MapTool 1.3 Development Build 46

[trevor]

The "Built on a Mac, your mileage may vary" build

Thanks to the great contributions !

Note that Craig is working out some details with his work, so this build does not include it, but he has indicated that he'll get me a patch in the next couple days, at which time I'll do a new build.

I also didn't get some of the bugs I've been tracking into this build due to a combination of hardware failure, time constraints, etc.

Build 46 (11/17/08)
* Optimize player view when using vision
* Clarify UPnP error messages (Contributed by Phergus)
* Updates to spanish translation (Contributed by Patricio Acevedo)
* Turned on scroll bars for states tab of token editor dialog. (Contributed by Jay)
* Added isBarVisible & setBarVisible to turn bars on & off (Contributed by Jay)

Contributed by k.fan
* New looping options for rolls: WHILE(condition), FOR(var,start,end), FOREACH(var,list)
* New branching options for rolls: IF(condition), SWITCH(expression)
* New code calling options for rolls: MACRO("macro@location"), CODE

Contributed by Lindharin
* Token macros (selection/impersonate panels) now have most of the same properties as the global/campaign macro, including color, sort, etc
* New macro properties have been added to all macros: group, text color, text size, and button minimum width. Macros are now sorted by group first, then the sort prefix, then the label.
* When editing a token's properties, the Macros tab should work correctly with the new macros, but it still only allows you to edit the label and command.
* When you right click on a token and look at the Macros menu entry, it should now split up macros into sub-menus based on the group property
* The global, campaign, selection and impersonate macro panels should refresh/redraw properly whenever a change is made
* Changes to token macros should be posted to all clients (with the normal short update delay, like when moving a token).
* There is a new server policy checkbox labeled "Players Receive Campaign Macros" when you start a server. If it is checked, then the macros in the GM's campaign panel will be displayed on all clients, so players will see and be able to use macros from the GMs campaign panel.
* All macros with the same group property (case insensitive) will be visually grouped together with a border and group label.
* Macros can be dragged between groups in the same panel, and also between groups on different panels.
* If multiple tokens are selected, the selection panel will have a "Common Macros" group at the top. Macros that are dragged into the Common Macros group will still be copied to all the selected tokens.
* When impersonating a token in the impersonate panel, you can use macros on other tokens (via the selection panel or Apply To Each Selected options) without breaking your impersonation. It runs the macro on the currently selected tokens, then automatically re-impersonates whichever token you had been impersonating originally.


Further details on the macro changes by their author will follow below

Notes:
* I have no idea if this build is going to work for anybody, as it's being built on a mac mini and I don't have the means to test it at the moment. It if fails horribly, post here and I'll build on a different machine tmrw.
* I have done very little testing on the patches and leave it up to the contributing authors to respond to and fix any issues that are posted with their work
* I expect to do another build shortly after this one
* If this build fails for whatever reason, it's totally backward compatible with 1.3b45

[trevor]

(Contributed by Lindharin)
Token macros (selection/impersonate panels) now have most of the same
properties as the global/campaign macro, including color, sort, etc.
However, the Hot Key property is disabled because it would take some
significant re-working of the hot key system to integrate hot keys on
selectable tokens, and the Apply To Tokens property is disabled because it
is redundant; token macros always apply to that token.

New macro properties have been added to all macros: group, text color, text
size, and button minimum width. Macros are now sorted by group first, then
the sort prefix, then the label. Note: Java's implementation of HTML does
not currently support min-width and max-width, just a single width that
functions similar to min-width (in most ways). The macro property editor
has a field for max-width but it is currently disabled and greyed out;
hopefully we'll find a way to apply a maximum width at some point.

When editing a token's properties, the Macros tab should work correctly with
the new macros, but it still only allows you to edit the label and command.
To edit the other macro properties, you need to edit the actual macro
buttons in the selection/impersonate panel.

When you right click on a token and look at the Macros menu entry, it should
now split up macros into sub-menus based on the group property (similar to
the way states are grouped). Ungrouped macros are in the "General"
sub-menu; each other group has its own submenu.

