At the risk of sounding stupid... how does one download the update to the Monster Builder? It doesn't seem to prompt me the way Character Builder does. Maybe the Editorial Calendar is wrong, and the update isn't available yet? I'm honestly not sure...
It is, I downloaded it yesterday. It *should* prompt you the same way that the character builder does. When you start it up, what is the screen that you see??
It is, I downloaded it yesterday. It *should* prompt you the same way that the character builder does. When you start it up, what is the screen that you see??
I get the "Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Tools" with the wax Beta stamp on it, with the options in sphere of "Monster Builder" and four blanks. There is no prompt.
maybe they fixing last update ? - i updated the MB yesterday and it crash everytime i select a monster from list ;/
I have same issue (Monster builder crashing when I select monster) with 2 different computers, one XP SP3 and one Vista SP1.
Character builder still works perfect on both, so it can't be .NET issue.
Same here. Updated it, monster builder crashes when selecting a monster every time.. tried repair.. twice.. no luck.
I can't really reinstall it and rollback (don't know how that would work) and i don't really want to lose my custom monsters (i don't even know where they are stored).
Character builder works perfectly.
What the hell...
I get the "Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Tools" with the wax Beta stamp on it, with the options in sphere of "Monster Builder" and four blanks. There is no prompt.
It looks like you are bypassing the initial startup screen. I *think* that if you got to preferences, there is an option to bypass it on startup. Check to make sure that it is not checked.
As for the others with problems, I will poke WotC about this. I would also, if I were you, contact CS about this. You might also check to see if there is an option to repair your update.
Updated and crashed also when selecting monsters.
I sent a bug report to CS. No response yet.
I tried a repair and it also a failure.
Is there a way to uninstall an update ?
Oh and as an added bonus to this genious update, all my custom monsters have vanished!
Yes, an extraordinary patch indeed!
Another neat feature is that you can't see the hp etc. of custom monsters that you build.
So the problems seem to be:
1: The app crashes when you click on the big monster list.
2: All your custom monsters vanish. (PWNED!)
3: Creating custom monsters doesn't work properly.
I am somewhat irked that the 20 CUSTOM MONSTERS I HAVE CREATED AND ACTUALLY USED IN MY CAMPAIGN HAVE VANISHED!!!
Speaking as someone who has worked with design of e-learning simulations... Monster Builder is a very good app, but this patch is a complete and utter botch.
Patched. and experianced no issues.
I have the same problems that a lot of others here : updated, crashes when selecting monsters, customs ones have "vanished".
I haven't use the repair option, but I did uninstall/re-install the app. Still doesn't work.
I sent a message to CS yesterday and I'm still waiting for a reply, although they do write that it takes usually one or two days to get an answer...
I've also experienced the vanishing monster phenomenon, but they are only partly wiped out...
The name and role information as well as the hps and defenses are all intact. The power section has the name/type/action/usage information from before the update, but the attack and keyword information has been completely wiped out.
I had built roughly 80 custom creatures (some minor tweaks/others built from scratch), so I'm not at all pleased!
I have reported the vanishing ability write up bug to the tech guys. If you have the old monster.data file from the previous version of the builder, you can copy it over the new one and get your customs back, though it seems that editing any custom monsters destroys them all again!
I don't have a backup file since I wasn't aware of the file's existence.
I expected that they would have tested the new version before sending out the update.
My understanding is that its a 'hidden file'. How do you 'make visible' the 'hidden file' so it can be copied?
Go to your control panel and select "folder options". click on the "view" tab, and scroll down until you come to "hidden files and folders". Select "show hidden files and folder", click "apply" and exit. All your hidden files and folders will be displayed as ghostly shadows to the mundane ones! 
I have updated the tech guys about this bug (it seems whenever I save a monster it messes things up), so I'm hoping they can get to the bottom of all this, and we'll be back to loving this awesome (when not being a pain) bit of software!
Thanks Sefotron. I very much wish I'd known this earlier. It will be many lost hours of work I'm afraid.
I updated yesterday and experienced none of the problems reported here. In fact some of the bugs in the initial download seem to be fixed.
I haven't seen any problems, but I don't use the monster builder much, so all I've tried to verify is that my copy does not crash on loading monsters and all of my previous custom monsters are still there.
Thanks Sefotron. I very much wish I'd known this earlier. It will be many lost hours of work I'm afraid.
"Not at all pleased" doesn't even begin to describe what I felt after the update. I will start billing WOTC for my lost spare time after this :P
Wonders if his summoning powers also works on WotC employees...
I summon the Didier from the Monin!!!
