Effect icons

[sytail]

Hi there. I've been using Fantasy grounds as a player for a while now and recently started to DM a game. I seem to be having issues with the effect indicators. As the DM, I can see both PC and NPC effects on the tokens placed on a map no problem. I can rotate through the effect settings, the look and style of presentation, and see them change on the DM screen no problem.

I had my first game the other day, and one of the players mentioned that they could not see an effect which was supposed to be placed on them via their token on the map. I asked everyone else and none of them were able to see it either.

As far as I can tell, the settings controlling this function is the 'Token (Player): show ally effects' and 'Token (Player): show Enemy effects'. Both of which are set to ' Icons'. I've been playing around with a second instance of fantasy grounds open and, yeah, as they said PC's don't see the effect on their PC tokens, no matter what setting I select for the above two mentioned. I have read before that any added extensions could possibly break some of the main operation so I have disabled all extensions during these tests.

Would someone have any tips, suggestions, Ideas of something I could try to get this working? As far as I can tell, my Fantasy Grounds is up to date, and I am using the 5E rulseset.

cheers

Moderator: moved to house of healing.

[LordEntrails]

In the combat tracker, their is a line for each effect on each actor. Make sure that the effect that is applied is marked as visible to all. I forget exactly what the toggles are, but one of the I thin is "All" and another is "GM".

[Zacchaeus]

I'm unable to reproduce this; icons are showing in a player token correctly when I join my own game. Where are the effects being applied from?

Can you try in a new campaign without extensions. If that doesn't help can you tell us what versions of the 5e and CoreRPG rulesets as reported in chat when you load up your campaign.

[sytail]

Thank you both for checking this.

I launched my game with all my selected extensions enabled and took a look at that section in the combat tracker as noted above. The bottom blue box controls who the effect is visible to, and switches from 'GM' (Visible to GM) and 'VSBL' (Visible to all). It appears that when a effect is added to a PC or NPC, that option is set automatically to 'GM'.

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I was able to switch that setting to 'VSBL', and that does enable the PC's to see that effect (seen in the second instance log in) for both PC and NPC characters.

So I guess I should ask if there is a way to set effects to VSBL as default when added to a character? Now that I know what the issue was and how to fix it, its really not a big deal to just do that extra click when required though.

As suggested I started a brand new campaign and tested this out. From what I can tell the default setting for this option from scratch is 'GM'.

I've been dragging the required effect from the effects menu (blinded, grappled, etc.) onto the PC's character section in the Combat Tracker.

Cheers

[Zacchaeus]

The default IS visible to all. The only way to add an effect to a PC invisibly is to add it via the effects window and to click the eye icon next to the effect on that dialog before it is applied. Most of the time (like 99% of the time) effects are applied from either another player character or from an NPC on the Combat Tracker. In the rare case where effects are applied from the effects dialog make sure that the eye icon isn't set to invisible.

Of course extensions could override this behaviour so make sure that it isn't an extension that is causing the problem.

[sytail]

Thanks for the info. Up to this point I had been applying the effects from the Presets table from the Effects box (In the picture you posted, the effects on the left side). I was not using a custom effect. I can see that there is a eye for the custom creations, but I don't see a eye available for those presets?

That gave me the idea to test adding the effects from the players side. And when I Do, again from the effects box presets, it does come out as visible, and the players are able to see the token icons (both PC and NPC).

You mention that usually players will apply the effects themselves (which I guess I should get in the habit of asking them to do when required), and also from a NPC character from the combat tracker. I changed a NPC's status to friendly, which allowed the PC to control it. As playing as the PC (second instance), I am able to open the NPC's character sheet and apply an effect (Prone), which does come out as visible to all. However when I apply the effect from the GM side, through the combat tracker or by opening the character sheet, it comes out as invisible to the players.

Ok so I also created a custom effect, and applied it to a PC with the eye set as visible. It seems to be acting the same way. The PC's can apply that custom effect and it comes out as visible. But when I do it from the GM side, with the eye both visible and not visible, it comes out invisible to the PC's.

I am using the same test campaign I created last time, no added extensions at all.

