FGU Sharing LOS Definitions for Maps - Crowd Project

[ddavison]

@Halfront,

Feather-spire Gale looks great. I may have Fane of the Eye and Hunting Axe done from a previous build. I will have to see if that is still good and usable.

Feathergale-Spire.jpg

[Kelrugem]

Here are some thoughts I shared with Zacchaeus already for the Alley maps in Waterdeep Dragon Heist. The map has a bunch of roof lines. Using terrain provides some interesting options for simulating hiding on the other side of a pitched roof. The GM may need to turn on and off roof terrain pieces during play to handle specific scenarios, but it gives some fun options.

Original map with walls drawn. No ability to get up on roofs. Players leaving the map would accidentally see to the other side.
Attachment 28961

If you redo each major plane of the roof, you get some simulated 3D effects. Players can actually see much of the roof from the ground -- at least for roof lines that are facing them directly. Players can also climb up to a roof, bust through a basement window/door and enter buildings or fly up there.
Attachment 28962

In play:
Attachment 28963

These sort of scenarios are almost always going to fall to the person creating the adventure conversion and what they think makes the most sense. As a GM, you can always override the built in LOS by double-clicking to select LOS definitions you don't like and replacing them with something you prefer.

Thanks for the insight This is really a nice idea. I see that I still have to learn how to use the terrain feature in the best possible way because the roof idea is really interesting while I would probably not have thought about something like that

[Guoccamole]

Hey folks, I have some feedback that I will start posting.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Carnath House

@DDavison: Thank you. I am going to start fresh since I have not been able to merge back the pins. I shall follow your suggestions. TY for the very useful tips and direction.

[ddavison]

@DDavison: Thank you. I am going to start fresh since I have not been able to merge back the pins. I shall follow your suggestions. TY for the very useful tips and direction.

We will be pushing out a new version here in a few hours (or possibly tomorrow) which has support for secret doors, ellipses/circles with fewer points and automatic line intersection points to allow for line snapping.

[Guoccamole]

We will be pushing out a new version here in a few hours (or possibly tomorrow) which has support for secret doors, ellipses/circles with fewer points and automatic line intersection points to allow for line snapping.

Awesome. I shall wait for tomorrow to play/build/map with all the new goodies. TY for the heads up, not to mention all the new features

[ddavison]

Here is a quick video with tips on adding secret doors to a map you've already defined.

[Zacchaeus]

Those are some nice additions.

[Guoccamole]

@ddavison:

1) I think the layers feature could use some TLC. I ‘Duplicate selected layer’ed to duplicate a wall layer for the same map (Carnath House, levels 1 & 2 on the same map). That way, I could reuse the 1st level for the 2nd level and save a bunch of time. However, when I highlight just one of the two ‘Layer LOS’ layers and move the duplicate map (off of level 1, and onto level 2), the result is actually moving both the original map as well as the copy. Then when I undo, I notice that the layer changes from the (new) 2nd layer to the 1st layer.

So I can’t really dupe layers and use the 2nd layer separately (short of more manual labor). Could someone give the layer code a look-see to make sure duplicated layers truly are independent, and when a layer is selected, UX operates (e.g., select all) only on the contents/features of that ‘Layer LOS’ layer?

2) Another nice UX feature in the same vein would be to select some wall (or other) features, and copy/paste them to new locations. Perhaps there’s a way to do that already (and I just haven’t found it)? [I tried ^C and ^V w/o success.] Copy/paste would also allow for copying ‘Layer LOS’ data from one map to another (rather than just duping a layer on one map). Copy/paste across maps could be very useful (I’m looking at you, Castle Naerytar, for starters!).

3) Also, I think that the space bar may best (and customarily?) be used as a basic select mode (i.e., the arrow mode) for quick adjustments (rather than point placement). Mouse-clicking has laying points covered, so the space bar could add some real value with quick select mode (adjusting points on the fly), IMO. And (I believe) holding space bar for access to point/grab mode is fairly standard, and that’s always a plus for ease of learning/use for UX in general.

4) Also, I tried to use Grid to tweak the existing grid to match the map (Carnath House is a great stress test for mapping!-), and I noticed Grid ignores the decimal point. The decimal point shows and edits, but just erases (zeros out) decimal edits when clicked away. So I gave up adjusting the grid. And in wishful thinking mode, using a scroll wheel to rapidly tweak the chosen dimension (X or Y) would be really convenient for rapid tweaking of grid dimensions, especially if it scaled with zoom so that grid tweaking could be as meticulous as desired (yet really quick).

5) Re-request. Please add SHIFT modifier for (customary) rectilinear lines, perfect circles, etc..

Please ask for details if anything is unclear. TY

[ddavison]

@Guaccomole, we have some known issues with layers and in some cases duplicating things. I will point Carl to this thread so he can take a look.

SHIFT already does perfect circles. We are talking internally about the best way to handle straight lines -- but that might end up being paired with Shift in a future update. Thanks for reporting the grid tweaking issue.

[Halfront]

PotA updated maps at this original post:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post452575

Feathergale-Spire-Player-Ground-Level
Feathergale-Spire-Player-Level-Three
Feathergale-Spire-Player-Level-Two
Feathergale-Spire-Player-Pinnacle
Feathergale-Spire-Player-Stable-Level
Fane-of-the-Eye-Player (the only thing still trying to figure out is how to handle to foggy pit area [5.04.05 F5 Rust Monster Pit])
Halls-of-the-Hunting-Axe-A-Player
Halls-of-the-Hunting-Axe-B-Player
Halls-of-the-Hunting-Axe-Player
Howling-Caves-Player
Necromancers-Cave-Player
Rivergard-Keep-Player (some fine tuning left around ledges)