[Extension] New Extension: Mass Battles

[chillhelm]

Hi all,

I wrote an extension for Fantasy Grounds Classic and Unity to handle and automate mass battles in SWADE (pp. 131, SWADE v5.7).
It automates tracking of force tokens, support for commanders, wounds and fatigue for participants, battle effects, morale bonuses (and penalties).

You can find it on the forge here: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/146/view
Before I get into the detailed How To:
- The New Massbattle window 41739 (which can be found in the top right corner, next to the Combat Tracker) always has a little hint in it's bottom left corner that tells you what you need to do next.
- In order for this to work the players must to have access to the "Battle Effects" Tablefrom the "SWADE Player Guide" Module . Make sure to either share this table with them before the battle starts or have them load the module
themselves.

Interface for GMs: 41740
1) Army Detail Window (and the button that opens it). Use this to set starting Force Tokens (relevant for Morale Checks), Tactical Advantage, Battle Plan Bonus and the Army Name
2) Force Token Display. The number of Force Tokens avaiable to each army currently
3) Support Column. Displays how much support each combatant gives to their respective commanders Battle Command roll
4) Leader Displays. Here you control the state of the two Commanders
5) Round counter
6) New Round Button. Resets all bonuses for this round
7) Hint area
8) Combatant Area. Here you control the state of the various combatants in each army

Interface for Player Combatants:41741
1) This your character
2) The current balance of Force Tokens
3) Your current Health (Wounds and Fatigue)
4) Battle Participation Skill and Activation Area
5) The Results from your Battle Participation Rolls this round
6) The negative outcomes and a button to apply these to your character
7) A Battle Participation Raise Choice
8) The support you grant your Commanders Battle roll for this round
9) A different character
10) Your Commander

Interface for Player Commanders:41742
1) Force Token Balance for each Army
2) The support the other Combatants provide for your Command roll
3) This is you
4) Your Health (Wounds & Fatigue)
5) Select your Battle Command skill and the button to roll it.
6) The results of your Battle Command rolls this round
7) Hint area

Here is a HowTo guide for GMs:
Setup:
1) Set the names, starting tokens and various bonuses for each army by clicking the link buttons in the top left and right corners (1).
2) Set the force tokens for the first round of battle (2) (These don't have to be the same as the starting force tokens, e.g. if you want to simulate a battle that has been going for a while before the PCs joined)
3) Add commanders and heroes to each army as desired
4) Click [New Round]
During the Battle:
1) Make Battle Participation rolls for all NPCs under your control. (For details see the Player participant guide)
2) Make (a) Command roll for the NPC in charge of the enemy army and accept (one of) the result(s). (For details see the Player Commander Section)
3) Once both commanders have accepted a result for their command rolls, click on [Accept] in the middle window to apply the losses to each army.41743
4) Have each of the commanders roll for Morale if required. The results will be displayed in the Chat Window.
5) If neither army retreats or is whiped out, click on [New Round].

Here is a HowTo guide for Players commanding armies:
Setup:
1) Give a rousing speech to your army while the GM sets everything up.
During the Battle:
1) Wait for the other players to make their support rolls and select a result.
2) Select the skill that is used to command this battle from the drop down box under your name. Then click [Command!] to make your roll. (5)
3) You can reroll the result by clicking the [Command!] button again or dropping a Benny on it.
4) Once you have a result that you can accept, click the [Apply] button next to it.
5) Wait for the enemy commander's roll. The GM will apply the results and losses will be calculated automatically.
6) If you had losses this round, you will have to roll for Morale. Click on the [Roll Morale] button at the bottom center. You can click it again or drop a Benny on it to reroll. If you didn't have any losses, there will be no button for you to click.
7) Wait for the next round to start.

