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Musings of a Hex Using Junky

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:55 pm
by mudpyr8
Howdy all. It's been a while but I thought I'd hop on and share my current thoughts on maptool for us non-d20ers out there.

Progress is very, very, good.

I am using MapTool exclusively now. The majority of issues I had with it seem now to be resolved (thank you very much for your efforts, your ear, and the open forum).

A couple of minor bugs:

1. Hex pathing/alignment
This is a pretty minor issue now. I've noticed when I reduce the grid size to 15 (I have some large scale maps... it's Hero), the hex shadow/path when moving is off by maybe 10 or so pixels. If I adjust back up to 40 pixels, the alignment is perfect. Like I said, it is minor but you may want to take a look at how that shadow is calculated and how it scales.

2. Token Visibility
This issue may only be present when running server and client on the same box, but when I move a token that is not visible to players (b27), the token becomes visible during movement on the client screen. Obviously when I'm trying to sneak attack my players, this is a problem.

A couple of feature enhancements (just so I don't forget):

A. Area effect templates
I know this is more of a 1.2 thing, but something to think about. Have it behave like they do now (click on a point), but allow centering on a grid center. Additionally, allow standard polygons but perhaps allow scaling using the < and > keys by 1 grid unit per press. Square, Cone, Circle, and so on should be allowed.

Actually, what might be the best approach, is to have an AOE toggle button next to the drawing tools. When "on", anything you draw is considered an AOE area. This would allow you to have one set of drawing tools that people can be familiar with/master, provide some easy scaling functionality for standard polygons (i.e. create a snap to grid perfectly 4 unit diameter circle), and provide maximum flexibility for AOE.

B. Color Styles
Some easy, user defineable, persistent across campaigns, style settings. Example: Door Style (1px line, black pen, white fill), Block Style (0px line, no pen, black fill), Standard Style (3px line, black pen, no fill), Spell Effect Style (1px line, red pen, orange fill, 30% trans).

I think that is it for now. I am so excited for how far maptool has come along. I can finally run a game improvised just as fast or faster than when I used markers/figs.

Keep up the outstanding work.

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:13 pm
by trevor
Welcome back, we missed you !

It's been a wild ride the past month or so, lots of good feedback, lot's of great improvements. Getting reeeeeal close to a 1.1 (finally!)

1) That's a bug :P I'll take a look
2) This is also a bug that the design team told me about just this morning. Expect a fix in 1.1b28 (next release)

A) Centering will be supported in 1.2 or 1.3 (keep in mind 1.2 is supposed to be a short release). Keystrokes are a good idea. Drawing AOE, that's an interesting idea. Let me digest it a bit. The problem is that they are two distinctly different things in the implementation, I have to see if I can combine their interactions.

B) Interesting idea, I'll drop in a tracker and see what we can do

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:42 am
by mudpyr8
As always, thank you for your consideration.

For A, my thought is you would handle it with layers. There would just be an effect layer that the toggle would essentially put all/any of the drawings on. This layer would be in the background, under the grid and other drawings.

My thinking is certainly not to complicate the tool but to make it simpler. With one set of drawing tools and a toggle to make the drawings an effect template, I think things become simpler. Just a thought. Maybe it conflicts with your vision, but I wanted to share.

Thank you for fixing the visibility bug in #28. That rawks on toast!

I am very excited to have switched to maptool from Klooge, and am very pleased at how open and receptive development has been to suggestions, bug findings, and general discussion. Thank you muchly.

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:10 am
by trevor
mudpyr8 wrote: I am very excited to have switched to maptool from Klooge, and am very pleased at how open and receptive development has been to suggestions, bug findings, and general discussion. Thank you muchly.
It's you guys that help make MT great !

Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:18 am
by Nomad3k
mudpyr8 wrote: I am ... very pleased at how open and receptive development has been to suggestions, bug findings, and general discussion. Thank you muchly.
Ditto