FGU 4.5 Update....why?

[eporrini]

I've been a long time consumer and supporter of this platform, predominantly to play DnD 5e. I noticed a major update today and got a little excited to see what's been done to the game, only to realize the bulk of it is around some kind of isometric first person view in the client. Did ANYONE ask for that? Was it at the top of our list of recommended game additions from a user community perspective? With the many things I would love to see included in this client, unfortunately for me this was not anywhere on the list. I don't want to get in the way of progress or innovation, but improving the quality of things in our traditional view and tackling the long list of user requested enhancements seems more relevant than focusing time on a what may very well be considered a novelty and used by few.

I wish we had a meaningful way to really prioritize important, relevant updates that the community is looking for and execute those. No need to point me to any location to submit ideas, I've been down the road and I don't find it is taken seriously.

[LordEntrails]

Fortunately the FG community is large and diverse. Unfortunately, this means that not every effort or improvement is going to be something valuable to any individual user or group.

[Temmpest]

I love Smiteworks, but this 1st person update is kind of dumb. lol

[Temmpest]

And what's this "combat tabetop list?" thing?

[LordEntrails]

And what's this "combat tabetop list?" thing?
It's a way to see combat initiative, i.e. who's turn is current and next. It allows some users with some rulesets to not use the much larger Combat Tracker.

[Temmpest]

You know, there are a couple of players who might actually be happy about this feature.

[Bumgurgle]

Been using FGU for years and never been compelled to complain until this update. It's just... not good. The isometric view looks terrible, but more importantly is the change of behavior when viewing images. Instead of left-click holding to move around the map we not have to use WASD or buttons on the image itself? This change in behavior, work-flow is just jarring. I predict much frustration and even anger from this drop. It feels incomplete somehow.

[Moon Wizard]

The Image Camera and Token View modes as well as the Tabletop Combat List are all optional features that you can choose to use or not. We have a good size portion of our community that are very interested in features like this.

Regards,
JPG

[woodscanner]

To quote one of my players today seeing the isometric view "I bloody love that".
Not every update brings features for every person, but appealing to lots of different players is how Smiteworks can sell enough copies to get enough development time to come up with something that YOu want?

[ddavison]

The nice thing is that the 3D views and 2D views are optional on a per user basis. If you have some players who like and some who don't, they can choose which view they prefer and everyone should be happy.

For panning the map, you can continue to use a middle-mouse click and drag to do so. One of the common complaints about the UI in FG is that the controls are non-standard. The old pan tool control was unique to FG, whereas directional buttons and WASD keys are common across a wide range of tools, programs, and games.

[Incab]

As long as it's optional then whatever. I'm good with how it was.

This is so much better than pencil, paper and imagination that I grew up with. More imagination and less note keeping.

I'm an old grump. Don't want a video game. I have an attention span longer than 3 seconds and if you made it shiny I usually don't wear my glasses and couldn't see it anyway.

[ddavison]

Some DMs are amazing at describing a scene, the relative size of monsters to players, etc. I think this feature still has value for those DMs, but it has a much bigger upgrade for DMs who struggle in those areas or who are just starting out.

[celestian]

Flashy spell effects, animated dice, ambient and triggered audio, animated attacks, telegraphed results of actions (not all of this is in FG... yet) ... All ways to have more immersion in the game. Call it a video game if you like but it's called technology. It's features like these that will improve peoples RPG experience.

I won't personally be using the 2.5d but expect someday it'll be actual 3D and then I'll start exploring ... mostly it will be how easy can I make maps for it.

[tslewis123]

In my opinion, the only thing they did wrong was release it too early. They should've waited to release the 3D tokens until after they figured out how to make 3D terrain and buildings, and then released everything at once.

[Jiminimonka]

Because.

It had to come out of test eventually, and why not get it out and actually tested by everyone. 2.5d aside, there are lots of interesting and good features added to this, including lots of nice UI improvements and things people have been asking for for years, like Pinging maps.

Gotta keep moving forward or people will complain its not moving forward ;) even when they complain it is moving forward.....

