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Valyar
January 24th, 2021, 09:34
Hi folks,

Time has come for our facehugger to make a step up the evolutionary chain. While it is not clear yet what will burst out of the chest, I would like to share the plans for Alien 2.0 release of the ruleset. Listed below are the main features we discussed and plan to implement along with some fixes and code updates that are mainly cosmetic or won't be noticed if you haven't tried to do the thing we address with them :)

Without further ado:

Ship combat - We plan to enhance the Character, PC Ship and Spaceship sheets to support better space combat. This is ground work for Coriolis, but Alien is the first ruleset to get advantage of this. There will be crew manifest that will allow GM to assign roles per ship and this will expose the right actions on new tab on PC's sheets so they have single stop-shop for ground or space combat. It will be semi-automated, leaving the GM to adjust the hull integrity for example.
Combat Tracker Update - The combat tracker will be updated to support groups, non-duplicate initiative, user-accessible menu to reroll and regroup + ability to add space ships (just for organizational purposes). We haven't yet figured out the best way to mix ship and "ground" combat, but it will come up.
Xenomorph library - I believe the approach we had in Vaesen with dedicated library was right and as part of this release we will introduce new library and move all xenomorphs there with updated sheet that hopefully the address the woes of the existing one. We will keep the code related to the NPC library there so it will be backward compatible with any customization you might have already.
Critical injuries frame - we will allow effects to be dragged & dropped to the frame and link them with the automation of skill/ability/combat rolls. This will allow to have persistent conditions per character without the need to have it represented every time on the Combat Tracker. This will be convenient for campaigns where multiple groups re-use the database or the GM (like myself) clears the CT every time.
Stress handling - we plan to be more precise when it comes to stress levels and the current stress suffered by PC by tracking current and comparing the new status when table roll is made.
More Drag & Drop fields on sheets - adding ability to drag & drop career to PC sheet or AI to PC Ship sheet for later reference and etc.



There are few enhancement that we would like to try but there is no guarantee if it will make into that release due to time constrains

Character Assistant. Free League games are quite open and lacking strict guidelines during character creation, just few things are mandatory to be selected, but still it is useful to have such assistant for new players. As this can take a lot of time to implement, might be something in the future, but know it is on our radar, especially for Forbidden Lands and Coriolis.
Sheet Layout - I also want to rework the PC & Ship sheets styling, but for now this is on the backburner as the default ones are VTT unfriendly when itShee comes to fitting all the info into tight spaces :)
High-Res maps and LOS - there are certain restrictions imposed on the image size for products compatible with FGC and Unity, but I will explore what and how we can bring bigger maps for the existing modules where applicable and put the LOS for Unity. No zones can be defined as this is lacking feature in Fantasy Grounds, but LOS can be defined and later you can bring your grid.



Also - Colonial Marines. Work will start once Free League are ready with the book.

Let me know what you think. Feel free to drop also enhancement suggestion here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?63139-Official-ALIEN-RPG-enhancement-suggestions

Kermit1013
January 24th, 2021, 10:56
Thanks for the heads up and all the work - I've only run one game using the alien ruleset so far, and that was before you added the visible d10 and stress dice, so I was working pretty barebones - I'm glad to see a lot of new functionality already having been added, and more on the way - just wanted to say that I'm grateful for the work. So far, the only thing I can think of that would be a lot of fun (and moderately useful) to the system would be some kind of motion tracker visual feature that could be added to the background or map. It's a surprisingly fundamental aspect of the game, using the motion tracker to track incoming and moving objects several "zones" away, AND it's a fun visual to add to the tabletop space. Since it's apparently possible to add animations to FG, it'd be really nice if said motion tracker could include an animated "pulse" as part of the visual feature

I expect anything like what I mentioned above would be a long way away, if possible at all - but I really do think that for the Aliens game, it'd be a surprisingly important feature both rules-mechanics-wise and ambiance-wise

anyway, just an idea - and I'm pretty sure I'm not the first (nor the last) to bring it up

Valyar
January 24th, 2021, 12:43
Let me think on that motion tracker. I know on principle how this could be implemented, but there will be some challenges. For starters there is no way to play sound via the program and animated GIFs are not yet supported, therefore it will be something manual adjusted by GM and visible by players.

