[FREQ] drawFOW()

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Full Bleed
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[FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by Full Bleed »

I prefer to manually expose FoW because it helps limit accidental exposures and gives me more control over what my players see. And one of the methods I use is to have a simple exposeFOW macro on my GM sheet. So I can just select a player/token and expose the FoW for that token.

But what I'd like to be able to do is the reverse. That is, select a token and be able to draw/place FoW based on their vision.

That way if I accidentally expose a section for a token, or if I want to quickly re-fill a room or area I could just grab a token and use a macro rather than switching to the tools and applying FoW with the shape tools. Using Token Vision to place, as well as remove, FoW would greatly speed up FoW management.
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JamzTheMan
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by JamzTheMan »

so, click the token and add fow based on there current vision? Or expose fow for token except for what they can see?

FYI, 1.4.1.1 has a restoreFoW() macro that reseta the maps fow. More than what you are asking for but good for that quick, "oops i showed to much" mistake.

There is also a macro to expose by ownership vs pc/npc which gives some more control as well...
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

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JamzTheMan wrote:so, click the token and add fow based on there current vision?
Yes. It will help undo an "oops" moment and I would be able to just grab a token and move it around the map and quickly add FoW back with single clicks instead of using the FoW tools (which are slow to switch to and use).
Or expose fow for token except for what they can see?
Not sure I follow this...
FYI, 1.4.1.1 has a restoreFoW() macro that reseta the maps fow. More than what you are asking for but good for that quick, "oops i showed to much" mistake.
Cool. Will be able to add this to my GM sheet FoW tools once I start using a version that has this. Any way to undo it? If not, will have to put in a verification prompt so I don't accidentally hit it. ;)
There is also a macro to expose by ownership vs pc/npc which gives some more control as well...
Nice. Does this work so that I could hardcode all the Player's names into the macro and expose for all of their owned tokens on the map with one click?
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by JamzTheMan »

Full Bleed wrote:
JamzTheMan wrote:so, click the token and add fow based on there current vision?
Yes. It will help undo an "oops" moment and I would be able to just grab a token and move it around the map and quickly add FoW back with single clicks instead of using the FoW tools (which are slow to switch to and use).
Hmm, I see what you are requesting. Not sure how I feel about it... Wouldn't an "undo" function just be better? although it would be more of a headache to code...

Full Bleed wrote:
JamzTheMan wrote:FYI, 1.4.1.1 has a restoreFoW() macro that reseta the maps fow. More than what you are asking for but good for that quick, "oops i showed to much" mistake.
Cool. Will be able to add this to my GM sheet FoW tools once I start using a version that has this. Any way to undo it? If not, will have to put in a verification prompt so I don't accidentally hit it. ;)
No way to undo it so put that prompt in. FYI, there is a Menu option under map as well which DOES prompt you. It's basically the same funtion + warning when you import a map that has FoW. So you can skip the macro if you want. I chose not to put the warning on the macro so the macro could be a "quick" restore and used inside other macros if needed (ie move macro/restore/expose routine)
Full Bleed wrote:
JamzTheMan wrote:There is also a macro to expose by ownership vs pc/npc which gives some more control as well...
Nice. Does this work so that I could hardcode all the Player's names into the macro and expose for all of their owned tokens on the map with one click?
Basically it works like the Wiki: exposePCOnlyArea() but I didn't like the fact that with that function, it restores fow to all tokens and then only exposes fow for PC tokens. So NPC tokens (owned by players or GM's) lost exposed FoW. So this function (exposeAllOwnedArea) instead restores all FoW then exposes FoW for tokens by ownership. So it doesn't take a parameter and works like the other function, and also has a keyboard short-cut Meta-Shift-F.

I kinda did some work with FoW and ownership in 1.4.1.x so it's worth taking a look at and playing with it to get a feel for it before jumping to it. There's a couple of "buttons" now that the GM and Players can also use that filters/drives what tokens FoW you will see (PC, NPC, Both). It's handy for the GM to get quickly see what the "players" can see or what his NPC's can see, etc. Also some a few bug fixes with the FoW tools are in there as well. Coupled with the new Token VBL options, there's a lot of neat new things you can do in regards with FoW and VBL.
-Jamz
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by Full Bleed »

JamzTheMan wrote:
Full Bleed wrote:
JamzTheMan wrote:so, click the token and add fow based on there current vision?
Yes. It will help undo an "oops" moment and I would be able to just grab a token and move it around the map and quickly add FoW back with single clicks instead of using the FoW tools (which are slow to switch to and use).
Hmm, I see what you are requesting. Not sure how I feel about it... Wouldn't an "undo" function just be better? although it would be more of a headache to code...
What is your opposition? If we can only "undo" an exposure it seems like that would add overhead and might limit how far back we can undo (and, note, I don't use individual FoW specifically because of the overhead and memory issues it causes). Plus it would remove one of the coolest benefits of what I'm requesting... which is to be able to grab a token, drag it into a room/area, and add the FoW based on vision quickly. This would be so much faster than going to the FoW tools and fumbling with the add/remove shapes and keyboard.

Even when testing a single room or area, being able to add FoW with single clicks from tokens would be very useful. Wonder how your VBL/FoW in a certain area looks exposed? Drag a token into the area, expose. Whoops, got a hole or shape there you don't like... add the FoW back with a single click instead of going to the tools and trying to add in a potentially odd shape. Have 3 odd shaped rooms you want to fill with FoW quickly (but not the whole map), grab a token, drag to rooms, click-click-click, done. So much faster than using the existing tools.

This comes up often when I'm setting up a dungeon and testing things out. If players are in the middle of a dungeon with some areas exposed, testing out new areas is a pain because I know I'm going to have to re-add the FoW to get it in the right state of exposure. In odd shaped areas that butt up against player exposed areas it just doesn't work without me filling large chunks back in with the square, then grabbing a PC and putting it into previously exposed areas, and re-exposing to get back to where it was, etc.
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by JamzTheMan »

I didn't say I was "opposed", I said I didn't know how I felt about it :)

Most likely because I subscribe to a more "hide everything" play style and the only exposed FoW is basically the last move of the token. Which stemmed from a performance issue of keeping exposed FoW around (I use individual views). So I was trying to picture how to use it and it seemed painful?

With that said, a macro function that creates FoW based on a tokens current visible area wouldn't be hard, but we need to name/create it so it's functionality isn't confused with a "restore ALL fow for current token"...
-Jamz
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by Full Bleed »

JamzTheMan wrote:With that said, a macro function that creates FoW based on a tokens current visible area wouldn't be hard, but we need to name/create it so it's functionality isn't confused with a "restore ALL fow for current token"...
How about drawTokenFOW()... With a parameter for "all" (defaulting to viewable area)?

I'd hesitate to use the word "restore" because I think once we have this function it creates an alternative method for applying/drawing FoW using a token as a FoW applicator... it's not just an "undo" function. In fact, that's the most significant use I would get out of it.
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by JamzTheMan »

ya, draw is probably the best keyword...
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Re: [FREQ] drawFOW()

Post by Merudo »

I would love some sort of "drawFoW" function for drawing FoW with the help of a macro. It would help a lot with restoring FoW when the underneath area changes, for example after a room changes after flipping a switch.

It could also help prevent tokens from moving across walls when they revealed an area, by putting the FoW back once they leave the room.

I could imagine something that reuse much of the code from drawVBL, such as something of the form

Code: Select all

drawFoW(shapesList)

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