# PCGen 2.4.0 Released



## Leopold (Jan 19, 2002)

PCGen is a java character generator and maintenance 
program aimed at supporting all d20 games such as D&D 
Third Edition, Star Wars, and others. All datafiles 
are ASCII so they can be modified by users. An XML conversion is underway. 

Here's the list of Bugs that have been fixed and 
features that have been added. If you reported one of 
these, please verify that it is was addressed properly. PCGen is available at 
http://pcgen.sourceforge.net, and the main discussion 
group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen. Be 
sure to download both parts of PCGen... pcgen240.zip 
(the app itself) and data240.zip (the data files). 

We've got some OS-specific installs of PCGen to help 
those who have trouble installing the generic version.At 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/files/Alternate PCGen Releases/ 
you will find a list of these releases which you can 
use if you have trouble with the version you find 
here. Please note that there alternate versions are 
updated by users, so there may be some time lag 
between when an official release comes out and when 
the alternate OS-specific release is ready. 

Bugs 
498762 Entertain bonus not added 
504181 monte cook ranger feats 
498730 Small size Armor AC is incorrect 
497646 Loading files 
504050 Charm Monster in Psionics Powers 
503111 Prestige Class Problems 
503586 Shadow Adept 
503349 Can't become Sith? 
497990 Problem with War Wizard 
502791 Incorrect Data 2.3.9 
500660 Spells not appearing for Necromancy 
499833 Repost of [ #497895 ] Typos for spell... 
499479 Distinguishing Domain Spells II 
502150 Domains: Non-Divine caster problems 
503191 War Domain with None deity not working 
498554 Domain tag appears to be broken 
501336 Eldritch Might Spell Lists 
500741 Text Template and Sunless Citadel 
493545 Wildcard skill bonuses not working 
502423 PREGENDER requirement not working 
502539 Bard feat "extra music" Song&silence 
502533 MotP Prestige Classes 
502555 shot on the run: prerequisite incorrect 
501749 Help-Docs links wrong, file supplied 
500920 Assigning Bane of (any) to custom weapon 
496502 Repost of [#490378 ] Multiple domains 
493941 Non-prof penalty in NATURALATTACKS 
502161 Can't load monsters with Weapon Finesse 
502018 PoolRadianceequipwondrous.lst 
497910 Incorrect calculation of attack bonus 
499770 Thrown dagger 
501671 Docs menu item generates incorrect URL 

Features 
495297 Equipment VFEAT:tag 
504605 Add support for a PREDEITYDOMAIN tag 
501372 Let user to add a skill to Class Skills 
463609 BONUS:COMBAT|AC|value|prereq 
504602 Add PREDEITYALIGN tag 
503671 Remove obsolete field from Spells 
462757 Deity favored weapon Any 
448757 Way to restrict BONUS tags 
450145 Add BONUS & CHOOSE tags in deity.lst 
442483 Spells Known For Divine Casters 
419407 Allow ADD:Spellcaster to restrict class 
456743 ADD:SPELLCASTER 
504085 Improve ARMOR tokens 
503642 |LANGUAGES,<BR>| 
503648 New Filters to hide parts of csheet 
503479 Additional damage bonus for Off-hand 
502190 COUNT[SPELLSKNOWN%class.%level] 
503135 Support for MultiLine DESC and BIO tags 
503023 Remove obsolete field from skill.lst 
502507 Secondary/Sub Region selection 
498603 Swim skill weight carried penalty 
502092 View Selected/Avail Feats mode different 

The PCGen Development Team


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## grmbrand (Jan 21, 2002)

*Rock On*

For those of you who haven't tried PCGen yet; it is an absolutely state-of-the-art character generation tool. Not as slick looking as WotC's CharGen, but infintely more powerful and flexible. Rock on, guys.


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## Leopold (Jan 22, 2002)

*Re: Rock On*



			
				grmbrand said:
			
		

> *For those of you who haven't tried PCGen yet; it is an absolutely state-of-the-art character generation tool. Not as slick looking as WotC's CharGen, but infintely more powerful and flexible. Rock on, guys. *





thanks for the bump. we are working hard to impliment as much as we can into pcgen as quickly as we can. It's been a rough road but we are trudging onward!