Kermit1013
January 25th, 2021, 06:27
to be fair, as much as I love the sound, I don't think it's vital - really, just a sort of perma-mapped like motion tracker "mat" in one corner where you can place some motion "signal" tokens would work just fine, at least at first - no need to get super fancy

godsick
January 26th, 2021, 19:05
Thanks again for the continued support.

As a query is there a way to drop the characters agenda for that act onto their character sheet to automatically add it, either writing over the old one or following on?

Valyar
January 26th, 2021, 19:17
Thanks again for the continued support.

As a query is there a way to drop the characters agenda for that act onto their character sheet to automatically add it, either writing over the old one or following on?

Interesting idea. Yes, it is possible to create list instead of text box that will accept drops from the Agenda libraries. It can be either one or the other. I can even split the frame into two - for free-text purposes and another for dropping prepared by GM/Scenario agendas.

It is doable for 2.0 for sure as it is quick fix. Feel free to suggest or explain me how you use that portion and we will find a way to address the need.

godsick
January 26th, 2021, 19:42
Interesting idea. Yes, it is possible to create list instead of text box that will accept drops from the Agenda libraries. It can be either one or the other. I can even split the frame into two - for free-text purposes and another for dropping prepared by GM/Scenario agendas.

It is doable for 2.0 for sure as it is quick fix. Feel free to suggest or explain me how you use that portion and we will find a way to address the need.

Thanks, it's a small quality of life feature but much appreciated.

GregRex
January 29th, 2021, 14:03
Thanks for taking interest in updating the maps with Hi-res and adding LOS! It's my top request :)

Ludd_G
January 31st, 2021, 00:28
Would it be possible to do separate FGU and FGC versions of the maps, one Hi Res and one lower (like has been the standard for Player and DM maps in 5e)? This would then allow the quality and resolution of Unity's maps to not be constrained by Classic's limitations?

Cheers,

Simon

Valyar
February 1st, 2021, 09:43
That's the plan, deliver them as separate HD module that can be used optionally.

Ludd_G
February 1st, 2021, 10:06
Great news!

Springroll
February 2nd, 2021, 12:45
That's the plan, deliver them as separate HD module that can be used optionally.

Wonderful! I hope that this will become the norm for all major modules going forward! :)

Valyar
February 2nd, 2021, 13:00
Let's see if we will be pioneers here :)

GregRex
March 17th, 2021, 13:18
Any updates to the maps?

I love the work you are doing for all the FL rulesets btw!

Valyar
March 17th, 2021, 13:41
Any updates to the maps?

I love the work you are doing for all the FL rulesets btw!

Hi, so for the maps I played a bit with the walls and etc. learning how to export this in formation, but now with the new updates coming with the Dynamic LOS I am waiting a bit to see if there is something we can include or not. For example I have been thinking if we can use the default things they put in CoreRPG to facilitate situation where the players have night-vision goggles and you simple put the effect or it is granted by item that is equipped. Not sure how those things will connect yet! :)

I don't want to do double work so at the moment I parked the map stuff and we code ship actions initiated from character sheets, combat tracker enhancements and moving the xenomorphs to their own library (as we did in Vaesen with the vaesens :) )

Real life got in the way, but we are recovering now.

