Should SW look into adding key extension features?

[LordEntrails]

I don't know how much of the user base engages with extensions vs those who don't. It would be cool if there were stats for that if it was even possible outside of seeing forge subscription numbers.
I can only say I use them and I have grown to significantly value their function.
Like Silent Ruin said, it is hard to give up functionality you liked/grew used to after you had it. Given I am just one guy in an apparent minority of FGU users that use extensions, so I won't say I expect to sway SW decision making. I just know I will look for a VTT that gives me the functionality I want.

Well, one way to get a ROM of these numbers is to look at the number of forum subscribers, ~470k. Since FGU users need a forum account its a starting place.
The number of active users we can guess at 25-50%. And another guess would be GMs might be 20% of those. So maybe between 23k to 47k GMs.
Player Agency is the most subscribed extension at 2458.

So, order of magnitude, 5-10% of GMs have that extension.
Maybe half of them use it? (i.e. I have it but don't use it.)
Not trivial, but also not a must have for most folks.
Note, only 7 extensions have more than 1k subscribers. So extension use drops off quickly.

IMO, extensions are important to the community and health of FG, but only in terms of us diehards. But, that is important because we are the most vocal supporters of the platform and word of mouth is probably the biggest driver of new sales.

[claedawg]

Player Agency is the most subscribed extension at 2458.

I would say Player Agency is a requirement if you are running a hexcrawl or point crawl. It is the best way to share info with the players and keep GM notes on the same "document" for places and people on an overland or city map.

[Cyrian]

This gets to the very heart of the original post. Some of you are saying there are critical extensions that you have grown to love and essentially not live without. I run multiple games weekly and would be interested in expanded capabilities, especially when I hear how much you guys love some of these. However, I'm in the camp of not wanting to be hassled with extensions potentially breaking when there are game updates, so I tend to just not use extensions.

If there's a quick drop-off in usage in the top extensions, it seems like those few top picks would be the prime candidates for the OP's inquiry of how to get those incorporated in the SW ruleset.

[Morenu]

This gets to the very heart of the original post. Some of you are saying there are critical extensions that you have grown to love and essentially not live without. I run multiple games weekly and would be interested in expanded capabilities, especially when I hear how much you guys love some of these. However, I'm in the camp of not wanting to be hassled with extensions potentially breaking when there are game updates, so I tend to just not use extensions.

If there's a quick drop-off in usage in the top extensions, it seems like those few top picks would be the prime candidates for the OP's inquiry of how to get those incorporated in the SW ruleset.

Well thats my thinking entirely. if x percentage of users of a fully supported SW ruleset subscribe to an extension, then IMO it would be in SW interest for at least some of them, to reach out to the creator and see if they are interested in handing it off, perhaps offering a discount = to what SW makes from store products or less (so SW loses no money but coder gets a monetary benefit). obviously it depends on a lot of variables, but if an extension is popular among the people that use extensions of a ruleset, then to me it would be popular with most users if add to FG code.

Obviously if it is a paid for extension then to creator may not wish to share their code due to that. although it may be that focusing on the top extensions may mean that the extension sales have dried up a good bit and the creator may prefer to not have to continue updating / answering questions.

anyway, I hope that this topic did not cause any issues / hard feelings as it was in no way my intension. I just know there is no way I would be ok DMing or playing in a vanilla FGU at this point.

[LordEntrails]

Well thats my thinking entirely. if x percentage of users of a fully supported SW ruleset subscribe to an extension, then IMO it would be in SW interest for at least some of them, to reach out to the creator and see if they are interested in handing it off, perhaps offering a discount = to what SW makes from store products or less (so SW loses no money but coder gets a monetary benefit). obviously it depends on a lot of variables, but if an extension is popular among the people that use extensions of a ruleset, then to me it would be popular with most users if add to FG code.

Obviously if it is a paid for extension then to creator may not wish to share their code due to that. although it may be that focusing on the top extensions may mean that the extension sales have dried up a good bit and the creator may prefer to not have to continue updating / answering questions.

Doug addressed this in the second half of his response in post #11 https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post724832

[SilentRuin]

Word to the wise, there is no reason they would want to maintain someone else's code and incur that kind of work load.

First, most extension devs are bat shite crazy in their coding - one need only look at their code.

No way do SW devs want that kind of code maintenance dropped on them.

Second, some of us have told them TAKE THE CODE PLEASE... but they are not so easily fooled into taking up that kind of time sink where they have to delve into crazy code and try to figure out what to do when it stops working.

You have a better chance of showing them what is lacking with current FGU - show them solutions in extension land that fill that lacking area - and ask them to fix it. Most of those "solutions" extensions preset are also preference solutions that has many possible solutions (Problem is to wishy washy to solve perfectly and in one true solution).

Though with their limited resources, and their recognition that a lot of extensions fill lacking areas of FGU that are not easily or perfectly solved, they will likely not get around to most of those lacking areas.

Plus you have to have a harder edge with your user base than they are willing to do as a friendly business.

My powers of NO to all requests are renown. They don't have that. They will say - add it to the request list

A sort of No, but still, they are friendly about it

[damned]

If an RPG had rules that were actual rules and didnt have exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions it could be coded fully.
Sadly these RPGs are not the ones that people play so the rulesets will cover most of the use cases most of the time and that is fair enough.

Agreed with Silent Ruin - he at least knows how to code - I am a hack and my coding shows that to be very true.
SW will sometimes take the "idea" from an extension but they will usually not take the code because they code in a very specific manner and tend to be more rigorous in error capture etc than some hacks like me.

[LordEntrails]

PirateCode.png

[Navigat0r]

Player Agency is the most subscribed extension at 2458.

When I use no other filters, the most subscribed extension that comes up when searching on the forge is the Aura Effect extension at 5390 subscribers. Player agency shows up as the 9th most popular extension. I quickly looked through 5 pages of results (50 items) and each item still had above 1000 subscribers. Granted, some of the items were map/portrait packs but there were still many more than 7 extensions to be found in the top 50 items. I am not sure how to exclude maps from the search results.

EDIT: Upon closer inspection it may be more accurate to say the 8th most popular extension on the forge as out of the top 10 items one is a skin rather than an extension. I also noticed that Played Agency is the only item in the top 10 with the "any ruleset" tag. The rest are specific to certain rulesets.

[SilentRuin]

Free Extensions? BAH.

The only way to keep the general riff-raff off your extension is to put a price on it.

Though sales can open that gate... still...

KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED!!!!! Its a way to stay sane for the author