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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
eTools
- Thread starter IronWolf
- Start date
KDLadage
Explorer
updated on 22-NOV-02
Overview...
To paraphrase Obiwan Kenobi, "This is not the software you have been looking for."
When the Mastertools Software package was first announced, I was excited. When that project was delayed, rethought, delayed again, renamed, delayed yet again and so forth, I kept a sizable amount of hope that it would keep some degree of professionalism about it. And in the end, I was wrong. There are at least a dozen electronic aids available for free that make this software appear sub-standard, at the very least.
Specifics
No being able to make it to GenCon, I purchased the software from my Friendly Local Game Store. The cost was $31.95 plus tax. So far, I am finding that this, as far as prices go, is a little higher than some have paid for the software. This is par for the course with this store, so I am not surprised.
The software came as a single CD, in a flat package. No books, documentation, registration cards, advertisements or anything else. I was a little shocked and surprised at the same time. First, most of those things end up in the garbage for me (with the notable exception of the books and/or documentation) and second, this lack of dead-tree material certainly did not cut back on the cost of the software any. I would not think that the production costs could be very high...
After taking the software home, I had no trouble getting it to run. That made me happy. But not for long. Using the software is another thing entirely. Without a book or software documentation, the menu icons were far from intuitive. A Norse helmet? A lightbulb? A goblinoid(?) face? Same three icons with what appears to be a 6, 10, and 12 sided die in front?
Normally, Windows software will have some sort of context help (such as small text banners that will appear over icons when you leave your mouse pointer there to give some clue as to what they are used for), this software has nothing like this. The help screens (once you can get to the right ones) are of very limited use. All functions of the software seem to be written with the assumption that you have been using this software for years. In other words, nothing is straight forward or intuitive. Most functions, although powerful and free of annoying software errors or glitches, are less than useful in the fact that you spend a lot of time trying to find them, or figure out exactly what the software engineer was thinking when it was designed so that you can follow the same logic in using it.
After a few days of toying with the software, it is my opinion that this was not be making a permanent home of my computer. I have found far too much good software for free on the net to allow myself to justify a $32+ purchase of this low a calibre.
e-Tools has potential. Perhaps in v2.0 they will have something I can consider "professional" level work. But for now, it appears that, after all of those delays, they have produced something a 1st year V-Basic Programming student could have made. This is not final software, it is an Alpha- (or perhaps a Beta-) release at best...
Overview...
To paraphrase Obiwan Kenobi, "This is not the software you have been looking for."
When the Mastertools Software package was first announced, I was excited. When that project was delayed, rethought, delayed again, renamed, delayed yet again and so forth, I kept a sizable amount of hope that it would keep some degree of professionalism about it. And in the end, I was wrong. There are at least a dozen electronic aids available for free that make this software appear sub-standard, at the very least.
Specifics
No being able to make it to GenCon, I purchased the software from my Friendly Local Game Store. The cost was $31.95 plus tax. So far, I am finding that this, as far as prices go, is a little higher than some have paid for the software. This is par for the course with this store, so I am not surprised.
The software came as a single CD, in a flat package. No books, documentation, registration cards, advertisements or anything else. I was a little shocked and surprised at the same time. First, most of those things end up in the garbage for me (with the notable exception of the books and/or documentation) and second, this lack of dead-tree material certainly did not cut back on the cost of the software any. I would not think that the production costs could be very high...
After taking the software home, I had no trouble getting it to run. That made me happy. But not for long. Using the software is another thing entirely. Without a book or software documentation, the menu icons were far from intuitive. A Norse helmet? A lightbulb? A goblinoid(?) face? Same three icons with what appears to be a 6, 10, and 12 sided die in front?
Normally, Windows software will have some sort of context help (such as small text banners that will appear over icons when you leave your mouse pointer there to give some clue as to what they are used for), this software has nothing like this. The help screens (once you can get to the right ones) are of very limited use. All functions of the software seem to be written with the assumption that you have been using this software for years. In other words, nothing is straight forward or intuitive. Most functions, although powerful and free of annoying software errors or glitches, are less than useful in the fact that you spend a lot of time trying to find them, or figure out exactly what the software engineer was thinking when it was designed so that you can follow the same logic in using it.
After a few days of toying with the software, it is my opinion that this was not be making a permanent home of my computer. I have found far too much good software for free on the net to allow myself to justify a $32+ purchase of this low a calibre.
e-Tools has potential. Perhaps in v2.0 they will have something I can consider "professional" level work. But for now, it appears that, after all of those delays, they have produced something a 1st year V-Basic Programming student could have made. This is not final software, it is an Alpha- (or perhaps a Beta-) release at best...
The_Gneech
Explorer
FIRST IMPRESSIONS...
Well, I brought it home and have been playing with it; I'm withholding full judgement until I get into it more, but I have found some problems right off the bat.
* Templates Not Supported. You can make characters of any monster type -- unless it is a templated monster. So no vampires, no ghosts, no liches, no weres. Say WHAT?
* No Non-Standard Classes. All core PC and NPC classes as well as DMG Prestige Classes are in there. And that's it. One of my players' "Mystic" Prestige Class character (created by Monte Cook and published in Dragon magazine) cannot be written up using E-Tools. My other player's "Monte Cook Alternate Ranger" character is similarly SOL. There is no class editor.
* The Help System Doesn't, And There's No Manual. Jump right into the deep end of the pool, kiddies, 'cause there's no other way to learn to use it.
AFTER A DAY OF PLAYING WITH IT...
Regarding templates: This is workaroundable, by creating a new monster race for the templated creature. For example, since the program doesn't support the Vampire template, if you want to create a human vampire, you create a new monster race called "Human Vampire" using the rules in the Monster Manual. Not hard, but kind of a pain in the tuckus, given that the point of buying the software was to have that kind of thing automated.
I did some poking around the Fluid and D&D sites, and I found out some interesting things. It is possible (though non-trivial) to create custom classes using Microsoft Access; unfortunately, the copy of Access I have is from 1997 or so, and can't open the files. There are a couple of fan projects underway to create a Class Editor. Once one of those is available, that will take care of most of my big complaints.
The main interesting thing I have found, however, is the sheer number of odd workarounds that E-Tools is requiring. All of the various types of dragons are only given stats for the "Adult" category, for instance ... if you want to create Hatchling, Young, Mature, Old, or Ancient dragons, you have to create them as a new race.
Simple magic weapons (say a +1 longsword or a wand of magic missiles) have to be created on an "as needed" basis and added to the item database. Again, not hard to do by any stretch of the imagination ... but still something that seems awfully non-utilitarian in what is supposed to be a software utility.
I don't want to bash the makers of the software too much ... this is a complex project they've taken on, and a lot of precious budget and effort was wasted early on in a misguided attempt to make some sort of Neverwinter Nights-ish product instead of just a good DM tool, which is what people actually wanted. But it must be said, that E-Tools is only half-baked. I paid $30, and at the end of the day, am ending up doing a lot of the same work I'd have to do on paper with the hardcover books I already own.
It's fixable; but that it needs to be fixed, is disappointing at best.
IN ACTUAL USE...
The boss villain in my current D&D adventure, a variant version the "dragonpriest" encounter from Sunless Citadel, encountered again by the heroes two years later, is a cleric/sorcerer who is obsessed with turning himself into a red dragon, and so far has only been partially successful. To create him, I used the Dragonkin creature from _Monsters of Faerun_ as a base and added sorcerer and cleric character levels.[1] This was a fairly complex process on paper, because I had to "reverse engineer" what all his base saving throws were, his base attack bonus, etc., so I'd know what the baseline was after making changes in his stats. (I did all this with notebook paper and a calculator, a month ago.)
Last night, I decided as an experiment to recreate him in E-Tools. Since "Dragonkin" aren't in the Monster Manual, I first had to enter the race into the database using the race editor. It took me a few tries because I kept making "first timer" mistakes (wrong size class the first time, wrong number of hit dice the second time, etc., and you can't edit that first step if you make a mistake), but overall was actually quite easy. The hardest part was remembering all the fiddly little bits of monster creation, such as the fact that monsters get bonus weapon proficiencies based on what they're listed as carrying.
I am pleased to report that once the dragonkin race was entered correctly, the rest was easy. I had to build his flaming mace as well as all of his various potions and scrolls, but it went fast. The whole process, from start to finish, took about an hour ... which is much faster than it went on paper. The results are almost identical, except that for some reason, E-Tools figured all of his saving throws as 1 point less than I calculated them to be. I don't know if it's my mistake, or the software's (there are a few known bugs that are due to be fixed by a patch in the near future).
