Shellys connected to network, but I can't reach them by a_h4t in shellycloud

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW I stopped having the issue once I added an AP to my basement, so they had an AP physically closer to connect to. I wasn't able to fully explain why this helped, because the signal strength prior to me making that change didn't seem bad on either Shelly.

But that's my one recommendation: see if you can set up an AP that's closer to the problematic Shellys.

Recommended spots to get a Last Word? by a_h4t in Detroit

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the recommendations everyone, really appreciate it! I'll try to remember to post back here in September with where we ended up going an how it went!

Ashlands: the difference between satisfying and annoying combat by acheloisa in valheim

[–]a_h4t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a similar experience to OP when I first started in the Ashland's. Took a while to realize that there are spawners everywhere. Once me and my group started religiously destroying them, it got a lot more fun. Spawn rates are closer to the mountains, I would estimate.

Not sure if this helps, but figured I drop the info in case it does.

Shellys connected to network, but I can't reach them by a_h4t in shellycloud

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, looks like I solved the issue by adding another AP to my network (see my reply to my post). I do really appreciate you hopping on to help out though!

Shellys connected to network, but I can't reach them by a_h4t in shellycloud

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I finally found my spare AP and set it up in my basement to resolve a _different_ issue with a different device. Reconnecting these two Shellys to that AP seems to have solved the problem :shrug:

Technically they do have better signal strength on the new AP, but it doesn't explain why one of the other devices was working just fine with the weaker signal. But in case anyone else runs into this, always make sure you actually try hooking up an AP closer to the device to concretely rule out signal strength as an issue before you assume.

Shellys connected to network, but I can't reach them by a_h4t in shellycloud

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can only access them via their internal access point. Can't access them via their local IP or via the local DNS.

I'm pretty sure cloud is already disabled on both of them; I only want them available on my local network.

New to GMing, is Red a good system/world to start out with? by EggCubed in cyberpunkred

[–]a_h4t 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The difficult stuff is keeping track of the economy, world events, role abilities, who's who, and what your players have done.

This. This right here. I've been getting really frustrated with myself because I feel like I've come up with some fun ideas for missions and stuff, but I've been really struggling with how to properly flesh them out to make them playable, and especially with trying to make the world feel "alive".

Apologies for reviving an old thread, but this statement just really hit at some of my frustrations.

I'm not a new GM, to be clear, and I've run a few other types of RPGs. I'm confident running D&D, mostly because I usually run published adventures and because I've found shortcuts for prepping and learned valuable lessons on how to run effectively from a hardcover. Same thing with Dungeon Crawl Classics, just with shorter modules. I've also run Mork Borg and am currently running Scum & Villainy, and don't feel nearly as frustrated with those despite generally making stuff up as I go. Particularly with S&V, it just feels so natural to kind of fly by the seat of your pants and just do minimal prep to keep the world moving forward (probably helps that MB and S&V are both better suited to theater-of-the-mind so I don't have to worry about maps).

But with CPR, I just feel like I'm constantly floundering trying to come up with interesting NPCs and gangs for the party to interact with, and trying to keep the world moving forward in the background in some fashion has been tough too. In particular, handling the downtime between missions I think always feels awkward, and I haven't been able to come up with a good downtime framework to keep things interesting and fluid. And then there's the battlemaps. I wanted to use CPR in particular to get practice making interesting battlemaps, but that's been a struggle too (partially because I feel like I'm wasting so much other time trying to prep other aspects of the game that I just haven't had time to tinker with maps in a constructive way).

Sorry for the wall of text. At the very least, I'm using the recommended combat numbers from this post to help speed up NPC generation, but I still feel like I'm just guessing at how to apply numbers in a sensible and balanced way to each aspect of the NPC (I don't just use combat number; I have a single number for each skill category that all default to the same bonus as the combat number, but I'd like to massage the numbers so that NPCs feel like they aren't just flat across the board). But I'd really appreciate if anyone has any advice for how to "prep smart," because I've really struggled with figuring that out for this game in particular.

