Starfinder - Automation Poll

Since the amount of automation in Starfinder comes up quite a bit, just putting out a poll to see where the community stands on this.

As it relates to Character creation and management, thanks to the wide variety of alternate abilities and traits, it is difficult to automate everything for character creation/management. In that vein, I have a few options for you to choose from. Keep in mind that if we choose to automate more, it will be one thing at a time, and unless you see it in the patch notes, or some other future post, assume that it is still manually configured on the player's end.

For those that have voted FOR automation, if you have specific automation pain points, be sure to reply and list them out. That will help me prioritize them.

• Fix the Biohacker free skills - fixed in v 2.1.3
• Evolivolution's shopping list of fixes
• Automating class abilities, items, etc. onto the action tab - Under Consideration
• Automating spells on the spell tab - Under Consideration
• Character validation during creation - Planned
• Automate Weapon specialization - Under Consideration
• On ability score point buy, provide update on what is spent/left - Under Consideration
• SFS Character Validation - Under Consideration
• Crit Deck automation - Under Consideration

I am fine either way as long as there is a clear way to get characters made. For instance I am running into wall after wall creating a Biohacker where there should be no walls.
See my need help creating a Biohacker thread for updated info. the free skills thing is not working for me in classic or unity. But evidently it is working for someone else.

Most important thing for me would be the whole actions and damage stuff. Charakter creation is nice to but all the stuff with attacks and spells and abilities that doesn't currently work is the most annoying for me as a GM. Cause I constantly have to mircomanage and check whether or not a Spell actually did the correct amount of damage. I'll do a post sometime soon about that, concluding all my players and me came across in our games.

I would like more automation of class abilities, such as the Solarian's powers on the actions tab.

Hi, Not sure if this goes under the catagory of automation, but most importantly, as a GM, being able to cast NPC spells from the Combat Tracker.

I believe character creation (Race, Theme and Class, Archetype, etc), should be automated and validated by FG, in a similar way Hero Lab ensures the character is correct, to avoid user error. Weapon specialization is a good example b/c it is not currently automated, and users forget to add the bonus damage manually and they are not notified to do so; of course it would be better if the system added it automatically.

When the 10 ability points are added at character creation, it's difficult to know if you've under or over spent b/c there no calculation of how many points were spent and how many are left to spend!

Also, it would be great if FG could validate a Society Character since they shouldn't have access to everything, e.g. gear-character level restrictions etc.

Are the Crit Decks going to automate conditions? I suppose this would be nearly impossible since each card has multiple possibilities depending on what weapon is being used.

For me it is the Actions and Spell tabs that would help the most. As a DM I do most of the coding since my players are not as familiar. So If they choose a Feat i add the condition to the Actions Tab. I have been doing what a lot have been doing and creating a Feats section, Class section. In those sections I will add the affects. (trick attack, mobility as example) There have been some Characters created on the forums with the abilities already programed and some other threads on programing all of them. Would be just nice to have that included. I also create a section called Items: in that I add the coding for MK healing and stuff like that not sure on automating that.
But anything to help my players since a lot of them are new. (it took a little training to let them know to look in the others tab for there class abilities as an example)
5E came out with a character Wizard maybe down the road something like that. Maybe work with the Pathfinder 2e group since we are so similar.

Better and more seamless automation of class abilities would be clutch. Primarily (and I only focus on these because these are the ones that come up in my game) being able to use Solarian Solar Manifestations and Revelations, Envoy abilities like Get Em, and Operative abilities like Trick Attack as actions during combat. I know that there are work arounds now and I have been able to manually make it work for my players, but it can be frustrating when so much else has simple drag-and-drop functionality that some of the most commonly used and needed aspects of the players' classes require significant work under the hood before they can even use them.

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Originally Posted by Detroitus

Envoy abilities like Get Em, and Operative abilities like Trick Attack as actions during combat. I know that there are work arounds now

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Not sure what you mean by workarounds for those? They are actions that you setup, just like every other ruleset, and each have been covered pretty well here on the forums. Get 'Em is a tag you apply to an enemy and the bonus to hit is applied to you and your allies (we always had that one active in the combat tracker when we have an envoy playing, so that whenever the envoy applied Get 'Em, it happened automatically). Trick attack is a skill check action against the enemy's CR+20, if that succeeds, you apply Flat-footed effect to enemy, then roll your attack. If that hits, you apply the damage die effect to yourself and roll the attack. FYI, that's not the kind of ruleset automation that is likely to ever be added to the ruleset as that is handled already by actions that you setup on your sheet.

