First impressions and some recommendations.

Submitted by rollo on Fri, 2009-09-04 15:06

First off, I am really glad I found this program. I have been thinking a bunch lately of better ways to track conditions and it wasn't until I went looking for a way to track initiave that I found this program. I am very excited to start using this. I am really looking forward to the features I am seeing in the 1.0 release. Do you have a time frame for it?

Here are a few comments from my limited use.

In the Encounter/Party Editor:

1. When I am adding a new monster or character I want to be able to tab from one field to the next and have it select what is there so that I can just start typing to replace what is there. Currently when I tab to the next field and start typing it adds my new value to the end of what is there. So for instance, if I tab from Qty to Name and start typing it will append New Monster instead of replacing it.

2. If I create a new monter field with a qty more then one, I can not set an ID. I understand why you set it this way, but it would be easier if I could put an ID in for the group (M) and when you expand it out each individual for that group would get a number appended to that ID to make it unique (M1, M2, M3). That type of thing. This would make things rather easy and the save time of me having to go back and assign IDs to individuals.

In the Main program:
1. Why do you have Multiple Areas to enter in Effects? That seems redundant and I can't see using more then one.

2. Can we get it to track Action points?

3. I would rather not have to start and stop the round for each character. Instead when I end the round for one character it should start the round for the next.

4. I think it should be turn not round. During a single round each charater/monster gets one turn. At least that is the verbage we use and I think is what is in the book.

5. A better installer would be cool. It wouldn't be hard to wrap this up in an MSI that puts it in the Program folder and creates shortcuts. Instead of using a batch file you could probably do it with a shortcut.

Like I said, I am very excited about this program and am willing to help out with it as much as I can. For instance, I am very proficient in software packaging so if you need an installer create I could help with that.

Matt

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One question at a time

Submitted by Nebulorum on Sun, 2009-09-06 14:47.

Thanks for all the input.

Version 1.0 will be ready when it's ready. I hope that happens before the end of the September.I'm very frustrated with my own rhythm.

Now to your other points:

  • Party editors
    1. There will be a lot of changes here. You will no longer input monster on each party. You add monsters to the compendium then build parties using the monsters in the compendium. New editor will be for each monster.
    2. ID need some explaining. ID will be generated automatically if you leave them blank. They should be short since in the future the interface will use them for input via keyboard. On V1.0 you will have the option of setting aliases (or mini descriptions) along with the ID. That way if you place an alias of M and let VCC generate the IDs you will have something like what you want.
  • Main program
    1. If your monster tends to cause more than one effect, you can leave these in different areas. When you select the monster again the previous values will be "remembered".
    2. I think there is a feature request for this. I what to track that and healing surges. If you don't find the feature request, feel free to create one.
    3. I'm working on reducing that, but there are some reasons for this behavior (discussion here), mostly delaying combatants. Please note that there are short cuts to improve this.
    4. I think you have a very good point, it should be Turn, I'll fix that.
    5. The better installer is a bit more complex. Next version has a script for to create a short cut on the desktop. I want to keep VCC cross-platform, currently we have bad installers on all platforms, but the same none the less. For Mac OS it is really a bad approach. If you really want to contribute here we should take the discussion to the developer list. I have been pondering on how to make VCC easier to install, while keeping it cross-platform. You help is more than welcome.