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

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fhscholl
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

I am currently running the group through the War of the Burning Sky campaign. I've already started to come across strange resistances and qualities, and I'm only on the second module. :)

Another example is the first creature they encounter in the second module. It takes half damage from Arcane sourced attacks. Neither MPB or Rumble can handle this, but I have a fairly significant customization in mind that could have MPB handle this, swarms, and anything else you can throw at the Resist/Vulnerability mechanic and potentially make some other functionality available.

I'll have to look and see how easy it would be to implement in the RACK (most of the tokens I have get converted once and then I manually edit them to update them), but I think it should be fairly easy. :)

If I go through all this, I am happy to submit the changes to you for inclusion if you wish, but I don't this it would be feasible to submit them here, and I know you wouldn't want me to post the file here since you like to monitor usage.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by StarMan »

All that sounds great Frank but before you go too far out on a limb I want to make sure you fully understand my implementation of the "Resist/Vulnerability mechanic", as you say. As the MPB stands right now, you can include this line in a monster's "Combat Prep" macro:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist Arcane; Property=CurrHP; Mod=10; Duration=Encounter"] 
Yes, I know Arcane is a power source and not a damage type but that doesn't matter. If the monster is hit with "Attack Power" where "DmgType=Arcane;" then this should work. The "Damage" macro doesn't really care what DmgType is set to as long as it can match the string to a resistance or vulnerability effect operating on the creature. You're right in that damage types beyond the standards defined in the game are not selectable by either framework's GUIs. Even so, that doesn't mean the underlying code can't support it.

By all means submit your change any way you like and I will evaluate as appropriate for inclusion in v2. The feature set for v1.x is now frozen as I only want to fix bugs and not add more functionality. The important thing to remember here is my design philosophy which is fortunately very, very simple. As long as a feature can be added that will make game play more fun and not significantly impact performance then I would love to hear about it, even if it is rarely used.

For example, if there's one thing I can't stand about DMing, it's keeping track of XP. In my old group we used an Excel sheet to do this. It wasn't terribly difficult but it was time-consuming and boring. This annoyance is what led me to automate XP distribution. If you feel automating unusual damage types will benefit all MPB users then I am all ears.

In case you're thinking of any other mods, keep in mind the following features will be undergoing some reworking in v2:
  • Monster Knowledge: This is another monster config chore which I can do without. In v2, the "Skill Check" macro will just return the monster's "Race" property, Rumble tooltips from its powers and contents of its "Combat Prep" macro. In other words, this info will no longer be stored as skill tracks on the monster token.
  • Other Skill Checks: The "Add Skill Track" macro will be overhauled or retired. Instead of the current scheme, specially named effects with Duration=Encounter will be registered on monsters, skill challenges etc. The check result will be stored in the "Link" property and the "Special name" will be "DC 10", or whatever.
  • Aura Support: Actually, I've already finished this. In v2, all you need to do is define a power for your monster's aura ... and that's it! There will be no need to run "Configure Aura" because the RACK will automatically configure it as such. All you need to do is put the word "Aura" at the end of the power name as well as one of these keywords: "On, Off, Start (default), End". For example, if you create the power "Putrid Stench Aura On", the aura will activate at the beginning AND end of your turn as long as you stay in range.
  • "Config" property: This will contain miscellaneous string properties which will be parsed by various macros. For example, one such property may be called "HalfDamage" which you would set to "Arcane". "Damage" would see that and react accordingly.
Other things may change too but I'm confident you can adapt as they do.
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

StarMan wrote:All that sounds great Frank but before you go too far out on a limb I want to make sure you fully understand my implementation of the "Resist/Vulnerability mechanic", as you say. As the MPB stands right now, you can include this line in a monster's "Combat Prep" macro:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist Arcane; Property=CurrHP; Mod=10; Duration=Encounter"] 
That wouldn't work... The problem would be that all of my PC attacks now need to have Arcane as a damage type and anything with resistance to, say, fire would need to have resistance to both fire and arcane for it to apply properly. In the end this still wouldn't apply properly to the creature with Arcane resistance since the framework would pretend it is an element and thus need protection from other elements as well.

Make sense?
StarMan wrote: As long as a feature can be added that will make game play more fun and not significantly impact performance then I would love to hear about it, even if it is rarely used.