The global, campaign, selection and impersonate macro panels should
refresh/redraw properly whenever a change is made. Changes to token macros
should be posted to all clients (with the normal short update delay, like
when moving a token).

There is a new server policy checkbox labeled "Players Receive Campaign
Macros" when you start a server. If it is checked, then the macros in the
GM's campaign panel will be displayed on all clients, so players will see
and be able to use macros from the GMs campaign panel. Only the GM can make
changes to the campaign panel, and it will refresh/redraw immediately for
the GM. However, changes are only sent to the clients when the campaign
file is loaded, so if the GM makes any changes during a session the campaign
file has to be saved and re-opened. A pop-up warning notifies the GM of
this every time the campaign panel is modified (yes, the pop-up quickly gets
annoying, hopefully this is temporary).

All macros with the same group property (case insensitive) will be visually
grouped together with a border and group label. Macros with a blank group
property will appear at the top of the panel within a plain border with no
label.

Macros can be dragged between groups in the same panel, and also between
groups on different panels. Only the GM can drag macros onto the campaign
panel, although players can drag macros from the campaign panel to their
global or token panels. Dragging is always a copy, not a move. However, it
will not actually drop the macro if an identical macro is already in the
target group. When determining if two macros are identical, it only looks
at the functional properties (label, command, sort prefix, auto execute,
include label, and apply to tokens). Hot key settings are not copied when a
macro is copied.

If multiple tokens are selected, the selection panel will have a "Common
Macros" group at the top. Macros that are dragged into the Common Macros
group will still be copied to all the selected tokens. You cannot edit
macros by right clicking on the buttons in this Common Macros group; you
have to edit them in the individual tokens. When determining whether two
tokens have any common macros, it compares the functional macro properties
(group, sort, label, command, auto execute, include label, and apply to
tokens). It ignores display properties like color and size.

When impersonating a token in the impersonate panel, you can use macros on
other tokens (via the selection panel or Apply To Each Selected options)
without breaking your impersonation. It runs the macro on the currently
selected tokens, then automatically re-impersonates whichever token you had
been impersonating originally.

[trevor]

1.3b46 new macro features
The following new options are available in b46. Place the option inside the statement brackets [ ]. Use these options in the way you would today type [c(5): 1d20] to roll 1d20 5 times. Multiple options can be combined in a single statement.

Looping options
In all the loops, the roll.count variable begins at 0 and increases by 1 at each iteration.

The COUNT option is listed here for reference, but it is not a new feature.
[COUNT(num): body]
[COUNT(num, separator): body]
Executes the statement body num times.
The roll.count variable will take on values from 0 to num-1.
The optional separator (default ", ") is printed between each iteration.

[FOR(var, start, end): body]
[FOR(var, start, end, stepsize): body]
[FOR(var, start, end, stepsize, separator): body]
The var variable counts from start to end during the loop.
The optional stepsize (default +1) is added to var at each iteration.
Example (counts down even numbers from 10 to 0):

Code: Select all

[FOR(i,10,0,-2): "i is now " + i]

[FOREACH(var, list): body]
[FOREACH(var, list, output_separator): body]
[FOREACH(var, list, output_separator, list_separator): body]
The var variable takes on values chosen from the list, which has the form "a,b,c,d".
The optional list_separator lets you use lists like "a;b;c;d" or "a#b#c#d".

[WHILE(condition): body]
[WHILE(condition, separator): body]
The body is repeatedly evaluated until the condition becomes false.

Branching options
[IF(condition): true_body; false_body]
[IF(condition): true_body]
Either the true_body or false_body will be used, depending on the value of condition.
If the false_body is not given but the condition is false, then there is no output.

