The MacroPolicebox: Second Regeneration (D&D 4E Framework)

[StarMan]

Happy New Year, MPBers! You know, the late Douglas Adams would have had us believe "42" was the answer to "Life, the Universe, Everything". That goal is a little lofty to aspire to so I humbly suggest you evaluate today's release using a shorter yardstick.

The exciting thing about this edition is the enormous improvement in the "no prompting" token creation process. Up until now, I have been appalled by the inaccurate filling of default values in the "Configure Targeting" dialogs. Attack powers are usually coded pretty accurately but non-attack powers are MUCH tougher to get right. This is why I recommend you create your tokens interactively so you can correct the mistakes "Configure Targeting" and other dialogs make. Over the past week I have worked very hard to remedy this and believe you will be pleased with the results.

No, it isn't perfect (and it never will be) but the process should at least yield a playable token for the "emergency situation" I mention in the associated training video. When manually editing or rebuilding a power, you should need to make fewer adjustments to properly target tokens with the detected effects. Leader types like clerics, bards and warlocks will see the most benefit from these improvements.

Speaking of effects, some RE lines which used to be automatically inserted into your powers will now be presented as a form which you may elect to edit or dismiss just like "Stunned", "Dazed" etc effects. For example, the "Inhibit Healing" feature (if the "cannot regain hit points" phrase is detected in the power's source text) will be presented as a form which you can Cancel if you don't want it in your macro. This time around, is it is presented as a saveable effect which you are free to adjust. This quirk has been fixed for SL 43 which may be available as early as next week. Also in 43 will be the ability to select other special features like sending the Surge and Effect Saving Throw macros to your allies as these are sometimes erroneously included.

As usual, see the Release Notes for all the other tweaks and goodies. Bye for now ...

[StarMan]

SL 43 is now available and carries on the importing improvements started in SL 42. Knock on wood, but you should never see a “Targets” prompt again. Each macro call that uses that variable will run Configure Targeting so you can tailor exactly who that macro should be running on. Yes, this means a bit more work on your part but on the upside it also means less manual coding. For personal effects, set a Range of 0. Read the Prompt field at the top of Configure Targeting to understand what you are adding to your power and cancel if you don’t want that particular feature.

One peculiarity I wanted to point out was the creating of DDI PC tokens while prompting is turned off in Global Toggles. If you do Import dnd4e Powers as shown in the training video, you stand a very good chance of getting no macros on your Lib token! I don’t know why this happens because when you do the same thing with prompting on, it works fine. You should be doing this anyway to make sure the importer is filling out the forms correctly. If you must leave it off, use the new Batch dnd4e Import first to create the first 10 macros or so and then Import dnd4e Powers to do the rest.

There has been a slight change concerning the death of monsters. As DM, you will be sent a link for the Disengage macro. Click on this when a monster dies and its effects will end. There have been some other small bug fixes but the main focus this time around was improving importer accuracy as will be the case for SL 44.

[billnewsome]

I'm just trying out MapTools, so I'm a new user there, but I've used other virtual tabletops in the past. I'd like to try this 4th edition framework because I hear it's really quite good, but I seem to be unable to download it. I follow the link the the website but when I try to register to be able to download it, I am never sent an activation link to my e-mail. I've checked both my inbox and spam folders and it doesn't arrive. Any help would be appreciated.

[StarMan]

Hey Bill, my compliments for your persistence! I have just activated your account and sent you an e-mail indicating such. I guess most spam filters don't like Joomla (web site software I use) and/or my hosting service. Don't hesitate to post any other difficulties you may have.

[StarMan]

Hey gang, just a quick word to say SL 44 was released this week. Not much to say other than it is a continuation of the importer overhaul that I began doing last month. Many bugs have been fixed with more being worked on for SL 45. The disclaimer that it will never be perfect and will continue to make mistakes bears repetition. Interpreting English text and translating it into usable powers and monsters is very difficult but good progress has been made in this regard. I just need you to report powers that give errors ...

[StarMan]

… and we'll end this very productive first month of 2015 with SL 45. This release represents a rather large exhale in the importer overhaul department. I have tested it pretty thoroughly and would say it is producing PCs and monsters up to an acceptable standard. Powers that allow you to regain expended ones will now call Recover Powers, those that allow you to take a melee basic will call that macro and those that let you stand up will … well you get the idea!

