ALL Player Character's Auto Loading When Players Connect

[Zetesofos]

Hello,

After the latest update (March 2025), our group is noticing when they load into the game server, that ANY character they own on that server is loading up automatically. It used to be it would only load the latest one.

We've had a lot of games with different characters, so currently players have between 4-8 characters that all try to load, and we have to release them back to server, which then makes them available for anyone to pick; which often means I claim them as the GM to keep them organized.

Is this intentional, a bug, or some option I can toggle?

The goal would be for players to 'own' their characters, but have none load automatically when they log into the server; and instead players can pick the character they want AFTER they load into the server.

[MrDDT]

This was added as a feature, no option to turn it off.

[LordEntrails]

I believe someone added a request you can vote for on the Feature Request list.

[VBD]

Any update on this "feature" it is terrible. I need a way to turn it off.

[Moon Wizard]

This is the most common way that people play; so we wanted to make that easier for the most common case. Players can just release/swap characters during the session as needed.

If you have a different scenario, please provide detail on how you use multiple character ownership in your games in a different way. We're not planning on changing this; but I'd like to hear why people have so many characters that this is an issue, so that we can perhaps refine it.

Regards,
JPG

[rocketvaultgames]

Any update on this "feature" it is terrible. I need a way to turn it off.

Learning to live with it, but would love to be able to toggle it off as well.

[VBD]

This is the most common way that people play; so we wanted to make that easier for the most common case. Players can just release/swap characters during the session as needed.

If you have a different scenario, please provide detail on how you use multiple character ownership in your games in a different way. We're not planning on changing this; but I'd like to hear why people have so many characters that this is an issue, so that we can perhaps refine it.

Regards,
JPG

I run a campaign setting about 8 years old for 1E pathfinder some players have 8 plus characters for different regions and/or play groups. This feature has increased load times which seems to be caused by high level spell casters as well client pausing for a couple players while characters populate. I would just like an off toggle.

I understand most play groups are not like mine so we are an edge case, but I don't want it to be gone for those it works for. It is a terrible experience for us.

[Moon Wizard]

Changing this feature would not change load times; as the data loading was changed to facilitate resolving different situations (which required all character data to be available regardless of activation).

It would only change whether the last character(s) were "activated" or not.

Regards,
JPG

[VBD]

Changing this feature would not change load times; as the data loading was changed to facilitate resolving different situations (which required all character data to be available regardless of activation).

It would only change whether the last character(s) were "activated" or not.

Regards,
JPG

Very well. then it maybe time to move on from this platform. It seem to get more and more unstable for us as years go by. If it is not this new feature then I can't imagine where to begin, and turning off the few addons i run has not worked either.

Thank you for responses.

[Jiminimonka]

Very well. then it maybe time to move on from this platform. It seem to get more and more unstable for us as years go by. If it is not this new feature then I can't imagine where to begin, and turning off the few addons i run has not worked either.

Thank you for responses.

Unloading and loading a character takes a few seconds, even for complex casters with a lot of spells. I don't see how a feature that loads the last characters makes it "unstable" - it doesn't. My groups (which I have several) like that they don't have to use the Character selection window every time they start up. Releasing a character that is auto-loaded is a couple of clicks with the mouse and then opening the Character window and picking the one(s) you want. If that is a bother, then get the players to unload their characters at the end of the session and pick them again at the next session. Seems like more trouble that it is worth.

[VBD]

Unloading and loading a character takes a few seconds, even for complex casters with a lot of spells. I don't see how a feature that loads the last characters makes it "unstable" - it doesn't. My groups (which I have several) like that they don't have to use the Character selection window every time they start up. Releasing a character that is auto-loaded is a couple of clicks with the mouse and then opening the Character window and picking the one(s) you want. If that is a bother, then get the players to unload their characters at the end of the session and pick them again at the next session. Seems like more trouble that it is worth.

Yes you don't have the issues we do, so they must not happen understood.

Also I said more unstable each year. Now it could be the old file possibly and if so we can just move on anyway this campaign being on FG has stopped us from truly trying other VTTs

[Jiminimonka]

Yes you don't have the issues we do, so they must not happen understood.

That is not what I said. At all. But it is a trivial matter to open up multiple characters in FG.



Also I said more unstable each year. Now it could be the old file possibly and if so we can just move on anyway this campaign being on FG has stopped us from truly trying other VTTs

If you have been using the same db.xml file for years then it is going to be huge and cumbersome, you can make a campaign and the players can import all their characters in a few minutes (characters are stored on the players machines).

