MGT2 v1.2.5

Hi Folks,

So v1.2.4 is should get to you in a few days, it's time to look at the next release.

Now I'll be honest here, it's not going to be a big release, it's going to be a tidyup release because hopefully you'll have a lot more you can do with Spacecraft and thus can feed back as what you want next, plus have basic Criticals and can track Power on your ships as well.

So it's time to talk about the next book, Book 5 (skipping vehicles for a bit), the Traveller Companion will be the next book out, it's done except for the Skills system, so I'm looking at a skills system revamp, no major shock but to support the package system,.

It's also time to talk about NPC's. Now I think we've got all types, I plan to give the NPC's a bit of a revamp as well. Expand them out to make them more like PC's, Actions and Equipment tabs are on the cards. Though I will keep the equipment field for those minor NPC's that don't need all items listing.

• PC Ship Cargo Tab. Added it back in (apologies for removing it early). You can now drag and drop in Trade Goods and then set the tonnage.
• Party Sheet Ship Cargo. Add a section on the PS Ships Tab to accept Trade Goods (and custom goods), total the weight and display, show Ship total cargo capacity.
• Spacecraft Rounds Reset. Bug fix so that you can reset the round back to 0
• Actions Tab. If you drag a weapon onto this Tab, it will add it to the Equipment List, auto equip it (worn) and add it to the Weapon List.
• Weapons. Weapons will no longer appear in the Actions Tab Weapons list unless it's carried/worn, so any weapon not being carried, will be hidden. Note you will have to equip/unequip for the data to sync up if it's an existing weapon.
• Augments. Reworked how augments work, the main tab now shows Equipment modifiers, please note you'll need to cycle through not worn/carried/worn for it to update.
• PC Ship Weapon Actions. If the PC Ship has a target set, any attacks from the PC Ships Tab will also use that target
• PC Ships. Refined and Unrefined Fuels are now listed on the PC Ship Status Tab

I should also tell you that I should hopefully get to see the 2300AD updated books in the next week or so, once they're 'ready' I will drop everything to get them converted. They should be done in line with the physical media being made available.

Anyway as usual, if you want to see something comment below and let's look. I'm all game for small dev, around that listed above.

Cheers,
MBM

The core book has rules for cargo/freight/Passenger rules but the FGU interface does not really have a way of managing the items.
A "Trade & Commerce" form along with an enhanced Ship Economics set of Tabs could be helpful.
The T & C form would have a "Current World" and a "Destination World" data spot, which tells the system the various trade modifiers for getting cargo/frieght/passengers.
It would also list what brokers are available to hire, which players are using which attributes/skills (ie SOC or CHARM + Carousing to find mid passengers) and a Ref defined difficulty based upon what Attribute/Skills are being used (easier for a high soc to find high passengers than a bout of drinking with END and Carousing) etc. For example, one player could be hunting for cargo, another looking for high passengers, a third hiring a broker for freight etc.,
The rolls then show what passengers appear, what speculative cargo is wanted or being offered, along with what freight is available to ship to the target location.
The results can then be either drag/dropped or have a button to apply to the PC's ships papers/manifest

Just a thought

Taking the cargo tab out is pretty annoying. My group was using it a lot, and would've lost track of everything they had in their ship had I not thought to screenshot it before updating.

I feel bad for any group that doesn't follow this forum or the discord every day, I almost didn't notice it was being removed until earlier today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paragade

Taking the cargo tab out is pretty annoying. My group was using it a lot, and would've lost track of everything they had in their ship had I not thought to screenshot it before updating.

I feel bad for any group that doesn't follow this forum or the discord every day, I almost didn't notice it was being removed until earlier today.

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yea, the system is still too much in flux to really use. I love it, but, the rush to add new books is taking away from the support for core mechanics.
I would love to be able to specify a "Cargo" module and a "World" module along with a "Library Data" module. List the items I would want it to have and then Pay for it, vs getting whatever is in the printed books.
The books are designed for FTF gaming, not VTT. For example, all the races in all the various books should be in a single module. We pay for that module and a subscription to get new races as they are released. Same with equipment - one module that has all the equipment and a subscription to get new equipment as it is released. Same with careers, space ships etc. In this way we won't get duplicates of the same item listed in our menus, we get the stuff that is supported as the books are released and MBM gets a up front payment along with a residual revenue instead of a one time payment.
The current method is forcing MBM to push out new content vs refine what we have. This will just make us all unhappy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paragade

Taking the cargo tab out is pretty annoying. My group was using it a lot, and would've lost track of everything they had in their ship had I not thought to screenshot it before updating.

