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MathemAddicts
November 8th, 2015, 02:09
I really like many of the features in Fantasy Grounds, but the deal-breaker is no line of sight integration. Am I mistaken on this feature? I have been using a competitor's software/website for quite some time and find the constant need for typing in every single spell and monster from D&D 3.5 insane; however, I would deal with that insanity any day if it allowed line-of-sight.

dulux-oz
November 8th, 2015, 02:16
Hi MathemA,

No, at this point in time FG does not have Line of Sight.

However, there is a big push on from the Smite Works Developers to port FG over to use the Unity Engine, instead of the 10+ year old engine it currently uses. When this happens a whole raft of new possibilities and functions open up, and LOS is one of them.

When will the Unity port be complete? At this stage we don't have an ETA, but it is coming.

In the meantime, why don't you stick around, see what's currently available and happening, and may be drop into a one-shot game or play in one of the upcoming Cons - you might just be surprised, and you might, just might, decide that what FG does have is worth the switch now, even with LOS.

And keep on asking Qs - we're a friendly bunch here and don't mind answering people Qs

Cheers

Andraax
November 8th, 2015, 02:58
Well, it depends on what he means by "line of sight"... Do targeting arrows count? I frequently use those for adjudicating line of sight.

dulux-oz
November 8th, 2015, 03:48
Well, it depends on what he means by "line of sight"... Do targeting arrows count? I frequently use those for adjudicating line of sight.

I see your point - but generally LOS means (I believe) the ability for a "wall token" to automatically mask the map behind it. Yes, we can simulate that now using the manual Mask/Unmask Tool, but we can't do it automatically yet.

Myself and a couple of the other Community Devs looked into how we'd do it in the current version of FG a few months ago, but it never went anywhere - I think we're all waiting on FGv4/FG-Unity (or whatever its going to be called)

Cheers

Zacchaeus
November 8th, 2015, 11:40
I really like many of the features in Fantasy Grounds, but the deal-breaker is no line of sight integration.

Why would this be a deal breaker?

And welcome to the forums :)

Mask_of_winter
November 8th, 2015, 12:33
Why would this be a deal breaker?

And welcome to the forums :)
Yeah, *takes on an old tired voice* back in the ole days we used to game with nothing but graph paper,dice, a pencil, character sheets and eraser or dice for minis.
Welcome to the FG Forums man!

seycyrus
November 8th, 2015, 14:10
One of the things that I'm afraid of if LOS ever becomes a thing is my players "clearing the map". That is methodically walking so that their LOS has touched on every portion of the map that is possible. We do this is NWN as standard operating procedure, and undoubtedly it is done in other games as well.

In my opinion, it would take away from immersion, etc.

Wazoodust
November 8th, 2015, 16:49
I did try a competitors "free" version, and the things that FG has built in, especially for 5E, made it a no brainier for me, if you're not playing 5E that could be different. The content on here is good and the community help is great. There are just way to many things that are already done in the software and modules that make this an easy system to run and play in after a brief acclimation. I played one session and went straight to DM after seeing FG in action

viresanimi
November 8th, 2015, 18:57
The LoS thing... I really hope that it isn't a thing Smiteworks loses sleep over when making the Unity engine. Would be cool to have? Sure. Personally: I couldn't care less! I hope FG remains what it is: A great way of handling roleplaying games and doesn't become "the dungeon crawler simulator engine".

Vires Animi

Valarian
November 8th, 2015, 20:14
Yeah, *takes on an old tired voice* back in the ole days we used to game with nothing but graph paper,dice, a pencil, character sheets and eraser or dice for minis.
Graph Paper?! Luxury! We had nowt but a bit of bog roll and half a pencil to play with.

Mellock
November 8th, 2015, 20:35
The LoS thing... I really hope that it isn't a thing Smiteworks loses sleep over when making the Unity engine. Would be cool to have? Sure. Personally: I couldn't care less! I hope FG remains what it is: A great way of handling roleplaying games and doesn't become "the dungeon crawler simulator engine".
Vires Animi

I dunno, it's something I wonder about from time to time: will FG try to adhere mostly to simulating the tabletop experience, or is there more call for something in between the tabletop experience and a computer game that adhered to the rules very well, like the Temple of Elemental Evil computer game. As long as it's userfriendly, and wrapped in a nice leather or wood texture, I really like all the handy features a computer has to offer. Line of sight isn't really high on my list of wants, but as long as we're using a pc to play anyway, why not take advantage of it and have the computer display the areas you can affect?

