DM Software Tools: Encounter Manager by Anubisware, Beta 0.4.0.0
Thank you for all the great feedback on the first beta release of Encounter Manager. Anubis has been hard at work incorporating your suggestions and generally improving the software to include lots of great resources for DMs.
Beta 0.4.0.0 is available to test drive and includes a lot of upgrades that you’ll love!
Download Location
http://www.anubisware.com/installs/encountermanager_0_4.zip
Anubis’ Notes on Beta 0.4.0.0
This is the fourth revision to the beta version of the Encounter Manager.
For Windows Users:
1) Uninstall any previous versions of the Encounter Manager from your computer (via Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs)
2) Unzip the downloaded file
3) Run the Setup.msi file
For Mono Project Users:
1) Ensure that the current release of Mono is installed (http://www.mono-project.com)
2) Unzip the downloaded file
3) Place the following files/folders where you would like them to go:
EncounterManager.exe
EncounterManager.exe.config
emlang.dll
MonsterFiles
DiceRoller.exe
You should then be able to run the .exe file on your computer.
Please look at the Implemented Enhancements forum and the Resolved Issues forum to see if your enhancement requests, or issues are resolved with this revision. If they are not, they will most likely appear in a later build.
What’s New In This Version
This program is starting to look pretty slick:
Here are some things that have been upgraded since you last saw the program:
- Updated New/Modify Character: Much nicer… and you can check for “Monster”!
- Copy Character / Monster: For multiple copies of the same monster.
- Round Tracking: Can see what round you’re on!
- Initiative Tracker: Improved and tied to the Round Tracking feature.
- Conditions Tracker: Can track ongoing conditions by number of rounds affected. Conditions are displayed next to the character/monster.
- Initiative Bonus: A good addition in case there are ties for initiative!
- On-Going Damage Tracker: For those damage over time spells. Ongoing damage is displayed on the main screen next to the character/monster.
- Roller: Can have the program roll for the initiative of your characters or monsters.
- IMPORT MONSTERS!!: This is the most exciting thing. Anubis has put in the monsters from the Monster Manual so all you need to do is click and add ‘em in so they can rip the stuffing out of your PCs. It will even keep track of the amount of XP the monsters are worth.
- Save Monsters to CSV: Got a particular set of monsters you want to work with as a baseline? Every encounter will have the same silly minion orcs? Why not save the encounter so you don’t have to put it all in again?
Your Mission
Again, please download the program and give it a whirl. Anubis values any feedback - positive or negative - about the program. Cheers, jeers, bugs, confusion - whatever you find, please post it below.
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Cool…I will let my GM know this Wednesday!
Ill get you some feed back after the game.
I wanted to personally thank all those who tested the original and gave all the feedback that has made this app what it is today.
Hmm, the inclusion of monster stats both makes it legally questionable and also a must-download for GMs!
Dave T. Games last blog post..Review: “Mistborn”
I definitely will be trying this on Saturday.
Tony Laws last blog post..We live in a mobile world. Does your blog?
@ Tony - Let us know how it goes!
@Dave - if it becomes a legality issue, I will just leave it so that user can create their own databases. I don’t think it will though, as it stands, you still need the MM 4e to properly run the monster, and I won’t change that.
With this product, users will still be required to have the 4e PHB, DMG, and MM to properly use it…this just helps
@Tony - I will be awaiting any comments you have about it. Thanks.
Sweet! Downloading now and will give feedback. Thanks!
@ Farland - Thanks! Let us know how you like it!
One suggestion just by looking at these (might have more of these after I try it out friday):
Make the dice have their highest number showing. If you aren’t paying attention, especially since they aren’t labeled, the 8, 10, and 12 can be pretty similar looking.
@ Mystrich - Good point!
I’ve used DMGenie for nearly all of my 3.Xe years, and now that I’ve moved to 4e, I miss its functionality when I run games. That said, I just downloaded this neat little tool today and found it to be very cool. I like that it seems to keep things pretty simple.
one piece of feedback:
I hope I’m just not missing something here, but why, when you enter in ongoing damage, are you required to enter in number of rounds? Shouldn’t there be a save made for that effect for it to end? It would be nice if the program prompted you if the player/monster made its save against the condition and or ongoing damage at the end of their turn.
Thanks for an elegant program!
@ Mac - That’s a great idea
@Mystrich - good point, this will be changed with revision 1 of beta 4 (0.4.1.0)
@mac1504 - hadn’t thought about it, will be included in revision 1 of beta 4 (0.4.1.0)
Thanks.
A thought- on tied initiatives, the highest dex always wins. It would be neat if there was an area to record dexterity, and the program would figure out who won a tie based on their dex.