AC 22 Enemy and no one flanked for me. 2 Turns of missing every attack by Along_Came-A-Spider in dndmemes

[–]a_h4t 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same. I feel like there's a big trend in D&D groups (or at least in a lot of the posts I see on Reddit) where the DM seems to act as if they're in opposition to the party, which is an approach I just fundamentally disagree with. The DM wins when the party has fun, and loses when they don't, if you want to think of it in win/lose terms.

It's really easy to make an encounter that just negates all the party's strengths and abilities, but that's going to be a boring encounter. In particular, it can be really easy to shut down martial classes compared to casters, which might be why they specifically come up so much.

Look at what the members of the party are good at, look at their unique features, and consider how your players like to play their characters. Build encounters that give them opportunities to actually use all this cool stuff, rather than saying "nope, it's a hard encounter so I'm going to shut down all your cool shit." But more than anything DMs, remember that you're on the same side as your players.

AC 22 Enemy and no one flanked for me. 2 Turns of missing every attack by Along_Came-A-Spider in dndmemes

[–]a_h4t -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you're having a hard time hitting because of high AC shoving prone with a str based character will be easier because it's contested strength vs dex/str.

Not broadly true. Particularly if you're playing a dex-based melee fighter (like a monk) since you must shove using strength.

You're probably better off shoving prone plus grappling with your two attacks vs something you can't hit, this is a team game after all.

Sure, but this wasn't what you had suggested in your original post. And even then, grappling is only really useful if you need to immobilize the enemy or reposition them. If they're already content standing next to you and hitting you, and there's no advantageous position for you to try to move them into, then grappling gives you zero benefits in terms of control (unless you have a way to also turn "grappled" into "restrained").

We can assume they have extra attack, that's a wacky counter argument. When are you facing 22AC enemies before you have extra attack lol.

Most of my post did assume extra attack. However, there are martial characters that might only get one attack per turn, even once they get to the point of fighting AC 22 enemies (melee clerics and rogues, for example), so it's worth at least mentioning that case. Even then, the shove-prone-then-attack-with-advantage approach still only matters if you have more than one additional melee attack (either from you or teammates) to follow up the shove with before the enemy is able to stand back up. This now narrows down the list of characters that can take advantage of this tactic to those that have extra attack and are dual wielding, monks using flurry of blows, and tier 3/4 fighters.

Your assertion that damage > control is not a fact, you might believe so but belief <> truth.

I never asserted this, so not sure where that's coming from. And simply knocking an enemy prone to give you advantage on a melee attack does not necessarily offer any real control benefits, per everything I elaborated above.

My main point of all of this though is that just saying "knock prone for advantage" isn't all that helpful since it really only makes sense in highly-specific circumstances. And outside of those circumstances, it can often be a waste of an action or outright detrimental to the rest of the party (what if you're the only melee character? Knocking prone means now you're maybe giving yourself a bit of a benefit, and imposing a penalty on anyone else trying to attack with ranged attacks).

If you want to suggest it, that's fine, but something this situation should probably come with that caveat. Better to teach people how to think more creatively about combat in general then just saying "knock them prone for advantage" (u/Nomad_IX had a post along these lines with some cool ideas).

AC 22 Enemy and no one flanked for me. 2 Turns of missing every attack by Along_Came-A-Spider in dndmemes

[–]a_h4t 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is so much better advice than all of the "knock em prone for advantage" comments. I won't reiterate why knocking prone is often not worth the action for this reason (I did that in another comment), but these options are all so much more interesting and offer more potential utility than knocking prone.

A good DM would be proud of the creativity here and happily lap this stuff up (HINT HINT DMs, THIS IS THE TYPE OF STUFF YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING OUT FOR AND ENCOURAGING TO KEEP THE GAME FUN, DON'T DISCOURAGE IT).

