MasterTools

[DungeonKeeperUK]

Anyone know whats going to happen to teh MasterTools now with teh recent news at WoC?

 

[Luke]

MT should be okay.

It's in beta now, and has already been through 3 rounds of bug fixes.
I think the beta testers are reasonably impressed.

I'm very disappointed to hear that they've cut Ryan Dancey loose, but they should be so far through to the release that even mismanagement from this point on should see a somewhat decent release happen. The more interesting thing will be the future of MT in subsequent releases. From what I can tell, it's very short of it's original vision.


More importantly, I hope that Ryan stays very involved with OGL/D20 open gaming. Hopefully, though personal issues were hinted at, with some luck he'll continue to drive it

 

[Fast Learner]

Peter Kim Speaks

Here's a message from Peter Kim (now in charge of MT) from Wizards' boards yesterday:

http://boards.wizards.com/rpg/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=133;t=000390

If you followed the launch of Star Wars D20 you may be familiar with me. I have worked on the RPG Team at Wizards since the ancient days of Ryan Dancey and Keith Strohm. Anthony Valterra and I currently hold the fort. During the reorganization we unfortunately lost the valued services of Ryan. He has been a great asset on this project. I have been working on this project in the background with Fluid. I have been reading the forums and been keeping track of all the concerns and suggestions everyone has.

In addition to managing the day to day operations for all Wizards RPGs, I will be taking over Ryan's duties on Master Tools. Producing D&D interactive programs and keeping everyone informed of new developments will take me a few days to ramp up to speed, but I will hopefully try to fill the footprints left by those infamously clean white sneakers.

The Master Tools Beta is currently under way and we are making progress fixing bugs and wrapping up this project. We had an open beta call a few weeks ago. We are no longer accepting any new beta testers, but I'd like to thank everyone who expressed interest. I'll post some new specs and news after I finish my review of the current build.

Many thanks to all those who have worked, suggested, rebuilt, and created such a vibrant community around Dungeons and Dragons.

Peter Kim
Associate Business Manager

Peter.Kim@wizards.com

 

[Needleman]

MT should be okay.

It's in beta now, and has already been through 3 rounds of bug fixes.
I think the beta testers are reasonably impressed.

*sarcastic laughter*

The beta is going very slowly, almost no one sends to the mailing list anymore. We haven't heard form Ryan Dancey except when a new version came out. We havent heard from Peter Kim or anyone at Fluid at all. The beta is going slowly and grinding to a halt. And, quite frankly, I'm not impressed with the program.

 

[Pinnocchio]

And, quite frankly, I'm not impressed with the program.

Eric Noah seems to be impressed...and that's enough for me...

Pinnocchio

 

[Fast Learner]

I certainly must respect Eric's opinion over a comparitive complete stranger.

It sounds like exactly the tool I need.

Shame about the beta going slowly. If you've ever been on the programming side of a beta, you know it never grinds to a halt, though. It may have to restart if your issues are too serious. though.

 

[BrianB]

I certainly must respect Eric's opinion over a comparitive complete stranger.

I agree. There are a lot of people that seem really down on this product and I can't figure out why they still follow these threads.

If they think the product will suck and that there are already better products out there that do everything they need then why can't they just tune out these threads?

They seem to spend a lot of time and energy slinging negative comments about this product.

Maybe some of them have ulterior motives?

 

[Needleman]

There's a fourth beta now, it seems to be picking up again. I realize that you would probably not listen to me "slinging negative comments" around, I was just posting my own opinions. The program really isn't that bad, it's just missing some stuff that's availiable elsewhere. Sorry if I made some people mad.

 

[Shrokail]

Based only on the information I've seen on the EN site, I'm not very impressed either. With all it's bugs, PC Gen appears to have all the same features and more. It's also free, and it's already available.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

If Mastertools will let me take a core monster, apply a template and easily advance it or give it a core class, I will be pretty content. And from what I have heard, it will do just that.

I would be happy to use PCGen, and although it continues to improve, it's interface is still much too inconsistent and buggy for me to be happy with...