[REQUEST] Continuum initiative

Hi folks, I'm looking for someone to help me with a script that will allow combat turns to be tracked the way Continuum does it. The method Continuum uses is (I'm told) not unique, but I don't know which games are similar. Sorry. I can describe it below. The core Initiative statistic is called "Quick". It ranks from 1 to 10 (though it can go higher at great expense). Combat is divided into Bouts, and each Bout has 5 Stages. Characters act on their Stage. Once all Stages have passed, the Bout ends and the next Bout begins. Characters can act only on the Stages that their Quick allows. If this is possible, I would love to know what would be expected by way of compensation to the author of such a script. Thanks Stage #1 Stage #2 Stage #3 Stage #4 Stage #5 Quick 1 to 2 NO NO YES NO NO Quick 3 to 4 NO YES NO YES NO Quick 5 to 6 YES NO YES NO YES Quick 7 to 8 YES NO YES YES YES Quick 9 to 10 YES YES YES YES YES In case of a Quick higher than 10, return to the top of the chart after 10 is reached to determine when the remaining actions are. That character gets multiple actions on repeated stages. Actions are declared in the order of lowest Quick to highest, and then the characters act in the order of highest to lowest. On each Stage, the GM asks the players who are allowed to act on that Stage what their intended action for that stage is. If they dither, they lose their action that Stage and may only react to being attacked. Once all players have declared, the GM then asks all players who may act on that round to execute their declared actions, from highest Quick to lowest. Then the fight moves on to the next Stage in the Bout. Ideally I'd like to know if it's possible to build a tracker that lets combat flow in that way. It would link to the Continuum character sheet's Quick stat. It would have a NEXT button, and just step thought the Stages and the Bouts as outlined above. Ideally each player would get a little ping when it's their time to declare or act.

It is definitely possible. Like most scripts, the interface will make or break it. Let me ask a few clarifying questions.  Is there any random element that goes into it?  (Die roll, etc) Who is first in the case of a tie in Quick? (If that matters) If im understanding this correctly, it would work to insert all the acting characters into the turn order multiple times (grouped by stage) with dividers between the stages.  STAGE 1 Fast man STAGE 2 Medium man Fast man STAGE 3 Slow man Medium man Fast man Fast man STAGE 4 Medium man Fast man STAGE 5 Fast man For Fast man (Q12), Medium man (Q4) and Slow man (Q1). Does that sound doable?  You could then advance the turn order as normal. Additional commands could allow your players to advance past themselves. Also, announce could be added on turnorder change.  As to compensation, many people will just write such things out of the kindness of their hearts.  Some people gift subscriptions (don't gift me subscriptions!), there are probably other deals that take place as well. 

Hi The Aaron, Your example of three characters is spot on. In the event that two or more characters are acting in the same stages, and all have the same Quick, a "Quick Roll" is used. This roll is a 1D10, with the goal being to roll a value equal to or lower than the value in the Quick stat. The player with the best result from this competitive Quick roll goes first. In the event of a tie in this roll, all parties who were tied act simultaneously. The trick would be to ensure that each player was notified as to their time in each Stage to declare their intended actions, and then again when time came in each Stage for them to execute said action. It would be nice to have a counter that tells us what Bout we're up to since this combat started. The only wrinkle is that it's possible for a player to decide in their declaration for a given Stage that they wish to defer their action till a later Stage. This would mean that your Slow Man might declare (as the first person to declare their actions in Stage 3 of Bout 1) that she wishes to act on Stage 4, and let Stage 3 pass her by. This is fine. What would happen then is that Slow Man would be allowed to act on Stage 4 *first*, as if (for this Stage only) Slow Man had the highest Quick in that Stage. Perhaps a button that allows a player to "Hold" their action could be made available in the UI. This button might also be used by the GM for NPCs. Does that all make sense?

