Combat Groups Extension (Fantasy Grounds Unity 5E Ruleset)

[SilentRuin]

Only in Forge.

Combat Groups Extension (Fantasy Grounds Unity 5E Ruleset)

CombatGroups.png

This stand-alone extension for Fantasy Grounds allows you to create and preload multiple NPC groups, then activate them with one click as your players explore a dungeon.

This extension unlocks the following functions:

• Preload multiple NPC groups on a battlemap, but keep them off the Combat Tracker,
• Make the groups visible to your players with a single click as they explore your dungeon,
• Add and remove entire groups from the combat tracker with one button click,
• A “friends” button extends this functionality to friendly & neutral NPCs as well!
• Preemptively buff NPCs before they are encountered,

Setting up an ambush has never been easier!

Using the combat tracker menu button to remove things from CT is going to wipe out ALL the entries in the CT including ones not displayed via combat groups. Great way to lose all your setup work. Never use these menu options unless your cleaning out everything to replace with encounters and re-adding to groups (which I sometimes do and why the default menu behavior has not been changed). Use the "Delete From CT" button to remove CT entries from that group ONLY - the CT menu options should be avoided.

There is not a good way to handle map targeting buttons so they will ignore auto targeting of any groups that are not visible. They will not ignore any display only faction requirements so players could target things not showing in their CT potentially (FGU provides no way to determine if something is LOS/lighting visible to the active token in the code available to extensions). This was the best compromise to get the most things working as they should but can still get you targeting more or less than you want in some cases. If the CT entry is visible on the host CT (and not set to invisible in CT) you can target it. That is the hard fast rule to go by.

Make sure that maps you plan to have group tokens on are read/write accessible.

Updates:

[See .txt file for early updates and features]

V1.54 - Update - supported vehicle class as much as possible in the same manner as npc class.

V1.55 - Update - when using "Set Groups with Common Initiative (menu rolls only)" set to "on" it will always guarantee that the initial roll never has duplicates before it forces these common init settings. This prevents scrambled CT entries when they shared a common init roll. If carrier common init is used they will not be identical inits but still in sequence.

V1.56 - Bug - have to stay in synch with ct.lua and clientct.lua CoreRPG where I need some changes since this has its own copy. Was out of synch.

V1.57 - Bug - the whole purpose of combat groups was to insure the CT on the client could display owned items, but I found if I turned off all filtering options - which I never run without - it causes an invisibility bug where an owned NPC/PC/VEHICLE will not be displayed in the CT. This is a bug in the land of Combat Groups. Fixed.

V1.58 - Bug - with common init option the order was never really changing even though numbers generated were unique. This was because the number sample was generated based on random 20 and on large CT counts this was not a large enough random number sample to change the order. Now when common init option is set that init random number generator is based on current CT count so that sample is large enough to get unique numbers and change the order randomly. As usual with common init option you will see init much higher (if lots of CT entries visible or not). The CombatManager2.rollRandomInit code override is shared between carrier and combat groups extensions.

V1.59 - Update - added "Host only see active and its targeted" option defaulted to "off". This will essentially ignore all combat group visibility on the host CT and force only the active CT entry and what it has targeted to be shown in CT. Useful when you want to only see immediate action in a crowded CT. As its for me and I will only in certain situations it is defaulted to off and you should only use at YOUR OWN risk. I plan to drop the on and off option onto FGU toolbar at bottom so I can turn it on or off at will. Also allows me to tell if a player actually has something targeted at a glance (always annoying when they fire with no target). At first glance it appears most CT refreshing is done already except when the last target of something is removed. That's good enough for me as you can force the refresh just by toggling this option (clicking the off then on where I have it on toolbar).

V1.60 - Bug - removed bogus code that was not required.

V1.61 - Bug - when a CT entry was owned by a player the host would not have its selection/centering of the token updated as it was supposed to do. Client always worked correctly. Fixed.

V1.62 - Bug - something changed in FGU sometime in the last few years since I wrote this and I have to force the center of map call now to get NPCs to center on client when turn indicator changes. It will respect the auto-center map option.

V1.63 - FGU update - fixes to make it work with latest FGU update.

V1.64 - Update - option "Disable CombatListManager icon (requires restart or reload of app)" defaulted to "off" will now allow the CombatListManager icon to be removed from host and clients when set to "on" and the app is restarted or /reload is done in chat. This proved to difficult to override the player side logic to respect combat groups code or only remove the icon from player side so just removing it entirely for my games as it gives away things players should not see.

V1.65 - Update - option "Set token visibility when invisible effect added or removed from CT" defaulted to "off" will now allow "Invisible" effect conditions to automatically turn on and off token visibility when the effect is added or removed. Got tired of doing this manually - I've seen timing issues with effect add/delete data but hopefully worked around them. Any effect with a conditional invisible effect will only work properly if the IF: logic is fully supported in a non targeted dumb check - an invisible effect applied through IFT: will never work properly in setting the token visibility. Manually editing an effect to remove Invisible condition may also not process the token visible status properly. I've decided I can live with these limitations to get most things to work as I want. Anything stuck in a token visibility state that is no longer valid will need to be manually right click fixed in map.

