Encounter Builder News

[Scribble]

So I'm tghe type of DM that prepairs all my stuff on my computer. (Usually durring free time at work.)

One of the things in the DDI that excited me the most was the encounter builder. I haven't seen any mention of it since an early press release, which worried me, because without it (or monsters and traps and such loaded into the compendium) the DDI will be muich less usefull to me.

So I asked over on the WoTC DDI Technical board... This is the responce I got:

The encounter builder is still planned in the future but not for launch. It has been put in the backburner to allow us to focus on the other applications. We will launch the D&D Insider applications with the Dungeon Builder, which is an evolution from the web based tile builder tool (available from the Archive section of the D&D web pages - category tools). The Dungeon Builder will be a freeware application available to anybody, without needing a subscription.

The Encounter Builder will be launched in a second phase, after the four other applications (Character Builder, Character Visualizer, Dungeon Builder, D&D Game Table) have been launched.

We simply had too much on our plate to be able to keep the Encounter Builder in our plans for launch, and even with that decision, we have not been able to meet the launch date. This said, we made sure to have all the important functionalities available at launch, they will simply be split between the Dungeon Builder and the D&D Game Table. On the development side, work for the encounter builder will start when the other applications are ready and we can start focusing on the next steps.

The Dungeon Builder allows to build maps from the available tiles, and these maps can be loaded into the Game Table. As we release more digital tiles to catch up with the cardboard tiles sets, we will have the ability to load all the maps entirely in the D&D Game Table. Using an image of the Digital Tiles available in the D&D Game Table (some of them will be seen in 3D within the D&D Game Table), the Dungeon Builder will allow to create map files for the adventures, and these maps can then be populated from within the D&D Game Table with monsters, notes and light sources.

So... that's good news... sort of. Here's hoping they actually make it to phaze 2...

But it also sounds like monster info will be available in the DDI befroe phze 2 though.

Anyway, thought I should share the knowledge.