Here is a HowTo guide for Players taking part in battle as regular participants:
Setup:
1) Ensure you have access to the "Battle Effects" table. If not click on "Library->Modules" and load the SWADE Player Guide Module.
2) Wait for your commanders rousing speech to be finally over so you can get to head-choppin'.
During the Battle:
1) Select the skill with which you will participate in this round of battle.
2) Click the [Participate!] button.
3) If you don't like the result, you can click the [Participate!] button again or drop a Benny on it to reroll.
4) A box will appear showing you the result of your roll. It contains the rolled total, an indicator for how well you did (green arrow for success, two green arrows for a raise, red arrow for fail and two red arrows for crit fail). The box will also list any wounds or fatigue levels you will suffer.
5) Click the [Apply] button in case of (crit) fail or simple success. If you had a raise you will have the choice between providing an additional +1 to your commander (by clicking the button labeled [+1]) or if you want to apply the randomly rolled Battle Effect instead (choose this by clicking the corresponding button).
6) Choose wisely! Once you've selected [Apply] or a raise choice, you cannot go back!
7) Wait for your commander to roll his Command roll and Morale if required and a new round to start.




I hope this extension is helpful and facilitates FFF combat on a new scale.
Any bug reports and feedback are welcome right here!


Best,
Chillhelm

Update:
Now works with FG Unity
[31.12.20] Removed all the debug output.:ninja:
[02.01.21]
Fixed commander switching (minor issues may persist if you switch out commanders during the "Roll Morale" phase, mostly that the old commander can still click the "Roll Morale" button, even though he shouldn't be able to)
Fixed an issue in FGC related to commander control changing hands
Fixed an issue where the command result display would not show correct losses, when the command results were edited by GM
[21.10.21]
Merged a patch by FrodoB to improve readability on Dark Themes.
[27.12.21]
Update to the new ruleset version.
[09.03.22]
Fixed the MB button not appearing for the 3rd(?) time.
Fixed some deprecation warnings.
You can now soak wounds suffered during battle participation by dropping a benny on the result box that has wounds in it.

[YggBjorn]

Looks great!

Is this for FGC or FGU?

[chillhelm]

This is for FGC. I'll port this over to FGU over the weekend.

Edit: I expect most issues to be purely cosmetic however, so it should work on both.

[amerigoV]

Thank you for doing this - I have not tried it but I am a fan of MBs and look forward to kicking it around.

[chillhelm]

Is this for FGC or FGU?

I've fixed the cosmetic issues in Unity and uploaded a new version. Have fun!

[YggBjorn]

Awesome! Thanks again for doing this!

[lozanoje]

A-ma-zing,

I have to test this
Thank you!

[Legendoide]

Wonderful... And you developed for Classic too! Thanks a lot!

[Chalmes95]

Anyway to make this useable for other rulesets. It would be very nice to have a Mass Battles option. I am not very good with coding for extensions hence why I ask. Also not sure if it's even feasible.

[Mike Serfass]

Hi chillhelm!

Thank you for making this extension. It will see use in my game.
It's outputting debug info into the chat window. I was logged in as a player and can see it in that chat too. Is there a way to turn this off?
I attached a screenshot.
I suspect this has nothing to do with other extensions, but I can list them if it helps.
I'm using FGU Standard on Windows 10.
I'm happy to provide any other info you need.

Thanks!42179

[YggBjorn]

Are you running any other extensions?

[Mike Serfass]

Hi again!

The formatting is noticeably off on the player screen. It's mostly fine on the GM screen.
Note this is me running the app a second time to log on as a player. I don't have a player on hand to connect and try this out. I suspect the formatting will be off for them too.
I attached images to show the difference.
I'm using the new cool FG winter theme and the lato large font (because my eyes are old).
I then turned off the font and set the theme to the default SWADE theme. The formatting is still off, but not nearly as much. Those images are also attached.
I'm on a 24" monitor set to 1920 x 1080, FGU standard.
I don't know how much can be done to accommodate for fonts and themes. It's still useable and very nice to have.
Please ask if there's any way I can help.

Thanks!

42180
42181
42182
42183

[Mike Serfass]

I am. Nothing else is emitting debug info. But it's worth testing and narrowing down.

I created a sample game with nothing in it. The only extension is Mass Battles. Here's a screenshot.

42184

Am I the only one seeing this? That would be weird. It would be like the code talking to just me. The modern tech version of hearing voices in my head.

Edit: When I have other extensions on, none of them talk to me.
Does FGU have a debug switch that I inadvertently toggled? That would be very useful. The debug switch, I mean, not me turning stuff on by accident.