V1.66 - Update - option "Preserve invisible token settings on startup" defaulted to "off" will preserve any token invisible always setting when the app or image gets redisplayed. FGU does not do this as it has a set of hardcoded rules it forces visibility to be set to. You can stay up in app and the invisible token will remain - but if you restart the app it will be back to the CT logic default. This is a pain to manually reset all the invisible tokens when I restart the app so now it is as I want it. I don't want my players seeing invisible other players or NPCs they do not own.

V1.67 - FGU Update - changes in update forced fixes to keep working.

V1.68 - Update - option "Always show owned tokens in client CT" defaulted to "on" will insure client CT always shows CT entries the client owns regardless of settings for same group or same faction. As I believe it was incorrect not to show these before I've made the default "on" - but as I myself have one project where I only want the same faction or group shown regardless of ownership - I made it optional.

V1.69 - Update - option "Display Owner as CT link tooltip" will now also add the owner (only for host) onto the token tooltip on the map.

Grim Press overview video.


Grim Press will be handling the sales and promotion of this extension.
If you'd like to engage with us, please feel free to join the Grim Press discord: https://discord.gg/N7MM93a

And a video for my own entertainment...
https://youtu.be/7zqdu8MaBNM

Extensions = RISK: This note is added to all the extensions I maintain. I want users to understand that extensions are code that is added to or overrides portions of code in the Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) application. When the underlying code in FGU changes it can break an extension. When you run with other extensions they can conflict by trying to overwrite the same parts of the FGU code. I will keep my extensions working with FGU changes, and the extensions I use (listed in my FGU signature) as I have direct control over those things. I cannot make the same promise with other extensions. If I am notified of an incompatibility I will attempt to resolve it - but if I cannot I will list what the known extension incompatibilities are. Understand before you get any extensions that it comes with RISK. Not just my extensions - any extension. These extensions are also maintained by me for me. I provide them outside of my own games purely to those who wish to take advantages of things I use for myself.

Included is detailed text used for describing this extension - has a lot of details but really provided for reference if needed.

[vaughnlannister]

This looks so cool.. I hope things get sorted out soon !

[SilentRuin]

For when it gets a home and for the few who bought and can still download it.

V1.2 - added combat groups only token vis eye button.

[vaughnlannister]

Nice! so you can reveal all the Enemies NPCs with one button click if there in the Combat Tracker ?

[SilentRuin]

Nice! so you can reveal all the Enemies NPCs with one button click if there in the Combat Tracker ?

As in this included image you can see the new "eye" icon on top left above the global visibility eye icon you are familiar with in CT. The normal CT eye icon will change everything in the CT DB (just like menu options will) regardless of if its visible in CT window list view. The new eye icon will just apply to the active selected group - whether you have it visible in the view or not.

Confusing right? Really its super simple. Click button visibility and only CT entries in selected group will change. This allows you to set up all your groups with the visibility you want - then if you have to bring them up and guarantee players don't see what your view shows (you know normal CT behavior) you can set them all to invisible before you hit my new group Visible button - so you can work on them (maybe place them in maps if not preplaced) with out players seeing them in CT.

Before I did this new eye icon option all you had to set visibility was the global set them all one way or the other and manually setting them individually - which was a pain when I wanted to set only a group's visibility - hence - this new version.

Granted its just for me - and the couple people who bought it before it was shut down - but eventually it will have a home and I'll still be working on it as necessary before and after it does. (probably should have made a specific image to show the new eye icon button but really its the one above the normal one on the upper left of CT)

[vaughnlannister]

Awesome.. I need this extension XD ... but my next game won't be ti'll 15th of December.. so hopefully DMSguild will get sorted out by then..

[pablomaz]

I only heard about your extension, SilentRuin, after MadNomad pinged everybody on his Discord server, warning of the DMs Guild issue. Well, can't wait to see it anywhere else... Will you give us a heads up on this topic when it's up and running?

[SilentRuin]

I only heard about your extension, SilentRuin, after MadNomad pinged everybody on his Discord server, warning of the DMs Guild issue. Well, can't wait to see it anywhere else... Will you give us a heads up on this topic when it's up and running?

As Soon as I know where its going I'll post it in here. I'll be shocked if I don't know something by the end of next week. For sure I seem to be the one who got caught "in between" battling giants of WOTC/DMsG/FG - I'm just a small fry so will have to wait with everyone else to find out.

[SilentRuin]

Pre game setup for myself I noticed that the new visible eye icon was not really recognizable nor was it working when group was not visible. Fixed.

V1.3 - Fixed Visible group eye icon button to be more recognizable and to allow setting active group when group is not visible.

[vaughnlannister]

Hey, in the vid, it was mentioned that its a quite light running extension and not very taxing on the PC.. would you agree with them on that?
I notice if I run to many extension it lags.. FGs, probably due to that I'm not running a high end machine.. so I've got to be careful which extensions I run.

Thanks!