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User Info for Pygon

Joined: May 22nd, 2009
Location: Fenton, MI
Posts: 261

Recent posts:

Big Thanks and a Suggestion (September 1st, 2010 11:19 PM):

That I can do. EDIT: And done. You can expect that in the next upload this weekend.

Big Thanks and a Suggestion (August 24th, 2010 9:04 PM):

Awesome, glad to hear it.

Big Thanks and a Suggestion (August 24th, 2010 4:16 PM):

Excellent, Lord. Is your campaign going well?

Lost the "Mark Enemy" arrow? (August 14th, 2010 12:39 AM):

hmm, so, does this also mean that you not only want the arrows leading to the icon to go away, but also the ones leading from it? (A dead warlock can no longer keep a target cursed, for example). Removing them from combat is another one (but you don't want to do that with icons that you are using to represent a group of mooks - 8 thugs using only one as the init rep, for example).

Lost the "Mark Enemy" arrow? (August 13th, 2010 7:45 AM):

Hmm, checking... You're right. For whatever reason, the option to mark was removed. I made sure it's visible again. It will be in the TTop 107 upload. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. The Clear All Conditions option is at the bottom of the conditions menu (C). I don't have a Clear All arrows options combined with the Clear All conditions, they are separate. Would you like that option added?

Just started (August 9th, 2010 8:06 PM):

There is a Getting Started page, the link is available in the chat window when you first run TTop. Are you saying you've set up a campaign and icons, and you can't reload them? FYI, TTop doesn't come with ANY campaigns or graphics preloaded at all. Also, there are a number of Tech Support stickied threads on this board that discuss a lot of functions in detail.

Curiousity regarding Variable in TTop (July 4th, 2010 3:01 AM):

There isn't any macro-driven way of causing variables to be assigned at this time. It's all done manually through the right click menus.

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (June 5th, 2010 7:09 PM):

Well again, remember there is always only 1 path or 1 arrow at a time. New ones erase the old. That's the compromise I came up with.

Running this on a Local Area Network only (June 1st, 2010 7:03 PM):

You just need to provide that machine's local IP address to the other clients. Otherwise they can connect the same way as on the internet. Bear in mind I've only tested on my own network which just has a router, a workstation and a laptop. I don't know what other tricky situations can arise on a LAN, so I recommend testing with your own network first. Also, make sure everyone has .NET 3.5, the C++ redistributable, the same version of TTopRPG, and that they can run it successfully on their machines before attempting this.

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (June 1st, 2010 5:01 PM):

Map clutter is one of the main reasons I only allow 1 arrow and 1 path at a time. I'd rather not put a timer on them, because you never know how long they need to be there. Ending combat, advancing the turn or entering a new round are also not a guarantee that they are no longer needed. Note that the Clear Attack Arrow and Clear Path menu options in the right click menu only affect your screen, not anyone else's. So even if the players clean up after themselves, it only cleans their own screen.

Question regarding Damage (May 25th, 2010 11:33 PM):

Hmm, good point. I can add a Setting that hides that notification. Or perhaps just change it to "X takes damage" without reporting the amount. Do you have a preference? The same setting will also affect healing amounts. The GM will always see all the numbers. The setting only affects healing and damage events on monsters. PC icons will always show all the numbers. EDIT: For now, I've implemented it as described. Kinda nifty.

Five Minute Time-Outs (May 25th, 2010 11:32 PM):

no problem, I'm glad it doesn't always happen.

Multiple GMs (May 23rd, 2010 11:51 PM):

I'm happy to report I've assigned the player freedom of damaging and healing their own icons. It's not at a Co-GM level yet, but it's a start.

Five Minute Time-Outs (May 18th, 2010 11:49 PM):

hi ffan, sorry for your troubles. Occasionally I do see those kinds of things happening. I haven't been able to track down the real source of the problem yet. I know it seems like an odd coincidence that it happens after 5 minutes, but I can't find anything wrong with the timeout code at this point. I'm keeping an eye on it, and will certainly hammer in a fix once I can figure out what's happening there. But since the problem is unpredictable and hard to replicate, I'm having a difficult time examining the problem. Maybe I can find a way to have TTop spit out a log file of network activity so that a user can email the log to me next time something like that happens. This problem isn't specific to 103. Nothing in the network code changed in that release. What's confusing about it is that the timer resets whenever a packet is received from the other side. So either no packet is being received, or the timer isn't resetting for some reason. A question: When the timeouts start, within the frame of it counting 1, 2, 3, are you able to see each other's chat messages? Another question is, do both sides complain about losing connection, or just one side?

