ClutterGM
May 29th, 2020, 12:40
There are several things I can not get across. Maybe a Dev oder Mod, or even a Veteran can point me to what I'm missing.
This is my first time creating a campaign as a DM in FG (FGU) and I switched from R20 because I like the idea of a p2p connection, no monthly fees and some other stuff.
Also I don't care much about bugs since it is alpha and it feels like there is active development.
But what bothers me, is the way the software wants to be used.
Edit: Trenloe provided a workaround for my first issue. It still exists, but the workaround is fine for now. For reference my original issue:
For example NPCs:
Having them is essential. They should display a quick overview with all their skills, actions, etc and help me roll them.
Lets have a look at what I get:
36229
A very long wall of text.
Anything that is more complex than the base attributes like HP, AC, STR, DEX, ... is plain text.
It is even impossible to fold text, so I cannot hide the description until I need it.
There is no way I find something fast:
When rolling on an NPC action I need to scroll through a long list of full text feats , spells etc. until I find the one i was looking for.
Then I need to scan the whole description with my mouse and try to find the clickable part for the rolls, effects and the damage.
Having more than one or two of those unique NPCs in a battle is a nightmare.
I would be quicker having real index cards for them and rolling dice by hand, which defeats the purpose of having a VTT.
PCs on the other hand, have what would solve this mess:
36230
I have a TABLE of actions categorized, however I want.
Shortcuts to rolls with a tooltip on mouseover.
And I can get the full description with a single click, if I need to.
IMHO NPCs would massively improve if they become stripped down versions of PCs.
Meaning actions and spells should move to a tab analog to PCs and having an inventory would be neat too.
The next point is how you add stuff in general.
FG is often analyzing plain text to find modifications, effects, rolls etc, which requires an exact wording.
While this is a cool feature on one hand, it is absolutely horrible on the other.
I'm not a native speaker, and all my physical books are in my mother tongue, so I simply cannot remember the exact wording for everything and have to look it up and copy/paste it.
In addition, there is a bug where copied text does not always sync to other clients and you cannot mark text with your mouse, to adjust it.
This makes it very hard to quickly add things, since they require a lot of work and preparation.
But it is not just the amount of time required to prepare stuff, it is also an issue while playing:
When playing we talk in our mother tongue of course, and still use english spell names and attributes, since the are labeled in english everywhere and this is totally fine for us.
The problem starts when playing with younger peeps or people in general who cannot speak english fluently. While they are still able to remember what the base attributes mean, the are not able to understand the description of all of their traits and feats and spells and so on, and keep asking "What did this do again?" "Can you translate that again?". But you can't blame a 14 yo for not speaking a foreign language good enough to understand feats and spells in it.
And since FG parses the exact wording of the text, we simply cannot translate them.
An alternative to the text parsing feature would make things so much easier ...
So the description of a Spell/Class etc does only matter if you really want it to parse the effects from text, but alternatively you could open a "modifications" tab and put all the modifications there, regardless of the text itself.
similar to the Effects notation:
- WIS +1 (max: 20)
- SPELL: [Cloud of Daggers] 1/long rest
- ACTION: EFF: [TRGT]; GRANTDISATK; [SELF]
In theory FG does that already internally, there is just no option to adjust the parsed values....
Do you guy experience the same, or is it just me? Am I missing something? Is there a chance FG will improve on this anytime soon?
This is my first time creating a campaign as a DM in FG (FGU) and I switched from R20 because I like the idea of a p2p connection, no monthly fees and some other stuff.
Also I don't care much about bugs since it is alpha and it feels like there is active development.
But what bothers me, is the way the software wants to be used.
Edit: Trenloe provided a workaround for my first issue. It still exists, but the workaround is fine for now. For reference my original issue:
For example NPCs:
Having them is essential. They should display a quick overview with all their skills, actions, etc and help me roll them.
Lets have a look at what I get:
36229
A very long wall of text.
Anything that is more complex than the base attributes like HP, AC, STR, DEX, ... is plain text.
It is even impossible to fold text, so I cannot hide the description until I need it.
There is no way I find something fast:
When rolling on an NPC action I need to scroll through a long list of full text feats , spells etc. until I find the one i was looking for.
Then I need to scan the whole description with my mouse and try to find the clickable part for the rolls, effects and the damage.
Having more than one or two of those unique NPCs in a battle is a nightmare.
I would be quicker having real index cards for them and rolling dice by hand, which defeats the purpose of having a VTT.
PCs on the other hand, have what would solve this mess:
36230
I have a TABLE of actions categorized, however I want.
Shortcuts to rolls with a tooltip on mouseover.
And I can get the full description with a single click, if I need to.
IMHO NPCs would massively improve if they become stripped down versions of PCs.
Meaning actions and spells should move to a tab analog to PCs and having an inventory would be neat too.
The next point is how you add stuff in general.
FG is often analyzing plain text to find modifications, effects, rolls etc, which requires an exact wording.
While this is a cool feature on one hand, it is absolutely horrible on the other.
I'm not a native speaker, and all my physical books are in my mother tongue, so I simply cannot remember the exact wording for everything and have to look it up and copy/paste it.
In addition, there is a bug where copied text does not always sync to other clients and you cannot mark text with your mouse, to adjust it.
This makes it very hard to quickly add things, since they require a lot of work and preparation.
But it is not just the amount of time required to prepare stuff, it is also an issue while playing:
When playing we talk in our mother tongue of course, and still use english spell names and attributes, since the are labeled in english everywhere and this is totally fine for us.
The problem starts when playing with younger peeps or people in general who cannot speak english fluently. While they are still able to remember what the base attributes mean, the are not able to understand the description of all of their traits and feats and spells and so on, and keep asking "What did this do again?" "Can you translate that again?". But you can't blame a 14 yo for not speaking a foreign language good enough to understand feats and spells in it.
And since FG parses the exact wording of the text, we simply cannot translate them.
An alternative to the text parsing feature would make things so much easier ...
So the description of a Spell/Class etc does only matter if you really want it to parse the effects from text, but alternatively you could open a "modifications" tab and put all the modifications there, regardless of the text itself.
similar to the Effects notation:
- WIS +1 (max: 20)
- SPELL: [Cloud of Daggers] 1/long rest
- ACTION: EFF: [TRGT]; GRANTDISATK; [SELF]
In theory FG does that already internally, there is just no option to adjust the parsed values....
Do you guy experience the same, or is it just me? Am I missing something? Is there a chance FG will improve on this anytime soon?