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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118

Post by StarMan »

StarMan wrote:For the past 18 months, I have put in hundreds of hours of work laboring to produce a D&D 4E framework that met my standards of what that should entail. Fueling this drive was a desire to make the MapTool experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible for everyone. My toil is at an end. It is now time to humbly (or should I say “Rumbly?”) :wink: solicit the opinion of the D&D 4E community here.

If the powers-that-be could make this a “sticky” then that would be much appreciated. Feel free to play around with the framework and ask questions on this thread for anything you can’t figure out on your own. It is my sincere hope this offering gives you and your group as much joy as it has given ours.

Merry Christmas, everyone! :D
Merry Christmas again! Wow, these 5 years have flown by so the "hundreds of hours of work" is easily in the many thousands by now. I hope this has been as much fun for you as it has for our group ... not that I can tell from the lack of posts to this topic. You guys are a quiet bunch which I am interpreting as contentedness. :wink: My download page got almost 300 hits for SL 117 alone so there is certainly no shortage of you out there!

SL 118 is my gift to you along with new videos. The last ones go all the way back to SL 91 so it was high time. The focus of this release was to make it more Rumble friendly as explained in the post I just made on his topic. Outside that, I have added oneself as a possible target when Dominated. Just run Toggle Target All Mode whenever an evil caster whammies you compelling masochism in the process. Attack as normal and you will see yourself in the target list. This is the only "new feature" to speak of. The rest of the release contains very minor streamlining and bug fixes with a few cosmetic improvements. Enjoy and Happy New Year for Friday!
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StarMan
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119

Post by StarMan »

Seeing as how we all have a very big weekend ahead of us, I have fast-tracked SL 119 since today was my last chance to work on it. There were a surprising number of bugs to work through but none were especially serious. Banner was not displaying the PowerSpecs variable for PCs (dunno how I overlooked that for the past few weeks), for MPB-based triggers you could not set yourself as the runner (and Critical runners were getting added as your Lib token), Create Quick Button wasn't checking for pre-existence, Choose Basic Attack just plain wasn't working very well, Move to Token would run FM triggers when casting area bursts and doing OAs, Disengage erased the Dead state and Add Skill Track can infinitely loop if your text contains "(DC " (ugh, this was a nasty one).

Operational improvements include you getting prompted that a guy is AFK when you send him a macro, Choose Macro has taken over for the now defunct Run Macro and Register Effect will now display the values for expendable properties like action and power points. I will resume recording videos for everything this weekend.

Have a great weekend and all the best in 2017!
StarMan - The MacroPolicebox D&D 4E Framework: Import ANYTHING!

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StarMan
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120

Post by StarMan »

Another fast-tracking has allowed SL 120 to see the light of day. New features include Lock Sides on the "Door" token which will render the compass macros inoperable and the addition of more specific Attack triggers. The general Attack definition simply wasn't versatile enough as some powers can only be used with certain types. For example, my tinker gnome assassin has Lab Conditioning which can only be used with area attacks so I have now set it as a ReactionAreaAttack trigger. You can also use these Events in case you have a feat which gives you +1 to Close attack rolls.

The biggest bug which is now fixed (as far as I can tell) has to do with the handling of dead monsters. The Dead state would appear on them but then disappear upon running Disengage with said NPC remaining visible. They now stay invisible (if killed during combat) and dead! The error upon manually running Import PC Power has been fixed as has the broken Grab mechanics which no longer registers the Grabbed effect. A few other procedural trivialities have been addressed and some code has been refactored to more appropriate locations. For example, Act Now was needlessly running Start My Turn so you can now run manually based on if you were readying or delaying. Happy New Year ...
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StarMan
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Post by StarMan »

Now it's time for one of those very rare hellos from a new user:
Caiin4u wrote:Hey StarMan and happy New Year!

