Critique my D&D tool

[moxcamel]

Something this tool has already been useful for is having my players put together wish lists for magic items. Out of my group of 7, only myself and one other players even have books (and the other guy just has a PHB), so while I'm helping someone level their character on one computer with the CB, another player can be using another laptop with your tool up to peruse items in a much nicer view than the Compendium allows. Way to go, thanks again for this!

BTW, just had to add that I was a little worried about clicking on this post. Having played way too many games with my rowdy and sometimes "colorful" crew, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to critique anyone's D&D "tool." (yes, I am mentally 11 years old. )

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

I went to play with this tool during a live session the other day, but unfortunately my players never entered combat! This could really be a boon in a sandbox campaign.

My main gripe was there weren't more ways to search monsters, which seems to have already been corrected.

It would be nice if players could upload their cb files, to try swapping out powers/feats/items, or as a way to just view their powers without searching for each one.

EDIT: In the same vein, but possibly more useful, I'd be nice to have a way to import monsters already created with the Monster Builder, without having to retype all the stats.

 

[Ablefish]

Wow, very impressive. I can't imagine I'll ever use the official compendium interface ever again.

Here are my comments (more like a wishlist, lol).

I'd like to echo Tazawa's request for a monster browser. In fact, I'd love it if most of the search filtering options were exposed or expanded on in the browser interface for items as well (making use of as many wicked widgets like your level range slider).

When I'm building encounters, or looking for treasure for my party, I usually find that the WOTC interface for filtering doesn't coincide with how I'm looking for elements. Ie - maybe I know I want some Large, Fey and Shadow Humanoids. Or I want some Consumables of some kind.

That would be hard to pull off with a single Search. But if there was more flexibility - ie - I could narrow down a broad search rather than have to zero in off the bat.

Another request - one sweet aspect of the new Monster Builder is the handy slider that you can use to quickly level a monster up or down. It would be fantastic if you could add the same functionality to editing a monster added to the workspace. (Ie it adjust damage, defenses, hp automagically)

Speaking of the workspace - what do you have planned for organizing this space? I'm not sure what the answer is visually, but if there was some way to group elements that could translate into how they were printed, that would be awesome. I'm imagining an option for a simple 2 column layout that you could drag and sort the stat blocks and notes and whatnot. Actually, I haven't tried printing yet, - I'm not seeing how to limit what gets printed?

Anyways - kudos for a freaking awesome piece of work. It's amazing to see products like Masterplan, FG and this which feel like they're made by gamers for gamers. I hope life lets you keep developing this for a long time, I can't wait to see where you can take it.

 

[Lalato]

Bravo! Very well done. I have nothing to add right now, just wanted to note that the site works pretty well and I encountered no problems. Nice job.

--sam

 

[Nullzone]

First off, great work. A very impressive start, can't wait to see more!

Two things that would be useful, as sort of the same thing: email address (username) and password change options. If my email address changes, right now my only option is to re-register, which would cause me to lose my old workspace. Similarly, while less of an issue, it would be nice if I could change my password from the interface and not have to go through the "forgot password" reset function.

 

[doublewumpus]

Wow, great feedback guys, thanks so much.

[MENTION=41601]ScorpiusRisk[/MENTION] Import from the MonsterBuilder is coming

[MENTION=55116]Ablefish[/MENTION] Interesting ideas for iterative search filtering...I'll play around with it. Also, the printing interface is very simple right now (all or nothing, and only cards). It'll get upgraded in the future

[MENTION=97538]Nullzone[/MENTION] Duly noted.

Organization is definitely a bit of a problem now. Hopefully being able to have multiple canvases (when I get that working) will make it bearable until I come up with a more advanced solution...

 

[doublewumpus]

Update: Added an "Automatic stats" button to the monster editor that will apply generic stats to a monster based on level and role.

A lot of people were asking for a system like this, but I'm not entirely positive that this version is the right approach. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

When creating a monster, your keywords don't appear in parenthesis unless you add them yourself. Very minor.

 

[abyssaldeath]

I have an idea for a new feature that I think could be helpful. It would be cool if when you were placing monsters on the mat if the program could add up all the xp values and tell you what the encounter value would be for an average sized party(5 PCs).

So say you had 5 4th lvl standars monsters(175xp each, total 875xp) on the mat, it would tell you in a corner that it was a 4th level encounter.

 

[Momeeche]

Am I the only one who thinks the title of this thread sounds kinds of dirty?