FA Nexus

FA Nexus is the all-in-one hub for Forgotten Adventures—bringing fully featured mapmaking capabilities and advanced token management inside Foundry VTT as well as other QoL improvements.

Freemium Model

Free Content & Features

• Advanced Token and Asset placement tools - backed by the free section of the Forgotten Adventures library and available instantly via cloud with no extra setup or cost.
• This includes over 141 000 Mapmaking Assets & over 1390 Unique topdown Tokens available for free.
• Elevation based Drop Shadows - Customize drop shadow alpha, blur, dilation, angle, and distance for Asset placements.
• Layer Manager - Right sidebar tab with a list of all tiles within a scene, right under the 'Scenes' button. Supports v14 level-aware groups, visibility/lock toggles, selection sync, drag-and-drop ordering, and F2 inline rename for tile labels.
• Custom Tokens & Assets support - Bring your own content to FA Nexus interface & Tools.
• Flatten & Scene Export - Merge tiles or export scenes for the current viewed level or all scene levels, with background/middle/foreground split support, custom output names, and selectable save folders.
• Smart Search, Folders, and Bookmarks
• Pixel Perfect tiles selection

Premium content & Features - Patreon Adventurer tier ($7) or higher

• Content unlocks - All Token Color variants, Premium Tokens, Assets, Paths & Textures
• Texture painting - Brush and fill tools with height-map masking and blend modes for rapid terrain blending.
• Tile Masking - Mask compatible tiles through the premium Texture Painting editor, clear masks from Tile Config or Layer Manager, and remove parts of a tile image directly in Foundry.
• Paths - Place or freehand draw curved paths with optional Foundry Walls & Drop Shadow support.
• Building tool - Draw outer and inner walls, place doors and windows, then assemble structures with automatic shadows, Foundry walls, composite building tiles, and generated Regions.

⚠️ Beta notice: Expect occasional rough edges, placeholder copy, and the odd gremlin. Please keep the feedback coming so we can polish the experience quickly. We also plan on implementing more features so if you have a specific feature request drop that into issues too!

---

Tokens Tab

• Click-to-place workflow: Click once to start placement, then drop tokens directly onto the canvas. Sticky mode keeps the placement cursor active for batch drops.
• Multi-select randomizer: Select several tokens and let Nexus randomize which one lands next.
• Random Color on Placement: Randomize colors of selected Token(s) on drop.
• Place Token As: Choose an existing actor from your world or compendium to place token as that actor.
• Level-aware placement: Token placement targets the currently viewed v14 scene level and uses that level's bottom elevation for new token drops.
• Eye Level Height: Token Config includes an FA Nexus eye-level field, plus a module setting for a higher default eye level 0.5 units below the token cube top to avoid midpoint and ceiling-boundary line-of-sight edge cases between elevations.
• Hit point presets: Use the actor default, roll a formula, apply a percentage, add a ±variance, or enter a custom value—even per placement session.
• Grid savvy: Snap to grid, rotate, mirror, or randomize facing before every drop.
• Super Wildcards: Combine the systems above for "super" wildcard placement. For example, multi-select NPCs, enable "Random Color on Placement", choose a "Commoner" statblock as "Place Token As", enable random rotation/flip, and start placing. Each click can drop a random NPC with random color and random rotation.

token_placement_v2.webm

---

Assets Tab

• Same placement magic: Sticky mode, random rotation, mirroring, scaling, and grid snapping work just like the Tokens tab—plus randomized scale offsets for organic placement.
• Scatter brush placement: Spray selected assets with density, spray deviation, and spacing controls; merge stamps into a single scatter tile per elevation (flatten if you go wild on counts).
• Elevation on the fly: Use Alt + scroll, Alt + [ / ], or Alt + Up / Down to nudge placement elevation. The default step is 0.01, with Ctrl/Cmd for 0.001 and Shift for 0.1.
• Shadow presets per elevation: Customize drop shadow alpha, blur, dilation, angle, and distance for each elevation level. Save up to five presets and reapply them with a click.
• Shadow Only mode: Keep the generated FA shadow while hiding the source artwork, useful for contact shadows, subtle depth, and hand-placed shadow passes.
• Multi-select randomizer: Select several assets and let Nexus randomize which one lands next. Combine with random rotation and scale!

