Power Creator Suggestions

[geekahedron]

The main reason I was looking for a program like this was not to create brand new custom powers, but to have a way to add description lines from feats and/or magic items to relevant existing power cards, because I always seem to forget additional bonuses or effects from certain power types while I'm playing. The WotC character generator will add "immediate" effects for damage from a feat like Astral Fire, but fails to note other "indirect" effects from a feat like Arcane Fire, for example. This works great for making custom cards. After using the program for a bit, here are a few things I've noticed could be fixed, improved, or added.

The "number of targets/attacks" slider is confusing to use and slightly buggy. Moving the slider appends ", two attacks" ",three attacks" to the attack line, as expected. Ticking the "One per target" checkbox, however, further appends "per target" to the line (giving you "two attacks per target" etc). I cannot find a way to actually specify "one attack per target," as the checkbox is disabled when the slider moves to 1. Perhaps a solution would be to simply leave that checkbox enabled all the time (and handle the case where the box is checked and the slider is at 1 as "one attack per target").

When you start a new power and enter the name in the Title field, hitting tab skips the next three fields and jumps to the flavor text, then goes up backward to level, power type, and class/race. Naturally, one would expect tabbing to simply traverse the fields in order down the page. I'm guessing that's because the flavor text field originally sat higher on the page, but when it moved the tab order did not.

It would be nice to have an option for the word "Primary" to be displayed before the "Target" and "Attack" when there are secondary and tertiary parts of a power. Many power descriptions refer to primary and secondary targets; having them clearly labeled on the card will eliminate some possible confusion.

There is no way to add more than one "Class modifier" to a given hit or effect line. I'd similarly like to see room for a much larger number of custom fields, to add bonuses as mentioned above (with the name of the feat or magic item in bold like the class feature is formatted), or for "Level 21" and other conditional modifiers added to the description. Currently, everything needs to be just stuffed in to the "Hit" description, which works but not as nicely as having separate custom fields.

On that note, it could fix the presentation and preserve the clean interface to implement some kind of formatting tags for use within the "Hit" "Miss" "Effect" fields. For example, having the "Level 21:" text in bold and the line indented beneath the hit descriptions.

Again, I'm using the software more to customize the display and add information to my existing power cards rather than creating custom classes and powers.

[LoganB]

Hey geekahedron,

Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't thought about using the program to modify existing powers, but I can certainly see the benefit in doing so.

I should mention I've been busy working on my game, Zafehouse 2, so the 4ePT has been neglected.

I've been meaning to take another look at the interface and iron out some long standing bugs/annoyances - many of which you mention in your post. The targets slider is in particular need of attention, as you have said. However, the next version includes a complex new feature: localisation support. It's a massive undertaking and it's unlikely I'll be able to address your concerns until after 0.7.0b is released.

The tab order can be modified, but it hasn't been a priority for the beta. Actually, I haven't give it any attention at all. :P It's not a massive task to fix so I'll see if I can squeeze it into 0.7.0b.

I also think there are a number of ways powers could be presented better or where additional verbosity would not go astray (such as including a Primary label). I try to follow the WotC format as much as possible, but I am open to straying in the interests of usability.

Everything you've suggested is very reasonable, and many are on a to-do list somewhere. Supporting multiple class modifiers is high on one of those lists.

I very much appreciate your feedback. It helps a lot to know what and how people use the program for so I can make it as easy to use and powerful as possible.