I've been getting feedback for along while about how powerful the RPG features of RolePlayingMaster are. I'm also aware, however, that despite on-going improvements, some have still found RPM a daunting program to use.
I'm very pleased to announce that I've finally purchased a couple of crucial components that have very significant impact on ease and usability (purchased - thanks to a recent batch of registrations
).
Specifically, amongst some minor tweaks, I'm also utilizing a new tre-view component and a very powerful/usable new grid. It may sound simplistic, but I can promise you that they do make a very significant difference to using RPM, as follows:
Tree component
For DMs, you'll find this is now the backbone of the Adventure window.
It gives you a nice tree-view structure of the window, showing adventure details, the full creature list, the maps (and within them the locations), the encounter groups (and within them the creatures).
You'll find that you can do drag-and-drop, multiple deletes, and that you can instantly get the details on anything you need by just clicking on tree nodes. Drag-and-Drop is particularly useful for moving creatures between groups, until you get things like the encounter levels properly balanced.
I'm trusting that people will find this a *lot* more intuitive than the previous system.
New Grid
The new grid has some serious usability improvements, and also some very powerful capabilities (particularly for the hotshots creating all their dataset source material at the yahoo fan site).
- Smooth vertical scrolling. The old grid had a fairly annoying habit of not providing a smooth vertical scroller. Without getting lost in a description, those who used it know what I mean, and this alone is probably worth the new grid's price of admission.
- Full sort capabilities. You can sort the new grid virtually anyway you want, including multiple columns. This is particularly useful for PCs/creatures with long equipment lists, where may may be interested in items that are equipped, or sorting by type (eg potions and weapons), or perhaps by value). The old grid was particularly bad at displaying lists of things like feats and skills, which were stuck "sorted" by internal id number, and not even alphabetical.
- Grouping capabilities. Whilst I really want to focus on usability features for those more into RPG than computers, I should mention the new advanced, multi-level tree-view grouping capability. Checking out the new maintenance windows for things like feats, spells, classes and skills, you can drag multiple columns around to create tree-views of your large lists (eg classes grouped by the sources (core, faerun, FR), or Monster races by CR and/or Type) ).
More needed ???
The above mentioned are great steps forward, but I don't claim that its the be-all and end-all of all that can be done.
If you consider yourself a "computer newbie", and only want RPM for generating and maintaining your characters, RPM should be pretty straight forward. Just bring up the "PC/Creatures" window, and stay with it.
If you're a DM who also wants to do serious adventure preparation, you want a lot more power, and there are a lot more screens and capabilities to play with. You'll love the new adventure tree view, but you may well have further suggestions.
If you use the full DM in-game combat manager, you're exposed to the general issues of 3rd edition (and 3.5) complexity in all its glory, and chances are you'll have some suggestions no matter how good the software is
The Point
I'm being driven on to do the next batch of features/improvements for RPM (networking, players maps, vector mappers, oddball D20 features - that sort of thing) - but I'm committed to ensuring the best RPG software for all those who feel that the basics could be made easier for them!.
Please feel free to get the latest update, let me know what you think, and make any further suggestions.
My e-mail is luke_jones@roleplayingmaster.com .
Other feature requests are still welcome!
The latest 3.5 dataset is also available.
I've also finally found and fixed an issue experienced by some Windows XP users, where the text generators (TableSmith) wouldn't load.
Regards,
I'm very pleased to announce that I've finally purchased a couple of crucial components that have very significant impact on ease and usability (purchased - thanks to a recent batch of registrations
).Specifically, amongst some minor tweaks, I'm also utilizing a new tre-view component and a very powerful/usable new grid. It may sound simplistic, but I can promise you that they do make a very significant difference to using RPM, as follows:
Tree component
For DMs, you'll find this is now the backbone of the Adventure window.
It gives you a nice tree-view structure of the window, showing adventure details, the full creature list, the maps (and within them the locations), the encounter groups (and within them the creatures).
You'll find that you can do drag-and-drop, multiple deletes, and that you can instantly get the details on anything you need by just clicking on tree nodes. Drag-and-Drop is particularly useful for moving creatures between groups, until you get things like the encounter levels properly balanced.
I'm trusting that people will find this a *lot* more intuitive than the previous system.
New Grid
The new grid has some serious usability improvements, and also some very powerful capabilities (particularly for the hotshots creating all their dataset source material at the yahoo fan site).
- Smooth vertical scrolling. The old grid had a fairly annoying habit of not providing a smooth vertical scroller. Without getting lost in a description, those who used it know what I mean, and this alone is probably worth the new grid's price of admission.
- Full sort capabilities. You can sort the new grid virtually anyway you want, including multiple columns. This is particularly useful for PCs/creatures with long equipment lists, where may may be interested in items that are equipped, or sorting by type (eg potions and weapons), or perhaps by value). The old grid was particularly bad at displaying lists of things like feats and skills, which were stuck "sorted" by internal id number, and not even alphabetical.
- Grouping capabilities. Whilst I really want to focus on usability features for those more into RPG than computers, I should mention the new advanced, multi-level tree-view grouping capability. Checking out the new maintenance windows for things like feats, spells, classes and skills, you can drag multiple columns around to create tree-views of your large lists (eg classes grouped by the sources (core, faerun, FR), or Monster races by CR and/or Type) ).
More needed ???
The above mentioned are great steps forward, but I don't claim that its the be-all and end-all of all that can be done.
If you consider yourself a "computer newbie", and only want RPM for generating and maintaining your characters, RPM should be pretty straight forward. Just bring up the "PC/Creatures" window, and stay with it.
If you're a DM who also wants to do serious adventure preparation, you want a lot more power, and there are a lot more screens and capabilities to play with. You'll love the new adventure tree view, but you may well have further suggestions.
If you use the full DM in-game combat manager, you're exposed to the general issues of 3rd edition (and 3.5) complexity in all its glory, and chances are you'll have some suggestions no matter how good the software is
The Point
I'm being driven on to do the next batch of features/improvements for RPM (networking, players maps, vector mappers, oddball D20 features - that sort of thing) - but I'm committed to ensuring the best RPG software for all those who feel that the basics could be made easier for them!.
Please feel free to get the latest update, let me know what you think, and make any further suggestions.
My e-mail is luke_jones@roleplayingmaster.com .
Other feature requests are still welcome!
The latest 3.5 dataset is also available.
I've also finally found and fixed an issue experienced by some Windows XP users, where the text generators (TableSmith) wouldn't load.
Regards,
