Be able to use an image, instead of the black fog of war. This would allow in-character maps to be slowly replaced with actual explored areas, as the PCs move about.
Roland Z. said:
I'd be happy with just a color customizable Fog of War - I'm going to be running Reign of Winter soon, and was looking for vision obscured not only by darkness, but also by swirling snow, fog, rain, whatever.
But an image would be even better! I love the idea of blueprints superimposed over the actual map.
Joseph I. said:
Roland Z. said:
I'd be happy with just a color customizable Fog of War - I'm going to be running Reign of Winter soon, and was looking for vision obscured not only by darkness, but also by swirling snow, fog, rain, whatever.
But an image would be even better! I love the idea of blueprints superimposed over the actual map.
You might want to look into the API script "Page FX".
It can be used to simulate swirling snow, fog, and rain in a given area around a token on the GM layer.
As the script description says;
"This script allows GMs to set up environmental special effects for their maps by producing customizable, randomly distributed fx over some area. This can be used to produce various sorts of atmospheric effects like rain, geysers, steam, bubbling magma, sparks, etc."
Ghost said:
+1, especially to the suggestion to replace the Fog of War with an image.
I'm sure this sort of thing has been requested, but for the sake of completeness I might as well mention; It would be especially helpful if you could somehow layer this, so that an area is entirely blank until revealed initially, and then displays a map image of some sort when it's been seen, but isn't viewed currently.
It's really close, and probably what I'll go with in the mean time, but I was hoping to be able to take it one step further.Joseph I. said:
Ghost said:
+1, especially to the suggestion to replace the Fog of War with an image.
I'm sure this sort of thing has been requested, but for the sake of completeness I might as well mention; It would be especially helpful if you could somehow layer this, so that an area is entirely blank until revealed initially, and then displays a map image of some sort when it's been seen, but isn't viewed currently.
Have you looked into the Advance Fog of War used with Dynamic Lighting?
This will leave the map area black until the players move though it, and then leave a slightly grayed version of the map areas they have been to.
It's not 100% for everything, but it does work well
This is from one of the games I have been running. It quite clearlly shows where the party have been.
Just want to say, one of my players requested this idea today too. It's a wonderful way of implementing a RPG map :)
I have to admit, this would be really cool in dungeons. You could use a picture of bricks to represent your fog of war so that walls really look like walls to the player.
Gargamond said:
I have to admit, this would be really cool in dungeons. You could use a picture of bricks to represent your fog of war so that walls really look like walls to the player.
Imagine snow, too, gargamond. Yes we can already use animated Snow for the weather overlay. But what if there was the Animated snow on the revealed part, but solid white-out conditions beyond the "seen" area.
If we can make Fog of War a picture of snow-drifts.
An image can also be blank... I want to use fog of war to replicate a very low visibility foggy swamp or steamy jungle. I need the "fog" to be white. Right now I am giving everybody 30 ft nightvision for the effect but since the "fog" is black it always looks to be night.
One very cool possibility with an image would be to duplicate a map. As players get eyes actually on the map they could find important changes that didn't appear on "paper". New passages, bodies etc.
+1
It would be really great.
I often use 2-layer forest maps, one with treetops, one with only tree stumps. I could also solve the problem with turntable tokens, but either I have to uncover the whole forest directly or each tree individually.
If you could replace the FoW with your own graphics, that would be a great solution.
So far it looks like this, just one layer.
or
And this is how it could look if I could replace the FoW with the Treetop-layer and use the Treestump-layer as the normal Map-layer:
+1
Has this been accepted by development? This is a wonderful idea! A step closer to a map with blind areas that's not just black or some color.
Transparent areas could be seen through so open areas the party can see further.
I've used dynamic lighting but the party just pops through and that's not quite realistic.
+1
This would also be really cool if you are also a mapmaker and you make two versions of the same map. One with interior views and one with a birdseye view so all the players can see is a top-down view as the FoW image. As the players explore, they see more of the interior as the birdseye view of the building goes away with the FoW. Like with a crypt or a set of cabins or a camp, where you can go into these places and see the interior, while having the rest of the map visible
There are plenty of maps out there that show the rooftop view, then each level below. Using GIMP I can easily cut the rooftops out making everything else transparent or the rooftops just float over the building.
I have a character teleport API that can be used on the stairs to switch the players to a different area on the map that is a different level providing smooth transitions for the players moving from level to level by themselves as they explore. The API script could be better though.
The rooftops could be used instead of the back so as the players move about, the roof dissolves showing the players the place that they are in.
I really like Martin Y's use case for this: a sparse, imperfect world/kingdom/regional map being slowly replaced by a detailed, accurate one as the characters explore.