So, it looks like the software will actually be useful, since I use a lot of monsters with character levels, and 9 times out of 10, I just use the core classes for that anyway.[2] In the rare cases where I want a strange class (such as the orc in an earlier adventure who used the Sovereign Stone "archer" class), I can either tweak the stats and create custom feats within the software to get a close approximation, or just resort to pencil and paper (how quaint!).
So, it's cool. Not perfect, but cool.
-The Gneech
[1] Why didn't I just apply the "half dragon" template from the Monster Manual to a human sorcerer/cleric, you ask? Umm ... 'cause I didn't think of it. Although after the fact, I like the dragonkin result better because dragonkin don't have a breath weapon, while half-dragons do. Given the nature of this character, I just like the idea of him roaring in frustration over the fact that he can't breathe fire, and has to use potions to compensate.
[2] Is a mind flayer with five levels of "psion" really any scarier than a mind flayer with five levels of sorcerer? Especially when I can create custom spells that simulate psionic abilities...
Well, I brought it home and have been playing with it; I'm withholding full judgement until I get into it more, but I have found some problems right off the bat.
* Templates Not Supported. You can make characters of any monster type -- unless it is a templated monster. So no vampires, no ghosts, no liches, no weres. Say WHAT?
* No Non-Standard Classes. All core PC and NPC classes as well as DMG Prestige Classes are in there. And that's it. One of my players' "Mystic" Prestige Class character (created by Monte Cook and published in Dragon magazine) cannot be written up using E-Tools. My other player's "Monte Cook Alternate Ranger" character is similarly SOL. There is no class editor.
* The Help System Doesn't, And There's No Manual. Jump right into the deep end of the pool, kiddies, 'cause there's no other way to learn to use it.
AFTER A DAY OF PLAYING WITH IT...
Regarding templates: This is workaroundable, by creating a new monster race for the templated creature. For example, since the program doesn't support the Vampire template, if you want to create a human vampire, you create a new monster race called "Human Vampire" using the rules in the Monster Manual. Not hard, but kind of a pain in the tuckus, given that the point of buying the software was to have that kind of thing automated.
I did some poking around the Fluid and D&D sites, and I found out some interesting things. It is possible (though non-trivial) to create custom classes using Microsoft Access; unfortunately, the copy of Access I have is from 1997 or so, and can't open the files. There are a couple of fan projects underway to create a Class Editor. Once one of those is available, that will take care of most of my big complaints.
The main interesting thing I have found, however, is the sheer number of odd workarounds that E-Tools is requiring. All of the various types of dragons are only given stats for the "Adult" category, for instance ... if you want to create Hatchling, Young, Mature, Old, or Ancient dragons, you have to create them as a new race.
Simple magic weapons (say a +1 longsword or a wand of magic missiles) have to be created on an "as needed" basis and added to the item database. Again, not hard to do by any stretch of the imagination ... but still something that seems awfully non-utilitarian in what is supposed to be a software utility.
I don't want to bash the makers of the software too much ... this is a complex project they've taken on, and a lot of precious budget and effort was wasted early on in a misguided attempt to make some sort of Neverwinter Nights-ish product instead of just a good DM tool, which is what people actually wanted. But it must be said, that E-Tools is only half-baked. I paid $30, and at the end of the day, am ending up doing a lot of the same work I'd have to do on paper with the hardcover books I already own.
It's fixable; but that it needs to be fixed, is disappointing at best.
IN ACTUAL USE...
The boss villain in my current D&D adventure, a variant version the "dragonpriest" encounter from Sunless Citadel, encountered again by the heroes two years later, is a cleric/sorcerer who is obsessed with turning himself into a red dragon, and so far has only been partially successful. To create him, I used the Dragonkin creature from _Monsters of Faerun_ as a base and added sorcerer and cleric character levels.[1] This was a fairly complex process on paper, because I had to "reverse engineer" what all his base saving throws were, his base attack bonus, etc., so I'd know what the baseline was after making changes in his stats. (I did all this with notebook paper and a calculator, a month ago.)
Last night, I decided as an experiment to recreate him in E-Tools. Since "Dragonkin" aren't in the Monster Manual, I first had to enter the race into the database using the race editor. It took me a few tries because I kept making "first timer" mistakes (wrong size class the first time, wrong number of hit dice the second time, etc., and you can't edit that first step if you make a mistake), but overall was actually quite easy. The hardest part was remembering all the fiddly little bits of monster creation, such as the fact that monsters get bonus weapon proficiencies based on what they're listed as carrying.
I am pleased to report that once the dragonkin race was entered correctly, the rest was easy. I had to build his flaming mace as well as all of his various potions and scrolls, but it went fast. The whole process, from start to finish, took about an hour ... which is much faster than it went on paper. The results are almost identical, except that for some reason, E-Tools figured all of his saving throws as 1 point less than I calculated them to be. I don't know if it's my mistake, or the software's (there are a few known bugs that are due to be fixed by a patch in the near future).
So, it looks like the software will actually be useful, since I use a lot of monsters with character levels, and 9 times out of 10, I just use the core classes for that anyway.[2] In the rare cases where I want a strange class (such as the orc in an earlier adventure who used the Sovereign Stone "archer" class), I can either tweak the stats and create custom feats within the software to get a close approximation, or just resort to pencil and paper (how quaint!).
So, it's cool. Not perfect, but cool.
-The Gneech
[1] Why didn't I just apply the "half dragon" template from the Monster Manual to a human sorcerer/cleric, you ask? Umm ... 'cause I didn't think of it. Although after the fact, I like the dragonkin result better because dragonkin don't have a breath weapon, while half-dragons do. Given the nature of this character, I just like the idea of him roaring in frustration over the fact that he can't breathe fire, and has to use potions to compensate.
[2] Is a mind flayer with five levels of "psion" really any scarier than a mind flayer with five levels of sorcerer? Especially when I can create custom spells that simulate psionic abilities...
Okay...I'll go ahead and open myself to ridicule by defending eTools. I will say that I consider myself a typical gamer, but I do own and have a basic understanding of Access (XP version), so I may have a leg up on the "average gamer" when it comes to using this product. Despite that, I think that even people who do not have that kind of knowledge can get a lot out of eTools, for several reasons. Here goes (we'll start with the cons):
Cons:
1. Price. eTools sells for somewhere between $30 and $60 depending on how much retailers can get for it. This broad range of prices makes determining its value to you a bit difficult. Given all the hype and then the backlash, I think consumers really needed a more guide price to go by when making their decisions. I know MSRP may not be all that common for software, but it is for D&D products, so it wouldn't have been that difficult to come up with one.
2. Capability. eTools does not provide support for custom classes, user-defined prestige classes, or monster templates. The loss of these three aspects does severly limit the functionality of the software. However, Fluid is listening and will probably implement these functions--assuming they don't end up trashing the project altogether.
3. Bugs. Yes, there are a lot of bugs. Some of these bugs seem ridiculous, given the length of time (from the first discussions of MT all those years ago) it's taken to release the software. But once you've seen the Access database, you realize the complexity of this software. Just the brief discussion on the Fluid message boards of how to handle the attack bonuses for the Xill (from the MM) gives a perfect example of how much work has gone into making sure everything comes together in accordance with even the most obscure rules. It has also been pointed out that the Beta test, organized by Wizards, not Fluid, consisted of an insufficient number of people to locate enough of the bugs before the product hit the market. Given the bizarre track record of the MT-to-ET evolution, I'm not surprised to see so many bugs.
Pros:
1. Online Manual. Contrary to others' complaints, I think the online manual is quite helpful. The manual included in the Help files contains overviews of all the basic functions of the software. As long as you're staying within the limits of unedited eTools usage, you can find instructions on how to do everything possible in the program. What's more, the manual contains tons of text from the actual Core Rules books, which makes easy referencing for those skills, spells, or other material you want to add to your latest creation.
2. Support. Fluid's help and support pages are fantastic. Although they are currently offline, the message boards at Fluid's website have been providing an excellent source of information, where users can ask questions that are answered by Fluid staff members, Eric and Scott. These guys are first rate. They genuinely love gaming and want to improve on what they've started with eTools. Not only that, but they're soliciting input from eTools users to find out what we want most.
3. Layout. Unlike some of its competitors (in terms of ET being an electronic character creator), eTools' layout and user interface is efficient and pretty much intuitive. Once you've figured out the key 'secret' of the software--that the race editor is the core of the program--you can create just about any creature you can imagine and then use it as either a monster or character in accordance with Third Edition D&D rules. The creation of a race is a step-by-step process that uses clear, concise screens, moving from one to another by following a simple "directory tree" type of format. The lack of mouse-over "tooltips" for the buttons is a bit frustrating, but it doesn't take more than a few clicks to figure out which button opens what.
