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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78

Post by StarMan »

Oops! It turns out I never updated the link for SL 77 so it was still pointing to 76. Sorry for any confusion but the point is now moot because 78 is available and the link is correct. The annoying "Yes,No" reversal in dialogs is now gone and you won't be asked for Initiative twice. For some reason, the Undo macro was giving back two Action Points so that has been fixed. Attack Power no longer ends Duration=Attack effects for auto-hit powers. A big bug was the failure to properly write out Word healing powers. That has now been fixed.

End Encounter will now ask you to verify which monsters were defeated so you don't need to kill off monsters that ran away in order to include them in the XP awarding. Create Quick Button will now give you a chance to name a group and Rebuild Power will allow you to replace the original. "Heal" has now been added as a trigger event and reaction. Frustrated that your Skill Challenge isn't working properly? You can now edit skill tracks using Edit Properties!

I will be heading back to the DM chair soon so expect SL 79 to feature more monster import bug fixes and enhancements. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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StarMan
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79 and 80

Post by StarMan »

Happy New Year, MPBers! My holidays have been so crazy I didn’t even have time to announce SL 79. I just plowed onward through SL 80 which is where we stand today. That was unfortunate as 79 introduced some cool new features.

Under the Tactical menu, you will now find Create Damage Link which will allow you to shunt to another token half the damage you sustain. You will also not be able to continue running a daily or encounter macro if you have an inaction state on you. Melee Training feats are now recognized by the m Melee Basic macro and will use the appropriate ability mod. Speaking of basics, the new Choose Basic Attack macro will make your monsters’ double attack powers more convenient to use. Finally, support for Cackle Fever disease has been added.

As if that wasn’t enough, SL 80 fixes the rather bizarre disappearance of sustainable spell token support. These tokens will now return to their Libs if they are not sustained by the like-named macro on them. The Reliable keyword support is now working properly again as well. Some annoying menuing glitches have also been cleared up. Turn macros will use the new Check Speed facility to reset your speed should it not be properly restored after an effect removal. You need to enter it manually again but this will be automated in SL 81.

The biggest new feature is Mounted Combat support. Stand beside your allied mount and run the new Toggle macro. You will be placed in its top-left square and it will follow you every time you change altitude (if applicable). Actions must still be divided among the two of you manually.

You may also now create an effect on you which renders you impervious to certain states. For example, to make an undead token immune to ongoing poison (which it is anyway because of the Resist 500 in its Activate RV macro, but stay with me on this one), just use FL->Create Effect to register a “State Immunity OngoingPoison” effect on the token. Attempts at registering OngoingPoison effects on the token will be removed immediately.

There are other bug fixes and minor new features but this post is long enough! Happy gaming to you in 2016!
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StarMan
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81

Post by StarMan »

The SL 7x series has been closed off and the 80s are starting in a big way! The main bug that has been fixed is the Skill Challenge’s Import macro. It is now able to import source text that do not use a left bracket before “DC” and reverses the failure marking so those skill tracks are now labelled correctly. The ceiling warning from Altitude is now less confusing and your Speed will be fixed automatically (from your Lib value) if your movement is unimpaired. Vlnrbl and Resist states now work again if cast during combat. Send Macro now subscribes to the power locking feature although this was behaving strangely (auto-running) in our session last night. SL 82 will feature prompting which may be turned off if desired.

With respect to new features, you will notice a new token called “Lib:MMHoF” which stands for “MPB Macro Hall of Fame”. If you have a macro that you are particularly proud of that can be used universally (feats being the primary example), then use the new Promote feature under Frank’s Lab to copy it to this new Lib. It will then be used automatically by all players. Because of this, make sure there is no customization unique to your situation. You can also register a "CT_Range_Extension_AC" effect to extend your power by the Link value.

Enjoy …
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StarMan
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82

Post by StarMan »

Not much to report this time around with SL 82. Every time you are sent a macro (mostly when executing a trigger or falling prone) you will be prompted to confirm execution. This can get annoying but has the virtue of ensuring things run correctly. Although not recommended, you may turn off this prompting in Global Toggles.

Attacking Gargantuan and Colossal creatures (keep in mind their aura when targeted will be colorless) and dismounting with Toggle Mount can now be done without error. Damage triggers (running as heal reactions) and Disengage functions are also likewise running correctly again. Remaining changes are performance tweaks (such as code re-sequencing) which you likely won’t notice. Enjoy …
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83

Post by StarMan »

Hey MPBers, there are no new features in SL 83 to report but a major bug has been fixed. The RACK macro has been writing non-functional attack powers for the past few editions. It will now generate macros properly as before. Furthermore, the Channel Divinity expenditure, Reliable recovery and monster Variable Resistance features were all just plain broken. I don't know how all these got past my testing :oops: Rest assured all three have been repaired and now work fine as evidenced in my live session last night.

