Not very happy

[NineShadowEyes]

My group hasn't played in a few weeks. Today we were supposed to pick up the campaign where we left off and add new characters. Instead the DM and I spent several hours trying to make FGII work.

The DMs PC is unchanged. Both my wife and I have redone our PCs with new installs of XP/Vista and as such installed FGII fresh. The other player's PC was unchaged as well. We connected up and everything seemed fine except the two people with Lite versions don't see our rules modules. I have a full license - I can see the rules modules fine. We do everything we've always done, that has always worked, but nothing we do makes the Lite versions see the rules modules. We check the definition.xml files in the mods, we make sure everyone has the same copies, we check our custom ruleset and make sure everyone has the same copy, we uninstall FGII and reinstall, copy everything back over to make sure everyone has the same copies of files. Nothing works. Lite clients only show hazy rulebooks in the Module Activation window (with a little spider web) and no rulebooks in the library.

By that point we've visited these fine forums and noticed this whole 'foundation' thing. We scour the forum for anything that will help, follow several suggestions, and generally start trying anything we think might work. Our custom ruleset doesn't work with the new updates, but at least with the foundation ruleset the Lite clients can see the 3.5E rulebooks.

After a while we figure out how to convert the DMs campaign to foundation. But now our ruleset customizations are gone. Things like the auto-totaller, font changes, portraits in the chat window, etc... we spent a lot of time on that stuff. And now it seems there's no foundation ruleset to modify to get our custom stuff back.

So we're forced to choose between using our custom d20 ruleset where the Lite clients can't access the rulebooks, or using the new foundation ruleset and losing all of our customizations. Oh, wait! There's a third option! The folks with a Lite license can pay $20 to upgrade to a full license with which the rulebooks might be visible. That's so thoughtful.

I speak for everyone in my group when I say THAT SUCKS.

Thank you so much, Smite Works, for ruining our once a month gaming evening and holding our custom ruleset for ransom. We were supposed to enjoy a nice evening of gaming with friends. Instead I spent SIX hours trying to get back functionality I had last month and now it's 2AM and I'm bitching about this instead of sleeping.

Up until this evening I was a happy Fantasy Grounds customer and recommended it whenever an opportunity arose. Not so much anymore.

[Valarian]

The most likely scenario for the Lite license players is that the last update to 2.3.6 has wiped the d20.pak file and replaced with the Foundation ruleset. Since the problems in the combat tracker were identified, SmiteWorks have put the older ruleset on the downloads page as a temporary fix. If the players download this file and put it in the FGII program folder, they should be able to see the modules in the library (those visible to players are client style modules).

Secondly, if you create a custom ruleset, you have to either include a reference to include the d20 ruleset modules or create your own modules (if not d20 SRD for example).

If you want to modify the Foundation ruleset, you can get a copy of the ruleset from SmiteWorks' Subversion (source control) server. You can download a simple Subversion client called Tortoise at https://www.tigris.org

[NineShadowEyes]

Valarian (root?), thanks for the response.


The most likely scenario for the Lite license players is that the last update to 2.3.6 has wiped the d20.pak file and replaced with the Foundation ruleset. Since the problems in the combat tracker were identified, SmiteWorks have put the older ruleset on the downloads page as a temporary fix. If the players download this file and put it in the FGII program folder, they should be able to see the modules in the library (those visible to players are client style modules).

Tried it - no workie.


Secondly, if you create a custom ruleset, you have to either include a reference to include the d20 ruleset modules or create your own modules (if not d20 SRD for example).

Yep, covered that - no workie.


If you want to modify the Foundation ruleset, you can get a copy of the ruleset from SmiteWorks' Subversion (source control) server. You can download a simple Subversion client called Tortoise at https://www.tigris.org

I tried that, too, with some Tortoise program or another, but it asked for a username/password combo when I tried to get the files. A closer look revealed that only select peeps had access. Maybe I can get access?

[Culdraug]

Try looking at this thread to get the copy of the foundation ruleset

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9403&highlight=foundation+ruleset

I dont have special access and it let me have it.

I did have to rename the folder (the ruleset name) though. Not sure how to make FGII look at the folder for this. it kept going back to wherever the original is stored.

[NineShadowEyes]

That's where I started. I'm going to try again, in case I was just being stupid and didn't do it right. I'll also try a web site downloader.

Thanks.

[Spyke]

NineShadowEyes, can you tell us more about your custom ruleset? Had you altered the original d20 code, or had you just added some additional reference materials?

Do both the Lite players have valid licences (not pirate copies)?

