5E - Aura Effects

[nephranka]

@nephranka,

Are you using "Raw" distance option? I noticed the "15.1'" distance in your picture.

I think rounding will be an issue in raw; so may need to add a small error range to the range check in Auras if set measure distance set to Raw.

Regards,
JPG

You were correct. With diagonal distance set to 1.5x it is working as expected in that case but here is example of it not working.

[nephranka]

According to rulebooks (which @bwatford and I just went over); it requires half the grid space to be affected (which we take as center point of a grid sqaure included in AoE).
So, a creature must be half a grid inside to be affected; not touching.
However, also in discussion with @bwatford, we determined that the Internet is split on how circular AoE should be measured; so considering an option for how circular auras should be handled (Shaped vs. Squared).

Given that I've been given two competing fixes and nobody agreeing or wanting to own or work with the others; I'm pretty close to just saying "good enough" or shutting it down...
I don't have the time budget to cater to all the different desires; and this is not my primary focus. It's actually taking away from getting other features done...

Regards,
JPG

The 5.5e phb is very clear on a sphere:

Sphere [Area of Effect]
PHB'24
p374
Core Rule

A Sphere is an area of effect that extends in straight lines from a point of origin outward in all directions. The effect that creates a Sphere specifies the distance it extends as the radius of the Sphere.
A Sphere's point of origin is included in the Sphere's area of effect.

and the example above is the Aura not respecting 1/2 grids.

[MrDDT]

You are confusing 2 terms here.

1/2 a grid space for an area to be affected.
Then applying that to "must be 1/2 a grid space of the creature"

Those are not the same things.

1/2 a grid space means the FULL grid space is affected if its 1/2.

A creature is affected if ANY part of it is in an affected space. These are the rules in 5E. I can get the exact wording but it says this.

[Moon Wizard]

@nephranka,
In your picture, the creature with the aura on it is not centered in a grid square; which is why that is happening.

@MrDDT,
I'm not confusing the terms; just working within the bounds of the system specified in the rules. All measurements for distance whether raw or gridded indent half square to determine whether affected.
If you want "touching", you can increase the aura by 2.5; which I'll think about making an option.
However, I think you'll get tokens affected that you don't really want when a diagonal corner is affected on touch and you're using a rounded base token...

Regards,
JPG

[MrDDT]

@nephranka,
In your picture, the creature with the aura on it is not centered in a grid square; which is why that is happening.

@MrDDT,
I'm not confusing the terms; just working within the bounds of the system specified in the rules. All measurements for distance whether raw or gridded indent half square to determine whether affected.
If you want "touching", you can increase the aura by 2.5; which I'll think about making an option.
However, I think you'll get tokens affected that you don't really want when a diagonal corner is affected on touch and you're using a rounded base token...

Regards,
JPG

2.5 is not correct when using RAW. Might not even be correct for 1.5x but I'm not sure.

Your statement said is wrong, so that's why I'm saying it sounds like you are confusing it.

1/2 of a creatures grid space does NOT have to be in an AOE for it to be affected by that AOE. Any part in there should be affected. Now you and others may choose to do it like that but that's how the rules are.
1/2 of a grid space affected by a circle/sphere AOE means the WHOLE grid space is affected.



What Nephranka is saying goes in line with what you were saying before that 1/2 of a creatures grid space is inside that AOE, thus it should be affected. Using your own terms. Now you are saying FG doesn't affect grid spaces, but it does affect based on creatures grid spaces. As you just stated.

He is saying it's not working like you are saying. If the rule you are saying on how FG is working for AURAs is that 1/2 of the creatures grid space needs to be here the AOE to be affected, the picture is showing its not.
Does the center of an AOE have to be a grid point for this to work correctly?


I understand you are saying you don't have time to work on this as it has a lot of issues and things to work out. So don't work on it now. Let people hammer it out first, then come back when its worked out. I'm not sure how to handle it as I stated in the post before that you said SR and others need to talk it out. Which we are doing.

[bwatford]

Taking over Aura Effects development + upcoming changes

Hi everyone,

I wanted to jump in and introduce myself — I’ve taken over development of the Aura Effects extension. Which will be renamed to AoE Effects.

I’ve been working on a substantial rewrite of the way the extension works, with a big focus on improving how aura distances are calculated. The new system is being built to work more closely in line with the existing D&D 5e "Area of Effect" templates which require at least half a square to be covered by the Aura for the target to be affected by it, so auras should feel more consistent with how the ruleset already handles circles, cones, lines, and squares.

The first thing on the agenda is to get those spheres working correctly. The default way it will be designed is based on snapping everything to the grid as that is the way 90% of users play the game. I will have GM options baked in to adjust those settings however I can as I understand some GM's play without a grid at all, and other want more aggressive targeting when the tokens touch the Aura in any way.

