Fantasy Grounds logic

[Peelee]

So we're running Rise of Tiamat on Fantasy Grounds. The party wizard cast Dawn, which has a 30' radius. She drew the circle with the tool to a 30' radius. Fun fact, the 30' radius circle has a vertical and horizontal diameter of 90', and diagonal diameter of 65'.

http://i67.tinypic.com/25qr8y9.png

[PhoenixPhyre]

Measurements are hard. My guess is that it's set in 5 ft/10ft alternating mode for diagonal movement (like 3e did). Haven't done the math, but that might fit.

Edit: it also is using the center of a square as the origin. That's wrong in 5e, it should use a grid intersection.

I have no clue what it's doing.

[Galithar]

It actually looks like it's using a 10 foot square grid in those measurements and then doing a little rounding.

Side to side you have half if the first square and then 3 full squares and 90% of a fourth. Rounding those 90% up gives you 4.5 squares per side or 90 feet across with a 10 foot grid.

Then the diagonal looks to not go directly corner to corner on the squares and you end up with what looks like 3.25 squares because of the oddity of the drawing. Which adds to your 65 feet in a ten foot grid.

Edit: on second look I can see a subdivision of each 10 foot grid square into smaller 5 foot grid sections. It's really noticable at the edges where it highlights in purple the affected subdivided grid squares.


Why it has an odd grid and doesn't know how to measure 30 feet out I couldn't tell you. I don't use FG :P

[Peelee]

Imean, I'm not saying I could program it better, but it's giving us quite a laugh so far this session.

[Imbalance]

What you got there is an ovoid. Pretend the floor has a slight slope to it. If the rogue spills his ball bearings, they'll gradually roll to one side.

[Chronos]

To be clear, how did those arrows get on the picture? Are they something the program provides (and if so, why?), or something you drew in?

It looks like what it's doing is it's drawing a geometric circle, but "correcting for" the one-and-a-half rule on the orthogonal directions to make the circle bigger, and then not using the one-and-a-half rule on the diagonals. In other words, the diagonal diameter is what it should be (to within rounding error) if you treat diagonal movement as being 1 square per square, and then the geometric circle is drawn big enough to make that happen, which makes the orthogonal-direction diameter half again as big as it's supposed to be.

For what it's worth, the rule of diagonals counting as one-and-a-half is actually a pretty good one that makes sense. If you call a diagonal square "one square", then you end up with "circles" that are square in shape. If you call them "two squares", then your "circles" are again squares, but oriented the other way (i.e., as a diamond shape). If you call them "one and a half squares", then your "circles" end up being octagons, at least approximating the shape of a real circle.

[RSP]

We’ve found circles aren’t useful on FG: always use squares, which in 5e, are also used to represent circles (due to all diagonals being 5’). Circles (even when done right) don’t cover the correct distance.

[Peelee]

To be clear, how did those arrows get on the picture? Are they something the program provides (and if so, why?), or something you drew in?

Yes, the program provides the ability to draw lines, squares, circles, and cones, along with listing the sizes for all at the origin. We use lines to help measure distance, without needing to count squares. Mine are the grey ones, the blue ones are another player's.

Honestly, we didn't mind it, because it's good enough, we just had a pretty good laugh over it and I figured some people here might enjoy it as well.

[Tanarii]

The diagonal is 30ft, or 3 squares. The line drawn with 65 ft diameter is not on the diagonal.

Was the 30ft for the circle "drawn" on the diagonal when making creating it? I'm not familiar with the program, so I don't know how you'd select the radius, but if it's clicking the center then dragging out to an end point, someone could have done that diagonally instead of straight. If so, that'd explain it if the program has a 1.5 diagonal rule. It'd automatically make it 4.5 on the straight since the circle was drawn with a 45ft radius, not 30ft.

[Chronos]

But it's not using a 1.5 diagonals rule, at least not consistently. If it were, then those lines marked as being 65' would actually be 95' (i.e., almost the same as the other diameters, to within reasonable rounding error, as you'd expect).

[Tanarii]

But it's not using a 1.5 diagonals rule, at least not consistently. If it were, then those lines marked as being 65' would actually be 95' (i.e., almost the same as the other diameters, to within reasonable rounding error, as you'd expect).
Yes it is. 3 diagonal squares at 15 ft each is 45 ft. Double that is 90ft.

4.5 straight squares is 45ft. Double that is 90ft.

Edit: to be clear, the line marked 65ft is neither on the actual diagonal, nor is it 65ft if you ise diagonal values.

[SirVladamir]

Ive used FG for almost a year and never had an issue. You need to set the Map: Diagonal Distance to variant. You will occasionally get a rounding error of +/- 5 feet of you don't measure to the same point on the square grid. Measuring center to center or vertices to vertices will give you the correct distance. Also when you assign the grid, it defaults to 5' squares.

[Chronos]

Edit: to be clear, the line marked 65ft is neither on the actual diagonal, nor is it 65ft if you ise diagonal values.
Yes, that's what I'm saying. If it were using the 1.5 diagonals rule, that line, between those points as marked, would be 95', not the 65' it shows. Since it shows 65' and not 95', it clearly can't be using the 1.5 diagonals rule.

[Tanarii]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If it were using the 1.5 diagonals rule, that line, between those points as marked, would be 95', not the 65' it shows. Since it shows 65' and not 95', it clearly can't be using the 1.5 diagonals rule.

My understanding was the distance notation in the line was added by a player, not the program.

[Peelee]

My understanding was the distance notation in the line was added by a player, not the program.

I (and another) drew the distance limes with the line tool. The same tool she used to draw the circle. The program runs all the calculations.

[Tanarii]

I (and another) drew the distance limes with the line tool. The same tool she used to draw the circle. The program runs all the calculations.
Well then ... it's on something. :smallyuk:

[LordEntrails]

If you can reproduce it, then I would pop in on the forums or the discord server and see what's up. First thing you will be asked is what extensions are you running? Extensions can, and do mess up measurements. Second, what ruleset (looks like 5E) and it looks like it has an FG grid on it.

I use the pointers with measurement all the time, and other than the 5ft rounding error, have never had an issue.