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

Framework(s) for D&D 4e, including Veggiesama's.

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StarMan
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53

Post by StarMan »

SL 53 is now available! There have been some bug fixes to monster importing (the most prolific being the Activate RV glitch from the end of the gargoyle video) and state refreshing. On this latter point, remember to refrain from using MapTool's "State" menu. Manually set states will be deleted upon completion of your macro. You must use FL->Create Effect to put a state on a token.

A new automatic feature is charge detection. You will no longer be asked if you are charging. When running a melee basic attack, the Attack Power macro will detect whether you moved at least 2 squares. The bonus will just show up and can be deleted if you are not actually charging. Also, "Word" powers will automatically scale according to level so you no longer need to edit these for increased range and bonus dice. This enhancement is NOT retroactive. You must rebuild or re-import Healing (or whatever) Word to get this benefit.

Programmers will now be able to use the new Choose Targets option "ExclState" to say which tokens should NOT be targeted. This feature is used by the Mark macro to determine the closest Quarry and Curse candidates. By request from my brother, these two strike features are no longer automatic. The default choice will be the closest unmarked (and LOS) enemy to which you may click OK or select another. This gives flexibility for other strike state placements.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to go back to the way Short Rests were taken in the past. SL 52's practice of chaining the calls around the party automatically is not clearing the Used effects. Do your short rests one by one as before. Enjoy...
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StarMan
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54

Post by StarMan »

OK SL 54 went up a couple of days ago but those astute users out there may have noticed from the release notes that there are fewer fixes than usual. I'm afraid the difficulty in finding bugs and lack of need for new features have forced me to re-evaluate my "at least 2 dozen fixes" per SL. I am therefore halving that quota in order to keep with my preferred 2 to 3 week release rotation.

For this one, the bizarre save prompt for the Unconscious condition at the end of your turn has been eliminated. When the importer handles immediate powers, it should now properly determine Range specs . Most importantly the charge and run detection features have been removed because they would continue popping up long after said action had been taken. Finally, the Surge macro will now give you an "As if?" prompt. Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

SL 55 was released earlier this week and is undoubtably the most boring one to date! That's a good thing because it means finding bugs is darn near impossible now. Half the adjustments are merely output changes like eliminating the starting HP message when healing NPCs (oops!). The only "major" bug fixes is the miscalculation of vertical ranges (dunno how that one escaped my notice for so long) and the application/removal of the Dead state on NPCs.

Disengage has been behaving strangely in our live sessions but works OK in my testing. Short Rest isn't removing effects as it should so we have had to do so manually. I can fudge a fix but first need to know if anybody out there has seen this problem ...
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Post by StarMan »

Hey gang, SL 56 seems to have resolved the Disengage weirdness described above so Rest macros now clear your effects as they should. Still not sure why that happened so hoping that issue is gone for good. What is certain is the very embarrassing bug where Refresh States counted bloodied PCs as Dead has been resolved. That macro has also been tweaked to more accurately represent your states. More bug fixes include the addressing of the very long standing issue of Undo not giving that last odd hit point back (e.g. if you took 7 points damage, Undo would give you 3+3 back) and the fixing of Find Skill Lead which just plain didn't work in some cases.

In the way of new features, Skill Check can now accept the new OpposeSkill parm which will return the boolean variable "Opposed". For example, if you said "OpposeSkill=Insight" when coding a Bluff check then Opposed will get set to 1 if you beat the object token's value. When ending your turn, the next guy's listed effects will begin with their state images. This was done for easier readability in the Chat window.

The big one for this release is the inclusion of 5e monster conversion. I did this just because I had some extra time over the past few days and decided to give it a shot. Just copy a monster from http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads ... sv.0.3.pdf up to but not including the description block(s) at the end and paste into F4 as always. Yes, some concepts aren't compatible between the two versions but you can adjust as needed. This importer branch isn't perfect and just meant for experimental purposes. This has been done for those wishing to use v5 monsters for which there is no v4 equivalent. I have no plans for further 5e development as my group only plays 4e.

Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

Not much to report this time as half the changes are very slight performance improvements and code cleanups. One important thing to note is that power locking has been increased. From now on, any macro that runs the Banner macro (which is pretty much everything in the framework) will check for the lock. This means even Quick Buttons are likely affected.

Improvements have also been made in the opposable check functionality. For example, let's say Token A wants to do a Bluff check and Token B wishes to oppose that with an Insight. Yes, both could simply do their respective checks for visual comparison in the Chat. Now A may run the new Create Opposable Check macro under "Common Free/No" after which B may run his Insight check against A. When asked which skill he would like to oppose, he can select the new "OpposableCheck" property. This is more for programmatic use rather than interactive use but it illustrates the mechanism nicely.

Another slight importer improvement involves monsters that use ammunition like arrows and bolts. The importer will now parse their "Equipment" line and set the Ammunition property accordingly. This may be of dubious value for the Hobgoblin Archer with 20 arrows but may be a factor for that kobold with only 3 javelins! Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

I wanted to fast track SL 58 because of some shameful glitches in both PCs and monsters. These have been fixed as far as I can tell from my testing. In particular, this time I worked on improving MM1 PDF importing as there are still some lingering details I found annoying. The most obvious of these is the partitioning of traits which should make life a little easier for those of us who don't enjoy (or even forget) to insert the "#" chars manually. "Save Ends x" effect groups are now detected again (thanks to the new UserData property) and the "all-around vision" sight specifier is used to make the creature unflankable. Note that duplicate creation is not part of the process any more. You must run this manually after you finish configuring and testing your monster.

The other new property is OpposableCheck and is used to record the value the opposing token needs to beat. Because of this property and UserData, you need to download and apply the campaign properties for older campaign files. Finally, I uncovered a rare bug which has the potential for destabilizing the string of effects which represent the Unconscious condition. Downed PCs should stay down even if they get a new DefensePenalty effect. Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

SL 59 is now live and is mostly bug fixes. To my (and I'm sure your) astonishment, the Rumble forum has recently showed signs of life from its last remaining loyalists. Who knew? I think there's even a new guy who likewise believes spending 10,000 pounds of effort for one pound of benefit is a smart way to go. :wink: In their honor (and in an effort so that they only need to expend 9,000 pounds) I have revived my PC token creation process (bottom of that page).

More importantly, the monster importer has been tweaked and tuned some more to clear up some lingering bugs. Also, "Act Now" will be called if a "rolls initiative twice" phrase is detected and "Resurrect" will be called if the phrase "rises on its next" is found. Finally, the skill-handling subsystem has been cleaned up a bit. Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

SL 60 is now available thereby letting us leave behind another decade of fix packs. Bug fixes in this release are likely to go unnoticed as they are mostly off the beaten path. One important one you do need to be mindful is the removal of the code in the Damage macro which zeroes out the Resist property on monsters. Make sure all your monsters made prior to SL 60 have Resist=0 or attempts to damage/heal them will fail. Otherwise there have been a few very minor performance and monster importer improvements.

The big news is the Toggle Radio Menus macro. For those of you that don't like the MPB's menuing system, try running this (under "Toggles"). You will now see all options at once rather than having to pull down the list box. It takes up more screen real estate but saves you a mouse click. When doing a monster knowledge check, you will now also get the monster's token image in the chat. The Info token can now output its Handout to the chat which will make things a tiny bit easier for your players.
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Post by StarMan »

SL 61 has taken me longer due to vacation and lingering issues but I hope you will agree it was worth the wait. Attack Power will now ignore trigger definitions if you use an AttackAdjustment>99, DMs can use the new Roll Init for All to quickly and easily prepare their monsters for combat after the party has rolled (otherwise it will roll for them too), you can use Adjust Settings on the Skill Challenge to adjust successes and failures and Handout to Chat has been enhanced and put into Frank's Lab where it belongs. The new Oppose Check will take over that functionality from Skill Check and hopefully cause less confusion.

