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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Glyfair" data-source="post: 328478" data-attributes="member: 53">Let me say that this will sound negative.  My general opinion is sort of like the typical comments made about the U.S. political system.  "It's the worst one except for all the others."I'll start with some positives, just to balance out my negatives.  I use this exclusively.  I haven't picked up E-Tools yet (loss of my job has left me with no excess money).  I probably won't use it even though I will almost certainly prefer the interface.  I've decided that when I start picking up d20 supplements again that I won't be buying any that do not have PCGen support (at least any with character generation related information).  If I can't create a character using that products rules with PCGen and my players can't, I have little reason to consider adding those rules to my games.Now the negatives:1)  I've sat down and created a series of .lst files for my campaign.  A week later it wouldn't work.  If fixed it for the changes, a month later my campaign again wouldn't work.  I don't have time to constantly update my files, I'm supposed to be using that time for my campaign.Add to that the fact that for a long period of time the changes weren't in the documentation, it made it impossible to keep your files up-to-date without living on the PCGen Yahoo group.2)  It's written by programmers for programmers.  Many changes in the program seem to be suggested by someone in the group, and they stick.  My casual players look at and say "what were they thinking?"  The number one issue that came to mind was when the decided to change the filters from something easy to figure out to a hard-to-find, arcane system that no one in my group liked or ever used.Another related issue was the change to Java.  A program that worked well on my computer suddenly went to a program that takes forever to load on my computer.  Even the recent improvements in this area have cut it from about 5 minutes to about 4 minutes.Sometime in the future they are planning on going to xml.  Great, that means the files will be broken again.  I'm at least hoping this will at least solve the slowness issue.3)  This isn't directly a program issue, but a number of PCGen supporters have left a bad taste in my mouth.  I'm not talking about the key members (Mynex & "Merton Monk" come to mind as key members).  However, a number of the supporters made inflammatory comments about how PCGen was the only character generation software for D&D & d20 and how MasterTools (later E-Tools) was going to suck.  All this before it was anywhere near release.  I'm also not talking about an occasional comment here and there.  I'm talking about people who had to post to every single conversation about Character Generation programs and voice these opinions.That said, the Character Generation system I'm going to use in the futures will have the following features (whether it be PCGen, E-Tools or something else).1)  Data for the supplements I'm going to use in my game:  If I have to sit down and create a character by hand or "fake" something to do it in the character generator, it loses value.  Missing a supplement or two isn't a problem, unless they are important ones to me I'll just not buy & use them.  Missing most of what I want to use is.An exceptable substitute would be an easy to use interface that allows me to input the information.  I don't mind adding it in myself.  I do mind when doing so requires hacking files & multiple tries to stop the program from crashing with the new data.PCGen could be the leader here if it gets WotC approval for the non-OGC material.  E-Tools will probably never reach this because it will always be behind the curve given WotC production schedule and because it likely won't have sufficient support for 3rd party publishers.2)  A clean, easy to use interface:  I want to put a new player at my computer, have them open the program and be able to create a character in a short period of time.  I want them to be making decisions about which feats, skills and equipment to take.  I don't want them trying to figure out how to choose an alignment, how to figure out which feats they are allowed to take or have to figure out whether they have to look for "Sword, Long" "Long Sword" or "Weapon (generic, customize)".E-Tools will likely have the edge here.  PCGen has been making strides in this area.  However, they are still behind the curve, even compared to the Mastertools Demo, IMO.3)  A smooth running program:  If the program takes forever to load, it's not very useful.  If it takes forever to switch between screens, loading characters, etc. it's not very useful.  If the program crashes when loading a character because it's "out-of-date" it's just a piece of trash taking up space on my computer.E-Tools again will likely have the edge here.  Most of this is because of PCGen's constant updating.  This allows them to support more products, however, it doesn't allow them sufficient testing time to catch these errors.4)  Easy Customization:  I want to be able to easily input my campaigns prestige classes, feats, equipment, etc without having to manipulate data files directly.  E-Tools has a slight edge here right now.  From what I hear, it still has a major stumbling block5)  Quick Updates to Data:  When I buy I product I want to use, I don't want to wait a year or more to use the program to create a character with it (see #1).  This is another one that Easy Customization would help deal with.  This one is up-in-the-air depending on how fast PCGen can get their data files up with their new approval system.  However, odds are strong in their favor given how slow product updates are going to have to be for E-Tools.So, looking at my requirements, I'd say that a programmer who wanted to create a program for me to use should make sure that they have an interface that allows for me to easily update and edit the Data Files within the program or in a separate Data manipulation program.Glyfair of Glamis</blockquote>

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