Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Dralenan Dec 12, 2009 0:42:34	I think the MB is actually great, it has saved me a lot of trouble so far as a DM.  There's a few things I could see improved, however, so in a sense, this is my list of things I want to see done better on it.  This has potential to be a great program (it's already very good). 1.  Printing out the holding pen.  This is the biggest issue.  There are numerous problems with me page flipping through multiple books for monsters (for one, it gives away too much to the players), and when you have custom monsters or monsters from unusual sources, it makes it worse.  Right now, MB is designed to let you print out a single monster at a time.  There are two different export functions, which serve as a workaround to this, but ideally, you should be able to print out the entire holding pen as a single document, displaying each of the monsters neatly and distinctly.  2.  Better export/import system. The software has a good means of importing and exporting files...but it is hard to find and not obvious.  Anything that makes this task easier would be helpful. 3.  The double monster glitch. Something I have noticed also occurs in the current version of character builder, periodically, the software acts as though you double click on something when you single click.  It combines with some other issues in monster builder to create a strange bug.  When you click on a monster to preview it, sometimes it will act like you double click it, opening the monster for editing.  If this is an official monster, it will duplicate the monster for editing.  When you close the monster to get back to the screen, a confirmation screen quickly pops up asking you to save any changes (even if you didn't make any).  Due to how quickly this happens, I have several times accidentally clicked on the "okay" to this, and the result is a duplicate monster is generated, identical to the first, except it is listed a custom, but cannot be deleted.  The monster list can then become loaded with duplicate entries due to this mistake.  4.  Conditional defenses. Some monsters gain defenses to specific situations.  Yet the defenses on MB are static...I can't modify a monster to say "gain a +2 fortitude against poison" for example.  Unless this is somewhere I haven't found yet. 5.  Character Builder interaction. One thing I have found MB useful for is making villains.  For major villains, however, I like to feed them through character builder, to make them truly memorable.  The problem is after I have created these villains in character builder, I have to transcribe them directly into MB.  Having an import feature for character builder files as NPCs would be useful. 6.  Create NPC option. Another helpful feature would be a means of creating NPCs.  Not a full set like character builder, but an automation of the class-based NPC design steps in the DMG/DMG2 as an additional feature would be helpful.  (As in, it would do the math for making the character, but it would not factor in equipment or powers, those would be up to the user).  I will post more if I think of more...
#2 thomasjtheobald Dec 20, 2009 16:57:48	Hiya - A few comments of my own, and a few responses to the OP... 1.  Printing out - since the pen sucks, can you take the monster to the clipboard and paste it into a Word doc?  That might help until they (read: never) fix it. 5.  Great point, and I second it.  The ability to start with a monster and then add character elements to it would be muy spectaular.   Stuff I've noticed right off - a.  Name ordering - sort by alpha is good, but sorting adjectives (like "elder" "ancient" "young") is not.  Any dragon, for instance, should be something like "dragon, color, age" or "color dragon, age".  You don't org them by age in the MM, for good reason.  Don't do it here.  Same goes for demons, devils, whatever.  When a person has seven books with monsters in them, it's a huge pain in the ass to shuffle through them all to find the one entry you need.  Here with this tool you have the opportunity to avoid exactly that problem, but you're setting yourself up for it all over again. b.  Why does the "powers" button list every single power there is in the entire history of creation?  What the hell good does that do me?  Just show me the powers for the creature I have selected, unless I am coming up with a new one, in which case dump all the myriad "bite" "claw" etc. and just give me the option to define my own.  Unless you have plans to make it navigable, just drop that button and I'll go through the "monsters" button to pull a specific creature's powers.  Oh, with the option to rename it. c.  When creating a new creature, blank out the name of the creature I started with (if any) and set my focus on the name space so I can give it a new name right off.   T
#3 AvonRekaes Dec 23, 2009 12:30:12	B: You know the powers list is a searchable database, right? It's not for looking at the powers of your current monster, it's for finding all interations of a power you might like to add to the one you're currently working on. For instance, say you were making an elemental demon thing, and decided it needed a breath weapon. You go to the power list, and type in "Breath Weapon" and it will give you a list of all Breath Weapons in the game. Then you can further refine your list and, say, you only want breath weapons from creatures with the elemental origin. Then you can surf the refined list and browse at your leisure without having to keep switching what monster you're looking at, until you find a nifty power to drag into your current monster's editing list. Maybe there's something different with your screen layout that's not letting you see the search functions. But the Power's list is great as-is.
#4 Movanic Jan 09, 2010 16:16:12	The ability to sort powers by keyword of the power. Right now, we can sort by key word of the creature the power belongs to. That's miles away from how useful this database could be. As an example : I wanted to look at all level 10 and lower powers with the poison key word. While you could say that many [fire] creatures will have [fire] powers, there are no [poison] creatures... And I second the defense conditional modification. And I add : a built-in feature for secondary attacks. I love the idea of secondary attacks (even if its official implementation and usage has been anything but consistent) and putting them in is a major pain in the posterior.