Unarguably, the eTools software needs some work. It has some limitations that drastically reduce its attractiveness to most users. However, at its core, eTools is a well thought out package that fulfills its stated function admirably. As a Character and Monster Generator for Core Rules characters and monsters, eTools is fantastic. Given the complexity of the 3rd Edition Rules, software like this is a must when creating those special monsters and villains for your players to battle. Added to the fact that Fluid is dedicated to improving and (where possible) expanding their product, the positives of eTools outweigh the negatives, in my opinion. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. While it probably doesn't make sense to recommend that someone buy a product because of what it might eventually become, I am enjoying the use of eTools and certainly don't consider it a waste of my hard-earned cash.
Cons:
1. Price. eTools sells for somewhere between $30 and $60 depending on how much retailers can get for it. This broad range of prices makes determining its value to you a bit difficult. Given all the hype and then the backlash, I think consumers really needed a more guide price to go by when making their decisions. I know MSRP may not be all that common for software, but it is for D&D products, so it wouldn't have been that difficult to come up with one.
2. Capability. eTools does not provide support for custom classes, user-defined prestige classes, or monster templates. The loss of these three aspects does severly limit the functionality of the software. However, Fluid is listening and will probably implement these functions--assuming they don't end up trashing the project altogether.
3. Bugs. Yes, there are a lot of bugs. Some of these bugs seem ridiculous, given the length of time (from the first discussions of MT all those years ago) it's taken to release the software. But once you've seen the Access database, you realize the complexity of this software. Just the brief discussion on the Fluid message boards of how to handle the attack bonuses for the Xill (from the MM) gives a perfect example of how much work has gone into making sure everything comes together in accordance with even the most obscure rules. It has also been pointed out that the Beta test, organized by Wizards, not Fluid, consisted of an insufficient number of people to locate enough of the bugs before the product hit the market. Given the bizarre track record of the MT-to-ET evolution, I'm not surprised to see so many bugs.
Pros:
1. Online Manual. Contrary to others' complaints, I think the online manual is quite helpful. The manual included in the Help files contains overviews of all the basic functions of the software. As long as you're staying within the limits of unedited eTools usage, you can find instructions on how to do everything possible in the program. What's more, the manual contains tons of text from the actual Core Rules books, which makes easy referencing for those skills, spells, or other material you want to add to your latest creation.
2. Support. Fluid's help and support pages are fantastic. Although they are currently offline, the message boards at Fluid's website have been providing an excellent source of information, where users can ask questions that are answered by Fluid staff members, Eric and Scott. These guys are first rate. They genuinely love gaming and want to improve on what they've started with eTools. Not only that, but they're soliciting input from eTools users to find out what we want most.
3. Layout. Unlike some of its competitors (in terms of ET being an electronic character creator), eTools' layout and user interface is efficient and pretty much intuitive. Once you've figured out the key 'secret' of the software--that the race editor is the core of the program--you can create just about any creature you can imagine and then use it as either a monster or character in accordance with Third Edition D&D rules. The creation of a race is a step-by-step process that uses clear, concise screens, moving from one to another by following a simple "directory tree" type of format. The lack of mouse-over "tooltips" for the buttons is a bit frustrating, but it doesn't take more than a few clicks to figure out which button opens what.
Unarguably, the eTools software needs some work. It has some limitations that drastically reduce its attractiveness to most users. However, at its core, eTools is a well thought out package that fulfills its stated function admirably. As a Character and Monster Generator for Core Rules characters and monsters, eTools is fantastic. Given the complexity of the 3rd Edition Rules, software like this is a must when creating those special monsters and villains for your players to battle. Added to the fact that Fluid is dedicated to improving and (where possible) expanding their product, the positives of eTools outweigh the negatives, in my opinion. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. While it probably doesn't make sense to recommend that someone buy a product because of what it might eventually become, I am enjoying the use of eTools and certainly don't consider it a waste of my hard-earned cash.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
I've been using e-Tools for about a week now. I've used it to create characters from scratch, convert existing characters, add new races, create magic items from scratch, randomly generate treasures for my encounters, add spells (from the WOTC Web Spellbook) and create a monster from scratch. I used e-Tools at the table during a recent DM session in my ongoing Forgotten Realms campaign. The program has some strengths and some weaknesses, and may not be for everyone. On the whole, I find it a positive addition to my DnD tool set.
The application is a bit quirky. One aspect of good GUI design is that the GUI helps the user accomplish basic or expected tasks, or conversely walks people through complex concepts. Fluid missed the boat on both accounts, in that the simple GUI only provides access to the applications various functions, but does nothing to help a new user. Tooltips are just about de rigeur in modern interface design, and their lack in e-Tools is an amazing oversight. The help file, while an excellent resource on the core books, does not provide much support in learning how to use the program. For example, the overview of the Table Editor claims that it can be used to generate weather. How? It would have been really helpful if Fluid had included a walkthrough that shows one how to create a weather generation table.
Much has already been said on the messageboards about the inability to create new prestige classes, so I won't add to that discussion. I am more concerned about the lack of monster templates. Werewolves are a staple monster, but they cannot be created in e-Tools (at least not in the production version.) The templates which were included in the Monster Manual should have been included in the program, perhaps as untemplated races, until Fluid figures out how to add templates to its monster/character creation engine.
A minor nit is the colors. I understand it is possible to change the color scheme. I've not done this yet, but given the number of programs out that that use skins, it seems like 'skinning' should have been included, if for no other reason than to remove the burden of picking the colors from the application designers and programmers.
The application is fairly buggy, and it has crashed on me several times. It is reasonably well-behaved in that a crash has yet to adversely impact my system. I simply have to restart e-Tools to get back to work.
On the other hand, what the program does, it does very well. It is reasonable fast, especially compared to Java-based applications like PCGen. Since you can check the stats at any time during character creation, it is fairly transparent what your different decisions are having on the character's stats. I really like the fact that one can select from a number of included graphics to include on the portrait sheet. While to my personal taste the included PC portraits are not attractive, the fact that one can include whatever one like's as a PC portrait is a strength.
My bottom line is that I like e-Tools, and I will continue to use it. I hope Fluid and WOTC give e-Tools all the support it needs. Is it the last word in 3rd Edition DnD software support? No. Will it ever be? Perhaps not, but it is a capable character/NPC/encounter/treasure generator, and with DND community support from such capable individuals like Eric Noah, it is getting better every day.
The application is a bit quirky. One aspect of good GUI design is that the GUI helps the user accomplish basic or expected tasks, or conversely walks people through complex concepts. Fluid missed the boat on both accounts, in that the simple GUI only provides access to the applications various functions, but does nothing to help a new user. Tooltips are just about de rigeur in modern interface design, and their lack in e-Tools is an amazing oversight. The help file, while an excellent resource on the core books, does not provide much support in learning how to use the program. For example, the overview of the Table Editor claims that it can be used to generate weather. How? It would have been really helpful if Fluid had included a walkthrough that shows one how to create a weather generation table.
Much has already been said on the messageboards about the inability to create new prestige classes, so I won't add to that discussion. I am more concerned about the lack of monster templates. Werewolves are a staple monster, but they cannot be created in e-Tools (at least not in the production version.) The templates which were included in the Monster Manual should have been included in the program, perhaps as untemplated races, until Fluid figures out how to add templates to its monster/character creation engine.
A minor nit is the colors. I understand it is possible to change the color scheme. I've not done this yet, but given the number of programs out that that use skins, it seems like 'skinning' should have been included, if for no other reason than to remove the burden of picking the colors from the application designers and programmers.
The application is fairly buggy, and it has crashed on me several times. It is reasonably well-behaved in that a crash has yet to adversely impact my system. I simply have to restart e-Tools to get back to work.
On the other hand, what the program does, it does very well. It is reasonable fast, especially compared to Java-based applications like PCGen. Since you can check the stats at any time during character creation, it is fairly transparent what your different decisions are having on the character's stats. I really like the fact that one can select from a number of included graphics to include on the portrait sheet. While to my personal taste the included PC portraits are not attractive, the fact that one can include whatever one like's as a PC portrait is a strength.
My bottom line is that I like e-Tools, and I will continue to use it. I hope Fluid and WOTC give e-Tools all the support it needs. Is it the last word in 3rd Edition DnD software support? No. Will it ever be? Perhaps not, but it is a capable character/NPC/encounter/treasure generator, and with DND community support from such capable individuals like Eric Noah, it is getting better every day.
Exploring e-Tools is an adventure in of itself. At first, you think "I'm not sure this is going to be useful to me". Then as you work with it, and find out that "Whoa! It takes care of this! And that!", you start finding that it's extremely useful. I was also strangely surprised to find that the component that I've used for actual play the most is the treasure generator/editor.