For example, if there's one thing I can't stand about DMing, it's keeping track of XP. In my old group we used an Excel sheet to do this. It wasn't terribly difficult but it was time-consuming and boring. This annoyance is what led me to automate XP distribution. If you feel automating unusual damage types will benefit all MPB users then I am all ears.
Agreed. I track my group XP via Epic Words and since my content comes from a module, a lot of the XP prep is already done. I just need to make adjustments based on decisions.

One of my pet peeves (and this is in no way directed at you) is technology making things more complicated for the DM than it really needs to. This is why I like your framework over Rumble's. Assuming I set everything up correctly ahead of time, it can basically hand everything itself within reason. That's why I would like to get the Resist piece sorted out a little differently so I don't need to question damage and make changes on the fly.

It was such a great feeling on Saturday to have the players telling "and he gets a -2, and falls prone, and gets pushed" and my only response being "it's already done." Yes to an extent Rumble can do this as well, but I like it without the overhead much more.
StarMan wrote: In case you're thinking of any other mods, keep in mind the following features will be undergoing some reworking in v2:
  • Monster Knowledge: This is another monster config chore which I can do without. In v2, the "Skill Check" macro will just return the monster's "Race" property, Rumble tooltips from its powers and contents of its "Combat Prep" macro. In other words, this info will no longer be stored as skill tracks on the monster token.
  • Other Skill Checks: The "Add Skill Track" macro will be overhauled or retired. Instead of the current scheme, specially named effects with Duration=Encounter will be registered on monsters, skill challenges etc. The check result will be stored in the "Link" property and the "Special name" will be "DC 10", or whatever.
  • Aura Support: Actually, I've already finished this. In v2, all you need to do is define a power for your monster's aura ... and that's it! There will be no need to run "Configure Aura" because the RACK will automatically configure it as such. All you need to do is put the word "Aura" at the end of the power name as well as one of these keywords: "On, Off, Start (default), End". For example, if you create the power "Putrid Stench Aura On", the aura will activate at the beginning AND end of your turn as long as you stay in range.
  • "Config" property: This will contain miscellaneous string properties which will be parsed by various macros. For example, one such property may be called "HalfDamage" which you would set to "Arcane". "Damage" would see that and react accordingly.
Other things may change too but I'm confident you can adapt as they do.
I love the Aura change. Any reason that this new method wouldn't support multiple auras?

Another mod I am considering is a way applying situational modifiers such as "Ally gets +2 to attack this target" or "target has a -2 to hit you." Also, accounting for something like "allies adjacent to you get a +2 bonus to defense." Stuff I don't want to need to remember.

Any way you can think of to do Close blast 2 without select mode? :)

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by StarMan »

fhscholl wrote:That wouldn't work... The problem would be that all of my PC attacks now need to have Arcane as a damage type and anything with resistance to, say, fire would need to have resistance to both fire and arcane for it to apply properly. In the end this still wouldn't apply properly to the creature with Arcane resistance since the framework would pretend it is an element and thus need protection from other elements as well.

Make sense?
OK I guess I'll have to review those new rules but will rely on your discretion in the interim. Not surprisingly, I usually only add features in response to logistical problems encountered during the game. The XP thing is a prime example of this. Hopefully the Damage macro is now robust enough to accommodate the changes you have in mind. As you may have noticed, vulnerabilities were a little broken in v1.0 so I'm hoping I got it right in v1.1. From a RACK perspective, you'll need to check the "keywords" string list to generate the proper RE lines.
fhscholl wrote:Agreed. I track my group XP via Epic Words and since my content comes from a module, a lot of the XP prep is already done. I just need to make adjustments based on decisions.

One of my pet peeves (and this is in no way directed at you) is technology making things more complicated for the DM than it really needs to. This is why I like your framework over Rumble's. Assuming I set everything up correctly ahead of time, it can basically hand everything itself within reason. That's why I would like to get the Resist piece sorted out a little differently so I don't need to question damage and make changes on the fly.

It was such a great feeling on Saturday to have the players telling "and he gets a -2, and falls prone, and gets pushed" and my only response being "it's already done." Yes to an extent Rumble can do this as well, but I like it without the overhead much more.
Glad to hear your first non-Rumble session was a success! Yeah, my biggest blunder in the "making things more complicated" was "Mass Force Move". It works properly but is of dubious value considering all the steps that need to be undertaken. It's arguably simpler just to use the space bar arrow to tell the DM "Move that guy here" for each affected token.

