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

[StarMan]

Bottom of this page.

My brother played it recently with our former group and announced to our present group: "It's not for us.". I might reconsider in the future but I tend to go with whatever he recommends.

[Slayve2DnD]

Hmm, wonder what he didn't like. They took it back to spell slots per day for Cleric and Wizard (unlimited cantrip casting), healing during short breaks based on hit dice instead of healing surges, kept a second wind action again based on hit die. Attacks got simplified like back in 2E instead of the fleshed out 4E attack powers.

[StarMan]

It isn't just his opinion. I have read mixed reviews of Next and am personally not wild about dialing down the complexity since 4e is already pretty simplistic. There is a reason I have left checkers behind in favour of chess. Then again, the whole point of a framework is to mitigate the intricacies while retaining the richness of diversity the game has to offer.

I have seen one or two Meetup.com Next groups advertised so I might give it a shot. If I like it and there is enough interest then I will ask the group in question if they are willing to give MapTool a shot. Most of the MPB's internal systems have been deliberately coded to be as game-system-agnostic as possible. Adapting them to a new rule set shouldn't be a big deal.

Looking long-term, we may not have a choice. I wouldn't be surprised if WotC drops all 4e content from their online offerings thereby essentially forcing us to move on. You can't really blame them for that considering they have a right to cultivate new revenue streams. It is just as fair to say 3.x had to die so 4e could take its place even though I initially opposed that decision. Nevertheless, there is a lot of 4e ground left to cover and I see no need to fix what ain't broken.

In the meantime, I suggest you look into this project.

[Slayve2DnD]

I'm in no big rush to Next, I'm good with 4E, but as you say WoTC may very well cut 4E stuff for Next which is why I'm glad ALL of my 4E stuff is offline - character builder, pdf, monster builder etc. But I can see the draw of Next as a nostalgic system with some tweaks. At any rate I'm not going anywhere at the moment. Should my group test Next we'll probably do it all manually until you've made a frame for it, I've no desire to tread through the mire of a new framework and a new creator to learn from .

[StarMan]

ALL of my 4E stuff is offline - character builder, pdf, monster builder etc.

Excellent point. I must look into getting the app-based stuff working again in order to preserve the material. Of course, the main point is I have spent thousands of hours on the MPB and won't let that investment of time go easily no matter how good Next is.

[Slayve2DnD]

Oh I'd never ask for it to be scrapped! I know a lot of people won't go to Next, just like a lot of people never moved on to 4E from 3.0 or 3.5. You've done an awesome job creating a powerful framework.

[Slayve2DnD]

Okay here in SL 31, my MHW is 1d10r1 (thanks to Gauntlets of Destruction) in Arsenal..using an auto-hit power (Power Strike) that's 3MHW I managed to roll a 3 total...this shouldn't happen it didn't reroll the 1's??? I also don't like to think I rolled 3 consecutive 1's for damage, seems like something broke.

[StarMan]

The last digit is incorrect. 1d10r2 will reroll 1's as documented here.

[StarMan]

As is the case these days, it has been a long hard road (almost a month) getting the latest Service Level out but I think you will agree 32 has been worth the wait.

Let's start off with the "I can't believe how long this bug has survived without being noticed" file. First, natural 20s are not registered as auto-hits, believe it or not. The reason this escaped notice is that when you roll that high you invariably hit anyway so the oversight is understandable. Dovetailing on that blunder is the lack of enforcement for the "must still hit" rule when determining crits. This is a tricky one so please test and report.

I don't know how many of you are using the "Trap or Hazard" token but the last DM in my group related how difficult it was getting the Import function to work. I tried the traps he was struggling with (from E2 KotG) and saw his point. The problem is the text formatting varies too widely for the macro to properly recognize certain fields. The algorithms have been improved but you still need to correct the inevitable errors that creep into the process.

On the import side, skill checks are now recognized and coded into your powers and concealment is recognized as an effect. Watch this second one carefully as it may not be applicable. In the error-checking department, you will be asked about movement during your turn when subjected to the Immobilized or Restrained effects. It is not unheard of my players to not notice Speed=0 effects and yours may also fail to notice. Initiative will also fail if you have not set your token's ownership and Short Rest no longer fails if SurgeRemaining=0.

As always, refer to the SR Release Notes for details on the more obscure tweaks to various processes. For example, NPCs will now be prompted for ending your turn when running Act Now. Given the rate of bug discovery, I wouldn't hold my breath on SL 33 making an appearance this month so enjoy 32 ...

[Slayve2DnD]

The last digit is incorrect. 1d10r2 will reroll 1's as documented here.

Then I will fix that asap. Still think it's odd to roll 3 1's in a row...guess it can't be much more odd than seeing a friend of mine roll natural 20's multiple times in a row.... I hated his dice.

[StarMan]

Given the rate of bug discovery, I wouldn't hold my breath on SL 33 making an appearance this month so enjoy 32 ...

Well assuming you were able to hold your breath until now then you may exhale! A surplus of free time in the first half of this month allowed me to release 33 last week. My apologies to those who downloaded it before today because (you guessed it!) there was a glitch or two. I uploaded the fixed version this morning so please download again.

The most obvious change (and source of the main glitch) is the new power import form. The fields are now spread across 4 fields rather than 2. Other than that, the functionality is the same except for the addition of the new "One attack per target" checkbox on the last tab. If you check this, then you won't be able to attack a particular token more than once if the Attacks field ("Attack" tab) is set to more than 1. Speaking of the Attacks field, the form should now set it automatically to whatever ordinal comes before "creatures" in your Target: line.

