Griffonbait
December 23rd, 2024, 05:11
Hi everyone,
I have come across a number of issues with using FGC, and now FGU, over the decades. While the FGU features videos and documentation are great, there does not appear to be official support for the average GM in how best to use/setup FGU. Please let me know if I am wrong here.
This is a request to SmiteWorks to produce Best Practices documentation (PDF-style/webpages, &/or videos, etc.). FGU is regularly increasing in complexity, but I am not talking about in-game use, or when playing - although that could improve the UX for GMs, given my request.
I am discussing here the Best Practices of data/resource/content management within the Fantasy Grounds data folder itself. This is not about how best to organise campaign content, such as linking storylines and the flow of a campaign/adventure, but rather, the file system itself.
For all of the awesome qualities of FGU, I am sure many of you, like me, have multiple gigabytes of content within the data folder (images, PDFs, commercial/non, etc.). My most recent 12-year-old campaign folder alone was holding over 4 GB of data, with the current Fantasy Grounds folder holding almost 23 GB. I suspect this is small in comparison to some others.
It has come to the point that I avoid doing an ALL-Assets search when in-game. When developing my campaign, and I actually do an ALL-Assets search, it takes FGU upwards of 15 minutes to complete. This is with an SSD! Selecting Tokens/Portraits/Images only does not generate the same problem, just when dealing with All content.
Best Practice Questions for FGU developers would include:
1. What is the best way to organise my data?
- Is it best to have all portraits ever used in the root\portraits folder?
- What about tokens? Is it the same for them? (It is not like you can't use them in other campaigns)
- Apart from the obvious collation of assets, why even have separate campaign folders for Tokens/Portraits/Images, when these are already catered for in Fantasy Grounds' root folder, which can also accept separate subfolders?
- Is there a limiting factor, or a point of diminishing returns, in GB size, &/or the number of files contained in the Fantasy Grounds folder, or the Campaigns folder?
- What about for the individual subfolders, (root\)Tokens/Portraits/Images?
- Is it best to limit the size of the FGU campaign database file (obviously) and how big is too big?
2. Should I use Shortcut files that link to folders containing terabytes of data ready for importing into FGU?
- Does FGU even look at/recognise Shortcuts?
3. Why doesn't FGU Assets have a Map category separate from the Images category? (Especially since it is a key aspect of gaming, and not all images used in-game are only limited to Tokens/Portraits/Maps)
4. How is it best to run a campaign/adventure, especially if it is going to be used multiple times over the course of its life?
- Should I have a separate development campaign with the permanent assets (stories, NPCs, Parcels, Quests, Images, etc.) to be used, saving it as a module (export), and then Load said module in the active campaign?
- Then to add any transient data into the running campaign (PCs, random encounters, and on-the-fly maps, etc.) and any other random bits used? (These are advanced concepts, and not new user/GM friendly)
- Or are there better ways to do things?
5. If there are Best Practices that the developers suggest using, then why not build automation into the base program, and direct players &/or GMs into their use.
6. Without knowing how the program code is written, can the developers suggest how FGU is best used?
- With the modularity/extensibility of the FGU main program, it is a heavily compartmentalised piece of software without a unifying method of operation. For example, there is no way other than dragging a link token to a Story page to add said link. Nice, simple, and consistent, until you are several windows deep looking for the right link - screen space is precious.
- When in a rich text field, why not provide a "ribbon" of editing buttons like in a word processor, or when writing emails (Add Image/Link/URL/File, let alone Bold, Italics, etc.)? Moving to another window removes the user from the editing mindset. The idea of adding a link, say, should: open a dialog to specify the type and location of the link, then, upon closing, the user is returned back to the editing window - no searching for the current story window being edited.
- I am aware much of this has been mentioned previously in spits and farts.
7. With the new Books feature, why can't we create Books ourselves, similarly to the Story creation method?
- When creating a new Book, a new Story Group specifically linked to that Book can automatically be created - in which all the Books content pages are stored.
- At present the export/activate module method is the only way to get your own scenario books into your campaign - and this means multiple dev campaigns each with their own individual scenario - definitely not good for my open world campaign of 46 scenarios and counting! Scenario management is a nightmare, especially having to keep each dev campaign available to fix errata.
- The best thing about my multiple dev campaigns and module exporting is that I can Load/Unload them, and/or make them available for player loading. This also has the benefit of keeping the campaign database file size smaller.
- A way to archive and return old campaigns would be a welcome feature, in say a "Fantasy Grounds Archives" folder - other than having to do it externally, away from the main program.
- I am doing this myself already by creating my own archives folder for old campaigns in order to limit the number of active campaigns being listed when loading a campaign. And I also have a separate Fantasy Grounds data folder for testing purposes, which requires me to alter the Settings of the data folder location prior to updating. So now I have multiple root\ data folders that also need to be updated.
I think I have dribbled on enough. I hope this makes sense.
At present, I am running up against barriers in my campaign creation/file management, having to search for answers and not find them, or find partial answers. Listening to campaign development and reading the FGU documentation has helped a lot, but it is requiring me to figure out the process myself (and yes, that is enjoyable in its own right), hence the request for a Best Practices info dump - that also needs to be kept up to date when said Best Practices change.
I am not asking for these questions to be answered here. It will defeat the whole purpose of much needed Best Practices documentation and exacerbate the spaghetti nature of solutions to problems people are having - just one more post you have to find.
