FGU Sharing LOS Definitions for Maps - Crowd Project

[Zacchaeus]

Great stuff everyone who is contributing; I am noting your efforts and will get then files updated in due course; but stuff keeps getting in the way.

[father0fnine]

There won't be a separate Unity version. The LOS data will be included in the module but FG Classic will ignore the LOS information since it won't know what to do with it.

Great!!! That means I should be safe getting OotDL for Christmas

[father0fnine]

Not that I am aware of (Temple of Elemental Evil for 2e).

Ok, I've done what I believe should be done for Hommlet which is the Inn. My reasons are: I know players will be players but the intent was for Hommlet to sort of become the players base while going through the four T-series adventures. That being the case, ideally, the players do not go about hacking and slashing everybody HERE. (It expected everywhere else.) There might be some role-play in the other mapped buildings but not likely a lot of exploring or any combat. Also, AD&D de-emphasized miniatures in my opinion. A lot of the adventures were written so that maps and miniature use was not as central as previous and later editions, relying on storytelling more. I thought about doing the town map, but the layout is easily picked up in a few hours of strolling about the town. If there was likely to be any combat or exploration or the like, it would likely be in or around the Inn. I would like to know if I am doing this right. It is my first attempt at LOS on any platform and why I am uploading an unfinished module. On that note, would it be better to upload after natural breaks (Moat House, Nulb and Ruins, Dungeons, and Nodes maybe) or to hold off any more unless I need to provide a sample for suggestions, hints, and help?

GRID
In adding LOS to the inn, I also resized the grids to be 3 boxes per 10' square (original was one grid box per 10' square) and this is a change I would suggest for the official module. AD&D rules were that 3 people could walk abreast and fight side-by-side (if using smallish weapons like short swords and hand-axes) in a 10' area. This was also necessary if the FGU tokens were going to fit into the stairs areas.

WINDOWS
I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle the Inn's windows. I think this is similar to the portcullis issue I saw in another post. The best choice is if there was a "glass" option. A wall that can be seen through but not passed. Since there isn't, I first tried putting terrain boxes that extended about 3 feet to each side of the window. The idea being that from the street, the player could see about 3 feet into the common room unless they got close (token in the terrain area) to see everything. Unfortunately, that left weird little areas so the Inn front didn't look straight. I decided to use toggle walls. If someone says they're peeking in a window, I can toggle the wall off. On the second story, there is nothing for the players to see on the map if they looked out the window and nobody should be standing outside the windows looking in so I just walled through all the windows. Any looking out can be handled in the RP/story.

STRAIGHT LINES
The maps look like they were scanned in paper copies with some possible cut-n-paste, shrink-or-grow modifications going on. As such and because of the "hopefully little-to-no combat" goal mentioned above, I decided to just run the walls down the near-center of the black lines. If the resulting image lines were night straight, the LOS wall ended up not quite straight.

[Zacchaeus]

Your windows should be terrain blockers. This is the way we've done all windows and arrow slits for all of the maps so far. A player will then be able to see that there is a window but not be able to see into or out of the room, until they move through it or the DM opens it.

[father0fnine]

Ok, I've played around with terrain-as-windows a little bit more and if I were to make it the exact size of the window (not sticking out beyond the wall on either side) I find that behavior-wise, the only difference is that the players can move their tokens through the window without DM intervention, right? Either way, the DM has to click on his side before a player can look through it. Did I understand that right?

[Zacchaeus]

Yes. Basically you can’t prevent a token moving through terrain occluders and the DM can switch them on or off. Clearly walls are not what is needed and they are not doors or secret doors so terrain is the option to choose.

[will9k]

Are any of the completed LOS project files available for test? My group is cutting our teeth on The Fall of Plagestone (Pathfinder 2e) and while I see that it is posted as completed by Digital Dave, I don't see the XML file posted anywhere in the thread.

WLP

[pollux]

NO MAP CAN DEFEAT ME!

FG Battlemaps is done. I need to tap out and focus on some real life stuff for a while before picking something else up. If any of the 5e modules I own are still incomplete in February I'll have a gander at one.

Edit: How do people insert images in posts? I feel like I'm not getting the most from my meme.

[LordEntrails]

Are any of the completed LOS project files available for test? My group is cutting our teeth on The Fall of Plagestone (Pathfinder 2e) and while I see that it is posted as completed by Digital Dave, I don't see the XML file posted anywhere in the thread.

WLP

Not yet. See post #341. Mr Z has not yet had a chance to catch up on all the submissions. When/as he does they will appear in the Updater.

[father0fnine]

I'm going to put this here since this is an active thread that deals with real-world LOS usage but if it would be better as a general topic in the forum, let me know and I'll redo it.

I noticed that a lot of the more recent maps are very pretty and not the "lines on paper" from my day (AD&D). I also noticed on a few of the tiles and maps that I looked at that the walls are usually blocked all around, effectively hiding the great artwork that was done in creating the map. I am curious if there is a reason for this that I missed. It seems to me that it would look a lot better if the occluding "walls" were drawn as a straight line down the middle of the artwork (or some other way so that the artwork is visible to the players).

Here is an example of what I'm talking about
.

The upper right was left as originally mapped. I redid the lower left to be a simple line down the center. Here is the designer view of the LOS: .

It just seems like the players would have a richer experience enjoying the map maker's hard work and it would feel more like being in the dungeon seeing the walls instead of just black space. Thinking a head to when (and if) illumination gets implemented, it would also make a more stark difference between "black-because-of-lack-of-light" and "black-because-it's-really-a-wall"

D