Yes i had some problems, it allways said that email-sending is disabled or something like that. I wanted to start
an DnD4e Online Campaign with some Reallife friends and played online about 10 years ago with MapTool. We had
a nice framework back then that automated many things. So thats the reason i came back to MapTool. Then i searched the forums on rptools.net for a framework that is still supported and active, because im a newbie with macros and stuff. And yours sounded just awesome with many features so i wanted to try it out, hoping it would help us manage the endless auras/bonuses and statistics the fourth edition throws at you.
I'm located in Germany and were a group of 6 people around 30 years old. We are all longtime DnD players, mostly 3rd and 5th Edition. But now 2 of us had to move to away and we were looking for a way to keep playing. And because i love 4th Edition and online Tools help manage everything, here we are! ;)
Guttentag and thanks for your letter, Caiin4u! First of all let me apologize for the registration difficulty. Some users get the confirmation e-mail and don't need any help from me but a distressingly large number have the issue you saw. The best I can do is activate your account for you as I did this week for a gent from France. I see you have been able to login since then which is good.

Funny you should mention auras because I just updated this page this weekend. Hopefully you have watched the training videos where I show how to create one manually on the gold dragon's Burning Tomb token. 4th Ed is much easier than 3rd but you're right in that it still helps a lot to have MT take care of state/stat changes. Which "framework back then" were you using? I don't think even Rumble had started yet in 2007 but I could be wrong.

You have picked a good time to join! I am so happy with SL 120 that I haven't even started on 121 yet. Best of luck to your group and hope the 2 guys that moved away still enjoy the experience. Please post in this forum if you have any questions not answered by the web site. Auf wiedersehn and happy gaming to you!
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StarMan
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121

Post by StarMan »

The big news for SL 121 revolves around the vast improvements to the Skill Challenge token. Importing is a little better and some code has been moved around between the Add Skill Track and Skill Check macros. Most notable is the implementation of success limits. After you import your text, try running Adjust Settings. You will see the challenge's skills listed there along with numbers. Set these values to the maximum number of success allowed for each skill. These will be tracked and closed when they reach zero. Set to a high number if unlimited successes are allowed.

A fairly large bug I noticed last session was that our cleric's Astral Weapon spell was not being sustained despite hitting Sustain properly. It turns out the expiry mechanism was valid but the tracking of whether it was the end of this or next round's turn was a little off. I believe I have this fixed but your effect can still terminate early if it was registered as part of a group of tokens. It's too difficult to monitor this while testing so we'll see how this approach works in an actual game setting.

Place Spell, Short Rest and Finish Import have had some of their redundant prompting removed and only monsters with non-zero initiative values will be visible to players now. Enjoy ...
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122

Post by StarMan »

SL 122 has no new features really but there are some functionality enhancements. These include "Take 10" replacing Res and Vul states display (because nobody wants to see the Activate RV effects) as a Global Toggle and Grab - Move-ABOS will now move the grabber to the ABOS as well. Bull Rush-ABOS will now use GenAttMod and Edit Current Main Weapon will now run Equip Weapon for new double-handed weapons.

Bug fixes include Rumble Eval crashing when a field is deleted and Remove Effect not removing same effect from multiple tokens. Those are the biggies but Mass Skill Check Lock not reaching tokens and Run Power not prompting for turn end on Dazed were annoying too in our session last night. Other minor re-phrasings and internal code refactoring round out the release. Enjoy ...
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123

Post by StarMan »

SL 123 has hit the streets early as a result of being chock full of modifications in response to the completion of the latest round of video refreshes. While recording these I came across a bunch of minor annoyances. For example, why does the Trap import ask for 2 Perception DCs each time? The biggest fix was finally getting to the bottom of why Remove Effect sometimes couldn't address multiple tokens. During our last session I also noticed some CurrHP effects were getting registered as Duration=Save (?!?!). This has been fixed along with a Send Macro failure sending to an ownerless token, Oppose Check not accounting for "Skill_Check_Lock_AC" and a number of issues regarding the "-TW" suffix for weapons.

