Code Monkey Lose WoTC License (Merged)

[mattcolville]

Well, eTools was initially created by Fluid, CMP inherited it. PCGen is an open-source project, CMP just does datasets for it.

I know. I've yet to find any e-solution that I thought was accessible and functional enough for the average D&D player.

 

[Mercule]

No, I'm not shilling for DMGenie, I just think that it is *that* good, and it has the potential to be even better if it had all of the WotC data available to support it.

Okay, I'll give it a try. I don't like the look of the screen shots. But I can deal with it, if it delivers the functionality.

 

[kingpaul]

I know. I've yet to find any e-solution that I thought was accessible and functional enough for the average D&D player.

What do you consider the "average D&D player"? Each generator out there has their own band of followers, so I'm rather curious what, in your opinion, is the average player.

 

[Maggan]

I
3c, I don't think this is what they're advertising.

A minor but important point is that they aren't advertising anything at the moment. We're looking at text from a survey, and not an announcement from WotC.

Having said that I have little confidence in WotC's abilities to create an online platform that satisfies my needs completely, but if they would create a service with functioning tools for character creation and campaign management, and ad exclusive game expansions to that mix, I would give it a try.

Much as I have tried most other tools. Which haven't worked with how I want to do stuff, so that's a pretty high hurdel for WotC to clear. Not so much the technial stuff, but how the user interface work.

/M

 

[3catcircus]

Okay, I'll give it a try. I don't like the look of the screen shots. But I can deal with it, if it delivers the functionality.

Cool - don't get discouraged when you first use it - it takes a few days and then things become relatively intuitive. The biggest thing I found was that a "creature" is an opponent in a particular encounter, while a "race" is one of the monsters from the SRD.

Also, I found that sometimes, when adding a weapon in the item menu from the main page for a particular creature, it won't add the attack as well, so I've just taken to adding the weapon using the toolbar.

Oh, and I'm still a complete noob when it comes to scripting things.

Anyway - hope you find it as useful as I do. The really cool thing is they have a pretty active set of forums there as well, providing help, hints, and tips.

 

[3catcircus]

What do you consider the "average D&D player"? Each generator out there has their own band of followers, so I'm rather curious what, in your opinion, is the average player.

I think one of the things that we all probably need to understand is that the "average D&D player" may or may not be a complete luddite.

When I think of the average D&D player, there are really three groups of "average" D&D players
- the older crowd who's "hat of d02 know no bounds" and may want something extremely easy to use (less customization, fewer methods of accomplishing the same thing).
- the young pups who are just learning the game and who like kewl power-ups and who wants a tool that is extremely easy to learn because they are still young and may have a hard time grasping complex concepts in a short period of time (i.e. the boredom factor).
- the 20-30's crowd who may have used previous editions of the game, who is into the whole geek sub-culture, and who is extremely tech-savvy and wants a "toolbox" that they can customize to their hearts' content.

Perhaps Matt can explain which of those three he considers "average" or if he considers the average D&D player to be spread across all of those groups (or more).

 

[3catcircus]

A minor but important point is that they aren't advertising anything at the moment. We're looking at text from a survey, and not an announcement from WotC.

Having said that I have little confidence in WotC's abilities to create an online platform that satisfies my needs completely, but if they would create a service with functioning tools for character creation and campaign management, and ad exclusive game expansions to that mix, I would give it a try.

Much as I have tried most other tools. Which haven't worked with how I want to do stuff, so that's a pretty high hurdel for WotC to clear. Not so much the technial stuff, but how the user interface work.

/M

True - they aren't advertising it yet. That having been said, I don't *want* an online service. I want an installable application.

I could give a s**t about UI in regards to how "pretty" it is and whether or not HMI studies have been conducted to determine where the best place for a given button or toolbar item is, but I want a tool that is easy to use in terms of adding/expanding with custom data (i.e. I want a window to pop-up that allows me to fill it out with data just like it would appear in a book - entering class abilities at each level, hit dice, etc.) and I also need the tool to be easy enough to use to *script* via drop-boxes with selectable attributes, how those class abilities, feats, spells, etc. affect the (N)PCs. If a spell does 1d6/caster level and save or be blind for 2 rounds, I need to be able to script that easily.

The technical stuff has to work - stackable and non-stackable stuff, correct modifiers for charging, etc. I don't need it to look pretty.

 

[KB9JMQ]

They're going to rescan miniatures and record sound bites again???

OMG, you owe me a monitor cleaning for that. Mmmm Pepsi monitor.

 

[Mercule]

Cool - don't get discouraged when you first use it - it takes a few days and then things become relatively intuitive. The biggest thing I found was that a "creature" is an opponent in a particular encounter, while a "race" is one of the monsters from the SRD.

That actually sounds intuitive to me.

The thing that I checked and was stumped about was adding weapon groups. In PCGen, it's a royal pain to do it right, but it can be done. I'm just not seeing a way to do it in DMGenie. Of course, it isn't obvious how to do it in PCGen, either, so I'm not convinced it isn't possible.

 

[3catcircus]

That actually sounds intuitive to me.

The thing that I checked and was stumped about was adding weapon groups. In PCGen, it's a royal pain to do it right, but it can be done. I'm just not seeing a way to do it in DMGenie. Of course, it isn't obvious how to do it in PCGen, either, so I'm not convinced it isn't possible.

Not real sure about this since I've never needed it. Check out the DM Genie forums - they may have advice.