[Mytherus]

I think at times having the option to go back and forth between the views primarily to impress the size difference between monsters and players I will make use of. It’s optional so I’m fine with it. Options are good. Imo anyway.

[The Decepticon]

I like it a lot even with a few minor bugs that I saw (I kept having my ettin spawn 25 feet below the map no matter what I did in camera mode). The best is to impress on the size, like Mytherus, mentioned above. I also will use for a ranged character shooting through multiple PCs/monsters. I can now say look at camera mode and tell me how you are going to hit the bad guy in the back.

Great job Smiteworks! Keep up the good work.

P.S. Now if you can only find someone to do all the lighting in Dungeon of the Mad Mage that would be great. Ha ha...kidding...unless :dead:

[Temmpest]

Flashy spell effects, animated dice, ambient and triggered audio, animated attacks, telegraphed results of actions (not all of this is in FG... yet) ... All ways to have more immersion in the game. Call it a video game if you like but it's called technology. It's features like these that will improve peoples RPG experience.

Yeah, this is what my players are asking for. One of my players is planning to DM but he will be using Foundry.

Personally, I still enjoy the automation that FGU provides for me as a DM. He is taking forever to prepare his campaign, but as of now, I feel FGU makes the process much easier.

[Nylanfs]

I also will use for a ranged character shooting through multiple PCs/monsters. I can now say look at camera mode and tell me how you are going to hit the bad guy in the back.


I would reply "ballistics" (http://mimkr.bplaced.net/bc/). :)

[MartianXi]

Just a question about the new isometric view.. It seems like this would be useful for 3d tokens, akin to having miniatures on a tabletop.

Are there such things available or are there plans to do something like that in future?

I see above someone mentions tokens above but is there a thread someone can direct me to?

[MartianXi]

I like it a lot even with a few minor bugs that I saw (I kept having my ettin spawn 25 feet below the map no matter what I did in camera mode). The best is to impress on the size, like Mytherus, mentioned above. I also will use for a ranged character shooting through multiple PCs/monsters. I can now say look at camera mode and tell me how you are going to hit the bad guy in the back.

Great job Smiteworks! Keep up the good work.

P.S. Now if you can only find someone to do all the lighting in Dungeon of the Mad Mage that would be great. Ha ha...kidding...unless :dead:

About to run DotMM from level 8ish on... would be slick to have the maps preprepped....

[LordEntrails]

Just a question about the new isometric view.. It seems like this would be useful for 3d tokens, akin to having miniatures on a tabletop.

Are there such things available or are there plans to do something like that in future?

I see above someone mentions tokens above but is there a thread someone can direct me to?
See if the videos here answer your questions;
fatasy ground 4.5.0 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fatasy+ground+4.5.0)

[snupy]

I still have not updated since I use a bunch of extensions, but if I can now pan maps with WASD I am sooo happy about that! The ping thing had also been requested several times. Standardising the window interface is also a good thing.

The other features I care less about, and I didn't feel the need for 2.5 view, maybe I'll get it to like it maybe not. Some other people probably care more about them. In any case I am provisionally (since I haven't updated yet) very happy about the update.

[amerigoV]

Certainly to each their own. And not all features are useful to everyone. I like that these views are optional to the player and the GM.

The early demo (6-8 months ago) of this 2.5D view did not grab me. But this has come a long way and I do like the direction. I will be using these new visual features in my game. Overall the map movement and such feels more responsive as well.

[Mytherus]

Certainly to each their own. And not all features are useful to everyone. I like that these views are optional to the player and the GM.

The early demo (6-8 months ago) of this 2.5D view did not grab me. But this has come a long way and I do like the direction. I will be using these new visual features in my game. Overall the map movement and such feels more responsive as well.

I definitely like that a couple things -- Ping, as simple as it may be, is VERY nice and as silly as it is -- its one of the nicest things I like about 4.5, my DM nerd heart definitely went "about time".

As I posted already the 2.5 D view is optional so I don't really see the point anyone has on being too down on Smiteworks for it. I mean just turn it off (keep it off in fact as I think that's the default).