I was writing the "next section" of the complex I was working on for the upcoming play session, I didn't care what the treasure was, and it was all stuffed in one location. So I hopped in the treasure generator, typed in the EL of the first encoutner, checked the append box, and voila! A list of treasure randomly generated. Then, I do the rest of the encounters, and get a nice random list. But of course, I wasn't satisfied with the list (I've never been happy with most random lists). So I clicked on the "jump to treasure editor" button, and removed some bits, added a "Heward's Haversack" which I particularly wanted, changed the money a bit...and then went to "stat block" and cut and pasted the results into my MS-Word document. I could have saved to file, but I didn't see the need.
Then gave the character editor a real try (having previously just "messed around" in it). I sat down to enter my 9th level dwarven cleric in it. It was frighteningly easy. At one point, I thought I was going to run into trouble, I had some loot he carries that definitely wasn't in the books (a statue he made, for example). However, it took me all of a minute to hop over to the house rules editor, enter the items, and then hop back to the character editor and add the equipment (I've seen comments that you need to leave e-tools after making changes. That's not strictly true...many things "update" if you move away from the list and back). Same routine when I got to the spells...I use a few spells from Defenders of the Faith, it was not difficult at all to add those spells on the fly, as it were. In the end, I got everything entered, spells, statues, etc...in just 40 minutes.
Printing proved to be painful for me. As it turns out, the inkjet printer I was using wouldn't set the margins small enough (because of it's required "grip" space) for the character sheet that comes with the product. I could almost get everything to fit correctly on a page, but the last line of the box for languages ended up on it's own page.
. At some point, I'll sit down and design my own character sheet (I rarely like default formats anyway, so the ability the design my own is probably more important than the default one printing corrrectly on my printer!)
The tool that I feel isn't getting the attention it deserves is the "table editor". Admittedly, it wasn't as immediately intuitive how to use, but once I figured out what to do, being able to make my own "random tables" and then go to the generator and immediately use those tables was very useful!
The Creature/Race/Monster editing is very easy to use...but, there are definitely some things there I don't like: No way to change the "base type", "subtype", and hit dice after you start editing is probably my biggest peeve right now. My other peeve is the lack of "detail" with some of the special abilites. I'd like to see instead of just Damage Reduction (Ex), the whole info: Damage Reduction (15/+1) (Ex), and the like. The lack of detail puts the race/monster editor in the useful, but not all the way there category.
Unfortunately, as we all were informed FROM DAY ONE, e-Tools contains only the information from the Core Books. To be honest, I can't see a reason to complain about it, though...it takes alot of people-hours to enter data, double-check that it's correct, deal with weirdnesses...trust me on this one. When extending the tool I currently (or used to use, now that e-tools is here), nothing was more painful than adding some of the class-books, things from dragon magazines, etc. You have to narrow your scope somehow, and drawing a line at the Core Books to start with is a good place to do so.
I've seen many complaints about it not doing X, or not including Y, and so on. Many of those complaints appear to be user error rather than actual problems with the program. Either the user doesn't actually understand the D&D rules or they've failed to realize how the program works.
Unfortunately, one of the complaints is a result of what I think was the "wrong way" to make the interface: User entry of the "abilities". Personally, I'd like the interface to simply allow me to enter the actual score I have. Instead, it operates on a "base of 8 plus a change" method, which has confused alot of people.
On the flipside, people are griping alot about "a basic item like a +1 longsword isn't in there! Why do I have to create it first?" First of all, a +1 item isn't "basic". It may seem simple to you (although it shouldn't...but that's a entirely different issue!
, but it's not simple technically. The program have a few options here. The first, they could sit down and enter every weapon, and then add every weapon again with +1, and every weapon with +2...heck, you could even have it do that automatically. The result would be blooming ridiculous, however. You'd end up with a weapon list that was incredibly long. Perhaps instead we could have a "prompted" input for the pluses? Not a bad idea...except what do you do about special abilities (flaming, shock burst, etc.) as well? Darnit! I want my +3 flaming throwing daggers! So you add yet another prompt (I'm assuming you don't want every variation of that as well on the main list... for special abilites. And we've not even gotten to "intelligent" or "cursed" items. How many prompts do we add? Or how many list items do we add? (Anyone have a calculator handy? It'd be interesting to work out how many different combinations there really are! Pluses alone it's N*5 (N=number of weapons)).
What they did instead makes sense. Not necessarily the way I would have done it, but it works, it covers the basis, and if you want to make a +3 flaming vorpal intelligent cursed item...you can. You can even do it with weapons that you normally wouldn't think anyone would want, but the possibility is there...and eventually, someone will want it, probably me, since I like to break archetypes by playing characters that like to use atypical weapons, or choose unusual spell sets, etc.
There /are/ bugs, there /are/ some things that should be there that aren't. Most of them, though are minor, and what I would expect from a product that has to deal with as much detail as this one does. Stop and think about it...sure, monster #346's skill checks are wrong by +4, because someone forgot to add the racial bonus, but come on, when you consider how many tiny details make up those skills, you should regard it as a miracle that all the data is as close as it is now! (the voice of painful experience again)
Overall, I think it's a great product...has a huge amount of potential uses, and for $29.99, is probably more reasonably priced pieces of software. I was expecting to have to pay $50, and was pleased to have gotten it for $30.
I was writing the "next section" of the complex I was working on for the upcoming play session, I didn't care what the treasure was, and it was all stuffed in one location. So I hopped in the treasure generator, typed in the EL of the first encoutner, checked the append box, and voila! A list of treasure randomly generated. Then, I do the rest of the encounters, and get a nice random list. But of course, I wasn't satisfied with the list (I've never been happy with most random lists). So I clicked on the "jump to treasure editor" button, and removed some bits, added a "Heward's Haversack" which I particularly wanted, changed the money a bit...and then went to "stat block" and cut and pasted the results into my MS-Word document. I could have saved to file, but I didn't see the need.
Then gave the character editor a real try (having previously just "messed around" in it). I sat down to enter my 9th level dwarven cleric in it. It was frighteningly easy. At one point, I thought I was going to run into trouble, I had some loot he carries that definitely wasn't in the books (a statue he made, for example). However, it took me all of a minute to hop over to the house rules editor, enter the items, and then hop back to the character editor and add the equipment (I've seen comments that you need to leave e-tools after making changes. That's not strictly true...many things "update" if you move away from the list and back). Same routine when I got to the spells...I use a few spells from Defenders of the Faith, it was not difficult at all to add those spells on the fly, as it were. In the end, I got everything entered, spells, statues, etc...in just 40 minutes.
Printing proved to be painful for me. As it turns out, the inkjet printer I was using wouldn't set the margins small enough (because of it's required "grip" space) for the character sheet that comes with the product. I could almost get everything to fit correctly on a page, but the last line of the box for languages ended up on it's own page.
. At some point, I'll sit down and design my own character sheet (I rarely like default formats anyway, so the ability the design my own is probably more important than the default one printing corrrectly on my printer!)The tool that I feel isn't getting the attention it deserves is the "table editor". Admittedly, it wasn't as immediately intuitive how to use, but once I figured out what to do, being able to make my own "random tables" and then go to the generator and immediately use those tables was very useful!
The Creature/Race/Monster editing is very easy to use...but, there are definitely some things there I don't like: No way to change the "base type", "subtype", and hit dice after you start editing is probably my biggest peeve right now. My other peeve is the lack of "detail" with some of the special abilites. I'd like to see instead of just Damage Reduction (Ex), the whole info: Damage Reduction (15/+1) (Ex), and the like. The lack of detail puts the race/monster editor in the useful, but not all the way there category.
Unfortunately, as we all were informed FROM DAY ONE, e-Tools contains only the information from the Core Books. To be honest, I can't see a reason to complain about it, though...it takes alot of people-hours to enter data, double-check that it's correct, deal with weirdnesses...trust me on this one. When extending the tool I currently (or used to use, now that e-tools is here), nothing was more painful than adding some of the class-books, things from dragon magazines, etc. You have to narrow your scope somehow, and drawing a line at the Core Books to start with is a good place to do so.
I've seen many complaints about it not doing X, or not including Y, and so on. Many of those complaints appear to be user error rather than actual problems with the program. Either the user doesn't actually understand the D&D rules or they've failed to realize how the program works.
Unfortunately, one of the complaints is a result of what I think was the "wrong way" to make the interface: User entry of the "abilities". Personally, I'd like the interface to simply allow me to enter the actual score I have. Instead, it operates on a "base of 8 plus a change" method, which has confused alot of people.
On the flipside, people are griping alot about "a basic item like a +1 longsword isn't in there! Why do I have to create it first?" First of all, a +1 item isn't "basic". It may seem simple to you (although it shouldn't...but that's a entirely different issue!