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

Not sure what you mean by workarounds for those? They are actions that you setup, just like every other ruleset, and each have been covered pretty well here on the forums. Get 'Em is a tag you apply to an enemy and the bonus to hit is applied to you and your allies (we always had that one active in the combat tracker when we have an envoy playing, so that whenever the envoy applied Get 'Em, it happened automatically). Trick attack is a skill check action against the enemy's CR+20, if that succeeds, you apply Flat-footed effect to enemy, then roll your attack. If that hits, you apply the damage die effect to yourself and roll the attack. FYI, that's not the kind of ruleset automation that is likely to ever be added to the ruleset as that is handled already by actions that you setup on your sheet.

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Right. That's how I do it now. I guess what I mean by "better and more seamless" would be for instance that the Envoy player could target the enemy and apply Get 'Em and the hit bonus tag would automatically apply to themself and their allies. I run a pretty large group and it can really jam up the flow of a combat scenario when the Envoy has to individually apply the tag to all 7 of their allies before resolving the next action. Unless there is an easy way to manually select all allies and apply the tag to everyone at once? If so I haven't figured it out, but it'd be nice.

What you're saying about Trick Attack makes sense. I'm not too worried about that one, as it doesn't really disrupt things during play.

1. I would love to see anything involving stat adjustments getting some automation (the 10 points at character creation, and three slots one for each model of personal upgrade).

2. Weapon focus/specialization would be very nice.

3. Grapple checks with grapple/pin status would be awesome to have automated. All combat maneuvers for that matter, but specifically grapple as it has different effects based on how well you roll. It would be nice if there were an "action bar" of sorts where we could click to use a combat maneuver and apply modifiers from equipment, race, etc. If you did it this way, we could even apply our defensive modifiers here (dare to dream).

4. Force Fields - Not sure about anyone else, but my players love force fields. It would be nice if the fast healing and battery usage was handled automatically. This seems like a long shot, but if we're going to wishlist stuff why not.

5. All listed actions for NPCs would be great. I have to refer to the PDFs often while playing. Nyssholora is a recent example with terrible encoding (try to figure out how to use the breath weapon without the book or PDF). It says [see text] and never includes the text.

6. I know it was stated above, but it would be great to have a list of common combat abilities like trick attack or clever feint that we could just drag and drop on to the character. Is there a way for us to create them one time then drag to each character like spells?

That's my list for now. I'll think about this and follow up with my groups for more.

My biggest thing would making it so that all class abilities have built in-actions automated, and if I'd have to prioritize, I'd start with all the 1st/2nd level abilities across all the classes, as the low levels are when players get confused the most.

A new player making a solarian is going to be confused by how to track their attunement or use their supernova if the GM didn't create them a custom "spell" for it. A new player making a healer mystic has to make one for their healing channel. Operative with trick attack. Some way to automate entropic pool would also be amazing.

Also, full attack automation for NPCs identical to how it is set up for PCs (being able to roll both or just one of the full attack at a time) would be awesome too.

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Originally Posted by Ravien999

Also, full attack automation for NPCs identical to how it is set up for PCs (being able to roll both or just one of the full attack at a time) would be awesome too.

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You can do that already. There is the Multiattack section in the NPC sheet. Just put in "2 [ATTACK]" with the lower attack roll and it rolls both if you use it.

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Originally Posted by Detroitus

Right. That's how I do it now. I guess what I mean by "better and more seamless" would be for instance that the Envoy player could target the enemy and apply Get 'Em and the hit bonus tag would automatically apply to themself and their allies. I run a pretty large group and it can really jam up the flow of a combat scenario when the Envoy has to individually apply the tag to all 7 of their allies before resolving the next action. Unless there is an easy way to manually select all allies and apply the tag to everyone at once? If so I haven't figured it out, but it'd be nice.

What you're saying about Trick Attack makes sense. I'm not too worried about that one, as it doesn't really disrupt things during play.

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Apply the ally effect at the start of the game as GM and it stays forever...

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Originally Posted by Evolivolution

You can do that already. There is the Multiattack section in the NPC sheet. Just put in "2 [ATTACK]" with the lower attack roll and it rolls both if you use it.

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That's only if it's been coded as such, and multiattack, on creatures that have it, is an override for full attack.