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (May 16th, 2010 9:04 PM):

Here's another question. Say I allow players to place their own area effects (circles, boxes, etc.). Naturally the GM should be allowed to remove or modify any area effect he wants. Should a player be allowed to modify or remove another player's area effect?

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (May 16th, 2010 3:13 PM):

Not that I don't plan to add the players' ability to modify their health and damage (should be one of the easier things to add), but when you roll the dice to determine damage, if the GM's rolls are private, the players won't see it. That means you have to either expend the effort to tell them how much damage they take over chat, or just apply the damage yourself. If you're playing over a voice chat like Skype, you can just tell them directly, which of course is less effort than applying it yourself. In the coming weeks I'll be adding some of these things, but I'll be treading very carefully. I don't want what seems to look like a 1 hour change to turn into a day of analysis.

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (May 9th, 2010 4:56 PM):

I had a vote for players adding their summoned monsters. I'm not sure about how to allow players to freely upload graphics, though. I might want the GM to approve a graphic before it is uploaded. I expect it would just get placed in the campaign monster list.

Should TTop allow more player freedom? (May 8th, 2010 10:22 AM):

Many times the kind of feedback I get from TTop users is to allow players to place and maintain almost all of the same kind of objects that right now only GMs can place. Some of the main reasons I restrict player options so much is to prevent things like doodling, cluttering the playfield with unnecessary graphics, or wantonly modifying icon stats while the GM is trying to run the session. In your experience as GMs using other VTTs, has such freedom ever been a problem for you? If not, I may consider starting to open up the player options in TTop, even though it would take a substantial amount of work to do so. I suppose at the very least it can be a switch that the GM can turn on and off, or a group of several options so that it can be customized.

Multiple GMs (May 5th, 2010 5:02 AM):

Thanks, I do what I can. The easy stuff is, well, easy.

Multiple GMs (May 5th, 2010 2:51 AM):

And Remove all Markers (GM Only) is done. It will be in the next upload. Looks like you want to allow a player to remove all their markers, too. I'll see what I can do there. And.. that's done too.

Multiple GMs (May 5th, 2010 2:29 AM):

That I can certainly do. I'll also consider trying to get some co-DM stuff working one small piece at a time.

Multiple GMs (May 3rd, 2010 12:44 AM):

Yeah, I agree. This is one of those things where forward planning is very important when developing an application so that upgrading at a later time is much easier. I don't know how well other VTTs out there support multiple simultaneous DMs. As I built TTop from the ground up, it never really took on the ability to support "career" online referees with large libraries of graphics, campaigns or complex large-scale needs during a session. Most users seemed happy with the simpler fewer function approach, although if/when I get multi-DM running, I don't expect it to bloat the interface at all.

Multiple GMs (May 2nd, 2010 4:06 PM):

I don't think that's enough to give the Co-DM access, though. There is also the matter of sending a network packet telling the main DM that an icon is being added, etc. None of that has been coded yet. Adding icons was always and only the Host's domain. I'm not even sure I can realistically add the ability to assign damage without leaving a lot of bugs open - there are a LOT of places where the code checks to see if you are a player or a GM. A lot of those locations would have to be modified to allow the co-DM to see invisible icons, access the damage menu, etc. It looks like even the simplest implementation of this won't be so simple.

Multiple GMs (May 2nd, 2010 6:54 AM):

If they had the same list, then supposedly yes. The phrase "same list" involves more than just a few text files being copied though.

Multiple GMs (May 2nd, 2010 2:49 AM):

Ok. I can't promise anything soon. Work is really draining me lately. But I'll see what I can do. If you see no evidence of it being done for a while, don't be surprised. I already know trying to add icons from the exported list will be a problem, since those files are on the host machine and TTop isn't geared to send that list to any other machine.

