It will retain the state of the item,. I think I wrote it because it would change the state to "identified". This would turn that off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ampersandrew
I could be wrong, it's been a while since I wrote it.
It will retain the state of the item,. I think I wrote it because it would change the state to "identified". This would turn that off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ampersandrew
I could be wrong, it's been a while since I wrote it.
As far as I can see, that extension is for people who want everything identified. If you turn it on it identifies the few things that are currently unidentified. If you turn it off it leaves everything the way it finds it. There is no option to take the large majority of identified things and make them unidentified. Perhaps I'm having a reading comprehension issue but it seems to me to be the complete opposite of what's being asked for.Quote:
Originally Posted by celestian
Although, presumably, since it exists it could be used as the basis for an extension that makes identified things unidentified.
This is an old thread, but I 100% agree with the OP. Would love to have everything default to non-ID (or be able to choose the default behavior).
If you don't remember to non-ID NPCs (or other objects), you can easily reveal info to the PCs that they shouldn't have.
"Oh, so that bandit is really Mr. Campaign Big Boss" in disguise! Guess we should go after him first"
"Sadly that Mr. Campaign Big Boss you just killed was a clone."
I usually find myself having to rework a module that I have purchased. I have to go in and set the Identified/Unidentified flag to Unidentified for most of the NPCs, Maps, and Items (I’ll call them “things”, below).
There are subtleties here that I’ve been trying to deal with for a while:
* The ID’ed/unID’ed flag is actually tri-state; when a thing that has the flag (e.g. NPCs, Maps & Items) is created, the flag has no set value, it is neither ID’ed nor unID’ed. It’s “undetermined”. Once set by the user, to ID’ed or unID’ed, it cannot be unset to “undetermined” except by hand editing some XML. FG for the most part handles undetermined as an equivalent of ID’ed.
* When one decides to set the flag to unID’ed, one should also ensure they’ve given the thing a Non-ID’ed Name and if appropriate, as with an Item, a brief Notes description. FG does provide a default name of “Unidentified < thing >” if the Non-ID’ed field is empty.
* The portrait/Combat Tracker icon/map token also needs to be addressed. As mentioned earlier in this thread, letters are good, and the value usually remains intact should the DM not have the appropriate module open, if a picture/drawing style icon is used.
* The Encounter builder is particularly frustrating. I’ve yet to determine what is loaded into the Name field for a nonID’ed NPC when the NPC is dragged into the builder. I just haven’t spent enough time nailing it down. (This might be a case where FG does not equate undetermined with ID’ed, I’m not sure.)
* The Combat Tracker is equally frustrating. When the CT is loaded by an Encounter and there are nonID’ed NPCs involved the Names in the CT can be confusing. I cannot recall for sure whether the Names are different for the player than the DM or whether the Name field is the unID’ed Name. In either case it’s problematic. Trying to run an encounter when what you see as the DM is “Unidentified Creature”, especially if all of them are not the same type of creature, can be challenging. Or equally so, if the player sees, “Humanoid” and the DM sees the human names (Fred, Mike, Joe, and George).
It’s my opinion that an extension that is going to set multiple thing ID fields at once should have some options as to which things to modify. For instance if you have several modules open you might not want to change every NPC in every module to Unidentified. You might also not want to change those that are not “undetermined” (because you’ve already addressed them once before).