Super Secret Sneak Preview of Lighting and Vision - Shhhh, don't tell Carl and John

[Neovirtus]

I understand, Im sorry. What I meant was the ability to save the settings of some sort of custom light under a name of your choosing and have it near the presets, so you can jump in "add light" in light settings, select the preset you made and add it. Essentially, skipping the step of typing in all the custom values that you often use every time you need that type of light in your campaign.

I imagine people will make extensiond to expand the presets for the different rulesets to meet their individual needs.

[HywelPhillips]

I'll second the call to have our own custom settings be core capability.

We're all likely to have our own requirements and aesthetic preferences. For example I prefer a significantly higher fade amount that the defaults. Why not to let us add our own presets to the drop-down list? Also also add our own effects which give complete control over all lighting settings, not just the ones that are controlled by default? It's fine to leave the defaults in there because they are useful in a lot of rulesets but why not allow us to over-ride them for our preferences too? (And for that matter why not let us over-ride the tint of blindsight - there will be games where making it have a green tint would be really cool for a nightsight, for example).

More toys in the toolbox seems better than requiring extensions to do this, given that the core software has such a beautiful degree of control.

Not everyone is going to want to do more than click and place the defaults, but for those of us who want to, why not open up the ability to do it?

Cheers, Hywel

[GhoulHunter]

Well, that is certainly possible. I just think it would be easier just to make that function, although developers might say otherwise, since I dont know all the ins and outs of the process they would have to go through. I stand by my point tho. Why try to include everything that the community might need for their rulesets in the preset section, when everyone can already make what they want, they just need an easier application of the function during the gameplay? But I guess we will see what we will have present when the release happens. Pretty sure the Smiteworks team's goal right now is to have the basics of the function present and performing well. Any kind of refinements for the rulesets and the usability of the functions may come later. I gotta admit, what they already have in the test channel totally amazes me and I will be using all of the light functions in my campaign after the release, because in any way you think - it's a game changer. The combination of LOS and light sources is pretty powerful and will improve immersion of roleplay greatly, as well as taking off a lot of DM's problems of figuring out what the player might see, when they see it and how they see it.

All I can think of is relief and more fun when I think of dynamic light sources in my games, because any kind of experience where I had to keep track of every PCs vision and torches and so on and how I would have to remind everyone "He has darkvision, so what Im describing is total darkness for you, the other guy has a torch but is too far and behind a corner, so you know nothing of their environment" is just exhausting. It is easier when you have veteran players who dont meta-game nor do they forget what statuses affect them, but with anyone who hasnt played enough - all of that work drops on DM. I guess my end point is Im just happy that I chose FGU, happy it's improving with such a great feature as this and even if they dont create a preset saving function the community will find a way to still use this function to its fullest. Im just not that adept with extensions I guess

[Verdigris]

Will there be shaped lighting, to account for things like bullseye lanterns?

[GhoulHunter]

Will there be shaped lighting, to account for things like bullseye lanterns?

My guess - not in the initial release. Whether or not they plan on making that possible on a later date - no clue. My best shot is that sooner or later someone might make an extension for it.

[SilentRuin]

I don't see any "thou shall not pass" type of bugs with lighting to prevent it from going LIVE and proceeding with the normal Tuesday fixes to resolve the nit picking stuff. There is simply to much RAW POWER IN LIGHTING to leave it till its perfect. Good enough to enhance my game by 200% is good enough for me. I can wait for the trivial fixes in the normal course of things. IMHO.

[Moon Wizard]

We appreciate the enthusiasm; but we have not announced a launch date.

Regards,
JPG

[EllivasKram]

I would only ask that presets like torch and lantern are added to rule sets prebuilt effects list. Maybe add buttons like prone and restrained
Or a radial option in vision radial menus.

Is there an update to the test instance coming soon. Actually I’m really angling for when is vision hitting live.

[Midknyte]

We appreciate the enthusiasm; but we have not announced a launch date.

Regards,
JPG

Can we get a date for when you'll announce the launch date? :P THE WAIT IS KILLING ME!!

[GhoulHunter]

Can we get a date for when you'll announce the launch date? :P THE WAIT IS KILLING ME!!

Im pretty sure asking them will not help in any way they probably want to get all the basics as stable and as usable as possible before doing any kind of launches. Its not a simple update, its a new feature, and an important one at that. Im just happy they are doing it.