Multiple GMs (May 2nd, 2010 2:05 AM):

I can see where that would be a big help. Sadly, TTop makes some assumptions in many areas about certain object types, knowing that only the Host will be working with them. In order for multiple GMs to be supported, all that code would have to be worked on. That's quite a task for me at this time. This certainly isn't the first time I've had this request. If it would be an easy thing, I probably would have had it done by now. But sorry, I don't think it can be reasonably accomplished right now I may be able to support multiple GMs in a more abbreviated fashion though. Can you be specific about the kinds of things you would hope another GM could do during the session? Examples of easy things would be: Broadcasting room descriptions, assigning damage or healing, setting data on icons (not the graphics). Hard things would be: Working on maps (adding, modifying), adding graphics (icons, textures), etc. Not that the easy things are easy, mind you. I still can't promise anything.

Combat "Timer" (May 1st, 2010 7:38 PM):

I uploaded the exception fix in TTop 102. Also, the timer will now disappear 30 seconds after reaching 00:00.

HTML in macros and chat (April 24th, 2010 12:16 AM):

hi Neo. I'm afraid TTop doesn't support html in macros or chat. This isn't something I would plan to add for some time. At least for now.

Combat "Timer" (April 17th, 2010 5:47 AM):

I did find one potential program error. If you have the Settings screen open and the seconds field is blank or filled with letters, and combat is started and it's a PC Icon's turn, and someone joins the game, the app will try to build a Settings message to send to the joiner and fail because "" and "abc", etc. can't evaluate to an integer. Not a common error, but I'll fix it for the next upload.

Combat "Timer" (April 15th, 2010 11:21 PM):

I uploaded it - give it a try!

Combat "Timer" (April 15th, 2010 4:58 PM):

I didn't know you were in New Zealand. Cool

Combat "Timer" (April 14th, 2010 1:16 AM):

And.. it works! It supports up to 10 minutes. When the timer starts, everyone can see it. When it's a monster's turn, the timer doesn't change at all. That way, an invisible monster can take its turn without the players having a clue. When 10 seconds are left, it turns red. When it expires it just sits there as "00:00" It's kind of sloppy though - if someone joins while it's a player's turn, their timer will start at full. But, it's functional. Chances are I'll upload it Friday night so you can try it out.

Combat "Timer" (April 13th, 2010 5:50 PM):

Hmm. This could be a Setting where you enter how many minutes a player has to decide. Then, the moment a player's turn starts, a timer counts down in a little window on the screen. It won't throw up warnings or beep or anything, and will disappear when it expires. I'll see if I can code this up tonight.

Star Wars Saga RPG? (March 29th, 2010 1:41 AM):

I put some minor support for Saga in TTop, notably how it counts squares. But that's about it. There is a condition track in Saga, but I haven't implemented anything like that yet.

Big Thanks and a Suggestion (March 24th, 2010 11:29 PM):

Great, zethorn. I can't respond to all requests, but let me know how it works for you.

If you could describe TTopRPG in a few words... (March 13th, 2010 11:59 PM):

Thanks dragonlady. I still have about a month before I need to finalize the ad. I can add more text to it easily. The background graphic itself is set. This is what it looks like so far: TTop Wayfinder #3 Ad 2010 and if that one doesn't work... TTop Wayfinder #3 Ad 2010 I've since added "Perfect, versatile..." and "Simple, robust, intuitive..." And as a joke, "If I ran Windows, I'd use it..."

If you could describe TTopRPG in a few words... (March 6th, 2010 11:16 PM):

Oh well, since I couldn't get more than one testimony from users, and putting just "...perfect...versatile" on the ad didn't seem like enough, I just put in a title and link on the ad. Thank you anyway, Lord.

If you could describe TTopRPG in a few words... (February 26th, 2010 1:42 AM):

Wow, most kind works Lord. Thanks! I hope your campaign is going well.

If you could describe TTopRPG in a few words... (February 19th, 2010 2:13 AM):

I have an opportunity to put an ad for TTop in Wayfinder #3 (a fan book put together by Paizo fans). I might include small testimonials in the advertisement. What words would you use to describe TTop? Thanks for any contributions!

Visibility of Dungeon Rooms (February 14th, 2010 12:26 AM):

Whoops, I missed this post! Yes, that's correct. Before I introduced lighting, the usual way of hosting campaigns was to keep the rest of the map hidden and reveal it as players explore. That doesn't change with the addition of lighting. You should still hide the map and reveal it as players explore.