So it looks as though IAM's editor was taken offline, and I didn't keep a copy where I could find it. Silly me, I know. What ever happened to the intended official editor?

As an aside, anyone got a copy they can upload / send?

i think i have a copy somewhere on my hard disk

if you need it i can send it by email or msn messenger just contact me here if u need a copy

Hmm, that is a good point. Iam was told to more or less stop with his editor because there would be an official one released from FFG. That was like 2 years ago. Why do I get the feeling that FFG cannot keep its promises when this sort of thing is concerned? Its like they don't care for supporting their games except by releasing expansions to make more money...and sometimes an FAQ.

Jonny WS said:

Yes and No...

Actually, I was thanked by Mr Petersen for my enthousiasm and was authorized to keep working on it until the official "vapor" one was released. But then had to step away from boardgaming and sold Descent.

Then a couple months ago, I bought it back, couldn't pass on that deal (150$ for base game + 3 expansions, brand new). I thought I had deleted the editor and all the code, but just looked on an old hard drive and found all the goodies! I won't promise anything, but I could very well continue working on it in a not so distant future... although I'm sorry I can't support it at the moment, if it works for you, good, otherwise, I'm sorry!

So here it is:

http://fredmethot.wikispaces.com/file/view/IAMsFantasyCardEditorSetup.zip/121165387/IAMsFantasyCardEditorSetup.zip

As for being told to more or less stop working on it... Someone actually threatened me on a number of occasions to do this, here on the forum, by email and on BGG. With this guy supposedly in charge of the official editor years back, not surprised you are all still waiting, what a ******.

Cheers guys!

IAM

iam said:

Oh. My. God. Thank you soo much IAM.

Jonny WS said:

When did supporting software like card editors become an expected part of a company's obligation to a board game?

I agree that FFG has a habit of biting off more than it can chew, perhaps thinking a bit too big for their financial capacity, but I can hardly fault someone for having an active imagination. Given the econmical roller coaster of last year or so, it's not at all surprising to me that FFG would have to cut back on its projects. My own company did mucht he same thing (and, sadly, had to let more than a few good people go in the process.) Facing the need to scale back their efforts, I can't really blame FFG for choosing to the free projects that inhabit an area outside their expertise first. They are, after all, a board game company, not a programming company. As far as making money, let's not kid ourselves. FFG is not a charity, they're a business. Compared to other businesses in the gaming compunity, I still think FFG is one of the best, even if they fall through on freeware peripherals.

When all is said and done, I don't think a card editor is really the most important thing for them to put out. I can find templates online and use photoshop to make my own cards if I want. Works for any game and I'm already familiar with the controls! This is not to disparage Iam's efforts, of course. I'm just saying I don't see how FFG is obligated to follow his lead (for free, no less) just because one fan took it upon himself to create this tool.

iam said:

Yay! You deserve GeekGold!

-shnar

Steve-O said:

It wasn't that FFG needed to follow IAM's lead. It's all about IP rights. At the time FFG already had Mike Z. working on an official application in his spare time. Since both were using FFG's artwork and such FFG would have been obligated to shut IAM's project down to avoid letting those resources become public domain.

I may be wrong about the minor details. I am curious what FFG's stance is now that Mike seems to have disappeared from the world of gaming. Maybe they should be talking to IAM about making his app the Official Card Editor?

Cheers.

After some 15 years away from gaming, I picked up both Descent and the road to legend last week.

I intend to use it as an excuse to get back into painting and modelling some 3d dungeon terrain, for a game that is still simple enough that I can easily get a couple of "non gamers" to spend an evening or two playing the game with me, without having to make a serious commitment in time and money.

I had no illusions that this was a RPG but rather a "hack and slash" game in line with Diablo...but as a boardgame of cause.
I agree that "software support" for a boardgame can not be demanded. But it would still make good sense for Fantasy Flight to publish small "creator" tools... like they have already done. That way they can also better control whats out there and what IP they are willing to part with.

My points are:

1)I played Diablo for DAYS! back when it was released. And I am sure that most of the people that play descent has done so too (at least those at my age)

But.. what made Diablo so great? after all... once you had played the game through you had seen it all... yet you started over as soon as you had been to the store for a bottle Coke and a bag of chips.

The reason was of cause that even though the game was extremely simple, there was the element of character development. And sure the monsters looked the same, but they had better stats the second time around etc etc.

The character creator should have been included in the basic box.. or at least in the road to legend expansion.
I am not sure that the game allow for more detailed characters as it is.. but I would still love to have it(from a wargames point of view customization and list/skill picking is a great part of the game)

I am not sure that the simple rules of Descent allow it, but I'd love to see Fantasy Flight incorporate some of those elements in this game...some of the items are pretty basic and there are not many to choose from.