Scatter preview:

Single placement preview:

---

Texture Painting (Adventurer tier $7+)

• Height-map masking: Paint only the raised or recessed parts of a texture with a live preview window.
• Tile Masking: Use the premium Texture Painting editor to mask compatible tiles.
• Blend modes: Paint texture layers as Normal, Overlay, Soft Light, Multiply, Screen, or Add to blend dirt, moss, water, scorch marks, highlights, color passes, and similar details into the scene underneath.
• Brush controls: Adjust size, tip size, density, spray deviation, spacing, and opacity for finer control.
• Fill & mask tools: Flood fill, rectangle, ellipse, polygonal lasso with arc segments (Shift+click) all support snap-to-grid for precise coverage.
• Solid color mode: Paint with a flat color for shadows and overlays.
• Eraser mode: Brush & fill tools support Eraser mode too.
• Texture transforms: Adjust opacity, scale, rotation, and UV offset mid-session without leaving the tool.
• Texture swap: Simply select a different texture from the main window to swap textures during editing.
• Save as Tile: Once you are happy with the masked texture, press Ctrl+S to save as Foundry Tile!

---

Building Tool (Adventurer tier $7+)

• Rapid structure creation: Construct building footprints with rectangle, ellipse, and polygon shapes (with arcs support) and inner walls that auto-generate Foundry walls.
• Composite output: Building commits combine walls, portal frames, static windows, fills, and sill art into foreground/background composite tiles instead of leaving every generated element as its own tile.
• Generated Regions: Building commits create Foundry Regions from generated outer walls when region geometry is available, with predefined Define Surface and Suppress Weather behaviors.
• Portals: Place textured doors, windows and gaps on any wall segment. The tool automatically cuts openings, creates appropriate Foundry walls, and adds textures. Doors and windows can even be animated.
• Texture per surface: Assign different textures to exterior walls, interior walls, and floor independently.
• Per-segment editing: In Edit Shapes, left click selects the whole shape, right click selects an individual wall segment for per-segment texture, transform, color, and shadow edits.
• Automatic shadows: Structures inherit the same elevation-based shadow system as regular assets for consistent depth.

Building.tool.swcs.v2.1.-.Made.with.Clipchamp.webm

---

Path Placement (Adventurer tier $7+)

• Multi-path sessions: Draw and edit multiple paths at different elevations before committing.
• Draw modes: Point-and-click curves or freehand drawing with simplification; double-click ends a path, Close Loop is a toggle.
• Foundry walls toggle: Spawn Foundry walls along the path centerline.
• Merge on Commit: Combine paths at the same elevation into a single tile, or keep them separate.
• Path texture controls: Adjust scale, opacity, flip, offsets, and color grading on the fly.
• Path shaping toolkit: Per-point width control, feathered endings, smooth curve tension, and edit-mode point manipulation.
• Path splitting: In Edit Shapes, hover a point and press X to split a path.
• Path shadows: Elevation-based shadows with editable path shadow geometry.
• Texture swap: Select a different texture from the main window to swap path materials during editing.

---

Level-aware Layer Manager

• Right sidebar tab: Layer Manager tab sits under Scenes and lists all tiles in the scene.
• v14 level groups: Each level shows dedicated <level> Background and <level> Foreground groups for the special ground/foreground bands.
• Parent Level: Tiles visible on multiple levels can store which v14 level owns them, so grouping, band sorting, flatten/deconstruct, and editing target the intended level. Single-level tiles can usually stay on Auto / Unset.
• Preview rows: Active Asset Placement, Scatter, Path, Texture Painting, Building, and Building Fill sessions appear as preview rows that can be drag-and-dropped before commit.
• Search and chip filters: Filter by type/status, use OR and NOT, or prefix a term with - to exclude results like -scatter.
• Visibility, lock, and bulk actions: Toggle visibility/lock per group or row, and bulk lock/delete selected layers.
• Inline rename: Press F2 to rename a row. This stores a display-only tile name and falls back to the computed label when cleared.
• Nested elevation groups: Collapse groups, create nested subgroups, give groups custom names, and move whole groups to a new elevation.
• Drag-and-drop reordering: Reorder layers between elevation groups directly from the manager.
• Selection controls: Canvas selection syncs with Layer Manager, all elevations are selectable by default, and Skip Filtered limits selection to currently visible search/filter matches.
• Context menus: Layers and groups expose rename, elevation change, lock/unlock, flatten, Foundry Edit, and FA Nexus Edit actions where applicable.
• Help and diagnostics: Built-in help, per-group counts, persistent collapse state, and precise elevation formatting make dense scenes easier to manage.