Valyar
May 9th, 2021, 16:41
Update on the progress for Alien 2.0 after we managed to get back on track:

Combat Tracker updates are done - GM can initiate re-roll of PC/NPC/ALL combatants initiative in bulk. Reset initiative to clean selection, all values and rounds also implemented.
There is a switch now that allows duplicate initiative for NPC - this is similar to the grouping in 5e ruleset, to facilitate play with too much combatants as per the rules.
Mission Agendas can be dragged & dropped to dedicated space for story missions
Starship library is rewored and AI/Modules/Upgrades/Armaments sections now store links to the respective items for quick reference. NOTE: old format not compatible, before upgrade GM should take note of the previous configuration and re-create the entry.
PC and PC Ship sheets enhanced with Ship/Crew assignments that facilitates ship-related rolls during space combat
Ships can be dropped to Combat Tracker for Ship Combat.
LOS added to tactical maps
Global currencies set and PS properly displays the summary
Global languages added to the ruleset. Chinese language is with graphical font for styling purposes only
We refactored certain pieces of the automation to handle better certain cases
Bugfixes
Condition reporting

godsick
May 9th, 2021, 19:15
Update on the progress for Alien 2.0 after we managed to get back on track:

Combat Tracker updates are done - GM can initiate re-roll of PC/NPC/ALL combatants initiative in bulk. Reset initiative to clean selection, all values and rounds also implemented.
There is a switch now that allows duplicate initiative for NPC - this is similar to the grouping in 5e ruleset, to facilitate play with too much combatants as per the rules.
Mission Agendas can be dragged & dropped to dedicated space for story missions
Starship library is rewored and AI/Modules/Upgrades/Armaments sections now store links to the respective items for quick reference. NOTE: old format not compatible, before upgrade GM should take note of the previous configuration and re-create the entry.
PC and PC Ship sheets enhanced with Ship/Crew assignments that facilitates ship-related rolls during space combat
Ships can be dropped to Combat Tracker for Ship Combat.
LOS added to tactical maps
Global currencies set and PS properly displays the summary
Global languages added to the ruleset. Chinese language is with graphical font for styling purposes only
We refactored certain pieces of the automation to handle better certain cases
Bugfixes
Condition reporting


Thanks for the continued work Valyar.

Kingfish
May 10th, 2021, 03:33
I'm on the verge of buying this but I really think I wanna wait for 2.0 release before I bust out on it. Hard enough for me to get players to try this system out without having to RE-learn it three sessions in.

I hope its ready soon(TM) cause the money's burning a hole in my pocket...or is that acid!!! ;)

Thanks for the update!
K

Valyar
May 22nd, 2021, 12:05
Just a heads up - Colonial Marines Operations Manual is half way done and it will be released alongside 2.0 probably. Timelines are yet to be aligned.

spoofer
May 22nd, 2021, 16:27
One of my goals for this year is to run this. I am worried I will not find enough players though. I am waiting until release before recruiting. Any stray players out there?

Edit: I should say that it will be EST time zone.

zombielord
May 23rd, 2021, 17:09
Looking forward to the Operations Manual and the 2.0 version.

Saeval
May 27th, 2021, 22:56
I'm really looking forward to the 2.0 release and the new Marines book. We're going to be taking a break from our long campaign soon to play a short game of something else and I want to do Alien, is there an ETA of when 2.0 might go live? The current version is great but I'm really excited about the upgrades coming with the new release.

Valyar
June 9th, 2021, 19:47
OK folks, small status update - Colonial Marines Operations Manual is almost completed. I am refactoring a bit the work - extracting last two chapters to third module for the Frontier Wars campaign to be usable as adventure and have story entries where necessary, not just reference manual. It will be submitted to SW probably next week.

Alien 2.0 is also close to release, though we probably will leave the dedicated xenomorph library for 2.1, as there are certain things I would like to modify, but don't want to delay further. The NPC library will be the way to go. We added some minor improvements to reporting in the chat and updated ship & vehicle sheets to accept drag & drop of items to refer easily the object during play. All modules are also updated. The ruleset manual will be moved to Confluence and the PDF removed in order to reduce the download time and allow everyone to refer it at any time.

In regards to the FGC support and deadline of 24th - will ask SW if 2.0 can be delivered alongside CMOM to FGC users.