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## piaw (Jan 23, 2002)

*any plans to improve the UI?*

It's pretty darn unusable as it stands. I'd like to see at least a "Core Rules only" mode so I don't have to scroll through Celestials and other (N)PC options that I rarely use. Good grief!


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## piaw (Jan 23, 2002)

*any plans to improve the UI?*

It's pretty darn unusable as it stands. I'd like to see at least a "Core Rules only" mode so I don't have to scroll through Celestials and other (N)PC options that I rarely use. Good grief!


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## GrassyKnoll (Jan 23, 2002)

Does the new version now support the ipaq PCGEn viewer? As I could never export the character to that format.


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## grmbrand (Jan 23, 2002)

*Re: any plans to improve the UI?*



			
				piaw said:
			
		

> *It's pretty darn unusable as it stands. I'd like to see at least a "Core Rules only" mode so I don't have to scroll through Celestials and other (N)PC options that I rarely use. Good grief! *




Perhaps you should spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with this product before you form your opinions. Otherwise you would know that the option you desire exists on the first screen of the software...


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## okuth0r (Jan 23, 2002)

1. if you look at the software it clearly lables all information you can choose as a source.  If you choose everything, of course youll get a astounding amount of options.  try again with just the Wotc players handbook, it will look a lot better.
2. the pcenview is something kind of new, i myself just started useing it. the one i use is for the palm os, ans is a astounding piece of software.  if you need help with it or its companion for the CE os im sure thier developers would help.
3.PcGen is a ever developing piece of software that has many complaints of being not user friendly.  Tell us what to change, either post on here a reccomendation of how to change it. or on the yahoo group.  There are those of us who love the program and what it can do, it is a very powerfull too, and if there is anything that we can do let us know.


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## d20Gurus.com (Jan 23, 2002)

Also of note, We just finished interviewing Bryan McRoberts, the Chief Code Manager for PCGen, over at www.d20gurus.com

Check it out, he has alot of neat things to say regarding how he sees the future and this program.


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## dpdx (Jan 24, 2002)

I've pretty much removed this post - It seems I wasn't even talking about the same program as this thread. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

That'll teach me to open my mouth...


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## okuth0r (Jan 24, 2002)

what do you mean calculate anything? what is it you want to see?
it does do many things, if your encumbered according to how much you carry, it penalizes the right skills, it auto calculates your bonuses, try two weapon fighting, including multiple attacks from high bonuses. It lists your skill totals with bonuses from anything (race, class, and stat), sets your armor class. what else are you looking for?


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## Urklore (Jan 24, 2002)

Now that there is the basic foundation, I'd like to see more eye candy. This thing is horrible looking.


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## Skullfyre (Jan 25, 2002)

*new version of PC gen*

But hey the program is not bad, besides they are and have been improving it with each version. Things can only get better.


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## WizarDru (Jan 26, 2002)

Leopold, what's the status on the UI upgrade?  Is it assigned to anyone, or has it been given any priority other than, 'we definitely want to do it'?

I think with a clean UI, PCgen could possibly become my character creator of choice.  It's unquestionably powerful, but when it fails the litmus test of saving me time over pen-and-paper or Excel-and-book, I just can't justify throwing hours into trying to learn how to make it work.  I simply don't have the spare hours needed to learn to do things the PCGen way.  I'm not expecting the same level of prettiness as, say, the WOTC chargen demo, but I am hoping for a level of ease-of-use equal to say, LonePaladin's Excel character spreadsheet.

I don't mean to sound as if I'm beliittling the outstanding work the PCGen team is doing.  I have great respect for the effort you guys are putting forward.  No other product will be able to match the flexibility PCGen offers....but right now it's trapped in a place where I can't use it, unfortunately.


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## Mynex (Jan 28, 2002)

WizarDru said:
			
		

> *Leopold, what's the status on the UI upgrade?  Is it assigned to anyone, or has it been given any priority other than, 'we definitely want to do it'? *




It's not assigned to any one coder in particular.  All the coders are taking an active interest in imprvoving the UI.  Already the Feat and Domains tab have been completed, and the Equipment tab should be done for this weeks release as well.

Yes, the original UI is clunky and hard to use, it was designed by one person for his personal usage (Merton Monk), and he put it up at Source Forge to see what would happen... well a bit over a year later, you can see what's happened!  There isn't a character software generator out there that supports even 1/10 of what PCGen does (and if there is, I've not heard of it yet, and some of the ones I have seen charge!).

