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Let’s Use the Combat Tracker Effect Visibility Options Extension

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Displaying Damage Effects

This is one in a series of Combat Tracker EVOE blog posts. The series index can be found here.

In this post and the next, I’ll describe the Combat Tracker effects that change or modify the result of a damage dice roll and what EVOE displays to players in the Chat Window. Damage rolls vary, some doing more or less damage than others. Effects might cause additional dice to be rolled or dice roll outcomes might be positively or negatively impacted. Depending on an effect’s visibility setting in the Combat Tracker, none, some or all of the effect impacts will be displayed in each player’s Chat Window.

In most cases, for combat rolls, two sets of information are displayed for the roll. The dice roll information and the results information. In this blog post I’ll discuss the first set, the dice roll info. In the case of damage rolls, the information, separated into “clauses“, includes whether the roll was melee or ranged, the weapon type if any, contributions to the damage due to effects if any, and the separate damage types and amounts. I’ll discuss the second set of information, the damage results in a future post.

A few examples to illustrate the usefulness and caveats of EVOE follow.

Throughout this series I’ll use the following settings in the Options Manager, unless otherwise specified: (1) Chat: Show GM rolls - On, (2) Chat: Show results to client - On, (3) Chat: Show roll totals - On.

In this first screenshot I contrast a damage roll while not using the EVOE with one when using the EVOE. A potion of the GM’s Chat Window and Combat Tracker are shown in each panel. The upper panel displays the results of a damage roll when not using the EVOE. The lower panel has the EVOE loaded.

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Items of interest: Note the difference in the [EFFECTS] clauses. When using EVOE the clause contains not only the sum of the damage values due to effects but a list of their damage types too. When not using EVOE, the damage types due to effects are not shown in this clause. Typically there are at least as many damage [TYPE] clauses, if not more, when using EVOE as there are when not using it. This is because FG without EVOE combines same type damages into a single clause, EVOE reports each damage contribution separately. The reason for this is visibility. At times two damages may be of the same type but have different visibilities.

In a previous blog I displayed and discussed how for a single attack roll with differing attack effects some players may see more or less information about the roll than other players depending on the visibility settings. In the next set of screenshots I’ll show similar information for a damage roll. There are four images, one for the GM and one for each of the three players. There is a label, by character, on each image. Each player’s Chat and a portion of the Combat Tracker are displayed. Krystryd rolled a damage roll against the orc. The base damage for her handaxe is 1d6+3 slashing. Because of the effects in play 3d6 are rolled. Everyone sees three dice rolling around in the Chat, but for some players, as displayed in the image, the information about the roll imparts but a single die of data.

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Items of interest: Let’s examine each image in turn starting with the GM’s. Effect visibilities do not limit what the GM sees. The damage values from the Combat Tracker shown in the [EFFECTS] clause is: 2d6-7+3 = 2d6-4, and the types are: slashing, cold and silver, also as displayed. There is a [TYPE] clause for the base damage, 1d6+3 slashing, plus one for each DMG effect. Note that the silver DMGTYPE effect was added to each [TYPE] clause. Total damage done to the orc is 8 hp. On to the Paladin. The only effect that Krystryd is affected with that the Paladin is aware of is the one he cast on her giving her the DMG: +3 cold effect (visibility SORC). It shows up in his Combat Tracker. Note that there is no [EFFECTS] clause in his Chat nor any damage clauses other than Krystryd’s base damage. This is a known shortcoming of EVOE, the incomplete handling of the SORC visibility, that I’ll remedy in the future. Note that the Paladin believes only 5 hp damage occurred. Next up, Krystryd. She is aware of all effects with visibilities of VSBL, SORC or TRGT but not GM. The information displayed in her Chat is consistent with the visibilities: [EFFECTS] and [TYPE] clauses identical to those of the GM, except silver damage is not reported in any of the clauses because of its GM only visibility. She observes 8 hp total damage. Finally, Jimmy. He is privy to only VSBL effects, of which there are none, so he sees a total damage of 5 hp, the base damage for the handaxe.

The above analysis brings to light three issues: (1) poor handling of the SORC visibility, which I will remedy in the future, (2) seeing more dice rolled than are reported on in the Chat (see this and this for a possible mitigation remedy using dice averages), and (3) reporting less damage to some players than the amount actually inflicted. This last inconsistency introduced by hiding effects, in my opinion, is not as large of problem as it might seem. As shown in the player Combat Trackers I tend to use the “Status” instead of “Detailed” for View: Health - Non-ally in the Options Manager. So the exact hit point damage an enemy has suffered is not readily apparent. Though, if the discrepancy is large, say a player sees 5 hp damage when 34 hp were actually done, killing the orc outright, the player might comment, “Wow! That was a wimpy orc!” More than likely the player will leave it at that, a dead orc?, out of sight, out of mind.

Next time I’ll talk about the effects that modify the damage result information, effects like IMMUNE and RESIST.

The Combat Tracker Effect Visibility Options Extension (EVOE) can be downloaded here.

This blog post was written using EVOE v0.1.0.

Please feel free to post comments, questions and/or criticisms either here or in the forums.

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Updated September 23rd, 2016 at 06:37 by Minty23185Fresh (Minor typo)

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Comments

  1. MarianDz's Avatar
    Great "Minty",
    Are effects (SORC, TRGT, GM, VSBL) in EVOE v0.1.0 assigned manually or is there some kind of automatization?
    [I]For example, change to TRGT and show him this condition only after he was first time hit and damage dealt. Make it automatic?[/I]

    [B]Edited[/B] after reading all your Blogs about CT visibility Extension :o where I found answer on my question
    Updated September 23rd, 2016 at 14:20 by MarianDz
  2. Minty23185Fresh's Avatar
    Thank you for viewing my blogs.

    As I am sure you've learned Marian, the current answer is no, there is no automatization.

    Once I have all of the rolls (Saves, Ability checks, etc.) working properly under EVOE I plan on adding defaults and customizations. For instance, someone knocked prone - it's pretty obvious to most everyone, except maybe someone who is blind, when someone else is prone. This idea of automatization is a good one to add to my list of enhancements.
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