Valyar
June 15th, 2021, 07:00
Alien 2.0 has been submitted today. The release notes are here. (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?62830-Official-Alien-RPG-Release-Notes). It will arrive to the Live channel in two weeks. URL for the Wiki-based ruleset manual will follow.

PS: It turned out that CMOM is scheduled for release mid August, therefore it won't hit FGC's EOL date of 24th of June. I was confused due to the pre-order phase that is currently on-going.

Kingfish
June 16th, 2021, 01:16
Alien 2.0 has been submitted today. The release notes are here. (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?62830-Official-Alien-RPG-Release-Notes). It will arrive to the Live channel in two weeks.

The moment its live, I buy! Correction...its bought! ;)

gbhenderson
June 25th, 2021, 01:30
Noticed 2.0 was in the updater this week. Diggin some of the new features. Time to figure out the new space combat system.

Kingfish
June 26th, 2021, 14:53
Are the careers dang'n'droppable? I tried doing a search and all I could find was, 'that was the plan'...

Maybe I am just missing something but I couldn't seem to figure it out.

Valyar
June 26th, 2021, 15:02
It seems we left this feature. Will try to add it this week.

Kingfish
June 26th, 2021, 15:54
It seems we left this feature. Will try to add it this week.

Thank you, i have dummy players...i gotta make it as easy for them as i can! ;)

gbhenderson
June 26th, 2021, 16:23
Honestly, I don't see what benefit drag n drop careers would add other than filling in the career name. Everything in a career is still based on player choice. You'd still have to choose a single talent from the chosen career, how to spend attribute and skill points, starting gear, signature items, etx.

IMO, a better system would be to make those choices drag-n-droppable from a career sheet.

Valyar
June 26th, 2021, 16:28
IMO, a better system would be to make those choices drag-n-droppable from a career sheet.
How you envision such mechanic? Similar to the 5E character wizard with menus or?

gbhenderson
June 26th, 2021, 17:01
I've never played 5e :D

I was just thinking something simple like this. 47872

Maybe a table to generate starting cash and a link to general talents, but nothing overly complicated.

Sure, you could make the agendas and all that linkable as well, but those are more "use your imagination and create your character" items. My players generally create their own agendas, appearance, etc.

Kingfish
June 26th, 2021, 22:15
...Similar to the 5E character wizard with menus or?

I have played 5e almost to the exclusion of everything else...

And that kind of 'automation' is exactly what I thought "drag'n'drop" choices would do.

Player chooses Roughneck and then each thing that is a choice for the player would pop up on a list with the ability to select each thing. Your selections would THEN appear on your character sheet in the correct location. Simple for the players, less headaches on the GM and probably a major pain to program for you.

But thats what I thought "drag'n'drop" meant.

Kingfish
July 5th, 2021, 15:50
Did this get sorted out? Not trying to be a "nudge" but...I'd just like to know how I should go about handling this when I get my players going forward. I got no issues doing it all manually but I know these babies I play with. Lets just say, Game MOTHER is a fitting title for this group. ;)

Thanks for your time and I am really digging all the hard work you folks have been putting into this!

Valyar
July 5th, 2021, 18:34
The "character wizard" behavior might come later this year, as we are working on Symbaroum refactoring & Forbidden Lands at the moment.

Kingfish
July 6th, 2021, 01:36
The "character wizard" behavior might come later this year, as we are working on Symbaroum refactoring & Forbidden Lands at the moment.

Sounds great and good to hear, I'll keep any eye open for it. Be safe out there and thanks again!

PhilAdams
July 8th, 2021, 16:53
Will Symbaroum D&D 5e be in the mix? I'm not a fan of the original system but find the setting compelling and backed the 5e Kickstarter.

Valyar
July 9th, 2021, 15:44
Will Symbaroum D&D 5e be in the mix? I'm not a fan of the original system but find the setting compelling and backed the 5e Kickstarter.
It is possible yes. :) First in the pipeline is the original Symbaroum ruleset update.

PhilAdams
July 10th, 2021, 03:00
That's understandable. :) Thanks!

