Alpha Build 88 Notes

Post by **trevor** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:05 am

Cranked out a bunch of little ones tonight:

Linked Player View now follows map changes
Server Info Dialog details should be selectable
Select token on drop
Grid size menu
GM can enforce a player zone switch
Add toggle for tokens to start snap to grid

Zulithe · Post by **Zulithe** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:41 pm

Hello,

I just wanted to say a word of thanks for all your hard work. I am planning on running a game in the next week or so with MapTool for some people from the official WotC chatrooms. I'll report back any results!

Post by **trevor** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:47 pm

Super cool ! Totally let us know how it goes

(Especially rough spots, and we'll hammer them out).

If there are any updates you see lined up for M9 that you'd like to see implemented before your game just let me know and I'll see about getting them implemented in time

(the chat rebuild has already begun and should have a first pass in a couple days).

-Trev

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:58 pm

I know there is a tracker and I know you guys are busy with other features, most of which I'm waiting for with baited breathe, as they are all good choices, but...

Hexes

Are they difficult? Not popular? Impossible?

The reason I ask is I play More Scifi Lately (Traveller), and maybe hexes are used alot more I think than in Fantasy. They are good for outdoor combat and it's hard to have space combat in a square enviroment

Perhaps enlighten me on the possilbe difficulties and maybe at least "bump it" so it isn't last

Any news would be appreciated

P.S. I want hexes for outdoor combat in my Western game as well...

Gunfights and all!

Thanks

Post by **trevor** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:16 pm

MapTool has been written with efforts to make non-square grids possible to implement.

However, it's not entirely trivial, it'll take some work. There are a couple key things that need to be implemented, off the top of my head are: token sizing, grid walking (it's easy with squares), distance calculations, grid sizing (dialog).

Our plan has been to get the tool to do one thing very well, grids, get it stable, make a 1.0 release, then look at additional other features.

Since it's important to you, we'll bump up the priority

Let us get 1.0 out and then we'll get hexes in for you

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:09 pm

NP

Thanks for the reply and explaination!

I thought it was a bit more trouble, but you guys never cease to amaze

We're going to be running some games online with Maptool and GRiP, and I will be taking screenshots for posting here. I'm sure it will be an interesting visual feast

Thanks again for the info!

P.S. How is the image gallery coming? I'm puttin together stuff that needs a home

Zulithe · Post by **Zulithe** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:18 pm

I wouldn't say that this feature is a major need in my case, but since you asked, I noticed in the tracker the bug titled "Support players running the server". At the moment I'm on dialup (probably not once I move in March, but...) so the chances of a player having more bandwidth and being more suitable as for the server is very high.

So, just letting you know where I stand on that issue. No pressure though!

I really like the direction things are going. It is already a great alternative to OpenRPG or Fantasy Grounds, and improving at a steady pace. If I could only suggest one thing, it would be that I'd like to see MapTool become more and more like fantasy grounds, to provide a complete, easy to use virtual gaming table. Although things like built-in SRD aren't that high priority since sites like http://d20srd.org are about as perfect as it gets (and are also free). Seeing the addition of the improved chat feature is a good sign that the vision you have is similar to what I'm looking for. It's really cool

I also noticed on the front page the call for help: "We the technical find ourselves lacking in the artistic element and are looking for someone to help us prettify the tools, the website, and create a core library of original maps and tokens." -- Though I can't offer you any help here, I hope you find a person or people capable and willing to assit! That would be very, very useful!

I have to tell you, I've been evangelising your products a lot lately in d20 chatrooms and forums. If I run into any artists I won't hesitate in pointing them in your direction.

Post by **trevor** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:59 pm

Emryys wrote:P.S. How is the image gallery coming? I'm puttin together stuff that needs a home

What kind of images are we talking, like tokens, maps, or screenshots ? We're working on putting a repository of assets together (brisingre is helping out with that), but screenshots we can drop directly on rptools.net if you'd like

(we sure would!)

Post by **trevor** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:05 am

Zulithe wrote:I noticed in the tracker the bug titled "Support players running the server".

Good news: This has already been implemented (and available since M8 I believe) ! Set up your campaign ahead of time (maps, token layout, whatever) and save the campaign to a file. Send that file to the person who will be running the server (and tell them not to peek

). Have them Start Server and just specify that they want to be a Player role and not GM. Then you can connect to their server as a GM role, and walah !

Zulithe wrote:If I could only suggest one thing, it would be that I'd like to see MapTool become more and more like fantasy grounds, to provide a complete, easy to use virtual gaming table.

There's been quite a bit of discussion lately of making transfer of media files (sounds, images, video, ambience, whatever). We'll definitely put that in post 1.0, I've got a plan (besides, it sounds really interesting to implement)

Zulithe wrote:I have to tell you, I've been evangelising your products a lot lately in d20 chatrooms and forums.

Amen brother ! Preach it ! Preach it !

Emryys · Post by **Emryys** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:13 am

trevor wrote:What kind of images are we talking, like tokens, maps, or screenshots ? We're working on putting a repository of assets together (brisingre is helping out with that), but screenshots we can drop directly on rptools.net if you'd like (we sure would!)

I've now got a bunch of Traveller tokens, but the art work is from copyrighted material

I've got this resturant map I did for a GRiP adventure I made...

And this Traveller Scout ship...

And this Logo...

I can make other stuff if you need anything

Check out my RPG Pics for more...

brisingre · Post by **brisingre** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:17 pm

I wrote the repository to acdept copyrighted stuff as long as you gave a source. This translates to "I put it in the submission suggestions and won't send it in otherwise." We would have gotten maybe two dozen tokens max otherwise, most art is copyrighted. I swear I will tech this up at some point

! Once it is up and running, you could send in your traveller tokens. Just include the source. All of this is, of course, conditional on Tcroft's approval, both of my repository and of this policy.