Hey all. First off I want to apologize to those who have had issues with this recent update to the Monster Builder. Losing your custom monsters is of course no fun, nor is crashing when selecting a monster. We are definitely investigating this in house and as MB eluded to, I expect we'll have a visit from Didier (Wotc_DM) or someone else form the DDI team with some questions that should help them replicate and squash the bug.
-Trevor
Thanks for getting back to us. Look forwards to the fix 
Hi folks..
We are interested to get some information from you if you have issues with the latest patch update of the monster builder.
We have not had these issues here in our QA environment, so we are mostly interested at that time to receive your Dxdiag file so that we can see if there are any common factors triggering these issues.
You can run a Dxdiag by clicking on the START button, then use the RUN option, and type DXDIAG there (you can answer Yes or No to the follow up question as you see fit). Once you have the DirectX Diagnostic Tools open, use the Save Information button, and save your dxdiag file locally, then send me a PM with the dxdiag file attached***, and a quick description of the issue you are facing.
***Note: open the DXDiag file in notepad, copy all, and paste this into the message you send me (don't forget to mention the issue you are facing), as the message system does not allow attachments..
Thanks!
Thanks!
Wonders if his summoning powers also works on WotC employees...
I summon the Didier from the Monin!!!
Dang, this is where my compulsion to look at the forum came from.. nicely done! How do I return now???
Patch installed normally and there were no problems. Except that the new version has a problem where when I view it on my 1024x600 res laptop screen, the bottom part of the window is hidden under the taskbar.
Wonders if his summoning powers also works on WotC employees...
I summon the Didier from the Monin!!!
Dang, this is where my compulsion to look at the forum came from.. nicely done! How do I return now???
Let's see, all I have to do is show a little programmer repellant.
Another thing you can do to back up your Monsters is use a PDF Printer Program to "print" a PDF copy to your hard drive. This way you at least have a printable copy of something you have finished. I've used a program called PDFCreator to do this with both the Monster Builder and the CBuilder.
GF
Strange that you can't replicate the bug.
While you guys are investigating, it would be great to have a way to be able to roll back to before the sept. 9 update so i can actually use the program again.
I am unable to send a PM with DXDIAG dump for some strange reason.. i think i have to be on the friends list to do that. I attached it to a mail to the support instead.
Problem persists on 3 different computers, 2 with XP SP3 and one with Vista SP1
I can't seem to get PM's properly, so pasting links to dxdiag files:
XP machines:
Vista machine:
maybe they fixing last update ? - i updated the MB yesterday and it crash everytime i select a monster from list ;/
I have the same problem with the monster builder 
I played around with Monster builder a bit and found other strange things too:
Browsing powers works only partially, shows the power name, keywords, action type etc but not damage or any description.
Creating custom monster works partially:
I cannot assign HP's or defences to it and setting experience value via reset doesn't work.
Powers can be added but for attack powers there's nothing to be chosen from the defense drop-down menu.
Stats or skills cannot be added, languages and equipment works normally.
Monster created this way can be accessed without crashing application.
I think these issues are probably linked.
Another thing you can do to back up your Monsters is use a PDF Printer Program to "print" a PDF copy to your hard drive. This way you at least have a printable copy of something you have finished. I've used a program called PDFCreator to do this with both the Monster Builder and the CBuilder.
GF
This is entirely true. I'm glad I also did this (I am a little paranoid ). I used Cute pdf, which is a nice little app.
Wotc_DM:
I would have loved to send you my dxdiag, but seems i'm unable to PM you ! Don't know why.
Is there a way to un-install the update ?
Hope you rapidly found why its not working properly !
I just ddl it and for some reason it works just fine on Windows 7 but not on XP
I am very reluctant to download this new Monster Builder update, since I have a number of custom monsters that are essential to a project I am working on right now, and losing them now would set me way back. So I am going to leave my Monster Builder un-updated until I can get a guarantee that my stuff will be safe after upload. I am running Windows XP, if that makes any difference to how safe this Patch is.
Wotc_DM:
I would have loved to send you my dxdiag, but seems i'm unable to PM you ! Don't know why.
I had my privacy setting not set up the right way for this to work for everybody. This is fixed now.
Is there a way to un-install the update ?
Hope you rapidly found why its not working properly !
No, there is no way to uninstall the latest update.
You could do a backup of your custome data file at
%appdata%\AdventureTools\Data\monster.data
before doing the update.
AH ! AH !
It was your fault then ! :P
DxDiag Sent ! And hope it will be useful !
I had no custom monster... but it was for the sake of using the program ! I'll have to re-install it without making an update ;)
Merci !
Been prepping for my next game today, and for about five custom monsters everything was good (was carefully exporting the .XML files and making .pdf prints of each one as I went of course). Unfortunately, the sixth monster tripped things up, and everything lost its powers again! Ah well.