I don't know what you mean by "overhead". You are running on one machine so there shouldn't be any since no network is involved.
fhscholl wrote:Another mod I am considering is a way applying situational modifiers such as "Ally gets +2 to attack this target" or "target has a -2 to hit you." Also, accounting for something like "allies adjacent to you get a +2 bonus to defense." Stuff I don't want to need to remember.
Yeah, I was thinking about this too as we have a warlord who gives a lotta bonuses that only apply to specific targets. We attack those guys anyway to keep it simple but it does get tricky at times. It's easier to use the Reminder state feature of RE and not give any bonus at all. That way we just make adjustments manually on the Rumble Eval dialogs. BTW, your "allies adjacent to you ..." example can be coded as an aura.
fhscholl wrote:Any way you can think of to do Close blast 2 without select mode? :)
Wow, you use Select Mode? I just put that in to appease the Rumble migrators. We usually don't bother with this feature regardless of the situation. It's easier to just intentionally miss ineligible targets or temporarily move them outta the way. For the rare monsters that use Close blast 2s, we just code them as Close blast 3s and position the ABOS to only cover the affected area (i.e. make sure nobody is in the extra 5 squares of the blast).
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

StarMan wrote: I don't know what you mean by "overhead". You are running on one machine so there shouldn't be any since no network is involved.
I'm actually running the DM session on a laptop and the Player session on a HTPC that is connected to the TV. With Rumble I noticed a significant delay in updating tokens on the player view and I highly doubt it was network related. (wireless N on a gigabit infrastructure) The only delay I see with yours is when all the status effect get removed when something dies.
StarMan wrote: Yeah, I was thinking about this too as we have a warlord who gives a lotta bonuses that only apply to specific targets. We attack those guys anyway to keep it simple but it does get tricky at times. It's easier to use the Reminder state feature of RE and not give any bonus at all. That way we just make adjustments manually on the Rumble Eval dialogs. BTW, your "allies adjacent to you ..." example can be coded as an aura.
Hmm, I guess the adjacent thing could be done as an aura. I actually have a way to do the conditional modifiers in my head. If I get time I will code it tonight.
StarMan wrote: Wow, you use Select Mode? I just put that in to appease the Rumble migrators. We usually don't bother with this feature regardless of the situation. It's easier to just intentionally miss ineligible targets or temporarily move them outta the way. For the rare monsters that use Close blast 2s, we just code them as Close blast 3s and position the ABOS to only cover the affected area (i.e. make sure nobody is in the extra 5 squares of the blast).
Oh, God no. :) I did the same thing by calling it a blast 3. I just wondered if you had a better way.

I sat down last night and coded a method to do half damage, immunity, and vulnerability and resistance for keywords and attack types. I want to do some further testing on it before I share it, but it allows for the following:
  • Normal processing of elemental vulnerabilities and resistances.
  • Numeric vulnerabilities for attack types and keywords.
  • Half damage and Immunity for elements, keywords, and attack types.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

I didn't get a chance to add the situational bonuses yet, but here are the modified macros to add variable damage reduction and immunity. I've tested it fairly well, but I haven't thrown everything possible at it.

You can add them like this.

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist_Arcane; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=HalfDamage; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Resist_Fire; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=Immune; Duration=Encounter"]
Swarm:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist_Melee; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=HalfDamage; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist_Ranged; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=HalfDamage; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Vlnrbl_Area; Property=CurrHP; Mod=5; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Vlnrbl_Close; Property=CurrHP; Mod=5; Duration=Encounter"]

The crazy swarm I was dealing with:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Resist_Fire; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=Immune; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Resist_Radiant; Property=CurrHP; Mod=5; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist_Melee; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=HalfDamage; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Resist_Ranged; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=HalfDamage; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Vlnrbl_Acid; Property=CurrHP; Mod=10; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Vlnrbl_Cold; Property=CurrHP; Mod=10; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Vlnrbl_Area; Property=CurrHP; Mod=5; Duration=Encounter"]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Vlnrbl_Close; Property=CurrHP; Mod=5; Duration=Encounter"]
...and now you see why I don't want to track this manually. :)
It is immune to fear as well and I could add the effect, but mechanically it doesn't do anything (yet).

