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<blockquote data-quote="TBoarder" data-source="post: 328331" data-attributes="member: 272">This is negative, but hopefully not a flame.&nbsp; I actually do appreciate all the work that's been put into PCGen.I tried PCGen twice (sorta, as I'll explain).&nbsp; The first time I tried it was pretty close to its first release.&nbsp; I was utterly and completely confused.&nbsp; I don't think I got a single character entered into it before I gave up on it.The second time I tried it was around version 2.4.&nbsp; I was able to see some major improvements.&nbsp; The interface was still horribly unintuitive but after some playing around with it, was able to enter in most of my characters (about 3 dozen).The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to create custom options.&nbsp; One character I was playing was a young black dragon.&nbsp; I couldn't create the character at that time because dragons weren't in the program yet.&nbsp; I looked a bit at the possibility of creating it as a custom race and my eyes just glazed over.&nbsp; When I wanted a character to have a single feat from an unsupported book, I just left that slot blank.&nbsp; It seemed like far too much work to learn how to make one up myself.&nbsp; Wow, that makes me sound lazy, doesn't it? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Here's what killed the program for me completely.&nbsp; I kept up with the program, consistantly downloading the weekly updates and bug fixes.&nbsp; This broke many of the characters I had entered into it already.&nbsp; The constant GUI revisions and additions meant I was pretty much relearning the program from scratch every single time I updated it.&nbsp; Tabs were added that, to this day, I have no idea what their function is, or how they work.&nbsp; I was never able to find any sort of documentation as to what their purpose was, and the description in the weekly Yahoo e-mail was vague and unhelpful.I gave up.&nbsp; PCGen was just something I didn't want to use anymore.&nbsp; The GUI revisions weren't much more intuitive (especially[/] the location of that @&amp;#% alignment tab.&nbsp; I'd lose that every single time I'd make up a character.)&nbsp; I was tired of constantly re-entering my characters and of constantly relearning the program.&nbsp; Granted, I know I'm not a normal D&amp;D player.&nbsp; I don't many other players who have 2 or 3 dozen characters, so my opinion probably skews this thread in the wrong direction without giving the benefit of the opinion of an average D&amp;D player.Has PCGen made it so I didn't have to buy any books?&nbsp; Nope, but it did make me decide not to buy a few.&nbsp; It also led me into buying a few as well.&nbsp; Being able to see what new feats and prestige classes that were available in various products made it like free advertising.&nbsp; So I don't think d20 publishers have anything to worry about with PCGen, but I just have no interest anymore in giving it a 3rd try.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TBoarder, post: 328331, member: 272"] This is negative, but hopefully not a flame. I actually do appreciate all the work that's been put into PCGen. I tried PCGen twice (sorta, as I'll explain). The first time I tried it was pretty close to its first release. I was utterly and completely confused. I don't think I got a single character entered into it before I gave up on it. The second time I tried it was around version 2.4. I was able to see some major improvements. The interface was still horribly unintuitive but after some playing around with it, was able to enter in most of my characters (about 3 dozen). The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to create custom options. One character I was playing was a young black dragon. I couldn't create the character at that time because dragons weren't in the program yet. I looked a bit at the possibility of creating it as a custom race and my eyes just glazed over. When I wanted a character to have a single feat from an unsupported book, I just left that slot blank. It seemed like far too much work to learn how to make one up myself. Wow, that makes me sound lazy, doesn't it? :) Here's what killed the program for me completely. I kept up with the program, consistantly downloading the weekly updates and bug fixes. This broke many of the characters I had entered into it already. The constant GUI revisions and additions meant I was pretty much relearning the program from scratch every single time I updated it. Tabs were added that, to this day, I have no idea what their function is, or how they work. I was never able to find any sort of documentation as to what their purpose was, and the description in the weekly Yahoo e-mail was vague and unhelpful. I gave up. PCGen was just something I didn't want to use anymore. The GUI revisions weren't much more intuitive ([i]especially[/] the location of that @&#% alignment tab. I'd lose that every single time I'd make up a character.) I was tired of constantly re-entering my characters and of constantly relearning the program. Granted, I know I'm not a normal D&D player. I don't many other players who have 2 or 3 dozen characters, so my opinion probably skews this thread in the wrong direction without giving the benefit of the opinion of an average D&D player. Has PCGen made it so I didn't have to buy any books? Nope, but it did make me decide not to buy a few. It also led me into buying a few as well. Being able to see what new feats and prestige classes that were available in various products made it like free advertising. So I don't think d20 publishers have anything to worry about with PCGen, but I just have no interest anymore in giving it a 3rd try.[/i] [/QUOTE]

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