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Minor Release

Added a link since some people seem to be having trouble.

Some minor fixes to correct some changes in items. Also added support for skill powers which suddenly appeared.

****************************Public Release: 11/8/2010 *****************

4.0.118
* General: Fixed the Familiar option to correctly toggle on and off based on the compendium

4.0.117
* Compendium: Fixed several issues with items that gained the useless "Published in " tag

4.0.116
* Compendium: Fixed Skill Power meta data

New Paser: 4.0.115

You can download the new version here

Updates for Essentials, Psionic Power, and the new compendium items (backgrounds, familiars, etc).

Note 1:
I tested the PHB, Arcane Power, and Psionic Power but I didn't have time to regression test all the older books.

Note 2:
There's a new version of the lore extension which offers /ilore (send lore images only), /tlore (send lore text only), /lore (send both text and images). It may fix some issues other people were having. Get get image support you must reparse modules containing npcs with the 115 parser or greater. You can download it here

Version History:
Note: to use the NPC Database features the Microsoft Office or the ACE drivers are required.
ACE drivers can be downloaded at the following address:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7554f536-8c28-4598-9b72-ef94e038c891&displaylang=en

****************************Public Release: 11/6/2010 *****************

4.0.115
* Essentials: Increased support for powers that do not have levels

4.0.114
* Compendium: Support for familiars

4.0.113
* Powers: Cascade from Dynamic tags to Benefit enabled

4.0.112
* Compendium: Support for Fey Pacts that have a level number.
* Powers: Cascade from Prerequisite to Trigger enabled

4.0.111
* Compendium: Support for more complex backgrounds like those in FR

4.0.110
* Compendium: Initial handling of backgrounds

4.0.109
* Compendium: Handling of Features that contain the Augment tag

4.0.108
* Compendium: Adjustment to processing the Augment tag

4.0.107
* NPCs: Images parsed into a node for easy ruleset access

4.0.106
* ZLINK: Support for libnpc and libtrap
* Traps: Improved formatting of Additional Description


4.0.105
* ZLINK: Added support for map (same as image), template (npc template)


4.0.104
* AltPower: Now accepts MM3 format

It all looks so......

Yay familiars

Can I see some references?

A work in progress. I think they are almost finished. The original FR backgrounds use a different format which will take some adjusting, but Arcane Power, PHB3, and Psionic Power all look to be working correctly.

Essentially...it's crap

I finally got Psionic Power working. The addition of a Paragon Path feature with an Augment tag in the middle of it, ended up being the last thing that needed fixing.

I'm not a fan of the new Essentials line. In fact the small paperbacks with HUGE type are the worst thing they've ever produced for 4E and that includes the PHB3 and Psionic Power which are both fonts of crap (Hybrids, Power Points).

However, maybe some of essential content would be useful in my campaigns. And the mechanical content doesn't seem that far off from Core content, so I decided to see how hard it would be to get the parser to work.

The biggest issue is the Utility and Attack powers without levels. But once I got that working, I got something usable. I'll need to do more auditing to be sure.

4E Lore Extension

The last public release included the following note:

* NPCs: Lore parsed into non-formattedtext nodes for easy ruleset access

That's probably a little cryptic for those who aren't experienced with ruleset creation. Essentially, formattedtext is a great tool for displaying data, but you can't (without a lot of work) do anything else with it.

Enter one of the minor annoyances I have when running my own campaign. I have a vast amount of NPC lore available to me, but it's a hassle to deliver this information to my players. I have to open the various NPC sheets, check the player skills, then drag and drop the lore frames onto the correct characters. Usually while fielding questions about the map, placing tokens, and the usual pre-combat DM tasks.
From working with DrZeuss on traps, I knew the best way to fix this problem was to store the data in both the formattedtext nodes (so it could be displayed as always) and into other nodes (numbers, strings, etc) that could be easily accessed within the ruleset. Once that was done it's just a matter of entering a single command to push the lore to my players

And so the 4E Lore extension was born:
It's actually very simple to use, but it requires modules created with a parser version 103 or higher. No file changes are required so if you have the source files for older modules, you just need to run them through the parser again. This will populate the lore nodes the extension uses.