Edit 2: FGU does have a debug mode. I didn't turn it on by accident. I did turn it off intentionally, and the debug output continued. I toggled it on and off a few times, but the extension is still telling me about its windows.
Interesting the things you find by accident.

[Rojek]

Mike, I’m also getting the same debug output to the chat window so you aren’t alone. I tried creating a new campaign with no extensions and it does the same thing there as well. The extension seems to work correctly otherwise. It just spams the debug text into chat.

[tavishill]

I'm getting the same debug output too.

Also, having tried it out last night, I cleared the Mass Battle CT this morning to set up a Mass Battle for a game after boxing day, and found I can't put a new commander in the commander slot without restarting FGU.

This would make it awkward if, for any reason, the commander needed to be changed mid-battle.

[chillhelm]

Hi all,

my sincere apologies. I must have missed all the notifications for posts in this thread, which is why I'm only getting back to you guys now.

All the Debug output is definitely my fault. I must have uploaded the wrong version (that still had the Debug output in it). I've uploaded the version without all that stuff now (I hope).
@tavishill, @Mike Serfass, I'll look into the Commander Replacement issue and the layout problems ASAP (probably not tonight though ... for ... reasons ...)

[Ikael]

This is awesome extension! I will definitely use this in my games and recommend it for whomever hosts me a game :)

One request thou: Support and commanders could drag-and-drop their Bennies to result view/layout to re-roll it.

[chillhelm]

I've uploaded a new version.
@tavishill: You should now be able to switch commanders easily (it was possible before but the area where you needed to drop the commander was literally a 1 pixel high frame at the bottom of the commander box. So it was basically not possible)



One request thou: Support and commanders could drag-and-drop their Bennies to result view/layout to re-roll it.


They can drag&drop the bennies on the [Command] or [Participate] buttons to reroll. Doing this will also account for edges like Elan that give +2 on rerolls. I want to reserve the result-area-benny-drop for soaking rolls (which I will put in any day now) and for consistency with the commander interface, I'm doing the same there (even though commanders don't need to soak during Mass Battles)

@Mike Serfass: Where can i find the winter layout and that font extension? If I get those, I'll try to adapt the interface so that it allows for bigger fonts and frames with different themes, but I can't promise the result will be a big improvement. I want to avoid rewriting the extension for every possible theme. Having FGC and FGU is already a pain and no matter what I do any layout change in one scuffs the layout in the other one, it feels like.

[Mike Serfass]

I've uploaded a new version.
@Mike Serfass: Where can i find the winter layout and that font extension? If I get those, I'll try to adapt the interface so that it allows for bigger fonts and frames with different themes, but I can't promise the result will be a big improvement. I want to avoid rewriting the extension for every possible theme. Having FGC and FGU is already a pain and no matter what I do any layout change in one scuffs the layout in the other one, it feels like.

Themes are cool but can be a pita for development; I've been there.

The winter theme is here:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=SWKTHEME_WINTER
It's a beautiful theme and my players really like it. It's worth the money. I'm not sure it's worth your time wrangling with layout for a seasonal theme.

There are a few large font extensions. They're all here:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?57197-Fonts-from-Google-Fonts
This may be worth wrangling with, since we older players use them. My (younger) players have complained that the default font is too small, so it's not just older players. But I don't know how widely they're used.

Also, the chattiness is gone. I'm going to miss those conversations.

Thank you!

[Mike Serfass]

I can now add and switch commanders. Thanks!

Unfortunately, I have an error.

When I drop a benny from the character sheet anywhere in the support result section, I get the following error:

Script execution error: [string "MassBattles/scripts/template_resultlist.lua"]:13:attempt to call field 'onDrop' (a nill value)

I don't see this error when I drop the benny on the Participate button. It spends the benny and rerolls and works great.

I also don't see this error when I drop a commander benny on the Command button. It spends the benny and rerolls as expected.

When I drop a benny on the result area of the commander. It does nothing at all aside from the benny popping back into the character's benny stack. I'm guessing that's what the behavior should be for the support benny drop.

This isn't a show stopper. I can ignore the error and keep going just fine.