With that said, I’m planning to add a couple of new GM-facing options, for those who don't wish to play with various house rules:

- A GM setting to force all auras to be square instead of circular (for those who prefer that sort of grid-based play). This option eliminates sphere's altogether and forces everything into a cube.
- A sensitivity (or tolerance) option for people who want auras to trigger closer to “just touching the Aura” rather than the stricter 5e interpretation of only having squares that are covered by the Aura at least 50% trigger the aura.

- A setting for raw distance/gridless play that will ignore grid squares altogether and apply an aura when the actual boundary of a token touches the actual boundary of an aura.

I’m also spending time optimizing performance and efficiency wherever possible, as I know this is an extension that gets called very frequently during play.

The first rewrite is nearly complete, and I’m currently aiming to have a new version ready for release next Monday.

I’m looking forward to getting this out to everyone and hearing your feedback once the first set of changes are live. If there are any specific pain points or features you’ve been hoping for with auras, feel free to mention them (I've started a list) — I’ll be keeping an eye on the thread.

Thanks!
BWatford

[MrDDT]

BWatford

Thank you so much for taking this on and working so hard on it. Looking forward to the changes and updates.

[SilentRuin]

Well if it can work and is tested for all my GAL shapes with no lag I'll be happy to use it. That means sphere, 3drect with orientation (wall of fire inner and outer lines), 3d cylinder with inner cylinder transitions (wall of fire inner and outer circles). Also you should be fixing the onTokenEndDrag I added into mine so that no grid works better for all. Anyway, I have tested all these shapes with no lag - in fact tested all my GAL NPC auras - so I'm good either way. If you want to see my "edge touching" version I keep updates in my drop box. Pretty much like I did for the last year when all my shape code remained undelivered. As I said though I'll happily use yours if it runs as fast or faster and works with all my shapes.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j8svn...=ypwyv14x&dl=0

MW was talking to me earlier today and I now agree with him that canon 5E ruleset (centerpoint as it used to be for intercepts) should be the default. So I've made AdvantagesPA and my Aura support that common new Game option"Percent of token overlap for inclusion in area" added to Game Options settings defaulted to 50%. This is so that the default is back to what it used to be center point of token which is 5E ruleset rules. It supports 50%,25%,10%,0% where 0% is the edge of the token and 50% is the center of the token as it used to be. Only 50% or 0% make a real difference to normal sized tokens but Huge tokens for sure can see the other percentages for pointer shape selection.

As I can set this to more edge case or as my players decide. For sure they complained about 50% before so it won't be that for us. Last you'll here in here on this subject from me - just felt I should update this post as I put my version in here. And because regardless what happens in long term I'm going to insure AURA and AdvantagesPA respect the same setting.

[bwatford]

AoE Effects v1.0 – Major Update Incoming!

We’re putting the final polish on the v1.0 release of AoE Effects and it’s shaping up to be a big one!

This update brings several long-requested features, including:

- Full Cone shape support – Create directional cone auras with full control over angle and orientation.
- New GM Options – Take full control over how auras trigger with the new Token Trigger Behavior setting (Center / Quarter / Near Edge / Edge) and a global Aura Sensitivity Adjustment that lets you fine-tune how aura's trigger in your campaign.
- Cleaner, more reliable calculations across all shapes (Sphere, Cylinder, 3D Rectangle/Cube, and now Cone).

As part of this major release, we’re also officially changing the name from Aura Effects to AoE Effects to better reflect the full range of area-of-effect tools it now offers.

We’re aiming to wrap up final testing tonight and release it tomorrow morning (Tuesday). A brand new thread for it will be posted when it drops.

I’ll update this thread as soon as it’s live!

[nephranka]

AoE Effects v1.0 – Major Update Incoming!

We’re putting the final polish on the v1.0 release of AoE Effects and it’s shaping up to be a big one!

This update brings several long-requested features, including:

- Full Cone shape support – Create directional cone auras with full control over angle and orientation.
- New GM Options – Take full control over how auras trigger with the new Token Trigger Behavior setting (Center / Quarter / Near Edge / Edge) and a global Aura Sensitivity Adjustment that lets you fine-tune how aura's trigger in your campaign.
- Cleaner, more reliable calculations across all shapes (Sphere, Cylinder, 3D Rectangle/Cube, and now Cone).

As part of this major release, we’re also officially changing the name from Aura Effects to AoE Effects to better reflect the full range of area-of-effect tools it now offers.

We’re aiming to wrap up final testing tonight and release it tomorrow morning (Tuesday). A brand new thread for it will be posted when it drops.

I’ll update this thread as soon as it’s live!

Does this mean the coding effect will be changing as well (e.g. AURA -> AoE Effect) or just the name of the ext?