Alternative Wound Colors Extension

[Griogre]

This free extension makes changes to wound number colors in the combat tracker, to the dot or wound vertical bar on map tokens and in the wound and hit dice bars for characters on party sheet based on how wounded a creature is. It works with the D&D 4E and 5E rulesets.

You can find it on the Forge here (https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1338/view).

Please post any problems you find with the extension in this thread.

[Griogre]

The extension is now available on the Forge. As it is a free extension I have put it in the data folder so you can look at it.

Please note if you have an older version of the extension you should delete it as the Forge extension has a different name. You will know if you need to do that if you have two "Alternative Wound Colors" in your list of extensions or the version number reported in chat is less than 2309.04.

[GKEnialb]

The latest FG update seems to have broken this. With only this extension loaded in a new 5E campaign, I get the following errors (regardless of the theme chosen):


[12/15/2023 9:45:09 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "P:DesktopThemeLeather"]:10: attempt to call field 'setWindowMenuIconColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:ADV"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:DIS"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:PLUS2"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:MINUS2"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:PLUS5"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "C:modifierstack:MINUS5"]:3: attempt to call field 'getButtonTextColor' (a nil value)
[12/15/2023 9:45:11 AM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "CoreRPG:scripts/manager_window_menu.lua"]:218: attempt to call field 'getWindowMenuIconColor' (a nil value)


I'm using version 2309.04.00.

[Griogre]

Thanks for the report. I have just uploaded a new version to the forge that should fix the errors from FGU 4.4.8. The fixes are in version 2312.16.00 and the old broken version is 2309.04.00. So if you update and get the new version you should be good.

Let me know if you see any problems.

[GKEnialb]

Thanks! I can confirm that it works properly for me now.

[Griogre]

Version 2312.20.00 is a small proactive update to include a bug fix JPG made to function resetUIGeneralButtonColors() in test.

As always, let me know if you find any issues.

[Darth Decisive]

Love the idea of this extension, but the dark blue and black colors are almost impossible to read on dark backgrounds. If you were able to make it a different shade, have a few different options, or let players customize them completely, this would be an incredible extension!

[Griogre]

Sorry for the late reply, I saw the post and got busy then forgot about it. :(

Trying to get one set of colors to work for both light and dark backgrounds (themes) is probably not possible (at least without being able to change the wound widget's color). I struggled to select the colors originally and my thinking was if the extension colors didn't work people could just use the base FG colors.

What theme are you using? The Sir Motte's Magnificent Darkness theme has a good set of wound colors. One of the issues I had with the original colors was yellow did not work at all on medium or light themes (same problem as dark blue and black on a dark theme). On a true dark theme you could use cyant for unhurt, light green for light, yellow for moderate, orange for heavy, red for critical and light grey for dying. Since the dead category seldom comes up, you could just use a light grey again for dead or maybe something like darker grey, cream, dirty white or brown.

[Griogre]

The forge shows an update today, but the extension hasn't changed.

I made a cosmetic update to Forge Store's web page. The only change was the text color was updated to work with the website's new refreshed theme. There's currently a Forge wide work around to make all web pages with darker text colors visible on the new darker background. Once that expires in a week or so - the changes made today will go live.

[GKEnialb]

Looks like 4.5.10 is incompatible with the latest version of this extension. With only Alternative Wound Colors loaded in a 5e campaign, I get:


[8/13/2024 8:14:14 PM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "5E:scripts/manager_actor_5E.lua"]:20: attempt to call field 'getUIColor' (a nil value)
[8/13/2024 8:14:14 PM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "P:DesktopTheme2024"]:5: attempt to call field 'setStandardDarkUIHealthColors' (a nil value)

then later in the log, a bunch of these (one for each entry in the combat tracker, I believe:


[8/13/2024 8:14:37 PM] [ERROR] Handler error: [string "CoreRPG:scripts/manager_token.lua"]:800: attempt to call field 'getUIColor' (a nil value)

And then, oddly, the main thing I notice is that the icons in the sidebar have no color:
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[Griogre]

Thanks for the report I'll take a look.

[Griogre]

I've uploaded a new version of the extension 2408.15. It looks like it is live already. Let me know if you find any problems.

[GKEnialb]

Looks good. Thanks!

[Griogre]

I've updated the extension. I've changed the unwounded color to cyan to better differentiate unwounded from critical wounds when you are zoomed out. I also undated the default darkness theme UI colors making them similar to the UI colors for lighter themes. There are some differences with moderate wounds using yellow instead of orange and critical wounds being violet instead of black.

Other than cyan for unwounded I did not change the other token colors.

I messed around with the gradient colors again - and I guess they are better, but I recommend when using this extension in the FGU options in "Combat" you set "Token: Bar Colors" to "Tiered." The default is "Standard." And though "Standard" looks fine with the vertical bars in the party sheet, the dots on the map tokens are very dark.

Edit: I forgot to mention I changed the displayed name of the extension to match the recent extension style. It now has "Feature: " in front, so its now called "Feature: Alternate Wound Colors".

[GKEnialb]

Any chance we can have an option on that? The cyan text can be really painful to read (though I guess if you're not wounded, you may not need to read it often...

