Tomb of Annihilations Player Map

[Weeg]

Is there a way to "uncover" the hexes on the players map once the players actually explore the area?

[damned]

Only using the Masking feature.

[Weeg]

I did not mean in general with masking on a map... I meant on the player map of the land mass of Chult there are white hexes that cover the "unknown" land of the center land mass... I thought I saw a video somewhere that showed how you can click the white hex to take it away, so as the players explore the center land mass you can uncover the land hex by hex and reveal the map beneath...

[LordEntrails]

I did not mean in general with masking on a map... I meant on the player map of the land mass of Chult there are white hexes that cover the "unknown" land of the center land mass... I thought I saw a video somewhere that showed how you can click the white hex to take it away, so as the players explore the center land mass you can uncover the land hex by hex and reveal the map beneath...
There is a second version of the map for players that was added that has all those hexes detailed. You need to use the FG mask and only reveal what they know. The map you are referring to is the one that was provided in the print version. But since FG is more capable, SW was able to get the bonus map from the cartographer to include.

[El Condoro]

I think the answer will be 'no' but, is there a way to reveal a hex precisely and accurately (and easily)? A square is not such a big deal - just draw the square in mask mode to reveal the area - but AFAIK the only way to reveal a hex is to Shift-draw in mask mode, which is very imprecise and messy.

[Zacchaeus]

Yep, shift draw. No precision required other that a steady hand on the mouse ��

[Jiminimonka]

Yep, shift draw. No precision required other that a steady hand on the mouse ��

Hex drawing grids for Unity!!

[Delgar3]

Is there a way to "uncover" the hexes on the players map once the players actually explore the area?

I might be crazy but I put a hex token over each hex and plan to remove them as the players travel. I haven't actually started this part of the adventure yet so I'm not sure how it will go.

[Nickademus]

That's a lot of tokens. Let me know if you or your players encounter any problems.

[Jip]

Hi All,

I'm new to FG - I'm in the process of moving my ToA game here from Roll20. In the last week or so I've found answers to every question I've had by searching these forums. You guys are responsive and clear in your replies. It is refreshing to find such a helpful community. So thanks in advance for reading ahead.

The issue described by the OP in this thread has me stumped. In Roll20 I could simply remove tiny overlays that covered each hex to reveal areas as the party slogged thru the jungle. Travel is a big part of this campaign as you probably know. I gather from Nickademus' post above that trying to set that up in FG might be asking for trouble. I'm okay with that. FG still has hundreds of new features that I'm loving.

The idea of just using the suggestion of "Shift-Draw Mask Removal" - which I just experimented with btw - is fine. But I'm curious about what map I would do that with. Of the 4 maps of Chult provided with the module, only two show the entire revealed continent (DM Map Chult and Players-Chult-Complete). The "Players" map seems the likely candidate for masking and subsequent removal, but for some reason it doesn't contain any of the on-map text (like "CHULT" at the top and place names, etc.). See the attached screenshot.

So my next thought is that I should just make a copy of the DM Map but I can't seem to copy Image records the way I do other assets (like items and NPCs). So, I'm not sure how to tackle the problem of showing my players an up-to-date labeled map as they discover Chult. If there was some way to copy the DM version, I think it would be fine. I'm thinking the only option is for me and the players to BOTH use the DM Map.

Please let me know if I'm not making any sense.

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[LordEntrails]

Hey Jip, welcome to the forums.

Glad to hear you have been (up till now) successfully able to find the answers you have sought.

So what map to use.... I think most people use the "Player...Complete" map and don't worry about the text. BUT, I can see where you might want a map with the text.

There shouldn't be any problem using the GM map and sharing that (masked) with the players. They won't be able to see any of the red pins unless you share them (when they will turn green).

I do now a few of the maps from some sources can't be copied. Not really sure why in each case. (Like the maps in the DMG can't be copied, but the maps in the DMG players version can...).

I'm sure someone with a better answer will be along shortly.

[Delgar3]

Hi Jip,

I used whatever map had the hex grid already placed, and put a hex token over all the unknown areas and removed the hexes as they were explored. It seemed to work fine.

Delgar3

[Jip]

LordEntrails, Delgar3 - Thank you both for the ideas.

I guess there's no real risk in using the GM version of the map. Worse case the players might see a few hexes they weren't supposed to see yet. The jungle all looks the same anyway, right? So long as I don't share the pins prematurely, they won't know what they're looking at.

As for manually covering each hidden hex with an individual hex token - I'm going to give it a go and see how tedious the placement work becomes. I'm assuming you had no FG performance issues loading up all those tokens (which seemed to be one of the concerns).

Thanks again.

