| Shiroi |
Hello, and welcome to a new view of digital map designs. I've seen many arguements both for and against grids in Pathfinder. The pros and cons stack high into massive towers and we are left with no perfect solution.
Grid systems offer us:
Uniform distance calculations, regardless of specific positioning.
Simple space occupancy rules.
Easy way to see distance between minis.
Excellent AoE observation and planning.
Gridless systems offer us:
More accuracy in measurements.
More freedom in positioning.
More accurate circles.
I'm curious to see what can be done with a hybrid system.
Imagine a digital map that used a grid system. Now picture that the grid this map uses has a start point wherever your individual miniature is. You are always in the center of your five foot square. If you turn to face an opponent, your grid turns as well. If you walk 5 feet in a direction, you step into the next square of your grid. AoE is still done by squares, but now it selects the "origin point" of the explosion, swiftly rotates the grid around that point, creating a clear marker of where exactly 20 feet is from that location. If the blast intrudes into the 5 foot square location of a viable target, that target is affected by the blast.
Each miniature is on a grid, it's own grid. The same can be said of each effect. These grids can be at off angles to each other, skew from each other, may be three dimensional for some characters and not need to be for others. What becomes important is the locations where squares interact on these grids, and the way a player or npc interacts with it's own grid.
Comments? Suggestions? Someone with the programming language to make this useful?