In our campaign, if the dexterity scores are tied, the win usually goes to the PC over the monster.
@mac - I am setting this up per the rules defined in the PHB 4E. The Initiative rule for ties is as follows:
“When combatants have the same initiative, the combatant
with the higher initiative bonus (the total of
one-half your level, your Dexterity modifier, and any
bonuses) goes before the other. If their bonuses are the
same, they can roll a die or flip a coin to break the tie.”
That was the reasoning behind adding the initiative bonus to the character/monster.
The application will, currently, check to see the total Inititiave Score, if a tie results, the program will then look to see who has the higher initiative bonus. If that is a tie, then it will sort by who’s first in the list. You can then alter the initiative bonus to adjust who is first.
@Anubisascends
D’oh- goes to show my complete knowledge of 4e so far! I guess I still have some 3e rules floating around in my head.
Thanks!
@ Anubis - It might help to have passive perception/insight too… that’s another thing a DM might like to have easily accessible about the PCs. Doesn’t necessarily affect the encounter, but it would be nice to have.
@e re: Passive Perception- I’ll definitely second that; that wouldn’t add much to the interface, but would add another convenience.
If you think it wouldn’t add too much as well, how about a counter for action points and dailies/encounter powers?
Hi everybody! I DMed with the Encounter Manager and it worked pretty well. I’m using it to prepare for the second session (and all future ones, really… when I’m bored, I enter in encounters).
Here are a couple things I noticed:
- I always wanted to double click the name of the monster to assign damage and not the blood drop. Dunno why.
- Could there be an option for DMs who want to put in the attacks of each monster? Then if I mouseover the monster, a little box pops up and says Bite +5 to AC, 2d4+2 or something? cuz that would be super cool and eliminate the need for me to check the book as much.
@everyone
I am working on a new encounter manager that will be more ‘upgradable’ on my end. This will end up allowing me to add additional features more easily.
The major changes that will appear in this new version will be the following:
- Defined Character list: You will be able to select a character from a list, that is separate from the Initiative List
- Detailed Character Information: you will be able to setup detailed, default character info, like attacks, damage, etc, as well as custom notes more easily
- Set the Behaviour; the user will be able to determine what is done (in a limited capacity) when clicking on certain items in the application. This will be done by selecting a pre-defined action in the preferences. When you select the action to take, it is held in memory
Unfortunately, this means two things:
1) Coding of Beta 0.4.0.0 has ended (the new version will be 1.0)
2) You will have to wait a little while. This new version is a total rebuild (I have purchased several new code authoring tools that help me keep everything organized. When I ran them on the current version of the encounter manager, my computer crashed…lol)
So, in short, my apologies for the wait, I am hoping to have 1.0 ready for testing in about 2 months. Feel absolutely free to continue commenting, I will add the features in as I am working on this new version.
Thanks to everyone.
P.S. - version 1.0 will have qualified help documentation as well as support current .sav and .enc files so that you don’t loose any of your information.
@ Anubis - Woot! Sounds cool.
I tried downloading the Encounter Manager Program but I get 404 errors. Is the file still available?
@ Jonas - I’ll track down Anubis and ask him.
Anubis is having some issues with his web host. The files will be back up as soon as he can get it straightened out. Our apologies for the inconvenience!!
Got the Encounter Manager now. What do you use to edit the monster files?
I created the monster files using the Encounter Manager. You can either browse to the folder location of the monster files (defailt is c:\program files\anubisware\dncounter manager\monster files\) and open the .enc file, edit it then save it back to the same location.
Or you can use the Import Monster command from the file menu, update the file, then re-save it.
The difference between the monster files and a standard save file is this. The save file (.sav), when loaded, will overwrite all information in the encounter manager. The ecnoutner file (.enc) will add the information to the already existing information in the encounter manager.
Hope that helps explain it.
For some reason, I get an error whenever I get a note. Also, if you use Save As instead of Save, it’s really hard to get the file to open up in the program.
After I create an encounter and save it to either the Data or Monster subdirectories, when I select the File|Import Monsters, it gets this error:
“Could not find a part of the path “D:\Program Files\Anubisware\Encounter Manager\Data\MonsterFiles”
It looks like it concatenates the “MonsterFiles” subdirectory to the last directory accessed. Is there a way to fix this in the config file?
The program runs nominally in Mono on Linux, but it crashes practically any time I try to do anything with it. I’ve been able to tweak settings here and there with lots of help from Google, with the end result being that I’ve changed WHEN it crashes, but the bottom line is that it just isn’t usable in Linux as is, as far as I can tell. That is, unless I’m missing something profoundly obvious, which I’ll admit is entirely within the realm of possibility.
