How do I lock tokens so that players have to have their moves accepted? It is especially useful for measuring movement distance or not having players move their tokens (or someone elses!) out of order.
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How do I lock tokens so that players have to have their moves accepted? It is especially useful for measuring movement distance or not having players move their tokens (or someone elses!) out of order.
You can't. Yet. Please see stickies at the top of the forum for items like this that have not yet been implemented.
Thanks!
I did look but missed that point. I am not sure if I can try this out without that aspect as I have too many players to track and would easily miss moves especially when it would reveal sections of the map if an accidental move occurred.
I get it. (And no problem missing the sticky!)
Something to think about, how many accidental things can a player do that you don't worry about? Do you worry they might accidentally alter their character sheet? Do you check that they don't incorrectly add a modifier to a die roll?
To me, it's just not worth the time and stress. I trust my players to do what's right. Not because I implicitly trust them to never make a mistake, but because the way I run my games (you don't have to run it the way I do!) It doesn't matter if someone makes a mistake. If we catch it we correct it and move on. But no single mistake ruins the story or our fun, and worrying about folks making mistakes isn't worth my time or stress. (FOR ME!)
Happy gaming :)
You are right, and I thought of it like that as well. I do trust my players, but I do have to go check their spell slots, ki points, sorc points, etc. to have them update them after using abilities; not all the time, but it happens and is never a malicious/cheating mistake.
We are so used to dragging a token 30 ft for a move. Now, with FGU, you have to draw line and move the token, or try to count moves while tapping the arrow keys. What if a player is moving, especially in combat, and moves past a trap and I miss it because I didn't approve, or a player runs around a corner, and I have an NPC with a readied action to attack, but I miss it because of the non approval; the player can move freely and attack before I catch it. I can't really retroactively fix something like that.
Trying to track both movement and all of the other things is what is making my shy away from it right now. Also, locking the tokens makes the game feel much more tactical and turn based for me rather than "video game" style.
I do remember locking tokens the first time we ever used FG because of the chaos it can cause, especially with players accidentally moving someone else's character and then not remembering where they started at. We have been using FG for over 4 years and I have logged thousands of hours into the platform. I want to use FGU, but this is still a blocker for me.
I made a list of the pros and cons of using FGU vs FGC and the critical reasons that I would use one or the other for my new campaign. The short list of reasons to pick one or the other for me, prioritized by importance:
FGC: Locking Tokens > Player Map Toolbar > Player Map Toolbar
FGU: Better Grids > Map Effects > LOS Effects
Honestly the first reason is the main driver by far for me. If FGU had locking tokens I would be using it without hesitation. I trust my players just fine--the locked tokens is so nice for reactions during the move.
The moment I can lock tokens in FGU, I'll be switching because I love the grid system allowing me to set a decimal in the grid size--so many maps I've downloaded take a grid perfectly when I can put a ".5" on the grid size, that I can never get to line up in FGC, settling for adjusting the grid after they traverse a certain amount of the map.
Yes please add lock tokens function. :)
I have one player, that ever since we started using FGU, when we enter a new map he starts slinging his token everywhere to open up the line of sight so he can see everything. Locking tokens would be great.
very simple solution to stop this, lots of traps without a save that kills does enough damage to bring the player to 1 hp, if they repeat the character dies in an area to far from anyone else to administer healing, time for a new character. my favourite trap is a 200ft pit without a save to avoid
I'm with lostsanityreturned. If the player cannot control themselves, then they are simply not welcome at the table (virtual or otherwise).
I know its in the sticky, but I cannot bring my players to transition into unity without some kind of managed and enforceable movement system. It isn't that I don't trust them, its that we love having out turn plotted out before pulling the trigger.
I am in the same boat, there were 2 things keeping me from moving to FGU, I just found out one of them is resolved. I had not tested it in a while but FGU now works well with the Syrincape sound system and chat triggers found at DM's Guild, an essential element for my games. The last piece that is a game breaker for me is locking tokens. My players actually prefer it as well, so they dont accidentally move. Not only does it stop people from being able to randomly cheat, but it also assists the DM, sometimes movement tigers another event, often before the movement is complete as with traps. Say a player was going to move 35 feet, but falls into a pit trap after 10 feet. FGU shows the player the room that he player never actually saw.
