# RPTools Online Tabletop Games..your experiences?



## Emirikol (Jan 19, 2008)

We're trying out RPTools-Maptool  for running our online tabletop games.  Mainly because it's freeware and updated all the time.  What have your experiences been?

It appears very similar to Kloogewerks, Fantasy grounds, openRPG, but not as complicated.  Virtual online tabletop is going to be the way of the future anyways for people who can't get together as much as they like.

I've been very satisfied with the capabilities of RPTools-maptool.  *It's got minis, maps, and a dicebot*.  It was easy to set up and once I figured out how to set up my router (port forward), I have been toying with it ever since. I quickly realized as a DM, i've got to spend a couple extra minutes before the game making sure that I've got an encounter map and monster tokens available (but most of those are in the download library..or I guess I can drag them from a thumbnail since it instantly makes them).

I think my main tabletop group will be using it for side-quests between games.  If that works out, i'm thinking I'll do another campaign.

I orignally was shown Kloogewerks, and am not very proficient at using computers otherwise, so I've been hesitant..but enough nights of not being able to game because of "get together difficulties" has moved me towards the online tabletop.

What have your experiences with RPTools-Maptool  been?

Jay
(btw, our prior discussions on this were at the gamers-seeking-gamers forum)


..


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## DonTadow (Jan 19, 2008)

I swear by it.  

Right now i use it only for my projected game, but have used it for online tabletoping in the past.  We used skype for the role playing and maptools to keep track of everything. Worked great


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## azhrei_fje (Jan 20, 2008)

I GM my Sunday night face-to-face game using MapTool.  Originally, not everyone brought a laptop with them, but once they saw how cool MapTool is, I don't think they'd be happy going back to a battlemat.  I know I wouldn't. 

I'm also playing in "TheLev"'s Tuesday night game and that one is strictly online.  We have people in three timezones that get together to play.  We've had an occasional glitch, but we've had to chalk that up to the connection(s) because they are sporadic and only when the available connection is slow and/or unreliable.


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## Emirikol (Jan 20, 2008)

Screenshot of set-up:


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## trevorscroft (Jan 22, 2008)

On a total side note, not sure if you are aware, but you can even further customize your layout by clicking on and dragging the frame titlebars to rearrange, or even pull them out of the main window.


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## Jasperak (Jan 27, 2008)

Are there any good (preferably free) resources for creating maps to use in RPTools?


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## trevorscroft (Jan 27, 2008)

There are quite a few free map creation tools.  As for the actual images to put in them, here are some starting points:

http://dunjinni.com/forums/default.asp?C=4
http://forums.rptools.net/viewforum.php?f=8
http://rpgmapshare.com

You might also check out this site that's a community dedicated to helping people learn how to make maps:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/


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## Emirikol (Jan 28, 2008)

Jasperak said:
			
		

> Are there any good (preferably free) resources for creating maps to use in RPTools?





Well, you can download lots of stuff on the website (free).

I typically just google an image.  You can come up with tons of stuff that way.  

Another option is that the paizo site has DUNGEON magazine web enhancements where you can download all of the maps from the past 20 issues or so.

Jay


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## evildmguy (Jan 28, 2008)

I have just started looking at it but am unsure if I will use it.  I need something like this but am not the best when it comes to prep stuff.  

However, it was easy to configure and figure out.  It made it a lot more interactive and would make it easier for the guys not physically at the table to be involved with the action.  So, I hope to use it soon.

I want to get a lot of icons and extras down and installed so I have most things there.  I haven't tried hard to find them yet, though.  

edg


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## Emirikol (Jan 29, 2008)

I did a couple things that work out well:

I google pictures, for example, orcs:
http://images.google.com/images?q=orc&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRC&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I also put a shortcut to my RESOURCES folders on my desktop.  Then I can quickly open stuff up and save it to the files.  I don't dink around making token circles and crap.  I just put the picture up there.




jh


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## trevorscroft (Jan 29, 2008)

Emirikol said:
			
		

> I don't dink around making token circles and crap.




