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D&D 4E Introducing 4eTurnTracker!

Maudragon

First Post
Yup. I figured import would be important, but it's good to hear from other user's. This helps to set priorities.

Yesterday I spent some time preparing (playing) the next encounters for my campaign. (Too many things happening at the table, the combat is still too slow. :-S)

By the way, I used at the same time Combat Manager (CM) and Turn Tracker (TT) to simulate the game flow, thus I can provide additional feedback from a deeper test, if you wish. If yes, what do you prefer? The forum or email?

Yes. Select all the targets with shift-click or control-click. Then click on the PACMAN button (the icons are a bit odd, but the were free, hehe :blush:) to add an effect.

Multi selection is one feature missing in CM. It is very easy to apply the same effect to different targets. Well done. :)

About the buttons, besides the icons, I think you need at least to group them by type and cleary identify the groups with labels or vertical rulers. There is also something wrong with the buttons sequence. The first three buttons look out of place during combat, since you will not need them anymore (or I was not able to use them :)). I also think you need shortcuts and mouse right click on the initiative table, especially for Apply Effects.

I guess there are a lot of things that could be done for powers. What would you say is best place to start?

Tough question. I have no clear proposal yet. For sure, you need at least a power usage checklist for both PCs and monsters. Attack types and damage stats (even automatic damage) could be very helpful.

Thanks for the Healing Surge and the other terms clarification. :)
 

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Bunbersnatch

Explorer
Yesterday I spent some time preparing (playing) the next encounters for my campaign. (Too many things happening at the table, the combat is still too slow. :-S)
Yup, especially as the levels go up! My aim with TT is to track the most important stuff with as few clicks as possible.

By the way, I used at the same time Combat Manager (CM) and Turn Tracker (TT) to simulate the game flow, thus I can provide additional feedback from a deeper test, if you wish. If yes, what do you prefer? The forum or email?
Excellent! I am very interested in feedback, especially from test play. And I would like to keep the discussion public.

Since these posts will eventually be lost under the volume on this site I plan to setup a forum on 4eturntracker.com. But for the moment we can stick to this post.

About the buttons, besides the icons, I think you need at least to group them by type and cleary identify the groups with labels or vertical rulers. There is also something wrong with the buttons sequence. The first three buttons look out of place during combat, since you will not need them anymore (or I was not able to use them :)).
I agree they need to be sorted better. Grouping should not be a problem. I can put buttons in different palettes or add dividers as you suggest.

The groups are not entirely clear to me though. For example, the 3 buttons on the left. If they did not work for you in an encounter, then that would be a bug. You should be able to use them to add party members, add a monster or even merge encounters while an encounter is running.

Only the "Next Turn", "Delay Turn", "Ready Action" and "Jump In" are encounter only buttons. And "Extended Rest" and "Short Rest" are non-encounter buttons.

Nevertheless, improvement is definitely possible. What do you think of the following division?

  • Group 1: Select Party, Load Encounter, Add Monster, Show/Hide Players Window
  • Group 2: Step Back, Start/Stop Encounter, Step Forward, Next Turn, Delay Turn, Ready Action, Jump In
  • Group 3: Apply Effects, Hide Creature, Short Rest, Extended Rest
I also think you need shortcuts and mouse right click on the initiative table, especially for Apply Effects.
Good idea! What already works is to double-click on the monster that is being attacked. This is a quick way to apply an effect to a single target. But I guess with right-click I could provide some affects that do not require input, like "Second Wind", "Total Defense", etc.

Tough question. I have no clear proposal yet. For sure, you need at least a power usage checklist for both PCs and monsters. Attack types and damage stats (even automatic damage) could be very helpful.
OK, so the first thing would be to have a list of powers. I will start with the monsters, because TT is mainly a tool to help the DM. Then the next step would be to track usage and help with recharge of powers.

I have an idea for the mechanics here. A small button (or double click) on the power list to bring up the Effects Dialog and use a power.

However, this is future stuff of course, so we have a bit of time still to think about it... :)
 



Maudragon

First Post
Excellent! I am very interested in feedback, especially from test play. And I would like to keep the discussion public.

I am posting two separate messages. This one is about initial feedback. Maybe it is too much detail, but I like to work this way. ;)

1) Action Point Counter. Action Point counter should work like other counters. At the moment, when you use an Action Point, the Action Point is added to 0. For example, from 0/1 to 1/1. In my opinion, this counter should work like Hit Points. So it should read 1/1 or 2/2 when no Action Point has been spent, and then 0/1, 1/2 etc.

2) I spent some Healing Surges at full Hit Points to adjust the remaining number of Healing Surges for the upcoming encounter. In Apply Conditions and Effects dialog, Healing group, you can decrease HS number with a stepper, but the HP stepper look to be changing as well, even if you are at maximum hit points. On the reverse, if you increase the HS stepper, hit points (HS) seem to be reducing by multiples of surge value. If you are at maximum HP, you should remain at the maximum value, no matter how many surges you spend. Of course, when you click OK to exit this dialog the number of hit points is correct since no change is applied, but you should review the way HS and HP steppers interact.