Valyar
January 1st, 2022, 13:39
It is time for small update for Alien RPG ruleset. We are addressing some bugs and doing minor enhancements that you will check in the release notes when out, but I wanted to share something about a new feature inspired by the 5e:

PC BUILDER!

We are implementing character builder for Alien RPG that will allow very quick and easy creation (not that it is very hard at the moment... ) of Player characters. The PC Builder will have the following features:

Ability to load all careers and talents from all loaded modules and custom content from the campaign.
Picking a career will automatically mark attributes and skills as key and allow higher than the maximum point allocation
Automated tracking of attribute/skill point allocation
Automatically add Talents & Equipment from the careers (equipment feature supports only official module careers)
Automatically assign Android attributes and race upon CS creation
Display the career/talent description while browsing the list



The free-form content which does not require automation, such as description, buddy and etc. won't be done in the Builder, but in the PC Sheet once it is saved and launched automatically for the player. Of course, I can add a tab for that as well, but i don't see value in doing that yet.

Also careers are now drag & drop on PC sheet. for automatic population of career related content - PC Builder :)
Some screenshots added .

godsick
January 1st, 2022, 16:28
Thanks for the continued support.

redba
January 1st, 2022, 19:39
Thanks to all for this little gem..

I just purchased all modules and also the Futurstic Theme I found a beautiful pairing..

After playing 5e, Vampire, CoC I found a Sci-Fi style ruleset other than Starfinder (too heavy for my requirements).. so I checked this and BAAAAMMM!!! It was love at first sight so I purchased also the main module from the publisher (ruleboonk and CMOM)..

So I am here for asking some things:
1) Have you any suggestions for finding Dark Sci-Fi battlemaps and music (paid or not is the same)
2) I found at first sight some typo bug related to the new update (only misalignement and some truncated text) so please tell me where I have to report it and if you prefer a screenshot or a description..

Again thank you for this great work..

Last but not least have all a great 2020 year..

Valyar
January 1st, 2022, 20:22
Hi redba,

Tabletop Audio and Syrinscape has great content for sci-fi and dark moods, I was using the first exclusively during Alien/Coriolis games I ran last year. Syrinscape has great for Cyberpunk, official content for Cyberpunk RED and other sci-fi stuffs.
Also I have found a lot of good content in Spotify and YouTube, where a search for dark sci-fi, synth and etc will turn out a lot of results. Really, a lot of stuffs.

For MAPS... now this is the problem. I used for Warhammer 40k/Alien map assets from Gabriel Pickard, there are a lot of gritty floor plans that suit the settings. For the rest I have been using google search.

PS: Send me message with the bugs you found, I will fix them asap.

similarly
January 3rd, 2022, 13:25
Wow! Thanks for adding to Alien RPG. I'm really excited to play this, and this will help when I do get a campaign going.

@redba,
Have you tried drive-thru rpg? I backed a kickstarter for rpg maps by a group called Loke Battle Mats. The kickstarter is over, but you can find starship maps and more at drive-thru rpg.

redba
January 3rd, 2022, 16:57
Wow! Thanks for adding to Alien RPG. I'm really excited to play this, and this will help when I do get a campaign going.

@redba,
Have you tried drive-thru rpg? I backed a kickstarter for rpg maps by a group called Loke Battle Mats. The kickstarter is over, but you can find starship maps and more at drive-thru rpg.

Hi similarly,
unfortunately for my pockets I know too well drive-thru rpg!! :p

But I will go to check the company you suggested me and your products..

Thank a lot for the help!!

JohnD
January 5th, 2022, 02:49
Check out Heroic Maps on DriveThruRPG... they offer a selection of futuristic maps that might be of interest.

redba
January 5th, 2022, 06:43
Check out Heroic Maps on DriveThruRPG... they offer a selection of futuristic maps that might be of interest.