Coolest of all is the raising of the 3 supported diseases to full automation. Now when you import a rat swarm, it will actually ask you if you want to include a "Filth Fever Incubation" effect in the bite attack. With regard to the Attack Power macro, programmers will like the inclusion of the new "FullHPHits" variable. This new variable represents a subset of AllHits where only those tokens hit who are at CurrHP==MaxHP will be included. You can also now use Global Toggles to turn off Opportunity Attack's teleportation behaviour.

The usual new assortment of usability and bug fixes round out the release. Enjoy ...

[StarMan]

OK, I am hoping SL 46 represents the last of the b87 to b91 bug fixes so please download and report issues therewith. The main fix involves the elimination of the very annoying "A" and "Z" value prompts. In most cases these are harmless AFAIK so continue to OK for other values that aren't prefaced by "Enter_". For pre-existing campaign files, you will need to import the latest campaign properties and Update. Another bizarre bug is the enormous amount of garbage characters that gets poured into multi-save monster powers. This exact same code worked just fine in b87 but had to be fixed for b91 by jumping through a technical hoop or two.

The largest effort over the past couple of weeks has been to smooth out some bumps on the monster import side. MM3 traits should be parsed a little more accurately but you still need to make sure every word in the titles are capitalized. Commas and other unacceptable punctuation are now properly filtered out of the names. Aside from lots of little tweaks here and there, the last major improvement was the elimination for the need to supply proper skills lists in the body of a challenge description. Now when you import a skill challenge, the macro will present a checklist of detected skills for you to approve.

Finally, new powers will now have their processing block text colour-coded. Effect text will be purple, hit text will be green and miss text will be blue. All text above this will remain black so it should be easier to pick out the info you need to evaluate your attack. Note that this is NOT retroactive for powers created with SL 45 or earlier. Other than that, most fixes and code reductions have been internal to the framework. Enjoy …

[StarMan]

After the usual set of false starts, I have just made SL 47 available. There have been some fairly major alterations in the organization of the macros internally as well as in the menus. First of all, the Toggle functions have been moved from the "Tactical" menu to a yellow one of their own. You can copy this new macro from your new tokens to old ones or simply let it get created the next time you F4 your character.

Also, F2 will no longer work as that macro (for duplicating monsters) has been worked into the new Create Duplicates under FL. This still gets run automatically by Import Monster Power but you can run it manually later on any duplicate without fear of it being named something silly like "Orc Yellow Purple". You may also want to make quick buttons for the new "Altitude +/-1" macros which make vertical movement easier. Finally, the new Edit Implement macro replaces the two dedicated "Current" macros.

Initiative is now handled a little better with only one player needing to run the macro. When he finishes, a menu will pop up asking who will roll next. He selects any player he wants and then it runs again automatically for that player. For SL 48, there will be no menu as the next player is picked for you. This same mechanic will be employed for rest macros but for now just do them one at a time as usual.

On the import side, more work has been done on making monster trait imports smoother. You still need to capitalize the titles manually and make sure a "#" appears before each definition but the actual import should be more accurate. Double attack powers should now automatically call the monster's melee basic twice otherwise you can rebuild that power with Attacks=2 as per the gold dragon video.

[DarkCresent]

Where do i download this , the link goes to 404 error page , and every time i try to logon to http://macropolicebox.orgfree.com/ it says webpage unavaliable

[StarMan]

Welcome aboard, DC! My apologies for your difficulties. Such are the perils of free hosting sites. I too had trouble a few minutes ago but it seems to be back up now. Please try again and once per hour thereafter if you still can't get through. I can confirm I see your account properly registered so you should be good to go.

I have discovered a glitch in SL 47 you all need to know about. When creating monsters you need to run Tactical->Trigger Definitions, select "Reaction" and then remove the ZeroHP trigger. If you don't, killing said monster during combat will pop you out of initiative and you will need to run Common Free/No->Act Now to pop you back in. It's probably easier to just wait until SL 48 is released on Tuesday where the problem has been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[StarMan]

Where do i download this , the link goes to 404 error page , and every time i try to logon to http://macropolicebox.orgfree.com/ it says webpage unavaliable

As promised, the web site is now functional and you may download the new SL 48. The main thing to keep in mind now is that I have made good on my claim that initiative and resting are a little easier now. For initiative, have one player run the macro. Upon completion, it will then run automatically for a random PC showing the NULL (aka "Question Mark") state. If it doesn't just run manually as normal. The same can be said for rest macros although no NULL state is needed on any token. The macro will run one by one for all PCs who participated in the encounter.

