Zoom Improvement

It'd be cool if the new zoom feature(which is amazing by the way) could be used on tokens placed by the DM and other players that aren't necessarily under my control.

It doesn't already? Whoops! I was assuming it did. Well I'm glad I found out before I was expecting my players to be able to easily zoom in to tokens I was presenting next time we play. Also, back to the drawing board on setting up next week's scenario....

I agree! +1. This would be excellent. (You are correct, it currently only does the Z display for the person who pressed Z. The GM can't force-z to everyone, as it stands so far.) I suggested that to Riley in this thread, and he said he is considering implementing it, so you can Reply there too if you want to reinforce it, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1145232/new-upda" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1145232/new-upda</a>... Also here is another thread I started for talking about the "press z to zoom a token" feature, Check it out & reply with your ideas there too if you like, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1147560/press-z-" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1147560/press-z-</a>...

Gold said: I agree! +1. This would be excellent. (You are correct, it currently only does the Z display for the person who pressed Z. The GM can't force-z to everyone, as it stands so far.) Oh wait. I still may not be understanding this (and I don't have a good way to jump in game to see for myself right now). Let's say I as GM plop down a token that is only GM controlled. Can the players press "z" to zoom it? Being able to force zoom would certainly be nice, but as long as my players can do it on their own initiative I can still go ahead with my presentation plans. EDIT: Actually taking the time to read the other threads has answered my question. Looks like it's back to Handouts!

@ Mandella, right, the answer is "No" the Players cannot press "z" on an image that is GM controlled. Nor on an image that their buddy, another player controls! Typically in a lot of games the GM only sets each token to be controlled by its own lone player. So the Cleric can press-z on the Cleric token, but NOT on the Fighter token, AND NOT on the Monster token, and certainly NOT on any picture that's lurking on the Map Layer. Only if the GM sets everyone's tokens to Controlled By: All Players, then they could press-z on each other's tokens, and this workaround would come with drawbacks of its own (other players could move your token). That's why I suggest the feature for the GM to press "z" on any image, and it would force-show that image to everyone. Comparing with Handouts for monster pics or sharing party-member pics: My suggestion wouldn't allow the Players to view it anytime they want, like a Handout could. My suggestion the behavior would be like an on-tabletop Handout that ONLY had "Show To Players" ability like Handouts, not Players-view-anytime-from-an-index ability like Handouts. Handout situation: "Here are 45 handouts about different Planets you can visit anytime" then you want Handouts, so players can click and view at their leisure. If GM could Force-Z situation: "You come into the room and there is an old man with a pointy hat, a goblin, and a creature you don't recognize the species... and this is a picture of the man you see (BOOM: Pop up wizard token), and this is what the goblin looks like (BOOM! GM "z-key" the goblin token), and this is what the creature you don't recognize looks like (BOOM: Pop up the picture of the Ogytugh)... and now here they are as token-size".... this would be directed by the GM having the ability to force-Z to show to players on-the-fly.

@Gold, As a workaround, you can have a handout that you give players permission to when they enter the area, then hit "Show to players" so it pops up on their screen. They'll be able to check on it for that encounter, then when you move on just remove permission to it and it will be removed from their journal. Not exactly the same (requires a couple extra button clicks) but similar result. The reason why you can't do this right now is because you can't select a token you don't control...it's essentially part of the scenery. The 'z' command goes off what you have selected. I suppose this could be fixed by having it as a "mouseover" command instead of on select but that becomes it's own set of problems. Another solution would be to have a "selectable" option for tokens so someone could select a token but not move it. That being said, I wouldn't mind having this ability.

Jacquesne J. said: Not exactly the same (requires a couple extra button clicks) but similar result. You're right, to a fair extent. I just tested it. Depending what you count, but being fair & equal to both methods, I count 7 Clicks to make a Handout using an image from the Art Search and Show To Players... versus 3 clicks to drop the same image from Art onto tabletop and select and "z". Some people don't know that you can drop from Art Search onto a Handout image field, but you're absolutely correct, that is quite easy. Everyone knows you can drop from Art Search onto the Tabletop, as that's usually the first thing people learn to do with the Art Search. Another difference, besides 7 vs 3 clicks (which is not a big thing, honestly), is the handout gives a white background and square window, to close it use the "X" button. Z-key on the image, shows it with transparency intact, in the center of screen, with a dimmed black background, which looks nicer. To close it, mouseclick anywhere. Also not a big thing, I guess, but it seems exciting visually to me, maybe it's the romance of a new Roll20 feature.

Jacquesne J. said: @Gold, As a workaround, you can have a handout that you give players permission to when they enter the area, then hit "Show to players" so it pops up on their screen. They'll be able to check on it for that encounter, then when you move on just remove permission to it and it will be removed from their journal. Not exactly the same (requires a couple extra button clicks) but similar result. And that is exactly what I do now, and you can see why I would have been excited by an easier to use system. Just being able to have the players click to zoom (or mouseover, I'm not picky!) would be a godsend. Thing is, me and the players got used to a similar feature using another system where mousing over would produce a popup portrait view. Very handy, and I'd love to see something similar here..

Gold said: @ Mandella, right, the answer is "No" the Players cannot press "z" on an image that is GM controlled. Nor on an image that their buddy, another player controls! Typically in a lot of games the GM only sets each token to be controlled by its own lone player. So the Cleric can press-z on the Cleric token, but NOT on the Fighter token, AND NOT on the Monster token, and certainly NOT on any picture that's lurking on the Map Layer. Only if the GM sets everyone's tokens to Controlled By: All Players, then they could press-z on each other's tokens, and this workaround would come with drawbacks of its own (other players could move your token). That's why I suggest the feature for the GM to press "z" on any image, and it would force-show that image to everyone. Comparing with Handouts for monster pics or sharing party-member pics: My suggestion wouldn't allow the Players to view it anytime they want, like a Handout could. My suggestion the behavior would be like an on-tabletop Handout that ONLY had "Show To Players" ability like Handouts, not Players-view-anytime-from-an-index ability like Handouts. Handout situation: "Here are 45 handouts about different Planets you can visit anytime" then you want Handouts, so players can click and view at their leisure. If GM could Force-Z situation: "You come into the room and there is an old man with a pointy hat, a goblin, and a creature you don't recognize the species... and this is a picture of the man you see (BOOM: Pop up wizard token), and this is what the goblin looks like (BOOM! GM "z-key" the goblin token), and this is what the creature you don't recognize looks like (BOOM: Pop up the picture of the Ogytugh)... and now here they are as token-size".... this would be directed by the GM having the ability to force-Z to show to players on-the-fly. Definitely agree with the whole handout thing and its what I do at the moment, alternately I just chuck it out and resize to massive so the players can see it and then shrink it back down. It would just be cool if I could select a token controlled by another player and press z. but it might be complex. Alternately I am a fan of the GM can force a Z press, probably using Alt+Z or something along those lines.

Tom P. said: Definitely agree with the whole handout thing and its what I do at the moment, alternately I just chuck it out and resize to massive so the players can see it and then shrink it back down. I do that too. Another method is plop down the picture on the tabletop at a smaller size (I keep a whole row of pictures at a smaller size, hidden under Fog Of War), and tell your players "Hey everybody zoom to 200% and then i will ping you to the picture". You uncover the fog over the smallish pic, your Players zoom to 200%, and the GM shift-pings so everybody is looking at the pic. If the GM could z-key to force zoom everyone, that makes the pic pop-up in the middle of the screen, regardless where the object is located on the tabletop/map. So everyone doesn't have to scroll to the spot, nor zoom themself, and GM doesn't have to Reveal it from the Fog.