No other extensions loaded. I'll provide a log and screenshots if you need them. Here's the log: 42470

Thanks!

[tavishill]

That's brilliant. My 1 pixel targeting is just not that good! :)

[Irregular]

First of all, thank you! This is so awesome. Most of all I am surprised at how intuitive and easy to use it is. Even players that have never done mass battles should quickly know what they can do and how. Really great.
I love how you can drag bennies to reroll, this is excellent.

One tiny thing I seem to be missing (or I might be looking in all the wrong places) is a button to reset the battle. Right now I have to drag out all PCs/NPCs and commanders and reset each of the bonuses... Have I somehow missed it?

[GunnarGreybeard]

Wow! I am just finding this extension. Definitely going to have to put it to use. Much appreciated!

[Jiminimonka]

I noticed this in the 4.1.5 beta version of FGU - Wnd Fatg are badly spaced.

48371

Great extension, thanks (is it on the Forget yet ;) )

[chillhelm]

Hi Jimnimonka,

I spaced the two fields out a bit better (and fixed some more error messages that kept popping up). See the top post for the new version.

The forge has completely passed me by, thanks for pointing it out to me. I uploaded my extensions this morning, they are currently waiting for approval. As soon as they are accepted, I will post here again with a link.

[Jiminimonka]

Hi Jimnimonka,

I spaced the two fields out a bit better (and fixed some more error messages that kept popping up). See the top post for the new version.

The forge has completely passed me by, thanks for pointing it out to me. I uploaded my extensions this morning, they are currently waiting for approval. As soon as they are accepted, I will post here again with a link.

Nice one. Thanks

[Kyler]

Would love to see this added to the Forge at some point.

[chillhelm]

Funny you should say that, Kyler. Just today it got approved for the forge:
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/146/view

[Kyler]

The world works in mysterious ways. Thanks so much for your work. This is a great extension.

[Kyler]

Funny you should say that, Kyler. Just today it got approved for the forge:
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/146/view

The world works in mysterious ways. Thanks so much for your work. This is a great extension.

[Doswelk]

Hello!

A While back I asked if you can add support for Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, which you did :D

Unfortunately I asked for PFSW but officially now it is SWPF, so could you change this, thanks and sorry.

[Caratacus]

Hello,
Love the idea of this extension but I continue to get the same error message, although it doesn't seem to affect the performance.
48737

Is this just my system, or is there some way to fix it. I am using SWADE with a recently purchased Beasts and Barbarians ruleset.
Also, one question on the process. Is it supposed to remove tokens as a result when I press APPLY on the commanders? Or do I do so manually after seeing the results?

Thanks again for this, it's quite handy.

Caratacus

[chillhelm]

> Unfortunately I asked for PFSW but officially now it is SWPF, so could you change this, thanks and sorry.

Fixed.

> Love the idea of this extension but I continue to get the same error message, although it doesn't seem to affect the performance.

Fixed.

> Also, one question on the process. Is it supposed to remove tokens as a result when I press APPLY on the commanders? Or do I do so manually after seeing the results?

After both commanders have clicked [Apply] (or the GM has clicked for them) in the bottom center of the window a small box appears which shows the resulting losses for this round. The GM has to click [Accept] there as well, then losses will be added up automatically.

[Caratacus]

Works great now,
Thanks for yet another cool tool in the system.

Caratacus

[FrodoB]

Used the extension yesterday for the first time. Great tool, though I wish I had read the instructions more clearly.
I ran into four small issues:

* As the GM it would be good if I could manually enter results, similar to how it works with hit/damage/soak rolls on the combat tracker. That way if I forget a modifier I can just add it after the fact. (Gut feeling: Easy to add)
* You clearly desribed where to add the start force tokens and all that, but the place of the buttons (off to the side) was very easy to miss for me. Then again, I'm not sure where they could be placed better...next to the names mayhaps? (Really NBD, just stumbled upon this)
* The title text is near unreadable on a darker background. I'm not sure if this is something that can be fixed in an extension or if this is something theme-specific, so I'll hit up Doswelk as well and ask him about that...
49245
* I kept accidentaly clicking into the names, entering editing mode. If there was a way to "lock" those that'd be great.

