Flying & Terrain

[jfg1984]

Hello everyone,

I did a search on the forums trying to find something similar to this and didn't see it, so apologies if this has already been discussed, but as I was making maps in unity and setting up my terrain parameters I realized that because my players are all 15th level (our game has been going for a couple years now) ... ... some of them tend to fly. A lot. Nearly every battle in fact.

Do those of you with a bit more know how about the code think it would be possible to create some kind of "fly" condition within the 5E ruleset that when applied to a PC or NPC, enables them to see through terrain so that their vision isn't blocked by it? And for bonus points, make it so they are also visible to everyone even if they themselves would normally be hidden from line of sight by terrain?

I was thinking if this were possible, it would be a neat way to simulate the advantage and disadvantage of flight: You have a lot more vision to survey the battlefield, but you're also clearly visible to everyone while doing so; and if they want to swoop low ... you can always just temporarily disable the effect on them and all the normal rules regarding terrain and line of sight would re-apply.

Thoughts?

[Svandal]

Hello everyone,

I did a search on the forums trying to find something similar to this and didn't see it, so apologizes if this has already been discussed, but as I was making maps in unity and setting up my terrain parameters I realized that because my players are all 15th level (our game has been going for a couple years now) ... ... some of them tend to fly. A lot. Nearly every battle in fact.

Do those of you with a bit more know how about the code think it would be possible to create some kind of "fly" condition within the 5E ruleset that when applied to a PC or NPC, enables them to see through terrain so that their vision isn't blocked by it? And for bonus points, make it so they are also visible to everyone even if they themselves would normally be hidden from line of sight by terrain?

I was thinking if this were possible, it would be a neat way to simulate the advantage and disadvantage of flight: You have a lot more vision to survey the battlefield, but you're also clearly visible to everyone while doing so; and if they want to swoop low ... you can always just temporarily disable the effect on them and all the normal rules regarding terrain and line of sight would re-apply.

Thoughts?

What would have been really nice is a new terrain type with height you can input.
Then incorperate the height extension which can make players input height.

Then we need to incorporate 3 dimensions in the game. use pytagoras to calculate distance.

Then hopefully combine height of token with height of terrain to calculate line of sight, and not block movement if you are higher than terrain.
Not sure if this requires a full rewrite of the line of sight (if it is only in 2 dimensions now)

Alternative simple solution is to combine terrain height and height extension, if you are higher than terrain you see over it.
Or even simpler new terrain type that lets everybody with a "flying" effect look through them.


We also do a lot of flying, and for buildings it gets really weird. Note that this is problematic inless getting more 3d features, like people being able to fly over a building somebody else is inside without seeing eachother.
This new terrain type I taled about will only be able to work with trees, boulders and everything that you can not be inside.

[jfg1984]

Oi, I thought about this as I was putting line of sight parameters into a battle map that was outdoors with a cliff's edge and large boulders strewn around it so I wasn't even thinking about things like buildings that have roofs! That would indeed be an entirely different issue to content with. That said I knew nothing about a height extension. I'm going to have to look into that, just for the convenience of having something in game to track height instead of me needing to write it on a notepad. Thanks for bringing that up!

[Zacchaeus]

To represent height type a number into the NPC name on the CT. Players can edit their name to add in the height.

[LordEntrails]

You can find this and similar ideas on the Wish List that you can vote for. Link in Mr Z's signature.

[jfg1984]

To represent height type a number into the NPC name on the CT. Players can edit their name to add in the height.

That is a much easier solution than even an extension, thank you!

You can find this and similar ideas on the Wish List that you can vote for. Link in Mr Z's signature.

I'll do that, thank you.

[Kelrugem]

As others said, 3d cannot completely simulated I personally treat the group as a whole, so, when someone flies, then I just open the terrain (and close it when I need to test LoS etc.) It is then for everyone open, but that is basically the idea behind the party vision thing when someone flies Sure, you need to trust your players that they do not misuse that, but that trust is something that is always needed

[jfg1984]

As others said, 3d cannot completely simulated I personally treat the group as a whole, so, when someone flies, then I just open the terrain (and close it when I need to test LoS etc.) It is then for everyone open, but that is basically the idea behind the party vision thing when someone flies Sure, you need to trust your players that they do not misuse that, but that trust is something that is always needed

True in regards to trust. It's not really about trusting for me but more about creating a more dynamic experience.

Now that you mention this though ... honestly I feel like this entire situation could probably be solved just by creating a feature that allows you to open terrain but only to certain players. Then you could do exactly what you described, but only for the people who are flying.

[Kelrugem]

True in regards to trust. It's not really about trusting for me but more about creating a more dynamic experience.

Now that you mention this though ... honestly I feel like this entire situation could probably be solved just by creating a feature that allows you to open terrain but only to certain players. Then you could do exactly what you described, but only for the people who are flying.

Yeah, for the experience surely nice to have Your idea sounds indeed nice, not sure though how easy it is to implement that (also UI-wise)