, but it's not simple technically. The program have a few options here. The first, they could sit down and enter every weapon, and then add every weapon again with +1, and every weapon with +2...heck, you could even have it do that automatically. The result would be blooming ridiculous, however. You'd end up with a weapon list that was incredibly long. Perhaps instead we could have a "prompted" input for the pluses? Not a bad idea...except what do you do about special abilities (flaming, shock burst, etc.) as well? Darnit! I want my +3 flaming throwing daggers! So you add yet another prompt (I'm assuming you don't want every variation of that as well on the main list... for special abilites. And we've not even gotten to "intelligent" or "cursed" items. How many prompts do we add? Or how many list items do we add? (Anyone have a calculator handy? It'd be interesting to work out how many different combinations there really are! Pluses alone it's N*5 (N=number of weapons)). What they did instead makes sense. Not necessarily the way I would have done it, but it works, it covers the basis, and if you want to make a +3 flaming vorpal intelligent cursed item...you can. You can even do it with weapons that you normally wouldn't think anyone would want, but the possibility is there...and eventually, someone will want it, probably me, since I like to break archetypes by playing characters that like to use atypical weapons, or choose unusual spell sets, etc.
There /are/ bugs, there /are/ some things that should be there that aren't. Most of them, though are minor, and what I would expect from a product that has to deal with as much detail as this one does. Stop and think about it...sure, monster #346's skill checks are wrong by +4, because someone forgot to add the racial bonus, but come on, when you consider how many tiny details make up those skills, you should regard it as a miracle that all the data is as close as it is now! (the voice of painful experience again)
Overall, I think it's a great product...has a huge amount of potential uses, and for $29.99, is probably more reasonably priced pieces of software. I was expecting to have to pay $50, and was pleased to have gotten it for $30.
The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
E-Tools is the "trimmed-down" version of Master Tools, a demo of which was included on a CD with the Player's Handbook. It has been subjected to some rather savage reviews, so let's see if it deserves such.
First Impressions: E-Tools' list of "cut features" almost seems to equal its list of "included features." That's never a good thing when trying to deliver to your customers. The installation went smoothly (a plus) but the actual program runs horribly slowly (granted, I run it on a 300 MHz box, but as this is not calling any graphical routines it should move *much* faster than it does). I opened the program up and immediately tried mucking around with stuff. The online documentation saves trees (Which I like) but is somewhat sparse (which I didn't). As a tech-savvy user, I figured most stuff out really quickly, but it bothered me that many things were rather unintuitive.
Function Breakdown:
1.) Character Generator - I waited two years for THIS?!? This is no great upgrade over the Demo software that came with my Player's Handbook two years ago. The only added functionality is the ability to choose the DMG's NPC classes and Prestige Classes (a total of 10 new classes) and the ability to choose any race from the core books (including the MM). What a disappointment. Yes, I knew that this was in the specs for E-Tools, and that it had been considerably limited, but this is ridiculous. The character sheets are now printed to HTML (a plus) rather than straight to the printer - a nice touch - but there is no compelling reason to recommend this portion of the product over the Character Generator Demo CD to a player unless he has a character with levels in one of the DMG's prestige classes (DMs may find it handy).
2.) Monster Generator - This allows you to create and advance Monsters from the monster manual (advance them by Hit Dice). Since monsters obey well-documented rules during advancement (check the first 10 pages or so of the Monster Manual) this is something of a nice time-saver for DMs who don't want to do the work themselves. But again, that's it. I myself was able to create a spreadsheet to do this for me in about an hour after I got my hands on the Monster Manual two years ago. I didn't get all of the math exactly right, but it was darn close. It's not hard to program advancement routines. The only difference between this and my spreadsheet is that it preloads your monster's base stats rather than requiring you to enter them yourself. Zero points for that (see below under the "database" entry). This is the type of product that SHOULD have been included with the Monster Manual, just as the Character Generator Demo was with the Player's Handbook. I have seen other free stuff out there to help you with monster advancement, too. Oh, and did I mention the glaring omission of templates? There are no templates and you do not have the ability to add a template to a creature within the confines of E-Tools. That in and of itself is a HUGE black mark against a commercial product.
3.) Treasure Generator - I have to compare this to Jamis Buck's generators. Jamis' are more customizable and generate stuff with just as much precision. And they are free. And they are almost two years old. This also gets a resounding, "what in the heck took so long?" from me. This SHOULD have been included with the DMG on a CD, just as the Character Generator Demo came with the Player's Handbook. Ugh.
4.) Table Generator - This is, in my mind, the biggest disappointment of the product, in that it offers so many possibilities and delivers so little. This is where you can essentially program your own tables into the program for anything you can imagine. You can use this to create tables of Monsters, Characters, Treasures, other tables, or text. Yet no sample or default tables (such as the ubiquitous Wandering Monster tables) are included. The interface is awkward at best and it takes a horribly long time to set up a table. In theory, this is the portion of the program that allows you to spontaneously generate adventures and campaigns. In reality, it winds up falling flat on its face - it would take you five tiems as long to set up the necessary tables to do this as it would to just do it by hand - even using E-Tools' monster and treasure generators. I can't stress how bad it is that they expect you to build from the ground up. I understand that every campaign is different, but give us the Greyhawk defaults and let us play around and go from there. Yuk.
5.) Random Character Generator - This would have been a great addition and even takes the step of linking to the Character Editor after you're done, importing the randomly-generated character. Then it falls flat on its face by not allowing you do edit its randomly-generated choices. Stupid. This makes it no more useful than Jamis Buck's excellent generators. Less so, in some respects - at least with Jamis' generators you can configure the output.
6.) Monster Creator - Bulky and awkward, but a nice touch for those who don't want to do the math of creature creation. But again, I had a spreadsheet to do this for me (it wasn't quite right, but I wasn't being paid to get it right) two years ago. This portion of the product is nice, but it is YEARS too late. You still can't create templates, either, to my great frustration.
7.) Treasure Creator - I guess this saves you time in that you don't have to punch through the DMG and then type stuff into your word processor. Instead you click a bunch of options for your stuff and then wait for five minutes while it formats it for you. Again, a resounding cry of USELESS rings through my brain.
8.) Table Creator - As discussed in #4 above, this is a clunky, ill-documented, and generally hard to use. It holds great potential but the promise is lost in horrific execution.
There are a few other goodies in here as well - such as graphics for representing mosnters and characters - but they add little to the program. The one truly useful item is the Access Database with all the lovely goodies inside it - but that only helps people who already HAVE Microsoft Access (I doubt anyone else wants to shell out $300 to buy it). However, the inclusion of an Access Database after two years of waiting gets zero positive points. Let me tell you what it represents. It represents a weeks' worth of data entry by a motivated data entry temp who gets paid about $10 an hour (double that amount of time for an unmotivated temp). To say it is unimpressive is a horrible understatement. It's well-built and great for those who have Access, but let's be honest - for someone who knows what they're doing (like a software company) it should take about a day to develop and two weeks to fill with data. What the heck were they doing for the next 100 weeks? Once you have that implemented, I can't think that writing a front-end program that does simple mathematical calculations is that hard.
PRESENTATION: Simple and streamlined - it's just a CD in a sleeve on the shelf of the local store. Good in that it saves trees, bad in that it gives you NO idea what you are - or aren't - getting. On your computer, it's rather ugly - the main screen looks like a splash screen and the icons are less than intuitive (to say the least).
Conclusion: I waited two years and spent $30 for THIS?!? I knew what I was getting in terms of functionality, but I expected it to be better-developed given the pricetag and the amount of development time. I am not unconvinced that I could not have done better with an Access-driven interface. The database is a nice touch, but I could have pooled my $30 with a couple friends and gotten one by hiring a data entry temp and/or doing it myself. It's slow, poorly executed, lacking some very important functionality, and lacking in examples for the portions where it could really shine. I can't stress my disappointment with this product given the development time and cost - there are numerous free products out there that have been out for a year or more now that do everything E-Tools does, and do it better. Ugh. "Appalling" is not nearly a strong enough term for my reaction to this product. "Gosh-awful" and "a product that my goldfish will find just as useful as I will" come to mind. This product has been savaged in reviews and it fully deserves it. Yes, it is a useful tool. But it is not nearly as useful as other, free tools that have been around much longer. Blech. I find nothing about this product that would cause me to recommend it at its price. I would only recommend it if you can find it in a bargain bin for $5. Maybe not even then. I had high hopes for this product and it fell flat on its face. WotC's sudden unfriendliness to competitors also bothers me (it looks like they're trying to create an E-Tools monopoly not by creating a good - or even passable - product, but by litigating the heck out of everyone else), but that's another rant entirely.
