LOS

It would be great have los capability. Perhaps a system that checks a spreadsheet which shows which hexes can be seen and turns them from invisible to visible.

On Oct 23, 2008, at 6:41 PM, sticktrader wrote:

The issue here is really data entry. If you assume a standard hex
grid map, you have roughly 40x60 hexes, or 2400 cells. Each of those
cells would then have to contain a list of hexes that could be seen.
For flat or high points, this could be a large list, potentially up to
2400 entries long. I don’t think anyone would want to have to enter
all that data. Not to mention that the size of the data structure to
hold it would end up being somewhere in the neighborhood of 10MB or
more. (up to 5 million entries, each at least 2 bytes). Of course a
one-bit encoding with a larger data structure could also be used, but
it would still be at least 700kB.

You would need to have some automated way to generate this “visibility
map”, since the manual effort is just too great.


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Thus spake Thomas Russ:

If LOS is rules-based and not just ad hoc, then there’s going to be a
much more compact representation of the data than as an array of
visibility lists or a visibility matrix.

But I don’t disagree with your larger point, namely that entering the
data would suck.


J.


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I would think that the rules based LOS would be more practical and more popular way to do it. Especially for hex and grid based systems.

Data entry I would think would be done in the map building phase by assigning a terrain LOS effect to each terrain type when placed in hex/square.

  • Block LOS
  • Obscure LOS x% (when obscure => 100 LOS is blocked)

Many games handle hex lines/corners differently but I think you could set up a list of options/configuration so designers could customize to suit their needs.

This would make double blind and hidden movement possible without a 3rd person there and would make me very very thankful :slight_smile:

Charles