Interest Check: Initial Token Visibility Extension

[Minty23185Fresh]

I'm one of those DM's who spends way to much time prep'ing for my next session. And I'd really like to get more for my time investment. So there are a lot of little things that would help me. One is, the initial visibility of the NPC tokens on the map when an encounter is put into play.

Fantasy Grounds' default behavior is that all tokens are added to the Combat Tracker and the corresponding map with their visibilities set to invisible. Then the DM selects which tokens, if any, to make visible as the encounter unfolds. To my mind, in most cases initiative is rolled and the battle map is shared when at least one of the opposing combatants can be seen by the heroes.

Nearly every encounter I prep has an "Environment" NPC, things like lighting, when reinforcement NPC's arrive, saving throws by the heroes due to something or other, anything that changes during the bout that I need to be reminded of and that I don't want to have to go searching the Story text for. The Environment, i.e. my notes, is never visible to the players.

If you've ever read one of my posts, you know by now there is bound to be a screenshot or two.
The following screenshot depicts the Encounter dialog with an added field (boxed in red), the Initial Token Visibility (by group of NPCs).
Untitled1.png

And then in this screenshot, the map and Combat Tracker are shown. The goblins, selected in the Encounter dialog as initially visible (blue arrows) are visible on the map and marked accordingly in the Combat Tracker. The hobgoblin and pit trap marked as initially invisible (orange arrows) are set accordingly (the default). The hazard wasn't placed on the map.
Untitled2.png

Admittedly, this simple example is hardly worth the effort, why would this be needed when there are but three NPCs to make visible? (Even I can do that!) It becomes far more appreciated when there are 6 PCs and tribe of 8 goblins, 3 hobgoblins, and reinforcements of another half dozen goblins and a couple ogres in the adjacent chamber all intermingled in the Combat Tracker.

If I receive enough confirmations of interest, I'll pretty it up a bit and publish.

[El Condoro]

Seems like a good idea to me. Back in the day, the factions (friendly etc.) had to be set after the actors were added to the CT. Having this sort of thing ready to go would help in the same way, I think.

[Ludd_G]

I like it to a degree (and definitely appreciate the work you put in) but is there any chance at all that this could also include the 'mask sensitivity' etc states? And, much more importantly for me, have the ability to group select numbers of NPC tokens, on the map, and change their visibility state, including 'mask sensitivity' on the fly? I'm pretty sure there's no way to do this at present, and that, for some unknown reason, group selecting tokens only allows group movement and not changing visibility states, or even targeting (something else I'd love to see)? Or, which is not unheard of, am I missing some basic FGU functionality that I really should know about?

Cheers,

Simon

[Minty23185Fresh]

@Ludd_G
Thank you for bringing “mask sensitivity” into view. A quick search in the forums enlightened me. I don’t want anything to do with this in the realm of LoS. I will not be pursuing this further. Again thank you, you saved me from some major headaches!

[Kelrugem]

I like it to a degree (and definitely appreciate the work you put in) but is there any chance at all that this could also include the 'mask sensitivity' etc states? And, much more importantly for me, have the ability to group select numbers of NPC tokens, on the map, and change their visibility state, including 'mask sensitivity' on the fly? I'm pretty sure there's no way to do this at present, and that, for some unknown reason, group selecting tokens only allows group movement and not changing visibility states, or even targeting (something else I'd love to see)? Or, which is not unheard of, am I missing some basic FGU functionality that I really should know about?

Cheers,

Simon

Group targeting already works Or what do you mean? In the image toolbar you can select a group of tokens as target (free form also possible with some hotkey); when you have multiple tokens selected, then all of these get the same targets at once

@minty: I think Ludd_G means with mask-sensitivity just the typical FGC thing, so, token shown if not in mask; when an entry in the CT gets visible via the eye button, then it is always mask-sensitive as default. It looks like that your eye buttons in the encounter window are linked to the ones in the CT, so, mask-sensitivity is probably immediate without further effort

Ludd_G was basically asking for a way to adjust the visibility settings of a group of tokens simultaneously, but that is more for another project not the same as your idea

[Jiminimonka]

I'm one of those DM's who spends way to much time prep'ing for my next session. And I'd really like to get more for my time investment. So there are a lot of little things that would help me. One is, the initial visibility of the NPC tokens on the map when an encounter is put into play.

Fantasy Grounds' default behavior is that all tokens are added to the Combat Tracker and the corresponding map with their visibilities set to invisible. Then the DM selects which tokens, if any, to make visible as the encounter unfolds. To my mind, in most cases initiative is rolled and the battle map is shared when at least one of the opposing combatants can be seen by the heroes.

Nearly every encounter I prep has an "Environment" NPC, things like lighting, when reinforcement NPC's arrive, saving throws by the heroes due to something or other, anything that changes during the bout that I need to be reminded of and that I don't want to have to go searching the Story text for. The Environment, i.e. my notes, is never visible to the players.

If you've ever read one of my posts, you know by now there is bound to be a screenshot or two.
The following screenshot depicts the Encounter dialog with an added field (boxed in red), the Initial Token Visibility (by group of NPCs).
Untitled1.png

And then in this screenshot, the map and Combat Tracker are shown. The goblins, selected in the Encounter dialog as initially visible (blue arrows) are visible on the map and marked accordingly in the Combat Tracker. The hobgoblin and pit trap marked as initially invisible (orange arrows) are set accordingly (the default). The hazard wasn't placed on the map.
Untitled2.png

Admittedly, this simple example is hardly worth the effort, why would this be needed when there are but three NPCs to make visible? (Even I can do that!) It becomes far more appreciated when there are 6 PCs and tribe of 8 goblins, 3 hobgoblins, and reinforcements of another half dozen goblins and a couple ogres in the adjacent chamber all intermingled in the Combat Tracker.

If I receive enough confirmations of interest, I'll pretty it up a bit and publish.

Sounds like a good idea.

[Ludd_G]

See I knew I'd missed something! I'd always tried to get the selection mode button to work in conjunction with the target button! I never realised or spotted that the target button also works in drag-select mode! D'oh! Thank you for that! What a revelation! Haha!

But yeah, my basic hope is for some sort of "group select - change visibility state" button or something. That would be a time saver for me.

Cheers,

Simon

[Ludd_G]

Thanks for all your work, and I still think that the extension originally proposed would be a great addition.

Cheers,

Simon

[Kelrugem]

See I knew I'd missed something! I'd always tried to get the selection mode button to work in conjunction with the target button! I never realised or spotted that the target button also works in drag-select mode! D'oh! Thank you for that! What a revelation! Haha!

But yeah, my basic hope is for some sort of "group select - change visibility state" button or something. That would be a time saver for me.

Cheers,

Simon

Hehe, I thought so

About the visibility changer for groups: I think I may have already an idea for that; but that needs some time until I have time for extensions again I try to write it then on CoreRPG level (if it is possible at all)

[Ludd_G]

Hehe, I thought so

About the visibility changer for groups: I think I may have already an idea for that; but that needs some time until I have time for extensions again I try to write it then on CoreRPG level (if it is possible at all)

For example there are a couple of very busy rooms in The Sunless Citadel 5e, and the presence of so many tokens, in 'mask sensitivity' mode, really drags performance down, but to change them to 'always visible' requires each one to be set individually (even if they're selected as a group), which is a bit of a pain to say the least.