes: mask sensitive, always visible, and always invisible, which can be toggled so that an always invisible token marking a trap, for instance, can be revealed when triggered. Mask sensitive means, obviously, that token underneath mask is hidden...
When you say these can be toggled, do you right click an select what state you want this in, or do you right click and toggle through the different states? The reason I ask is if you wanted to change the state during a game you may reveal the token if toggling between the different states.

[Ged]

When you say these can be toggled, do you right click an select what state you want this in, or do you right click and toggle through the different states? The reason I ask is if you wanted to change the state during a game you may reveal the token if toggling between the different states.
Good catch. Toggle is a poorly chosen word. The mode is selected from the menu and the available choices are provided, e.g. if the mode is mask sensitive, it can be changed to always visible or always invisible.

[Nokameeno]

Very nice work indeed. I really like the enhancements!!

[Cantstanzya]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for the update.

[Tailz Silver Paws]

Inspired by this (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showpost.php?p=36749&postcount=14) post, here comes some information about changes in token behavior/use.
Oohh, I inspired a post. :D


Tokens in the token box are scaled down to a maximum size. When picked up, they return to their real size and become semi-transparent to make positioning them easier. No more need to create token bags just to accommodate large tokens.
Tokens have three visibility modes: mask sensitive, always visible, and always invisible, which can be toggled so that an always invisible token marking a trap, for instance, can be revealed when triggered. Mask sensitive means, obviously, that token underneath mask is hidden...


Hhhhmmmmm.... three more questions...

Will there be a way to manage the tokens in the box itself? Instead of having to "rummage" through all the tokens in the box? eg: a bag full of German Soldier tokens, a bag full of British soldier tokens, a bag full of tank tokens and a bag of turret tokens, etc?

How does "Mask Sensitive" work?

Does the "snap to" work off the center of the grid square and the center of the token graphic?

[tdwyer11b]

Hey Ged,

What's the red and blue ring on the "K" token?

[sunbeam60]

Hey Ged,

What's the red and blue ring on the "K" token?




Creatures linked with the combat tracker (again, if defined in the ruleset), can be targeted, which is shown by an outline or several sectors of the outline if multiple creatures target the same foe, and has implications in the combat tracker (the K in the image has been targeted by "red" and "blue" - sorry for the simple tokens in the image).




That looks fantastic ... can't wait.

[mr_h]

Beautiful :)

[Oberoten]

So how do I target another token? Player-Only function or ??

[heruca]

[LIST]
Shared tokens from the host are uploaded to the clients but they go to a campaign specific cache. No token spam. Host tokens are uploaded when first used. They live in the memory only.

Excellent.

[Dachannien]

I'm loving it! Sounds like you guys have thought of just about everything.

[FryCook]

if you don't use round tokens, for instance the FUM virtual miniatures, what happens to the colored outline for being targeted? is the software generating that red/blue outline based on the token's transparency or is it always round?

[Ged]

Will there be a way to manage the tokens in the box itself? Instead of having to "rummage" through all the tokens in the box? eg: a bag full of German Soldier tokens, a bag full of British soldier tokens, a bag full of tank tokens and a bag of turret tokens, etc
As before, tokens can be arranged in separate bags, you can create just the bags you mentioned in the box, or you can create a bag for all British stuff and then create more bags for troops, tanks, turrets etc. in there.


How does "Mask Sensitive" work?
If a token is under the mask, it's invisible, if it's on the revealed territory, it's visible. Simple as that.


Does the "snap to" work off the center of the grid square and the center of the token graphic?
Tokens snap to the centers of grid squares and the intersections of grid lines. Tokens snap with respect to their centres. So, if you have a turret, for instance, and want it to snap to its axis of rotation, you should leave some transparent area behind it to compensate for the bore's length.