I just ddl it and for some reason it works just fine on Windows 7 but not on XP
For me, it doesn't work on Windows 7
We have made some progress in identifying the issue, and until we do have a fix available, here is a recommendation by the dev team:
Before editing a custom monster and saving it, make sure you have clicked on all your custom monsters to display the monster's stat block. Setting the filter to show only Custom monsters and selecting all the monsters in the left list will also work. This needs to be done for each new session.
We also recommend you back up your custom monster file before updating your application as the current issue will overwrite it if the steps above are not done. The custom monster file can be found at
%appdata%\AdventureTools\Data\monster.data
We will keep you updated when we have a patch/update available to fix the issue.
WotC Support guy,
Downloaded it on both my Computers. Works perfectly on both. I've got XP Service Pack 3 on one and Vista Service Pack 2(It was apearently released yesterday as far as I can tell) on the other. I'm willing to send the Info files from both if the WotC guys need a sample "Control File" for their efforts to fix this Update. Let me know. Thanks.
GF
P.S.: Solo Dragons are in the Update! WOOT! Now I can fiddle with them:D Thanks
My Adventure Tools are completly broken since patch and all my customized monsters as well
So, WotC, have we lost all of our custom monsters or have you guys worked out a way to fix this?
So, WotC, have we lost all of our custom monsters or have you guys worked out a way to fix this?
If you have had the issue, the custom monsters file is corrupted, and can;t be recovered (unless if you had done a manual backup of your monster.data file before)
A nasty bug sneaked in that we did not catch. We are going to do an update to address this specific issue, and going forward (probably with the October release) we are going to provide an automatic backup of the custom monster file, so that if any such issue occurs again (which it should not..), at least we have a way of recovering your previous version's custom monsters file.
Ah, so we're not getting any fix before 6th of October?
A shame, it is a fantastic tool.
I could be wrong, but I read it as we won't get the backup button until then. I suspect the patch for this bug will be out sooner...at least I hope so 
Yea, "We are going to do an update to address this specific issue," does sounds like they're going to throw in a special update for the fix.
We have deployed an update for the Monster Builder, with a fix to the Custom Monsters issue reported on these boards.
Unhappily, if you already have experienced an issue with your custom monsters data, we will not be able to recover it. We apologize for this issue, we are still in beta, and this is a bug that we did not identify in time.
Because we are still in Beta, we do recommend you backup your custom monster file manualy (file is located at "%appdata%\AdventureTools\Data\monster.data). We do plan to add such a feature in the October update to make sure these files are automatically backed up after each update, so that if any other such bug should occur, our Customer Services can help you recover your data.
if you are experiencing other issues with the update, please keep us informed so that we can continue to work on solving those. Thanks.
Well...
My main problem with the Monster Builder was that it crashed everytime I selected a monster, like many other people here. Unfortunately, I downloaded the new update and this issue isn't resolved.
Will you need some data info ?
Well...
My main problem with the Monster Builder was that it crashed everytime I selected a monster, like many other people here. Unfortunately, I downloaded the new update and this issue isn't resolved.
Will you need some data info ?
You may have corrupted files from the previous crashes experiences.
Your best option would be to uninstall the application, download the install file from our web page, and run the update again. This will use up one extra key for you, but will give us some information about what may be going on for you. If it still crashes, we will investigate further through PM.
Well...
My main problem with the Monster Builder was that it crashed everytime I selected a monster, like many other people here. Unfortunately, I downloaded the new update and this issue isn't resolved.
Will you need some data info ?
You may have corrupted files from the previous crashes experiences.Your best option would be to uninstall the application, download the install file from our web page, and run the update again. This will use up one extra key for you, but will give us some information about what may be going on for you. If it still crashes, we will investigate further through PM.
Hello,
I have the same problem (crash when Monster Builder starts) even after uninstalling / reinstalling.
I have the same problem (crash when Monster Builder starts) even after uninstalling / reinstalling.
Hi, this may not be the same problem as the other person reports a crash when clicking on the monster list, where you report a crash when the application starts.
Can you PM me a DXDIAG report from your machine?
Hi !
I made a reinstall (uninstall, then installed again the monster builder,moreover installed it an another directory than before), but still crushing, when I clicking to a monster
DM, do you still want DXDIAGs ? As I seen, finally the forum-pm is working, and allowing to add to you to the recipient list.
Hi !
I made a reinstall (uninstall, then installed again the monster builder,moreover installed it an another directory than before), but still crushing, when I clicking to a monster
WotC_DM, do you still want DXDIAGs ? As I seen, finally the forum-pm is working, and allowing to add to you to the recipient list.