For effects, specifying "Duration=Turn" will now implement the "Once Per Turn" mechanic. That means all such effects on all initiative tokens will end when "End My Turn" is run, regardless of who runs it. This behaviour change may necessitate changing some of your effects to "Duration=End" as appropriate. This new functionality means that striker damage tracking will now work properly … despite my personal disagreement with that rule (i.e. makes strikers way too powerful).

For attack powers, you may now specify "Lowest" in addition to the four regular defences. Your attack roll will be applied to your target's lowest score as you would expect. This mechanic is not used my many powers but it will simple enough to implement.

Finally, a new Import macro was placed on the "Info" and "Area Feature" tokens. Just paste your encounter's "Features of the Area" section or its italicized descriptive text (but not both) to the Notes tab, edit as necessary and then run this macro. You will be prompted for a Perception track featuring the new information. Your players will automatically query the Info token for this information as part of the new Initiative macro.

The usual usability tweaks and bug fixes round out the changes. Enjoy!

[StarMan]

Hi all, just a quick post to let you know about the new videos I tried creating with SL 48. I haven't done the Advanced Importing section yet but will get to that this weekend hopefully. There were a few little glitches that you will see in some of them. Nothing serious but I have released SL 49 to address them in any case. As such, about 95% of this SL is bug fixes encountered during recording. The only real new feature is the recognition of the "Attack Lowest Reception" effect which lets you attack the bearer's lowest defence without changing your attack power at all. Enjoy ...

[StarMan]

Well fellow MPBers it is time once again to close the book on another decade of service levels! It seems like yesterday that I put 41 out the door so where does the time go I wish there were bigger enhancements to report for SL 50 but if these make your life easier anyway then so much the better.

Perhaps the biggest news is the elimination of the "cut and paste between maps" tedium. You still need to copy an Info token to each map in your campaign file. That being said, the ABOS now sports a Summon NPC Lib Tokens facility which not only retrieves the MPB from the last map but any missing monster Lib tokens as well. Act Now will now automatically use an NPC's deferred init roll and there is a new Global Toggles option that enables Create Effect's registration prompt outside combat.

Major bug fixes include auras now targeting turn-enders properly, Import Description doesn't fail with an error and the "StaticResist" issue when damaging some monsters has been eliminated. Also, powers like "Magic Missile" really do import properly now and renaming your character in your dnd4e will not result in a new Lib token being created.

A new assortment of usability tweaks rounds out the offering. Enjoy

[StarMan]

Happy Easter, MPBers! I have been meaning to update the "Advanced" section on my videos page but the activities depicted there just weren't working the way I wanted … until now. SL 51 is the way to go if you want to do any of that stuff. A few niggling bugs have been fixed with the monster import process as well as for traps and skill challenges.

Except for the relatively low-key Toggle AFK (indicates you have stepped away for a moment), there are no new features to speak of. I should still mention that if you call Rumble Eval with the word "vs" in the Prompt field (like the Attack macro does) then the token listed thereafter will appear as the dialog's graphic. This gives a visual cue for your target. Finally, programmers can parse the "A" property for a string property list featuring the states of the guys you just hit. For example, A might be set to "Orc_Yellow=Prone, Immobilized". You can then process accordingly.

Speaking of states, I should also mention that manually set states (through the token menu) will get erased. Use FL->Create Effect if you want to put a state on a token. As always, the usual assortment of bug fixes and tweaks round out the release. Enjoy …

[StarMan]

Hi All! This time around we have a couple of new features of note. First off, it should no longer be necessary to use the Run macro when you take an extra square or two of movement. Attack Power and End My Turn will do that for you as long as the move you just completed is long enough. For example, if your speed is 5 and you do two separate moves of 2 and 3 squares (taking your hand off the mouse in between) then these macros will not confer the Run effect on you. Try it out and you'll see what I mean. This feature is 2-D only as I haven't quite figured out the 3-D logistics … yet.

Of lesser noteworthiness is the new Mass Surprise macro on the MPB which does just what it says. You now no longer need to run Common Free/No->Surprise on each token of a side at the beginning of an encounter. This happens more often then you may think and was worth the extra effort to create. Also, regeneration suspension has been enhanced with lists of stopping damage types now supported. For example, acid or fire damage (instead of just acid) will stop a troll's.

From the "Glaring bug that lasted way too long without being noticed." file, I have fixed the Disengage macro ending Daily effects on a Short Rest. Other minor fixes and tweaks round out the release.