Putting your money where your mouth is.

[UniversalMonster]

I would love to see a Monster/NPC Builder, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The monster builder is at D&D Insider

You use the same one for NPCs in 4th Edition, although lately, when I stat up non combat NPCs I do it like so:

Fizzbein (mayor): Diplomacy +9, History +7
Shalamat (sage): Arcana +12, Religion +12, History +15

..because I don't assume they'll be in any combat.

 

[maddman75]

If they need to push it back or delay it, I hope they do so rather than stick to an arbitrary deadline. I would rather not have the full generator for another six months than have one that isn't ready for prime time. Pushing things out to meet deadlines makes for terrible software.

I find the DDI to be a bargain even without it. Dungeon and Dragon, the compendium, monster creator, encounter calculator, are all great. The main benefit for a DM is using it to throw together a pickup game. Enter race and class and hit the 'quick character' and you have pregens. Use a module from Dungeon and you're ready to go. And heck, you can do that with the beta, if you use a low level module.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The monster builder is at D&D Insider

You use the same one for NPCs in 4th Edition, although lately, when I stat up non combat NPCs I do it like so:

I know about that one. The idea we developed in the other thread was more a builder that could also create elites and solos or apply templates, including to already existing monsters. Which is a tall order and probably nothing the bonus tool could achieve.

It might be simpler then the character builder, but it would need a much larger database.

 

[Qualidar]

Shemeska might be skeptic and critical, but there are other... "qualities" that Shemeska thankfully does not share!

You can compare directly: his ban ends tomorrow.

 

[Oldtimer]

Based on the quality of the early 1st-3rd lvl release, I don't think we should have expectations of anything other than a stable product.

You think the current beta has quality? And is a stable product?

Wow. Just, wow.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Well, its stable on my machine and I have not spotted any recent new bugs. Some new features I'd like but I'd be happy as is with 30 levels

 

[Kzach]

You think the current beta has quality? And is a stable product?

Wow. Just, wow.

I'm pretty sure what he meant was that the released version will be a stable version of the beta, and that's about all we can expect to have changed.

Having said that, I've had it running now for three straight days and made a dozen characters and it hasn't missed a beat.

There are some annoying quirks and bugs to it that I hope will be fixed, but other than that it's definitely stable.

 

[vic20]

You think the current beta has quality?

By its very nature, quality isn't quantitative, so this aspect will be difficult to discuss on a pass/no-pass basis.

There's certainly a QA team in place of some sort, and they (ideally) will have a strong voice in the pass/no-pass criteria for each major lifecycle promotion. The criteria for "beta" is typically "feature complete, with known bugs". What we've been given to play with seems to line up with that for the most part.

And is a stable product?

I imagine that's where the effort since the last public release has been directed.

 

[vic20]

If they need to push it back or delay it, I hope they do so rather than stick to an arbitrary deadline. I would rather not have the full generator for another six months than have one that isn't ready for prime time. Pushing things out to meet deadlines makes for terrible software.

Agreed. People will eventually forget that software was released late. They will never forget if it is unacceptably buggy.

 

[armorclass10]

The monster builder is at D&D Insider

You use the same one for NPCs in 4th Edition, although lately, when I stat up non combat NPCs I do it like so:

Fizzbein (mayor): Diplomacy +9, History +7
Shalamat (sage): Arcana +12, Religion +12, History +15

..because I don't assume they'll be in any combat.

Thanks, LOL I checked there earlier and didn't see it....must have rolled a 1 on my perception check.