--The Sigil
August 20, 2002
First Impressions: E-Tools' list of "cut features" almost seems to equal its list of "included features." That's never a good thing when trying to deliver to your customers. The installation went smoothly (a plus) but the actual program runs horribly slowly (granted, I run it on a 300 MHz box, but as this is not calling any graphical routines it should move *much* faster than it does). I opened the program up and immediately tried mucking around with stuff. The online documentation saves trees (Which I like) but is somewhat sparse (which I didn't). As a tech-savvy user, I figured most stuff out really quickly, but it bothered me that many things were rather unintuitive.
Function Breakdown:
1.) Character Generator - I waited two years for THIS?!? This is no great upgrade over the Demo software that came with my Player's Handbook two years ago. The only added functionality is the ability to choose the DMG's NPC classes and Prestige Classes (a total of 10 new classes) and the ability to choose any race from the core books (including the MM). What a disappointment. Yes, I knew that this was in the specs for E-Tools, and that it had been considerably limited, but this is ridiculous. The character sheets are now printed to HTML (a plus) rather than straight to the printer - a nice touch - but there is no compelling reason to recommend this portion of the product over the Character Generator Demo CD to a player unless he has a character with levels in one of the DMG's prestige classes (DMs may find it handy).
2.) Monster Generator - This allows you to create and advance Monsters from the monster manual (advance them by Hit Dice). Since monsters obey well-documented rules during advancement (check the first 10 pages or so of the Monster Manual) this is something of a nice time-saver for DMs who don't want to do the work themselves. But again, that's it. I myself was able to create a spreadsheet to do this for me in about an hour after I got my hands on the Monster Manual two years ago. I didn't get all of the math exactly right, but it was darn close. It's not hard to program advancement routines. The only difference between this and my spreadsheet is that it preloads your monster's base stats rather than requiring you to enter them yourself. Zero points for that (see below under the "database" entry). This is the type of product that SHOULD have been included with the Monster Manual, just as the Character Generator Demo was with the Player's Handbook. I have seen other free stuff out there to help you with monster advancement, too. Oh, and did I mention the glaring omission of templates? There are no templates and you do not have the ability to add a template to a creature within the confines of E-Tools. That in and of itself is a HUGE black mark against a commercial product.
3.) Treasure Generator - I have to compare this to Jamis Buck's generators. Jamis' are more customizable and generate stuff with just as much precision. And they are free. And they are almost two years old. This also gets a resounding, "what in the heck took so long?" from me. This SHOULD have been included with the DMG on a CD, just as the Character Generator Demo came with the Player's Handbook. Ugh.
4.) Table Generator - This is, in my mind, the biggest disappointment of the product, in that it offers so many possibilities and delivers so little. This is where you can essentially program your own tables into the program for anything you can imagine. You can use this to create tables of Monsters, Characters, Treasures, other tables, or text. Yet no sample or default tables (such as the ubiquitous Wandering Monster tables) are included. The interface is awkward at best and it takes a horribly long time to set up a table. In theory, this is the portion of the program that allows you to spontaneously generate adventures and campaigns. In reality, it winds up falling flat on its face - it would take you five tiems as long to set up the necessary tables to do this as it would to just do it by hand - even using E-Tools' monster and treasure generators. I can't stress how bad it is that they expect you to build from the ground up. I understand that every campaign is different, but give us the Greyhawk defaults and let us play around and go from there. Yuk.
5.) Random Character Generator - This would have been a great addition and even takes the step of linking to the Character Editor after you're done, importing the randomly-generated character. Then it falls flat on its face by not allowing you do edit its randomly-generated choices. Stupid. This makes it no more useful than Jamis Buck's excellent generators. Less so, in some respects - at least with Jamis' generators you can configure the output.
6.) Monster Creator - Bulky and awkward, but a nice touch for those who don't want to do the math of creature creation. But again, I had a spreadsheet to do this for me (it wasn't quite right, but I wasn't being paid to get it right) two years ago. This portion of the product is nice, but it is YEARS too late. You still can't create templates, either, to my great frustration.
7.) Treasure Creator - I guess this saves you time in that you don't have to punch through the DMG and then type stuff into your word processor. Instead you click a bunch of options for your stuff and then wait for five minutes while it formats it for you. Again, a resounding cry of USELESS rings through my brain.
8.) Table Creator - As discussed in #4 above, this is a clunky, ill-documented, and generally hard to use. It holds great potential but the promise is lost in horrific execution.
There are a few other goodies in here as well - such as graphics for representing mosnters and characters - but they add little to the program. The one truly useful item is the Access Database with all the lovely goodies inside it - but that only helps people who already HAVE Microsoft Access (I doubt anyone else wants to shell out $300 to buy it). However, the inclusion of an Access Database after two years of waiting gets zero positive points. Let me tell you what it represents. It represents a weeks' worth of data entry by a motivated data entry temp who gets paid about $10 an hour (double that amount of time for an unmotivated temp). To say it is unimpressive is a horrible understatement. It's well-built and great for those who have Access, but let's be honest - for someone who knows what they're doing (like a software company) it should take about a day to develop and two weeks to fill with data. What the heck were they doing for the next 100 weeks? Once you have that implemented, I can't think that writing a front-end program that does simple mathematical calculations is that hard.
PRESENTATION: Simple and streamlined - it's just a CD in a sleeve on the shelf of the local store. Good in that it saves trees, bad in that it gives you NO idea what you are - or aren't - getting. On your computer, it's rather ugly - the main screen looks like a splash screen and the icons are less than intuitive (to say the least).
Conclusion: I waited two years and spent $30 for THIS?!? I knew what I was getting in terms of functionality, but I expected it to be better-developed given the pricetag and the amount of development time. I am not unconvinced that I could not have done better with an Access-driven interface. The database is a nice touch, but I could have pooled my $30 with a couple friends and gotten one by hiring a data entry temp and/or doing it myself. It's slow, poorly executed, lacking some very important functionality, and lacking in examples for the portions where it could really shine. I can't stress my disappointment with this product given the development time and cost - there are numerous free products out there that have been out for a year or more now that do everything E-Tools does, and do it better. Ugh. "Appalling" is not nearly a strong enough term for my reaction to this product. "Gosh-awful" and "a product that my goldfish will find just as useful as I will" come to mind. This product has been savaged in reviews and it fully deserves it. Yes, it is a useful tool. But it is not nearly as useful as other, free tools that have been around much longer. Blech. I find nothing about this product that would cause me to recommend it at its price. I would only recommend it if you can find it in a bargain bin for $5. Maybe not even then. I had high hopes for this product and it fell flat on its face. WotC's sudden unfriendliness to competitors also bothers me (it looks like they're trying to create an E-Tools monopoly not by creating a good - or even passable - product, but by litigating the heck out of everyone else), but that's another rant entirely.
--The Sigil
August 20, 2002
These are my observations:
1) Documentation: From reading the boards I was under the impression that documentation was non-existant. Yes, you get no printed manual, but this is the case for nearly all software packages these days. The Help file, however, includes a fairly complete manual for operating the software on a very basic level. My recommendation is for everybody who purchased this package to read that manual from beginning to end. That said, there are many mistakes with the manual and much that I would consider a part of any document that describes how to functionally utilize a software tool has been left out. My first take on the manual was to give it a 4 mostly because the text for spells, skills, and feats were included within the help files, however, I drop that down to an overall three as it is acceptable. Without the additional text described above, the manual would be a two.
2) Overall functionality: This package advertised support for the Core Rules, and my first perusal of the functionality indicates it meets this requirement. Although there are some gotchas, such as Templates and support for functionality that may have been implied in the DMG (such as class and PrC creation), overall this product delivers as advertised. It should be noted by all users that the same held true for all D&D support applications from the old Dungeon Master's Assistants from SSI in the eighties, to the first Core Rules CD-ROM, and even CR2. This functionality has apparently been too difficult to develop for such a product. On a scale of 1-5, I give it a 3.
3) Backend Database: This is the big winner in my opinion. I have opened up the database in Access 2002 and looked at every table. This is where the key informaiton lies, and it could easily be developed by enterprising young software engineers into the type of product everybody seems to desire. A few alterations to these tables could easily include such functionality as support for psionics, Epic Levels, Oriental Adventures, and those PrC's that are being found to be elusive for those who are trying to include them. Additional functionality would be easy to add by writing a simple front end in Java or VB to accommodate the appropriate queries of the database.
Unfortunately, what could be the most promising aspect of eTools could also be severely limited due to licensing constraints, towhit:
You may not: ...; (2) modify or prepare derivative works of the Software; ...; (4) design or distribute unauthorized levels; or (5) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software.
Utilizing the database with other binaries or scripts perpared by you could be construed as a violation of these terms. Also, altering the tables by adding records could even be construed this way. It would be up to the WotC/Hasbro legal department to determine their take on this section of the license. Apparently, there is a wink and a nod from WotC with regards to adding records to the database and using seperate binaires for sharing those changes, however, there has been no definite legal position published by WotC.