My players will propose a move, token locked to show me what they intend, it works wonderfully in FGC, waiting for this in FGU
I am quite excited and pleased with what I have seen with Unity, I do hope this last thing ( to my group anyway ) is addressed at some point. My play group is looking forward to when we can move over.
I know there are complicated, and contrived ways to work around this ( putting traps in every single square and then turning the off only on the legal moves people can make ) was probably meant in humor, but imagine actually needing to do that as a work around for a missing essential game element. No this is a missing element that is important to people. There is not something wrong with the DM or the players, there is something missing from the implementation.
Although it's not kept me from having a great time playing in Unity (the admittedly-basic LOS system and 64 bit support make up for it in my games), this is the #1 thing I miss about Classic.
A pretty good workaround is using masking in Unity along with LOS.
Yep. that's what I'm doing.
I find any "punish your players for bad behavior" posts unhelpful (in other threads as well).
"Punishing" characters in game for bad player behavior never makes a better game in My experience.
I do agree if a player cannot follow the rules long term it's okay to remove them from your game.
I'm just wondering, does anyone know why the Token Lock feature isn't taking a higher priority in the FGU development queue?
It's quite an important feature IMHO.
The 'development queue' hasn't started yet. At the outset of Unity Alpha no new features were going to be added until Unity was to be released. A number of items such as return to the start screen and token locking were found to be problematic to do in Unity so they were dropped from the list of initial features. The way movement will work hasn't even been decided yet (well it wasn't a few months back anyway) and so that's somewhere in the development queue after release.
The "As well" in your post suggests you think people were advocating for punishing a player in this thread. Were there any such posts here?
I would say it is "I read the adventure in advance", "I have the monster manual open" or "I look at the GM's notes when they are in the toilet" style meta cheating. Anyone who continues to do something like this after being caught out and asked not to, will just keep doing it. And if the GM doesn't like it, it will cause resentment over time and that is what is important (especially when it comes to burnout).
It isn't about punishing someone for doing wrong, it is about caring for yourself, the campaign, and the other players.
It can even open up a dialogue, if they come back with a "sorry for doing it, I really do like the group and was being a bit of a fool because I could. I promise I won't do it again" I would let it be a group decision. However if they showed hostility they would be gone for good, same if they ever repeated the actions again. No arguments, threats or debates.
I am speaking from my own mistakes in the past of trying to be more accomodating and putting myself last. It was especially hard when I was running lots of public games for folks I didn't know at my FLGS, I was feeling like I was being mean to them whenever I would have to have the talk.
- Had one girl who would openly direct the party through dungeons because they knew what was where, telling other players stuff like "no, that way has xxxxx, this way has xxxxx" or telling people what items to bring, spells to prep and such.
- Another who whenever he would get bored because the tone had shifted to RP would turn it to a fight or torpedo the scene so he could have the spotlight again. Regardless of how frequently he had had it that session already.
For the record neither of these people were malicious or nasty in intent, but they both valued themselves more and continued their behaviour over 6 months (the latter for nearly a year) and were constantly testing where the boundaries were.
The developers also have access to how often options are used in FGC (don't know about FGU). So I'm sure they have hard data to help them prioritize token locking. I'm confident that they have considered how often the option is used along with the technical challenges of implementing it in their decision to delay implementing the feature until after full release.
I am excited this is getting more activity!
There are many reasons it is important, but for me, it is chiefly the tactical game play. With many groups, being able to plan moves is a critical component. By drawing the segmented movement line, complex movements can be formed without moving your character token. Yes, it is possible to do it manually, but it is difficult and easy to lose track of where the token started.
I am calling it token locking, because that is how the specific feature was enabled. If there was a way to do the segmented lines without locking a token, I think that would be good enough for me to start using FGU.
I have no intention of "calling anyone out"
I apologize to you for not being a bit more clear with that paragraph.
I agree it's the DM's job to police players in the interest of the health of the game, I didn't mean to suggest it wasn't, though "punishment" is not how I go about it, I don't think saying, "Follow the rules or find a different group" is a "punishment", it's giving the player a clear choice.
Focus on the second and third line of My post, Do not punish CHARACTERS IN GAME for bad player behavior. That's My belief. I have never seen a game improve from a DM doing something harmful to a PC in game to "get back at" the player.
If a person cannot play your game by your rules then it's perfectly acceptable to ask them to stop coming to your game.