[LordEntrails]

Also I said more unstable each year. Now it could be the old file possibly and if so we can just move on anyway this campaign being on FG has stopped us from truly trying other VTTs
For long running campaigns it is good to make sure you do some periodic maintenance, like every 6 months after the first year. What I do includes:
- Rename the chatlog.html file to add a date to it to effectively archive it.
- Remove any excessive db.session* files that are no longer needed.
- Unshare any images that no longer need to be shared.
- Move to a module and/or development campaign content that you probably no longer need but want to keep around.

[damned]

#2 wont have any impact on your game load times

[Zetesofos]

This is unfortunate to hear. I'd be curious to see data as far as load times, but certainly for my players - it feels like the load times are SIGNIFICANTLY longer when each player has 3-5 characters loading up.

Currently, my only work around is to have the GM own all characters, and then release a character that they are playing. It is rather tedious, and to hear that the feature isn't changing is also sad to hear.

I've been using Fantasy Grounds since the pre-Unity days. I find it odd that there is no option to create a toggle that would allow the old character select option - rather than forcing an Auto-Load for ALL a player characters.

I'm not sure how other games are played - perhaps most people segregate each adventure into its own version; but for our game I have a home-brewed world that our players have characters all playing in the same place - so I have much of the npcs, items, and other campaign bits in one file and people can swap between characters.

If there is any option to help alleviate this issue, I would be greatly interested.

[Zetesofos]

I will say, having to 'unload' several characters each time you log in is still very annoying for players.

[DrinkingInk]

As a player, I do not mind the auto-load feature, but the fact that it loads any character you own is positively obnoxious; given that any time you release that character, it goes to EVERYONE's list.
Up to six players with over five characters each makes for an absolute mess.


But it is a trivial matter to open up multiple characters in FG.

It is "trivial" by comparison to my former example, for those with single characters to just, click the character that shows up in the Character Selection window when it loads.
The DM taking ownership of them to help keep it cleaner becomes yet one more absurd step in trying to keep it manageable.

At the very least, unless it is somehow outrageously complicated, just adding a toggle option would be incredible.

Also, my load time has been raised since this update. No, not in switching between characters, but in actually getting into the game - never mind the flickering that now happens over the entire time it is trying to load up (not just me, my entire group).

[LordEntrails]

As Moon Wizard said earlier in this thread, please provide uses cases for when and how this feature impacts your game. He said they did not have plans to change the current behavior. He did not say they would not change current behavior. He simply wants to understand the use cases and impacts so that they decide to make a change they do so with the "best" solution.

Not that a campaign option might not be the solution, but as has been stated elsewhere, options add to the code complexity and maintenance as well as are rarely used by most games.

If you are having other issues, such as load times and flickering. Please start a new thread with the details on how to reproduce or measurable information. Including log files is always good, especially in terms of load times since the log files record various load parameters.

[MrDDT]

As a player, I do not mind the auto-load feature, but the fact that it loads any character you own is positively obnoxious; given that any time you release that character, it goes to EVERYONE's list.
Up to six players with over five characters each makes for an absolute mess.



It is "trivial" by comparison to my former example, for those with single characters to just, click the character that shows up in the Character Selection window when it loads.
The DM taking ownership of them to help keep it cleaner becomes yet one more absurd step in trying to keep it manageable.

At the very least, unless it is somehow outrageously complicated, just adding a toggle option would be incredible.

Also, my load time has been raised incredibly since this update. No, not in switching between characters, but in actually getting into the game - never mind the flickering that now happens over the entire time it is trying to load up (not just me, my entire group).

100% agree. I'm thinking most people are not using this change either way because most people have 1 PC sheet per player and the old way and the new way is exactly the same to them.
Of the people that had players with more than one PC sheet, likely most are not happy with this change. I think very few people had 2+ PC sheets that they wanted open every time they connected. Likely people that made a henchman NPC type PC sheet they need to run, or using a PC sheet as a familiar or something, so they will always want it open each time they play. Which is likely pretty rare vs how many people are using more than PC per campaign but each session they want to use only 1 PC per player.

The major issues comes in this factor.
If you have 1 PC sheet and you play, the game automatically opens it up for you. You no longer have to "pick" a PC to play that session. However, if you play more than 1 PC per session, now you have to release the PC you don't want so you are no longer the owner. Causing issues of someone else grabbing it by mistake and how having it, and then when you do want it you can't "find" it because someone else owns it.
The other issue is that it takes a lot more work for the people that play 2+ PCs in the same campaign but only wanting 1 or some at a time. Whereas the work that is needed to pick a PC is very low, you simply open up the char window selection and pick it.
I do think the option to simply have the last PC(s) played be automatically opened is the best option. Which it should already do for you as we have a setting to remember which windows were open since last session.

