Why is the LOS limit not a square?

[blueeyedlion]

Currently the line of sight limit is an octagon. This is inconsistent with the fact that diagonal motion is equivalent to orthogonal motion. The view distance is noticeably shorter when moving diagonally. Is there a design aspect that I am missing?

[squarelos]

hoo boy

[giygas]

I've wondered this too. If they want to keep it a circle, I demand that a diagonal move take sqrt(2) turns

[mageykun]

Why is the LOS limit not a square?

I demand that a diagonal move take sqrt(2) turns

...can, can I just lock this? >_> I don't want to hear this debate again. You can read the old thread(s), and I'm sure this stuff is on the dev wiki too. Pretty much every relevant (and irrelevant) argument for and against has already been made.

hoo boy

Best use of an alt account is best.

I'm giving it official sanction, dammit.

[danr]

I support locking the thread if the discussion shows signs of a pulse. It's been debated to death many times before, here and on the dev wiki and other places.

I can't even remember what my view on the subject is, except of course that my view is absolutely correct and the current LOS model in the game is fundamentally flawed in some way that escapes me just now, and I'm boycotting the game until this very important matter is corrected.

Oh, I remember my view - everything would be peachy if the game adopted a hex grid. Galehar, you could probably pull that off in a few days, no? Change all the tiles too while you're at it.

[Grimm]

everything would be peachy if the game adopted a hex grid

http://mbays.freeshell.org/hexcrawl/

[galehar]

I demand that a diagonal move take sqrt(2) turns

If you want to try this, compile the game with EXTERNAL_FLAGS=-DEUCLIDEAN

I've tried a game with it, and it felt alright and intuitive. Most of the time, it was unnoticeable. Sometimes, you can use it to your advantage, because the AI isn't really smart at exploiting it. Made the melee game a bit more interesting and ranged more consistent.
Overall, I think it would be a more interesting change than square LOS. I've implemented and tested it, but I don't really feel like lobbying for it though.

[cerebovssquire]

everything would be peachy if the game adopted a hex grid

http://mbays.freeshell.org/hexcrawl/

omg it's like wesnoth and crawl combined this is the best thing ever
except it's 0.3.3

also: 2 posts 4 words 14 thanks wtf squarelos

[nicolae]

Wasn't there a (very) brief time in 0.9 or 0.10 trunk where LOS was a square?

[Stormfox]

The Lava Orcs destroyed it.

[Patashu]

Currently the line of sight limit is an octagon. This is inconsistent with the fact that diagonal motion is equivalent to orthogonal motion. The view distance is noticeably shorter when moving diagonally. Is there a design aspect that I am missing?

Try playing Crawl Light, it has square LOS

telnet light.bitprayer.com port 23

[dtsund]

Try playing Crawl Light, it has square LOS

Indeed, and it wasn't added just as an experiment; the chances of Light reverting to roundlos are approximately zero.

[Thurman]

If accuracy was the objective of Crawl, then I say Pythagoras just got shot in the head. If you use the sqrt(2), then don't you lose the "Turn based game?" I mean how am I suppose to take 1.41421356 turns to get to the next diagonal while the monster moving azimuth 45 only gets to move 1 to get to the next square if we have the same rate of speed? If that monster is 1 square away, that rule would say it gets to over take me if we can't occupy the same tile. Say a monster is at azimuth 135 and is just entering line of sight. Is that monster not going to match you move for move to try and intercept? Then what would be the point of trying to split the turns?

Just because the front porch to my house is square, doesn't mean my line of sight should be too.