Huge library of free tokens (CSUAC)

[Mad Nomad]

I suspect this has been mentioned a few times in various forums, but I know I had a hard time discovering these, so I thought it might be worthwhile to create a fresh clear post about these.

There is a HUGE library of thousands of tokens available for free that are easy to get and install

Go to this site: https://www.vintyri.org/CSUAC/download.htm
Download the CSAUC files
Extract the files
Copy whichever ones you want as tokens to C:\ProgramData\Fantasy Grounds\tokens\host

That's it, you now have 1000s of tokens.
In fact the biggest issue with this is you will have TOO MANY tokens. Over 1 GB worth. And this can cause problems, so I highly suggest slimming the collection own a LOT before moving them into your tokens folder or it will crash FG.
Most tokens have multiple verisons at different resolutions. So I recommend starting by deleting all tokens in the folders that have "LO.png" or "VL.png". The resolution on these is too low to look good in FG. The files containing "VH.png" are the best looking, but are also the largest file size. So I think getting rid of them and using the "Hi.png" version is the best bet of quality vs size.

These are also very very helpful if you use map making software like CC3 or anything that uses symbols.

From my reading of the EULA agreement, it seems these are very much free game for personal use in your games.

...
(d) you may use the CSUAC Art Collection to create items for personal use or resale, including book covers, maps, calendars, interior artwork, adventures, modules, and consumer merchandise, provided such use is not intended to allow the re-distribution or re-use of the images themselves.

3. Restrictions
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, you are not permitted under any circumstances:
...
(d) to use the CSUAC Art Collection or the images within the art pack to create a database or as material for a mapping programor application except for your own private use

[damned]

Hey dereks CSAUC is awesome but dont copy it to FG! Just copy over what you need when you need it!

[Mad Nomad]

Ah thanks Damned, I didn't realize you could move stuff into tokens library mid game and have them appear. But out of curiosity, why do you say not to just load them in there from the start? I kind of prefer to be able to just stay within the FG tool the whole session. Is it because of load times for players connecting?

[Mortar]

Memory management if I remember reading correctly. FG will load everything in your token folder into memory even if the tokens themselves aren't being used, and since FG can only address 3.75GB of ram it disappears in a hurry. I am hoping this is something they can improve upon in the Unity version.

[Zacchaeus]

I have to say also, that although there are thousands of images in CSAUC there's only a very few of them that I can think of that might be viable as tokens. I suppose it depends on what kind of tokens you mean; I'm thinking NPCs.

It is, however, an excellent resource of symbols for Campaign Cartographer.

[Mortar]

Some of the creature tokens can be useful as well.

[Mad Nomad]

I actually find them a pain to work with in CC3. I really feel like CC3 is pretty terrible for the money, but there aren't many better options so I'm stuck with it. But their whole symbol management system to quickly find and set up symbols is tough and the single layer approach makes it annoying for placing and moving symbols around. So I prefer to create the basic map in cc3 with walls and floors but then use tokens in FG on the back layer to place doors windows furniture etc. I'm still new at this so I might change my mind after a while, but for now this is the easiest for me. So I can actually see using quite a few of the tokens from CSUAC.

Though the memory issue definitely makes sense and there are definitely a large number of them that are irrelevant. My token library is down to about 400 MB after removing all the multiple resolution versions of the images and a lot of the irrelevant / non-fantasy images. I'm hoping to get it down much further though.

[Zacchaeus]

I actually find them a pain to work with in CC3. I really feel like CC3 is pretty terrible for the money, but there aren't many better options so I'm stuck with it. But their whole symbol management system to quickly find and set up symbols is tough and the single layer approach makes it annoying for placing and moving symbols around. So I prefer to create the basic map in cc3 with walls and floors but then use tokens in FG on the back layer to place doors windows furniture etc. I'm still new at this so I might change my mind after a while, but for now this is the easiest for me. So I can actually see using quite a few of the tokens from CSUAC.

The page you linked contains links to instructions as to how to import the symbols into CC3. If you follow the procedure it will install a folder with all of the symbols in logical folders allowing symbols to be easily found within the file structure. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by CC3's single layer approach, but all of the symbols don't have to be on the same sheet. There's at least 6 sheets where you can place symbols and you can create dozens more if you want.

[Mad Nomad]

Thanks Zacchaeus. Yes you are right there are good instructions there for how to use these in cc3. I have followed those instructions, and it's certainly doable, but it's still cumbersome to me personally.

The "layer" thing is my biggest issue. (probably not worded well) What I meant about the single layer is that when I stamp a symbol onto the CC3 map I can't seem to find a way to come back to it later and just select that symbol and move it over a little left or right. Or change its size. Or delete it. It seems like it gets "painted on" and I have yet to figure out how to easily select it and adjust it. Once it gets stamped it seems to become part of the image, not its own easily selectable and editable object. Maybe there is a way but its awfully un-intuitive.

And though it creates symbol folders they are still cumbersome. If I want to place a chest on the map for example, I have to go navigating through the symbol folder structure in CC3 to find it (and the UI is god awful). Often the folders have like 2 images in the each. So its a lot of navigating around between symbol folders. In Fantasy grounds I just type in "chest" in the token search and it shows any token with chest in the name regardless of what folder or sub folder its in. Now I want "skeleton" so i just type that in and i see the skeleton npc tokens and the pile of bones background token. No navigating.


Another advantage of putting them on map in FG as tokens is that I can do a sort of destructible environment. "There were crates there, but your fireball blew them up." So I turn the create tokens invisible. "The map did show a wall but you found a secret door" Unhide door token.

In any case, I'm sure there are pros and cons to both approaches. I'll see how I evolve as I make more maps.
I'll have to figure out over time what makes sense as tokens and what just belongs on the cc3 map file.

[Zacchaeus]

Thanks Zacchaeus. Yes you are right there are good instructions there for how to use these in cc3. I have followed those instructions, and it's certainly doable, but it's still cumbersome to me personally.

The "layer" thing is my biggest issue. (probably not worded well) What I meant about the single layer is that when I stamp a symbol onto the CC3 map I can't seem to find a way to come back to it later and just select that symbol and move it over a little left or right. Or change its size. Or delete it. It seems like it gets "painted on" and I have yet to figure out how to easily select it and adjust it. Once it gets stamped it seems to become part of the image, not its own easily selectable and editable object. Maybe there is a way but its awfully un-intuitive.

To copy, resize, delete or move a symbol go to the edit menu (or click on the small icons down the left if you have that option set up) and select Erase, copy resize or whatever. Now click beside whatever symbol you want to edit, right click and select do-it (watch for instructions and information in the bottom left of the screen when you are doing things - it tells you what to do next). You can then move or whatever it is you want to do to the symbol. You can select multiple symbols by CTRL clicking them. It isn't terribly intuitive but once you know how to do it it's easy enough. There's some tutorial videos on YouTube that you might find useful (they are old but are still serviceable enough). You'll also find a decent enough amount of information in the Help menu.

I like the idea of destructible furniture etc though

To find symbols click on the small open folder icon at the top of the symbol list down the right hand side (It might be in a different place depending on how you've set up your menus). This opens up a standard windows window with all of the symbol catalogues which you can then browse through to find what you need using a standard windows interface.