The backend database itself gets a 4 out of 5 from me, but since I must give the cloudy legalities of the license (which admittedly is pretty standard language within the software industry) with regards to alteration of the database a 0, this part of the product cannot rate higher than 2 until a legal representative of WotC clarifies their position on altering the database. For the most part, I believe simple record additions to tables will be considered acceptable to WotC, however, this was the meat of the product in my opinion and if I am not aloud to fundamentally alter the database by adding tables to the existing list (only way to accommodate psionics), adding columns to existing tables, and write my own front end application to increase functionality to the level I want, I cannot find this portion of the product acceptable. I am unwilling to depend upon WotC's marketing gurus (If it sells well, they will add more) for add-ons to this product and know I must fundamentally alter this database myself.
4) GUI: This is not the best interface that could have been designed for this product and should have been much better given the time this product spent in development. I give it a 2, but a high 2.
CONCLUSION: Overall, I cannot rate this product any better than a 2 at this time. The Beta for a PDA companion piece is intriguing and the possibilities for the future exist, however, until we have a clear designation on the legal status of altering the database, my rating will remain a 2. If WotC officially states that altering the database and/or using queries of that potentially altered database outside of the binaries included in the package are considered legal and within the terms of the license, I would raise this rating to a three. If an add-on for additional functionality is put out, my rating might increase another point.
1) Documentation: From reading the boards I was under the impression that documentation was non-existant. Yes, you get no printed manual, but this is the case for nearly all software packages these days. The Help file, however, includes a fairly complete manual for operating the software on a very basic level. My recommendation is for everybody who purchased this package to read that manual from beginning to end. That said, there are many mistakes with the manual and much that I would consider a part of any document that describes how to functionally utilize a software tool has been left out. My first take on the manual was to give it a 4 mostly because the text for spells, skills, and feats were included within the help files, however, I drop that down to an overall three as it is acceptable. Without the additional text described above, the manual would be a two.
2) Overall functionality: This package advertised support for the Core Rules, and my first perusal of the functionality indicates it meets this requirement. Although there are some gotchas, such as Templates and support for functionality that may have been implied in the DMG (such as class and PrC creation), overall this product delivers as advertised. It should be noted by all users that the same held true for all D&D support applications from the old Dungeon Master's Assistants from SSI in the eighties, to the first Core Rules CD-ROM, and even CR2. This functionality has apparently been too difficult to develop for such a product. On a scale of 1-5, I give it a 3.
3) Backend Database: This is the big winner in my opinion. I have opened up the database in Access 2002 and looked at every table. This is where the key informaiton lies, and it could easily be developed by enterprising young software engineers into the type of product everybody seems to desire. A few alterations to these tables could easily include such functionality as support for psionics, Epic Levels, Oriental Adventures, and those PrC's that are being found to be elusive for those who are trying to include them. Additional functionality would be easy to add by writing a simple front end in Java or VB to accommodate the appropriate queries of the database.
Unfortunately, what could be the most promising aspect of eTools could also be severely limited due to licensing constraints, towhit:
You may not: ...; (2) modify or prepare derivative works of the Software; ...; (4) design or distribute unauthorized levels; or (5) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software.
Utilizing the database with other binaries or scripts perpared by you could be construed as a violation of these terms. Also, altering the tables by adding records could even be construed this way. It would be up to the WotC/Hasbro legal department to determine their take on this section of the license. Apparently, there is a wink and a nod from WotC with regards to adding records to the database and using seperate binaires for sharing those changes, however, there has been no definite legal position published by WotC.
The backend database itself gets a 4 out of 5 from me, but since I must give the cloudy legalities of the license (which admittedly is pretty standard language within the software industry) with regards to alteration of the database a 0, this part of the product cannot rate higher than 2 until a legal representative of WotC clarifies their position on altering the database. For the most part, I believe simple record additions to tables will be considered acceptable to WotC, however, this was the meat of the product in my opinion and if I am not aloud to fundamentally alter the database by adding tables to the existing list (only way to accommodate psionics), adding columns to existing tables, and write my own front end application to increase functionality to the level I want, I cannot find this portion of the product acceptable. I am unwilling to depend upon WotC's marketing gurus (If it sells well, they will add more) for add-ons to this product and know I must fundamentally alter this database myself.
4) GUI: This is not the best interface that could have been designed for this product and should have been much better given the time this product spent in development. I give it a 2, but a high 2.
CONCLUSION: Overall, I cannot rate this product any better than a 2 at this time. The Beta for a PDA companion piece is intriguing and the possibilities for the future exist, however, until we have a clear designation on the legal status of altering the database, my rating will remain a 2. If WotC officially states that altering the database and/or using queries of that potentially altered database outside of the binaries included in the package are considered legal and within the terms of the license, I would raise this rating to a three. If an add-on for additional functionality is put out, my rating might increase another point.
Ok, to start -
Packaging - I give it a 4 out 5. It doesn't waste space, has a nice look, etc. 1/2 point off because of incorrect system requirements. 1/2 point off because no warranty info card or registration card.
CD - I give it a 3 to 4 out of 5. Because it appears that there may be up to 3 different version out there is one reason to go as low as 3. The version I have is probably the more recent version. It contains the setup.exe and a readme.txt. The readme.txt says that the CD should autorun and gives the correct system requirements.
1 point off because the CD does not auto-run.
1 point off because they had enough room to include the MDAC and Jet updates from MS on the CD as well as an update to IE 5.5 or IE 6 which is required for printing.
Ok, onto the program itself.
Speed - 5 out of 5. I have a slower computer, below the minium specs (Pent II 300) and it runs very well. Just a couple of pauses here and there, but I expect that with my PC.
Interface - 4 out of 5. I like the interface, but pop helps would be nice, and it was already mentioned, but the user entered ability scores on the roll is not the best. Other than that, I find it very easy to use.
Character Editor - 4 out of 5. It does a good job with generating characters. Plenty of options for dice rolls of stats. My only complaint deals with the companions sections and poor implementation of Blackgaurds. I have sent these bugs onto Fluid and Wizards and hope that they get fixed. Everything else works great (except for a few data bugs, but those are easily fixed.)
Moster Editor - 4 out of 5. This does a good job as well. It has the ability to even generate treasure within the monster that matches the standard, or 10% goods, or whatever (based on the race file). The only reason this gets a 4 instead of a 5 is that it does not give direct access to some of the fields that you can enter into the race creator.
Race Editor - 5 out of 5. This is where the program shines. I have made a couple of custom races and they work great. You can even enter in all the descriptions, etc. The main problem is some of this extra info would be useful if it was linked to the monster or character that was generated with the race.
Random Character Generator - 4 out of 5. It uses the NPC tables from the DMG. This gives you a fully equipped character. It then will assign a random race to it as well. You can then go in and tweek it a bit. The reason for a point off is that it is just the core classes. It would have been nice to have some NPC classes mixed in as well.
Random Monster Generator - 5 out of 5. This works great at generating a random monster.
Treasure Editor and Random Treasure Generator - 4 out of 5. It works great, but it does not allow you to put in % of goods, like you can do in the monster editor. Again, this could be easily fixed in the patch since the program has the capibilty already programmed in it.
House Rules - 3 out of 5. This is where they could have spent more time. You can enter Feats, items, magic items, spells, gods, domains. But the reason it gets a 3 is that most of the items you can't get to affect your stats. (Unless you modify the database directly with MS Access 2000 or MS Access XP) But for the most part it is easy to use.
Tables - Wow. This is another part that is really cool. I give it a 4 out of 5 because I found if you create random treasure in the table generator, when you launch the treasure editor, your treasure is blank. But still, you can create almost any imagined treasure generator.
Missing Features - Templates. 1 click templates. This is the biggest missing feature. However, there are some work arounds. You can manual make the race file with the template applied to it. Then you can use the table generator to switch out the race of a premade character. This definitely sets the program at a 4 rating. The other is really the ability to make items out of other materials (DMG pg 242), but Fluid is aware of this and is looking into some of our suggestions. The only other thing missing is custom classes and PrC, no splat books, etc... But that was not promised with eTools, so it is not affecting my rating. (On a side note, I did add the Shifter PrC from MotW directly in Access and works fine.)
Die Roller - 5 out 5. This is great little quick roll a bunch of die rolls. Need to figure out an epic spell that does 24 d 8 + 20 points of damage, no problem. I think this is one of the most missed features that is not talked about. It works great for some powerful quick rolls.
Manual / online help - 4 out 5. A little difficult to read at times, but it does contain much of the information from the 3 core books. The problem is that they need to update it with the errata.