The documentation and website are getting a facelift as well, so soon, very soon, PCGen will have a much smoother, intuitive look to it.  The GUI is the big drive right now, so it shouldn't be much longer before the 1st pass (making it look cleaner) is done.  The 2nd pass is to ad more functionality (such as a pop up window for placing equipment on a character!).

The documentation will be in a 3 varieties, HTML format with a spiffy little navigation system, a plain text format for printing out, and a PDF format that will look all slick and professional!

The website as well should be done soon, PackAlpha is the guy that's heading that up and promises the site to be more user friendly and easy to get around in!

And there is starting to gain momentum to add more features for the DM's tab... so there's a lot going on with PCGen to make it an overall great, FREE product.


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## Arabesu (Jan 29, 2002)

*Bruce Cordell's revised prestige classes?*

I was wondering if the newly revised prestige classes that Bruce Cordell has made available for psionic characters will be implemented anytime soon?


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## Sammael99 (Jan 29, 2002)

Mynex said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Yes, the original UI is clunky and hard to use, it was designed by one person for his personal usage (Merton Monk), and he put it up at Source Forge to see what would happen... well a bit over a year later, you can see what's happened!  There isn't a character software generator out there that supports even 1/10 of what PCGen does (and if there is, I've not heard of it yet, and some of the ones I have seen charge!).
> *




One UI improvement I'd love to see would be auto update. The updates to PCGEN are so frequent I can't keep up since it requires deleting the old version and reinstalling the new one so often. How about an online update a la anti-virus softwares ?


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## jujutsunerd (Jan 29, 2002)

Sammael99 said:
			
		

> *One UI improvement I'd love to see would be auto update. *




This has been mentioned occasionally, and as it (Java Web Start/JNLP) is a technology I want to mess around with, I'll probably get around to it sometime. Unless someone beats me to the punch, that is. 

/Jonas


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## Mynex (Jan 30, 2002)

*Re: Bruce Cordell's revised prestige classes?*



			
				Arabesu said:
			
		

> *I was wondering if the newly revised prestige classes that Bruce Cordell has made available for psionic characters will be implemented anytime soon? *




Well, it hasn't been typed in yet, but I am sure it will be soon!  One thing to remember about PCGen, it _is_ a volunteer basis only.  No one gets paid to work on this, it's all a labor of love, so if something isn't implemented code wise or in the list files yet, you just have to be patient, we _will_ get everything i there.


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## D'karr (Jan 30, 2002)

*Keep up the good work!!!*

Well, I've heard many people complain about the complicated user interface.  I've also heard many people complain that it is too hard to use.

Yes, it might be all those things but it is also in development.  In addition it is FREE!!!

I personally had some trouble when I first started using it.  It was complicated and cumbersome and slow.  Well, since then many things have changed.  

You guys developing this ROCK!!!   And I owe you a great debt of gratitude.  Your program does have its problems but you guys sure do make an effort to take care of them.  The software builds come in almost on a weekly basis and with so many sourcebooks out there I'm amazed at the amount of real progress you guys have packed into this tool.

I currently use ver 2.4.0 as a Character Manager for all the PCs in my campaign.  To say the least I'm very happy.

Yes, the GUI can be improved.  Yes, it needs to be simplified and it would be a godsend if it would load and run faster.  However, it still does things that no other Character Generator does; it expands to fit your needs and it calculates things right.

You guys are doing a wonderful job and I just wanted to thank you.  I get tired of hearing people complain about the program but not giving the software a chance.

I look forward to improvements in the GUI and in a module to handle campaign specific modifiers without having to manipulate the lst files directly.


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## Arabesu (Jan 30, 2002)

*Volunteering for the effort.*

Do you let people submit data files?  I've typed in dorjes, powercrystals, and tatoos for all the 4th level and lower powers in the PsiHB.  I've been keeping them in a custom data directory, but I suppose other folks may find these items usefull also.  Is anyone out there interested?  Yo, SourceForge folks do you think these files could get included in future updates?  

Also, if your looking for someone to take on the Psi-prestige classes I'd be willing to help out.  Mainly, I'd need for one of them to be done (probably the metamind) as an example for how you'd do the "+1 level of existing class for psionics," then I could probably hack out the other three.

