E-Tools owners, please grade it

[TheAuldGrump]

Heh, great news on the new version of RPM! Definitely holding off a few more days.

And Moonspider: When you entered the numbers for Point Buy did you remember to change the points costs as well as the Min/Max? I remember that a few versions ago I forgot that detail and kept gettin 'Cannot lower stat below 10 in purchase mode'. (Just recreated the error a few minutes ago, it seemed familiar when you described it.) I don't think the current version of PCGen likes negative points costs.

The Auld Grump

*Edit - Oops entered Point Buy when I meant Purchase Mode in PCGen, I just generally call it point buy in my mind. Point Buy, by Tyger is also a nice program, though I use PCGen more. *

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The DungeonCrafter guys actually turn out to be part of the same multi-national company as me. Their progress seems pretty slow, and I offered many months back to abandon my tilemapper and join them in furthering DungeonCrafter. Understandably, they wanted to continue on their own, but it really doesn't affect your ability to use DungeonCrafter images in RPM at all.

They started picking up speed again around Christmas, new beta, and the Journal has been updated several times a week since then. Another program that I am really looking forward to. Aside from Word Perfect DC is the program I use most when preparing for my games.

Long list of other programs I use. StatBlock Generator by Whitelaw, Jamis Buck's Treasure Generator, Izandwo for town maps, Fractal Mapper for land maps, PCGen for NPCs (I use Purchase mode for NPCs), Demigod for rules reference, and Word Perfect to fit everything together. Oh, and the Kinko's file prep tool to get it ready for printing. (Cheaper than using my color printer, my Lexmark gulps ink right down...) Whew!

The Auld Grump, heading to bed...

 

[D'karr]

A friend of mine got E-Tools. After working with it for a while we were both very disappointed. It was returned.

I've used one of the older beta versions of RPM. For me it just had too confusing of an UI. It provided just too many options and it was unclear how to make the views less cluttered. However, I know those problems have been fixed in the newer versions. I would recommend RPM to anyone trying to use their machine to DM at the table.

I've been using PCGen since version 2.1. The UI has always been its weakest link. However, I've gotten used to it so it just keeps getting better and better. There are many complaints about speed, fortunately I've never had problems with its speed and I don't have a speed demon machine either.

BTW, the latest version of PCGen (4.29) included the first functional lst editors. They are still hard to work with because you need to understand the tags the program uses to define certain things but it is a very impressive start. I still find that using a text editor and a copied lst file works very well.

So in all I can't really recommend E-Tools. For the price you would expect something that provides better support for customization. It would also have been nice if it came with a manual.

 

[MoonSpider]

Originally posted by Auld Grump: And Moonspider: When you entered the numbers for Point Buy did you remember to change the points costs as well as the Min/Max? I remember that a few versions ago I forgot that detail and kept gettin 'Cannot lower stat below 10 in purchase mode'. (Just recreated the error a few minutes ago, it seemed familiar when you described it.) I don't think the current version of PCGen likes negative points costs.

The Auld Grump

*Edit - Oops entered Point Buy when I meant Purchase Mode in PCGen, I just generally call it point buy in my mind. Point Buy, by Tyger is also a nice program, though I use PCGen more. *

Thanks Grumpy, that fixed the problem. I had just added lower numbers to the point buy without changing costs *Blond Grin*

Aren't you on the Dungeon Crafter board too?

MoonSpider

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Thanks Grumpy, that fixed the problem. I had just added lower numbers to the point buy without changing costs *Blond Grin*

Aren't you on the Dungeon Crafter board too?

MoonSpider

Your welcome and, ummm, yes?

The Auld Grump, not really grumpy, just optimism impaired....