A regular soldier NPC would not have a multiattack, but should be able to full attack with their melee or their ranged, and as all modules are currently coded, you have to manually do this by making single attacks with a -4 mod.

@Revien999
I've mentioned this in the past to FG support. FGs current template doesn't include the full attack, so you have to edit each NPC to include it. I can provide an example on Discord if you'd like. But I agree that it should already be on every PC that has a Full Attack weapon.

But you can just add the Full Attack to any NPC as a Multiattack, I don't see the difference. Except that it's not pre programmed.

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Originally Posted by Evolivolution

But you can just add the Full Attack to any NPC as a Multiattack, I don't see the difference. Except that it's not pre programmed.

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The point is that it should come pre-programmed. Doesn't make sense that it's not included as a viable attack for NPCs that should have a full attack option based on their loadout.

Yeah I've done it before as well Jrock. It's easy enough to do but tedious. Itd be simple enough to build into the NPC frame some mechanic allowing full attack just like how it shows on the PC frame, or just fix it when they port over modules. Either way, if the discussion is automation, that's probably one of the lowest hanging fruit that would increase satisfaction imo

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

Apply the ally effect at the start of the game as GM and it stays forever...

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Good workaround. I'll do that.

If it's possible, a one-click "Select/Deselect all Allies within X yards" and "Select/Deselect all Enemies within X yards". Manually selecting and deselecting a bunch of targets each round can slow down the combat.

And if you really want to make it flexible, how about combining that into the "Draw Shape" in the map? "Select/Deselect all Allies within shape" and "Select/Deselect all Enemies within shape"? FG already computes all squares contained, to colorize them.. detecting a token within the shape wouldn't be such a stretch.

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Originally Posted by Corwan

If it's possible, a one-click "Select/Deselect all Allies within X yards" and "Select/Deselect all Enemies within X yards". Manually selecting and deselecting a bunch of targets each round can slow down the combat.

And if you really want to make it flexible, how about combining that into the "Draw Shape" in the map? "Select/Deselect all Allies within shape" and "Select/Deselect all Enemies within shape"? FG already computes all squares contained, to colorize them.. detecting a token within the shape wouldn't be such a stretch.

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You realize that it already does that with the map tools, right?

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

You realize that it already does that with the map tools, right?

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You realize that a bit less condescension, a bit more useful info would make that an actually helpful response, right?

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Originally Posted by Corwan

You realize that a bit less condescension, a bit more useful info would make that an actually helpful response, right?

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That was not my intent. My intent was to merely inform that the functionality is already built into the map tools that GMs and Players can both use. Granted, it's not in a "within x yards" capability.

Hey @deer_buster, so if @Corwan drew a circle on the map, how does he select all PCs/NPCs in the circle? I think I saw this done at one point, but I'm not sure the action/key combo to do this.

Click the targeting icon in the map tools and drag/select with it. Combat tracker will add those targets to the currently selected character in the combat tracker, or if you are a player doing it, to your combat tracker entry. If you are using AoE, it might even be better to select all enemies and deselect the ones outside of your AoE radius

I would like to see a priority on automation for things that apply 100% of the time to all characters. Here are a few examples:

Weapon Specialization- ALL PCs get this at third level. This seems like the perfect thing to automate - add the feat at 3rd level and add the bonus damage.

Trick Attack - every operative gets this, 100% of the time it’s needed. This could probably be automated to do much of it with one click “trick attack” that could attempt the skill vs enemy 20+CR, then on a hit apply the extra damage. Yes I know there are ways to set this up yourself (with multiple button/macros) but I’m having great difficulty getting it to work consistently with every update. One button might be a far off dream, but I will remain hopeful.

NPC full attack - still not sure why PCs can full attack but NPCs can’t. I would like to see the same automated option available. I do think this another one of those automations that would be used all the time.

I think level 1 and 2 features automations would be awesome as well.

But i miss the poison and disease track automation, at least all the effects pre-made. Now i have to search the book or the reference in FG and create my own effect and control the track anywhere else.

I would love to see automations on the modules - NPCs with ready tricks attacks, feats, etc working actions

I really love starfinder, i use all the available paizo mods and love it. So much beautiful content.

It already works great to me.

I've made a new thread for this since there is also stuff in there which wouldn't fit into the automation category, but here are my thoughts on the SFRPG ruleset

I would love to see a level dropdown on items.

