Idea for condition tracking on Version 0.90

Submitted by Nebulorum on Thu, 2009-02-12 22:38

I'm currently trying to get a way to handle condition that end due to time: End of next round, start of next round, etc. These have been the worst to keep track since they take a lot of looking and checking. Since some people have been giving some feedback I'll try to get some early feedback on my plan:

The new version will have the following:

  • A panel (like the initiative and damage panel) where you can "create" an effect. I have considered being only text, and maybe some check boxed to save you from typing.
  • From the condition panel you can "Add" the condition describe to a combatant
  • A small table with all the conditions that are active for that combatant.
  • From this table you can cancel any effect.
  • Since some conditions can change when you fail a save (like sleep and some poisons), so instead of modeling this, I'll allow users to edit the text of a condition (but not the end condition)
  • At the beginning and end of combatant turns these end conditions are checked, and any expired condition is cleaned.

Any ideas on how to make this better?

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Allow pre-created status effects

Submitted by fnwc on Thu, 2009-04-02 10:41.

It might be nice to be able to pre-create status effects with monsters/pcs so that you can apply them from a dropdown list.

For example, for an "Astral Stalker" you might create a status effect called "Throat Dart" which has the description "ongoing 5 poison and slowed" with duration "Save Ends".

You could then apply the "Throat Dart" status effect directly from a pre-defined list of effects for that particular monster.

Adding the ability to chain status effects based on "First Failed Save" and "Second Failed Save", along with adding the "Fail Save" action to these effects in the Active Effects window (next to Sustain and Cancel Effect) would make it even more powerful.

Some improvements on the way...

Submitted by Nebulorum on Sat, 2009-04-04 00:38.

Currently my plan is to have a capability of remembering effects, so for each combatant (or type of combatant) the Effect Panel would remember the last effect. This improves things a bit. Every time the fighter is up, his mark effect is there.

Ideally this should be associated to powers. But power produce all types of effects and sometimes they are very complex. Some powers are really trick (Warlock powers come to mind).

I'm trying to come up with somethings:

  1. Something that memorized effects, making it easy to recall all effect created (for that combatant).
  2. A faster and compact way of describing the effect. I'd like to have some simple input system (maybe keyboard based).

As for linked effects, this is also challenging, maybe with a more flexible input system this would be easy. Creating dynamic forms in the current UI is hard and I don't want to have complex dialog boxes in the interface.

As for "First Failed Save" and "Second Failed Save" cases I recommend using Save End Special, this reminds you that not saving will produce some changes.

Suggestion is to include a

Submitted by Losgann (not verified) on Wed, 2009-03-18 17:00.

Suggestion is to include a way to auto-calculate ongoing damage. Some effects and the like deliver ongoing damage to a character. At present I do not see a way to do this without having to remember to "damage" the character each round. If it was automated, this would be a great addition to the program.

Ongoing is tricky

Submitted by Nebulorum on Sat, 2009-04-04 00:48.

You are right, currently you have to manually apply damage. However tracking ongoing in a totally automated fashion is trick (see this comment).

My first alternative is to add a reminder to the DM, and maybe even let the DM tell what damage to be applied. But this required some changed in the internal logic that are not very simple. But they are coming since this is also need to remind of Saving throws and power recharges for monster.