Overall - 4 out 5. Sure, there are some bugs, but they are being addressed. But this program does contain 95% of the functionality of the 3 core books. When they get a patch out, then the software should really rock.
Therigwin
-------------
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." -- J.R.R. Tolkien
Packaging - I give it a 4 out 5. It doesn't waste space, has a nice look, etc. 1/2 point off because of incorrect system requirements. 1/2 point off because no warranty info card or registration card.
CD - I give it a 3 to 4 out of 5. Because it appears that there may be up to 3 different version out there is one reason to go as low as 3. The version I have is probably the more recent version. It contains the setup.exe and a readme.txt. The readme.txt says that the CD should autorun and gives the correct system requirements.
1 point off because the CD does not auto-run.
1 point off because they had enough room to include the MDAC and Jet updates from MS on the CD as well as an update to IE 5.5 or IE 6 which is required for printing.
Ok, onto the program itself.
Speed - 5 out of 5. I have a slower computer, below the minium specs (Pent II 300) and it runs very well. Just a couple of pauses here and there, but I expect that with my PC.
Interface - 4 out of 5. I like the interface, but pop helps would be nice, and it was already mentioned, but the user entered ability scores on the roll is not the best. Other than that, I find it very easy to use.
Character Editor - 4 out of 5. It does a good job with generating characters. Plenty of options for dice rolls of stats. My only complaint deals with the companions sections and poor implementation of Blackgaurds. I have sent these bugs onto Fluid and Wizards and hope that they get fixed. Everything else works great (except for a few data bugs, but those are easily fixed.)
Moster Editor - 4 out of 5. This does a good job as well. It has the ability to even generate treasure within the monster that matches the standard, or 10% goods, or whatever (based on the race file). The only reason this gets a 4 instead of a 5 is that it does not give direct access to some of the fields that you can enter into the race creator.
Race Editor - 5 out of 5. This is where the program shines. I have made a couple of custom races and they work great. You can even enter in all the descriptions, etc. The main problem is some of this extra info would be useful if it was linked to the monster or character that was generated with the race.
Random Character Generator - 4 out of 5. It uses the NPC tables from the DMG. This gives you a fully equipped character. It then will assign a random race to it as well. You can then go in and tweek it a bit. The reason for a point off is that it is just the core classes. It would have been nice to have some NPC classes mixed in as well.
Random Monster Generator - 5 out of 5. This works great at generating a random monster.
Treasure Editor and Random Treasure Generator - 4 out of 5. It works great, but it does not allow you to put in % of goods, like you can do in the monster editor. Again, this could be easily fixed in the patch since the program has the capibilty already programmed in it.
House Rules - 3 out of 5. This is where they could have spent more time. You can enter Feats, items, magic items, spells, gods, domains. But the reason it gets a 3 is that most of the items you can't get to affect your stats. (Unless you modify the database directly with MS Access 2000 or MS Access XP) But for the most part it is easy to use.
Tables - Wow. This is another part that is really cool. I give it a 4 out of 5 because I found if you create random treasure in the table generator, when you launch the treasure editor, your treasure is blank. But still, you can create almost any imagined treasure generator.
Missing Features - Templates. 1 click templates. This is the biggest missing feature. However, there are some work arounds. You can manual make the race file with the template applied to it. Then you can use the table generator to switch out the race of a premade character. This definitely sets the program at a 4 rating. The other is really the ability to make items out of other materials (DMG pg 242), but Fluid is aware of this and is looking into some of our suggestions. The only other thing missing is custom classes and PrC, no splat books, etc... But that was not promised with eTools, so it is not affecting my rating. (On a side note, I did add the Shifter PrC from MotW directly in Access and works fine.)
Die Roller - 5 out 5. This is great little quick roll a bunch of die rolls. Need to figure out an epic spell that does 24 d 8 + 20 points of damage, no problem. I think this is one of the most missed features that is not talked about. It works great for some powerful quick rolls.
Manual / online help - 4 out 5. A little difficult to read at times, but it does contain much of the information from the 3 core books. The problem is that they need to update it with the errata.
Overall - 4 out 5. Sure, there are some bugs, but they are being addressed. But this program does contain 95% of the functionality of the 3 core books. When they get a patch out, then the software should really rock.
Therigwin
-------------
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." -- J.R.R. Tolkien
dok
First Post
After reading initial reviews, I was ready to hate this product. I recieved a copy of it for free to look it over, and I was ready to feel like I'd paid too much.
Here lies the problem for the good folks over at Fluid Entertainment. I cannot in any fairness judge this program without context. And the current context is what's available already, for free. And that's what really hurts this product.
The creators have been quoted as saying "you'll love with it does, and hate what it doesn't do", and they're totally right. Well, almost right. You'll also hate the numerous bugs and incomplete sections as well.
I'm lienient on those who try to write software for D&D, simply because of the complexity of it all. Monsters using natural attacks never get iterative attacks due to a high BAB, but they do get multiple attacks when using a weapon. Advancing a monster by 50% of it's Hit Dice increases it's CR by +1. Mythral armor decreases armor check penalties by 2; the armor check can only be 0 or lower. Given all that and more, I'm inclined to be somewhat tolerant of bugs, especially if there are patches in place. Are there items in Sword & Fist that you simply can't input due to the interface? Yes. Do some magic items come up in randomly rolled treasure that have a listed gp value of 0? Yes. Will these kinds of mistakes happen with V1.0 software? Sadly, yes.
What I was less thrilled about were the 'missing' portions of the software. No 'one-click-add-tempate' feature. No 'create class/create prestige class/modify class' feature. The Help Manual... oh the Help Manual. "Before using the Create Race system, familiarize yourself with the Create Character system, as they are very similar." If they're really similar, why not cut, paste, & replace that section of the manual, then edit for clarity?(Somehow, I thought technical writers were not that hard to hire.) In the "questions" section, the hypothetical question is asked "Do I need to input any monsters?" and the answer is "No, all the monsters from the Monster Manual are present" when, in fact, they are not.
Now, because it uses Access, someone familiar with the program and/or the XML language could edit out these bugs by hand, and on the web are many, many downloadable, user created enhancments to the program. But the trouble is, I'd be extremely mad if I had to pay $30-$50 for a program that I had to debug myself and search the web for suppliments to make it usable.
And that's what really kills e-tools. It's a modest program, with unfortunate, severe limitations and missing elements, the 'to-be-expected' bugs of a 1st version, being offered in a market with multiple bug-free downloadables. It's a very tough sell to argue that e-tools is a good product at it's price when you can get the same functions for free, without the bugs, with more features, and only have to give up the single GUI interface of having it all bundled into one program.
Here lies the problem for the good folks over at Fluid Entertainment. I cannot in any fairness judge this program without context. And the current context is what's available already, for free. And that's what really hurts this product.
The creators have been quoted as saying "you'll love with it does, and hate what it doesn't do", and they're totally right. Well, almost right. You'll also hate the numerous bugs and incomplete sections as well.
I'm lienient on those who try to write software for D&D, simply because of the complexity of it all. Monsters using natural attacks never get iterative attacks due to a high BAB, but they do get multiple attacks when using a weapon. Advancing a monster by 50% of it's Hit Dice increases it's CR by +1. Mythral armor decreases armor check penalties by 2; the armor check can only be 0 or lower. Given all that and more, I'm inclined to be somewhat tolerant of bugs, especially if there are patches in place. Are there items in Sword & Fist that you simply can't input due to the interface? Yes. Do some magic items come up in randomly rolled treasure that have a listed gp value of 0? Yes. Will these kinds of mistakes happen with V1.0 software? Sadly, yes.
What I was less thrilled about were the 'missing' portions of the software. No 'one-click-add-tempate' feature. No 'create class/create prestige class/modify class' feature. The Help Manual... oh the Help Manual. "Before using the Create Race system, familiarize yourself with the Create Character system, as they are very similar." If they're really similar, why not cut, paste, & replace that section of the manual, then edit for clarity?(Somehow, I thought technical writers were not that hard to hire.) In the "questions" section, the hypothetical question is asked "Do I need to input any monsters?" and the answer is "No, all the monsters from the Monster Manual are present" when, in fact, they are not.
Now, because it uses Access, someone familiar with the program and/or the XML language could edit out these bugs by hand, and on the web are many, many downloadable, user created enhancments to the program. But the trouble is, I'd be extremely mad if I had to pay $30-$50 for a program that I had to debug myself and search the web for suppliments to make it usable.
And that's what really kills e-tools. It's a modest program, with unfortunate, severe limitations and missing elements, the 'to-be-expected' bugs of a 1st version, being offered in a market with multiple bug-free downloadables. It's a very tough sell to argue that e-tools is a good product at it's price when you can get the same functions for free, without the bugs, with more features, and only have to give up the single GUI interface of having it all bundled into one program.
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