Modules

[scytale2]

Maybe I'm in a bad mood since this new patch or something, but things just don't seem to be working any more and it's ruining our experience and there seems little that can be done to resolve it.

Ok, I'm using the 4E ruleset, but I hope (I can't tell whether) this is not the problem. Basically, I set up a module, which we have been using for almost the entire Crimson Throne campaign and it has been working well enough.

Now, it isn't working.

Maps aren't coming up, tokens are not appearing, the map goes black, the tokens are 4 times the size they ought to be etc. etc. etc. Basically it isn't working, when it did before the recent patch.

Tokens now seem to fall out of the token box, whenever you touch them, which is irritating, as you have to delete them individually.

I use a module because I have to. My mobile connection (through Hamachi) is working fine, but the quality of the connection is too slow to transfer the maps. BEar in mind too that these maps are all of 80k and my tokens are about 8k each, and it's still too slow. My connection is variable but usually around 20k-40k/second.

ALSO, players complained on Sunday when I was using the landline. They said that the mask appeared much later than the map from the module. Basically it meant that they could review the map before eventually the mask downloaded. Clearly this is not what was intended.

Can we have a roll-back to the previous version of FG2?

[Ged]

These problems are being worked on, there are several things you mention that work against the intended function, e.g. a map should never open before the mask is available and applied... Admittedly very frustrating for the game :cry:. A roll-back will, however, not be the solution, but the problems shall be corrected in a proper way: the latest update exposed these bugs but they seem to have existed even before, they just did not occur so often because other, now corrected, issues covered their appearance.

[Ged]

ALSO, players complained on Sunday when I was using the landline. They said that the mask appeared much later than the map from the module. Basically it meant that they could review the map before eventually the mask downloaded. Clearly this is not what was intended. There is a reason for this that makes sense technically, but which obviously needs to be rethought: The images coming from the said modules are probably "client data", which means that players can access them if you have allowed them to open that module -- or rather they could, if they had some user interface to open images without the GM's intervention. What I try to say is, if the ruleset included the "Images & Maps" button in the client, they could access the images by themselves. Now, when you share the image, the clients immediately open the image from the module. Only after the mask data is received, the clients suddenly realise that it should be applied.

[Tenian]

If you supply maps in a module, can't the players just decompress the module and open them in any image viewing software avoiding FGII and it's masks entirely?

[zabulus]

Aye, they could. But I have the feeling Scytale2's players don't WANT to view the map in its entirety, but they are forced to. They are being good little players, not poking around where they are not expected to, and all of a sudden they get a glimpse of what lies ahead. That is kind of disappointing.

*grin* It reminds me of the time I was working ahead as a GM and had already created an "Earth Elemental" id, and I accidentally typed in chat as it. The next half hour the players kept expecting to see an earth elemental everywhere :)

[Astinus]

ALSO, players complained on Sunday when I was using the landline. They said that the mask appeared much later than the map from the module. Basically it meant that they could review the map before eventually the mask downloaded. Clearly this is not what was intended.

Elf mentioned this bug on another thread too. There is a work around.

If the GM opens the map from the module, applies the mask, selects "Preload", lets that preload for a few seconds, maybe five or six, then shares the map, the map will load from the client, from the module, and the mask will already be in place.

At least that's what I've always done, because I also use modules with client data - hosting on dial up. Mind you, I haven't run a game since the last update. But it should do the trick.


If you supply maps in a module, can't the players just decompress the module and open them in any image viewing software avoiding FGII and it's masks entirely?

Yeah. They just have to change the extension from .mod to .zip and unzip it. Thankfully my players aren't too tech savvy and don't realize that. But even if they did, I don't think they'd look. They'd just be ruining the game for themselves. On the other hand, if the map flashes up on the screen in front of them -- of course they're going to look.

[scytale2]

Ok, it's comforting to hear that it's not just me and things are being worked on. My players are also nice enough not to deliberately take advantage of seeing the map - in fact it probably scared them off:)

Thanks for the preload tip - now the image is cached it's not a problem, but for new images I will action it this way.

[Valarian]

*grin* It reminds me of the time I was working ahead as a GM and had already created an "Earth Elemental" id, and I accidentally typed in chat as it. The next half hour the players kept expecting to see an earth elemental everywhere :)
/id Olympian Demigod
What was that again? Seems to be a good method for scaring the players to me. :D

[Spyke]

It's the online equivalent of casually getting out the Monster Manual to "check something". ;)

Spyke

[Sorontar]

At the table, asking to see a character sheet for a second always gets my players nervous ;)

OR

Taking one of them out of the room to ask something mundane, because when he comes back and says it was nothing you can see them all get that "knowing" look.

[Spyke]

Or even that old favourite ploy: "Remind me of your marching order".

Spyke

[Astinus]

OR

Taking one of them out of the room to ask something mundane, because when he comes back and says it was nothing you can see them all get that "knowing" look.

Ahh, that's sublime. I'm going to try that by taking a player into a separate TeamSpeak channel. Love it.

[Phystus]

In my PnP campaign we always used film cans to toss notes between the players and I. To keep the suspense factor up I also regularly sent notes asking mundane questions to the players. I even made up a stack of photocopied notes along these lines:


Some players get all paranoid when someone else gets a note.
Suits me fine. That’s all this note is supposed to do.

Please say ‘Hmmm, OK.”

Thanks


I try to send everybody several notes every time we play, just so
notes are common enough that people don’t react too much to them.
Sometimes they mean something, sometimes not. This time, not.
No reply required.



Please pick a number between 5 and 15, and say it aloud. It doesn’t
mean anything, but sometime I may send a question with a numeric answer
that does matter, and I don’t want everyone else to know which is which.

That's one thing I miss about FG, nobody sees me toss the dreaded film can! :D

Guess I could create a hotkey that just says /ooc Walt tosses a film can to <player>', but I'd have to create one for each player...

[Oberoten]

Hmmm...
... Wouldn't be THAT hard to make it so a general message was delivered to everyone. *GM whispers in <nnnn>'s ear" I think?

[Tenian]

If you have the box or hidden die rolls you can just randomly roll dice. Everyone can see the shadow die...no one knows who rolled it or why :)