What's the red and blue ring on the "K" token?
They indicate that the "K" has been targeted by two players, whose selected (die) colors are red and blue. (The targeting information is also indicated in the combat tracker by showing character portraits on the entry of the particular foe - handy if two player's colors were very close to each other, )


So how do I target another token? Player-Only function or ??
It's a player-only function.


if you don't use round tokens, for instance the FUM virtual miniatures, what happens to the colored outline for being targeted? is the software generating that red/blue outline based on the token's transparency or is it always round?
The colored outline is round and spans the extent of the miniature - the interior of the circle not occupied by the token is slightly darkened. Outline according to the transparency information was rather unclear and wasn't that good looking either.

[FryCook]

Thanks for all of your answers Ged. They are very much appreciated. I just have one more (although I'm certain other folks have their own).

In respect to stacking tokens, will FG II be first-in, first-out so it's possible to use "dungeon construction tokens" on the fly? Or will the stacking remain the way it is, which I believe is first-in, last-out, but it's hard to tell sometimes. How about locking a token down? I guess that was two question, sorry...

Thanks!

[Tailz Silver Paws]

Ged wrote:

As before, tokens can be arranged in separate bags, you can create just the bags you mentioned in the box, or you can create a bag for all British stuff and then create more bags for troops, tanks, turrets etc. in there.
And then everything in that one bag scales down to a small icon type of display. Will the token box be the same size as in the current FG? Or can it be dynamicaly changed in size like a window? eg: pulling out the side or corner to make the box bigger or smaller?


If a token is under the mask, it's invisible, if it's on the revealed territory, it's visible. Simple as that.
I assume the mask your talking about is the "fog of war" mask?
Or are there going to be other ways to define a mask?


Tokens snap to the centers of grid squares and the intersections of grid lines. Tokens snap with respect to their centres. So, if you have a turret, for instance, and want it to snap to its axis of rotation, you should leave some transparent area behind it to compensate for the bore's length.
Will the "snap to" feature always be on when a grid is being used? can you turn it off and still use the grid?

[Drokkzz]

I play with a warhammer group and one thing we did was create a series of numbered tokens to go with the custom pics (since playing with letters or X's and O's is boring). We use the numbers to reference the different pieces and coordinate them in the combat tracker. We also use 3 colors of numbers to indicate their relative health level. It would be nice if this were some how managed within FG.

[richvalle]

Do you know you can name the tokens that are on the map?

If I have 10 goblins I name them 1-10 and then on the combat tracker have them named as goblin-1, goblin-2, ect.

The health thing is interesting though. Maybe you could change the name as the battle goes on: goblin-1-full, goblin-1-half, ect.

To name a token type the name into the chat window but don't hit enter. Drag and drop the name onto the token.

rv

[Nokameeno]

Very nice tip Richvalle! Thanks!

[Drokkzz]

Richvalle, I did not know that, thanks for the tip. I'm away from the ap, but was wondering if you could also drag names from the combat tracker? Also, I noticed that you can't set up and save the combat tracker ahead of time, or drag and drop player stats (keep in mind this is the WH rule set).

Aside from those woes, if they could add a folder system for images, a bigger token box, and player to player whisper abilities I'd be set! :)

[richvalle]

This does work in FG 1.

It works in a different way in FG 2. You can't (currently) drag and drop the name from the combat tracker to the token. The best way to do this is to setup the combat tracker, drop token onto the tracker itself, then drag and drop from the CT to the map. This not only brings over the name, but size and reach as well.

rv

[AndyPan]

Rich, you just so made my night with that little tip. OMG, can't tell you how mad I am that I didn't know about this before, what with all the multiple creature battles I have run. This tip just so changed my game. Thanks!

[richvalle]

Glad I could help. Sorry it wasn't sooner. :)

rv

[Craw]

I initially named all of my goblin punching bags with alphabetical names. Alfred, Bertrand, Clarice, etc. I stopped doing that after a crash or two. When you reload the map, anything beyond a, b, c, d, gets really time consuming to redo.

[wulfgar]

Two things:

1) I would like to put the standard tokens in a bag as well,
so that when I open the token box, it contains bags of tokens
but no loose tokens. Other than moving the standard tokens
into a bag each time I start the application, I'm not sure how
to accomplish this. I was wondering in the standard tokens are
hard coded in FGI, and if so, if they could be done differently
in FG II.

