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."

 

[MNblockhead]

I still use Hero Lab for running my games, mainly because its Tactical Console already does all this and way more. But since that program is slowly dying, a comparable feature at D&DB will be one more reason for me to make the switch. I hope they can do it.

I would like to reduce the tools I use. I've already stopped using Herolab. Hero Lab's combat tracking was okay, but it still didn't track conditions and there was no player view.

I've been using Improved Initiative for several months now and find it really hits my sweet spot. Simple and fluid to use while still having a lot of features I've been wanting for years.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Clothespins posted at the top of my DM Screen. Best initiative system I've ever used.

I don't even do that with my homebrew version. Everyone rolls initiative like normal. I roll once for all monsters. Let's say I roll a 14. I'll call out 'anyone above 14 can go." then I go. Then I call out "everyone else can go."

I know it impacts things like statuses that start and end on turns, but it gives the players a bit more flexibility when thinking tactically, and they enjoy it. And it's faster.

 

[ignu]

I really can't recommend Improved Initiative enough

Just some of the features I can't live without:

1) roll hp for monster, also having buttons to add one as a minion or with max hp.
2) a player view (i put it on my phone in a stand) to show them who's up next, lots of options on what they can see but i let them see if a monster's bloodied or injured so they don't have to ask me constantly how they look
3) dice roller built in so i don't have to add up 8d6 while DMing
4) really easy ways to add custom monsters to your library or encounter and the ability to share them

 

[Mistwell]

I can't believe people are flipping out about errors in the first hours of an ALPHA release (done as "this is just something cool we've been toying with and got enough utility that we thought it might be nice if others could play with it") as if it's somehow representative of something meaningful. Yeesh, I hope you're not held at your job to the standard you are holding them to.

I know, it's the internet, so this kind of fan behavior is par for the course. I don't have to like it though.

 

[Panda-s1]

Disclaimer: I don't work in video gaming or entertainment. I work in corporate finance. So if there are any defects going to production, head's roll in my world. Can you imagine if millions of customers all the sudden couldn't access their online banking features? So maybe my bias is a bit more strict.

That said. I have noticed this trend where video game/entertainment companies are just skipping any sort of robust testing at all, and relying on users to do it for them by calling it "alpha". IMO, that's lazy. And makes your company look bad.

In my world, we have DEVS do the coding, and QA/UAT (Quality assurance/User acceptance testing) does the testing. Then we go to pilot, with a handful of production folks to try to find things we couldn't find in testing for one reason or another (usually due to environmental limitations in the test environment). Then, after robust testing in pilot, it gets deployed to production.

As an alpha build, I fully expect bugs here and there. But to completely lose functionality of one of your key and critical areas? That should have been worked out long before it went to alpha. I'm not a DEV, so I don't know the exact coding, but access to the site with apparently no linkage to the database tables tells me that I'm guessing when they deployed code, something got overwritten or deleted or something that broke that link to the monster database

yo I have worked in video gaming. I hate this notion that somehow games avoid robust testing, they do. game these days are also a lot more complicated, there's only so many player hours a test team can put into a game before the exponentially higher number of player hours that occur once a game comes out. of course some seemingly huge bug will come up after a game is released, but in a lot cases that bug was found during testing and either A) devs weren't sure how to fix it so it got kicked down the road or B) devs were sure how to fix it, but since it wasn't game breaking or crashing it got kicked down the road. I would bet my own ass New Vegas had a deluge of bugs marked "won't fix" before it released.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I can't believe people are flipping out about errors in the first hours of an ALPHA release (done as "this is just something cool we've been toying with and got enough utility that we thought it might be nice if others could play with it") as if it's somehow representative of something meaningful. Yeesh, I hope you're not held at your job to the standard you are holding them to.

I know, it's the internet, so this kind of fan behavior is par for the course. I don't have to like it though.

I know it's the internet, so this kind of uninformed dismissive attitude is par for the course. I don't have to like it though.


Look Mistwell, no one is "flipping out". However when you introduce something that completely breaks an existing core function of the application, it's a big deal. Because it's not just the new functionality that's buggy. It broke the entire encounter building aspect of the application.

Also, if you read my posts, I'm actually held to a much higher standard for the same work at my job as I'm holding toward them and their testing team.

 

[darjr]

Wait, wasn’t encounter builder also in alpha?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Wait, wasn’t encounter builder also in alpha?

Beta. But it's been there awhile.

 

[Prakriti]

I don't even do that with my homebrew version. Everyone rolls initiative like normal. I roll once for all monsters. Let's say I roll a 14. I'll call out 'anyone above 14 can go." then I go. Then I call out "everyone else can go."

Sounds like Side Initiative. I've used it for a few adventures and liked it a lot. The trick is to do it your way, though, and let the players who beat the enemies go first. Otherwise Side Initiative, as presented in the DMG, is too swingy.

 

[Mistwell]

However when you introduce something that completely breaks an existing core function of the application

Encounter builder is not a core function of the application nor is it, your words, "key and critical areas". It's also testing and not yet released as part of the core.

And again, this was an error IN THE FIRST FEW HOURS OF AN ALPHA of an entertainment-related "here's a free gift to play with" application rather than a banking and finance application. So yeah, your reaction looks to me like an extreme exaggeration flipping-out level reaction. Not the only one that can fairly be described that way but yes yours was including in my comment.