[SWITCH(expression):
case case1: body1;
case case2: body2;
default: default_body
]
The case that matches the value of expression is used. If no matches are found, the default case is chosen. The values of case1, case2 and so on can be either a number or a quoted string.
Example:

Code: Select all

[h: list = "Attack, Flee, Sneak, Explode"]
[FOREACH(x, list, "<br>"), SWITCH(x):
  case "Sneak": "Let's be sneaky.";
  case "Attack": "Let's make an attack!  Roll a d20: " + 1d20;
  case "Flee": "Run away!";
  default: "'" + x + "' is an unknown choice.";
]

Let's make an attack! Roll a d20: 19
Run away!
Let's be sneaky.
'Explode' is an unknown choice.

Code execution
[CODE: { code_block }]
The code_block can be a mixture of text and rolls, just like you'd store in a macro.
Thus, the CODE option lets you nest [ ] statements inside the outer [ ] statement.
The code_block can contain a statement using braces { }, but those braces cannot contain further braces.
The CODE option is usually used in combination with another option such as IF or FOR.
Example:

Code: Select all

[CODE: {
  Attack roll: [e: 1d20 + 5],
  damage: [e: 1d8]
}]

This prints out

Attack roll: ´†1d20 + 5 = 10 + 5 = 15†ª, damage: ´†1d8 = 5†ª

[MACRO("macro_name@location"): macro_arguments]
Runs the named macro, inserting its text into chat.
The called macro sees a variable called "macro.args" which contains the value of macro_arguments.
The called macro can set a variable called "macro.return", which becomes available to the calling macro.
Other than "macro.return", the called macro shares no variables with the calling macro.
The location can be one of the following:

• TOKEN - the currently impersonated token
• CAMPAIGN - (WILL BE ENABLED IN A FUTURE BUILD) a campaign macro
• GLOBAL - (WILL BE ENABLED IN A FUTURE BUILD) a global macro
• Lib:token_name - A token called "Lib:token_name", which can be on any map.
  The token must be visible to the calling player (the GM can refer to any token).
  The token's name must begin with "Lib:" to indicate that it is a library token. Macros on normal tokens are not allowed to be called.

Example:

Code: Select all

<!-- "Attack roll" macro, which gets called by another macro -->
  [h: bonus = macro.args]
  Attack roll is [AtkRoll = 1d20 + bonus]
  [h: DieRoll = AtkRoll - 10]
  [if(DieRoll==20, " (it's a critical!)", " (it's not a critical)")]

Code: Select all

<Calling>
  Here comes a big attack roll!<br>
  [h: AtkBonus = 5]
  [MACRO("Attack roll@TOKEN"): AtkBonus]

Here comes a big attack roll!
Attack roll is 19 (it's not a critical)

Examples
Mixing options together gives a great deal of flexibility.

Example: Nested loops

Code: Select all

<u>Nested loop example</u><br>
[COUNT(3,"<br>"),CODE: {
  Outer loop iteration #{roll.count}<br>
  [COUNT(2,"<br>"),CODE: {
    -- Inner loop iteration #[r: roll.count]
  }]
}]

Nested loop example
Outer loop iteration #0
-- Inner loop iteration 0
-- Inner loop iteration 1
Outer loop iteration #1
-- Inner loop iteration 0
-- Inner loop iteration 1
Outer loop iteration #2
-- Inner loop iteration 0
-- Inner loop iteration 1

Example: a loop that does different things every other iteration
We'll use a little math trick to detect whether the number is odd or even.
Note that in this case, the IF option is selecting which of two code blocks to execute.

Code: Select all

[COUNT(6,"<br>"), IF(floor(roll.count/2)==roll.count/2), CODE: 
  {
    [h: current = roll.count]
    Step [r: current] is even, so let's roll a d20: [e: 1d20] 
  };
  { 
    [h: current = roll.count]
    Step [r: current] is odd, so let's roll a d8: [e: 1d8] 
  };
]

Step 0 is even, so let's roll a d20: ´†1d20 = 18†ª
Step 1 is odd, so let's roll a d8: ´†1d8 = 6†ª
Step 2 is even, so let's roll a d20: ´†1d20 = 1†ª
Step 3 is odd, so let's roll a d8: ´†1d8 = 1†ª
Step 4 is even, so let's roll a d20: ´†1d20 = 6†ª
Step 5 is odd, so let's roll a d8: ´†1d8 = 6†ª

Example: choosing among several macros to run
This will run each of the listed macros once.