On a related note, adding circles, squares, or whatever borders is insanely easy with TokenTool

http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=tokentool:intro

Drag and drop the image right from the google search result into token tool, select your border, then drag and drop the preview image into your file system.


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## mosat (Jan 29, 2008)

I use pretty much all of RPTools software for my face to face game and my group loves it. We've taken the game from the dining room table to the living room couch and I've gone paperless except for the game books.

I have an older Mac hooked up to a 42" HDTV and an iMac G5, Maptools runs on both with the players controlling their movement via the older Mac and I'm working everything else in DM mode from my G5. I use PCGen to make all the monsters and NPC's and then export them into InitTools format so I can use them in the InitTool combat tracker program. It makes casting Summon monster at the party actually fun since i can create a default version of the creature I need, apply the Feindish template and export it over to InitTool in about a minute.

one of the big advantages of this set up is that when the clock runs out I just hit save and then next week (or month as it sometimes goes) I can open my files back up and everything is right there, character positions, spells cast, effects in place, hit points lost, which round it is, etc.. My group plays slow with lots of chit chat (which is fine cause we like it like that) so really massive battles can take two or three sessions. With this set up there is no delay in getting started each session.


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## azhrei_fje (Jan 30, 2008)

Yeah, the save-and-restore is actually one of my favorite features of using a VTT.  When playing F2F with a battlemat, I was taking digital photos of the layout so that I could put it back right for the next session.  (This isn't that critical unless the session ended with an unfinished encounter.)


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## Goonalan (Feb 8, 2008)

Just started using RPTools and loving it with my gang, however I'm looking for some sort of Dungeon dressing style art pack that I can butcher to use in RPTools, I need tables, chairs, barrels, crates- that kind of thing, any suggestions.

I've tried googling for images and then creating tokens, using the TokenTool, also I've tried copying images and then fixing them up in Paint/Photo but I get the feeling I'm missing a really obvious short cut.

I want to flesh out the chambers of my various dungeons, rather than rely on a hotch-potch of sometimes odd looking images resized to fit...

Any suggestions?

And thanks for putting me on to RPTools.

PS Does anyone else have a problem with importing larger maps, I tried to use some Dunndjinni maps, for a Goodman Games module (Prester's- see Goodman website), and RPTools just ceases working- any one else get this?

Thanks.


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## trevorscroft (Feb 8, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> RPTools just ceases working- any one else get this?




This is common behaviour if MapTool runs out of memory.  A solution for that is to use the zip version instead of the web version and use one of the batch files that tells MapTool to use more memory.


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## azhrei_fje (Feb 10, 2008)

Or you can edit the shortcut on your desktop (if you choose to have the WebStart version create a shortcut) and modify the command line to have a larger number.  For example, "256" could become "512" or "1024" megabytes.


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## Goonalan (Feb 10, 2008)

trevorscroft said:
			
		

> This is common behaviour if MapTool runs out of memory.  A solution for that is to use the zip version instead of the web version and use one of the batch files that tells MapTool to use more memory.




So downloaded the zip file, changed it to the 1gig batch, now it wont upload any of my campaigns- trying of and on for the last two hours.

Having a bit of a horrorshow at the moment, only one of my players can get connected to RPTools the rest are steady on 98%, all the time- disconnect, reconnect (me, them, all of us) nothing, no change...

As I say we've been at this 2 hours and no change, therefore no game.

Although azhrei_fje-

Or you can edit the shortcut on your desktop (if you choose to have the WebStart version create a shortcut) and modify the command line to have a larger number. For example, "256" could become "512" or "1024" megabytes.

How exactly would I do that, there's nothing in the properties that is 256, or 512, or 1024, and when I skip to the Target fill- it's obviously just a Javaws.exe file.

What gives?

Cheers Goonalan


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## trevorscroft (Feb 10, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> What gives?
> 
> Cheers Goonalan




Quite peculiar.  Grab me on IM later tonight and we can do some real time debugging


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## Emirikol (Feb 11, 2008)

I'm running 3.24 and it works great on x.p.  

