Macro Bar Insanity

So I have just really for the first few sessions seen the use of the macro bar. I love the concept, but unless I miss my guess or just don't know something, the implementation is awkward to say the least. The bar must contain, or let's say typically will contain, each power and ability that the character can do. Further, in order to compact the chat readout often each power is represented by at least 2 macros, one for the attack and one for the damage rolls. So that is a ton of macros, even for a relatively low level character. Then there are macros for each skill roll, a macro for the character's description, and more than just a few macros for typical character statements or responses. Even if you reduce each macro to a confusing clipped array of alphanumerics (icons would be best) the implementation, that I know of, creates a ginormous slide bar that extends off the screen into infinite space to the right. Is there any way to chunkify the macros into rows, limiting the horizontal length of a row to the screen size?

Ah ... well thanks for letting me know. I'll have to use clipped labels and limit the things I macro severely, but at least now I know.

I have to agree with the OP. I admit I am a bit spoiled by MapTool's ability to easily modify the macro button's size and color, as well as creating groupings with dividers. I can hope that Roll20 will someday adopt the ability to modify the macro buttons somehow - it's one of the very few remaining areas where Roll20 falls a bit short of MapTool. This is an example of what can be done with MapTool's buttons. ...and another... And the easy and effective, but also old and clunky, interface with which users can change them.

series0, the Rugged Reroll will help the macro issue with token actions. <a href="http://blog.roll20.net/post/65696743157/context-is-key-rugged-reroll-dev-blog-5" rel="nofollow">http://blog.roll20.net/post/65696743157/context-is-key-rugged-reroll-dev-blog-5</a> The token action bar is more compact and because it is specific to a token the GM should not have as many macros to clutter up the macro bar.

Excellent Kristin C and Gauss and props for the backup Lifer4700!

Token actions is a great help to 'uncluttering' the system. I currently have generic attack macros lined up along the bottom, with all players having access. The macros read values from the player's journal based on which token they have selected. If I had any defensive stats on the enemies, the macro could read those as well, if I wanted. Then, each players' token has their specific damage rolls, these line up along the top, since they're token specific. I really like this separation. In the future, I would like more choices as to where these bars show up, and their shape. I would also like more control over the buttons themselves - their size, color, etc. The ability to put icons on them instead of - or in addition to - text would be a desired capability also. I love Roll20, keep up the good work!

series0 said: ...Further, in order to compact the chat readout often each power is represented by at least 2 macros, one for the attack and one for the damage rolls. So that is a ton of macros, even for a relatively low level character. Just tought I'd share that you can bunch rolls togheter with the /em and inlines roll. I use these rolls for specific combat rolls on some Characters: /em CharX fires [Gun] ATK:[[1d100]] DMG:[[1d10+4]] And then add any more roll I need to do with [[ ]] and information. You can even use the @{selected|character_name} instead of CharX in the emote. There is much more you can do to minimize the use of macros. for example, you can make Abilities on the charsheets and then use a single macro to call that Ability to be used, depending on which token you have selected with "%{selected|Attack}" macro. Where Attack is the name of the ability you want to use. So you can make an ability named "RangeAttack1" on every Charsheet, and then modify each ability "RangedAttack1" with the different information, like I showed before. And use a universal macro: "Range1" (Or something you want) %{selected|Attack} And thats it. Just be sure to have the selected token selected. Just some help if you already didn't knew it (:

I see that I can have an ability for each character called "Attack" and then have the selected token use its Attack ability. That's ok. But what would also be cool is if when if you have 1 character entry for a type or class of creatures and you hit Attack that it will lookup the Name field of the token rather than the type designation. Is that possible? I tried @{selected|Name} but that failed. Further it would be amazing if the range finder was linked and you could draw a line to the target token and indicate that as the target and then the macro would use the targets fields, roll the attack and if hit hit roll and apply the damage. Is any of that possible or coming?