For you programmers out there, try out the new "Pre/PostPower" triggers. The "Text" property will be sent to your processing macro. You can use indexOf calls on this to check for keywords and write handler code accordingly. It will contain the macro code and power output respectively but you will first need to convert it before use as follows:

Code: Select all

[Text=decode(Text)] 

Another major change is the drastic simplification of the "Rumble Eval" code. As you may know, this is the guy that presents the attack, damage, etc dialogs containing the results of your arithmetic expressions like "1MHW+Str". This is a very risky change given the low-level/"core engine" nature of the macro. Everything works as it did before but please test to make sure and use the SL 32 version if things go awry.

DMs will now see "Send Skill Check" and "Refresh States" macros in the MPB root group. These can be used for sending skill check requests and state update requests respectively to OSP'ed tokens. Another cool improvement is the addition of Melee and Ranged attack support by the Splash feature. "Partition Powers" has also been improved in the sense that fewer "#" characters should be seen in the middle of monster powers.

As always, check the SR Release Notes page for the full list of fixes and usability tweaks.

[StarMan]

Hey MPBers, just a heads-up to let you know SL 34 is live and ready to roll. The big change this time around is the doubling of the Choose Targets threshold for visibility. Starting with this release, you will not be able to target tokens with an AC of 100 or higher. Likewise, AttackAdjustment values of 100 or higher in your Attack Power calls will automatically hit (i.e. no opposed defense test). Make sure you change existing tokens accordingly.

The Skill Challenge token has been greatly improved with respect to importing and skill opening/closing. The token label is now treated as a skill property list and the token itself is treated like a monster. Needed successes are now stored in the CurrHP property so scoring a success against it does 1 point of "damage". You can therefore now bloody and (even kill!) a Skill Challenge token. Use of pre-SL 34 versions is not supported.

I have also done more work on improving monster importing. Specifically, skills with negative modifiers will no longer trigger those weird "match" prompts some of you ex-Rumble users may remember. This should help those importing from Dungeon Magazine PDFs. There have also been some accuracy tweaks for MM3 powers. On the MM3 side, the biggest bug fix is the enablement of Notes tab pasting so you can edit it there first if desired.

Other improvements include the new "OA Immunity until EoT" checkbox on the MPB tab of the power editor (running this power makes you invisible to OAs), PC token resizing on dnd4e import (if necessary) and the inclusion of improvised weapons. Enjoy!

[StarMan]

Just letting you all know SL 35 is now available. I'm afraid there isn't really any new features this time round. I wanted to instead concentrate on long-standing annoyances you may have noticed in your own games such as:

• Initiative reticle/effect remaining on tokens after finishing their turns. I don't know why this happens (probably due to lag) but instituted measures to stop it anyway.
• MM3 traits not being partitioned with "#" characters (still isn't perfect but at least the importer tries now)
• Minimal error-checking like the allowance of strange damage expressions (importer will now exclude unrecognized properties) and failures of various macros to recognize initiative token (i.e. green checkmark)
• Allowance of Link="Self" if Duration=="Save" when creating effects

Basically, the import process is a bit smoother now and more key words in macro outputs are bolder. It is my hope this edition reduces the hassles you may have been having. Enjoy ...

[RGCrab]

I've noticed an interesting "bug" recently thanks to someone using the Invoker at-will Hand of Radiance recently. It was set up as follows by the importer when I check the 1 attack per target box:

Code: Select all

[r,COUNT(3), CODE: {
[h:varsFromStrProp("Targets=;"+macro.args)]
	[MACRO("Attack Power@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Power="+getMacroName()+"; PowerSpecs=<b>At-Will &diams Divine, Implement, Radiant<br>Standard,  </b>Ranged 10; Attack=ranged vs. Reflex; Type="+Class+" Attack 1; Range="+10+"; Single=1; AttackAdjustment=Wis; Damage=1d4 + Wis; DmgType=radiant; Targets="+Targets]
[h:varsFromStrProp(macro.return)]

[IF(AllHits!=""), CODE: {
	1d4 + Wisdom modifier <b>([r: Wis])</b> radiant damage.<br>

	[MACRO("Register Effect@Lib:MacroPolicebox"): "Name=Attack Immunity; Mod=100; Duration=Macro; Link=Self; Token="+Targets]
};{}]
}]

You'll notice that it put the attack immunity in the AllHits line while it should place this as a Targets line. Right now, it does a single target attack with three repetitions, eliminating from the target list anyone that was hit, allowing the Invoker to dump all three attacks on a single target if he misses two of the hits.

Not sure if that was your intended functionality or not, but it caught me off guard the first time he used it and just decided he REALLY wanted that one minion dead.

[StarMan]

Aw, I bet that minion had it coming anyway! Coulda sworn I tested that feature but obviously not well enough. Seems to work fine in the SL 36 Beta as the line is now deposited after the Attack Power call as you suggest. SL 35 worked extremely well in my session last night so I don't see 36 coming out until next month.

On the other hand, I discovered an embarrassing bug where the full ability name is used in the power editor for the attack and damage expressions. Sure, you can delete everything after the 3rd character but that can be tedious if done manually and is just plain impossible if you import a PC with prompting turned off. Most of us could get by until fixed but for users like yourself that creates a new party every week (still can't believe you do that, BTW) the only thing I can suggest is using SL 34 for that express purpose.

Great to hear from you after so long and thanks very much for reporting ...