I feel bad for any group that doesn't follow this forum or the discord every day, I almost didn't notice it was being removed until earlier today.

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Hello,

If you want, I can put it back for you until this version is finished.

Cheers,
MBM

I would like the Cargo tab back until the new cargo system is implemented. Both of my games are having a Bad Time™ now.

Personally I'm okay waiting for the new system, because I backed up the cargo info before I updated, but if it's possible it would be nice to have a warning in Fantasy Grounds before features are removed like that. Like a warning at the top of the tab or something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dalton Calford

I love it, but, the rush to add new books is taking away from the support for core mechanics.

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This is the crux of the issue for several rulesets...not just MGT2e. Problem being there is too much content to convert and not enough people to do it, especially for content that requires knowledge of the ruleset code and how to change it for included modules/extensions. Another problem is the inaccessibility of the ruleset code (unlike 5e, PF, SFRPG, et.al.) which makes it a lot harder to write extensions to provide "fixes" for existing problems until they get fixed for good. I'm not a fan of rulesets being locked down (I understand that there sometimes isn't a choice) when it's really only the content that should be locked down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

This is the crux of the issue for several rulesets...not just MGT2e. Problem being there is too much content to convert and not enough people to do it, especially for content that requires knowledge of the ruleset code and how to change it for included modules/extensions. Another problem is the inaccessibility of the ruleset code (unlike 5e, PF, SFRPG, et.al.) which makes it a lot harder to write extensions to provide "fixes" for existing problems until they get fixed for good. I'm not a fan of rulesets being locked down (I understand that there sometimes isn't a choice) when it's really only the content that should be locked down.

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I'd like to step in here and answer a few things.

1. The 'Rush' to add new books is NOT taking away time from the ruleset. You need to understand that the time put into development is NEVER repaid by sales of the ruleset. MGT owes me I'd guestimate around ~£30k if I was paid my hourly rate for the time I put into it. So the best way to offset that is to get a book out (such as Aliens Vol 1) which takes between 60-100 hours.

2. The ruleset is copyright Mongoose and myself. It needs to be protected for the moment, one day I hope it's made available.

3. If anyone wants to write extensions, they're free to contact me if they need to know how code works. There's a big push to refactor the MGT2 code to fit in with SFRPG.

4. I love doing this stuff, but I have kids, family, job and Xbox/PS5/PC and the pubs are open. Which is why there are 3 people working on this.

5. I'd love to do this full time, but it just doesn't pay enough for me to continue living, maybe one day, but not today.

6. I work best context switching, some MGT2, some CoC, some WOIN and so on. I'm reducing my ruleset support down to MGT2/2300AD/RQ and will no longer be working on any major campaigns for CoC, as MoN has nearly killed me. This is why you see MGT releases in bursts.

So I hope you all understand,
Cheers,
MBM, LordNanoc and Azaran.

I'm normally sitting here with bookshelves full of sourcebooks, though they're in boxes at the moment after just moving house, but very few rulebooks. I used to do all the mechanical work for my games on slips of paper, and little notebooks full of post it notes. Combat was mostly theatre of the mind, with the occasional treat of breaking out the minis, looking for that lead character that looks sort of like my character and cracking on a battle map for a really immersive game.

Nowadays it's pretty much exclusively FGU. When systems are being built for fantasy grounds, it's truly amazing to see the thought, effort and ingenuity that goes into the process of creating systems within FG that otherwise would have been on random slips of paper either used by the GM or by the players, or all of the above at the same time. Sometimes we have to go with the flow too and change how we operate in order to fit in with the wider vision. That requires a heck of a lot of rework and in some instances completely changing the process.

As a player of the content and systems produced, taking 5e for example, that ruleset has evolved too over the years to add in extra functionality, remove or move some and change other bits and it continues to evolve as FGU evolves with sight, and light.

I'm just happy that MBM has given me an opportunity to help out, though I must say not sure my name deserves to be in the list there just yet as I'm still busily working away on my first packet or work after recovering from a bit of temporary blindness and the passing of my father.

Anyhoo, I think you're doing an awesome job MBM, the system keeps getting better and better :)

Azaran.