I love FG. I suscribe to FG ultimate. I’m worried about FG

[Phocaea]

I only came over to VTT this year and FG was an easy choice. But I’ve also bought Foundry (it’s not like marriage so fidelity isn’t a big statement) and I’m increasingly worried that FG will become a niche set of tools amd not as prominent as it should be

In a word; disorganisation of information

I’m not coming at this as a 5e player so ymmd

But the inabilty to know what is up to date re extensions or non-store mods is a killer.

I was dusting off Low Fantasy Gaming and was struggling to remember where to find the guide to the Character Sheet. The library is fine with the rules but the information on the Cs inputs was not obvious

This prompted me to wonder if MoreCore was up to date. No, it wasn’t (or didn’t seem to be)
I could only confirm this by downloading off the forum and comparing files.

Maybe I’m missing something here but I’m coming it as a consumer. I don’t mind tinkering but too much and I this “this is a headache. Give it away”

There may be a difference in the fundamental software I don’t understand but this is, as I said, a killer.

Foundry’s check of versions of add-ons and systems on log on makes me say “thank God!”

I simply don’t know where to check for critical information. I don’t see how how to quickly know what’s up to date. And (this may be me) I don’t know where to find simply guides to the UI and Character sheet

I’m not worried by the retro look, and the community here is just great. But I’m not sure I want to struggle with basic details each time I load a game. Yep I see there are now mods that can track versions, but that’s too opaque for me. It should be - I reckon - baked in

(Oh and a simple means of knowing what mods or extensions are in conflict should be at hand)

I trust this is taken in the spirit it’s written. I want FG to be it’s best

[Jiminimonka]

You can see what extensions you are running on the Launch Campaign window. If they are from the forums, just search for that name with extension after it on the forums and you will find it. The ? on each window will take you to the wiki pages for guides on the UI etc.

I do agree it would be nice to have these things "baked in" like extension versions and if they need updating and probably that will happen with FGU as it gets more features added. But at the moment I doubt its a no.1 priority as Smitework have to (now that FGU has all FGC features and has fulfilled its Kickstarter requirements) start implementing the extra shinies, tidy up the code and iron out the bugs before moving into other territories.

[LordEntrails]

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/327667/Mad-Nomads-3rd-Party-Updater
Will help you know which extensions are out of date and will help update them.

Ruleset specific information is generally kept in the ruleset specific forum, or at least is usually the best place to start looking for it. But if you have specific examples, we can direct you further.

[damned]

Most FG users never use the forums or extensions.
They use FG out of the box.

[Dr0W]

As an old time user of FG who also got into Foundry I must agree with you on that. It's definitely nice to have an updater that checks and keeps extensions up to date, and I'm pretty sure some of the extensions devs came up with a solution like that of their own, I just don't remember who.

Now, while using FG you'll usually use few extensions. To make sure I'm running the latest version of it, I just download the newest one and overwrite the old ones. On Foundry, since even some very basic stuff are required for optimal gameplay you end up having LOTS of them activated at once. I had over 80 in my last campaign. It was nice to update them all at once, but after one update, most of them broke and I had to find out which did one by one. FG keeps it simple by having most of the features you need in the actual ruleset and very rarely you need some extension to implement some automation.

I believe that SmiteWorks right now is working the things the community want the most (Dynamic Lighting and Sounds for now), and if you want your voice heard you should go here: https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/ and post you idea there (check first if someone hasn't suggested that yet).

But then I'll be really honest, I'd love that on FG, but I definitely can live without it since on my FG campaigns I use like 3 extensions at once.

[DM_BK]

It would me my guess that most people use extensions ... too many of those extensions are way too handy to not use. I don't have any real data...just my guess.

Just today I was looking at all the extensions I'm using and realized that I need to go track them all down and check them for updates. It was going to be time consuming enough that I decided I wasn't up for that level of effort today. The 3rd party tool linked above is a little helpful but it has quite a few issues.

Anyway, I agree that something needs to be done in this area. The rise of FGs popularity has made the number of great extensions grow massively making this issue more apparently then it was in past years.

[LordEntrails]

It would me my guess that most people use extensions ... too many of those extensions are way too handy to not use. I don't have any real data...just my guess.

The devs have data, and from what I remember they have made statements that support Damned, that most games do not use extensions. If your Google Fu is really good, and you are patient, you should be able to find the quote :)

[DM_BK]

I mean...a quote from 2 years ago? 1 year ago even... a LOT more people around here these days. Just as useful is the quotes around how many more copies FG has sold and how much more traffic these forums have. We ain't in a bubble here, things do change ;)

I'm still of the mindset that extensions are more popular then ever...but as I said, just guess'n :) I know I'd love to see the data but that's just cause I love data.

SW has discussed the issue a few times and seemingly are aware that it would be a good thing to deal with some day. Nothing wrong with hoping for a better tomorrow.