Another fairly large change is in how Prone effects are handled. Until now, they have been called "Prone_AC". Because the actual rule was that your speed gets halved, I have changed this to "Prone_Speed". Surge will now allow you to choose the number of surges for AsIf situations and Opportunity Attack will default to the token with the reticle but allow you to choose a different target if desired. Remaining changes are relatively minor and internal in nature. For example, the whole tooltip updating approach has been overhauled so that available powers shown are more accurate. Enjoy ...
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84

Post by StarMan »

Hey MPBers, SL 84 is now available but I must confess this is another one of those dreaded “bolt-tightening” releases. There are no apparent fixes you would be likely to notice but of course I recommend downloading it anyway. It contains internal efficiency improvements and measures to make tracking expended powers easier. On that note, you will find the new Run Expended facility under “Tactical”. For those annoying times you need to (for whatever reason) repeat an encounter or daily power, use this directly rather than running Recover Powers first. Enjoy …
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85

Post by StarMan »

The big news with SL 85 is that flavour text has been added to MPB macros. This will add a little life to the otherwise drab utility functions run through your MPB macro group. Admittedly only cosmetic in nature, these descriptions humanize the proceedings a bit. The Skill Challenge token has also been improved in that it's a little easier to award successes and failures as the process is a bit more interactive now with the DM approving every transaction against the token. A minor flanking bug has been fixed, Run Expended now gives you Second Wind as a choice and the cryptic "Register fall save effect" message has been rephrased. Enjoy ...
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86

Post by StarMan »

The only new feature to report for SL 86 is the Validate PC Ownerships macro on the MPB. This is what you will be running after doing Initiative for all your monsters. It will reconcile the ownerships of all PC tokens with the currently connected players and then ask one of those players for Initiative. See the directions in the "DM's Guide" section of the site for full details.

Other than that, the biggest bug fix is for various defects in monster importing. Most importantly, immediate attacks will now be imported properly rather than as a "Personal" power. Hitting a token with a proning effect twice will no longer give the "can't be made negative" error. Unfortunately, mixing this with Slowed does still cause an issue which I will be looking at for SL 87. Remaining fixes are relatively minor and can be looked up in the release notes. Enjoy ...
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87

Post by StarMan »

I'm afraid there was a big flaw with SL 86 (and possibly the one or two releases before that) in that healing caused a roll option error (thanks to an errant comma). As bad luck would have it, my group was playing very little this month. When we did, there was no healing involved so we were oblivious. SL 87 is now available where you will find this has been fixed. Also, speed reduction effects should no longer screw up that property.

The Create Healing Link feature has been added under the "Tactical" menu and many importing improvements have been made across all tokens. Most notably, MM3 traits should all get recognized now instead of just the first. Enjoy!
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88 and 89

Post by StarMan »

Once again I will need to blog about two SLs in one post after simply not having the time to do so for #88. The main news on the bug fix side of the fence was greatly improved monster importing. Auras are handled a little better now in that second auras are directly supported as regular close burst powers. You can still only have one MPB-managed or “main” aura but now you can edit its parameters during creation and FL.

88 also gave us the new List States facility (under “Health”) which reports what the states are on any token. SL 89 expanded this to saveable effects as well. The newly interactive Send Macro replaces the two dedicated Send macros in the MPB root.

For 89, string property lists (like those displayed after the Arsenal-Edit macros, Status, Trigger Definitions etc) will now be formatted as easier to read tables. Skill Check will now record monster knowledge check values in the new FL-editable MKProps property.

There were some fairly large bug fixes like the fact the Arsenal->Remove macro simply didn’t work, Variable Resistance in MM1 monster blocks was being ignored, multi-attack expendable powers only let you get off one shot, Create Quick Button sometimes deleted a menu button and vertical distance measuring was off by one cube. There are others but those are the biggies.

Enjoy …
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90

Post by StarMan »

Today we are closing out the SL 8x series in style with more monster import improvements headlining the show. The big change is the addition of the “Call Choose Basic Attack” dropdown to the last tab. Select the number of basic attacks the creature gets with the power in question. For example, let's say a power allows it to use two claws and a bite in one attack. In this case, you would select "3" in this drop-down. When you run the power, it will prompt you three times for either basic so you can choose whatever order you want. This functionality replaces the old practice of hard coding and restricting to double attacks only.

