User-friendly ruleset names in Unity - How To?

[Valyar]

I noticed that since last (probably... :) ) update some D&D rulesets are having "friendly" names. This is quite cool as the ruleset code names might be cryptic like in the Savage Worlds case. :D

What must be updated in the XMLs files inside .pak to achieve this for Unity? Is this feature that will go to Classic?


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=40445&stc=1&d=1603456656

[Talyn]

In the ruleset base.xml two additional tags need to be present to achieve this. Here's the 'new' 5E section as an example:



<!-- Attributes -->
<description>
<displayname>Dungeons and Dragons</displayname>
<displayversion>5E</displayversion>
<text>Dungeons &amp; Dragons fifth edition ruleset</text>
<author>SmiteWorks USA, LLC</author>
<website>https://www.fantasygrounds.com</website>
</description>


The displayname tag has been around for a couple years now for modules and extensions (that's how they "fixed" the older 5E books that used to read "DD" to make them read "D&D" without breaking everyone's links, for example) but the Unity launcher now reads them as well for rulesets.

So, for rulesets, if displayname exists, it will be displayed in favor of the 'normal' name, and if displayversion exists, it will be parenthesized after displayname.

Moon Wizard commented yesterday in Discord (about a different topic) that they're not interested in adding any more code/features to the Classic launcher, so it will continue to depend on the text tag to more clearly indicate what ruleset you've clicked on.

[Talyn]

Additionally, Celestian already submitted the changes (should go live next week?) for 2E as well. I think it will read Dungeons and Dragons Classic (2E) or something similar? Superteddy said he would do the same for Starfinder once he gets back from vacation. I'll run the idea past Ikael to see if he will update the Savage Worlds rulesets.

[Valyar]

Thanks for the explanation of the tags. I will implement them in the Alien ruleset for the next release for sure. User friendly names > others :)

[Valyar]

Interesting, I extracted the rulesets in question (3.5e and 5e) and it seems they are not the same. Running DIFF program on the folders resulted in interesting findings.
I thought the goal is to have single ruleset for developers to maintain, rather than two separate instances to maintain. Is this exception for those developed by SW or other commercial developed by community developers are having this approach?

[Moon Wizard]

I'm not sure what you are referring to.

What do you mean that the goal is to have a single ruleset to maintain instead of separate instances?
The 3.5E and 5E rulesets are both the same for FGC and FGU. However, FGU has been getting updates that are only currently in Test channel for FGC.

Regards,
JPG

[Valyar]

Earlier I run DIFF against 3.5E and 5E folders extracted from Classic and Unity. Numerous files are different, screenshot attached. But it was not clear to me that the FGU is using the rulesets from FGC Test channel. This is quite confusing. I was under the impression that files for Live and the other channels are exactly the same.

[Moon Wizard]

No. Because many changes are needed for the rulesets during the quick development times for FGU, I've been pushing updates to FGU patch system as needed; whereas for FGC, the changes aren't always relevant, so they are accumulated into releases.

As FGU moves out of Early Release, we will be staging changes in Test channel like we do for FGC, in order to slow down the number of client/ruleset updates happening every week currently.

Regards,
JPG

[Valyar]

Thanks for the clarification. Confusion levels reduced to zero. :)