You'll also notice that I changed the format of the powers slightly to make them easier to parse.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by StarMan »

I can't look at your ZIP right now but that looks sweeeeeet. However, don't forget one of the guiding principles of 2.0 is a greater focus on configuring MPB features at the Rumble stage (as per the new Aura Support). That way any programmer can write an importer that creates Rumble's Powers and Weapons JSONs with the assurance the RACK will handle the data correctly. Keeping this property in a standard format while minimizing the necessity of direct editing of macros is key.

In this context, I would expect coding "100" (or whatever) in the "Resist Fire" box of Rumble's R/V tab will cause the "Convert Rumble States" macro to output:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Resist_Fire; Property=CurrHP; Conditions=Immune; Duration=Encounter"]
as opposed to:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "State=Resist_Fire; Property=CurrHP; Mod=100; Duration=Encounter"]
... as it does now. The idea of telling users to open the macro and type in "Conditions=Immune;" doesn't thrill me even though most wouldn't mind.

Speaking for my group, situational bonuses are a higher priority given the warlord explanation from my last post. My players are getting understandably frustrated at being told they get a +2 attack bonus that is only good vs. "Lizard Man #3". When attacking "Lizard Man #2" (because that guy has them marked or something) they need to manually zero-out that box in the Attack macro ... which they forget to do 90% of the time. It doesn't make that big a difference in the grand scheme of things but I am a stickler for accuracy regardless of its degree of impact on the game.

I am grateful for any help you can provide but if you're open to suggestions then I respectfully request you focus your efforts on features that would save the most time and benefit the most users. If that is the case with your "crazy swarm" then that's great. I'm just saying things like that are few and far between in my personal experience.

Looking at the larger picture, I think I'm done with v1.x. As such, maybe the best thing to do is give you carte blanche to alter 1.1 whatever way you see fit. When you have it in reasonably stable condition, I'll release it as "Frank's v1.2" or something. You can then adapt the code for 2.0 in the fullness of time. Sound like a plan?
fhscholl wrote:I'm actually running the DM session on a laptop and the Player session on a HTPC that is connected to the TV. With Rumble I noticed a significant delay in updating tokens on the player view and I highly doubt it was network related. (wireless N on a gigabit infrastructure) The only delay I see with yours is when all the status effect get removed when something dies.
That's just plain weird. I can understand (and have proven) the MPB outperforms Rumble in WAN situations but that shouldn't be the case in LAN games such as yours. MapTool should be able to transport tokens and conduct other network operations just fine in regular 100Mbps setups, your Gigabit throughput notwithstanding. Keep in mind there are plenty of Rumble users that use his work in face-to-face games without seeing any lag at all.

How large are your rptoks? Are you using the same memory settings in both cases? Are you doing any heavy BitTorrent downloads at the time? I have seen that have a deleterious effect on MapTool's ability to keep things running smoothly.
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

You an I have very different visions as I would like to see this become much more stand alone. :) I think the requirement to build, convert, verify, and tweak seems a little silly, but I respect that you have a vision for this and I will help you work towards it.
In this context, I would expect coding "100" (or whatever) in the "Resist Fire" box of Rumble's R/V tab will cause the "Convert Rumble States" macro to output:
With the zip I submitted, it will still convert as a 100 resistance. I didn't change the building of effects yet. I'm on the fence here, though. I would argue that the proper way to configure this in Rumble is with the damage factor column on the right side of his resistances tab. A factor of .5 would be HalfDamage and a factor of 0 would be Immune.
Speaking for my group, situational bonuses are a higher priority given the warlord explanation from my last post. My players are getting understandably frustrated at being told they get a +2 attack bonus that is only good vs. "Lizard Man #3". When attacking "Lizard Man #2" (because that guy has them marked or something) they need to manually zero-out that box in the Attack macro ... which they forget to do 90% of the time. It doesn't make that big a difference in the grand scheme of things but I am a stickler for accuracy regardless of its degree of impact on the game.
Agreed. This is definitely the next thing on my list to do. I just wanted this to get my feet wet with your code, and simple damage reduction seemed uncomplicated enough to be the first stab at this. Another night or two to tie up some loose ends and I should be able to write the situational bonuses this weekend.
Looking at the larger picture, I think I'm done with v1.x. As such, maybe the best thing to do is give you carte blanche to alter 1.1 whatever way you see fit. When you have it in reasonably stable condition, I'll release it as "Frank's v1.2" or something. You can then adapt the code for 2.0 in the fullness of time. Sound like a plan?
I'm not opposed to this being released as it's own version when I am done. My fear would be that if these changes aren't worked into the "trunk" of 2.0 I would need to start over again with each version. Understandably, I am certainly not interested in redeveloping this every time you put out a new version. :)
How large are your rptoks? Are you using the same memory settings in both cases? Are you doing any heavy BitTorrent downloads at the time? I have seen that have a deleterious effect on MapTool's ability to keep things running smoothly.
I just exported one of the monsters: 47K. Same settings. No crazy bandwidth/connection heavy traffic in the background. I'm starting to think it is the laptop I am hosting from, but I'm not sure.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

