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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vascant" data-source="post: 2185841" data-attributes="member: 13927">Honestly.. I have not figured out what I am evening going to do with the program as of yet.  I have no desire to be in the commercial software business though to be honest (Thats a freaking headache).How public it gets released is going to be a tricky issue because of how complicated install packages can be, in all my years of software development I have stayed in the Enterprise sector, mostly because it paid so much better but also because I did not deal with a general public with regards to applications, situations were very controlled.  The only reason I do not release it to the general public right now is because I do not need to know if a button or menu option works at this time, this allows me to keep testing of certain functions and output controlled so that I know if it is working or not and can then move onward.This has become more of a "Proof of concept" experiment for me.  I have a series of goals I wish to accomplish with this program.  I have learned a great deal of respect for those that create d20 programs having done so myself now, so now I am trying to see if certain features other programs have were a limitation of the rules and how they were applied or the technology and design issues.  For example: "Random NPC Generation":  should not mean a mess resulting from a series of tables a program ran thru.  This is why I tag on "Designer", because what my system attempts to do is allow a DM to create his world, even down to allowing you to be so picky where you have a different flow for city guards depending on which city, how big the city is, where the city is located and such.  Speed:  My goal is 1 NPC per second.  With every step I create or add a new element to the system this over all goal does not change.  It might mean I have to code something a few times to get it right, but it is done.  Some think this may be a bit excessive but like this last weekend, I needed 400 Derro for the campaign I run.  My players will tell you that since I started this project our game has become so much better and full of life because I now know what that individual NPC has up his sleeves rather then guessing or a grouped stat block (ex: Derro 1-10 HP 9x3,10x2,11x3,13x2).Stat Block Display:  My personal goal here is simple and came from <a href="http://www.wizards.com" target="_blank">www.wizards.com</a> and Dungeon Magazine, they have created some very crisp and detailed stat blocks I have seen yet and on the other hand, some of the worst products I have purchased have been because of pathetic stat blocks.  So as a programmer and a DM, I insisted that it creates a mimic of the very best looking stat blocks available (with the ability for a individual user to alter the style to some extent).On a side note:  You stated you have been watching but never really got involved.. Why?  I am not asking this directly towards my own project but more in a general sense because I have seen tons of small projects around the d20 world come and go but nothing never really comes from it.  NPC Generation, I think I see a few posts on different forums each week asking if anyone has something better but these same people never get involved to make something better.  It boggles my mind, gaming geek and computer geek almost go hand in hand and yet, we have some of the worst software known to mankind (Free and commercial).  Now I know everyone is not a programmer but everyone in d20 does know what a stat block is, so I geared my testing to reach the masses.  As you might expect, it has failed.  So what do I do next, try and release the program and deal with months of install issues and hold off improving it?  This is why I have not released the program even to just let people play with it.  I have 1 beta tester left from my group that has not been consumed by real life, it is going to really suck when he falls victim to it as well.</blockquote>

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