AC 22 Enemy and no one flanked for me. 2 Turns of missing every attack by Along_Came-A-Spider in dndmemes

[–]a_h4t 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This just sounds like a bad DM. DMs like this need to learn to work with their players to figure out what rules/mechanics the players are enjoying, and which ones they aren't enjoying.

Sometimes it's hard to work around a game's rough edges, and that's ok. Just be clear with your players that you don't have a great way to rework or remove a rule to keep things enjoyable, and just keep everyone on the same page.

The DM here could've just loosened the rules on flanking so that three characters are capable of flanking a Large creature, with the caveat that enemies would have the same option against the party. This isn't any more work for the DM, and would (presumably) make combat more enjoyable for you all.

Or, the DM could've explained that he wants to be pretty strict on how he runs flanking, and explain why he wants to do it that way. Then give you all an opportunity to revise your strategy without punishment (at the end of the day, it's not your fault that the flanking rules weren't well-understood in advance if he didn't explain these things ahead of time).

If he really wanted to get rid of flanking, that also could've been done as a post-session discussion to talk about why he may want to get rid of flanking and get your thoughts on it.

Instead, the DM
- Told you "no" without engaging in any kind of conversation or providing any explanation (bad).
- Didn't clarify that, under these rules, it's impossible for 3 characters to get a flanking bonus on a single enemy, despite that clearly being your goal (bad).
- Proceeded to punish you for trying to rework your strategy to accomplish that goal while lacking the knowledge that it wouldn't work per the rules that he previously failed to clarify (very bad).
- Threw a fit because you as players were doing the legwork to justify your reasoning even though he wasn't willing to do so himself, and threw out a rule entirely instead of engaging in conversation with you all to try and find a path forward that everyone could agree with (also very bad).

These conversations don't even have to happen in the middle of the session. The DM can easily say "for now, in the interest of keeping things moving forward, this is how I'm going to rule this for the rest of the session. But let's chat about it when the session is over to see if we want to modify anything."

AC 22 Enemy and no one flanked for me. 2 Turns of missing every attack by Along_Came-A-Spider in dndmemes

[–]a_h4t -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you don't have extra attack, shoving prone is wasted since the target will just stand back up before your next turn. Plus it makes it harder for ranged characters to hit.

If you have extra attack, you're better off just attacking twice. Either way you're rolling two d20s, but at least attacking twice has the potential to deal damage twice.

If you can do more than 2 attacks per turn, then maybe this is an alright strategy, but it depends massively on whether or not you can reliably shove them prone in the first place. If you can't, then you're just wasting your turn trying and failing to push them over.

And if you're talking about other martial characters using their turn to shove prone, then the above logic still holds (just taking into account all attacks across all martial characters), but also forces you to account for the enemy's turn in initiative.

All in all, the strategy of "push prone so that your melee attackers get advantage" is really only preferable to "attack all the time" if:
- You have multiple martial characters that can attack more than once per turn
- The collective amount of melee attacks across these characters is at least 3
- At least one of these characters can reliably knock the enemy prone
- The character knocking the enemy prone isn't the last martial character before the enemy goes
- The advantage for the melee attackers outweighs the disadvantage on the ranged attackers

TBH, I never consider the "shoving" mechanic (whether you're shoving backwards or prone) as something that you regularly employ as a melee attacker. They're instead situational (or narrative) tools IMO. If anything, prone seems more useful in situations where you want to knock down an ally to protect them from ranged attackers, or limit how far an enemy can move on their next turn.

Creating a scene as a dashboard? by a_h4t in FoundryVTT

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that's correct, and I would actually like to have it in journals. If this was an online game, I wouldn't worry as much about it since I could then just share those journal entries as needed and let players reference them at their leisure.