The only new feature is the AuraOn trigger event which will allow you to attach other macros to the firing of your token's aura. The Arsenal menu in general just plain works better and "@TOKEN" is now an accepted location for macro selection and transmission. Enjoy the new videos ...
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124

Post by StarMan »

No major features to report in the new SL 124, just some needed bug fixes. One longstanding one is the corrupted picture menu when you are in radio mode. This has been fixed by temporarily forcing you back to drop-down mode for lists involving graphics. Another fairly annoying bug is the fact Escape just plain wasn't working. This has been fixed by sending the Let Go macro to the grabber. The most vexing was two days ago when nobody from our group could run End My Turn without a crash. A post mortem of the map revealed a defective Trap token which had an effect registered that was pointing to a non-existent token. The crash has been replaced with a more meaningful and helpful error message and the Trap's Import will now forbid non-Trap text.

So much for the "serious" bugs. Attack Power was sometimes using ammunition for non-Weapon powers and Edit Properties->Aura gave a blank dialog if you didn't already have an aura. End of turn prompting for Dazed has been reinstated, Death is now runnable from the Health menu and the Visitation Attack feature has been improved. It is no longer necessary to modify the Attacks box which will now, in fact, be ignored. You may take any number of snapshots with the ABOS and will now be able to attack from each position. Enjoy...
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125

Post by StarMan »

SL 125 pretty much fixes all the bugs uncovered by the recent spate of video recordings as fellas a few new ones. Register Effect writing Undo metadata for effects never registered in the first place was a head-scratcher. This wasn't really harmful but the registration attempt of effects for which immunity had been registered was a bit more serious. Both issues have been fixed as has the Health menu offering non-Resurrection options to dead PCs. For this release I have also switched the writing of macro backup metadata to the player token to see if that solves the problem of such data mysteriously disappearing (i.e. first one or two macros are not recorded) after an uneventful import.

Improvements include Edit Properties's aura editor asking for a macro if you leave AuraName blank, Create RE Block offering the choice of creating a system effect, Send Macro skipping ownerless tokens, Import on Trap recognizing alternate defence score phrases and offering to take the image of a pre-existing token on the map (SC Import will ask too). Monster flavour text now includes range and keyword info and Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) users can set it as a regular MeleeAttack trigger and Create System Effect now gives Critical Threshold options. Enjoy!
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126

Post by StarMan »

SL 126 is the unprecedented 7th and final release of this very busy month for MPB fixes. The top two were difficult to fix given how rarely they are seen. They came up during my group's session last night and have been addressed. When healing a bloodied token the Bloody triggers will sometimes get fired. This is, of course, incorrect and has been fixed as has the case of when an attack that grabs on a hit will not do so unless said attacker is adjacent to the guy he hit. Generally speaking, the whole Grab set of macros have been overhauled and given their own group on the MPB.

The Edit Properties Aura form has been massively improved and now requires very little data entry, if any. Remember, if you want to select a different macro then just blank the AuraName field and you will be prompted upon hitting OK. You will also now be asked if you wish to Ground Zero the ABOS when you start your turn. The two problems in the Gargoyle video where vision was incorrectly detected and -ABOS movement was allowed during the visitation attack have also been addressed.

The biggest improvement is that Skill Check will now run in checkbox mode so you may select multiple skills instead of just one. The macro will find the one with the highest score and prompt you for that check. This saves you looking up your character sheet or your token properties to see what you're best at. This is very handy for monster knowledge checks and skill challenges which my players greatly appreciated last night. Enjoy!
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127

Post by StarMan »

SL 127 made its debut last night and ran very smoothly except for delivering triggers twice. This got a little annoying but is ultimately harmless and fixed in the 128 beta. The long-standing bug of 3-D flanking not being detected properly has finally been fixed as has the problem of submitting illegal colours for auras and light sources in Register Effect. Speaking of auras, I noticed Aura Attack was not using the ReachBonus property to extend them ... not that we've ever used this feature. This aspect of auras is only really useful for monsters that can expand and contract them. Perhaps most importantly, Fall now works properly when sent with Send Macro. The remaining fixes are internal in nature and not likely to be noticed by the casual player. Enjoy!
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128