In the bug fix area, Short Rest will now work properly for unconscious tokens, the Dead state is back for killed tokens, tokens on other layers can no longer be targeted, the Trap's importer has been greatly improved and Apply Template actually works now. I rarely use this last one but that's still no excuse for the shoddy testing I did. SL 62 will see more improvement in this and other areas. Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

This release marks the appearance of two new Effect Duration settings: "Bloodied" and "Unbloodied". For example, Dragonborn Fury's AttackBonus should be set to "Duration=Unbloodied" because it ends when the PC is no longer Bloodied. Apply Functional Template is now much more robust and you should only see choices that are applicable to the creature you are upgrading. Choose Targets will now randomly default to a single target within its list as per request from my brother. Attack Power will now stop adding to base damage if AttackAdjustment is set to 100 or higher. As such, you must now specify all needed modifiers in the Damage= parm when this is the case. Import PC Power will now allow you to set the "RunTriggers" option on the last tab. Finally, if your weapon can be an implement too then run the new Arsenal->Weapon to Implement macro to do the conversion.

In the bug fix corner, I am experimenting with a new version of Disengage which aims to fix the "rollback" problem when a creature dies on its turn. This issue goes allll the way back to Day One of the MPB! The token may not exit the panel when it dies so run Tactical->Disengage on it if this happens or go back to using SL 61's Disengage. End Encounter should now transfer all PC (including spell) tokens to the next map. Create Opposable Check will ignore parms passed by Oppose Check and Mark should Curse and Quarry the nearest enemy even if they are already so marked, as per the rules. Enjoy ...
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Post by StarMan »

SL 63 is all about bug fixes, some of which have been around for a very long time but just not important enough to address. When running Begin Encounter the first token will now get the reticle, as long as a state name begins with the word "Quarry" or "Curse" the mark will behave like the class feature in question, only the GM will see the init order now (in own frame), some importer glitches have been cleared up and Resist All will be turned off after the first time it is used in a macro. Don't worry, it is reinstated at the end. This was just to get around the "double-dipping" done when a token does additional typed damage. Enjoy ...
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Second Regeneration (D&D 4E Framewor

Post by Serpent10i »

Is there a way to track non-weapon items like armor or thieves' tools?

I have been scouring the documentation and can't seem to find anything by searching for equipment.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Second Regeneration (D&D 4E Framewor

Post by StarMan »

Welcome aboard, Serpent! I'm afraid mundane inventory items generally don't impact game mechanics so I decided not to include support for them. Character Builder does a good enough job of tracking and listing what you have so I just keep a PDF of the printout open for those purposes. SL 63 finally solves the bug of not detecting magical armor in your CB file but you have always been able to import it from the compendium with Arsenal->Import Magic Item.

If you can find magical thieves' tools in the Compendium then you may import that entry the same way. If you want, you can manually make a macro for regular tools using Import PC Power. You can then use FL->Append RE Block to add a NULL effect that gives you a +2 to Thievery but I believe that is already factored in with CB.
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Serpent10i
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Second Regeneration (D&D 4E Framewor

Post by Serpent10i »

So if I have thieves tools the best way to get them onto a character is to use DDI to create the char then import that the normal way and they will be automatically factored into skill checks and such? The same will be true for other items the provide stats like leather armor. I could also import the them as magical items(any armor?) and PC powers (tools)?

Is there anywhere I can store notes(has 7 meters of rope... ect) on the tokens? The "notes" are used for imports and I want the players to be able to access them so the GM notes section isn't great either.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Second Regeneration (D&D 4E Framewor

Post by StarMan »

Actually the Notes tab of your library token is only used as a backup of your raw power data at the time of token creation. Strictly speaking, this data doesn't have to be there so you can erase that and use it for whatever you like. And yes, if you properly equip certain things in CB (like an Amulet of Health, for example) then your stats will be updated automatically. I'm not sure about thieves' tools in particular but the same goes for taking certain feats. As such, there's no need to worry about whether your properties are up to date.

Nevertheless, I would be lying if I said you were the first user to want your inventory represented on your token. I have therefore looked into the matter and concluded adding this functionality to be relatively trivial. When SL 64 is released, you will find that running F4 will copy your carried items to the UserData property on your library token. This can be viewed by running Health->Status where it will be displayed at the bottom. You can update this property with your own personal notes but keep in mind it will be refreshed the next time you run F4. As a result, you need to manually backup the property before running F4 and reinstate it thereafter.
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