Interested?


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## Mynex (Jan 31, 2002)

*Re: Volunteering for the effort.*



			
				Arabesu said:
			
		

> *Do you let people submit data files?  I've typed in dorjes, powercrystals, and tatoos for all the 4th level and lower powers in the PsiHB.  I've been keeping them in a custom data directory, but I suppose other folks may find these items usefull also.  Is anyone out there interested?  Yo, SourceForge folks do you think these files could get included in future updates?
> 
> Also, if your looking for someone to take on the Psi-prestige classes I'd be willing to help out.  Mainly, I'd need for one of them to be done (probably the metamind) as an example for how you'd do the "+1 level of existing class for psionics," then I could probably hack out the other three.
> 
> Interested? *




We're always interested in new help!  As for the files you have already made, you can upload them into the yahoo groups files section, and if they're official items, then they will get incorporated eventually.

Stop into the yahoo groups and poke about, ask some questions, see where things stand and then dive right in!


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## Thorin Stoutfoot (Feb 2, 2002)

*PCGen startup*

I think if PCGen started up with just the "WoTC players handbook" loaded and made advanced users go to the other screens it would probably save a lot of confusion. I can see how a lot of potential users would start it up, select "WoTC core rules" and then get hit by things like Lizardmen, and just freak out.

The basic user interface principle should be: make the common case easy, and make the infrequently used cases possible. If PCGen is truly intended for most players, it should make the default players handbook options the most easy to use, and leave other options as advanced settings.


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## RigaMortus (Feb 2, 2002)

*How the heck do you use this thing?*

I downloaded the latest version and it came with absolutely no instructions how to run it.  I unziped it into a directory and don't really know where to go from there...

In the directory I have several folder names:
characters
data
doc
lib
system
templates

And then I have 3 files:
pcgen.bat - Which gives me a "Bad command or file name" error at the command prompt when I click on it.
pcgen.jar - Which opens like a zip file when I click on it (do I unzip this?).
pcgen.sh - Which asks me "What program I want to use to open the file with."

I've been to the website I downloaded this from and can't seem to find ANY install or set up instructions.  Can anyone here help?

If it matters, I downloaded and unzipped the pdf and skin files, but nothing seems to have changed.  I am also running on Windows ME.


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## Arabesu (Feb 2, 2002)

*Do you have Java SDK running?*

Rigamortis,
You need to have some verison of Java running.  Java 2 SDK is what I'm currently using.  The file PCGen.bat is just a command that runs the PCGen.jar file in java.  You can just as easily open a command prompt, cd to the PCGen directory where you unpacked everything and type "java -jar pcgen.jar".  This *bat file just does the command for you.  This of course assumes you've already installed some verison of java.  It should be noted that if java is installed correctly (which I never went to the trouble of going back and redoing) you can just double click of the pcgen.jar icon.  Email me offline if you've got more questions.


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## RigaMortus (Feb 2, 2002)

Alrighty...  Now where do I go to download a Java program?  Do you have any recommendations?


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## Urklore (Feb 3, 2002)

It is a nice program. Is there a way we can get it run faster, this thing is so slow (beacuse of Java, I assume) that it makes it useless for me. And I am on a 1.8 MHZ machine.


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## Douane (Feb 3, 2002)

to "RigaMortus":

Did you look at the official PCGen page ? There should be some hints to getting the program to run.

For Java, go here: Sun's Java Page 
I would use the Java 1.3.1 Runtime Environment download, since I recall some problems reported concerning PCGen and Java 1.4.


to "Urklore":

1.8 *M*HZ ?     



Hope this helps,

Folkert


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## jujutsunerd (Feb 3, 2002)

Urklore said:
			
		

> *It is a nice program. Is there a way we can get it run faster, this thing is so slow (beacuse of Java, I assume) that it makes it useless for me.*




Well, at the moment there are two things.

First, make sure you only load the sources you need. (Or make your own .pcc file.)

Second, I occasionally upload versions of pcgen that I've run through an optimizer to the yahoo site. You'll find it here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/files/Alternate PCGen Releases/

As noted there it is *very* unsupported. It works for me, maybe it works for you. YMMV.

 (If you want to make your own version of (perhaps for a pcgen version I haven't optimized), try looking for a tool named jopt.)

/Jonas


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