Sometimes I just want to quickly find some level appropriate loot without digging into weapon and armor tables.

Adding on to the level pull down. When searching items if it would include templates? I am constantly reminding players they need to look in templets to find things when they search. I know the forge is to create a combination items from templates but players get kind of lost. (by the way not sure if it adds all the cost when I forge will check)

Grenades, although I understand why it hasn't (with the work-around being a custom "caster type"/spell).

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

For those that have voted FOR automation, if you have specific automation pain points, be sure to reply and list them out. That will help me prioritize them.

• Fix the Biohacker free skills - fixed in v 2.1.3
• Evolivolution's shopping list of fixes
• Automating class abilities, items, etc. onto the action tab - Under Consideration
• Automating spells on the spell tab - Under Consideration
• Character validation during creation - Planned
• Automate Weapon specialization - Under Consideration
• On ability score point buy, provide update on what is spent/left - Under Consideration
• SFS Character Validation - Under Consideration
• Crit Deck automation - Under Consideration

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Ability points buy or rolling for ability points is not working on Starfield Unity Character Sheet.

Would also like more automation involved with character creation.

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Originally Posted by deer_buster

For those that have voted FOR automation, if you have specific automation pain points, be sure to reply and list them out. That will help me prioritize them.

• Fix the Biohacker free skills - fixed in v 2.1.3
• Evolivolution's shopping list of fixes
• Automating class abilities, items, etc. onto the action tab - Under Consideration
• Automating spells on the spell tab - Under Consideration
• Character validation during creation - Planned
• Automate Weapon specialization - Under Consideration
• On ability score point buy, provide update on what is spent/left - Under Consideration
• SFS Character Validation - Under Consideration
• Crit Deck automation - Under Consideration

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Things related to skill points:

• Theme applies ability points but not skill points
• Unable to see what adds up to the Total column

It would be nice to see where circumstantial bonuses and penalties are coming from as well.
Like the Insight bonus to Engineering/Computers for Bypass on Mechanic.

• Effects table applying the effect.

I would like to see the ability to give NPC control to PC's without having to turn on Party View and Movement. Why bother having individual line of sight when any PC can , at any time, just click on another players token to see. This is a short term fix for things like polymorph and shape change. Long term I would like to actually see the correct functionality for those abilities. Such as replacing the PC token with the Creature's on the map and Combat Tracker and automatically replacing the stats on the character sheet or at least opening the creature stats.

Can we get a setting to make all tokens added to a combat map mask sensitive by default? this way I can add more monsters mid-combat if it's too easy for the PCs without them instantly knowing that's what I am up too.

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Originally Posted by MeepTheChangeling

Can we get a setting to make all tokens added to a combat map mask sensitive by default? this way I can add more monsters mid-combat if it's too easy for the PCs without them instantly knowing that's what I am up too.

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Not sure what you mean with mask sensitive but depending on your CT settings all NPCs and their tokens are GM visible by default.

Sorry I was super tired when I wrote that.

What I mean is that I always use the LOS feature, right? But when I add tokens to a map, they are always visible to players. I have to manually click them and make them mask sensitive. Which means my players always know the locations of enemies when any random encounter starts (since I can't prep them ahead of time). This defeats the purpose of LOS, so I was hoping people could make it so that all hostile tokens are Mask Sensitive by default... Mostly because people say it's a setting but there's nothing in options, and the Combat Tracker doesn't have a "default token behavior" option that I've found.

I may just be stupid? Could you explain the "CT Settings" Like I'm five? I'm running the Starfinder Ruleset.

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Originally Posted by MeepTheChangeling

Sorry I was super tired when I wrote that.

What I mean is that I always use the LOS feature, right? But when I add tokens to a map, they are always visible to players. I have to manually click them and make them mask sensitive. Which means my players always know the locations of enemies when any random encounter starts (since I can't prep them ahead of time). This defeats the purpose of LOS, so I was hoping people could make it so that all hostile tokens are Mask Sensitive by default... Mostly because people say it's a setting but there's nothing in options, and the Combat Tracker doesn't have a "default token behavior" option that I've found.

I may just be stupid? Could you explain the "CT Settings" Like I'm five? I'm running the Starfinder Ruleset.

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Try to change this so it looks like in the screenshot. It should make your tokens hidden as well and you can then choose to reveal them by clicking the icon for each individual NPC.
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