Ambitious rotating map question... DCC #100 The Music of the Spheres

[Naron5]

Hi. I am a sucker for punishment but I am converting and running the Dungeon Crawl Classics #100 The Music of the Spheres is Chaos.

If you are unfamiliar with the module, the centrepiece is a dungeon with a rotating central map, with three peripheral "spherical maps" attached to it that rotate in their own right. I can get the map to rotate correctly (kind of - it is a work in progress and I would do it better knowing what I know now, but it is functional).

My question is this though...

Can I get the tokens on the maps to lock to the layer as they turn? The tokens, currently, do not rotate when the map does. I am looking at having to do rotations by taking player tokens off the map, noting where they were, rotate the map and then put the tokens back on...

I would dearly love the ability to lock the tokens to a particular layer of the map. Any help or guidance greatly appreciated, even if it is just a "It can't be don." I would rather know that than feel like an idiot not knowing!

By the way - just being able to do this rotation stuff in this system is awesome! Being able to group layers so they can rotate around a common axis, and have each layer's line of sight information rotate along with it is more than I ever thought I would get to play with - so thankyou!

[Zacchaeus]

As far as I'm aware tokens don't rotate if you rotate the image that they are on, and I don't know of a way to do that. Only map elements rotate so I suppose you could add a hidden (from players) layer with tokens equal to the number of players and move them over the player tokens before you rotate; and then SHIFT-drag the player tokens to the correct place.

[pindercarl]

Hi. I am a sucker for punishment but I am converting and running the Dungeon Crawl Classics #100 The Music of the Spheres is Chaos.

If you are unfamiliar with the module, the centrepiece is a dungeon with a rotating central map, with three peripheral "spherical maps" attached to it that rotate in their own right. I can get the map to rotate correctly (kind of - it is a work in progress and I would do it better knowing what I know now, but it is functional).

My question is this though...

Can I get the tokens on the maps to lock to the layer as they turn? The tokens, currently, do not rotate when the map does. I am looking at having to do rotations by taking player tokens off the map, noting where they were, rotate the map and then put the tokens back on...

I would dearly love the ability to lock the tokens to a particular layer of the map. Any help or guidance greatly appreciated, even if it is just a "It can't be don." I would rather know that than feel like an idiot not knowing!

By the way - just being able to do this rotation stuff in this system is awesome! Being able to group layers so they can rotate around a common axis, and have each layer's line of sight information rotate along with it is more than I ever thought I would get to play with - so thankyou!

It is theoretically possible (with caveats), or at least it will be as I have discovered a bug that needs to be addressed first.

When a layer, or group of layers, is selected in transform mode there are 9 square transform handles. The handle in the middle is the pivot point. To "rotate" the room the players are in, you would select all the layers except the room the players are in. You would then move the pivot handle to the center of the room with the players. Using the rotate handle (the round one at the top) you would rotate the entire dungeon around the players. The current bug is that you can't move the pivot point.

Caveats:
1) Line-of-sight doesn't update until layer transforms are complete. E.g., if the players are able to see any of the map rotate, the LOS wouldn't update in real-time.
2) Any part of the map that was in FOW would show the transforms. You would need to disable FOW for this dungeon.
3) Tokens on the map would not rotate, so any NPCs in the rotated portion would need to be updated.
4) All the players would need to be in the same room.
5) This feels error prone.

After I get the bug fixed, I'll try to post something illustrating how you could do it. I'll try to post again when the bug fix is available from the updater.

[pindercarl]

spin_dungeon.mp4

In the attached video, you can see 4 layers (A, B, C, and D) along with a base layer. All layers are sized to be multiples of the grid size. In this case the lettered layers are 500 x 500 and the grid is 50 x 50. The layer positions are snapped to the grid. Using SHIFT + Select, I selected all of the layers. Use CTRL + Select to remove the layer to rotated around. Drag the pivot point to the center of the layer to be rotated around. Rotate dungeon. Repeat. The bug fix has been submitted and will be in the next update of the client.

[LordEntrails]

spin_dungeon.mp4

In the attached video, you can see 4 layers (A, B, C, and D) along with a base layer. All layers are sized to be multiples of the grid size. In this case the lettered layers are 500 x 500 and the grid is 50 x 50. The layer positions are snapped to the grid. Using SHIFT + Select, I selected all of the layers. Use CTRL + Select to remove the layer to rotated around. Drag the pivot point to the center of the layer to be rotated around. Rotate dungeon. Repeat. The bug fix has been submitted and will be in the next update of the client.

Awesome! So the secret is; don't spin the room they party is in, spin everything else.

[Naron5]

spin_dungeon.mp4

In the attached video, you can see 4 layers (A, B, C, and D) along with a base layer. All layers are sized to be multiples of the grid size. In this case the lettered layers are 500 x 500 and the grid is 50 x 50. The layer positions are snapped to the grid. Using SHIFT + Select, I selected all of the layers. Use CTRL + Select to remove the layer to rotated around. Drag the pivot point to the center of the layer to be rotated around. Rotate dungeon. Repeat. The bug fix has been submitted and will be in the next update of the client.

This is awesome Carl - I am likely going to have to practice this to get it right but I think this solves the issue perfectly... I have a tingly suspicion that there may be complications but this gives me an excellent basis to start working on it.

[Moon Wizard]

Carl provided a fix for the pivot point to be moved in the latest v4.7.3 release. Please run a new Check for Updates.

Regards,
JPG