3) When you roll initiative, the Initiative dialog is not so easy to read. You could replace it with a vertical table and you should display separate columns for the die roll, the initiative bonus/penalty, and the total result. In my opinion, the initiative modifier in round brackets is not that clear. I rolled initiative many times and I was not sure if the bonus was applied or not. :hmm: I also feel that reporting initiative results in groups is not consistent with the general layout.

4) In Apply Conditions and Effects dialog, group Bonus/Penalty you could add an additional checkbox to select all the defenses (AC, Fort, Refl, Will) at once.

5) I think you could enter an option to leave dead creatures in the list. Now dead creatures are removed at 0 or lower hit points. You could leave them in the list disabled or in gray. Moreover, you should also notify the DM that the creature is going to be removed from the list when the selected damage is applied (hit points 0 or below 0).

6) You need to optionally mark minion creatures (at least for the DM). You could add a visual clue or a label in the creature box. A minion at full hit points will have 100% hit points exactly like a creature at full hit points with 100 HPs. :cool:

7) You could add a select all when selecting party members in Pick the Party dialog. Now you must select all the party members one by one.

8) Concealment, Total Concealment, Partial Cover, and Superior Cover conditions are missing.

Generally speaking, the combat moved fast. Compared to Combat Manager I was missing power reference, power usage, attack rolls, and damage rolls. Encounter maintenance needs improvements, but text files are fine right now.

You could add trackers for Psionic Power points and ammunition, such as the number of arrows.

That's all for now. :devil:
 

Maudragon

First Post
I agree they need to be sorted better. Grouping should not be a problem. I can put buttons in different palettes or add dividers as you suggest. [...]
Nevertheless, improvement is definitely possible. What do you think of the following division?

  • Group 1: Select Party, Load Encounter, Add Monster, Show/Hide Players Window
  • Group 2: Step Back, Start/Stop Encounter, Step Forward, Next Turn, Delay Turn, Ready Action, Jump In
  • Group 3: Apply Effects, Hide Creature, Short Rest, Extended Rest

This is the second message. If I have time I will prepare a mock-up of the user interface. However, I would do something like this:

Group 1: Next Turn, Delay Turn, Ready Action, Jump In
Group 2: Action (was Apply Effects), Show/Hide Creature
Group 3: Step Back, Start/Stop Encounter, Step Forward
Group 4: Short Rest, Extended Rest
Group 5: Show/Hide Players Window
Group 6: Select Party, Load Encounter, Add Monsters

I would start with the buttons used during combat and then the encounter preparation buttons.

But I guess with right-click I could provide some affects that do not require input, like "Second Wind", "Total Defense", etc.

Marked is a good candidate for right click. ;)

Ciao
 

Namagem

Explorer
Please, please, PLEASE add an autosave feature. If you do, I will love you forever. Seriously. My DM and I had to pay like 15 bucks for a program that is technically inferior to other combat trackers, but the reason we got it was because it had autosave. Not having to rely on guesswork if WHEN the program crashes is invaluable. So please add autosave.
 

ren1999

First Post
Please, please, PLEASE add an autosave feature. If you do, I will love you forever. Seriously. My DM and I had to pay like 15 bucks for a program that is technically inferior to other combat trackers, but the reason we got it was because it had autosave. Not having to rely on guesswork if WHEN the program crashes is invaluable. So please add autosave.

Are you talking to me? The program already has a cut and paste save feature added by the last programmer. The only thing that I haven't been able to work out yet is how to save the direction of the player character and monster pieces.

I've been play testing a 22nd level adventure in one of the latest Dungeon magazines using auto built 22nd level characters from Character Builder. There are so many contradictory, imbalanced and broken powers of these characters it makes me wonder if any of them were ever play tested before.

This is one of the reasons I'm developing a less complicated classic wizard, cleric, rogue and fighter set of powers. After seeing how some daily powers are too powerful while other daily powers are worthless, I started working on this.
http://kira3696.tripod.com/magespells.htm

You can play test this too if you have the latest Firefox browser.
Just unrar the folder and dump all the files in it. Then click combattracker.htm

http://kira3696.tripod.com/CombatTracker.rar
 

Bunbersnatch

Explorer
Please, please, PLEASE add an autosave feature. If you do, I will love you forever. Seriously. My DM and I had to pay like 15 bucks for a program that is technically inferior to other combat trackers, but the reason we got it was because it had autosave. Not having to rely on guesswork if WHEN the program crashes is invaluable. So please add autosave.
4eTurnTracker auto-saves every step of combat as it happens. After restart it restores the entire history.

BTW: The history persists until it is explicitly cleared or until you change Data folders.
 

Emryys

Explorer
Just played with this, nice program that fits my netbook perfectly :)

'right-click' commands would be handy
Import from the monster builder would help
An interface to make encounters, characters and monsters if the above is too much trouble.

Keep the interface simple and compact and the ease of use will be the best part! :)
 

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