2) In FGI when a DM shares a masked image, the unmasked image is
placed on the players computer. I think there was some mention
of this earlier on the FG forums, and a comment was made that
a person would need to trust the players to not look at this file.
If possible it would be nice to have the unmasked image not saved
to the players computer - I mean you could trust them to roll dice
and just tell you what the result is in a chat window, but perhaps
everyone is more comfortable when there is no uncertainty.

[kalmarjan]

Two things:

1) I would like to put the standard tokens in a bag as well,
so that when I open the token box, it contains bags of tokens
but no loose tokens. Other than moving the standard tokens
into a bag each time I start the application, I'm not sure how
to accomplish this. I was wondering in the standard tokens are
hard coded in FGI, and if so, if they could be done differently
in FG II.


The tokens are located in your ruleset folder. You can then place them into a folder to have them not clutter up your token box.



2) In FGI when a DM shares a masked image, the unmasked image is
placed on the players computer. I think there was some mention
of this earlier on the FG forums, and a comment was made that
a person would need to trust the players to not look at this file.
If possible it would be nice to have the unmasked image not saved
to the players computer - I mean you could trust them to roll dice
and just tell you what the result is in a chat window, but perhaps
everyone is more comfortable when there is no uncertainty.

I hear what you are saying. I am not sure that this has been addressed in FGII. It comes down to how you trust your players. One way to work around this is to split your map images up into groups, and have one image that is just for the DM, that is not shared. It gets a little hairy when you have something like a maze to go through, but in that case, I would just have the players describe where they are going instead of giving them a map of the maze. (I would do the same thing in ftf playing as well. :D)

Sandeman

[richvalle]

I thought number 2 was being addressed. Or will be in the future...

Shouldn't be hard to test with 2 people that have fg2. I'll be around the house for a while if someone wants to give it a go.

rv

[Dachannien]

I would actually prefer that shared maps *do* get saved to the client computers, so that you don't have to resend them every time you use them in a new session. I already use large maps with FG1 (multiple MBs), and if FG2 is more stable handling large maps, I'll continue to do that.

If it's that critical an issue, FG could send them encrypted and then have the server send the key to the clients to decrypt them upon play.

[Elf]

I would actually prefer that shared maps *do* get saved to the client computers, so that you don't have to resend them every time you use them in a new session. I already use large maps with FG1 (multiple MBs), and if FG2 is more stable handling large maps, I'll continue to do that.

If it's that critical an issue, FG could send them encrypted and then have the server send the key to the clients to decrypt them upon play.

You read my mind!

[Drokkzz]

I tried out the suggestion (thx again), but found having to "float" the cursor over the tiles tedious. Anyway, here is an example of what I was referring to in an earlier post regarding token labels (and the color representation of relative health).

https://img161.imageshack.us/img161/1520/samplebattle2lv1.jpg

Note, 1, 3, & 5 have not been hit, 2 is moderatly damaged, and 4 is heavily damaged. Anyway, it seems to speed things up considerably.

[joshuha]

This could be done with some LUA scripting and applying bitmap masks to the tokens. Sure it would be nice to have it built-in but if they can't get around to it someone in the community may.

[Malovech]

It would be really nice if FG2 supported some kind of token grouping. Anything, either a ctrl+click or shift+click method or a marquee select. I know that that's probably rather complex, but it would save the GM/DM a lot of agony.

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I was just thinking that a numeric zone feature would be a bonus. Instead of rolling your middle mouse button to zoom the map in and out, if you could enter a zoom figure (eg: 100%) that way you could get a greater deal of scale accuracy. eg: I make tokens at a scale of 2:! (two pixels to one inch) and I have tokens at the same scale. So when I have the map at 100% and I place down a token, both the token and the map will be at the right scale, I can then lock off the scale of the tokens and map. then I can zoom at will and everything will remain at the right scale.