Jay


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## Emirikol (Feb 11, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> Just started using RPTools and loving it with my gang, however I'm looking for some sort of Dungeon dressing style art pack that I can butcher to use in RPTools, I need tables, chairs, barrels, crates- that kind of thing, any suggestions. I've tried googling for images and then creating tokens, using the TokenTool, also I've tried copying images and then fixing them up in Paint/Photo but I get the feeling I'm missing a really obvious short cut...I want to flesh out the chambers of my various dungeons, rather than rely on a hotch-potch of sometimes odd looking images resized to fit... Any suggestions?  and thanks for putting me on to RPTools.  PS Does anyone else have a problem with importing larger maps, I tried to use some Dunndjinni maps, for a Goodman Games module (Prester's- see Goodman website), and RPTools just ceases working- any one else get this?
> Thanks.




I do (or don't do rather) several things:
1.  I don't bother "making tokens."  All that does is put a circle around them.  Just create a link to the default folder on your desktop.  When yo google, slide stuff in there.

2.  I use Paint Shop Pro to crop any images (but the token program can work for this too if you don't have anything else).

3.  I don't have any trouble with larger maps..but I also make sure that they are a .JPG file and not some other type of file.

4.  The earlier poster was having difficulty keeping players on perhaps because they may not have been using the same version of the program.  

Jay


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## Goonalan (Feb 11, 2008)

Right then, a day later, and much calmer although-

Now when I go into it and load up my campaign, the same one that was working fine yesterday (on my machine) I get-

Error
Could not load campaign: com.caucho.hessian.io.HessianProtocolException: unknown code (followed by a square)

I'm using XP, as are all of my players, they're all using the same version of RPTools, one of them has the program downloaded (zip) and is booting from a desktop short cut to there... and that's about it.

As my brother (one of the players) said last night, after he still couldn't get in (98% downloaded only), "we only have three months to wait for 4E and on-line play."

Just to complete the circle my brother is the head of an IT Department, one of the other players is an IT Support Officer and another is a Web Site Controller/Designer, my point being we tried lots of things, we didn't just turn it on and off again (actually we did at first). I really want this to work not least because I've already mapped and populated four levels of Goodman Games DCC 51 Castle Whiterock, and they're lovely to behold (in my eyes).

Do you suggest I clear everything out, reload, install and try again?


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## trevorscroft (Feb 12, 2008)

The 98% loading is a bug that I'm working towards nailing down.  I'd love you help fixing it.

Please contact me offline so we can work in more real time, you can find my contact info here:

http://forums.rptools.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3

You might also check out the forums:

http://forums.rptools.net

The community is very active and very helpful


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## trevorscroft (Feb 12, 2008)

In the mean time, it looks like you are using 1.2 ?  If so, you might move up to the development 1.3b24 version, the save files are not compatible, but the 1.3 file format is much more flexible and can be recovered if an error occurs.


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## azhrei_fje (Feb 12, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> Error
> Could not load campaign: com.caucho.hessian.io.HessianProtocolException: unknown code (followed by a square)



This is usually a version mismatch, but you said you had already checked that.  Hmm.

There was another problem in which some network cards had firmware to calculate packet checksums and that was failing for some reason.  Going into the driver for the network card and turning off the checksums (so that they had to be done in software) fixed the problem.  You might try that; you can always change it back.

Also, you can run a server and a client on the same machine.  This helps determine if the network is a problem or not.


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## DonTadow (Feb 12, 2008)

I get a majority of hte things i put into rptools from dundjinni.  I suggest buying a copy of that program as well to make more prepared maps.  Then hopping on their forum.  You can find just about everything you need from there.  Make sure to say thanks before using any of the artwork though.  Those guys do an amazing job for the community over there.