Post by StarMan »

SL 128 is pretty much only a bug fix release of which the primary concern was the duplication of trigger transmissions which is now (hopefully) fixed. This was a very difficult issue to diagnose in tandem with the new AutoRun feature of Send Macro hence the "hope" in its elimination. You will also once again be able to turn off Toggle Target All Mode, AuraOn macros will go off before your aura activates (as they should), Summon NPC Lib Tokens will rightfully fail if any maps are missing their Info token and the very sloppy coding of Surge has been improved.

On this last point, some code has been cleaned up and a little refactoring has been done in order to address some redundancies. Again, nothing you would notice as users as these are merely bolt-tightening measures. Enjoy ...
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129

Post by StarMan »

During last night's session we noticed several issues which have now been fixed in SL 129. Surge still needed an overhaul as did Skill Opening. The main area of focus was Light Source effect handling. All aspects of this feature have been greatly improved in terms of efficiency and robustness. Trigger handling has been extended to tokens without Lib tokens such as summoned creatures and persistent spells.

Another big bug noticed by the ranger guy in our group was that Attack triggers were no longer working thanks to a bonehead cosmetic change by yours truly. :oops: This as well as the "everything is a primary" bug on the Skill Challenge import, Begin Encounter crapping out if Lib tokens not found and improper outputs to your Exploits frame have been fixed.

Register Effect will now change Duration=Turn to Macro outside combat and (hopefully) stop sending Fall to Unconscious targets multiple times. NPC powers that use the phrase "recharges...uses it" will now run Run Expended for you. Enjoy!
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130

Post by StarMan »

The SL 130's is starting off with a bang as some fairly major bugs get squashed. My warlock guy has been complaining that the Bloodied Boon Feat triggers he has been delivering to enemies via Curse effects have not been activating. This was a nasty issue due to a missing "=" in the trigger adding macro. :oops: Aura activations were still prompting for Colour, Construct Rumble States forgot how to detect ongoing damage, Show Effect just plain broke if the OSP was not used and Unconscious effects were not being registered. Generally speaking, monster importing was a little messy and inaccurate.

The lighting up of all allies will no longer occur unless specifically checked at the Configure Targeting stage. A slightly bigger change is that you will no longer be given an additional copy of "Recharges when bloodied" powers (although you can still set Copies=2 manually if you want to). Instead, a "ReactionBloodied=Recover Powers" trigger will be added for you. Remove Effect on Save will now show self-inflicted effects and as per the first bug discussed above you will now see dynamically delivered effects in a monster's OHName slot on the stats sheet. Storing these in Exploits as was done originally was one of my dumber design decisions. Finally Choose Macro will offer to run Create Quick Button if you are using it to run a macro.

Enjoy ...
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131

Post by StarMan »

Hey MPBers, SL 131 was released over the weekend and performed admirably last night. Gone is the crazy light source bug which was harmless but annoying. Even though they were working fine, I have rewritten Expend/Recover Powers and a number of other macros because I didn't like the code. Big fixes include Surge now giving its output again and Register Effect properly handing existing non-Perm effects as long as they have positive modifiers. The handling of penalties has already been fixed in the SL 132 beta.

New features include the Create ... Link macros now giving you an option for full damage/healing transfer in addition to the existing half measure. Another cool improvement is that Validate PC Ownerships will no longer prompt you for who to send Initiative to as it can now figure that out on its own. Import Magic Item will now create a Property macro in addition to the power it finds in said item. Move to Token and Fall will now send Toggle Mount to mounted tokens but this has been deemed unnecessary in the upcoming SL 132. Enjoy ...
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