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Greetings to you from the AB40K team,

Some of you who are on this web site may be familiar with or use the program known as Army Builder from Lone Wolf. We are the people who maintain the files for that program which handle the 40K army lists.

This is a letter sent to this web site and a few others in an effort to find the best way that the 40K files can serve you, the users. We are currently at a design crossroads and we like to find out what the users, want, like, and dislike about the way that the AB40K files work , what you would like to see with done with them, and what you would hate to see included/deleted.

This is not a letter to argue the merits of the program or defend against any who do not like the program, the files, or have issues with the designers of the Army Builder program. This is also not going to be used as a forum about bugs or other problems in interpretation of RAW, RAI, or how these relate to the file.

As a sample of what we intend to do, those familiar with the interface know that you are greeted with a roster selection screen which has various options. Currently as the game stands, there are no FOC alterations before a scenario begins as there were in the 3rd Edition. We plan to jettison these in the near future. (Note Planetstrike is in the future, and while it will modify the the FOC, we will cross that bridge when it occurs.) Now the question is do we? That is what we are asking the users for comments on.

Another sample is Special Characters. In 3E and 4E, Special characters were often limited by points or other factors. This cannot be changed. However, many tournaments throughout the years often had bans on Special Characters and thus the files have a switch which toggles a roster to show or hide Special Characters. Now, it seems like many of the latter 4E codices as well as the newer 5E codices consider Special Characters as something to take with no restrictions. should we continue to have this, should we reverse it so special characters always show and the switch be used to hide the special characters. This is one that comments are appreciated on as there is not a month which goes past where a bug report references that a user cannot find a "named" character and we have to tell them about the Special Characters switch.

Other issues that we would like comments on are the use of Cityfight in our files - do we really need to have them, especially since it got supplanted by Cities of Death?

Should we continue to have support for Kill Team and Combat Patrol - even though they are not within 5E rules?

If you, the users, could lets us know what you think of these, or any other issues - please post here.

Many Thanks for your time,
The AB40K maintainers.

Yes, I would love for the FOC to be changed when selecting Planetstrike, for example.

Yes, I would like to be able to "click off" Special Characters. Just as I would like to be able to "click off" IA and the like.

No, I dont think we need Cityfight, nor Killteam or Combat Patrol.

No, I dont think the basic 40K files should include anything other than GW released material. No fanlists.

Thank you for your continued interest in making the program as usefull as possible.

It would be great if when Apoc was selected, all races were selectable in the allies chart.

GW official list only in the main file, this would include removing city fight, kill team, and combat patrol.

Maybe have a separate file for fanlists and alternatives

Special characters shown by default in the list, but possibly a tab separate from the HQ tab for them.

Not sure if this is the current interface or your file, but I would like to ability to combine units (ie attach a character to a unit).

loomisc wrote:Not sure if this is the current interface or your file, but I would like to ability to combine units (ie attach a character to a unit).

You can do this already. Just Drag 'n' Drop. When the Mouse shows a ">>" symbol, it adds the Units together.

Standard GW items only.

I've personally been using the Combat Patrol ruleset, even though it technically has not been updated to 5E - but I wouldn't be too upset if it got cut either.

Don't cut out functions like IA, Why lose versatility? I can see why losing cityfight wouldn't hurt much. It's a shame killteam and Combat patrol aren't in 5th Ed.
(I guess small forces aren't really part of GW's business model).

EDIT: I just thought I'd clarify my thoughts. (Gwar, in his comment below (posted while I edited,) makes a good point though.)

Kapitan Montag wrote:Don't cut out functions! Why lose versatility?

Because vestigial attachments that are not relevant need to be removed.

The same way as removing the dead roses allow the others to blossom, remove the unneeded stuff, and the needed stuff just gets better.

OK, so far the maintainers have a concensus between each other and it seems like the comments we have reached so far seem to confirm this.

1) Cityfight looks like it is going to be jettisoned - being supplanted by Cities of Death signed the death warrant.
2) Special Characters are going to be default, with the option being available to Remove them should you desire.
3) Race rules, an option which seemed to make more sense when Eldar had craftworlds, and the IG had several options such as abhumans and the like will probably be jettisoned as it isn't used to it possible potential (whatever that may be...)
4) The older scenario FOC adjustments will be removed (Breakthough, Raids, etc.) - they will return in a similar form for Planetstrike, but will only be seen when Planetstrike is selected so there will be only one option (normal scenario) otherwise.
5) Combat Patrol / Kill Team seem to have a few who would not like to see them go, but for the most part many wouldn't mourn their loss too much. I would also point out that the older version of the 40K files meant for 4th edition still have these in them and is partially current. If it is to be the final repository of these items, it might make some of the maintainers decide to go into the older files and update them to keep this aspect of them current.

So far this is what we have discovered throughout the feedback gathered so far, and we appreciate every bit of it offered. I just wanted to update this to let you know what decisions we will have for future iterations of the 40K files.

And while I did say that we will not use this forum for advertsiement, LW has posted that the next iteration of AB3.2 is available for public beta testing. I just want to ensure users that despite all the new "bells & whistles", the current version of the files maintains compatability between 3.1 and 3.2 and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.

Shaggai, will the obvious choice of relocating fan-based armylists to a seperate individually downloadable file be made?

Steelmage99 wrote:Shaggai, will the obvious choice of relocating fan-based armylists to a seperate individually downloadable file be made?

This is the intention. The BoLS lists which used to be in the main files will eventually be offered in a standalone download which will offer exactly the same features that they did before, but obvioulsy will ONLY contain the BoLS lists. Should we have time to work on other types of fan content, it too will be offered in such a way. When that happens, will they all be combined in one fan content file or all individually? We'll decide when that point comes. As to when they will become available again, all I can say is that it will be soon, as work on the main files in light of recent items - planetstrike, AB3.2, user commented changes - takes precedence over anything else at the moment.

Thanks, shaggai.

I look forward to any changes/improvements you guys might make.