A Question for Xorne (Token Scaling)

[afd1366]

Hey Xorne,

Thanks so much for the miniature/token conversion tutorial! In the video, you indicate that you scale your Medium tokens to a height of 100 pixels. Out of curiosity, do you have any self-determined rubrics for creatures of other sizes (i.e. 150 for Large, etc.)?

I understand that I could experiment and eventually come up with a size scheme on my own, but given that I've learned most of my "more advanced" FGII techniques from you and am currently scaling all of my maps based on your tutorial, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Thanks,

Doug

[Tenian]

Well in 4E the sizes are fixed, based on the table in the PHB p 282:

Small/Med = 1 square
Large = 2x2
Huge = 3x3
Gargantuan = 4x4 +

So if you use 100x100 for medium it would be 200x200 for large, 300x300 for huge, 400x400 for gargantuan

The tokens look nice at that scale, but I can't imagine anyone playing with those and not downscaling them a 400x400 token takes up an absurd amount of screen space.

[afd1366]

Thanks, Tenian.

[Tokuriku]

By the way, it's been a long time since I saw a post from Xorn...
Anybody knows what happened to him?

[Xorn]

I'm still around, mostly lurking. :)

I've actually switched to a 50 px/sq scale at this point (matches my maps) but otherwise I think the question was answered already. Been having a lot of issues with having time to play on FG2, let alone talk about it. :)

Got a bunch of D&D books for XMas though, finally get to play after a very long break!

[CaribbeanGamer]

Let me know if you're gonna be recruiting for those games Xorn. I'm still digging around for a fun, laid back 4E.

[afd1366]

Thanks everyone for the prompt and helpful responses. While I, too, mostly lurk (and gleen most of what I'm looking for from the postings of others) I have to say that the FG community is by far the most cordial and responsive of the several I browse.

As I imagine may reading these boards are, I'm one of those "old school" tabletop gamers trying to keep the dream alive through FGII in the age of multiple children and way-to-demanding career obligations.

Given that I'm not the most computer literate guy on the block, it's nice to have a ready resource like the rest of you who have and are willing to share their tips and know-how without running into a free-fire zone of geek-on-geek violence.:D

[Xorn]

I'm currently in hot water with my gaming group for cancelling too many games in a row during December. Between weather, holidays and *cough*wrathofthelichking*cough* if I don't run our game next week they're going to lynch me.

[CaribbeanGamer]

WotLK tried to suck me back in, but thankfully I was so far behind my old guildies that the thought of yet another grind deterred me.

[Xorn]

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, but I'm really excited about being able to see all the content through non-heroic instances/raids, finally. I've got my two characters I play with any frequency to 78 now, but I'm pretty much intended target of the phrase, "casual player". Funniest part is how much quest XP you get. I had rested XP for 5 levels before it ran out!

Anyway, my party (D&D--subject change there) are currently knee-deep in duergar (I just typed dark iron dwarves there, heh), and pretty itchy to play. I'm kind of antsy too, especially with all the phat loot (err... D&D books) that I got during Winter's Veil (err... Christmas). I've also got to get the minis from the last DDM set scanned in, I'm slacking!

[CaribbeanGamer]

Awesome. Since this topic has jumped the shark completely, you should start podcasting your games Xorn. I've followed all of your tutorials, and thought they actually made the game look fun (they're the reason I bought FG).

As a new player of FG/D&D(and rpgs in general), I'd love to see how you run a session.

[Xorn]

I've mentioned the idea of recording 5 minutes of one of our sessions, maybe a good combat, but nothing more.

[hgordillo]

I've mentioned the idea of recording 5 minutes of one of our sessions, maybe a good combat, but nothing more.
I think that would be an AWESOME contribution. Got to hand it to you!

[Tenian]

5 minutes of Percy trying to push the nearest NPC into some sort of fiery death trap!

Added bonus you can hear Xorne/Jason swear when he fails his saving throw!

Double added bonus, hear Omar miss with Passing attack!