---

Flatten & Scene Export

• Layer Manager access: The Flatten button lives at the bottom of the Layer Manager, and flattening is also available from the Tile HUD or Layer Manager right-click context menu.
• Output name: Set a custom base name before flattening or exporting.
• Output folder: Choose where generated files are uploaded; flatten and export remember separate last-used folders.
• Predictable generated paths: Generated flatten files are organized into scene-owned folders, and the dialog shows the effective upload destination before saving.
• Output snap: Round results to half or full grid squares for clean snapping.
• Live bounds preview: See output bounds while adjusting the flatten region.
• Padding adjust: Add or trim padding and watch the bounds update live.
• Persistent settings: Options like PPI and quality are remembered.
• Smart deconstruct: Moved flattened tiles deconstruct in their new position, and source flattened tiles keep their own deconstruct data so they can be deconstructed separately later.
• Chunking: Large flattened tiles are split automatically and stitched at runtime for better performance.
• Level export: Export or flatten the current viewed level, or run every scene level in sequence. Split output uses background, middle, and foreground band suffixes.

---

Generated Cleanup

• Generated Cleanup tool: Scan FA Nexus generated masks and flattened outputs for unused or missing files from module settings.
• Manual cleanup workflow: Foundry does not allow automatic deletions here, so Nexus can only back up and mark unused files for manual removal.

---

Smart Search, Folders, and Bookmarks

• Weighted matching: Nexus boosts likely hits so fir gives you fir trees before fireballs.
• Exact and negative terms: Wrap a term in quotes to match exactly like "orc", or prefix with - to hide unwanted results. Combine statements with parentheses for more complex filters.
• Docked folder filters: See and filter by our Folder Structure. Pick inclusion and exclusion folders with multi-select.
• Bookmark anything: Save your favorite combinations of search terms and folder filters for Tokens, Assets, Textures, or Paths. Bookmarks show in a toolbar, overflow gracefully, and can be dragged to reorder.
• Search memory: Each tab remembers its last query and folder state, so hopping between views doesn’t wipe your work.

search-folders-bookmarks_v2.webm

---

Quality of Life & Performance

• Restyled tool panels: Collapsible sections remember their state, controls are denser and clearer, and each active tool includes contextual help.
• Unified undo/redo: Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y across Paths, Textures, Building, and Scatter sessions.
• Session guardrails: Auto-commit on tab change or app close, Esc cancel with confirmation, and explicit Commit/Undo/Redo/Cancel buttons in tool panels.
• Precise controls: Slider values are remembered, right-click resets to default, numeric inputs stay in sync, and randomization ranges use explicit Min / Max controls.
• Overhead-aware FA tiles: Paths, masked textures, buildings, scatter tiles, and chunked flatten tiles can participate in Foundry's native overhead occlusion when marked Overhead.
• FA Nexus Tile Config tab: Tile Config exposes Parent Level, HSBC, mask clearing, and shadow settings for supported tiles.
• Pixel-perfect selection: Precise tile hit detection respects transparent areas.
• Performance-first browsing: One-time indexing and virtualized grids keep massive libraries snappy.
• Background cloud preload: The cloud asset catalog starts loading after startup so Nexus often opens without waiting on a blocking cloud overlay.
• Placement prefetcher: Random placement queues downloads ahead of time to reduce empty or late tile drops.
• Edit existing tiles: Right click a supported tile and choose Edit <tile> in FA Nexus from the tile controls.
• Forge VTT/S3 path support: Forge VTT and S3 browsing/download paths are supported, with hosted-environment testing still ongoing. Please report anything odd.

---

Installation

1. Open Add-on Modules in Foundry VTT.
2. Click Install Module.
3. Paste the FA Nexus manifest URL:

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Forgotten-Adventures/FA-Nexus/main/module.json
   

4. Click Install, then enable FA Nexus in your world.

---

Getting Started

1. Launch a world in Foundry v14 and enable FA Nexus.
2. Click the FA Nexus button above the player list to open the window.
3. Pick a tab (Tokens, Assets, and more if unlocked) and start browsing.
4. Use the search bar, folder filters, and bookmarks to home in on what you need.
5. Click an item, or multi-select several, and start placing.
6. Visit Module Settings -> FA Nexus to toggle pixel-perfect tile selection, elevation behavior, cache paths, shadow quality, generated cleanup, and more.

Premium supporter? Authenticate with Patreon inside the app to unlock texture painting, path editing, the building tool, and premium catalog entries.

---

Requirements & Compatibility

• Foundry VTT: v14 only. The 0.5.x release line is not backwards compatible with Foundry v13.
• Token system mappings: Updated actor type mappings include Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, Cyberpunk RED, Alien RPG, Forbidden Lands, Starfinder, World of Darkness 5th Edition/VTM5e, and Daggerheart.
• Internet connection: Needed for cloud content and Patreon validation.
• Patreon Adventurer tier ($7+): Required for premium textures, paths, building tools, and locked assets.

---

Spotted a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub or join us on the Forgotten Adventures Discord.

Made with ❤ by the Forgotten Adventures team.