Really, the only thing I would **really** like is the first one. :D

EDIT: If I'd had to guess it's this:
The extension defines its own fonts and sets their colors to "000000" (black).
The 50 Fathoms theme sets this:

<template name="cttitle_base">
<cttitle_base_white/>
</template>

My best guess is that "cttitle_base_white" is a predefined template for FGU and to add support for "darker" themes the extension would either have to refer to pre-determined fonts (thus inheriting their colors) or add their colors to said template.

EDIT2: This is harder than I expected it to be. Also, I hate XML. Guess I won't write a pull request anytime soon for this. :(

[FrodoB]

Pull Request created.

[chillhelm]

I've merged the pull request and uploaded the updated version to the Forge. Once its done processing there it will roll out to everyone.

Big thanks to FrodoB!

[HouseDressing]

Looks like the new layout for the right-hand banner is messing up the display of the Mass Battle button.50385

[kronovan]

Yes I noticed that too - Mass Battles button is no longer there.

[chillhelm]

An update is now on the Forge and in the first post that reenables the MassBattle button (and fixes some issues with the new ruleset version).

[kronovan]

Yes - just loaded up a SWADE campaign with the Mass Battles extension enabled and button is indeed back. Good job!

[Mike Serfass]

Thank you!

[Ksolo248]

Since the last update to CORE I've been getting an error "ActorManager.getActor - DEPRECATED - 2021-01-01 - Contact forge/extension author". I deactivated all other extensions but still getting error message

[chillhelm]

I've uploaded a new version to Forge. The Mass Battles button is back (again again), I fixed the deprecation warnings mentioned by Ksolo and there is a new feature too:
You can now drop a benny on fail or crit fail participation result box, to soak wounds.

The update will roll out through the Forge as soon as they approve the build or you can download it directly from the top post.

[Ksolo248]

Thank you

[Lonewolf]

Thanks very much

[Mgrancey]

Nevermind, found out what problem was. Hadn't moved over to Forge version

[Caratacus]

Hello,
I am having a problem with my Mass Battles that I can't seem to solve. Everything seems to work fine except added PCs and NPCs are given no option for P
articipate skills other than "--" or "Unskilled". I have used this extension in the past with much success, my FGU is current and up to date, but this problem has been happening for about the last week. Help please

Caratacus

[chillhelm]

Hi Caratacus,

I've been only partially been able to reproduce that problem. Apparently Commanders that don't have a token cause a problem that causes their skill lists not being loaded. Working on a fix now.

I havent been able to reproduce the same problem with regular participants at all though. Does the program spit out any errors? Or can you give me a more detailed list of steps to reproduce the problem?

Best,
Chillhelm

[Caratacus]

OK, this is the oddity. I just went back to the same campaign, opened up the Mass Battles I had previously loaded where the problem was. ALL the commanders and participants had full access to their various skills. Next, I deleted one of the NPCs on the 2nd army sheet, reloaded the same NPC from the NPC tab, and lo and behold, the same issue. Glad it's your hacking skill (which I understand is a d12) that's got this one to figure out.54503 From what I can tell, closing the program and reopening appears to re-connect the characters.

[Caratacus]

I just rebooted my FGU and again, the skills are loaded.
Could it be something in my system, or is this likely an extension issue?

[chillhelm]

Ok, so the bug that I'm currently working on fixing involves the commander not having a token and a name that doesn't start with a letter a-z (I'm sure this is a problem that happens all the time). So I'm guessing that one has nothing to do with your problem ...
If you can reliably reproduce the problem in that specific campaign, could you send me the campaign?

[Caratacus]

I should be able to do so. Which exact files do you need?

[chillhelm]

The db.xml. In the main launcher there is a little button in the top left. Clicking that opens your explorer (or other file browser if you are on linux/mac) to your FantasyGrounds folder. There go to campaigns/<name of your campaign> and there you should find a db.xml file. Thats what I need.

[Caratacus]

This should be it. Thanks for the help. Just a short note that might be related, I had to reload an older session file over the db.xml file as the campaign file had become corrupt. Since then I've had no other issues than this with any of the other extensions. I have tried the Mass Battles extension in a couple of my other campaigns and there's doesn't appear to be an issue.

