Map options

[woobyluv]

I couldn't find anything about it, or my search fu just sucks, but I was wondering if at some point, it would be possible to replace the pin system with an area type link in place of the pin. Looking at a map of a city is just painful with all those pins blocking your view of the alleys and other such features. It would be best to be able to make the buildings themselves the clickable object. Pins would best be used in such context to place encounters or point out features of special note.

Am I making my vision clear for all to understand?

[AEIOU]

My GM map for cities includes #'s for locations. I place pins above them and then turn off pins. Using this method, I can hover over locations and see what they are.

There have been requests for labels rather than pins.

There have been requests for drawing regions on the map like countries or districts.

There have been requests for additional pin types and/or colors to identify different things. This one would probably be best for your needs as you could just place a dot or a square for location names and use a pin or a different color for encounters or areas of interest.

There have been requests for clicking on a location on right navigation to center on that location on map.

[Vargr]

And most likely some or all of these requests have made their way into the Insanity Binder placed somewhere in LW HQ where Rob takes a look in it once in a while when he feels particularly optimistic or courageous.

Or to put it differently: I think a lot of them are on a to-do-list.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Vargr

And most likely some or all of these requests have made their way into the Insanity Binder placed somewhere in LW HQ where Rob takes a look in it once in a while when he feels particularly optimistic or courageous.

Or foolhardy...

Originally Posted by Vargr

Or to put it differently: I think a lot of them are on a to-do-list.

Yep.

The biggest gotcha is that everyone would prefer we do it a different way (as evidenced by AEIOU's list, which is not even an exhaustive list of all the requested approaches). So whichever way we choose will be "wrong" for the majority of users who felt it should be done differently. And since each approach has its share of advantages and disadvantages, and is better suited to different types of product usage and GMing, all of those users would be "right".

Since there isn't a clearly "better" way of doing it, and since we've currently got more than enough on our plate, it's something that languishes on the todo list, waiting for me to have the epiphany of the best way to solve it for the majority of users. My goal is to figure that out and address it in 2016.

Quick follow-up: This is NOT intended to dissuade anyone from making further suggestions along these lines. Heck, I would LOVE for someone to suggest something that causes the light bulb to go on in my head for how best to enhance maps. I'm just providing a bit of context about the current status from our end.

[AEIOU]

I should have included an ellipsis at the end of my list....

We all make suggestions. Most are half-baked or naive (or at least mine tend to be). But they help the process and spark ideas in not only Rob but the other users too. Who then make more refined suggestions. And eventually a light bulb may happen and we get something shiny and new and often unexpected like the alias functionality. The switch to html lit off a bunch of lightbulbs in my head as to the direction and timeframe for some major features so I have to assume the same thing happened for Rob a few months ago (he keeps secrets really well, sneaky, sneaky).

[screwed101]

I see this topic hasn't been touched in a long time. I'm hoping I could lend a..possibly simple addition that would solve most problems?

Having tons of pins on the map sucks, its great for functionality, but horrible for the look of the map and even worse when you have to hover over 30 pins to find the one you're looking for. The GM overlay is amazing for this, to be able to put pin labels on the GM layer and just check to see what they are is not too bad. The only thing is, when you reveal the pin to the players, they likewise have no idea what the pin is unless they hover over it, and you have the same problem all over again.

What if the GM layer had a fog of war reveal mask? The GM layer stays completely invisible, but the GM can reveal bits of it if he wants. You could make a dungeon complete with chests, traps, secret doors and only the GM could see them on the GM layer, and as the players wander around, you could paint the reveal mask just over the things they've discovered. It would allow for labels for large city or continent maps and it would be very easy to reveal exactly what you want to the players.

Obviously to me this sounds like an easy solution, and maybe I'm unaware of the difficulties here, but since fog of war is such a baked in feature in RW, shouldn't the GM layer also have it? It would be so versatile and allow for massively more options and customization with just one simple addition.

Anyway, just my two cents and hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse that someone else has already killed...

[ErinRigh]

This is called Thread Necromancy. Not necessarily a bad thing. With the imminent conent market and the need to meet kickstarter goals, I think this will still be simmering on the back burner.

[kbs666]

I think ultimately a solution to this is multiple layers.

Put all related pins on a single layer. when the GM or players are looking for a specific pin of a certain type show that specific layer, and hide the other layers. This is already being done under the hood so to speak to make smart images work so adding such a capability should be possible.

[Silveras]

Fog of War is a feature more associated with Virtual TableTop applications (Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, D20Pro, Epic Table, etc.) - because it is more about managing the play action, not so much the content between sessions. So far, LWD prefers to leave VTT-oriented tools to VTTs, and concentrate their resources on RealmWorks as a between-sessions reference for players.

One suggestion that was seen positively in the past is to make the map pins appear as the icons for the associated Content topic. If or when that may happen is unknown, and no commitment beyond "that sounds good" was made, but that might help alleviate some of the issue of crowding.

In the meantime, if your maps are crowded, perhaps other approaches will help in the meantime, since the tool is oriented for between-session use:

• Specialized Maps - don't put everything on one map. Use multiple maps at a lower-resolution to show say, People in one, Traps in another, Points of Interest in a third, etc.
• Larger maps - If the issue is the crowding of pins, use larger maps where the pins can be spread out more.
• Re-think the use - maybe you're putting too much on the map. If it is becoming a hassle, think about maybe cutting back on what pins you use.