Make Tools more generic

Request changes or additions in functionality.

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evildmguy
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Make Tools more generic

Post by evildmguy » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:28 am

I'm no expert on OWM so I don't know how many things this applies to. What I do have is a specific idea in mind.

I just found the option of Shorelines, mainly because I don't draw landmasses typically. That's another topic. The point I want to make is that there is a lot of functionality in OWM that is limited to specific objects. Shorelines only does its thing against landmasses. This could be tool that would add those against any Landmass, region, and maybe Path? Not sure if it should be limited to anything or not.

This goes also to my request for more control over layers. If that means multiple Canvas types and then layered by that with the ability to move to any canvas. Or maybe a specific layer control that allows me to group items in how I want them drawn?

The idea is to take any tools the program has and extend them to any object rather than specific ones.

Thanks!

Jon
aka edg

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evildmguy
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by evildmguy » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:51 am

As I think about it more, perhaps for Shorelines, all that needs to happen is to apply it to water types and be able to do it inward?

I'm thinking about smaller maps, like a city on a coast, where I didn't use a landmass to draw the land, just a region. If the intention is that I should have drawn a landmass, I guess it wasn't what I did as a default.

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evildmguy
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by evildmguy » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:58 am

I probably should edit old posts but am adding things as I think of them. Basically, Shorelines are contour lines, whether it's for water or land. Having the ability to draw a region and apply contours to show elevation would be cool.

I guess it makes me wonder how many other tools like this exist but are specific to a type? I have watched the video tutorials but I only use the documentation as a look up, not a tutorial, to learn these things.

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Balmung
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by Balmung » Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:58 pm

evildmguy wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:51 am
I'm thinking about smaller maps, like a city on a coast, where I didn't use a landmass to draw the land, just a region. If the intention is that I should have drawn a landmass, I guess it wasn't what I did as a default.
With the region tool it is possible to follow the border of a landmass. That way you got both: a landmass and a region with the exact same path.

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Kyete
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by Kyete » Mon Aug 09, 2021 5:14 pm

There is a shoreline property for the Water and River items. The rivers are much more limited, but the Water item shorelines are the same as the overall shorelines around landmasses. The options are over in the Properties panel when a Water item is selected, since they are for an individual item and not applied to the entire map.
water shoreline options.png
water shoreline options.png (18.44 KiB) Viewed 4914 times
If you wanted to use a Water item to draw a piece of ocean for a coastline, you could do that by turning on the Snap to Edge option in the toolbar. That will snap the water past the edge of the map when you click near the edge so it seems like the water keeps going beyond the scope of the map.
water item shoreline.png
water item shoreline.png (368.97 KiB) Viewed 4914 times
We also do have the Contour Region item, which can be used to show elevations. It’s new, so there are still options we plan on adding, but we’d appreciate any feedback!

We do have more control and options for layers planned for future versions, but it’s a large program wide change that we’re still in the design phase for.

-Katie

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evildmguy
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by evildmguy » Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:09 pm

Thanks for the replies! I will have to try them out!

ETA: Okay, wow, I missed that. Obviously need to look around more at the tools I do have!

Thanks!

Jon
aka edg

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evildmguy
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by evildmguy » Wed Aug 11, 2021 3:48 pm

Okay, I just played around with the water shorelines and that is cool. It's what I wanted.

I'm playing around with the contours and I feel like they need something. An inner glow on the contour lines, or outer glow, to help show if it's going up or down? Something like that. Or maybe the edge could use that to start the illusion? Or maybe a bevel effect? I also think it would be nice if the sections had an easier way of selecting colors? Like its own pop up? Or some way to have the sections and colors open to be able to select them? I'm not great at remembering colors I picked or seeing the contrast and so having colors and contours all visible would be nice. (Like the preview in the theme but to help pick the colors.)

You know, maybe the Shorelines should be on the Landmass object itself, same as the Shorelines are on the water itself? Seems weird to have that in a menu now. Map should be big things that effect more than one object is what I'm thinking.

I think someone mentioned having corridors and rooms (closed areas) be able to be merged? For the purposes of light blocking and putting in doors. Or maybe rework corridors to be specialized closed areas?

I know that I can copy properties but I think it has to be exactly the same type? Maybe similar things can receive a copy? (I have crashed when trying to Copy but nothing consistent enough for a bug report.) Maybe instead of clicking object to copy, copy properties, select new object, paste, be able to pick a preset (maybe the cursor changes to show this) and click on things to receive those properties? Maybe the things that can receive those properties are highlighted in some way? That might be a lot.

Okay, I will stop under this topic but it got me playing and thinking.

Jon

aka edg

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Kyete
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Re: Make Tools more generic

Post by Kyete » Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:09 pm

Glad to hear that you liked it!

For the contour regions, we are adding some of what you mentioned in 1.0.5 and 1.0.6, and we have more ideas for later versions.

Next year (hopefully) we'll be releasing 1.1.0, which will have an overhaul to the UI and some of the tools. This will include the shorelines and corridors, since the shorelines now can be hidden for individual landmasses and we have a better idea of what works for the dungeon tools.

There are some items that can now have properties copy/pasted from similar items, like rooms/corridors/walls, and we are adding more as we go. (All the compatible items will be listed in the help document for 1.0.5.) I agree that some kind of indication in program would be better and we'll think about the best way to go about it.

Thank you for all the feedback!
-Katie

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