2023-02 Ruleset update: Death Markers

[Zarestia]

First, I like the death markers and the possible customization.

The skull and tombstone are empty. Is that correct? If I use such an empty set, I get an error on deletion of a dead CT entry.


[1/24/2023 1:25:29 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "CoreRPG:..pts/manager_image_deathmarker.lua"]:359: addLayerPaintStamp: Unable to create paint stamp with specified asset

Could we have a global option for the death markers in the options menu to put the whole option on/off? Unchecking every single creature type death marker seems a bit counterintuitive.

One of the major points of the existing extensions for such things are the blood splatters on a token when the entity takes damage, scaling off of the wounds tier. Would it be possible to have such an optional feature with the death markers? The current implementation looks good but it feels like it's only using 50% of it's possibilities.
I'd feel forced to still use an extension for blood splatters for alive creatures.

[LordEntrails]

I haven't had a chance to test this yet... but I do have one concern. Using one of the community Death Indicator extensions I ran into a performance problem with large combat. Because that extension adds the markers as tokens, it impacts LOS calculations, and when you end up with many dozens of dead, performance suffers terribly. I'm hoping this OOTB enhancement either doesn't apply them as tokens or has a solution for this... :)

[Zarestia]

I haven't had a chance to test this yet... but I do have one concern. Using one of the community Death Indicator extensions I ran into a performance problem with large combat. Because that extension adds the markers as tokens, it impacts LOS calculations, and when you end up with many dozens of dead, performance suffers terribly. I'm hoping this OOTB enhancement either doesn't apply them as tokens or has a solution for this... :)

The markers which are left when a combatant dies, are added on a paint layer.

Maybe a button in the image toolbar to get rid of all markers would be nice (instead of unlocking the image and deleting the layer).

[Moon Wizard]

This feature was only created as a death remainder, not for health status display on tokens. Hence, the reason it is called Death Markers, and not Blood Splatters or something similar. I decided that any ornamentation (such as splatters) as decorations on tokens based on health status was a separate feature, that would be left as an extension or tackled separately. Technically, token decorations to indicate health status are not a persistent "death" indicator/markers. This features allows you to leave markers on the ground persistently, while removing the actual tokens from map/CT and to improve performance on your maps.

Some notes:
* There is already a button on the image toolbar to remove the Death Markers layer.
* Thanks for the note on the tombstones and skulls; I was planning to look at tomorrow since Zacchaeus mentioned to me via PM too.
* If you leave a creature type blank, it uses the default. If the default is blank, it does not place stamp. There are only 4 defaults to clear to essentially turn it off. I could possibly add a Clear button; but could be clicked accidentally.

Also, I would recommend that whomever is maintaining the Death Indicators should possibly rename to something like "Token Health Status Indicators" to make sure it fits the usage.

Regards,
JPG

[Ulric]

I am testing the SFRPG and I can not get any death markers to appear when a PC or NPC dies.

[superteddy57]

I am testing the SFRPG and I can not get any death markers to appear when a PC or NPC dies.

I tested this on the TEST server and it's working as intended with SFRPG.

[Moon Wizard]

It works in my version of SFRPG. Do you have any extensions loaded?

Regards,
JPG

[Ulric]

I've tested with and without extensions using an existing campaign. The campaign has PCs & NPCs on the CT that I have dragged from the CT to a map. I am dragging damage dice from the PC sheet and dropping on the a PC or NPC until they reach zero HP and the dying effect is automatically added to the PC/NPC. THe Token on the map never changes in appearance.

[Trenloe]

I've tested with and without extensions using an existing campaign. The campaign has PCs & NPCs on the CT that I have dragged from the CT to a map. I am dragging damage dice from the PC sheet and dropping on the a PC or NPC until they reach zero HP and the dying effect is automatically added to the PC/NPC. THe Token on the map never changes in appearance.
The token doesn't change appearance. The blood marker image is placed on the map when the creature entry is removed from the combat tracker.

