Development Update Feb 2022

Greetings Adventurers!

This is my monthly update to update you on what's been happening with DDB Importer and friends this month.

What have I been up to?

DDB Importer

Spell Effects

DDB Importer now includes numerous spell effects and macros and a mechanism for easily delivering more. These are compatible with v9 of Foundry. This month, this has been my primary focus, and adding more effects for features and spells is high on my to-do list.

There is also a new option in core settings to load any macros for "on demand" for these effects. What does this mean?

Firstly it reduces the amount of data in actors/the world and improves load times. Secondly, if DDB Importer ships an updated macro you don't have to re-import or update the spell to get the improvement.

Character Import: Ignore Existing Items

There is a new option to ignore any items added to a character sheet in Foundry between imports. This will still remove items removed from a character on D&D Beyond.

Smaller changes and bug fixes

• Condition linking: conditions will now be linked in text to the appropriate SRD Rule entry for an easier time remembering what the difference between Incapacitated and Grappled is.
• Compendium Folder integration: now supports categories for tools.
• You now disable the "Show Image to Players" button in journal entries.
• Encounters: the api endpoint changed and needed to be fixed.
• Max spells prepared for Tidy Sheet was not calculated properly.
• Class/feature munch button could become stuck greyed out.
• Tools and instruments will now import with the Base Item and Tool Type set correctly.
• If adventure muncher can't link an actor during scene import it will remove the unlinked token.
• Class munch will now add skills and saves for all classes.
• If a monster had Natural Armor and a Shield it would not calculate the AC correctly.
• Some icon improvements.
• Some features were not parsing on characters correctly! e.g. Genie's Vessel: Genie's Wrath (Dao).
• For some homebrew the Muncher could fail to parse languages.
• Try and improve innate/at-will spell selection when munching monsters.
• You can now retain the existing monster biography during updates.
• Improvements to homebrew monster parsing to reduce the chance of stopping a munch when actions can't be parsed correctly.
• Monsters with no language will no longer add "--" to custom languages.
• Monster "has vision" setting moved to muncher settings to be more prominent.
• Retain SIFToolkit customisation during import/update.
• Support Convenient Effects v2.0.0.
• Spells granted through feats such as Fey Touched were not added to known spell lists for regular casting.
• Ignored items on character sheets now retain effects.
• Skill Expert Feat could bomb out character updates if the skill chosen to be expert in had also been gained as a proficiency with Skill Expert.
• Try and improve monster parsing speed to reduce compendium lookups.

DDB Adventure Muncher

• A new pretty, easy to read status page for adventures! Find it at https://docs.ddb.mrprimate.co.uk/status.html
• A big shout out to Pariah Zero, who's been making considerable contributions to the mapping.
• Newly complete adventures this month: Rise of Tiamat, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, Stixhaven, Candlekeep Mysteries, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Dragon of Icespire Peak. Plus many more partial scene improvements!

Moar 3rd party scenes with DDB Data

The excellent Pariah Zero created a module to add support for Dead In Thay - the maps provided by DDB aren't suitable for VTT play. Now you can play this adventure in Foundy! Walls, lights, tokens and journal entries are placed. Find out more by clicking the "Enhance Third Party Scenes" button on the Adventure tab of the munching window.

Please reach out if you wish to add support for your own modules.

What's coming this month?

• Adding more effect coverage.
• A mechanism for updating monsters in your Foundry world when they have been updated in the Compendium after a re-import.
• Some more third party scenes.

If you're still using v7 of Foundry then the proxy that is used by that backend will be going offline sometime later this spring, likely April. Please look to upgrade to v8 or v9 of Foundry. More details on the timeline to follow, but it won't be till March at the earliest.

And finally, the key posts have now been updated with the new keys for February.

Thanks

MrPrimate/Jack