But the biggest comments from players on my discord isn't really hate for the fact that its there, its just was a discussion knowing Smiteworks is a small company with a small pool of devs, so with that the convo was "2.5D is ok I guess, but I just think it would have been more impactful for more players if their time went to crossing out very popular requests on the idea/suggest list first....". (I haven't looked at that list in a while mind you, and I heard it went down recently)

The QOL changes they keep sprinkling in are spot on though and I do love that they are doing that work.

[labguy23]

Most of the update is optional, which is fine. However, I'm frustrated that images increased the amount of dead space at the top with that huge bar (the one with the name on it, not the one with the perspective swapping). Space is so premium in FGU as it is. This just makes the problem worse. I don't need a 1 inch banner with just an image name on it.

[BaneTBC]

It's been stated that the reserved space at the top is being reserved for a future purpose. Parts of the current updates have been in preparation for other features\updates that will be coming down the road.

[Dudin]

Interesting. First I am hearing of this, though I don't doubt I missed some forum/discord post somewhere.

[LordEntrails]

It was mentioned in the Beta test sub-forum.

[Jiminimonka]

It was mentioned in the Beta test sub-forum.

I wanna know what was mentioned and by whom. ;)

[Zacchaeus]

I wanna know what was mentioned and by whom. ;)

Moon Wizard and "something we are developing that isn't ready for release yet".

[Moon Wizard]

That was a reference to the Tabletop Combat List, which was still in development at the time I made the post. Because the Tabletop Combat List is typically much larger horizontally, it can interfere with the buttons/top of the background image. As a follow-up to feedback on that, there is now another "expansion" mode to the image window to fill all the tabletop space, except for the sidebar; for those that want the image to fill more space.

Regards,
JPG

[LordEntrails]

That was a reference to the Tabletop Combat List, which was still in development at the time I made the post. Because the Tabletop Combat List is typically much larger horizontally, it can interfere with the buttons/top of the background image. As a follow-up to feedback on that, there is now another "expansion" mode to the image window to fill all the tabletop space, except for the sidebar; for those that want the image to fill more space.

Regards,
JPG
Yeah!!

[Lostrentini]

I like this update, it opens future possibilities on 3D terrain and characters and more dinamic things overall. And it being optional for every player helps adapting.

The thing is: not every update will contain heavy improvements on software quality that hugely impacts on a positive way for everybody. Some can be just to give FG his own personality, and this is a good thing.

[webdove]

Hi,

I am using PF2.
Tabletop combat list sounds interesting.
However, I have had no luck finding a description of the "tabletop combat list" or how to enable it.
Is that not usable in PF2?
If not how do I use it?

Thanks

Web

[webdove]

Nevermind. I dropped the work "tabletop" and found "combat list" in atlassian

[Xorn]

I think the 2.5D views are very cool, and I'm excited about the idea of 3D terrain becoming a possibility. I probably won't even use them most of the time, but I'm still loving it. I've been using FG since it was just FG. Not FG2... FG. Sometimes the updates are things you really want, sometimes they aren't.

[Jiminimonka]

I think the 2.5D views are very cool, and I'm excited about the idea of 3D terrain becoming a possibility. I probably won't even use them most of the time, but I'm still loving it. I've been using FG since it was just FG. Not FG2... FG. Sometimes the updates are things you really want, sometimes they aren't.

Not only have you been here forever, but your name is one of my favourite monsters from the Monster Manual II (I think it was)..

[8bitjunkie]

I think the 2.5D views are very cool, and I'm excited about the idea of 3D terrain becoming a possibility. I probably won't even use them most of the time, but I'm still loving it. I've been using FG since it was just FG. Not FG2... FG. Sometimes the updates are things you really want, sometimes they aren't.

I forgot about that title FG2 hehe, is that when Doug popped in? :)
I agree, lots of updates, some you want, and some others want.

[Nylanfs]

I still have the original creators business cards in my hobby drawer from when I met them at Gen Con in 2005 (or 2006?)