[Ulric]

The token doesn't change appearance. The blood marker image is placed on the map when the creature entry is removed from the combat tracker.
Thanks for the clarification. I'll retest tonight.

[Ulric]

Death Markers are working for me. I wish this feature did more than it currently does. I'll just wait to see what the future brings.

[EllivasKram]

Would be nice if the Movement tracking took the splat as difficult terrain.

[Jiminimonka]

Death Markers are in Savage Worlds and you can (on the NPC sheets) declare what blood splat they leave -oil,.vomit, slime etc. so this seems to be what is also getting added to Core now.

[Ulric]

Yeah, the different types of splat based on NPC type is cool. I would like to see this implemented into wounds tracking. If the player could see a wound splat linked to creature type when they damage the NPC then they could determine what type of creature they are fighting.

[rkohli]

The death markers do not seem to appear on the clients unless the GM re-shares the map. Is this as intended?

[Moon Wizard]

This was happening with the initial FGU update, but I pushed a hot fix about 4 hours later to fix that specific issue.

Can you make sure both the GM and player clients are updated, and try again? Please let me know if still an issue, so I can gather details.

Regards,
JPG

[rkohli]

Seems to be working locally, will test it remotely when my group next plays.

Yep, all working fine remotely. :)

[Lonewolf]

This needs more documentation. Right now it looks like a downgrade of SWADE rules set.
We had defeat markers already and now extentions that add to them are broken.
Some default defeat markers included also do not working in SWADE. Since they are not in local _tDeathMarkerTypes.
Edit function is too confusing and does not appear to work either. How are new markers added to window?
Without an append function on edit control for a new Death Marker input. One that to adds to local _tDeathMarkerTypes array this is never going work. Even if new markers are added through interface.

[rocketvaultgames]

Death Markers are working (D&D 5E) and I certainly prefer them to having nothing.

I think the best implementation would be instead of having the marker tied to creature type, the marker would be an image stamp of the deceased's token (maybe semi transparent, maybe rotated randomly), with a configurable stamp on top of it. Maybe default to tombstone or skull/crossbones. Maybe change (or overstamp) the border of the token with an obvious death indicator.

Sometimes knowing which humanoid corpse is where is pretty helpful.

Tangentially, would it ever be possible to be able to add different creature types rather than having them hard-coded? We can type new ones into statblocks, but the game doesn't seem to understand them for effects and such.

Thanks for all you do! FGU has come a long way in the last few years.

[Moon Wizard]

@LoneWolf,
As I mentioned in Discord; there is no need to add anything via extension to add a new Death Marker graphic set. Just create the new Death Marker Set, and map the type to the set in the Death Markers window. If you're just trying to add a new graphic set, you're done.
If you're trying to add a new "Type" entry, then that is something new; and I'm not sure of the use case, but you can do that today.


function onInit()
updateDeathMarkerTypes();
end

function updateDeathMarkerTypes()
local sNewType = "New Type";

local tDeathMarkerTypes = TokenMarkerManager.getDeathMarkerTypes();
table.insert(tDeathMarkerTypes, sNewType);

ImageDeathMarkerManager.setCreatureTypeDefault(sNe wType, "");
-- Another example of setting non-empty, default graphic set
--ImageDeathMarkerManager.setCreatureTypeDefault(sNe wType, "blood_black");
end


JPG

[Moon Wizard]

@mattvictim,

The creature types are hard-coded to match the creature types defined in the 5E ruleset. Technically, they could be appended to via extension, similar to Savage Worlds discussion above. This was the simplest way to bring death markers to the ruleset, as it requires zero setup for most users.

Also, while I see the thought behind showing semi-transparent or greyed out tokens for the bodies, it would also be confusing for both GMs and players as to whether things are gone or not (especially for GMs who see semi-transparent tokens already for tokens not currently visible to selected token). I'm not sure the gain would be worth the possible confusion. If there were specific "corpse" graphics for each token, that would be an easier concept, but there are not.

Regards,
JPG