MathemAddicts
November 8th, 2015, 20:51
I appreciate all the comments. I may just give FG a whirl.

To be clear, my group is made up of hardcore roleplayers. We have gamed together for roughly 30 years, and our games are heavily roleplay-centric; however, some of us are now too far away to game in person and we started looking for a virtual tabletop alternative. We tried MapTools, but it was just too clunky and required way too much setup for any of us to care to deal with. We then did a couple sessions on Roll20 and we absolutely loved the LoS feature for the realism it brought. Can they play without it? Absolutely. What do I see that FG has over Roll20? Content!!! I don't have to code in all the monsters and spells. That is a huge bonus (trust me... their character's are now 15th - 16th level in our current, 6-year-long campaign, and there are just too many spells and crap for me to want to code in).

JohnD
November 8th, 2015, 21:00
Frankly you are the DM. You are the poor bastard who is doing all this extra work, requiring you to sacrifice other areas of your life. Make the switch and you will never regret it. Your players may bitch and moan but they will quickly see the light. And, if they don't, there are a whole bunch of people here looking for a DM who spins together a good game, to the point of long term longevity as evidenced by your existing characters being high level.

You lead they will follow. All will win.

JohnD
November 8th, 2015, 21:09
Just want to add, I am on a kindle with a garbage screen keyboard. Can't be as verbose as I'd like. But, if you want a tour of FG so you can get exposure to the experience, let me know and we'll set something up.

seycyrus
November 8th, 2015, 21:27
...We then did a couple sessions on Roll20 and we absolutely loved the LoS feature for the realism it brought. ...

Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to prep an average map with LOS functionality?

MathemAddicts
November 8th, 2015, 21:33
Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to prep an average map with LOS functionality?

Maybe about 30 minutes. It was not terrible.

MathemAddicts
November 8th, 2015, 22:50
Just want to add, I am on a kindle with a garbage screen keyboard. Can't be as verbose as I'd like. But, if you want a tour of FG so you can get exposure to the experience, let me know and we'll set something up.

I might just take you up on that. I am going to try a bit by myself and see if I can figure it out.

dulux-oz
November 9th, 2015, 01:09
Graph Paper?! Luxury! We had nowt but a bit of bog roll and half a pencil to play with.

The best we could manage was a patch of dirt and a stick!

But you know, we were happy in those days.

dulux-oz
November 9th, 2015, 01:11
I might just take you up on that. I am going to try a bit by myself and see if I can figure it out.

To help you out with that let me suggest (if you haven't done so already) checking out some of the Tutorial Videos available on the FG Wiki. Damned's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below). Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG form the foundation of all the RPGs we play with FG, and by learning the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you need to know to play any RPG with FG.

Cheers

MathemAddicts
November 9th, 2015, 17:39
To help you out with that let me suggest (if you haven't done so already) checking out some of the Tutorial Videos available on the FG Wiki. Damned's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below). Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG form the foundation of all the RPGs we play with FG, and by learning the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you need to know to play any RPG with FG.

Cheers

LOL. I actually got stuck (and still am) on the silly server issues. I'll figure it out... I just didn't have time to setup a static IP and change firewall issues yesterday. I will say that I immediately could not import a map, so that was a bummer. Is that a restriction on the demo version?

Wazoodust
November 9th, 2015, 18:00
The best we could manage was a patch of dirt and a stick!

But you know, we were happy in those days.

And I thought I had it good with cave paintings !

seycyrus
November 9th, 2015, 18:02
...I will say that I immediately could not import a map, so that was a bummer. Is that a restriction on the demo version?

How did you try to import it? You can just place the image files in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns\<campaign name>\images

MathemAddicts
November 9th, 2015, 18:10
How did you try to import it? You can just place the image files in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns\<campaign name>\images

I tried "dragging" into the app (as it says to do). But placing the image files in a directory would be much better.

Trenloe
November 9th, 2015, 18:18
But placing the image files in a directory would be much better.
Open the Maps/Images window in FG and click the "Folder" button in the top left. This will open the correct directory to add your images to. Don't add any other directories within this, just put images directly in that directory (JPG or PNG format - recommend JPG with 50-75 quality).

LordEntrails
November 10th, 2015, 19:21
Well, it depends on what he means by "line of sight"... Do targeting arrows count? I frequently use those for adjudicating line of sight.

Here's an image of what Andraax is talking about.

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