[Kelrugem]

Hmm, difficult to say whether that really changed; I can understand when people do not want to use extension because: You need to check forums (as mentioned here) (or DMSguild), not everyone is really active here, just a part, and you rely on a community developer. I frequently see new people coding extensions, but then they disappear (which I mean neutrally of course, there can be a lot of understandable reasons for that :) ). Another reason might be that people need to be aware of extensions to use them, that is also not necessarily given, especially when the extension is on DMsguild (though they have now an own subforum such that they are somewhat listed there, but there are not all extensions; the rob2E things have no thread there, I think)

And incompatibilities can arise with extensions, especially with the recent flood of new 5e extensions I read more frequently about incompatibilities (since the number of users increased, there are of course now more new extensions); not everyone wants to mess with that :)

I can understand when one finds it more comfortable to just use the native features :)

[LordEntrails]

SW has discussed the issue a few times and seemingly are aware that it would be a good thing to deal with some day. Nothing wrong with hoping for a better tomorrow.
Yep, been discussed on the forums, community solutions have been developed to one degree or another before. I believe the devs have even mentioned it in the last 6 months on a stream.

But, as we know, they have been head down on FGU and now still have a handful of high priority features. Hopefully it will be something they can spend more time looking at once things get past this critical stage.

[Jiminimonka]

Most FG users never use the forums or extensions.
They use FG out of the box.

I can believe that, having not used any for years until recently.

Also extensions are not required in FantasyGrounds - they are just quality of life improvements and the good ones eventually get added into the default system eventually anyway.

[DM_BK]

Truth be told I didn't use any for 10 years or so...so, maybe. Either way, the issue is a growing problem.

[Valatar]

FG does have a central repository... but only for paid content. That functionality needs to be extended to community content as well, and then we'll be pretty golden as far as that feature goes. Because yes, FG does have huge support via community-built content, but only if someone digs through the forums to find it and can manually install it. That barrier to use is a damper for less technically-inclined GMs, and definitely an advantage that Foundry currently holds. Their module and ruleset developers are getting much more exposure to the users, since their content can be browsed and installed directly from the admin's interface with just a couple clicks. Makes it unsurprising that they've gotten fairly huge developer support in such a short time.

[Weissrolf]

Well, kind of. For me said 3rd Party Updater does not work. I installed DriveThruRPG's installer/updater application instead. Still waiting for any updates to happen, so no idea how well that will work.

[Phocaea]

As I understand it, Foundry has a verification process for add-ons and systems. Something like this for FG would mean the administrators dont have to allow carte blanche, but can make it far easier - automatic - for mods and extensions it approves to be managed.

Is there a concern about copyright infringement involved in this? Just pondering.

I'm not sure if the idea the company has other priorities isnt part of the problem. Smiteworks is in the premium software business. Yet it I feels like a commercial project being run by enthusiasts, If it wants to be long-term viable as a mainstream option - and its should because it is essentiially terrific - Id argue it needs to look at the hurdles it's system sets up for non-specialist userst

Again, Im still puzzling where the character sheet guide/document is. This is an extension but im doing forum searches. Information is way too disorganised. There is no up to date list of mods and extensions that I can see. A forum thread may be open but it needs trawling through the responses as far as I can see....and then checking if this is the right thread.

As i said, I think its a great program, with a great community, but which is not looking at core aspects of its useability. And this could hold it back

[Kelrugem]

As I understand it, Foundry has a verification process for add-ons and systems. Something like this for FG would mean the administrators dont have to allow carte blanche, but can make it far easier - automatic - for mods and extensions it approves to be managed.

Is there a concern about copyright infringement involved in this? Just pomdering. I'm not sure if the idea the company has other priorities isnt part of the problem. Smiteworks is in the premium software business. Yet it I feels like a commercial project being run by enthusiasts, If it wants to be long-term viable as a mainstream option - and its should because it is essentiially terrific - Id argue it needs to look at the hurdles it's system sets up for non-specialist userst

Again, Im still puzzling where the character sheet guide/document is. This is an extension but im doing forum searches. Information is way too disorganised. There is no up to date list of mods and extensions that I can see. A forum threat may be open but it needs trawling through the responses as far as I can see....and then checking if this is the right thread.

As i said, I think its a great program, with a great community, but which is not looking at core aspects of its useability. And this could hold it back

At the launcher of FG you have buttons pointing towards the wiki or the manual (or to videos), but I understand when you find certain things out-of-date :)

But yes, more organized information would be nice, like a tutorial :) (though I heard that the sample campaigns serve as tutorial, but I am not sure how well it is) At my beginning, I skimmed through the whole forum and I wanted all informaton, but I understand when this is not something one wants to do (I just had a lot of motivation :D)

About extensions/modules: There are often sticky threads for them, but yes, one needs to check whether some developer is still active for it (especially for extensions)