Updated Lib token attached.
  • Fixed bug where adding a resistance/vulnerability without a known state would heal
  • Updated RACK to import static resistances/vulnerabilities for attack types (melee, range, close, area)
  • Updated RACK to import damage multipliers for all types. Only multipliers of 0.5 and 0 are recognized. All others are ignored.
  • Added damage resistance math for static attack type resistances.
  • Added immunity for attack types.
Last edited by fhscholl on Thu May 10, 2012 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by fhscholl »

Added situational modifiers.

Currently supports:
  • Bonus/penalty to hit a specific target
  • Bonus/penalty to a defense vs a specific attacker
  • Bonus/penalty to damage against a specific target
Examples:

Attacks you deal against Villain do +2 damage.

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Damage_Boost; Property=GenDamMod; Mod=2; Duration=End; Conditions=Target:Villain"]
Gain a +2 to AC for all attacks from Villain.

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=AC_Boost; Property=AC; Mod=2; Duration=End; Conditions=Target:Villain"]
Gain a +2 to hit Villain until end of next turn.

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Attack_Boost; Property=GenAttMod; Mod=2; Duration=End; Conditions=Target:Villain"]
Villain gets -2 to all attacks against you (save ends)

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Token=Villain; Name=Cant_Hit_Me; Property=GenAttMod; Mod=-2; Duration=Save; Conditions=Target:Hero"]
There is currently no support for multiple conditional targets. e.g. This will not work:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Attack_Boost; Property=GenAttMod; Mod=2; Duration=End; Conditions=Target:Villain,Minion"]
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by StarMan »

Great stuff man. Yeah using multipliers of 0.5 and 0 definitely looks like a better way to go. I eagerly await your report on how well all this holds up under actual game conditions. I still look forward to downloading and trying it myself once the insanity that is my life settles down a bit. The precious little time I have to devote to the framework must be spent fixing 1.x and developing 2.0. I am pleased to say I was able to get to both tasks last night.

There were a few problems with 1.1 so I re-released it with yesterday's date. Yeah, I know I should have called it 1.11 or something but it doesn't look like anybody else has downloaded it yet and figured there would be no harm. Yes, I know that might irk you somewhat as you probably used the buggy edition to build your latest changes. The main thing was to move the "Fall" macro call in "Refresh States" to the "dying" line near the end of "Damage". Rather than using Fall (which was causing recursion errors thereby preventing dead monsters from being removed from init), I tweaked the RE line there to use "Prone" and "Unconscious". I also fixed "Mark Removal" to get rid of striker marks and make them Duration=Encounter as they should be.

I appreciate you don't wanna play catch up with me reintegrating your code every time I put out a version but I don't see any other practical way of going about it. There probably won't be a v3.0 if that makes you feel any better. By then most people might be playing 5e under MT 1.4 anyway and there's only so much automation you can and should put in. One idea I had was for you to make a completely separate library token of your own which calls and extends the features of the MPB ... but that introduces a host of problems of its own. This is where OOP concepts like polymorphism would come in handy but that isn't an option in MT. If you give two macros the same name then you're asking for trouble.
fhscholl wrote:You an I have very different visions as I would like to see this become much more stand alone. :) I think the requirement to build, convert, verify, and tweak seems a little silly, but I respect that you have a vision for this and I will help you work towards it.
Well there's no reason any framework shouldn't thrive in both scenarios. Yes, my main focus is server-based play where guys own their tokens and communicate contextually using the broadcast function. Hopefully this doesn't clash with your standalone approach. As for the extended build process, I've gone on record many times saying this needs to be shortened. You shoulda seen how long it was in the RACK beta days! That's why I was hoping LongShot would come through with his native importer but he's swamped. I have some ideas along these lines and will try to get to it by the end of this year.
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