[chillhelm]

A new version is on the forge. It fixes your issue (plus some other minor stuff that needed doing).

I still have no idea why this issue is appearing in your campaign specifically and I have no idea why it is not happening in other campaigns. All I did was basically throw in a check "is Caratacus issue appearing? if so, do a workaround."
It's just the weirdest thing.

[Caratacus]

Hey, if you can find and fix it, then I and my players are grateful. We are just about to break into a war that should have multiple Mass Battles before its over. Many
thanks from all of us.

Caratacus

[rodney418]

Love this extension, but it seems to be broken with the latest update :-(

[YggBjorn]

Love this extension, but it seems to be broken with the latest update :-(

What problem are you having with it?

[rodney418]

It's throwing up multiple error messages every time I try to do something with it. Was working flawlessly beforehand every time I tested it over the past weeks, but wouldn't you know it, the one day where the big climactic battle of the campaign occurs, suddenly it's borked. Sigh.

[YggBjorn]

It's throwing up multiple error messages every time I try to do something with it. Was working flawlessly beforehand every time I tested it over the past weeks, but wouldn't you know it, the one day where the big climactic battle of the campaign occurs, suddenly it's borked. Sigh.

Can you attach a copy of your log file? Not knowing what is broken makes it harder to find and fix it.

EDIT: Can you describe in detail what you are doing and what happens? I could try to recreate the errors you are having.

[Doswelk]

Moving the window, typing in the window results in multiple errors (all same):

[ERROR] window: Control (round) anchoring to an undefined control (label_round) in windowclass (massbattle_host)

Adding commanders does not work.

Clicking new round brings ups numerous errors.

Yep it is borked and just I was going to use it for the first time in years :(

[Morenu]

any chance this would work for PF1e?

[Jiminimonka]

any chance this would work for PF1e?

No chance at all (unless Chillhelm has decided to become a PF1e Extension writer) it is written specifically for the Savage Worlds Mass Battles rules.

[Jiminimonka]

BTW - this has been hotfixed and the update should be appearing on the Forge soon.

[Talon 46]

I used your Mass Battle Extension today and it worked flawlessly. Thank you for creating this!

[tavishill]

Argh! The Mass Battle Button is missing when I load the campaign!

[tavishill]

And here's my console log.

[macDsinfo]

Moving the window, typing in the window results in multiple errors (all same):

[ERROR] window: Control (round) anchoring to an undefined control (label_round) in windowclass (massbattle_host)

Adding commanders does not work.


Clicking new round brings ups numerous errors.

Yep it is borked and just I was going to use it for the first time in years :( i can add the commander, but I get some errors, but it looks like they might all be related to the new graphic update...

[Shoras]

This extension doesn't work anymore. Are there no other updates planned?

[Jiminimonka]

This extension doesn't work anymore. Are there no other updates planned?

I am sure if we ask nicely, Chillhelm will fix it when he has time.

[Shoras]

I am sure if we ask nicely, Chillhelm will fix it when he has time.

please Chillhelm, fix it :cry: . Sorry I'm not native english, so I'm not good at saying it, but I'm grateful if you can fix it. :o

[Jiminimonka]

Try this (rename it MassBattles.ext and drop in your extensions folder)

Fixes some errors but I am not sure if fixes them all.

EDIT: Definitely a bug with attaching files to posts recently.

[Caratacus]

Excuse the confusion of a computer Non-Geek, but which file should I rename? The folder contains a few files.

Caratacus

[Jiminimonka]

Excuse the confusion of a computer Non-Geek, but which file should I rename? The folder contains a few files.

Caratacus

Rename the attached fil .zip to .ext

[chillhelm]

I've put Jiminimonkas fix into the official version and it's rolling out through the forge now.

Thank you, Jimnimonka. And my appologies to everyone who waited for this to happen.

[Caratacus]

Works great now!
Thanks!

[Jiminimonka]

I've put Jiminimonkas fix into the official version and it's rolling out through the forge now.

Thank you, Jimnimonka. And my appologies to everyone who waited for this to happen.

No worries. Actually the patch that broke it only came out a few days ago so it was no long wait. Cheers chillhelm!