morepurplemorebetter

Version 13 progress update

Added 2018-09-12 16:00:14 +0000 UTC

As promised last week, an update about version 13. Or wait, that was already two weeks ago that I promised an update… well, better late than never I guess.

It will come as no surprise that version 13 is not yet finished. Unfortunately, I also don’t have a v13.0.0beta5 for you yet. The changes I have planned for beta5 are substantial and testing the features is taking more time than I had hoped. Releasing a beta that won't even open is not really useful ;)

I would also like to apologise to all Sorcerer-tier and Soothsayer-tier subscribers. I haven't been working on your rewards in favour of finishing beta5. Once beta5 is finished, your rewards will become top priority again.

I have been working on a lot of changes since v13.0.0beta4, including the following:

BIG CHANGE in how the attributes for race, racial features, feats, and class features are handled. They are now all parsed through the same function, ensuring that all things are handled the same. This adds functionality previously only available to class features also to race, racial features, and feats;
Unified all the attributes of class, class features, race, racial features, and feats to use the same naming system;
Added the option for the ‘action’ attribute to be an array of subarrays, with each subarray adding an action;
Added the option for the ‘action’ attribute to override the name of the feature. If the second string entry starts with a letter character it will be used alone instead of amended to the feature name;
Changed the Ability Score dialog so that it has an extra ‘Class Bonus’ column and allows addition of new columns;
Added a way for any class feature or feat to add bonuses to stats (hence the change to the Ability Score dialog);
Added a way to disable making text bold and italic through the use of Unicode. This should improve functionality on systems that don’t support the full Unicode character set (e.g. running Adobe Acrobat DC with Wine on Linux);
Added support for setting expertise with the skills attribute;
Added support for level-dependent features for feats;
Changed how skill, armour, and weapon proficiencies are handled. Now they are no longer loaded whenever the sheet is opened but only when a feature adds them. This should reduce load time for the sheet;
Changed how armour is added by race/feat/class; Now it will only add the armour if it provides more AC than any current selected armour (if any);
Changed how the sheet keeps track of which class feature options are selected (things you can select through the “Choose Feature” button). Now it is also possible to recall which things are set to the third page even after they are moved somewhere else or the feature text was removed.

What I still have to do before the next beta is ready:

Get class features and class options (the ones you select through the “Choose Feature” button) to also work with this new way of parsing the attributes;
Get the ‘Import from another MPMB’s PDF’ to play nicely with the new changes to attributes and new fields.

After that, I have a bunch of boring administrative stuff to do before I can start working on Magic Items, namely:

Create documentation for all the attribute changes (i.e. make a document for all ‘common attributes’ that now apply to race, racial features, feats, and class features);
Update the content scripts with the attribute changes;
Fix the functionality to give pop-ups when changing ASI and spellcasting;
Add new ‘common attributes’ for adding custom weapons and armour. By moving this into the ‘common attributes’, a specific weapon or armour will only be available when the feature for it is present. This is intended for things like racial armour (Tortle Shell), class feature weapons (Eldritch Spear), or magic weapons and armour. That way they will only show up in the dropdown boxes if they are logically available. An essential addition, I feel, for Magic Weapons and Magic Armours not clutter up the sheet.

Once all the above is done, I can go on to create the support for magic items. Which shouldn’t be too hard, as that will be almost identical to how feats work by then. However, once the documentation is done, you will already be able to help me create the scripts for the magic items (and yes, help is welcome at that time).