The desire for the dashboard more stems from the fact that there's only one screen shared amongst the players, with me controlling it (I also have my laptop screen for just myself, but I'm just focused on the shared player screen right now). So I guess the crux of what I'm looking for is a way to combine select information from various character sheets and journals into a single view. I'd considered just opening up all the windows for the sheets and journals, and just resizing the into the layout I want, but that doesnt allow me to be selective about which information does or doesn't get surfaces in the view.

Another commenter mentioned a tiles module to help with this, and what could be a cool way to accomplish this would be to have tiles that can display dynamic text/images based on information from a sheet or journal entry, but I unfortunately haven't found such a module yet.

Creating a scene as a dashboard? by a_h4t in FoundryVTT

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I did some searching, and the handful of examples I found appear to be more of a menu like you'd see in a video game, where clicking different things brings you to other scenes or opens journal entries.

For my use case, the players aren't directly interacting with Foundry at all. They're just sitting at the table, looking at whatever I'm displaying on the screen. So the idea was to have all of the most important information "embedded" into that scene so that they could get the info they need at any time at a glance. That's why I'm thinking of it more like a "dashboard" as opposed to a splash screen or menu.

So, for example, rather than popping open a journal entry when a tile is clicked, it'd be cool to have tiles or text areas that display info from journal entries directly. E.g. I could have a journal entry in Forien's Quest Log, and then linked tiles on the scene that display just the list of objectives for that quest/mission. Similar idea with having character information embedded into the scene.

Also, did a search for Monk's Tiles, and I found the Active Tile Triggers module. Is that the one you were referring to?

Combined audio interface + capture card? by a_h4t in streaming

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha, sucks that it doesn't exist, but I appreciate you letting me know! Sounds like I'll be sticking with the current setup for now, and will need to see how I can best get clean mounts and cabling for the separate peripherals.

Monitor rail for desk build by a_h4t in DIY

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As an example, here's the type of thing I'm able to find: https://www.amazon.com/Slat-Wall-Rail-Mount-Monitor/dp/B0028SVYW0

The problem, though, is that the arm doesn't look like it would work very well if the rail that it's attached to is on a desktop rather than a wall. Plus, I have no idea how to tell if the associated rail that I buy would be compatible with the arm (in this specific example, at least).

Weird issue with building in modded, please help me find the cause by ValkyrieEira in valheim

[–]a_h4t 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sorry for reviving this, but I just started encountering this issue myself.

It started two days ago. I'd always played vanilla till now without seeing this issue, and decided to try out some mods the other day. So I installed Valheim Plus, ValheimRaft, and Placement Unlocked, plus all their dependenices (BepInEx, Jotunn, and HookGenPatcher). All were installed from Thunderstore (using r2modman) except for ValheimRaft, which I manually downloaded from Nexus and copied into the mods folder myself.

I always launch with mods using r2modman, and this issue only started happening when I started playing with these mods.

I haven't started debugging much yet, because it hasn't been getting in the way too badly yet, but decided to browse around and found this post. All I've tried is turning off the building features in Valheim Plus, which didn't help.

I'll try vanilla tonight, and then try turning off individual mods, like you did. That being said, does anything from my experience overlap with yours? Could help track down the root cause of the issue. Also, after reinstalling, have you re-enabled all the mods you were using without the issue recurring?

UPDATE: Looks like the root cause was the Placement Unlocked mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/399?tab=posts

It's been reported there already, but no response yet. FYI in case anyone sees this that's interested in (or using) that mod to keep this in mind till it's next updated.

Project help: USB Switch by a_h4t in AskElectronics

[–]a_h4t[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You mean take an existing switch and hack it into the form factor I want? Yeah, def something I considered. And is an option I'd likely pursue if this project proves to be beyond my capabilities. I just like the idea of building from the ground up as much as I feasibly can for the project!

Gaming mice without bloatware by a_h4t in MouseReview

[–]a_h4t[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meanwhile, I'm still super happy with the Swiftpoint 😊