So, in the case of two individuals with Q6 both rolling a 1d10, is best result: 1. Simple success: both roll less than or equal to six, so both act simultaneously 2. Lower is better: A rolls 2, B rolls 4, A goes first When holding actions until later stages: 1) The holder goes first, what if 2 people hold forward for the same Stage? 2) Is there a change in action declaration order, or is the holder considered to have declared already? So with Declares and Acts:  ####> BOUT 1 <#### ==> STAGE 1 <== Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Act) ==> STAGE 2 <== Medium man (Declare) Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Act) Medium man (Act) ==> STAGE 3 <== Slow man (Declare) Medium man (Declare) Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Act) Fast man (Act) Medium man (Act) Slow man (Act) ==> STAGE 4 <== Medium man (Declare) Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Act) Medium man (Act) ==> STAGE 5 <== Fast man (Declare) Fast man (Act)

If two people hold till a later stage, the resolution is the same as if those two people were acting naturally in that stage. First, order would be decided by the highest Quick. If the Quick were the same, then order would be resolved by a Quick roll in the same way as above. In the even of a tie, they both act "simultaneously". It would be up to the GM to arbitrate that. The turn order script would (if possible) say that both the chrs are acting simultaneously by perhaps triggering both players with "Declare" and then "Act" alerts at the same time? Also, your chart above is 100% accurate. 

BTW, doing this from the goodness of your heart is amazing, but I'd like to return the favor. I'm not a coder, but I'd like to thank you by buying you an asset of your choice from the store here. Would that be ok?

Or I have a large castle map I built which I would be happy to give you. Here's a single link to a single image. The castle is 6 levels, fully mapped out but with no furniture. So you can decorate it like you prefer. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsbvyyraej06de3/Castle-F" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsbvyyraej06de3/Castle-F</a>...

I appreciate the offer, but I don't require anything. &nbsp;=D &nbsp;I enjoy script writing (I actually enjoy it more than most games I play in, ironically. =D), and I like giving back to the community, particularly when I can provide scripts that support games whose mechanics are not so easily handled natively on Roll20. &nbsp;I've written quite a few scripts for games I've never even heard of and I'm happy to do so. Once I get around to writing this (I've got a lot of irons in the fire, sorry to say...), you'll have to either have a Pro Level subscription to access the API, or be playing in a Game created by a Pro Level subscriber. Back to the details... Can you hold an action in the 5th stage? Holding can only be done when declaring, right? &nbsp;So you couldn't re-hold an action to move it another stage as you've used your declare for it already? How do you see the interface to this working. &nbsp;Here's what I'm thinking: Adding to Initiative Select 1 or more tokens, execute !con-init to add them to the Turn Order. Resolve Quick ties automatically and announce the results to chat Could be whispers to the GM and both parties? Could be straight chat if it's public knowledge? Could be whispers to just the GM if it needs to be secret? Remove from&nbsp;Initiative Select 1 or more tokens, execute !con-init --remove to take all of their entries out of the Turn Order. Advance Initative Click the normal --&gt; button to go to the next entry Could provide a command that does this easily enough, !eot , accessible to the GM and the current Turn holder. Hold an action Execute !con-init --hold to move the corresponding Act action to the next Stage. Only works for the GM or the player controlling the current token in the Turn Order Ignored if the current Turn Order entry is not a Declare Ignored if the current Stage is Stage 5 Does that cover all of it?

Wow, ok. Thanks. Holding on the 5th Stage would take your action into Stage 1 of the next Bout. Other than that, this is perfect. Would it be possible for the hold and add to initiative commands to be in Macro buttons? Even I can make those. And if all this costs me is a Pro subscription, that's a bargain. I've seen your name pop up on several requests and helps. I can fully believe you're working on a lot of things. We've been playing this game for 6 months with no automation. Another few weeks is not going to kill us. Once this is done, there's a couple more scripts I was going to request. I can't wait to see how the game plays with this in place. Very exciting.