Usage:

/lore = Displays lore data for all npcs in the tracker that are set as visible

/lore {name} = Displays lore for just the npc in the tracker who's name begins with {name}.
For example:
"/lore Goblin" would display lore for any npcs on tracker with names that begin with goblin (Goblin Hexer, Goblin Blackblade, Goblin Sharpshooter, etc)



Anyhow an example of it working:

Consider the following NPCs from MM1. You can see each one focuses on a different skill (Religion, Arcana and Nature).


The results as seen by my clients:
Tak has a high nature score +8 (and he has an effect that gives him another +4) So you can see he gets multiple pieces of data on the Sahuagin Priest (nature) but no data on the Bloodfire Harpy (Arcana) or the Angel of Valor (Religion).

Khem on the other hand has decent bonuses in all three skills. He gets some data on the Sahuagin Priest (but less than Tak), A fair amount of data on the Angel of Valor (Religion) and a little on the Bloodfire Harpy (Arcana).


Anyhow you can download a copy of it here:

Download the Extension

Public Release

You can get the latest version here:
http://tenian.eugenez.net/Parser/4EParser_4_0_103.msi

I know it works with the MM3. I also ran tests on the original MM, the compendium updated a mass of data in the original MM. Much of it related to the origin/type/keywords of NPCs...and a lot of it seems wrong. Nothing I can do, WOTC needs to fix it.


Version History:
Note: to use the NPC Database features the Microsoft Office or the ACE drivers are required.
ACE drivers can be downloaded at the following address:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7554f536-8c28-4598-9b72-ef94e038c891&displaylang=en

****************************Public Release: 8/6/2010 *****************
4.0.103
* NPCs: Lore parsed into non-formattedtext nodes for easy ruleset access

4.0.102
* NPCs: Changed output of MM3 style auras

4.0.101
* Compendium: Repair original MM data involving changes to the flavor, flavoralt and flavorIndent classes

4.0.100
* Compendium: Remove more of the silly "Update/Revision/Deleted/Addition" history tags in npcs

4.0.99
* Compendium: Fixed problem where Derro "Strength of Mind" was incorrectly detected as the start of the Str stat

4.0.98
* NPCs: Support for the mr power tag (new in MM3)

4.0.97
* Compendium: Fixed missing description data in all npc formats

4.0.96
* Compendium: Fixed missing equipment data in all npc formats

4.0.95
* Powers: Fixed an issue with Granted paragon path powers where the name of the path was in the power. Primal Power Wardens

4.0.94
* Compendium: Fixed Language in MM3 format

4.0.93
* Compendium: Handle some exceptions like the Great Ape

4.0.92
* Compendium: Initial Code to handle new MM3 format data

4.0.91
* Compendium: Remove more of the silly "Update/Revision/Deleted/Addition" history tags in powers/feats

4.0.90
* Compendium: Added code to remove the ", page " data from feats and powers

Made a dent

I spent some time decoding the new NPC format and managed to get everything working. I also found and fixed some errors in older data sets (equipment wasn't showing up, historical notes were not being suppressed).

Now it's to the audit part of the process. Everything looks correct so far but the MM3 adds a pretty significant number of npcs. Also the update made major changes to the old data, particularly the keywords / origins changed significantly (check out the fire bat).


Also I was alerted to an error in some PHB2 powers, particularly the stupid Warden Wonder Twin powers where the paragon path name is included in the power name. I fixed this.

Fonts again...

I did some more work and locked speaking in languages to languages that the players have listed on their sheets.

I also did a quick search and replaced all the fonts with ones that I believe are freely distributable. I added a source file that lists where I got the font from and in most cases I included the zip file that contains the font.

Download the extension here.


