The Skinny on Adventure Tools?

[Hadrian the Builder]

The C&D on Masterplan has me wondering about the rest of the adventure tool suite. The last release was the monster builder in July 09. It's about 10 months later and there isn't anything else.

In the meantime, iplay4e, inCombat4e, and Masterplan have covered a lot of ground. Each of these is developed primarily by just one developer. Even the surfacescapes team made their awesome demo in 2 semesters. Throw in MapTool, which is done by a team of volunteers as another example, and it leaves me wondering:

What is taking so long? Supposedly Wotc has a small team of developers working on this stuff. All these other groups have produced something...why can't you?

I don't want speculation. There are years of that stuff on these boards and others. I doubt there's anything new to say on that front.

I don't feel entitled to answers. I just want to know the true story behind this big black eye.

What I'd REALLY Like to see is some investigative journalism from Critical Hits, Dragon Avenue, RPG Examiner or someone who has the connections and wherewithal ferret out some answers.
(That's not a critique, BTW, Dave et al)

 

[ExploderWizard]

What is taking so long? Supposedly Wotc has a small team of developers working on this stuff.

Firing the folks who wrote the code and being left with something that nobody in house knows how to build or fix isn't the best strategy on the planet.

 

[Kafen]

They could still buy one of the virtual tabletops suites. It might make 4e an option for me if DDI ever lives up to that pretty little advertisement in the back of the PHB 1.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Firing the folks who wrote the code and being left with something that nobody in house knows how to build or fix isn't the best strategy on the planet.

Even so, I think most of us here with jobs have had to take over projects from others. It can be difficult, but not impossible, and something should be accomplished by now.

This is not a rant. My dream answer goes like this:

"Dave Chalker: OK, I've made some calls and done some interviews and talked to some sources, and you can read the inside scoop at Critical-Hits.com

Me: I bet this is a good story. Maybe there's hope for new tools after all."

It's a call for the real story rather than a complaint about the perceived situation.

 

[PeelSeel2]

WOTC has never been good at software. Adventure tools is dead. We are lucky to have the tools we do.

 

[Derulbaskul]

There are lots of hints posted on the WotC boards suggesting that the team is working on a big update in time for Gencon but those same posts mention that the team will not divulge what it is they are working on because of the track record of broken deadlines.

Clearly, whoever has managed D&D's digital initiatives since the latter days of 2E has not been up-to-scratch.
- The Dragon compendium, while one of my favourite products of all time, was a legal disaster and led to Kenzer & Co being given a free licence to 3.xE D&D.
- eTools was one of the worst e-products in any industry. I actually thought the free version in the first 3E PHB was better!
- DDi is part of that illustrious heritage of not being able to get things quite right.

Those criticisms aside, I actually like what has been released so far and actively use the products. If they stopped all development now I wouldn't complain.

Sure, I would like a map builder and a trap/hazard builder but I am not sure if they can integrate those into Adventure Tools without causing our computers to stop working. The monster builder alone is such a resource hog: I would hate to see how slow any of my computers ran if Adventure Tools had more components!

 

[doctorhook]

If we haven't seen anything by GenCon Indy 2010, I think the D&D community should take matters into our own hands with a large-scale, public, open-source-type project, maybe even hosted at ENWorld. It's been shown by resourceful fans that these types of tools are not impossible to create; maybe we should create them. Maybe WotC could even contribute to that project.

I still have faith in the digital initiative, because the Character Builder is great.

 

[darjr]

I think this is the other half of going mum. I hope they keep with that policy, because opening back up is probably still a mistake.

Sorry, I intensely want to know what is going on, but it'll be done when it's done. Till then it probably isn't worth even knowing about. Would you want to try and use it if it isn't done? Aside from any kind of beta tester status someone might want to take on, if it isn't done it might be unusable or unreliable.

 

[Shemeska]

Well, of the current in-house team, there's nobody left on staff who had a part in coding any of the outsourced VTT work. And unless something changed in the past year, I don't believe it has been worked on since it went in-house - the resources simply weren't there, and the team now is smaller than it began. The people who worked on most/much of the code for the character builder for instance have all since been hit by layoffs or lapsed work-to-hire contracts.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Then why do "they" (Wotc-Trevor eg) keep insisting, as recently as a couple months ago on the official forums, that this is all being worked on? I think we suspect the truth, but I just wish they would come out with it and give it over to licensed open-source or out-sourced development.