Door Improvements

1. It would be really nice if you could interact with a door from the object layer (open, close, unlock, toggle secret) but not actually move them unless you are on the gm or dynamic lighting layer. I have trouble inadvertently moving doors when interacting with nearby tokens on the object layer, even sometimes unintentionally exposing parts of the map that should only be viewable after the door is opened.

2. It would also be super helpful the door icon only appeared only on hover (or had the option to only appear on hover), since most maps have the door on the map and once the door is closed or opened, it will appropriately block or not block vision/movement. The current implementation doesn't fit with the style of the map and obfuscates the square it's placed in.

This would also be nice for windows too.

Copying from my comments on the original Pro forum post

These are great suggestions and I totally agree with them! I like the idea of them not being moveable on the Objects layer, or as an alternative it would be nice if they could at least be locked in place.

I also like the idea of visibility on hover - though this may be a preference that should be handled as a game or page setting in case there are other use cases that would prefer them to be visible all the time. 

I like these ideas too! I have a problem with door sizes, sometimes showing up very small or very large for the need. When they are very large, they cover up map detail that the players would want to see. Seeing on mouse-over/hover is a good solution.

I typically find the my use for doors are great. As well as windows. But reading the comments perhaps you intended the area to appear more visible by the audience but now the door icon blocks the area, and you still want the icon present. Hence resizing the icon door/window may be the issue.  There may be a creative way to get past this...

Create a token preferably a lock .img with tooltip options visible [click "show"]  and write anything within the bubble. This conveys the locked area... you can also add a physical diorama or lighting area that prevents the player to enter said area. This should in-turn allow your players to see the area better

:-)

I was just testing out the SmartAOE (which is fantastic!) and moved a window on my map instead of the control token :-) *slaps forehead* I'm sure part of the answer would be to make a higher Dexterity check with my mouse...

Andrew Searles said:

Hey Folks,

Thanks for this feedback. I think you might be right. I can't think of any reason you might want to move a door or window when you are not on the Dynamic Lighting Layer. Also, I do see that the door icon does seem to get in the way. There's a number of ways we can solve that, but yeah, we got to get it out of the way.

I'll ruminate on this a little more with the team and we'll see what we can do.

Yass!

...Please and Thank you

There should be a way to lock a door in place so that when I am on the token layer I don't accidentally move the door. This happens especially when a token is in the doorway and I try to select it to move it.

Making the door icons semi-transparent would at least make the map easier to see, having them only show on mouse over would also help a lot.

I did find a workaround for item 2, quite by accident, but it does explain some other comments I've seen. I was playing with Dungeon Alchemist (and this is probably worth another thread regarding how cells and cell size is handled), but I was testing out 72 and 150 ppi maps (as that's all DA will do), and noticed on the 150 ppi map, the door icons are quite small. It's as if they ignore the ppi (which makes sense how the grid works) but it is a nice side effect as you can see the map's doors now. 

Andrew Searles said:

Hey Folks,

Thanks for this feedback. I think you might be right. I can't think of any reason you might want to move a door or window when you are not on the Dynamic Lighting Layer. Also, I do see that the door icon does seem to get in the way. There's a number of ways we can solve that, but yeah, we got to get it out of the way.

I'll ruminate on this a little more with the team and we'll see what we can do.

How's this coming along? I want to use the doors feature, but it needs finishing...

Many thanks!

This was a good change - cheers Andrew.

Is the other bit of this one, (reducing the size of the icons) still on the radar?

With that done, we'd just need one-way windows, a range of icons to select from, and maybe an object that blocks sight but not movement (whether it be a door or something in the DL settings alongside walls)

Having a more aesthetic solution to the doors/windows would be great, as the current version not only covers the cool map art, but also looks a little cluttered. The hovering idea would work nicely for that. 

I wonder why you are not able to change that. SAME with the Freehand Tool that is STILL a thing on the DL Layer although it is malfuncitoning / does not really work with DL...

WHY not make it so that you can only place Doors / Windows while on the DL Layer? This is the ONLY purpose for those as when playing without DL you do not need them...

Andrew Searles said:

I'm still a little worried that because you can still ADD the doors, windows, and lights when NOT on the Lighting Layer.

this is likely not the right place, but one way visibility would be great to mimic altitudes. looking down a cliff you can see fine, looking up all you see is rock...

What about being able to link a door to a map ?

So like you use the door and your token move to "the next map"

Royii said:

What about being able to link a door to a map ?

So like you use the door and your token move to "the next map"

There is a TELEPORT Script... you could place one of the waypoints in the door, the other one somewhere else... I do not know if it actually allows switching between maps...

Hi Tristan,

When drawing lighting barriers on the Dynamic Lighting layer, you can choose whether a line is:

A Wall (blocks movement and is opaque in both directions.
A One Way barrier that blocks movement, is opaque from one direction and transparent in the other.
Or a Transparent barrier that blocks movement but is transparent in both directions, like a window.