Code: Select all

[h: macros = "Mild attack, Medium attack, Strong attack, Run away"]
[FOREACH(m, macros,"<br>"), MACRO(m + "@TOKEN"): ""]

Example: multiple attack rolls
This has been a big pain until now. Let's use the example of Blade Cascade, a power from 4E D&D. You make up to 5 attacks, alternating between your main hand and off hand weapon. If you miss, you stop attacking. And of course, we'd like to print out notifications of critical hits.

We use a "missed" variable to make the WHILE loop end early. The IF selects between the main hand and off hand blocks of code.

Code: Select all

[h: missed=0]
[h: MainHandBonus = 11]
[h: MainHandDmg = "1d10 + 3"]
[h: OffHandBonus = 9]
[h: OffHandDmg = "1d6 + 2"]
[h: targetAC = 17]

<u>Blade Cascade attacks vs. target's AC of [r: targetAC]</u><br>

[WHILE(roll.count<5 && !missed, "<br>"), IF(floor(roll.count/2)==roll.count/2), CODE:
  {
    Main hand, for [eval(OffHandDmg)] damage: 
    Attack [AtkRoll = 1d20 + MainHandBonus] vs. [r: targetAC] AC
    [h: missed = if(AtkRoll <targetAC>=19, " <b>Critical Hit!</b>", "")]
    [r: if(missed, " <b>Missed!</b>", "")]
  };
  {
    Off hand, for [eval(OffHandDmg)] damage:
    Attack [AtkRoll = 1d20 + OffHandBonus] vs [r: targetAC] AC
    [h: missed = if(AtkRoll <targetAC>=19, " <b>Critical Hit!</b>", "")]
    [r: if(missed, " <b>Missed!</b>", "")]
  };
]

It was possible to make a macro do this already, but it required many tricks and the resulting macro was hard to understand. This is a much more natural way to write such a macro.

Here are a few examples of the output of the above code.

Blade Cascade attacks vs. target's AC of 17
Main hand, for 5 damage: Attack 19 vs. 17 AC
Off hand, for 5 damage: Attack 15 vs 17 AC Missed!

Blade Cascade attacks vs. target's AC of 17
Main hand, for 8 damage: Attack 21 vs. 17 AC
Off hand, for 5 damage: Attack 17 vs 17 AC
Main hand, for 4 damage: Attack 29 vs. 17 AC
Off hand, for 7 damage: Attack 29 vs 17 AC Critical Hit!
Main hand, for 4 damage: Attack 26 vs. 17 AC

Blade Cascade attacks vs. target's AC of 17
Main hand, for 6 damage: Attack 28 vs. 17 AC
Off hand, for 8 damage: Attack 28 vs 17 AC Critical Hit!
Main hand, for 5 damage: Attack 16 vs. 17 AC Missed!

--knizia.fan & Craig

[PyroMancer2k]

Haven't looked at everything but so far looks cool.

This is not a bug more of a slight annoyance. Every time you make any change to the campaign macros it gives you that Info pop up that tells you they will not be updated to clients until you reload the campaign. While making and testing campaign macros you open and close them a lot making changes and this constantly popuping up gets old fast. Is there a way to turn it off? Also it shouldn't be showing the message if you are not hosting or connected to a server thus your just editing the campaign on your own machine.

[Azhrei]

Missing "features":

When exporting a macro, the Dialog box has a button labeled "Open". That's fine for importing macros, but it should be "Save" for exporting them.

There is no confirmation when the import or export operation is complete, like there is when saving a campaign (for example).

I'd like to see a tooltip for macro buttons in the panel which pops up additional information, perhaps via a radiobutton choice to indicate which information to display? I can see uses for "Hotkey", "Auto-execute", and "Apply to Selected" all being mentioned in the tooltip...