To switch the fonts it's a three step process:

1) Convert a .ttf file into a .fgf file using the FGFontGenerator (available from Smiteworks).
2) Copy the .fgf file into the extensions fonts directory.
3) Edit the extension.xml and change the fgffile name="fonts/{your fgf filename here}.fgf" for the language you wish to alter. Adding additional languages is just a matter of adding a new font block and adding the proper entries to the character sheets.

Fun with my old font extension...

Now with some translation and 2.7.0 chat bubbles.

New Parser - MM3 support (pre compendium)

The 4.0.89 parser is out. It handles all the released MM3 content, but until the compendium gets updated and I can give it more MM3 data to process, I won't say MM3 is fully supported.

It can be found at the usual address
http://tenian.eugenez.net/Parser/


Version History:
Note: to use the NPC Database features the Microsoft Office or the ACE drivers are required.
ACE drivers can be downloaded at the following address:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7554f536-8c28-4598-9b72-ef94e038c891&displaylang=en

****************************Public Release: 7/1/2010 *****************
4.0.89
* General: Hopefully fixed an out of range exception when clearing some menu items

4.0.88
* Trap: Null perception check.

4.0.87
* MM3: Power style flag for ruleset formatting

4.0.86
* MM3: MM3 Action/Power format support

4.0.85
* MM3: Support for MM3 senses

4.0.84
* MM3: Support for different cascading caused by MM3 formatting

4.0.83
* Disease: Support for diseases based on skills other than Endurance

4.0.82
* MM3: Built MM3 style section of the fluff output routine to more closely match the MM3.

4.0.81
* NPC: Corrected a problem where an extra space was being stored with the stats when sending to the database.

4.0.80
* MM3: Support for ____ In Combat header of fluff. To be entered as Z ____ In Combat. For example Z Rot Grubs In Combat

4.0.79
* NPC: Fixed Power parse issue when a power includes range, but it isn't a range clause

4.0.78
* NPC: Allowed cascade from Origin to XP

4.0.77
* Scrape: Fixed Z4.gif image translation

4.0.76
* NPC Database: Compiled as DLL

4.0.75
* NPC Database: Fixed "Query too complex" error

4.0.74
* NPC Database: Added Encounter file Filter and processing

4.0.73
* NPC Database: Fixed Keyword search

4.0.72
* NPC Database: Added Filter settings for XP and Keywords

4.0.71
* NPC Database: Added Keywords and XP to NPC database

4.0.70
* NPC Database: Got Permutation function working

4.0.69
* NPC Database: Added GetAvailable

4.0.68
* NPC Database: Switched to access database

4.0.67
* NPC Database: First pass

4.0.66
* Trap: Zeph can't build trap files fix.

4.0.65
* Trap: Fixed traps where WOTC was sloppy and didn't include the expected fields.

4.0.64
* Trap: Countermeasures and triggers processed into different nodes. Trigger -> Initiative transistion allowed

4.0.63
* Catalog: Corrected bug created when feature only lists were added.

4.0.62
* PHB2: Requirement->Trigger cascade allowed

4.0.61
* Trap: Corrected a bug with multiple additional skills. Upgrade to Elite processed into different nodes.

4.0.60
* Powers: "Pact Boon" now recognized and functions the same as "Attack" and "Utility"

4.0.59
* Trap: Additional skill data processed into different nodes.

4.0.58
* Trap: Multiple Additional Skills fixed

4.0.57
* Trap: Perception data processed into different nodes.

MM3

In addition to helping out with the Adventure workshop, I put some time into MM3 support. I haven't gotten around to handling the new mechanical format but I did get the Fluff format in place and support for Diseases that work on something other than Endurance (Meenlocks)

New Location

EugeneZ was gracious enough to give me space to host the parser. The new home is:

http://tenian.eugenez.net/Parser/

You'll find the latest version (4.0.56) there in both ZIP and MSI format.

