Placing object tokens not linked to NPC in an encounter

[celestian]

Ah, Celestian you perform a reverse lookup based on token prototype? Wouldn't that produce a ton of false positives (letter tokens)? I needed a small dictionary datastructure in addition to the map tokens which can't be exported as far as I know, but at least it's O(1).

I can't recall the specifics exactly but I am pretty sure I just used the object path for the name (npc.id-00012). I would have much rather had a secondary field (custom?) that I could use and leave name alone. On the load request it would see if it was a valid id, load it and if it was an npc load it in the combat tracker like any other npc add.

I mostly wanted to be able to put npcs in as tokens instead of creating encounters (habit I got from maptools)... I much prefer being able to see (as DM) the npc tokens so if something would come based on noise/etc it's much easier to deal with (instead of looking at every nearby rooms story pin).

It wasn't very pretty at the time but I was just doing a proof of concept to see if it would work... when I ran into the export issue I gave up for the time being.

[Ken L]

My method is kosher, I just added a map_npc_list top level node which had token IDs as keys to the the npc node path in string form. In image.lua I just added a menu item that then used this list to tell if the token or selected tokens (for group add) was linked. There's other book-keeping but it's actually quite trivial.

[LordEntrails]

Question, how to handle token images that are used for multiple different NPCs? Do you have a duplicate image with a new name?

[Ken L]

It's not based on the images. I bind the token IDs to the npc node names in a table. Celestian puts the npc node name in the token name fields. The rest is just standard plumbing.

[LordEntrails]

But if I have one token "goblin.png" but I want to use that token (image) for five different NPCs (goblin soldier, goblin archer, goblin shaman, goblin acolyte, goblin chief) would you need 5 different tokens? One image? Five images?

[celestian]

Question, how to handle token images that are used for multiple different NPCs? Do you have a duplicate image with a new name?

Mine was just based on the npc ID. It would just load another npc using that ID from the npc list. Just like dragging and dropping another orc onto the combat tracker. Each token's name was the npc.id-XXXX.

You would just drag/drop the npc from the NPC records onto the map and it would use that token and set the name to the ID for you.

(not sure if that was directed to the discussion in general or Ken).

[LordEntrails]

A general question, mostly due to my lack of understanding of the implications of what you two have been talking about

[Ken L]

It's kinda the cookie cutter reason that while 'possible' it is not an extension someone would want to support as there's 0 forward compatibility for it. It does however have immediate utility, but woe to the person who has to support it once FG updates.

Just a prod for getting official FG support for map tokens.

[Bidmaron]

Ken, this is probably just me not understanding fully what you two have been batting back and forth, but I don't see what makes the extension such a maintenance nightmare. I doubt anyone is going to change token file names from one version to the next. What I would be concerned about is that the export would only work (most likely) on one campaign because if people didn't load tokens and token modules in exactly the same order in the next campaign, their token path would be different from one campaign to the next. And that problem would exist even if FG never got updated again at all.