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Program News / Bug List:
April 17, 1999:
Now that I have some time on my hands to do this, let me fill
everyone in on what's happening with Pulsar and me. I received a letter on the
12th politely asking me to remove the copyrighted material from my program (
if you want to see the letter, it should be up in the messages
section). I'm currently taking a look at what I have to do to bring the
program up to Pulsar's specs, and this is what I see so far...
It is no problem for me to strip out the descriptions for
powers, skills, etc.; I've already done that with my personal copy. Pulsar
will allow the paraphrasing of these descriptions, as long as they don't convey
the rule system used to run them. So, if anyone wants to write up generalized
descriptions for powers and things, I will include them rather than leave
the space blank. I will not
be able to release the plugin I wrote to display the AP Chart, or the OV/RV
and AV/EV charts. The benchmarks can stay as written, but I'm going to
remove the DC character names from the Attribute description text. Also, I
am going to change the program's icons that resemble the Superman shield just
to be safe. I don't know what to replace these with, so I am open to
suggestions.
One problem... I no longer have the source code for V2.5 (the
only one that currently runs under Windows 3.1). Unless I can find a
viable way of making the required changes to these files, I will have to
remove them from distribution.
Version 3.2 was written in VB5. Currently, I am writing 3.5 in
VB6 and I no longer have VB5 installed on my machine. Some of the changes I
need to make will require me to recompile the program, so I will have to
make a whole new distribution. I haven't checked it out yet, but I believe
the new distribution will be smaller than the previous one.
Since I have been making modifications to the code, the new
distribution will be more advanced than 3.2, but not as much as I wanted to
make it for V3.5, so this will probably be something like V3.3. It shouldn't
look too different from what you're currently using, because a lot of the new
3.5 stuff was supposed to be in the form of plugins (the now-defunct charts)
and a new customizable HTML printout option.
With all of that said and done, I'm going to try and have a
lawyer-friendly, Pulsar-compliant version of the program up for general
consumption by Friday.
November 24, 1998:
Just a message to let everyone know that I'm working on Version
3.5. I'm clearing out some bugs, including some new plugins, and a
print routine that uses a small interpreter to let you create customized
printouts (at first it will be for text-file and html files).
August 17, 1998:
OK! DC 3.1 is up! Find bugs, I dare you!!!! HAHAHAHAA!!! Ah,
seriously, I've stomped an awful lot of bugs, and I hope this one works out
for everyone. Coming up: A few plugins that have been requested and and HTML
Print style.
July 29, 1998:
Service Pack 4 is up. If there are no major problems with this
release, DC 3.1 -- a version that includes all of the Service Pack fixes into
the base installation files -- will be up on Monday.
July 21, 1998:
I tracked down the bug and fixed it. Also fixed problems with
Character and XP and other bugs with the interface. Therefore,
Service Pack 3 is up. I hope that this will be the
last one until the end of the month.
July 20, 1998:
Urgent Bug Report!!! And it's NOT my fault! Apparently, when in
XP Mode, the program calculates differently when compiled than it does when
it's running in the development environment. This is a Microsoft bug, and I'm
going to have to find a work-around.
July 17, 1998:
Service Pack 2 is now available.
To see a list of the issues addressed in this release, take a look at the
ReadMe File.
July 7, 1998: Another Bug!
Thanks to Stanlei Bellan for pointing out this obscure bug! If you are using a Power that requires to have at least one of its checkboxes selected (like Invisibility and Invulnerability) and you try to add one of the basic Power Modifiers (like Fatiguing or Lethal) to it, the program will crash. I've already corrected this one on my system, and the fix will be available when I do the next Service Pack release, probably at the end of the week, depending upon how many more reports I get.
As a temporary work-around, enter the Basic Modifiers you wish
to use into the Custom Modifier line and set the Column Shift spinner
appropriately when using these Powers.
July 5, 1998: Bug Fixes
I've put out Service Pack 1 for the Builder. It corrects the problems listed below, reported on the Message Board, and those that have been emailed to me.
1) Found and corrected a new bug in the Rules Editor concerning Advantages and Drawbacks, Interfaces, and random costs for newly created Advantages and Drawbacks. Also corrected incorrect display of Adv/Drw Attribute Modifiers.
2) The Exit option under the File Menu now works (oops!)
3) Corrected a bug that caused the program to crash if you happened to close the Print Preview window at the same time the program was checking to see if you had a printer installed (once about every half-second).
4) Corrected Fonts not printing properly.
5) Corrected indentation problem with Descriptions.
June 30, 1998:
I found my first bug in Version 3.0: Drawbacks that have
Attribute modifiers do not add their modifiers to the appropriate
Attributes. This means that the "Age: Old" Drawback does not subtract 2
from your initiative like it should. As fas as bugs go, this isn't a big
one, but it has been noted and will be corrected in the 3.1 release at the
end of July.
June 26, 1998:
Well, DC Character Builder Version 3.0 is out. I'm tired. :)
I've made and effort to ensure that the release is free of any major bugs, however, I'm sure that now that it is in general release throughout the world that many new ones will be popping up. Barring any catastrophic bugs, I will collect bug reports and suggestions over the course of the next month and release Version 3.1 in August, incorporating the user feedback.
Don't get me wrong... I'd be tickled pink if it turns out that this version is perfect, but I know better.
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