Tristan leBeau said:

this is likely not the right place, but one way visibility would be great to mimic altitudes. looking down a cliff you can see fine, looking up all you see is rock...

Another suggestion I would add was a more convenient way to place doors and windows (please correct me if i'm just stupid or unskilled enough).

It is a pain to make a map with a lot of doors/windows - drawing the walls on the map, leaving space for doors windows, putting each one in and then move each handle of each side of each window/door to fit...

something like the ability to (exactly) draw a door/window from point a to point b would be an option or I could imagine a system were you just put windows/doors onto walls (snapping to them and overwriting the functionality of that part) - the last one could also make for see-through doors (doors from bars or glass doors for example - yeah I know I can just use an openable window for it. Its just a minimum addon for immersion).

Would be a nice QoL feature in my opinion (and I hope fitting for this thread to add).

JD said:

This was a good change - cheers Andrew.

Is the other bit of this one, (reducing the size of the icons) still on the radar?

With that done, we'd just need one-way windows, a range of icons to select from, and maybe an object that blocks sight but not movement (whether it be a door or something in the DL settings alongside walls)

Checking in on this - I assume once "project awesome" is done (whatever it's called: the new underlying-tech-overhaul thingy that i am honestly so thrilled about, you guys rock!) that we can start to have the new things, which maybe might include:

• door/window icon size adjustment per door/window or per page.
  
• one-way windows
• customisable icons for door-like, and window-like elements (e.g. I use windows for any see-through barrier right now, like a jail door. Would like to swap in a little bars icon for those ones)
• "walls" or "doors" which block sight but not movement
  
• and... an adjustment to the concept of "block sight" to "adjusts vision somehow" which can include totally blocking sight, or just applying a vision multiplier to it adjustable per wall_section_facing from 0 to 1.

Hoping, hoping, hoping.

Yeah, it's been a while, but it looks like doors now do not get moved on the token layer, yay! However, there still is no option to have them be invisible until hovered over, which means you cannot see the underlying artwork. It looks better if you use 140px grid scale, since they are smaller, but so is everything else, all the name plates, etc.  It would be way more important to me to use a portcullis on the map, not on the door itself. Even making the door a simple line would be better, instead of a 2D object facing the wrong direction :)

Doors only appearing on Hover would solve my biggest issue with them: They are Ugly as Sin. 

I still use traditional doors for that reason.

I hope being able to hide doors icons is still something in the works because those icons are pretty immersion breaking!

For the folks wanting to hide the icons:

Smolin said:

I hope being able to hide doors icons is still something in the works because those icons are pretty immersion breaking!

Suggestion for the time being: Make your doors all secret doors. You'll need to control them but the players won't be able to see the icons. A Lot might be done using secret doors.

For the future, i am still hoping for my list to get rolled out:

JD said:

Checking in on this - I assume once "project awesome" is done (whatever it's called: the new underlying-tech-overhaul thingy that i am honestly so thrilled about, you guys rock!) that we can start to have the new things, which maybe might include:

1. door/window icon size adjustment per door/window or per page.
   
2. one-way windows
3. customisable icons for door-like, and window-like elements (e.g. I use windows for any see-through barrier right now, like a jail door. Would like to swap in a little bars icon for those ones)
4. "walls" or "doors" which block sight but not movement
   
5. and... an adjustment to the concept of "block sight" to "barrier which adjusts vision somehow" which can include totally blocking sight, or just applying a vision multiplier to it, adjustable per-wall-section-facing, in factors from 0 to 1.

Hoping, hoping, hoping.

JD said:

For the folks wanting to hide the icons:

Smolin said:

I hope being able to hide doors icons is still something in the works because those icons are pretty immersion breaking!

Suggestion for the time being: Make your doors all secret doors. You'll need to control them but the players won't be able to see the icons. A Lot might be done using secret doors.

That's a pretty clever (to me, perhaps obvious to you!) hack. It's also pretty immersion breaking when someone opens a door 50' away from their token. Making all the doors GM-only would solve that. I will definitely use this on my next map. 

Andrew Searles said:

JD said:

How's this coming along? I want to use the doors feature, but it needs finishing...

Well JD...

Actually I do. In about one hour, we'll be pushing an update that will restrict the movement of Doors and Windows to the Lighting Layer. So now if you want to move those things, you'll need to go to the lighting layer. I'm still a little worried that because you can still ADD the doors, windows, and lights when NOT on the Lighting Layer. So I think a lot of people will add those and then wonder why they can't move them, but we'll see what the feedback is and respond accordingly!

Thanks again for your feedback.

Even with this, doors on the infernal submersible map in the Chains of Asmodeus campaign were a real pain.  I do not add such doors to maps I make so only encountered this on purchased module.