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## Emirikol (Feb 13, 2008)

Agreed.  Dundjinni has a lot of free regular stuff for download too.  I use a lot of their stuff.  I havent' purchased their product yet.  I think as I do more RPTooling/Maptooling I probably will.

jh


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## Goonalan (Feb 13, 2008)

Thanks for all the help people, I'll take a snoop around Dunndjinni, we went back on-line last night, I booted out all the old RPTools stuff, downloaded it all afresh, as did the players and set it rolling- what d'you know all went in first time, it took a while mind, approx 10 minutes for one of the players, raced to 98% then sat there for ages.

We're playing the maps I've already done and then swapping over to the development version, which I hope will be an improvement, not that the in-game is anything other than excellent, it's just proved difficult to get in.

Once again I really appreciate the help, if you were in my neck of the woods I'd buy you all a pint.

I'll report back on Friday night's game.

Thanks.


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## DonTadow (Feb 13, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> Thanks for all the help people, I'll take a snoop around Dunndjinni, we went back on-line last night, I booted out all the old RPTools stuff, downloaded it all afresh, as did the players and set it rolling- what d'you know all went in first time, it took a while mind, approx 10 minutes for one of the players, raced to 98% then sat there for ages.
> 
> We're playing the maps I've already done and then swapping over to the development version, which I hope will be an improvement, not that the in-game is anything other than excellent, it's just proved difficult to get in.
> 
> ...



Another thing I do, and I do more often than using maps from dundjinni, is the 0ones products at rpgnow.  They have some amazing artwork. Their dungeon line has PDFs that contain about 15 rooms a piece, very different, very detailed.  I then extract the images from the PDF using adobe, and then resize them to a smaller size  using the basic image resizer that comes with windows xp. 0Ones also has 2 hallway products as well. 

To use them you just drag them in the background.  
This allows me to create maps on the fly and save the really elaborate dundjinni dungeons for something special.


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## trevorscroft (Feb 14, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> it took a while mind, approx 10 minutes for one of the players, raced to 98% then sat there for ages.




In the 1.3 dev version I've added a Transfer Progress dialog to help diagnose these long wait times.  You might boot it up and see if perhaps one of the large map files is transferring.

Feel free to grab me online anytime to help debug stuff.


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## azhrei_fje (Feb 15, 2008)

The dialog that Trevor is referring to is on the *Window* menu, at the bottom, IIRC.


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## Goonalan (Feb 15, 2008)

In game at the moment, well we would be but we're between maps, the players have left the Slumbering Drake of Goodman Games DCC 51, and are on the way to Castle Whiterock, or would be if the map load would get past 96% loading, which is the same for all players, and has been for nearly an hour, even with everyone disconnecting/reconnecting etc. Help.


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## Goonalan (Feb 15, 2008)

Update 2 out of 4 machines in, problem lies in DL 2 large 16.5 meg files into assetcache, is there a quick way round this, can I send/share my assetcache in some other way- how do I know which files, wont they be for all the campaigns, also will the files in my assetcache be transferable i.e. can the players use them or are they DM info.

In other words how do I share the campaign file before the game so that loading campaigns are quicker to load.

We're trying to share the files from one players assetcache with the other players so that they can d/l outside of rptools and then paste them into their assetcache and hey presto maps come up, problems with router though...

Help (2)?


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## trevorscroft (Feb 16, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> problem lies in DL 2 large 16.5 meg files




Ouch !  Yeah, that would definitely cause a long delay in loading.

In 1.2 you can zip up your asset cache and put it somewhere people can download it and unzip it into their own asset cache.

In 1.3 you can do a File->Export Repository File, unzip the resulting zip file on a http server somewhere and add the URL to the campaign repository.


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## Goonalan (Feb 17, 2008)

Ok, thanks for that, will do.

Here's the thing though, decided to re-do maps et al for 1.3.b24, and use Jpegs not bitmaps (my bad), result campaign reduced from 24 Meg to 2 Meg, however...

