FOG of War Question

Hey OwlBear, or anyone that may or may not know. My group is actual finally got to play the game with light sources they love them, but they did have small problem with them. Seem like all the different light sources seem to be a distraction, if everyone has one. There is so many different rings from everyone different vision and light sources that it made it hard to distinguish things. Because 4 out of my 5 players play at the table I host from and the 5th guy remotes in. The 5th guy does not seem to have this problem, he sees the light from the creatures he owns and public ones. But the other 4 are all on the same pc\ same owner. So they see all the light sources From that group. In the actual game I went and just turn their private light sources off when it was not their turn in combat. So they can track what each character can see better. But it is rather pain having to do that every turn on every character. Is there hot key I can use do to this, or away to set it up for players on same pc to see only their private vision on their actual turn? It can be more over whelming on the DM side with all the rings because you see them all even the bad guys light sources. Are there plans to to tie private light source to initiative or maybe even to team setting in the character sheet. If it was tied to team, We could just set up each character on a different team might fix this.

 

I am talking private lights only, I keep public lights as normal, For non-combat in a dungeon or an area where lighting is important I often run the plays initiative any way and exit out and reroll when they run into and encounter. I am currently running away of the wicked AP kind has a lot of light sources as just about everything single player as leadership and cohort, + underling/followers but it the AP use modifier leadership rules to they tend to have stronger follower then normal but not as many. the several guest account could get messy to but could be an option I could do that with no problem I have +12 guest lice on my account from buying 4 when I 1st started d20pro and picked +4 more each kick starter just because I pledge packet I got came with 4 lic each, That why I wonder if there is hot key or for easier turn off. of my local guys most creatures have dark vision which should be private, and I have like 2 characters with low light vision which needs to be kind of set as private also then I have like 2 guys with normal vision. just those 4 player end up have 10 to 12 different light source options an with those set up start to look kind of messy.

Yeah I am already running them at 10% for inner ring and 20% at outer, to show light source is dimmer, and I am using grayish color on the ring for dark vision. oranges and yellow for torch lit light sources. The Problem is there really is just that many of them. at 10% when they layer on top of each other they get darker

Here is Screen shot of what my players are looking at. Note the guy that looks like a troll and Dino Lights are not included here. This is just Human with daylight cast on him, Half -fiend orger, Human with ioun torch, half elf with light cast on her she putting out low light vision source for her self and normal light radius for normal that is public. and Aasimar, a hired oni. This is not inculcating the Guy that did not make it that game day with, dampier , with nightmare, his human cohort, Alchemy golem follower and the 3 nessian war hounds they just acquired. all that was left out side. I may have to remove all the color and just color the rings.

That why I was wondering if they where also planing on program it later to attach to the initiative turn maybe later it something they can added as option that can be turned off and on like delcare attacks options, in the options menu. for private lighting (not public)

You also run into problems with torch on walls (public light) with low light vision, how do you set that up for a party that has two people with low light and two people that have normal vision. for them the light source is would still be public for everyone, but for two of them light source provides 2 times the amount of light ? I thinking about future development issues, and how do they get handled. As of right now I am ingore this bit, as problem, because I do have one npc with it and she should be seeing twice as far from the daylight spell and the ioun torch public light sources. I do have low light range set up for her or her own personal light spell and just use that.

 

Yeah I might do that. It would not mess with the half-elf see http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/additionalRules.html
"Characters with low-light vision (elves, gnomes, and half-elves) can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters." So low light double all vision distance based light sources as long as you are basically not outside and during the day. at least in pathfinder which is what my group plays in.

I am going to try both methods several logins and just turning off npc and see what the Players like better, but the devs should differently consider a option to tie private light sources to initiative/when character is selected or add an in hot key for quick turn off. Thanks for suggestions.