5e D&D Framework

[Jagged]

java 8 works for most things on MapTool, but you can't have both on your system with java 8 (last I checked).

You can, as long as you are careful with your various definitions.

As Java development is part of my day job, I have various different java versions installed on my machine. 8 is the current default, but I override it (to 7.0.79) for all things Maptool.

[Damien Granz]

Hey guys and gals, and hey Paul, who has crafted this framework and everybody that's assisted. I wanted to preface saying, thank you for your work on it, it's really neat. I just uh, had 2 questions to ask about it. Sorry about being a total noob to all this.

The first is, when you move tokens, now it has to stop and take time to animate the token kind of sliding there you put them. It's uh, nice and all, but is there any way to, like turn it off? If you move a lot of tokens somewhere at once, it can become quite cumbersome as it animates a bit slowly on my machine.

The second is, is there a library that hosts features and feats for say, fighters and what not? Some of the pre-made characters have some examples, but they're not all encompassing. Am I missing something?

Anyways, I love the work everybody's done on it, and sorry if I left people out by name. Thank you in advance for your help!

[aliasmask]

When you say animate you mean you see it move to each square until it reaches the square you moved it to. That means you have a lot of lag. It could be due to several macro buttons on your token or FOW data not being cleared. Also, with 6 or more players lag on the server (and for everyone else) may start to be an issue depending on server and his internet connection.

There could be other considerations like number of objects on map, vbl and light sources. Multiple light sources can cause a lot of lag fast. I usually just go with either day if someplace is well lit, or use the PC lights. Occasionally, I'll need to drop a torch on the map to light up an area far away, but an area they can see. Oh yeah, vision distance is important to. I set mine no higher than 240 for a map, but 120 is usually good enough.

[Damien Granz]

When you say animate you mean you see it move to each square until it reaches the square you moved it to. That means you have a lot of lag. It could be due to several macro buttons on your token or FOW data not being cleared. Also, with 6 or more players lag on the server (and for everyone else) may start to be an issue depending on server and his internet connection.

There could be other considerations like number of objects on map, vbl and light sources. Multiple light sources can cause a lot of lag fast. I usually just go with either day if someplace is well lit, or use the PC lights. Occasionally, I'll need to drop a torch on the map to light up an area far away, but an area they can see. Oh yeah, vision distance is important to. I set mine no higher than 240 for a map, but 120 is usually good enough.

What I mean is that, normally without the framework, if you take a token and move it, everybody can see the blue line 'path' that it's taking, but once you drop it, it stays right there.

Like:
*drag* ------------->*ding*

With the framework, if you take a token and move it, everybody can see the blue line 'path' its taking, but once you drop it, the token then appears at the start and then slowly animates as it follows the path from the start to the finish that you mapped out, like a second time.

Vs:
*drag* ------------->
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*

And I don't know why or what setting is involved in it. I'm not sure if I can really explain it better without trying to capture video. The big problem though comes if you drag like 4 guys at once, then you get this:

Without Framework:
*drag* ------------->*ding*

Vs:
*drag* ------------->
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*
*hop* *hop* *hop* *hop* *hop*

And it can take quite a while.

Edit: At this point, I fear that this thread might need a split because it's becoming very off topic to the original thread. >.>

[paulstrait]

What I mean is that, normally without the framework, if you take a token and move it, everybody can see the blue line 'path' that it's taking, but once you drop it, it stays right there.

What you are describing is not strictly speaking a consequence of the framework, but of the Bag of Tricks. It effects movement in many ways and enables you to do a lot of cool things, but the slower movement after the fact is the negative consequence. The benefit is that it prevents people from walking into walls or through closed doors, it reveals the vision of things seen during the walking path (rather than just what is at the end of the path), and you can do things like set up traps that trigger when a character moves into a certain square. You can just delete the bag of tricks if you don't want to use it.

[paulstrait]

FYI, General update -- one of my players has dramatically revised the framework, and we will be playtesting it tomorrow (Sept 14) evening. Anyone interested in participating is welcome, please PM me.

The new framework does a lot of really incredible things: First, it can handle the various different spellcasting mechanics of the different classes well, which can be particularly tricky with multiclassed spellcasters. In the old framework, warlocks and most multiclassed casters had to do some weird ad-hoc coding to make things work, and that is no longer the case. Further, spellcasting in general has been improved in many ways. Like before, all the spells in the game are pre-programmed, but now there are separate libraries that organize them by class, the display has been massively improved, and various other functionality issues have been improved. (The old spellbook library is still used for NPCs/monsters). Second, every single class feature available is pre-programmed. Third, a massively improved wildshaping system has been implemented that allows druids to import data from whatever beast they would like to shift to (or, if they want, every single beast in the monster manual, as they have all been generated, in many cases with customized token image art), along with a library of macros that will disappear once the wildshape ends. Lots of other changes, some of which I don't even know about.

Once the system is playtested we will upload it, along with an expanded library of monsters & npcs.

[toxik0n]

Hi, total newbie here - I apologize if this is a really stupid question but... are there any guides or videos on how to use this framework?

I've been using Maptool (in a very basic way) for a while, only with maps and graphical tokens. No macros. I downloaded this framework to play around with, and I read the beginner Maptool Macros tutorial and I'm feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed. I'd really love to watch/read a guide so I have a vague idea of how to use this magical framework in my campaign!

