D&D 5E D&D Beyond Announces Combat Tracker

"We're happy to announce the Alpha release of the Combat Tracker tool to subscribers of D&D Beyond! Try it out in your D&D games and your feedback will be used to make this the best it can be!"

D&D Beyond has just announced the alpha development version of a combat tracker. You can track monsters, initiative, and access quick reference information. This functionality is similar to that offered by Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.

You can read more about the combat tracker here. The Alpha version is available to DDB subscribers.

"We have been using the Combat Tracker in our home games for a few weeks, and although it is certainly not in a finished state yet, we experienced enough value that we have decided to go ahead and release it now - even in its unfinished state - to both 1) let subscribers gain some of that value and 2) get feedback as early as possible.

Please keep in mind that this is not a finished product, and we invite subscribers to help us make it the best it can be!

Who can use the Combat Tracker?

All D&D Beyond Subscribers. The Combat Tracker is in full active development right now. We will be allowing early access to NEW Combat Tracker features to our Subscribers first, to prove out concepts and new functionality. We took the same approach with the Alpha version of the Encounter Builder with much success. This delivery method allows us to digest feedback in bite sized chunks and perform testing to figure out the best user experience possible.

What is a Development Alpha?

The Development Alpha of the Combat Tracker allows us to test features and user experience.

• Functional but expecting a lot of bugs
  • Should be no core functionality bugs
• Core functionality could change with feedback
• Functionality could appear or disappear at any time

We will be working on validating bug reports and cleaning up the Combat Tracker. Once these tasks have been completed we will release to Beta, essentially meaning the Combat Tracker tool is complete."

 

[3catcircus]

LOL. Is this a competition to see who can make the biggest mountain out of a molehill day?

Did they goof? Yes. Either it was an issue caused by number of transactions or volume. Perhaps both.

Did a plane fall out of the sky? Is there any indication whatsoever that there are major issues with the site? Did they not warn people this was alpha software?

For all of the above: no. Alpha software broke. It caused a problem with beta software. For a couple of hours.

Next up ... people occasionally make incredibly minor mistakes ... news at 11!

Did a plane fall out of the sky? Ask Boeing how that 737 MAX software is going, especially since it was a release and not an alpha...

Attention to detail matters. No matter whether you are digging ditches, flipping burgers, writing code, or doing surgery

 

[Panda-s1]

Did a plane fall out of the sky? Ask Boeing how that 737 MAX software is going, especially since it was a release and not an alpha...

Did Johnny really burn down the DM's house? Ask the DM how—wait no hang on, the DM isn't real, no one actually got hurt or lost their house because the initiative tracker wasn't working for a little bit.

how about this: can you point out a different time when DDB had a major crash because of the sort of thing you're worried about?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't care what industry. It doesn't have to be software. You're building widgits. Or selling real estate. Or baking cakes.

You're telling me it's ok if the widgits aren't the right size? Or that it doesn't matter what property is listed on the county rolls that you've sold? Or that the cake can be made without, you know, cake ingredients?

Do you know the difference between a finished product and a preview or test?

Seriously, you seem to have misunderstood what an alpha test even is.

An alpha product test temporarily broke a beta product test functionality.

Aquire some perspective.

 

[dave2008]

4e had that character creator you got when you subscribed to... whatever that service was called. I had a subscription but only ever used it to get access to Dragon and Dungeon. but some people I knew used the character creator extensively, like every character they did was through that service, and sometimes they'd make characters for no reason other than they had an idea for one in their head.

even then it had every option available in a print book and put your character's information onto the exact same character sheet they put in the PHB.

Yes, I had a subscription. I used it mainly for Dragon and Dungeon as well, but I also used the Monster Maker quite a bit too.

 

[R_J_K75]

Did Johnny really burn down the DM's house?

I want more of Johnny; and next time I hope he brings his buddy Loremonger Bob. The guy that no one invited but who's going to tell the DM every 5 minutes their campaign is wrong because it doesn't follow sentence 2 of paragraph 5 on page 367 of the Crystal Shart.

 

[Oofta]

Did a plane fall out of the sky? Ask Boeing how that 737 MAX software is going, especially since it was a release and not an alpha...

Attention to detail matters. No matter whether you are digging ditches, flipping burgers, writing code, or doing surgery

I hate to break this to you but alpha/beta software is by definition prone to errors.

The biggest issue caused by a temporary shut down was that it apparently generated a couple of trolls.

DDB is generally well designed and stable.

 

[Panda-s1]

the Crystal Shart.

oh BUUUUURRRRN

 

[Dausuul]

Seriously, you seem to have misunderstood what an alpha test even is.

I'll tell you what an alpha test isn't. It isn't where you put a feature on your production server and open it up to your entire user base. They can call this alpha, but it's a beta test by any definition I've ever heard.

As far as breaking the encounter builder goes... well, as you say, the encounter builder is itself in beta test, so it isn't the same thing as breaking something that's been "officially" released. Still, any time you put a test feature on your prod server and it breaks something outside of itself, that deserves some side-eye. There's a reason why you don't normally push to prod until you're done testing.

 

[Panda-s1]

There's a reason why you don't normally push to prod until you're done testing.

my god, please prove to me they didn't do testing.

 

[Dausuul]

my god, please prove to me they didn't do testing.

If they're done testing, then why are they calling this a "test?"