Thanks for the update on 'locking' tokens.
My players also like to map out movement. I was going to migrate the campaign over from Classic to unity in about a month.
The post above indicating that adding the locking mechanism proved to be more trouble in unity sounds ominous. I do hope we get that feature and if not at least an explanation on why it cannot be implemented.
I am building out a mega dungeon exclusively in unity and having the players locked down and mapping out their movement will assist in me knowing if traps are indeed triggered.
Do we have a rough timeline on the state Unity is supposed to be at for 'official' release?
Up-vote. Locking tokens is super important to me.
There is nothing wrong with you as a DM and there is nothing wrong with your players.... there is something important missing in the implementation of FGU that we hope is resolved soon.
Dont let people bait you into thinking it is your fault, or your players fault, that isn't the case at all.
Yes, me too. I really liked the feature to let the players map out their move with a segmented line. Super useful.
I also need to block the unlimited range on LOS from revealing map areas prematurely. By the way, I've seen it mentioned that you can use a mask along with LOS, but so far, I've been unable to get that to work. What am I doing wrong?
Are you using the instructions detailed here; https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassia...+GM#Global-LOS
If not, I suggest you start a new thread with details of what you are trying and the steps to reproduce. Also screen shots are useful.
I think that token lock was not that important in FG:C as it will be in Unity because of LOS. With manual masking there's nothing to really hide from players besides what is already masked. But with automatic reveals the movement importance reach another level.
Lock token at the moment really is stopping me from switching to FGU. It sounds silly, as I know it appears to be just a small issue, but the turn based nature of combat really benefits from this feature.
Yes I need this is well. Thank you!
It's interesting because I thought that the lack of token lock would be an issue but actually it isn't at all. It has forced my players to move more slowly in a group with the stronger party members in front, and for them to stay in a group rather than get scattered. Thus it is much easier to sort out the situation where a trap or ambush is sprung because the party is where it is rather than strung out waiting for moves to be approved. During combat the LoS makes for much more tactical situations where the players might not be able to see not only enemy positions but where their allies are as well. They use the keyboard to move a square at a time and just count the squares.
I never used lock tokens because it sadly also locks facing, but I understand that one likes the measurement tool for measuring the distance moved :) (for the movement itself I just tell my players they should not simply move everywhere)
I think it is difficult to implement though. Imagine your token does not see some enemy around a corner and your movement does not take this into account. When I would suddenly see an enemy where I didn't expect any, then I would change my movement at that point. hence, the LoS needs to be updated along the way while planning the move, but I often see these complaints because DMs do not want that players use their movement to unhide hidden areas, and that approach would not help in that regard. (But without updating the LoS already in the planning, it is like you drive a car, then you see a tree but the DM doesn't allow you to use your brakes because you already said your movement without using brakes :D Not very realistic then, besides that people have a reaction time in reality, but you hopefully get what I want to say :D) Therefore, even when lock tokens will be implemented somewhen, it may still be a requirement that people do not misuse the LoS system :) (if that is some problem concerning you; as said, I understand completely the point to get that tool for tactical stuff :) )
I see your point, but in this case, (as a DM) I would simply allow the player to change alter movement to react to what is being revealed (in your example, the car and the tree).
I didn't know it also locked facing. Does that mean you can't ever adjust your facing, even when you're plotting your movement?
yeah, of course one can then simply allow to change movement, that is true :) Just wanted to point out that I can understand that one wants to think about the concept first :)
Hehe, yes, facing is always locked then in FGC :D we play with facing rules and at the very beginning we tried out lock tokens. The result was that I as the DM always needed to adjust the facing of my players because they couldn't adjust it on their own, so, they always needed to tell me where they want to look at :D We got quickly annoyed by that and therefore I stopped using lock tokens :D I hope FGU will not do the same when this will be implemented :)
Never having owned FGC, I didn't realize this was the case. Yeah, I can see where that would quickly become tiring as a DM. Hopefully when token locking is implemented, this will change and players will have the ability to adjust facing as part of their plotted movement.
Out of combat, I have no problem with FGU. It is in combat, it is where the movement is critical. I think both the token pathing (not locking!) and the LoS would be amazing. I don't necessary need locking; I need the segmented paths.
We tried FGU out for probably 5-6 sessions, but it wasn't doing it for us, so we have been back on FGC until this is resolved.