[Xorn]

Game is tonight. I'll try to remember to fire up CamStudio at some point during the game. Their audio will likely be pretty quiet (since it will just be what my mic picks up) but we'll see how it goes. Personally I think it will be boring as hell to watch other people play, but who knows. :)

Also, due to the sheer size of my screen when running a game, I'll probably set it to records a 640x480 box and autopan around the screen. Have to experiment a little, I guess.

[Xorn]

Wow.

So I recorded one round of combat (with 9 combatants) and that took 15 mintues. I also can't imagine this being exciting to anyone who isn't a total nerd. :) I crunched the video down to 800x600 (my screen is huge) which leaves the text mostly unreadable, but you can tell what's going on (plus we're talking). I haven't done any movie rendering since I made the tutorials, and I can't find the settings I used before. Setting it to variable, quality-based bitrates, I got an 85 MB file. I can't even remember if that's good or not, honestly.

Anyway, here's the video, I saved the original footage (1.8 GB of uncompressed video) and I might try cleaning it up later. (FYI the sound is bad--my mic was static-filled.)

One round of Watch For Falling Meteors (https://www.eugee.net/movies/1roundfg2.wmv) (Please right-click, and Save As...)

[Tenian]

Just as an FYI, Xorne's group serves as a testing bed for whatever random ideas I come up with for the ruleset. So the video may illustrate some features that aren't available in the standard 4E_JPG 1.3 release (and some of them never make it into the final version).

Off the top of my head we are using a version that has alternating shaded rows in the reference tables, token/CT drops for the DM, auto save rolls, healing surges remaining displayed on the CT, Immediate Action Used and Action Point Used check boxes on the CT, and probably some other things I just forgot.

And it was nice he chose to record a round where my Barbarian actually hit something :)

[Xorn]

I'm almost embarrassed with the terrible quality of that clip. The audio is out of sync worse and worse, and my microphone static is terrible.

Still, there's a round in the life of our crew.

[ozziewolf]

I don't know about you guys but that video needed more Percy.

Jason ruined my plans to positioning strike the caster into the fire. So instead I closed the door on him. ;o

[Angloson]

First, thanks for all the videos you done Xorn(e). And thanks for the rest for letting us in on a few minutes of play. I guess I fall into the category of game-geek. Because this helped me see how the software can be used.....I have yet to get my group to buy the software. Anyway...

I know this may be a part of the unreleased version of 4E.jpg, but how did you get the chat box to move from it's usual position? Can we do that without a large amount of programming? (I'm not a programmer.)

Thanks

[Griogre]

The chat box is in its usual position - the top left. What you are seeing is that Xorn is in "nose bleed" resolution which creates space under the chat window because the chat window is fixed in size and position. In 800x600 the chat window goes down to just above the mod box. Once you know that you can tell Xorn is in a resolution 2-3 times higher than 800x600, probably 3 times. Also I think Xorn is using a dual monitor setup.

As an aside I ran that same fight last night. :) They came in on the other bridge though, but the bad guys knew they were coming. It was a fun fight. :D On of my defenders threw one of the Abelesters in the fireplace after the fight and the other was pissed at the other one because it kicked him between his legs. ;)

[Angloson]

Thanks, I had a feeling it was something like that. I'll have to try the double monitor system too.

[Xorn]

2048x1536 (https://www.eugee.net/fg/fg2.2048x1536.jpg), to be exactly. :D

I'm considering doing another glimpse of the next session, only using the autopan function, at 1024x768 (default window size for FG2) and the "viewport" will follow my mouse around. It would make seeing what I'm doing much easier to follow. I figured this video would give enough to tell what I was doing--but the sound getting out of sync was horrible.

[ozziewolf]

2048x1536 (https://www.eugee.net/fg/fg2.2048x1536.jpg), to be exactly. :D

I'm considering doing another glimpse of the next session,

Anything that gives us the joy of seeing more of Percy in action is a go in my book! :bandit:

To bad he'll be on hiatus for a while. However I think the incomming Halfling Fighter should do nicely! :pirate: :D