Cheers.
I have come across a number of issues with using FGC, and now FGU, over the decades. While the FGU features videos and documentation are great, there does not appear to be official support for the average GM in how best to use/setup FGU. Please let me know if I am wrong here.
This is a request to SmiteWorks to produce Best Practices documentation (PDF-style/webpages, &/or videos, etc.). FGU is regularly increasing in complexity, but I am not talking about in-game use, or when playing - although that could improve the UX for GMs, given my request.
I am discussing here the Best Practices of data/resource/content management within the Fantasy Grounds data folder itself. This is not about how best to organise campaign content, such as linking storylines and the flow of a campaign/adventure, but rather, the file system itself.
For all of the awesome qualities of FGU, I am sure many of you, like me, have multiple gigabytes of content within the data folder (images, PDFs, commercial/non, etc.). My most recent 12-year-old campaign folder alone was holding over 4 GB of data, with the current Fantasy Grounds folder holding almost 23 GB. I suspect this is small in comparison to some others.
It has come to the point that I avoid doing an ALL-Assets search when in-game. When developing my campaign, and I actually do an ALL-Assets search, it takes FGU upwards of 15 minutes to complete. This is with an SSD! Selecting Tokens/Portraits/Images only does not generate the same problem, just when dealing with All content.
Best Practice Questions for FGU developers would include:
1. What is the best way to organise my data?
- Is it best to have all portraits ever used in the root\portraits folder?
- What about tokens? Is it the same for them? (It is not like you can't use them in other campaigns)
- Apart from the obvious collation of assets, why even have separate campaign folders for Tokens/Portraits/Images, when these are already catered for in Fantasy Grounds' root folder, which can also accept separate subfolders?
- Is there a limiting factor, or a point of diminishing returns, in GB size, &/or the number of files contained in the Fantasy Grounds folder, or the Campaigns folder?
- What about for the individual subfolders, (root\)Tokens/Portraits/Images?
- Is it best to limit the size of the FGU campaign database file (obviously) and how big is too big?
2. Should I use Shortcut files that link to folders containing terabytes of data ready for importing into FGU?
- Does FGU even look at/recognise Shortcuts?
3. Why doesn't FGU Assets have a Map category separate from the Images category? (Especially since it is a key aspect of gaming, and not all images used in-game are only limited to Tokens/Portraits/Maps)
4. How is it best to run a campaign/adventure, especially if it is going to be used multiple times over the course of its life?
- Should I have a separate development campaign with the permanent assets (stories, NPCs, Parcels, Quests, Images, etc.) to be used, saving it as a module (export), and then Load said module in the active campaign?
- Then to add any transient data into the running campaign (PCs, random encounters, and on-the-fly maps, etc.) and any other random bits used? (These are advanced concepts, and not new user/GM friendly)
- Or are there better ways to do things?
5. If there are Best Practices that the developers suggest using, then why not build automation into the base program, and direct players &/or GMs into their use.
6. Without knowing how the program code is written, can the developers suggest how FGU is best used?
- With the modularity/extensibility of the FGU main program, it is a heavily compartmentalised piece of software without a unifying method of operation. For example, there is no way other than dragging a link token to a Story page to add said link. Nice, simple, and consistent, until you are several windows deep looking for the right link - screen space is precious.
- When in a rich text field, why not provide a "ribbon" of editing buttons like in a word processor, or when writing emails (Add Image/Link/URL/File, let alone Bold, Italics, etc.)? Moving to another window removes the user from the editing mindset. The idea of adding a link, say, should: open a dialog to specify the type and location of the link, then, upon closing, the user is returned back to the editing window - no searching for the current story window being edited.
- I am aware much of this has been mentioned previously in spits and farts.
7. With the new Books feature, why can't we create Books ourselves, similarly to the Story creation method?
- When creating a new Book, a new Story Group specifically linked to that Book can automatically be created - in which all the Books content pages are stored.
- At present the export/activate module method is the only way to get your own scenario books into your campaign - and this means multiple dev campaigns each with their own individual scenario - definitely not good for my open world campaign of 46 scenarios and counting! Scenario management is a nightmare, especially having to keep each dev campaign available to fix errata.
- The best thing about my multiple dev campaigns and module exporting is that I can Load/Unload them, and/or make them available for player loading. This also has the benefit of keeping the campaign database file size smaller.
- A way to archive and return old campaigns would be a welcome feature, in say a "Fantasy Grounds Archives" folder - other than having to do it externally, away from the main program.
- I am doing this myself already by creating my own archives folder for old campaigns in order to limit the number of active campaigns being listed when loading a campaign. And I also have a separate Fantasy Grounds data folder for testing purposes, which requires me to alter the Settings of the data folder location prior to updating. So now I have multiple root\ data folders that also need to be updated.
I think I have dribbled on enough. I hope this makes sense.
At present, I am running up against barriers in my campaign creation/file management, having to search for answers and not find them, or find partial answers. Listening to campaign development and reading the FGU documentation has helped a lot, but it is requiring me to figure out the process myself (and yes, that is enjoyable in its own right), hence the request for a Best Practices info dump - that also needs to be kept up to date when said Best Practices change.
I am not asking for these questions to be answered here. It will defeat the whole purpose of much needed Best Practices documentation and exacerbate the spaghetti nature of solutions to problems people are having - just one more post you have to find.
Cheers.