We just wanted to let you know about a significant change in the next release of 5E Automatic Effects.
Why the change?
As we continue to expand the project and add new effects and new books, we're a little limited by the order in which Fantasy Grounds will load modules. This load order determines which entries get prioritization if there is ever a naming conflict. Although we've been able to work with it so far, our upcoming plans will be hampered by this limitation. It's time to bite the bullet, make the change, and establish a more robust framework for the future.
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What's changing?
With the next release of 5E Automatic Effects, you will notice that the names of the modules have changed. Although the filenames have remained the same, the internal name now has a numeric prefix. This additional number will allow us to sort the modules in the preferred order. Core rule books will have a higher weight than supplements, who in turn will have a higher weight than adventures.
How does this affect me?
Hopefully very little. New campaigns and new characters won't even notice the change. Everything will just work as expected. For existing campaigns and characters which are already using effects, they may need to be replaced. This is because all actions on the character sheet are actually copies of the original effect. If an effect has a link to another 5eAE resource, that link will still point to the original name, not the revised name.
For example, if your character has the spell 'Flaming Sphere', the spell contains a link to a NPC which can be used as part of the effect. The link text is "NPC: Flaming Sphere (Arcane Object)(5eAE)". Under the hood, that link is pointing to the module with the internal name of "5E Automatic Effects Player's Handbook". That copy of the spell doesn't know to look for the new name of "5E Automatic Effects 0.1: Player's Handbook"
What do I need to do?
You have a couple of options:
1) Nuke it from orbit. If you're using Equipped Effects, you can simply remove all effects from all character sheets. Then remove the character from the combat track and put it back. EE will replace all of the missing effects. While this seems like a quick and dirty method, it won't properly handle the character's spell choices, and you'll be better off with options 2 or 3. Probably better for lower level campaigns without a lot of spells.
2) Swap as you go. If you or a player gets a module load warning that the module is not loaded - a) Close the warning. b) Delete the effect from the character sheet c) Drag a replacement copy from the spell. This method requires the least advanced work, but there will be brief interruption to your game while you resolve the issue. This is probably the preferred method because you only have to deal with the effects that are actually in use and actually have the conflict
3) Advanced Scouting. You'll use the same process as option 2, but you'll do it ahead of time. Open each link to an effect on the character's actions tab. Look at the detail description and see if there are any supplementary links pointing to something with the (5eAE) suffix. If so, delete and replace that effect on the sheet. This method prevents any interruption to game play, however brief, but does require more up front work.
What's next?
5eAE continues to grow and mature. First off, we didn't want you to think that we were only giving you potentially bad news. As part of the next release, you will also notice that spells, scrolls, invocations, etc. now have a more detailed spell summary on them. This is a great way to see at a glance what a spell does. For those of you who prefer the summary view of your powers on the character sheet, this will be amazing for you.
After a very close vote by the community, the next book to be covered will be "Eberron: Rising of the Last War", and is currently in production.
Beyond that, we're not quite ready to share any more than this - there's a reason we needed to make sure that core books loaded before adventures.