RPTools is now ponderously slow, even with no one connected it takes an age to move a PC token, approx 30 secs even if just moving it a little, everything stops the old position of the token remains on screen, as does the movement line and a transparent version of the token at end of move- nothing happens for 30 sece then blink and the token is in its new position. I'd hate to try it with 6 players connected all trying to move their tokens at once...

Also

The area that has been illuminated, in my practice run through the map will not turn off, therefore the map seems to be of no use, I've tried CTRL-SHIRT-O, and nothing happens, looked through all other instructions, tried on player properties etc. Nothing so far will turn the lights out (as it were) from the area I've already been.

Also

CTRL-L doesn't turn the lights I've set up on.

Getting very frustrated in all honesty, my players the same, I realise that I'm not the brightest when it comes to PCs but this is driving me a little crazy because I so want it to work. I'm also not alone, as I've said before my players are 50% computer wizards (in my eyes), they figure things out very quickly and yet...

Don't want to sound unappreciative, and if I am then sorry, just very impressed with RPTools when it works and obviously crazy as a snake when I can't seem to get it to work.

Any suggestions, pretty please.

I've looked on the RPTools forums, I can't post there as I've still not got my e-mail to confirm (1 week now, and I've tried twice), oh and I've also turned of the Autosave in the hope its not that, read it somewhere.

HEEEEELP


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## Emirikol (Feb 17, 2008)

Sounds like you need to re-apply for a screenname on theforums.

I've run several maps with higher megs and it tends to slow depending on what computer I'm on.  I've run it on vista, xp and windows 2000 and that doesn't seem to matter as much as how much crap I'm processing concurrently with the program.

I just ran a minigame for the kids over at the WotC chats and it seemed to work great (1.3b24).  One guy noted he personally had some lag, but the rest of us didn't have any.  My guess is that the problem was on his end as he tends to do 22 things at once on his computer.

Jay


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## Emirikol (Feb 17, 2008)

goonlan:  you may try having fewer map layers for the campaign.  That may help.    Saving the campaign more often could help.  Using the Topo only where absolutely necessary will probably remove some slow down too.

Good luck!

Jay


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## azhrei_fje (Feb 18, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> Here's the thing though, decided to re-do maps et al for 1.3.b24, and use Jpegs not bitmaps (my bad), result campaign reduced from 24 Meg to 2 Meg, however...



The format of the image on disk doesn't really matter, except that the Java libraries are optimized for reading/writing JPEG and PNG.  For the sake of argument, say your image is 4000x4000 -- it's going to take the same amount of memory to manage and display regardless of whether the disk format is JPEG, PNG, BMP, or anything else.



> RPTools is now ponderously slow, even with no one connected it takes an age to move a PC token, approx 30 secs even if just moving it a little, everything stops the old position of the token remains on screen, as does the movement line and a transparent version of the token at end of move



We had this happen during our game session last Tuesday using 1.3b24.  We determined that the slowdown was likely due to the LBL (light blocking layer, also called topology).  When we simplify the topology, there was a definite speed up.



> The area that has been illuminated, in my practice run through the map will not turn off, therefore the map seems to be of no use



Hmm.  There are a few things that are possible and it's not clear what you've tried.  First, if there are no light sources attached to any tokens, it is assumed to be "daylight" and all areas will always be visible -- no fog-of-war or anything.  (Before you complain, yes, this is considered a Bad Thing and is being changed.)

Second, add a light source to one token and then only tokens whose vision includes the lit area will be able to see it.  If you haven't put down any LBL, that should be every token and everything within the light radius.

Third, tokens must be set as PC for this to work, since the GM can always see the entire map so light sources on NPCs are not 100% the same.  Before trying to figure out the differences, just make sure that all tokens are PCs and experiment with that a little bit.

When you next vsit the forums, try taking a look at the screencasts/videos that Brad (one of the forum users) has put together.  I haven't viewed them myself but they get rave reviews from other forum users (I've been keeping up with changes as they occur, so I haven't needed to view them).

And hopefully your username on the forums will get worked out so that you can interact with us directly.

Good gaming!