Did you allow enough time for the clients to update properly after connecting? The recent update to FG changed the way that shared items are maintained between host and players, and if you've been playing your campaign for a long time there may have been a very large amount of data that would need to be transferred again (possibly the source of the spider web you're seeing). Others in this situation have reported needing to leave the clients to update for quite some time (possibly hours) the first time they connect after the update.

If you have a utility such as DU Meter you could connect the session and see if your machine is sending data upstream to the players.

Spyke

[NineShadowEyes]

NineShadowEyes, can you tell us more about your custom ruleset? Had you altered the original d20 code, or had you just added some additional reference materials?

It was the original d20 code - the files you get from the d20.pak file. We modified those. Our custom stuff included automatically adding up die rolls; having different colors for text for attacks, skills, and damage; having portraits show up in the chat window; the Box; and the players seeing the combat tracker.


Do both the Lite players have valid licences (not pirate copies)?
Yep. I can provide the serials to prove it.


Did you allow enough time for the clients to update properly after connecting? The recent update to FG changed the way that shared items are maintained between host and players, and if you've been playing your campaign for a long time there may have been a very large amount of data that would need to be transferred again (possibly the source of the spider web you're seeing). Others in this situation have reported needing to leave the clients to update for quite some time (possibly hours) the first time they connect after the update.

No, but I don't think that's an issue. My wife and I (she has the Lite version, I have the Full version) are right next to each other and our PCs are only separated by a gigabit switch. The updating took just as long for her as it did for me - the only difference being that I could see the rulebooks and she couldn't. The other guy with the Lite version is across the country, but he already had all the campaign info downloaded from previous sessions so he didn't have anything to update. He couldn't see the mods, either, even though he always could. Like I mentioned earlier, the DMs FG and his FG are unchanged from the last time we played.

Furthermore, I did some more testing last night that somewhat indicates this isn't the issue. I uninstalled and reinstalled our FG (my wife's and mine) and started up fresh campaigns with our custom ruleset. The Lite client still couldn't see the rulebooks. I did this a few times. With the custom ruleset the update happened very fast, but no rulebooks. With the foundation ruleset the updates are also very fast and the 3.5E rulebooks show up, no problems.

I may just pay the ransom to upgrade the two Lite versions. I have enough crap to deal with in my life.

:mad:

[Spyke]

Well, it sounds as though you've stumbled across a bug in the update that's not been reported before. Can anyone else with access to both Full and Lite clients confirm this?

Is it just reference modules (books) that aren't coming across? Or can the Lite clients not see your other custom changes (dice, chat in portraits) either?

Could you test whether the Lite client can see the rulebooks with the d20 ruleset? If so, it suggests that the problem lies with your custom ruleset. If not, then it's a general issue with the v2.3.6.

Spyke

[Foen]

Not certain I can help (in fact I'm sure I can't) but the symptoms seem very similar to a problem we had with the Call of Cthulhu ruleset after SmiteWorks upgraded to v2.3.6.

All I can say is that the problem seemed to resolve itself and we never got to the bottom of it :(

Foen

[NineShadowEyes]

Sometimes life kicks you in the *** to put things in proper perspective. My favorite Aunt died today. It wasn't unexpected - she's been very sick for a long time. But now I can't even remember why I was so upset about all of this. So I apologize for being a grumpy ***.

I set out to try to figure this out rationally, as best I could. In hindsight I should have written down exactly what I did because it's all working now. I managed to download the foundation stuff and started with that. It didn't work. I imported our customized ruleset files, it still didn't work. I tried an unmodified d20 ruleset (from the d20.pak file), it didn't work.

At one point I created a ruleset folder called d20C and put all the files from our custom d20 ruleset inside it. I changed the 3.5E basic rules definition to reflect this. I also changed the CSRD basic rules definition file. Our ruleset mods worked on the full client. I started up the lite client and checked the library. The two mod rulebooks I changed to d20C were there, but I was surprised to see all the rest of the CSRD books there too.

So I shut down and checked out the description files in the other CSRD mod files. They were pointing to our old ruleset - d20 Custom. That's pretty weird. It wasn't working when the ruleset folder was d20 Custom, but it started working when the folder is d20C. And then it continued to work when I changed the ruleset folder back to d20 Custom, even though the definition files in the mods point to d20C.

What's even weirder is that now everything works, provided the definition files are pointing to the right ruleset. This wasn't working at all prior to the d20C / d20 Custom folder naming. I even deleted all the cache files on the client and did it all again. Everything worked. I haven't uninstalled and reinstalled the client cause now that it's working I'm too chicken to tempt fate.

[Valarian]

My condolences for your aunt. I'm glad at least the FGII issue is now resolved.