Other minor annoyances for monster imports like improper formatting of secondary aura keywords as well as effect text showing up in hit blocks have been cleared up. A big issue with PC imports was discovered when F4 would fail on OS X. I am wondering why you iMac users out there didn't report this. A deeper mystery is why I took so long to come across it and why it's even a problem in the first place considering MT behaviour is supposed to be consistent with Windows where it works fine.

The usual tweaks and adjustments round out the release. Enjoy!
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91

Post by StarMan »

We are starting the 90s off with a bang! SL 91 represents the fruits of a complete overhaul on all the major features. This is because late last night saw the completion of a training videos refresh. While recording these, I usually come across bugs which are naturally fixed on the fly. For example, I was shocked to notice flanking doesn’t work if you have the reticle on you … which is almost always! Several other bizarre bugs like the a) gargoyle’s visitation attack grabbing Vani and b) Skill Challenge’s failure mechanism just plain not working also came to light. The strangest was the Double Attack code prompting for variables but that and everything else has been fixed.

An improvement is the phasing out of the OSP for the “Actions in Combat” menu. Now when you want to Aid, Grab or Bull Rush you can just run the macro directly as shown in the video. The really cool thing is the Area Feature token’s promotion to that of a functioning Door token. This guy will erase and erect a VBL around its perimeter thereby providing an easy way to give players access to various parts of your map. Just position it at an entrance where there is a break in the VBL and use the “Open/Shut” macro. Enjoy!
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92

Post by StarMan »

Hey fellow MPBers, SL 92 has now been posted from which you can count on the following improvements:
  • Much better Arsenal handling: You will need to contend with fewer dialogs to get your editing/equipping done. Removal of items and re-equip of other hand when going from 2 to 1 is much smoother now.
  • Immediates error-checking: This functionality has been encapsulated in a new macro so as to make running these powers more consistent and restrictive
  • NPC trigger config: Some bugs have been fixed in this area so monsters operate a bit better.
Other enhancements include accounting for the new Door token to be sizes larger (but not smaller) than medium, Start My Turn now shows ALL effects linked to a token, Handout to Chat is more careful which tokens it gives player control to and Apply Functional Template asks if you want to delete a standard monster in the interest of keeping the NPC side balanced. Enjoy!
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93

Post by StarMan »

Hey Gang, SL 93 is now up for grabs. The big new feature is triggers for saving throws (select "Save" as an event) as well as the new Duration=SavingThrow which you can use in your effects. Speaking of new features, if you register "State_Immunity_All_AC" on a token then it will reject all attempts to put any kind of state-based effect on it.

Undo now suppresses triggers on everybody (perform manual adjustments if necessary), basic attacks can target allies as well (to make handling Dominated situations easier), the new Door token open/shuts a little more intuitively, Skill Opening on the Skill Challenge now only presents choices not already active and most importantly there are several monster import improvements. Enjoy ...
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94

Post by StarMan »

It is once again time to address those oh-so-rare e-mail inquiries. This person did not sign their note but I am directing him/her to this post:
Got this error with 1.4 and SL93 trying to Import from DDI export

Analyzing import text. Please wait ...
Macro-defined error: Illegal data. Notes tab has been erased. Please only use houseruled PCs.
Thanks for your question! Yes, this is "working as designed" as I don't want anyone in my group using house ruled PCs. However, your point is well taken given that I also strive to accommodate my online users whenever possible. I don't want to tell you how to run your game so I respect the fact that you may want to use a house ruled PC.

Please download SL 94, click Global Toggles on the MPB and check the last box called "Allow Houseruled PCs". You can then retry your import and it should work. Undo Last Turn s Effects has also been improved with respect to lessening the effects of trigger suppression. It is still necessary to suppress triggers when Undoing because you don't want them firing at this time. Speaking of triggers, you programmers out there can now use the Keywords variable in your Attack event macros. You can also now use the "Tier" keyword within weapon and other properties. The MPB also now has Bonus/Penalty to Skills macros which you can attach to Skill Challenge DC definitions. Finally, creating quick buttons when editing a power will prompt you for a group as it calls Create Quick Button behind the scenes.

As far as bugs go, Refresh States now handles "State_Immunity" effects a bit better, a few bumps have been eliminated in the Rumble token creation process (not that anybody cares anymore, AFAIK) and Mark won't run if you have an illegal StrikeFeature property. Enjoy ...
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