I also plan to work on an RPG, but not based on DND. As my weapons have a variety of reaches (combined with character’s height/monster size) and choice of weapon strokes (slashing/sweeping strokes verses thrust and parry). There is no initiative in the game, each action takes a certain amount of time to complete (based on the character’s traits and the amount he is encumbered.) I plan on implementing a time queue in a At Startup Stack piece.
My question is: What would be the best way to implement the path of a weapon swing? I am using a hex grid map with 12 facings (each vertex, and hexside center). I would like to place the weapon sweep when the player takes an action, using different shadings for each future time point. Is there a way to modify area of effect to do this? Would it be better to place a irregular shaded piece adjacent to the character? Other options?
Create a layer on the figure which is transparent except for the sweep effect you want. Place it so that it rotates with the figure (I’m assuming facing matters).
This partial transparency worries me. Anyone know for sure? Layers do have their advantages. Is there a freeware tool for making these semi transparent hexes with a transparent background?
One of more limited arc areas of effect is an intriguing idea, especially if they were like layers, in that you could scroll through the arcs, and would adjust to facings of the base piece.
Yes, PNG’s support 8 bits of transparency - 256 levels from completely transparent to completely opaque.
The Gimp.
I agree with Joel that enhancing Are of Effect would be the way to go. However, it is moderately complex problem - You need to handle the two different hex orientations, plus, there are lot of variations in what arcs you actually want to display.
The PNG file format has support for 1-, 8-, and 16-bit alpha. Most image
manipulation programs you’ll encounter right now does not yet support
16-bit color samples, but 8-bit alpha will give you 256 levels of
transparency, which I expect would be sufficient.