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My apologies to all those who have been trying to get on my site. It has been "down for maintenance" since Wednesday-ish as my provider installs new security measures, I'm told. Yes, I think that's excessive too but there isn't much I can do other than switch to another provider ... which will happen by next weekend if they don't get their act together. In the meantime, please send me a PM if you need a copy of MPB v1.1. Thanks for your understanding.
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

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My site is back on line ... no thanks to my hosting service. Apparently they neglected to inform users that servable files now need to be moved from the server's root dir to its /public_html dir. Unfortunately this necessitated a complete reinstall of the site. Wow, good customer service guys! :x It seems OK now but let me know if you have any trouble.
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by irfus »

I'm new both to maptool and to D&D and dm'ing in general. But I've gotten fairly comfortable with the basics of it. After that I tried a few different frameworks available, including the Veggiesama one, DN's, Rumble's V5 and Slim, and finally after lag issues on each of them, found the MPB. This one, I'm hoping has both the feature-set and the promise of low overhead that will allow me to use it. However, Ive run into a snag right at the very beginning. Maptools can't open the campaign files that are hosted in the code section of the MPB site (b87, both v1.0 and v1.1). It generates an invalid zip error, which I confirmed on both a mac and a windows system with the latest apple java software updates, and java 6 installed respectively. On the windows machine, 7-Zip couldn't even open the .cmpgn files as as an archive, while on the mac, I could use The Unarchiver, albeit with a corrupted zip error, to extract the contents of the archive and repackage them into another zip that maptools could open. I'm not sure why this is happening. The campaign framework that I finally managed to open doesn't seem to have all the assets, some tokens and effect indicators show up as red crosses, but the basics seem to be working.

Other than that major snag, I've not been able to fully understand how to register effects and auras using the Frankenstein Lab feature of this framework. I've been unsuccessful so far in trying to set up an aura for a warlord character that adds a bonus to initiative for all allies within a certain range automatically. And I haven't even begun to try to add all the effects that go along with that warlord's powers yet. Also, I realize that the "Create Power" macro under frankenstein's lab can create powers from scratch, but how do I add configure and add effects to the already configured (through Rumble's Importer) power macros. And I'm especially interested in how I can add effects like granting of an out of turn free action to allies through a power's macro.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Irfus

Any help would be appreciated

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StarMan
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Re: The MacroPolicebox: Rumble Edition (D&D 4E Framework)

Post by StarMan »

Yikes, you're right, irfus!!! I tried downloading v1.1 myself and got a "bad header" header when trying to open it in b87. That is very strange as I test these things shortly after upload. As such, the server must have corrupted the file recently otherwise the users preceding you would have presumably reported the problem. Anyway, I have corrected the file so please try the 1.1 download again. BTW, I hope to have v1.2 out by the end of next weekend so you may just want to wait for that. Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention.

v1.0 downloaded and opened fine though so I am assuming that is what you are using for your testing. Let's do first things first. Are your warlord and other tokens working OK in Rumble's framework? Were you able to convert them as per my "RACK Demo" video? Can you run combat as per these steps? Make sure you have all the basics down pat before getting into the higher functions.

Regarding your aura question, I assume you are referring to the "Combat Leader" feat. We have a warlord with this feat but it is not implemented as an aura. This is because it is not necessary to have the bonus refresh throughout the encounter. Since initiative is only rolled once, setting it up as a regular one-time macro is sufficient. Create a new macro on the warlord's Lib token called "COMBAT LEADER" and paste in this code:

Code: Select all

[MACRO("Banner@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Power="+getMacroName()+"; FlavorText=Your mere presence bolsters your allys resolve.; PowerSpecs=at-will   &diams   Martial, Healing<br>minor,  Close burst 50; Attack=Feature; Type="+Class+" Feature 1"]

You and each ally within 10 squares who can see and hear you gain a +2 power bonus to initiative.
[MACRO("Choose Targets@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "IncludeSelf=1; Range=50; Select=Allies"]
[h:varsFromStrProp(macro.return)]
[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=COMBAT LEADER; Property=InitBonus; Mod=2; Duration=Encounter; Token="+Targets]
Assign this to the token's "At-Will" group and have your player run it before the other players roll initiative. They should see their InitBonus score upped by 2. Let me know if you have trouble understanding the "Register Effect" line at the end of the macro above. If you are still curious about auras then watch my "Frankenstein's Lab" video at around time index 3:30.
StarMan - The MacroPolicebox D&D 4E Framework: Import ANYTHING!

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