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Suggestion RE: Facing

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:33 pm
by Dracorat
I am about to implement facing rules in my campaign and have been playing around with facing, but for it to be really useful, it needs to be easier to handle.

Here is what I suggest:

While a pog (token) is being dragged, and still being held by the mouse, pressing the arrow or corner keys on the numeric keypad should change the facing on that square. Any time this is done, a ghost of the pog should remain with the new facing indicated.

The status of numlock should not affect being able to perform this maneuver.

Additional suggestion:

Light sources should rotate as well.

As usual, you have my thanks.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:55 pm
by trevor
When dragging a token, hitting spacebar will set a waypoint.

How about this: if you hold the spacebar down, if a token has facing set then it will change the facing by following the mouse just like how you set it now. Since most times that's the direction you will move next, it seems a natural thing to do.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:03 pm
by Dracorat
That won't work. Half of the deal with facing is that you can be facing West but moving North in order to not expose your backside to the monster who you will pass.

I just recommend that if someone presses a key, you treat that like a spacebar press, but add a facing arrow at the same time.

Here are the facing rules:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adven ... Facing.htm

Under the section "Attacks of Opportunity" look at the middle diagram. I recommend how MapTable could handle that is to have the user click the pog in the first square. Before moving the pog out of that square, they press "8" on the numpad. An arrow facing UP appears. They move to the end of their movement and let go. All spaces in between have an up arrow. (By the way, I use the "show last move" quite a bit as a GM. Having an option to have it ALWAYS show would be awesome)

Let's say now, they do the same move, but after the first three squares, they face EAST and move two more squares.

Then, to handle that, they would grab but not move the pog on the first square and press "8" on the numpad. Then, move four squares east and on this square, press "6" on the numpad. On the three squares before it, an upward facing arrow is shown, but starting on this, fourth square, the arrow swaps to facing right (east) and then they move another square over and let go. The new square shows them facing east.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:05 pm
by Dracorat
trevor wrote:How about this: if you hold the spacebar down, if a token has facing set then it will change the facing by following the mouse just like how you set it now.
Well, now that I re-read this, you could do a sort of hybrid. While the mouse is held down, moving the mouse around will change the facing arrow like it does now, but when you let go of spacebar, then the arrow locks in to place while you continue your move.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:08 pm
by Jester
D&D facing rules! AIEEEEEEEEEEE! Freakin' things make no sense whatsoever, particularly the AOO rules.

That said, the ideal behavior is probably to set facing to be the direction the token is moving but give the option of changing the facing at each waypoint, yeah.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:11 pm
by trevor
Dracorat wrote:
trevor wrote:How about this: if you hold the spacebar down, if a token has facing set then it will change the facing by following the mouse just like how you set it now.
Well, now that I re-read this, you could do a sort of hybrid. While the mouse is held down, moving the mouse around will change the facing arrow like it does now, but when you let go of spacebar, then the arrow locks in to place while you continue your move.
Precisely :)

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:12 pm
by trevor
Dracorat wrote:By the way, I use the "show last move" quite a bit as a GM. Having an option to have it ALWAYS show would be awesome
Tell me more about this. You mean that all tokens show all the time ?

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:17 pm
by Dracorat
Whenever a token is moved, the path it took would remain visible on the board until the NEXT token is moved. If the same token is moved again (not a different one) then the path should be extended.

In the right click would be an option to clear the shown path in case it got crazy (like if you moved the pogs because of a teleport).

Obviously, this would be an option that could be turned on as people decide they like it (or dont).

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:19 pm
by trevor
I'll add a tracker for it

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:37 pm
by Dracorat
trevor wrote:I'll add a tracker for it
You rock!

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:33 pm
by Phergus
trevor wrote:I'll add a tracker for it
There isn't one already?

I thought at the time you added the right-click menu option for Show Last Move that:
Whenever a token is moved, the path it took would remain visible on the board until the NEXT token is moved.
...was a planned next step. Maybe it just never got a tracker.

Or maybe I just imagined it. ;)

In any case, if we didn't all agree that it would be a Good Thing at the time, I certainly do now.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:59 pm
by trevor
Heh, it sounded familiar. I figured, add it and if it's a dup, I'll just close one of them :)