Sure, please send a PM with your DXDIAG.. we are investigating a possible parsing issue with non US settings.. This would be a separate issue as the issue today's update fixed.
Updated... still not working. ***Tabarn***
Uninstall... worked.
Re-Installed... and... still not working.
Also, very not good to be forced to update ! I could have "at least" use an un-updated program for my friday game ! Now, im stuck in pen and paper and switching MM pages !!! Could you disable this option on the main program download !?!?
Merci
WotC_DM: As-tu besoin que je te renvois mon DXdiag encore ?
Updated... still not working. ***Tabarn***
Uninstall... worked.
Re-Installed... and... still not working.
Also, very not good to be forced to update ! I could have "at least" use an un-updated program for my friday game ! Now, im stuck in pen and paper and switching MM pages !!! Could you disable this option on the main program download !?!?
Merci
WotC_DM: As-tu besoin que je te renvois mon DXdiag encore ?
Got you DXDiag already.. Yours and other received DxDiag points to an issue with non US settings... We are looking into this..
Regarding the update, it is not forced after having updated with your subscription to the full version. You can then chose to launch the application without doing an update.
The installer does only install the updater though, and you do need to update at least once before having a choice to keep your version as is...
I've got it !
If I change my Regional and Language Options to USA, it not craching, but if I change it back to hungarian, it crushing again !
Hourra !
Its also working for me if I change those settings ! but from Francais (Canada) to English (US)... Tried English (Canada) and its still working !
So WotC_DM... what do you have against French :P A Mort le Traitre ! :P
Hope you find a fix soon... but at least I can use the program for my friday night game ! Yahoo ! Thanks Shiwo !
The developers are going over the parsing rules to identify where this kind of issue can happen.
Until we got that done I am glad to hear that changing the local settings to English did fix the issue for you.
WotC_DM:
I correct you... not US... but English... whatever English (XYZ) ;)
Confirmed. Changing date, time and numbering format settings to English (USA) from Swedish stopped it from crashing instantly when selecting a monster.
keyboard settings and local time settings are still swedish.
Fantastic!
Thanks for the fix. Works prefectly once the format is changed to English.
That was some very wizard advice.
Also confirming that this works.
I think that the issue is with the decimal symbol. I changed it from comma to dot and Monster Builder works now perfectly.
(You can do it from the same place as you change localisation settings, choose customize, numbers and decimal symbol)
Having been gently informed by my brother, I now wish to explain that "wizard" back in my day actually meant that the person in question was an individual in posession of superior knowledge and/or insight. There was no trace of irony in saying that someone had given wizard advice. The foul taint of irony appears to have crept into this expression.
Bearing this in mind I now wish to say: thank you for the solution!
I t certainly seems to be the , used for decimals. I tried changing only the comma for a dot, and it works.
Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Format -> Customize this format -> Number -> Decimal Symbol --> make sure it's a dot '.' not a comma ','
CB had the same issue with for non english users, you learned nothing? Back to the basement! :P
CB had the same issue with for non english users, you learned nothing? Back to the basement! :P
It did? I never noticed.
Thanks for the fix, everything working fine for me now . Good to know I will be able to use the building at my next game without losing everything half way through.
Again, awesome job.
Well, now that we've got a patch for the patch, I figured it was safe to download the update. But... I can't seem to find this "settings" window you refer to, Mudbunny, and the app still just takes me to the screen with the monster builder and the blank orbs.
Can you explain how changing settings works, or maybe guess at something else that could be wrong? I'm quite eager to try the new update, but it seems my original question remains unresolved 
Something like this
Start -> control panel -> clock and region settings -> regional number format.
the path changes depending on operative system and viewing settings but you should be able to find it.
Something like this
Start -> control panel -> clock and region settings -> regional number format.
the path changes depending on operative system and viewing settings but you should be able to find it.
No, what I meant was that I'm not being prompted to download the update, and I can't figure out how to get Adventure Tools to give me the prompt I need.
Seeing as I can't seem to find the settings for the update prompt anywhere, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are either using a link to the Monster Builder you made yourself or, less likely, browsing to the folder and opening it straight from there.
See if your link's target field to the Builder reads
"XX\Adventure Tools\CharacterBuilderUpdater.exe" RealCharacterBuilderUpdater.exe app.config
Where XX is the folder you have it installed in (default C:\Program Files\Wizards of the Coast, at least on an XP machine). Including the quotation marks. Yes, it's wonky that it reads CharacterBuilder, but that's the correct filename for the updater.
Through a complicated series of events that I cannot explain, the prompt appeared. Thanks to all who tried to help me, but whatever was wrong, its working now!