Ammo Counter

I'm not sure if this has been suggested before, but it seems like the utility of some sort of ammo counter would be very nice for games that have weapons you must reload and keep track of how many shots are going out, yet ammo isn't so scarce to the point you tirelessly conserve it. For example, you can have a macro inside of your damage macro that can subtract a number from your total amount of ammunition. When that count hits 0, it will subtract from another number (your total amount of magazines/cartridges/etc.) and then replenish your ammunition. If that count hits 0, suddenly you're out of bullets. I'm not sure how Roll20 is coded, but from my perspective implementing this seems fairly easy and would have multiple applications beyond just an ammo counter. It could double as a timer, an alternative health system, etc. I'm aware that you could always record all of this yourself, but as a newer player I often have a hard time keeping track of how much I'm shooting something, especially when I usually never need to reload in combat. If there's a way to use attributes in this fashion, that would be super awesome ... but as of right now I'm totally unaware of such a method.

1.  Become a Mentor. 2.  Wait for API. 3.  ??? 4.  Profit???

Tom, many people use a token bubble for this purpose.  - Gauss

I like this idea, especially since Ammunition is a concept that's widespread across every major genre of gaming (Fantasy, Modern, Sci-Fi,Horror) At the moment using a token bubble on your character is probably the only immediate option, but as far as Suggestions for new game features are concerned I think this is an excellent one.

+1 for an implemented ammo tracking option.

Gauss said: Tom, many people use a token bubble for this purpose.  - Gauss Yeah, we use the lightning bolt icon on the character for lasgun charges in my game. Having it as part of the macro would be nice too. Also, I do ammo/clips in the character sheet as well. Of course, modifying ANY @character: stats on the character sheet via macro would be really nice for bookkeeping. I'd use macros for modifying the character sheet alone, to avoid clicking and chances of error. Maybe something like \ "/update @character: oldstat @character: newstat" etc.... for example: Set macro: #ammo= "/update Brad: Ammo Brad: Ammo" Chat log: #ammo -1 ===> in macro "/update Brad: Ammo Brad: Ammo -1"  Where ammo was 20, it is now 19.  Viewing ammo: #showammo = "@brad: ammo" #showammo chat log output: "19"

Note that there are no plans right now for adding the ability to modify attributes/sheets/etc via rolls or macros. Also those bubbles are supposed to be for whatever you want. If your system needs to track luck & ammo then that is what they are for :) One of the core goals of Roll20 is to be as much a generic "virtual table" as possible. We want to hear your ideas but we will always try to figure out if that idea can be generalized in a way that any game/system/group can use that feature. If the current number bubbles aren't sufficient for tracking ammo please let us know and let us know exactly why they are insufficient. Maybe there is an easy system-agnostic tweak that can be made so that ammo tracking is easier.

Eric, if you're looking for system-neutral terms you could replace arrows or bullets with "projectiles" and clips or magazines with "parcels". This would also allow for things like potions with multiple uses, and items with charges. Implemented as a more abstract tool, I highly support this idea.

Imo a bubble works very well as an ammo counter. We just need more bubbles or even better the option to choose how many bubbles we have for a token.

Dylan G. said: Eric, if you're looking for system-neutral terms you could replace arrows or bullets with "projectiles" and clips or magazines with "parcels". This would also allow for things like potions with multiple uses, and items with charges. Implemented as a more abstract tool, I highly support this idea. I'm more curious as to why the existing number bubbles aren't sufficient.

automaion aside, the bubbles work for me as ammo counters.  i dont know if you guys are aware of this feature, but you can directly type "-1" into the bubble and it will decriment the count for that bubble.

I'd have to agree with Maetco, more bubbles to choose from would be nice. It's nice to change things like ammo on the fly without going back to the journal every time. It would also be cool to be able to choose different symbols for the bubbles (shield, sword, gun, etc) but I'm sure that wouldn't be much of a priority.

I agree more bubbles would be nice, even without counting one for ammo, I use the 3 for hp, surges, temp hp and would like a 4th one to keep track of action points. A 5th one for my bard for her arrows would be nice as well but not needed.

Casey S. said: I agree more bubbles would be nice, even without counting one for ammo, I use the 3 for hp, surges, temp hp and would like a 4th one to keep track of action points. A 5th one for my bard for her arrows would be nice as well but not needed. on temp hp, you can consalidate that down into just the regular HP, you can have the display value higher than the max value, and the color bar will actually break through and keep going.  same thing with nagatives, the bar will continue off in the other direction outside the main bar.   but even still, more bubbles are always good.

Some sort of way to integrate character stats with macros would be great: So for character TryAgainBragg, when he uses #missile, it would roll 1d100 to hit, 3d10+8 damage, and then subtract 1 from his "ammo" stat automatically, which, using the existing token/sheet sync function, would show up above the character.

+1 for both some more bubbles and for the character sheet modified in macros. as far as the more bubbles is concerned: 8 might be a good starting point. if my quick look is correct, the open space around a token plus the space consumed by bubbles is enough that 8 could fit. and something tells me people will be much happier when the API goes live.