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[Griogre]

I'm not seeing that with the AltWounds extension and the basic light and dark themes. Is that the 4E combat tracker? What theme are you using? Options settings? Other extensions? Here what I see with the 4E combat tracker with core base theme (ie no theme loaded) and Core Dark theme.

Edit: also make sure your using the 2412.29 version.

[GKEnialb]

That was 5E with Magicant Red (and Life Ledger, formerly Constitutional Amendments, and a little one I made to show both wounds and current HP). To narrow it down, here's 5E with Life Ledger and Core theme.

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[Griogre]

Thanks for the info. :)

First for refence later - I took a look and the *mechanical* problem child is Life Ledger. Most of the time, 0 wounds is not displayed at all and it forces the display of the 0. However if you only have Life Ledger loaded with AltWounds then just the 0 wounds is in cyan while the max wounds is in black.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention other extensions do use the DEFAULT_COLOR_HEALTH_UNWOUNDED. My whole goal was with cyan was to update the *token* unwounded color. Cyan is a terrible color for a light colored UI text. :p Apparently I used the token colors for the light colored UI colors. You can tell I don't use light colored themes...

Note: I noticed Life Ledger is supposed to have an option that would mirror your extension to show both wounds and current hp. I'm not sure if that option was removed or not, but I mentioned it in the Life Ledger thread.

I have uploaded a new extension version 2412.31 to give light colored themes the old colors while retaining the new token and dark UI colors.

(Forge Page needs updated graphics showing light, dark UIs and token colors.)

[GKEnialb]

Thanks for that - looks great again! I usually like the dark themes as well and Magicant Red was mostly dark with a nice bloody red for a Curse of Strahd campaign I'm running, so had switched to that, or I may have never noticed (and now it looks light to me after your pointed it out, so I may have to switch to Magicant Dark :p).

Way back in the day (maybe before MeAndUnique took it over or created it from an older extension), Constitutional Amendments had an option to display both current wounds and current hp. Then it was updated to display one or the other, but not both (which is when I made the little side extension since having them both was nice). But, yeah, when I was dropping it down to minimal extensions to take those screenshots, I was going to take one with wounds and one with current hp, but I didn't see that option anymore either.

Thanks again for the update.

[Griogre]

Forge Page updated to display the extension's current colors in both light and dark themes. No updates to the actual extension. A recent update to FGU allows different font colors to be set to light and dark themes. This is mostly seen in the combat tracker, improving readability. The party sheet is different, where light and dark theme font colors are reflected in the vertical HP bars. The HD vertical bars continue to use common colors for both type of themes as do the token dots/bars.

[GKEnialb]

Looks like the latest FGU update caused an error. With only this extension loaded (5E campaign), if you cycle a monster on the combat tracker to the "None" faction, it throws:

[8/10/2025 6:02:01 PM] [ERROR] Handler error: [string "CoreRPG:scripts/manager_token.lua"]:823: attempt to concatenate a nil value
[8/10/2025 6:02:02 PM] [ERROR] Script execution error: [string "CoreRPG:scripts/manager_token.lua"]:823: attempt to concatenate a nil value

[Griogre]

Thanks for letting me know, I'll take a look.

[Griogre]

@GKEnialb I could not reproduce this. I tried creating a new campaign and setting the campaign type to 2024 and dropping an Aarakocra from the Legacy MM into the combat tracker and cycling it from hostile to none and back to hostile. Then I dropped a new Aarakocra Skirmisher from the 2024 MM and cycling the faction. I didn't get any errors.

I created a new campaign and set the type to Legacy and tried dropping the Aaarkocras from the MMs again and still didn't get anything.

I went back and created some encounters of both the old and end version of the monsters and added them to the tracker from the encounter and still didn't get any errors.

There have been a bunch of hot fixes and I am checking on the version released on 8/12. Try updating to that one and see if you still have a problem. If so let me know what monster you are using and how you are loading it into the combat tracker and I'll take a look.

Edit: I did do this in a 5E campaign. Are you using another ruleset?

[GKEnialb]

It looks like you also have to drop the token from the combat tracker onto the map (didn't realize that until I tried to double check with a brand new campaign). So:
1) Create a new 5E campaign with only this extension
2) Load the SRD for monsters and any map
3) Drop a monster onto the combat tracker (I used aboleth since it was on the top)
4) Drop the monster onto a map
5) Cycle faction to None

I'm using this version of the extension (deleted it from extensions to make sure on update it grabbed the latest from the forge):
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[Griogre]

Thanks I'll take a lot later.

[Griogre]

I was confused over this, but now we know about the token placement it looks like its a FG error. Still it was valuable in I did update the script file to use the updated functions, colors and variables. There was enough updated stuff I want to test it more to see if there are some horrible color combos but I should have a new version up late tomorrow.

[Griogre]

Alright, I have released a new version on the forge and it's available now and fixes the cycling error. I was apparently sleep deprived last night about the base ruleset having a problem - it's fine. The extension needs to be refactored and I should release an update "Soonish" (TM) which should be transparent to the users. Meanwhile, if you see any weird color combos let me know.

[GKEnialb]

Looks like it's working great. Thanks!