This whole thing stems from the fact of trying to make it easier for most people to just get in and play, which this new feature does do for most people.

Most people play with 1 PC per campaign and having it auto open just saves a bit of time and confusion for people.

But for the people that do NOT play that way, this is causing a lot of issues. What is our option if we have say 5 PCs at a table/campaign and only want to play 1 that session? We only have 1 option, to release the other 4. Which causes massive issues. Other people can snap them up and cause problems, also the GM no longer knows who the "owner" is/was. Which is a huge problem.

[Zetesofos]

100% agree. I'm thinking most people are not using this change either way because most people have 1 PC sheet per player and the old way and the new way is exactly the same to them.
Of the people that had players with more than one PC sheet, likely most are not happy with this change. I think very few people had 2+ PC sheets that they wanted open every time they connected. Likely people that made a henchman NPC type PC sheet they need to run, or using a PC sheet as a familiar or something, so they will always want it open each time they play. Which is likely pretty rare vs how many people are using more than PC per campaign but each session they want to use only 1 PC per player.

The major issues comes in this factor.
If you have 1 PC sheet and you play, the game automatically opens it up for you. You no longer have to "pick" a PC to play that session. However, if you play more than 1 PC per session, now you have to release the PC you don't want so you are no longer the owner. Causing issues of someone else grabbing it by mistake and how having it, and then when you do want it you can't "find" it because someone else owns it.
The other issue is that it takes a lot more work for the people that play 2+ PCs in the same campaign but only wanting 1 or some at a time. Whereas the work that is needed to pick a PC is very low, you simply open up the char window selection and pick it.
I do think the option to simply have the last PC(s) played be automatically opened is the best option. Which it should already do for you as we have a setting to remember which windows were open since last session.

This whole thing stems from the fact of trying to make it easier for most people to just get in and play, which this new feature does do for most people.

Most people play with 1 PC per campaign and having it auto open just saves a bit of time and confusion for people.

But for the people that do NOT play that way, this is causing a lot of issues. What is our option if we have say 5 PCs at a table/campaign and only want to play 1 that session? We only have 1 option, to release the other 4. Which causes massive issues. Other people can snap them up and cause problems, also the GM no longer knows who the "owner" is/was. Which is a huge problem.

Agreed. It just seems odd that there isn't ANY WAY to make both option's available? I don't want to force people to do something an inconvenient way if both can be achieved.

[rocketvaultgames]

Agreed. It just seems odd that there isn't ANY WAY to make both option's available? I don't want to force people to do something an inconvenient way if both can be achieved.

I would love to see the option on a per-user basis. When I play in person and log in with a separate instance of FGU with 4 PCs, it's little nicer not to have to select them all... It's also a pain for my online players with more than one PC for all the reasons mentioned by others above.

Barring that more granular option, even an option that just toggles off the new functionality for the campaign on the GM side seems like it would make everyone happy. Have it default to the 'new way' and there shouldn't be any added complexity for new users.

[MrDDT]

Really for me it stems from the main issue is that players can't "release" but still retain player control over characters sheets. Meaning, if they release it, it should be like it was before where it's no longer the active PC sheet at the table for them, they still control it.

This would allow them to release any they are not using, and when they load back in it auto loads the last sheet they had active, if it's a new session they easy release it and pick the correct one.

[Moon Wizard]

Ok, I just reworked this feature a bit. When releasing, PCs will retain ownership. When logging in, players will re-acquire the characters they had activated when the last session ended.

This is currently available in the beta Test channel for release near the end of April.

Regards,
JPG

[rocketvaultgames]

Ok, I just reworked this feature a bit. When releasing, PCs will retain ownership. When logging in, players will re-acquire the characters they had activated when the last session ended.

This is currently available in the beta Test channel for release near the end of April.

Regards,
JPG

Sounds excellent. Thanks!

[MrDDT]

Sounds great thank you.

[DrinkingInk]

Thank you so, so much!

[Zetesofos]

I'll see if I can give this a test before release, but thank you so much for your consideration.

[YggBjorn]

I run a campaign setting about 8 years old for 1E pathfinder some players have 8 plus characters for different regions and/or play groups. This feature has increased load times which seems to be caused by high level spell casters as well client pausing for a couple players while characters populate. I would just like an off toggle.

I understand most play groups are not like mine so we are an edge case, but I don't want it to be gone for those it works for. It is a terrible experience for us.

Are you un-sharing maps/images that don't need to be shared for that session? I wonder if it isn't the characters loading, but the players loading in that are getting a larger datafile because of the background stuff shared to their account.