Off the top of my head.... perhaps if the number of wounds every hero and monster had was increased it could allow for more variation of items... and say... "you take 10 damage...minus your resistance to lightning rating".. which could be say 3 due to an amulet or some other stuff.... you get the ida.
Having an easy to use tool for creating such items would be a great help. Sure you can just draw up the cards in what ever gfx program,.. but having a tool already made where all you need to do i fill in the blanks... well..

2)As one who wants to use this game as a "hobby game" with lots of painting and modelling. An easy way to create monster cards that look like the ones that comes in the set is MUCH APPRECIATED!.
Say... I want to change the theme.. I want a dungeon with an Orc/goblin theme... So I will use Orc models in stead of beastmen, and gobbo archers replace the skeletons.. a couple of clicks and I can print the cards to match that.. I have even considered changing the theme to Sci-fi..along the lines of Mass effect...

Christian.

iam said:

Awesome! The installer crashed several times but the program works great!

Very nice program IAM! I hope you can update it to also support the advanced campaign stuff (so you can make for example silver and gold monsters) , but it's a great little program. I am definately going to have some fun with this.

Wow, this thing is incredible. Thanks Iam for all your work on this.

Hrm, I can't get the thing to install. It gets 80% done, then hangs on EditorUserGuide.pdf. Anyone have this and figure a way around it? I'm on Windows 7 64bit, thought maybe if I ran as administrator that would fix it, but no difference

-shnar

shnar said:

Try running it in compatibility mode, XP service pack 2.

ProtoPersona said:

That didn't help me. I had to kill and restart the installer each time, and each time it progressed another % point. Mine initially crashed at 91%, so I had to install it 10 times. Worth it so far.

Note to Iam: Is it possible you could release the source for this editor? It'd be nice to be able to make creatures for RtL, and if you don't have any time some of us would love to help.

Hahaha, so I just have to keep trying? Awesome

-shnar

Would be so awesome if iam or someone else could update the editor with cards for the campaigns, waiting for this possibility for years now!

I'm having some kind of problem with the editor. It installed just fine, but all the text is off-center. Is anyone else seeing this?

Drawl Needler said:

Yeah, I see this sometimes, too. I'm not sure what exactly happens, though sometimes formatting commands you'd see in programs like WordPad or Notepad work, but not usually. For example, one time I had text selected and hit control+r and the text became right-aligned, but I haven't seen it again since and I'm starting to think it was my imagination.

Again, if Iam happens to by and see this post: if you're feeling generous, is it possible to release the code publicly so the community can work on updating the editor?

Okay, I just tried it on my Windows 7 computer and it worked just fine. So what's the problem with XP?

I am having problems to the surge icon.The PDF file indicates that pressing ALT+Z the surges will be added but nothing

Anyone having this prob too??

d3monhunter said:

Did you try doing it in the "Description" area? That's the only place that worked for me.

Drawl Needler said:

Nothing its only shows me a ? nothing

Try to be clear. Does it do nothing , or does it show a question mark? Those are very different behaviors.

If it inserts a character into the text box, but that character looks like a question mark instead of a surge symbol, then you're probably missing the font or graphic used for the surge symbol, and the question mark is a placeholder. Do you have a surgeIcon.gif in your /resources/icons/ folder, and does it look correct? It's also conceivable it's trying to pull the symbol from the Webdings font (though that seems unlikely); does you computer have that font installed?

Jonny WS said:

Iam was told to more or less stop with his editor because there would be an official one released from FFG. That was like 2 years ago.

Yes and No...

Actually, I was thanked by Mr Petersen for my enthousiasm and was authorized to keep working on it until the official "vapor" one was released. But then had to step away from boardgaming and sold Descent.

Then a couple months ago, I bought it back, couldn't pass on that deal (150$ for base game + 3 expansions, brand new). I thought I had deleted the editor and all the code, but just looked on an old hard drive and found all the goodies! I won't promise anything, but I could very well continue working on it in a not so distant future... although I'm sorry I can't support it at the moment, if it works for you, good, otherwise, I'm sorry!

So here it is:

http://fredmethot.wikispaces.com/file/view/IAMsFantasyCardEditorSetup.zip/121165387/IAMsFantasyCardEditorSetup.zip

As for being told to more or less stop working on it... Someone actually threatened me on a number of occasions to do this, here on the forum, by email and on BGG. With this guy supposedly in charge of the official editor years back, not surprised you are all still waiting, what a ******.

Cheers guys!

IAM

Blasted! So made that I have a Mac right now