Dynamic Feild of View

I'm not a programmer or anything of that sort so I won't claim to know how difficult this would be, just thought of it as something I would use and thought could be used by lots of people. Basically what I would suggest is to make a new layer that specifically recognizes any lines or shapes you make as objects. These objects would then be assigned an editable value of how many squares (or hexes) the 'shadow' is cast. Basically this is to give you an automatic Fog of War based off the position of your token. I'm assuming everyone's token would be assigned a 'forward' facing side and that the already in place rotating mechanics would help. It would make things like daytime stealth a little easier for everyone to agree on who exactly see's what, especially when my hand slips and I accidentally reveal too much with the FoW tool.  Thanks for everything you've done in helping my D&D groups come together. I'm very grateful. J 

Moved to the Suggestions forum.  - Gauss

Thanks, I was looking for it just didn't see it.

Did you try using dynamic lighting(alot better then FoW)?  As a supporter I believe you have access to that.

Yea, I've tried that, but When The Characters Approach Buildings Or Corners They Can See Through Brick Walls Ect. I Just Think It Would Help SurpriseHide Stealthy Characters In A Way That doesn't quite Exist Yet.

Jesse H. said: Yea, I've tried that, but When The Characters Approach Buildings Or Corners They Can See Through Brick Walls Ect. I Just Think It Would Help SurpriseHide Stealthy Characters In A Way That doesn't quite Exist Yet. If they can see through brick walls, it's because you didn't place any boundaries to block their view. I've actually used dynamic lighting several times to create LoS blocking scenarios where the players couldn't see around corners: just place the lines round the edge of buildings (or through the longitudinal center of the wall, to allow the players to see that there is a wall there and what it's made of) and give your players an absurdly long light source (or just cap it off at their visible range if it's a long range battle) so that they can see everything within their line of sight. If you're talking about players being able to see through squares they partially occupy, simply change the boundary to account for that (i.e. have said boundary exist at the edges of the grid rather than the "real" boundary).

Don't know if this should be in this topic, or a new topic of its own... Going along with the Dynamic Line of Sight, I do use the dynamic lighting, and create my boundary lines, and all of this works great.  (my human chars are in for a treat in the next unlit dungeon crawl we tackle).   However, i would like to place some torches along the walls that emit light all chars can see.  I know i can currently do this using tokens, but that light is not blocked by the boundaries. For example, assume I have a long corridor that would normally extend beyond the vision of my PCs.  I place light-emitting torch tokens along the wall that provide enough light for the entire corridor to be seen once the PCs enter the room.  However, if the PCs are standing outside the room with the door closed, i don't want them to see what is in the room (and the light from the tokens) until they open the door. I could move my light sources to another layer, but that seems like a lot of layer swaps as PCs move from room to room.  And what may be visible to one PC may not be visible to another PC.  Plus, just because i have a torch in a room, and the room is visibly lit, a PC in a hallway can't necessarily see the entire room (some of their field of vision into the room would be blocked by the corridor walls in which they stand). Would like the Dynamic Lighting to block other light sources the PCs cannot see.  Maybe it's in the works, or already implemented that i haven't discovered yet.  This would allow me to light parts of the map prior to the game, but not have those parts revealed to the PCs until they can actually 'see' into a room.

Matt, currently Fog of War is intended to be used in combination with Dynamic Lighting to prevent players from seeing sections such as the long corridor in your example.  - Gauss

If the PCs remain together, this works.  However, my players tend to act like magnets of the same polarity - put 'em in a room with 4 doors, and they each take one and off they go.   Fog of War would conceal the corridor until one PC opens the door.  When Fog of War is lifted, this PC would see the entire hallway.  But what about the PCs that chose the other doors?  They shouldn't necessarily see what's at the end of the first corridor just because i removed Fog of War for the first PC. Not a major drawback, as the players are pretty good at player-character knowledge...  usually.  The additional role-play opportunities that the dynamic lighting has provided is awesome.  I feel this extra control on lighting would expand that opportunity.  On my wish list. I do appreciate the feedback, and Fog of War is a feature I will use as suggested.

First, I will state what I tell everyone. I am not commenting on the suggestion itself and I have no say in suggestions that get implemented. My purpose it to help people use the tools we have. With that said, one option you could do is to set the light sources to the players that should see them and not the players that cannot.  On the light sources, leave the 'all players' box unchecked. Then set the light source so the player who should be able to see it can control it. The player(s) set to that light source will be the only ones that can see it.  There are a few drawbacks to this.  1) You cannot put the light source on the map or dynamic lighting layer and have it work for specific players. Lightsources on those layers only work for all players or none.  2) The player(s) will have the ability to move your lightsource. The player(s) will have to be adult and not do so if they shouldn't.  3) Because your players split up regularly you will have to modify the light sources on the fly to set the light source to which players can and cannot see it. This could be time consuming and is probably the largest drawback.  - Gauss

Yeah, for splitting up, Gauss has the pros and cons pretty well stated. Uncheck the "All Players See Light", but that has no bearing on fixed light-emitting sources. The "easiest" way to handle who can see light coming off particular torches or sconces in different areas would be to alter the program so that anything that emits light, can be set that only certain characters can see it. The GM would set that variable, just like he can set who controls what tokens. Who can see a particular handout, etc. I say "easiest" in quotes, because I have no idea how difficult that may actually be.

Xanthais, perhaps I wasn't clear (Im not sometimes). but you can already do that. In the image (below) I have set a torch to a total light radius of 40' and the start of the dim light at 20'. I have NOT checkmarked the 'All Players See Light'. As a result, nobody can see the light.  Next, I have given a player 'Gauss' control over the light source. Now, only that player can see the light source. Other players may also be added and they too will see that light source. Please note the drawbacks in my previous post. I hope this clears things up. - Gauss

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, ok ok, I'm tracking now. Yes that makes more sense. So if characters 1 thru 4 split up, and 1 goes into a hall with a torch, you'd have to follow ahead of them and add that torchlight to only that 1 could see it. If 4 joins him, then you'd add 4 to the list of Controlled By, thereby allowing 1 and 4 to see the light, but not 2 and 3.  Is that what you meant by on-the-fly hassles and time consumption?

Yes, that is what I meant by on-the-fly hassles and time consumption. :)  That time can be reduced by using a generic light source and just copy/pasting it after setting the first one to the players required. - Gauss

would the API scripts be able to alter the "controlled by" box? Based on a distance or something? that might improve it a little bit.

george c. said: would the API scripts be able to alter the "controlled by" box? Based on a distance or something? that might improve it a little bit. Yes it could