Changes since the last version (mostly PHB3 or Zeph extensions related)

****************************Public Release: 4/14/2010 *****************

4.0.56
* General: Catalog function updated to support classes that only have features (Hybrids) and to support the new class syntax (Skill Powers)

4.0.55
* PHB3: New class syntax that enables the Paragon Path: tag to be suppressed from power output

4.0.54
* PHB3: Superior implements Properties and Groups no longer trim as weapons do

4.0.53
* PHB3: Added default level for powers that don't have one (Aspect of the Cultivator)

4.0.52
* PHB3: Option to display power lists with only features in the library. This is for Hybrids.

4.0.51
* General: Fixed bracketed feat support so that feats without brackets are grouped by tier

4.0.50
* PHB3: Support for Ki Focus formatting

4.0.48
* PHB2/PHB3: Support for paragon paths with () in their name

4.0.48
* PHB3: Support for Superior implements

4.0.47
* Effects: Support for effect parsing

4.0.46
* ZLINK: Support for cross module links, Zeph tables, Treasure parcels

4.0.45
* Tables: Support for Zeph's Table Extension.

4.0.44
* Treasure Parcels: Support for Zeph's Treasure Parcel Extension.

4.0.43
* General: Combo box improvements: Flicker removed, focus set, autocomplete, drop down.

4.0.42
* General: Option to split Feats that contain []s in the name into groups. Such as the styles or runic feats.

4.0.41
* PHB3: Parse support for powers that use Augment

4.0.40
* PHB3: Scrape support for powers that use Augment

4.0.39
* PHB3: Support for Processing Monk powers with []'s out of the compendium

Added in some parser support for Augmentable Psionic powers:

The easy part.....

Monk crap:

Parser 4.0.38

Is now available on FUM.

Discussion thread

Download Link

Enjoy

The agonizing grind........

Now that 2.0 is in public testing I switched back to looking at the parser. There have been a number of posts about random pieces of compendium data which do not scrape correctly. I decided to investigate these by attempting to scrape every published book and seeing what breaks and why.

Since the compendium feature is a new component of the parser, I never went back and ran serious testing against all the modules I had completed. In fact I've only been using it on material published after Divine Power. Any publication that predates that I parsed using either a purchased pdf or OCR from my purchased printed copy. This means several of the "big" books (PHB, MM, etc) never got the full testing.

That's not say I ran no testing on them, but I typically ran a sampling, because extracting and processing something like the entire Adventurer's vault is a pain. It's even more of a pain when your extraction process is still a bit suspect and you know you're going to have to do it more than once.

Anyhow, I decided to bite the bullet and go through each and every book and note what's broken, what I can fix, and what's beyond my control. I've been going in alphabetical order (for lack of a better system) and I am currently on the Player's Handbook and Player's Handbook 2. Both had issues with certain rituals which I think are fixed. I still need to re-scrape/parse them both and make sure the issue is taken care of and I didn't break anything else along the way.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to complete the process this week.

Ruleset 2.0 is now available.

A ton of work went into this thing, mostly from moon_wizard (all the effects, combat, etc) and Zeph (the new look).

Also my poor testing groups had to struggle through a few sessions where things just didn't work (locked tokens = map crash. insubstantial = 1.5 damage instead of 2.0 damage, etc).

To check it out you'll need the TestModeManager tool for FGII which can be found here

After that you should just update and it will download all the new stuff. I strongly recommend backing up your campaigns before doing any conversion, but I don't remember any upgrade issues (then again 1.5.1 was months ago for me and my testers).

You can find more details on the thread in the FGII forums. I recommend you clear time on your schedule to read the changes/readme files once the install completes. A lot of things have changed...for the better.

Dragonomicon: Metallic Dragons

Great book. I love the Dragonomicon books but they are a LOT of work to make into FGII modules. Especially since PDFs have gone away. Hand correcting the OCR of the Lairs section took forever.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results. Thanks to Zeph for OCR help and EugeneZ for cleaning the tags off the maps.

I made a few minor parser changes to allow for a few more ZLINKs and the suppression of a few items from the library lists.