Thanks for help JohnD,
I will check for sure..

spoofer
January 5th, 2022, 14:44
The resource-databank channel of the Discord ALIEN server has many ALIEN-style maps. The look and feel of the map is very different than Heroic Maps. I love the ALIEN-style maps for playing ALIEN (they work better with the rules as written), but I love Heroic Maps for D&D. Heroic Maps makes a very good product.

Valyar
January 15th, 2022, 19:08
It is time for update on the 3.0 progress and mainly the PC Builder feature! We are almost ready - gear filtering and sorting remains before we can release this small face hugger in the wild. The current features are now implemented:

Ability to load all careers, talents and gear from all currently loaded modules and custom content from the campaign. Modules shouldn't be loaded/unloaded while working with the builder.
Key Attributes and Skills are marked upon career selection.
Automated tracking of attribute/skill points allocation, including key attributes and skills.
Career and Talent links are automatically added to Character Sheet upon "Save & Close"
Android support
Display Career, Talent and equipment info while browsing
Gear sub window supports three modes: Pre-Defined, Free-Form and None. Pre-defined is for official modules only and allows picking the pre-defined gear only as per the career page. Free-form allows picking any gear from the Close Combat, Ranged, Protection & Other categories. None does not populate equipment.
Visual indicator for incomplete section


To do:

Equipment from the careers added to Character Sheet
Section validation before commit to database
Documentation!!!


Attached are screenshots from the various panels, WiP.
I hope this will be nice addition to Alien and will be available in the other Free league rulesets upon their launch.

redba
January 16th, 2022, 08:02
Oh yeesssss beautiful.. well well done Valyar.. I love Alien more and more

Valyar
March 19th, 2022, 13:20
We pushed the last update that delivers some bug fixes in the rolls framework, PC Builder and small enhancements for multi-skill items used from the Active Equipment frame.

The next update will aim to introduce Talent Automation framework and the goal is to automate several talents (and items, for Colonial Marines encumbrance calculation!). We are currently developing this for Forbidden Lands, which is the more complex system and once ready it will be ported to Alien, Vaesen and Coriolis over time.

godsick
March 19th, 2022, 21:45
We pushed the last update that delivers some bug fixes in the rolls framework, PC Builder and small enhancements for multi-skill items used from the Active Equipment frame.

The next update will aim to introduce Talent Automation framework and the goal is to automate several talents (and items, for Colonial Marines encumbrance calculation!). We are currently developing this for Forbidden Lands, which is the more complex system and once ready it will be ported to Alien, Vaesen and Coriolis over time.

Great news, looking forward to seeing the conversion for Coriolis too!

Valyar
December 4th, 2022, 18:39
After almost month and a half of travel and intense work, I am finally back home and thanks to the "wonderful" weather, time for coding is available again. I managed to do some meaningful work and progress on the user requests for the ruleset. The following are the current addition to the ruleset. I am contemplating to do more from the pipeline and then release, or submit this tomorrow so it can hit live in 2 weeks and in the meantime progress with additional features.


[Added] TOUGH talent automation. When Tough talent is dragged & dropper or talent with "Tough" name is created in the PC sheet, the maximum Health is automatically increased by 2. Removing the talent will reduce the health to the standard value.
[Added] NERVES OF STEEL talent automation. When panic roll is initiated from the Main or Combat sections of the character sheet and "Nerves of Steel" talent is assigned to the character, the panic roll will be modified wit -2. This will be reflected in the final modofier represented as black die in the chat log. For example if there is no stress level and the talen is available, the total modifier will be -2.
[Added] INDIVIDUAL MARINE PACK automation. When the item is added to and EQUIPPED by the player character, the maximum encumbrance will be increased with 2. The quantity of the item does not matter, only 2 is the maximum benefit from stack of individual marine packs.
[Added] "Marines" section to the Crew tab in PC Ship sheet. Now Game Mothers can assign player characters as marines. Marines are not participants in ship combat but are listed for completion.

similarly
December 5th, 2022, 00:48
Wow, thank you! This is awesome. Really loving this ruleset. It's really amazing work.