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## trevorscroft (Feb 18, 2008)

That was a good catch to switch to jpg instead of bmp, that'll transfer your game content to your players much faster.

The slowness is a concern though, could you email me your campaign file so I can profile it and figure out why it's going slow ?

To replace the fog, switch to one of the fog tools, hold the SHIFT key and draw a shape, it'll replace the fog.  The CTRL-SHIFT-O is currently disabled because of some internal restructuring that's going on, it'll be fixed here in the next build or so.

I'd love to sit down some time and work in real time, see if we can figure out any problems you are having and walk you through some of the mechanism.  Send me an email, PM, or IM and we can set up a time.


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## trevorscroft (Feb 18, 2008)

Also, What is your username in the forums ?  I didn't see  a Goonalan.  Let me know and I'll go activate it.


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## Goonalan (Feb 18, 2008)

trevorscroft said:
			
		

> Also, What is your username in the forums ?  I didn't see  a Goonalan.  Let me know and I'll go activate it.




My name is goonalan, I've tried registering three times now (again today) and I either get- username already taken/registered, can't remember the exact wording.

When I ask to change/resend my password I get-

 Sorry, but your password cannot be retrieved because your account is currently inactive. Please contact the forum administrator for more information.

And yet I've tried registering three times and never received an e-mail from RPTools to activate my account.

Now this next bit is going to be embarrasing, what's IM or PM, I think IM is instant messenger, but I actually don't know what that is, there- how stupid am I?

So I guess I'll send you my campaign via e-mail, see what you think, although I have to say its the same map/campaign that works in the previous version of RPTools, all I've done is recreated it in the new version- no changes whatsoever.

To address the various suggestions-

1. To replace the fog, switch to one of the fog tools, hold the SHIFT key and draw a shape, it'll replace the fog. The CTRL-SHIFT-O is currently disabled because of some internal restructuring that's going on, it'll be fixed here in the next build or so.

Tried that- now I have a large blue square in the middle of the map which will not delete, and believe me I've tried to delete it.

Update- just gone back to map tools and all I've done is deleted a chunk of topo and the blue square I created above, the lights are still on though- and it took several minutes to perform the action.

2. The format of the image on disk doesn't really matter, except that the Java libraries are optimized for reading/writing JPEG and PNG. For the sake of argument, say your image is 4000x4000 -- it's going to take the same amount of memory to manage and display regardless of whether the disk format is JPEG, PNG, BMP, or anything else.

OK but the reason I did this was because the players were having problems receiving the map data, smaller files equals a quicker exchange.

3. We had this happen during our game session last Tuesday using 1.3b24. We determined that the slowdown was likely due to the LBL (light blocking layer, also called topology). When we simplify the topology, there was a definite speed up.

The Topology is fairly simple its the same one I was using on a previous version of RPTools and was working fine.

4. Hmm. There are a few things that are possible and it's not clear what you've tried. First, if there are no light sources attached to any tokens, it is assumed to be "daylight" and all areas will always be visible -- no fog-of-war or anything. (Before you complain, yes, this is considered a Bad Thing and is being changed.)

Second, add a light source to one token and then only tokens whose vision includes the lit area will be able to see it. If you haven't put down any LBL, that should be every token and everything within the light radius.

Third, tokens must be set as PC for this to work, since the GM can always see the entire map so light sources on NPCs are not 100% the same. Before trying to figure out the differences, just make sure that all tokens are PCs and experiment with that a little bit.

Paragraph 1- actually only the bits I visited with my PC token with light source are lit up, when the PC token goes to new places they light up fine, and then never go out, everytime I go into the campaign then the bits I've visited on previous runs are still lit up in players view, even when all the PC token has gone been deleated, they don't turn off at all and nothing I seem to do makes them go dark again, there are even places where lit objects that have had the radius of the light changed still show both radii. In short, once lit never to be darkened.

Para 2- done that, except none of them turn off anyway...

Para 3- yep, done that.

