FG2 - Changing the GM title

[Foen]

Hi Folks

This may well have been asked, but any search on DM GM fails because the words are too short...

Under FG1 the GM could log on as GM, DM, Referee, Almighty Squid or whatever, and the title was treated in a similar way to player character names. Under FG2, it seems that GM is the only title available.

Is this editable at ruleset level? It would be nice to have Referees for Call of Cthulhu, DMs for D&D, GMs for Traveller etc (even if I can't be Almighty Squid!).

Cheers

Stuart
(Foen)

[joshuha]

The command is "/gmid Referee" or whatever you want the main GM id to be.

[Foen]

Thanks Josh!

/gmid Almighty Squid

Mwuahaha!

[DNH]

am i just not looking in the right place, or is there really no comprehensive list of FG2 slash commands?

[Griogre]

There is not yet a comprehensive list of FG2 slash commands. Most are the same with a few new ones like the /gmid and /die hide and /die reveal

[Foen]

Hmm, having experimented with this I have bumped up against a problem. /gmid Referee works with the built-in d20 ruleset, but quietly fails with custom rulesets. Is it a recent edition to the d20 ruleset which might not be incorporated in something based on an earlier drop?

Cheers

Stuart
(Foen)

[Foen]

Found it. It has been added to the d20 ruleset after the first release, so any custom ruleset based on an earlier fork will not include the functionality.

The script can be found in gmidentitymanager.lua.

Cheers

Stuart
(Foen)

[DNH]

hmm. yes, that is exactly the kind of thing i was thinking about here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6100. at least i know where this is now though (thanks foen) but i can't help wondering what other functionality my own ruleset (for 2e AD&D) is missing out on.

[Foen]

Slight snag DNH (and probably to make your fears come true) the changes in gmidentitymanager invoke new procedures in other script files, like a ripple effect.

I gave up trying to retrofit the new functionality into my ruleset and just changed GM to Referee in my (older version) gmidentitymanager.

The alternative would have been a hybrid ruleset with some files from one version and some from another - I just thought that would be an invitation for instability and mysterious crashes further down the line.

Stuart
(Foen)

[DNH]

of course, version 2.0.12 has been stable for a while now. it might be worth comparing (via winmerge) the various files in the d20 ruleset to the same files in my "d2e" ruleset to see what changes have been made, then unpacking the d20 ruleset again and making those same changes to the files unpacked. or am i being hopelessly naive here?

[joshuha]

Thats what I do. However, as far as XML files go I try to never modify the base files unless I have to. I just put a reference in base.xml to my own custom XML files so that the others are untouched.

LUA scripts it a bit harder to do this because a lot of the custom modification are in the base files but I copy everything I do into a seperate file in case I need to reapply it to a newer file that updates a LUA script I was working on.

I have sent an e-mail to the devs asking about getting a last version updated in the comments section at the top to make comparisons easier.

[Griogre]

No that should work. Just keep a list of the function/scrips you have changed and look and see what changed. They also started listing the changes in the patch notes in the House of Healing. It would be so much easier if we could have "included" functions override stardard ones of the same names.

[Foen]

I've never used winmerge, but you might have a good idea there. It might be more useful to examine the differences between the two versions of d20 and apply those to your d2e ruleset though.

Stuart
(Foen)

[DNH]

Hmm. I see what you mean, Foen, and you may have a point there. BUT if I did a full survey of my own changes, which I would only really have to do the once, I would then have a document of those changes, which I would not get if I studied only the d20 changes.

While I rather like Joshuha's idea of amending the base.xml to reroute the whole thing to look at my own files, I am not sure what you gain there, unless your own files are markedly different from the d20 files.

In any case, a one-line "last version updated" comment in the header of each file would be SO useful that I was convinced it was already there and went to have a look! I add my name to those requesting this feature.

[Griogre]

While I rather like Joshuha's idea of amending the base.xml to reroute the whole thing to look at my own files, I am not sure what you gain there, unless your own files are markedly different from the d20 files.

You gain the ability to update freely and not potentially have it overwrite your work. Updating may break the changes but as the FG2 updates become fewer and less broad then the odds increase that an update will not effect what you have changed. Thus any changes or updates by Smiteworks in areas you did not modify just happen with no fuss.

A good example of this is Joshuha's code to roll a die when you click on a box on the character sheet. If you can separate this out cleanly from the rest of the character sheet code then any changes not effecting those boxes will work - and if you are lucky - some affecting those boxes might work too.

While the current way FG2 works with its scripts, etc is mod friendly - it is extremely fragile when it comes to future upgrades/fixes. This is not a new problem for programming in general and the usual solution is code modularity and encapsulation. One thing that disappoints me about FG2 is this problem.

[joshuha]

Also I am not saying redirect away from all of the D20 built in ones just any changes you do do in yours. The way the XML files are laid out in the D20 ruleset is just for logical seperation, the XML is essentially all loaded into one giant tree upon the program starting.

So if you are working on a ruleset with lots of new frames and icons you don't need to dump all those in the d20 graphics_* XML file. Just stick them all in one file of yours called my_graphics.xml. That way if those D20 ones ever change you don't have to go and redo all your changes to the file.

[joshuha]

A good example of this is Joshuha's code to roll a die when you click on a box on the character sheet. If you can separate this out cleanly from the rest of the character sheet code then any changes not effecting those boxes will work - and if you are lucky - some affecting those boxes might work too.


Yep, and I figured out an easy way to break this apart slightly but not much you can do modifying the templates/skill sheet since those are inherent.

But at least for the d20 check part you can create your own LUA file and register it in the base.xml file and instead of calling ChatManager.d20check(...) just call MyLib.d20check(...). As the chatmanager.lua file has changed between versions a bit it will make it slightly less prone to need updating.