This is a quick update from the development front. June 2010 has seen a hiatus on any development. This is mostly due to vacation and traveling of the lead developer (Nebulorum). With the return to normal, I hope that new feature development will resume. There are two main goals for the next release: remind DM of save end, ongoing and other effect that happen at end of turns; provide support for the new stat block format.

Version 1.3.0 has been release. It includes a lot of fixed and the greatest re-write of the internal logic since version 0.30. This has been hard work especially since we wish to maintain the high quality of the previous releases. Much of the changes were made to ensure Virtual Combat Cards is made easier to improve and maintain.

This release now allows some much requested features:

• Combatant now can have several entries in the initiative order; which is needed for creatures like Behir and Demogorgon.
• You can re-roll initiative of monsters
• You can roll initiative after combat has started; which is something some published modules suggest.
• Rest and clearing the initiative order can only be done when not in combat.

The last few weeks have seen a lot of work on the next release of Virtual Combat Cards (version 1.3.0). The last builds are looking solid and we hope to have a release soon. However to ensure we have a version that is up to the quality we all grew used to, we need your help testing this version of VCC. We need to make sure we have a stable version and that all key features are working.

Version 1.2.0 is out with some feature changes, but most importantly some important background work to make VCC easier to evolve. The end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 brought important challenges to the core developers of the project. With much of the demand behind us we are now focusing on new things for VCC.

The main goal for the 1.3.0 release is to work on the core logic of the tracker to allow it to do some of the long requested functions. These include: roll initiative in the middle of the battle, remind DM of sustains and save, ongoing damage, and other. The core logic is quite old and need some major work.

A new version Virtual Combat Cards has been release to fix a problem that appeared on the capture of data using Firefox 3.6. It also works with older Firefox versions.

On December 18, Virtual Combat Cards was one year old. During this year a lot has changed and the application has evolved a lot. We are really happy with all the progress and community support. Many features are under planning and we will continue to work to make Virtual Combat Cards the best free tracker out there. We would like to thank all the people that use it, those who tried, and mostly those that have posted comments and helped out testing, spreading the news and just saying good things.

We are very proud to announce Virtual Combat Cards version 1.1.0. With good creative winds on our coding sails, we managed to pull a very important release with several great improvements in the layout of the main window. Using Info Node Docking Windows the entire screen was redesigned into docking panel, that can be moved, resized, and stacked. Reorganize the screen to fit your needs and save you layout. New combatant selection logic and initiative panel reduce the amount of clicking significantly.

We are very proud to announce the release of Virtual Combat Cards Version 1.0.0! This version is the first to encompass all of the goals originally set out when we started this journey. It now allows the DM to focus on the key aspects of the game, providing invaluable information directly on his screen (namely the full combat card for each combatant).

This is the result of a lot of work and includes some wonderful new features:

• The ability to import monsters from the D&D Insider compendium website;
• The ability to use and re-use imported and user-created monsters again and again in a new Virtual Combat Cards compendium library;
• A Firefox plug-in that enables the capture of monsters from the D&D Insider compendium website;
• The stat-blocks for imported monsters are identical to the stat-blocks on the Wizards website and in the books (ie, they look great!);
• A new log and error system that will help us iron out any future bugs and issues;
• A strongly built, high quality, multi-platform design that you can rely on to help you game.

Time for a little foreshadowing as works progress on version 1.0. A lot of nice features are on the way, to state a few:

• You can now store your monsters and assemble parties quickly (it even helps you with the XP math). This is due to a completely new file format and data structure.
• D&D Insider Capture: This combines a Firefox plugin with new VCC features that will allow you to automatically get all the relevant information and the stat block into your collection of monsters.
• New interface that shows the stat blocks. Gone are the days of having 3 source books open, or 6 tabs on your browser pointing to different monsters. You can have it all in VCC!

Here is an early screen shot of the progress so far for your delight.

Virtual Combat Cards is now an open source project. Actually the source code has been published for nearly a month now. This short update is just to report to all you VCC fans out there that you can now access the code and volunteer to help. Work progresses on a large change of the data files formats and organization. This is the core feature for version 1.0.