5. goonlan: you may try having fewer map layers for the campaign. That may help. Saving the campaign more often could help. Using the Topo only where absolutely necessary will probably remove some slow down too.

Honestly there's very little detail or layers to this map- Background for the dungeon floors, Object for a few doors, nothing Hidden, Tokens well some furnishings but not a lot.

The problem is I've had this map up and running, as is, in a previous version of RPTools, I've just redone it in the new version and its ponderously slow and doesn't turn the lights off.

6. I've run several maps with higher megs and it tends to slow depending on what computer I'm on. I've run it on vista, xp and windows 2000 and that doesn't seem to matter as much as how much crap I'm processing concurrently with the program.

I just ran a minigame for the kids over at the WotC chats and it seemed to work great (1.3b24). One guy noted he personally had some lag, but the rest of us didn't have any. My guess is that the problem was on his end as he tends to do 22 things at once on his computer.

However I too have run massively bigger maps, and multiple maps with much more detail on the old RPTools. As to the processing lag, well I'm writing this reply and have Maptools running, nothing else, most times I don't have anything else running, and my processor says its running at 3% usage at the moment. The problems I'm describing are happening out of game, I've just made the map, I usually wander around with one PC character with light sources checking the topography, make sure the players can't see more than they should, and wherever I go the lights stay on showing my passing.



I'll send the campaign to Trevor, sorry about all this, I'm committed to the cause, I just can't seem to make it work and neither can my players at the moment.

Despair.


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## trevorscroft (Feb 18, 2008)

Goonalan, I've activated your account manually (username: goonalan), not sure why phpbb2 isn't sending emails consistently.

IM -> Instant Message, PM -> Private Message (typically via a forum account).

You can get all my contact info from here:

http://forums.rptools.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3

It sounds like a quick session together would help a lot.  Email me a time that works for you.

For the fog replacement, it sounds like you still had the topology tool selected as that's what makes blue squares, check that you have the "Fog" button selected on the toolbar (which is different than the topology tool).


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## trevorscroft (Feb 18, 2008)

Campaign Received.  

Interesting.  Looks like you have 83 tokens that are all trying to figure out what they can see when it should really only be doing it for things that can see (that is, barrels should not be calculating visible area).  This is a side effect of the recent vision rebuild.  

This is a fantastic test case, I've got a new MapTool build going out tonight, let me see if I can tweak it to work more intelligently.  I might not be able to get that into tonight's build, but if not, what you can do immediately is to drag-select all tokens then right click one of them and do Change To->Object.  They should all move to the stamp layer, preventing them from calculating vision.  You can then move your actual tokens back to the token layer and you should have a useable campaign.


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## Goonalan (Feb 18, 2008)

trevorscroft said:
			
		

> Campaign Received.
> 
> Interesting.  Looks like you have 83 tokens that are all trying to figure out what they can see when it should really only be doing it for things that can see (that is, barrels should not be calculating visible area).  This is a side effect of the recent vision rebuild.
> 
> This is a fantastic test case, I've got a new MapTool build going out tonight, let me see if I can tweak it to work more intelligently.  I might not be able to get that into tonight's build, but if not, what you can do immediately is to drag-select all tokens then right click one of them and do Change To->Object.  They should all move to the stamp layer, preventing them from calculating vision.  You can then move your actual tokens back to the token layer and you should have a useable campaign.




Done that. works a treat, until you move the actual tokens back to the token layer and it starts with the go-slow again, caluclating visible area etc.

So it works, only not so fast when the bad guy tokens appear.

Thanks as always.


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## trevorscroft (Feb 19, 2008)

Goonalan said:
			
		

> Done that. works a treat, until you move the actual tokens back to the token layer and it starts with the go-slow again, caluclating visible area etc.
> 
> So it works, only not so fast when the bad guy tokens appear.
> 
> Thanks as always.




Looking at the campaign file, there is a lot of topology lines.  The best strategy is to use as few lines as possible (reduce the number of calculations).  I've sent you an updated campaign that feels snappy, let me know how it goes !


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