To ALL new Unity GMs

[damned]

Welcome,

I know there is lots to learn - I thought Id just share this one little tip -
Ive connected to about 10 Unity tables where the GM is a new GM and 8 of the 10 had enabled every single Theme that was available for that ruleset.
A theme changes the graphical look of the table.
You dont need to load ANY themes - they are all optional.
If you do load a theme - load only ONE theme.
Loading more than one theme will at best give you just one theme and at worst will break functionality.
You also potentially slow the connection time down for every player.

Have fun!

[4wire]

I guess you could say that managing extensions (themes, decals, custom) is a bit messy as it is (and was). Maybe an improvement would be to have a separate independent window to filter extensions and make it more obvious as to what is being loaded.

[Copernicus219]

Welcome,

I know there is lots to learn - I thought Id just share this one little tip -
Ive connected to about 10 Unity tables where the GM is a new GM and 8 of the 10 had enabled every single Theme that was available for that ruleset.
A theme changes the graphical look of the table.
You dont need to load ANY themes - they are all optional.
If you do load a theme - load only ONE theme.
Loading more than one theme will at best give you just one theme and at worst will break functionality.
You also potentially slow the connection time down for every player.

Have fun!

This seems like a very easy fix for smiteworks. Only allow one radio button to be selected at once.

[4wire]

This seems like a very easy fix for smiteworks. Only allow one radio button to be selected at once.

But the themes are mixed in with all other extensions.

[damned]

I guess you could say that managing extensions (themes, decals, custom) is a bit messy as it is (and was). Maybe an improvement would be to have a separate independent window to filter extensions and make it more obvious as to what is being loaded.

There is a separate window in which you have to MANUALLY choose to load extensions.
People are choosing to load every extension in the list.

[damned]

This seems like a very easy fix for smiteworks. Only allow one radio button to be selected at once.

There are lots of reasons why you might choose to load multiple extensions.
Im simply pointing out to people that loading 5 things that do the same (same but different) thing is not going to benefit them.

[Trenloe]

It's something that's been discussed before. The main issue is that there are many community extensions out there - some play happily with other extensions, a lot don't. And, there's currently no way to distinguish between the two. And, if there was, it would require "someone" to verify which extensions work with which, and what don't - a never ending task when it comes to community extensions.

Whereas, yes, it would be nice to have some way of identifying a theme and only allowing one to be loaded per campaign, this would require all of the theme developers to tag them as such. Maybe the devs have some ideas on how to handle this...

[4wire]

There is a separate window in which you have to MANUALLY choose to load extensions.
People are choosing to load every extension in the list.

I understand that. I'm saying that window should have controls and filters to make it easier. With 25+ extensions it is very easy to load an extra theme and the naming scheme is not always respected.

[Copernicus219]

But the themes are mixed in with all other extensions.

I'm not sure how it's coded, but grouping radio buttons and allowing them to only have one selected for the say the "theme" group shouldn't be that hard. Of course would need to have a distinction between themes and other extensions.

[Copernicus219]

There are lots of reasons why you might choose to load multiple extensions.
Im simply pointing out to people that loading 5 things that do the same (same but different) thing is not going to benefit them.

No, I agree. Its good to know to because no where does it say you should only load one theme. I'm saying if it were coded differently to not allow people to create the error, it wouldn't cause issues. Because if your UI is unclear, people will do the thing you don't think they will do :)

[damned]

I'm not sure how it's coded, but grouping radio buttons and allowing them to only have one selected for the say the "theme" group shouldn't be that hard. Of course would need to have a distinction between themes and other extensions.

So you select the ABC theme.
And you like it but there isnt enough contrast for you on the XYZ window and its hard to read.
You could write an extension to change that but its also a theme extension so you cant load it because you have a theme selected already?

This is not a thread about managing extensions.
Its to let people know something they quite obviously dont understand.

The easiest way to solve this is to not allow any extensions.

[4wire]

So you select the ABC theme.
And you like it but there isnt enough contrast for you on the XYZ window and its hard to read.
You could write an extension to change that but its also a theme extension so you cant load it because you have a theme selected already?

This is not a thread about managing extensions.
Its to let people know something they quite obviously dont understand.

The easiest way to solve this is to not allow any extensions.

That's actually a great idea. Disable extensions by default and make it an "advanced" tab window to enable them and select them.

[Talyn]

This seems like a very easy fix for smiteworks. Only allow one radio button to be selected at once.

Indeed! In fact it already exists:



<exclusiongroup>theme</exclusiongroup>


However, since ZERO theme developers (including SmiteWorks themselves) ever used it, the 'exclusiongroup' tag is being deprecated in FGU.

[LordEntrails]

Or, educate GMs that community extensions are optional. And just because an extension exists (and works) does not mean you should load it and it does not mean you are 'missing out' on something.

In fact, I suggest (strongly) new GMs use NO extensions. No themes, no enhancers, no nothing. Not until they learn how core FG works. For many people FG has a steep learning curve, adding extensions just makes it steeper and adds conflicts and means when you look up how to do something, the source you are looking at might not take your extension(s) into account and now you get confused.

In the end, every person has to take personal responsibility for the choices they make. And if you don't how to use something or when to use it, don't chose it. But, its your choice to make.

Yes extensions could include some sort of group capability, but they don't and they won't for the foreseeable future.

The advice damned is trying to pass on here is simple; don't load more than one theme or you will cause yourself problems and probably not be achieving what you want anyway.

[Steve Geddes]

My default was certainly to say yes to everything. (I was worried a youtube creator would forget they had something installed because “everyone does that” and figured the worst that could happen would be a slower setup time and lots of options I wouldn’t use).

I’m very much enjoying FG, but I do wish there was a more intuitive setup for mastering “the basics”. It’s not always obvious what one is doing wrong - I can’t get port forwarding to work, for example but plenty of people can. That means I’m doing something wrong and it could be something simple like this I’m inadvertently doing for literally no benefit.

Appreciate any tips like this.

[bmos]

I’m very much enjoying FG, but I do wish there was a more intuitive setup for mastering “the basics”. It’s not always obvious what one is doing wrong - I can’t get port forwarding to work, for example but plenty of people can. That means I’m doing something wrong and it could be something simple like this I’m inadvertently doing for literally no benefit.
Fortunately, there is!
https://fantasygroundscollege.net/

[Steve Geddes]

I REALLY appreciate the time and effort other people are willing to go to to help others. Unfortunately, I have a chronic aversion to discord, chat groups (and most things online, really). What I really want is a gloriously thick Manual.

Sadly my time came and went in the early nineties. ��

[Trenloe]

What I really want is a gloriously thick Manual.
Like this?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FantasyGroundsUserManual.pdf

[Steve Geddes]

Yes, exactly like that!

When there’s something like that for unity, it will be Glorious!

[Trenloe]

Yes, exactly like that!

When there’s something like that for unity, it will be Glorious!
Click the "User Manual" button on the main FG Unity launch screen, then:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33669

[Steve Geddes]

Post deleted found it. :)

[Trenloe]

Perfect! Do you have a link for that page? I’ve never seen it before. Here is what I considered the FGU launch screen
The launch screen of the application. The first screen you see after starting FGU.

[Steve Geddes]

Click the "User Manual" button on the main FG Unity launch screen, then:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33669

Perfect!

Thank you so much for the help!

[Steve Geddes]

The launch screen of the application. The first screen you see after starting FGU.

Cheers. It might sound dumb to someone used to computers, but I had no idea what a launch screen was (I thought it was a webpage you “launched from” rather than what you see on launch).

All good now. Really appreciate the guidance. That’s exactly what I wanted. :)