So to sum up, the pc's can apply effects which is visible to them. But on the GM side, all added effects default to 'GM', making them invisible to the players. But they can be switched to visible.

It may be setup to work like that, I'm not sure.

Thanks again for your time.

[Zacchaeus]

There is something wrong with your ruleset or installation somewhere. Try going into your rulesets folder and delete the 5e.pak and CoreRPG.pak files and update Fantasy Grounds to see if that helps. If there are any folders in the rulesets folder please delete those as well. Also after you update tell us what version of the 5e and coreRPG rulesets are reported in chat.

See the two images below. The first one has a bunch of icons on the token at the bottom; this is a screenshot of the player view and all the effects were applied by the player from the effects dialog. The second screenshot is again the player view but all of the effects except one were applied by the DM again from the effects dialog. The last, prone, effect was applied by the other character. As you can see all of the icons are showing on the token - it doesn't matter where they are applied from, the icons are visible as long as you have selected the option Token (Player): Show Ally Effects is set to 'Icons'. As I said above the only way (outside an extensions) that an effect is applied invisibly is if the DM uses a custom effect and clicks the eye icon to make it apply invisibly.

One other thing the player tokens were placed on the map by dragging from the Combat Tracker right?

[sytail]

Hello, alright so I did as suggested and deleted both the 5e.pak and CoreRPG.pak files in the ruleset folder, and let Fantasy Grounds update. And From what I can see it's still acting the same way.

See my two screenshots attached.

The first shows the GM view showing that the first two effects were added to the player (Test). This was done from the GM side. They both appear to be hidden (the crossed out eye). The second shows the players view. The two effects show paralyzed and prone were added to the NPC character (if pic one was 1 and 2, these would be 3 and 4), which the PC character can see.

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Shown on both is are the current versions of the 5e.pak and CoreRPG.pak. There were no folders in my ruleset folder. Any yes the characters were dragged onto the map via the Combat Tracker.

Would it be worth it to try a reinstall? I would think that my campaign folder would remain intact, and it would be everything else that would be re installed. Correct?

Thanks again and cheers.

[sytail]

Hello, alright so I did as suggested and deleted both the 5e.pak and CoreRPG.pak files in the ruleset folder, and let Fantasy Grounds update. And From what I can see it's still acting the same way.

See my two screenshots attached.

The first shows the GM view showing that the first two effects were added to the player (Test). This was done from the GM side. They both appear to be hidden (the crossed out eye). The second shows the players view. The two effects show paralyzed and prone were added to the NPC character (if pic one was 1 and 2, these would be 3 and 4), which the PC character can see.

54345

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Shown on both is are the current versions of the 5e.pak and CoreRPG.pak. There were no folders in my ruleset folder. Any yes the characters were dragged onto the map via the Combat Tracker.

Would it be worth it to try a reinstall? I would think that my campaign folder would remain intact, and it would be everything else that would be re installed. Correct?

Thanks again and cheers.

[Zacchaeus]

Ok, I think I have the answer. You have the option Show GM rolls set to off. If that is switched off then any effects applied from another creature will show as visible to all by default. But if you apply an effect from the effects dialog it defaults to showing GM only. With Show GM rolls set to on then any effect applied from wherever defaults to visible to all.

I'm not sure whether that is by design; I think it is but I'm unsure.

[LordEntrails]

No. Don't reinstall. By doing forcing the corerpg and 5e pak files you have effectively done that.

From your pictures, I'm seeing exactly what I would expect to see. The GM's Combat Tracker shows that the effects on the PC are only visible to the GM. The PC view shows that they can not see the effects on the PC, exactly as expected. The effects on the NPC are shown on the GMs CT to be visible to all, so the player view you can see them on the token and CT.

Everything is working as I expect it to. What is your expectation?

[sytail]

Yep that was it. I loaded up my main campaign with all the extensions I had added and tested it out. Changing the ‘show Gm rolls’ to ‘on’ does allow the applied effects from the gm side to be seen by the players.

That’s interesting. I don’t think I ever would have guessed that specific setting would block the effects from being showed to the pcs like that.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Cheers