[Trenloe]

I do now a few of the maps from some sources can't be copied. Not really sure why in each case. (Like the maps in the DMG can't be copied, but the maps in the DMG players version can...)
You’re confusing unlocking a map - i.e. the maps in the main DMG module being read only.

Maps/images can’t be copied within FG - the source doesn’t make a difference, module or campaign. The only way to copy a map/image is in the campaign images directory via the operating system file manager, or if you can open the module file itself (which you can’t with most recent store content).

[lostsanityreturned]

as others have said, no there is no easy option for the map when it comes to masking. HOWEVER I do have a ready made mask for the map that I made in photoshop (easier than making it in FG)

It is sized for the full size Mike Schley map though as I hated the low quality of the fantasygrounds version.

If you want I could resize it to the FG version and pass it along or just give you the original file. It won't solve your in play issue but it will stop you from spending time on it otherwise.

I didn't bother with aligning a grid to it either btw, looks nicer and the image already had a grid (snapping wasn't a priority for me on the overworld)

Another option is to create a mouse macro that draws the perfect hex every time... But I don't think it is worth the trouble. Hopefully FGU has better tools for hexcrawl :)

[Jip]

@lostsanityretruned Thank you for the offer. I'd love to take a look at the original file. No need to resize. I'll message you my email address.

[BrettM]

@Jip -- I too just moved over to FG after close to 3 years at Roll20. I decided to use the Mask feature on the DM Map of Chult. The DM version because it gave all the place names (as I unmask) as well as pins for my convenience. I've attached a screen shot. Please note: a) a bit more is revealed as my players have traveled a bit of Chult; and b) I forgot to unmask around Peaks of Flame, but I think you get the idea.

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However, yes, 'flipping' the yellow hexes on Roll20 was easier. Roll20, IMO, has two main strengths over FG -- the map layers (GM, etc.) and Dynamic Lighting. However FG has so much more going for it, over and above Roll20, that our gang was happy to make a switch.

I hope that helps!

Brett.

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the forums and FG Community Brett!

[BrettM]

Thanks Nylanfs — looking forward to it. First FG session is this Sunday!

[Jip]

@BrettM I've experimented with a couple of approaches to mange the player map. Your map looks great. With a steady hand, the Mask feature seems to do the trick.

And I agree with your assessment of Roll20 v FG. I'm loving FG as well. The seamless ties between story, handouts, encounters, combat, and rewards is amazing. I'm suddenly so organized! My main problem so far is managing large combat maps in FG. In Roll20 I could drag multiple map images together to form one huge map, I haven't figured that out here yet. But I'm sure if I pose the question in the right forum, I'll get tons of friendly replies.

Thanks for the info.

[BrettM]

@Jip — I just zoomed in to clear the mask areas, so it was pretty easy. I’d say it took about 30 minutes total... maybe less.

Re: maps — can you explain “drag multiple maps to form one huge one”? What did you do in Roll20, or what are you trying to accomplish in FG... or do you have an example using ToA?

[Zacchaeus]

@BrettM I've experimented with a couple of approaches to mange the player map. Your map looks great. With a steady hand, the Mask feature seems to do the trick.

And I agree with your assessment of Roll20 v FG. I'm loving FG as well. The seamless ties between story, handouts, encounters, combat, and rewards is amazing. I'm suddenly so organized! My main problem so far is managing large combat maps in FG. In Roll20 I could drag multiple map images together to form one huge map, I haven't figured that out here yet. But I'm sure if I pose the question in the right forum, I'll get tons of friendly replies.

Thanks for the info.

You can't combine maps in FG. Each map is treated as a separate image. If you want a big map then you would need to create the big map (in whatever paint program you use) and then create smaller sections by cropping those out of the big map. You can pin maps to other maps so that you can pull up map B from Map A etc.

[BrettM]

Thanks Zacchaeus. You can't readily combine in Roll20 either, which is why I asked Jip for more info, re: what's he's trying to accomplish as there may be another way.

For example, you can't really show more than one map at a time in Roll20, but you can in FG, so there may be a way for Jip (and players) to just pull up multiple maps in FG and work from there, again depending on what he's trying to accomplish.

(That's one of the things I love about FG -- once shared players can access whatever map whenever they want. For the most part, in Roll20 the players can only see one map at a time, and controlled by the DM :< .)

[Jip]

BrettM - Zacchaeus has confirmed what I had assumed. He seems to know what functionality I'm referring to.

You CAN assemble multiple images in Roll20 to create big maps. It's great for areas where you want to have realistic "running fights" and make the long ranges of bows and 120 ft. spells really come into play. I've been assembling them outside of FG and dragging them in but it isn't nearly as fast or easy here. But, as I said above, that's really been the only let down with FG.

[BrettM]

Gotcha Jip — thanks for clarifying!