The buttons in my Global and Campaign panels seem to be shifted from the left slightly, as though the margin was wider on the left than on the right. Is that on purpose? I can see a reason for that in the Selected and Impersonated panels...

Changes to macros in the Campaign panel cause a message box to popup, "Changes to the Campaign macros will not be sent to players until the campaign is saved and reloaded." (Or something very similar to that.) The warning is good, but it comes up way too often. I suggest a visual cue instead: change the color of some part of the Campaign panel. For example, the color of the group border, or the background color of the entire panel. And only display the message box popup once.

Does Swing have a combobox control? One that lets you choose from a dropdown list or enter your own value? That would be much better for the color selections and the font size. (The color selections should allow both named colors as well as RGB values, probably in the R,G,B format.)

Otherwise, all I can say is: Wow! The contributors did a great job on this release! I'm going to keep beating on it over the next 24 hours and I'll come back with any additional issues.

I noticed that it read my b45 campaign file just fine. I'm going to try saving it as b46 and see how b45 blows up when trying to read it. With luck, it'll degrade gracefully and just lack some of the features of b46...

[palmer]

And only display the message box popup once.

Checkbox
"Do not show this warning again"

[trevor]

Does Swing have a combobox control?

Yup

[trevor]

Is there a way to turn it off? Also it shouldn't be showing the message if you are not hosting or connected to a server thus your just editing the campaign on your own machine.

There's an easy way to ask MapTool if it's hosting a local server, perhaps only show the message when the returns "true"

[dorpond]

First off, I want to congrat Trevor at speeding things up on the client side - man, this is HUGE!! So much difference! If anyone wants to see the difference, load up this campaign in b45 and then try it in b46. Make sure you connect a client though because it was the client side only that was plagued with the slowdown. Try it with FOW on and start exposing stuff too - this is a HUGE improvement!!

www.rptools.net/dorpond/demos/VBLForest.cmpgn

[SERIOUS BUG]
We have a serious bug however. When a token is in soft fog (out of player sight), we can still see the bars and states. So the token itself is not visible but the overlays are. *ouch*

This is my fault though, I was unable to do any testing for Trevor last night. darn real life!

[applekor]

Missing "features":

When exporting a macro, the Dialog box has a button labeled "Open". That's fine for importing macros, but it should be "Save" for exporting them.

There is no confirmation when the import or export operation is complete, like there is when saving a campaign (for example).

Yeah, that was my fault. I went a little too fast converting my import/export code to work with Lindharin's changes. I had planned on getting a patch out to trevor Sunday, but I ran out of time prepping for a session that evening. I'll send the patch as soon as I can get back to it this week.

Changes to macros in the Campaign panel cause a message box to popup, "Changes to the Campaign macros will not be sent to players until the campaign is saved and reloaded." (Or something very similar to that.) The warning is good, but it comes up way too often. I suggest a visual cue instead: change the color of some part of the Campaign panel. For example, the color of the group border, or the background color of the entire panel. And only display the message box popup once.

I wondered, though didn't say anything to Lindharin, if this was going to come up. He and I were still coordinating the import/export stuff on Friday/Saturday and I didn't want to complicate matters further.

[jfrazierjr]

Great changes... I played with a few of them Saturday night very briefly (mainly just the changes in the macro edit window) and this is great!


On request: Could we get subgroup in addition to Group and change the sort order -> Group ->SubGroup ->Index (or whatever the field is called) -> Button Label.

Yea, I might be getting a bit anal here, but I really like lot's of organization.

[Lindharin]

Every time you make any change to the campaign macros it gives you that Info pop up that tells you they will not be updated to clients until you reload the campaign.

and

The warning is good, but it comes up way too often.

and

Checkbox: "Do not show this warning again"

and

I wondered, though didn't say anything to Lindharin, if this was going to come up.

Yep, I expected that reaction! I even put an off-hand reference into my patch notes (post 2, above) about it.