That being said, it’s a great little program; incredibly useful! I’m looking forward to your 1.0 release, and my DM and I haven’t given up on researching how to get it to work in Linux.
When the monster reaches “0″ hit point it automatically labels it as dead instead of dying. Is there anyway you can make it so that anyone from “0″ to “-9″ is labeled as dying, and then dead at “-10″…..
ok maybe i should rephrase that, after reading the PHB again… same question but instead dead at your blooded score in the negative…example HP 50 bloodied at 25 dead at -25… i hope this all makes sense
Hi everybody! Thanks for all the feedback! Anubis pops in and out of the thread to grab your comments and put them in this To-Do list. Right now he’s working on the actual 1.0 release, which is still a couple months away, but should address all the bugs and fixes people wanted.
Please continue to let us know of any issues you find or things you’d like added. Thanks!
Just an observation. The dice roller never rolls the maximum number. I have sat there rolling on a few of the dice and a 20 sider never rolls 20. A 12 sider never rolls a 12 etc. Maybe the algorithm for the randomizer needs adjustment. The other thought is that the notes area could be saved with the encounter so that a GM could provide a description of the particulars of the encounter to remind himself of how he wants it to go down. And lastly, what a great program. It beats anything else out there at the moment. Makes my gaming life so much easier. Really looking forward to version 1.0
Hi all,
Thanks for the link to the nice program.
I downloaded it, and works great, but it seems the “monster” files are not all there (my list stops at “demon” .. )
I assume the zip file was either corrupted or truncated.
@ Francois - I think that Anubis was only partially done with typing up all the monsters
Update
I am currently working on the final phase of setting up the original functionality in the new version of the Encounter Manager.
Some of the new functionality that is currently implemented:
1) Dead characters are moved to the bottom of the initiative list
2) Dead characters are not selected when advancing in the initiative order
3) Unlimited amount of attacks can be added to each character
4) Detailed information is now displayed when a character is selected
5) New character list has been added (this is separate from the initiative list
6) User Interface is more customizable (panelized)
7) User can specify (in limited fashion) how the application operates (such as what happens when you double click on a character in the new character list)
Functionality that I am currently working on:
1) API to allow users to create 3rd party plug-ins
2) Localization capabilities
3) Save feature
4) Proprietary Import feature (allow DM’s to easily share information)
5) CSV Export/Import feature (allow everyone to share information)
6)Completing the monster list.
Thank you everyone for your patience while I get this done, but I am hoping that you will really enjoy this update. The main thing with this update will be far easier for me to change and maintain.
Anubisascends
Hi,
i think there might be a Bug when you add a new Charakter and have some notes attached to it. If you try to open the charakter details for a monster with notes the following exception appeears:
ystem.InvalidCastException: Die angegebene Umwandlung ist ungültig.
bei EncounterManager.frmInititive.GetSelectedCharacter()
bei EncounterManager.frmInititive.tbxNotes_Leave(Object sender, EventArgs e)
bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnLeave(EventArgs e)
bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.NotifyLeave()
bei System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.UpdateFocusedControl()
************** Geladene Assemblys **************
mscorlib
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll.
—————————————-
EncounterManager
Assembly-Version: 0.4.0.0.
Win32-Version: 0.4.0.0.
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Paladin/Desktop/RPG/EncounterManager_0_4/EncounterManager.exe.
—————————————-
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll.
—————————————-
System
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll.
—————————————-
System.Drawing
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll.
—————————————-
System.Windows.Forms.resources
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms.resources/2.0.0.0_de_b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.resources.dll.
—————————————-
emlang
Assembly-Version: 1.0.0.2.
Win32-Version: 1.0.0.2.
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Paladin/Desktop/RPG/EncounterManager_0_4/emlang.DLL.
—————————————-
System.Configuration
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll.
—————————————-
System.Xml
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll.
—————————————-
mscorlib.resources
Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll.
—————————————-
************** JIT-Debuggen **************
Um das JIT-Debuggen (Just-In-Time) zu aktivieren, muss in der
Konfigurationsdatei der Anwendung oder des Computers
(machine.config) der jitDebugging-Wert im Abschnitt system.windows.forms festgelegt werden.
Die Anwendung muss mit aktiviertem Debuggen kompiliert werden.
Zum Beispiel:
Wenn das JIT-Debuggen aktiviert ist, werden alle nicht behandelten
Ausnahmen an den JIT-Debugger gesendet, der auf dem
Computer registriert ist, und nicht in diesem Dialogfeld behandelt.
Could you fix this? Im running this tool under Vista Home
Thanks!
@Jakob
This error will be corrected when I get the next version out. I am nearing completion on the beta.
Thanks.
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