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Griogre
March 12th, 2006, 09:43
I recently bought FG. I was thinking about adding some tokens besides the wooden ones, which brought me to what size should they be? There seems to be a fair amount of agreement here about 50ish pixels being a square.

That seems awfully large to me, especially if you are going to scale up large, huge and gigantic creatures. I've got players in 1024x768 resolution and can't make the maps too big. Sure I can scale the tokens down by zooming in the map but I'll lose resolution on the tokens.

The basic trade off seems to be pretty tokens vs. showing more map in a smaller area. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

bobthebuilder
March 12th, 2006, 11:08
I think you are right there, that 50 x 50 can be too big.

I scan my maps in very high resolution, but even 50 x 50 tokens do not fit perfectly into the squares, so I have scaled them down to about 22 pixels wide and 30 pixels high. It may be harder to see the detail on the token, but they fit better on my maps. Some people find 25 x 25 pixels is an "ideal" dimension to use; I suppose it depends on what dimensions and what resolution your map is in; for some people 25 x 25 is perfect, others may find 50 x 50 to be acceptable.

Snikle
March 12th, 2006, 12:02
Hmm I have never had a problem with the token size, I almost always zoom in and lock them into place, then zoom out a little to offer a little better view of the map area. Personally, I think 50x50 is perfect for a medium sized creature. Sure it may be a little harder to tell details on the tokens, but so long as the players can tell whom is whom, and who is friendly and foe, do the details on those pretty little tokens really matter?

DarkStar
March 12th, 2006, 12:17
Ehem... how do you zoom tokens? :P I couldn't find a way to do it.

Snikle
March 12th, 2006, 12:25
scroll mouse, think there is another way to, but that is how i do it.

DarkStar
March 12th, 2006, 13:30
scroll mouse, think there is another way to, but that is how i do it.
It rotates the tokens for me...

Ged
March 12th, 2006, 13:37
You can zoom the map until the tokens are in the required scale with respect to the map. Then evoke the radial menu at a token and lock the token scale. After that zoom the map back to the size you want it and the tokens zoom along with the map. (And the alternate way to zoom a map is to hold ctrl down, which changes the pan-symbol to zoom symbol, and drag.)

DarkStar
March 12th, 2006, 13:56
Thanks, Ged! I didn't know I can lock tokens like that and resize them along with the map. *notes down*

richvalle
March 12th, 2006, 17:16
Thanks, Ged! I didn't know I can lock tokens like that and resize them along with the map. *notes down*

Oh man, this is a HUGE feature for me. I drop a token into the map, zoom down till the token fits in a square, lock it and then zoom back out till I get a good viewing size for the game.

Denpending what is going on, I can zoom in closer for a battle or zoom way out so the players can see the whole map top down and deside which way they want to go.

I've never noticed a loss of detail on the tokens. On the map, yes when I zoom down close.

rv

richvalle
March 12th, 2006, 17:17
It rotates the tokens for me...

Make sure the mouse pointer is NOT on a token when you do the mouse roller.

rv

DarkStar
March 12th, 2006, 17:34
Oh man, this is a HUGE feature for me. I drop a token into the map, zoom down till the token fits in a square, lock it and then zoom back out till I get a good viewing size for the game.

Can I first place tokens on a map, then scale it and then share it with the players? Or do I have to share the map, then place the tokens, then scale them?

bobthebuilder
March 12th, 2006, 17:55
DarkStar,

from what I understand, each new change you make to the map during play (zooming in to one area, for example) requires you to hit `share sheet' again, if you want the players to see it from the new perspective. Thus, when showing the map for the first time you would click share sheet, then when you make a change (zooming in to one area), you hit share sheet after the changes have been made. I am pretty sure this is how it works.

Snikle
March 12th, 2006, 20:12
Can I first place tokens on a map, then scale it and then share it with the players? Or do I have to share the map, then place the tokens, then scale them?

You can do it any way you want. I often open the map, start pre-loading it with the players (the spider web thing), mask if I need to, then zoom into where the session is going to take place, place my tokens, then share with the players. Doing in this order ensures the players do not see part of the map I dont want them too and it seems to be the most stable for me. I get very few disconnects or players reporting they cannot see a map or token. And yes, everytime you move or re-zoom the map (when you pull back you will see an rectangle outlining what the players are seeing), you will need to re-share the map if you want the players map to reflect changes you are seeing. Not token moves though, those are automatic.

richvalle
March 13th, 2006, 03:52
Yes, you can do it in any order you wish. Every time you 'share all' it updates the other players.

I did my first 'split party' game last time. I had a new player joining the game and I had a backstory worked out with her. So I made a copy of the map we were going to use, and just shared it with her by dragging the map item from the Images list to her characters portrait. Then I did a 'share all' on the map for the other players (I didn't care if she saw it).

I then ran her and the other group at the same time. I did her with /whispers and the rest with voice. She got into a fight and the rest of the party heard it... as they got close enough to see it I moved all the tokens over to just one map and we ran the rest of the game from that.

It was a little combersome but not bad at all.

rv

Snikle
March 13th, 2006, 04:10
Wow, I am impressed! I consider myself a pretty affluent DM, and I would not even consider running a split party game! kudos to you rv!

DarkStar
March 13th, 2006, 10:44
I will have to run a split party game at some point, because my scenario is constructed like that. What about a different (and more difficult, I'm afraid) variant - two groups, let's say 2 and 3 PCs, every group has to see a different map? From what you say my idea is to share the appropriate map with every single character, as I can't choose to 'share this map with Jim, Tom and Anna', right?

richvalle
March 13th, 2006, 19:29
I will have to run a split party game at some point, because my scenario is constructed like that. What about a different (and more difficult, I'm afraid) variant - two groups, let's say 2 and 3 PCs, every group has to see a different map? From what you say my idea is to share the appropriate map with every single character, as I can't choose to 'share this map with Jim, Tom and Anna', right?

I think you can do selective sharing. There is one tricky part... sending them the updates.

What you do is this: make a copy of the map you need for the parties. After everyone logs in, drap map1 from the images folder to each player that is going to be playing on that map. Then do the same for map2. You should see the players portraits at the bottom of each map.

As for updates... one thing you can't do is 'update all'. I did it once by habit and so, of course, eveyone saw both maps. What I had to do to update is redrag the map from the images folder to the player's portrait.

But, I only had one player on that map. I'm not sure what would happen if you had 2-3 on each. Can you just drag it to one of the players and it will update for all? That would be the best case. If you have to drag it to each player each time you need to send an update, I think it will be too cumbersome to use.

rv

DarkStar
March 13th, 2006, 20:20
As for updates... one thing you can't do is 'update all'. I did it once by habit and so, of course, eveyone saw both maps. What I had to do to update is redrag the map from the images folder to the player's portrait.


So, if I change something on that map, like masking, when I redrag it from the images folder it gets updated with the changes I made while having it open on my DM screen?

richvalle
March 13th, 2006, 23:08
Masking is updated in real time. You don't need to 'reshare' for that. Same with dropping a token on or moving a token around or drawing a line or arrow on the screen. All done in real time.

When you have to reshare is when you move the map to expose more of it, or change the zoom size. Then you have to reshare it to update it on the players side.

rv