Let me say first that my hope is that we will be able to get the campaign panel updates to flow to the clients in real time, like updates to tokens. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen by default, and while I tried re-sending the campaign data whenever the panel changed, that effectively reloaded the campaign in all clients. It was relatively slow and obtrusive, but worst of all broke the Initiative window. There are some other campaign properties that do get pushed to the client in real time (I think), but the macros list isn't one of them. I looked at adding the campaign macros to that process, but I don't understand the whole client/server communication model enough to actually do it and just ended up breaking things, so I took it out.

I'm hoping that someone who is familiar with the way the campaign properties get sent to clients will be willing to add the campaign macros property to that update process. It should (I believe) be a fairly simple change, if you know how that system works. If this happens, the need for any warning goes away.

I knew that in the meantime, it would be annoying for folks, and I thought of a few ways around it: setting up some sort of global variable to track whether it had been displayed yet, and if so don't display it again; adding a "do not display" checkbox; a few other options. They all seemed pretty complex for something I hope will be unneeded soon. The checkbox especially would be cool (leave it in the user's hands) but I have no clue how to do that in Java so it would have taken me quite a while to figure it out. It just didn't seem worth the time if the need for it will go away. Besides, being a little annoying might encourage one of the coders who is familiar with the client/server updates to add the macros too!

The one thing I did not think of was just having the popup when in client/server mode, and not when running a local server. That would be a really simple change, and I should have thought of it. Sorry about that! I'll try to get a patch off to Trevor in the next day or so.

On the real issue though, are there any contributors who are familiar with the client/server model who would be willing to add the campaign macros property to the client updates?

[Lindharin]

On request: Could we get subgroup in addition to Group and change the sort order -> Group ->SubGroup ->Index (or whatever the field is called) -> Button Label.

Yea, I might be getting a bit anal here, but I really like lot's of organization.

Are you thinking about having the subgroup inside its own border with its own label, etc? If so, I'd personally recommend against it. It both makes the code messier on the dev side, and it wastes space (IMO) on the user side. But I'm up for discussing it further. It is certainly possible.

If you just want one extra sorting criteria (with no borders), so macros are grouped first (with a border) then sorted by "Sort1, Sort2, Label", you can actually do something like that now just by putting "Sort1 *space* Sort2" in the Sort field.

[Lindharin]

I'd like to see a tooltip for macro buttons in the panel which pops up additional information, perhaps via a radiobutton choice to indicate which information to display? I can see uses for "Hotkey", "Auto-execute", and "Apply to Selected" all being mentioned in the tooltip...

I'm not sure I fully followed that. Could you go over that again?

The buttons in my Global and Campaign panels seem to be shifted from the left slightly, as though the margin was wider on the left than on the right. Is that on purpose? I can see a reason for that in the Selected and Impersonated panels...

Yeah, the margins are a bit odd. I'll try to tweak them some more.

Does Swing have a combobox control? One that lets you choose from a dropdown list or enter your own value? That would be much better for the color selections and the font size. (The color selections should allow both named colors as well as RGB values, probably in the R,G,B format.)

Hmm. Interesting suggestion. I'll start a list of suggestions for the next iteration. Just as a side note, I'm starting up a new campaign which is going to be eating into my time for the next few weeks. Bug fixes to the stuff I've submitted will be given a high priority, but new features may be delayed a bit.

I noticed that it read my b45 campaign file just fine. I'm going to try saving it as b46 and see how b45 blows up when trying to read it. With luck, it'll degrade gracefully and just lack some of the features of b46...

I was finding that campaigns saved in my (local version) of b46 would not open in earlier versions. I'm not entirely sure if that was because of the new macro properties, or something else.

[trevor]

[SERIOUS BUG]
We have a serious bug however. When a token is in soft fog (out of player sight), we can still see the bars and states. So the token itself is not visible but the overlays are. *ouch*

This is my fault though, I was unable to do any testing for Trevor last night. darn real life!

Noted and fixed.

I'll see about doing a build in the late afternoon.