I think I have a pretty decent idea of what most of the "Campaign" and "Token" macros do, but there's a few things I'm confused about.

- How exactly do I go about adding my own PCs and Monsters? It seems like there are template tokens but I have no idea how to customize them and add spells and stuff. Is there a spellbook somewhere?

- Can someone walk through how you would run a round of combat with this? Do you just "impersonate" each monster/PC on their turn in initiative, then use Attack macros from their Token window? Is there a way to target other creatures with the attack, or do you just need to manually check the AC to see if the hit lands or not?

- Is there any specific way that I need to make a map that may be different from what I've done previously? Usually I'd just go to the "Add New Map", throw my map in, add some vision blocking to block off rooms and plop some tokens in.

Like I said... pretty lost and would love some guidance!

[paulstrait]

You don't need to 'impersonate' -- you just need to have the 'selection' window visible so that the macros of whatever token(s) you have clicked on are visible. Token creation basically involves copying the template tokens and then customizing, using the premade tokens as guidance as necessary. There is a spellbook token, and you can impersonate that token and drag any spell macro to the selection window of any token to give it that spell.

Our new version of the framework, which we are still testing, completely overhauls token creation, so that it is entirely automated. We are testing the framework again next Monday, if you are interested send me a PM and you can help us test it and we can discuss how it works directly.

[toxik0n]

Thanks for such a quick response! I'd love to check out the new framework when complete and do some playing around with it. I'll PM you.

[Sereptus]

GGAAAAHH!! JUST RELEASE IT ALREADY!!! I LOVE TESTING AND TINKERING!!...... Whew... Ok, .... I feel better now...thanks for letting me blow off a little excitement!!

[paulstrait]

It's not quite ready, we are changing the way we are dealing with equipped weapons and armor, and not all the spells are programmed yet. But we are really close, I think.

[Sereptus]

Yeah, hehe, just getting excited waiting to check it out.

[Damien Granz]

Thanks for the replies that everybody gave me. Sorry if I'm a bit late in giving thanks for them, had some busy few weeks. That said, I look forward to the update as well and trying it out (and having to retinker with the lighting effects because we house ruled in the 5-10-5 diagonal steps from 3.5/Pathfinder as we're fans of Pythagoras even if the 5-5-5 steps from 4E and up are technically easier, so to make the lights work properly we had to circle them and give them proper 'dim' and 'bright' distances. but that's our problem not yours). Been learning how to kludge together macros from other macro examples so far, and trying to teach my players how to do the same, but a new Wildshape macro is definitely something we'll be waiting for with bated breath (like wow, that's exactly what we were wishing we had, hah). So thanks once again everybody that's been working on all of this for their help and for the new things coming down the pipe, I look forward to it.

[Faume]

Hello!

I am Paul's player who is doing the massive rewrite of our framework. The bulk of the framework is just about finished, and I plan to post it soon.

Code: Select all

Quick summary of new features:
- Every class ability had a programmed macro
      - Druid Shapeshift and Bardic Inspiration are especially cool.
- Many, many automatically calculated stats
- Never need to edit a token's properties!
- Armor, Weapon, Shield, and Magic Item management
      - Automatically integrates stats provided by items
- Easy Character creation
      - Drop a token image on the table, Press the "Initial Setup" macro and follow the prompts
- Easy leveling up
      - Press the "Level Up" button and follow the prompts
- Super simple multiclassing
      - Choose any class at any point and everything will calculate appropriately
- New Spell casting macros.
      - Choose to cast the spell as any class you could cast the spell as
      - Automatically integrates class abilities, feats, etc.
- New Skill Check & Save macros
      - Choose exactly the skill you are using showing appropriate modifiers
      - Automatically includes notes for bonuses or advantages you have based on race, class, feats, etc.
      - Option to include notes for what the check is for
- New Change HP macro
      - Allows multiple entry separated by commas.
      - Each entry is treated individually for the purposes of Concentration checks and Massive Damage table
- Centralized macros on Libraries
      - The meat of all macros housed on libraries. Only one centralized location to adjust a macro
      - Token data sizes much smaller because of very simple macros
      - Each macro still allows individual custom flavor text
- Macros for feats, racial abilities, etc.
- Automated death save tracking
- Unified look and feel for all macros
- Formatting and legibility emphasized for ease of use

Features yet to be finished:
- Not all spells have been programmed yet
      - All Level 1&2 spells completed. All but 15 Level 3 spells completed. 10-15 spells of every other level complete.
      - Spell programming is basically a form fill at this point. all data processing is standardized, so the rest of the spells will be easy, just takes some time.
- Not all supplements programmed yet. Focused on PHB to start. Will add other in time.

Questions:
- Should I post an in progress Beta version now or finish the spells first?
- Which supplements should I focus on first once the PHB is finished?

[aliasmask]

If it's a rewrite you may want to rebrand it and start a new thread so there's no mixing up of the 2 different frameworks.

I've haven't played 5e yet, so I have no input on what to do next. It never hurts to put out beta while you're still working on it. Hopefully, someone will download it and give you input while you're still working on it.