Holy improvement Lonewolf. Army Builder 3.2 has transformed Army Builder from a lazy gamer tool, to only Luddites and Flat Earthers should avoid. The newest version of Army Builder has finally added those “duh” features you have been waiting for and is finally user-friendly that even your lizard brain could understand. So what makes the newest Army Builder so good?
Army Builder is a desktop program that creates army lists in just a few clicks.
Here is a list of the newest changes to the program.
New Features & Changes
- Save rosters to PDF – Email PDF rosters to tournament organizers or friends, to print out exactly like normal Army Builder printed output.
No longer do I have to use some third party program to change my Army files, with one simple click of the PDF button an army list is ready to be shared with the world.
Mobile friendly output – Save your roster to a “mobile friendly” output format, for viewing on your iPhone or other mobile device. Touch a unit name and it expands, displaying all the unit details – touch it again to hide it. Unit options can also be displayed with a single touch.
It is really only a coincidence that I got an iphone with the release of this version of Army Builder.
Updated user interface – We’ve updated the user interface to take advantage of the larger monitors more prevalent today. Army Builder 3.2 is now optimized for viewing on a 1024×768 monitor, while gracefully scaling up and down to higher or lower resolutions as needed.
Finally my poor monitor can view army list without eye strain.
Do more work with fewer clicks – The “New Roster” form, the starting page for all new armies, has been overhauled to make it easier to configure your roster. Choose a race or a predefined points cost with a single click. Ruleset information to configure your roster is displayed right there on the form.
I really like this feature, it is one of those features that you do not really need, but just make things so much easier.
Better notification of updates – Army Builder 3.2 informs you of updates on the “Select Game System” screen, so you can be instantly informed about new data file updates.
Updates used to be unobtrusive now they are kinda of annoying because I really do not care about French language updates.
Added flexibility for common tasks – The Options list now displays every option in a tree structure, allowing you access to more options with fewer clicks. Any categories you’re not interested in can simply be collapsed and ignored.
Another great feature if you want to upload armies to your blog or forums. You can remove itemized point costs and just leave the overall point costs of so GW does not come knocking at your door.
More information at your fingertips – Army Builder 3.2 gives you more information about your choices in several ways:
- Composition group info windows now display the minimum / maximum counts for each category.
- In the options list, right-clicking on an invalid option explains why it’s invalid.
- Validation errors can now include more descriptive error messages.
Army builder sorta had these features before, but now they make more sense. Invalid options no longer make you think that Army Builder is making a mistake, it really tells you why you are cheating.
New interface design – Many buttons and other areas of the interface have been redesigned for a more modern, cleaner look and feel.
I am very happy with this change. Many people do not care about pretty interfaces, I for one do and that old blocky blue interface was never my cup of tea.
New features for data file authors – Many common tasks for data file authors have been improved, reducing the workload for data file authors. Army Builder 3.2 also catches more common errors, resulting in quicker debugging time, and higher quality data files for the user.
Since I do not care about making up my own rules for 40k I really cannot tell you if these are features make things better, but I am sure someone somewhere really wants old BoLS campaign files.
All this and more – Many other minor improvements are included, including validation icons at the top of printed output, improved text summary and BBCode output, optimized HTML generation, and more!
It is really all the little tweaks that makes Army Builder worth the 40k bucks.
People still complain about bugs and missing costs on units, but Lonewolf does update every few months, fixing problems the community brings to their attention. Not to mention you can expect the latest codices to be download about a month from release, which is impressive considering no support from GW. There are many different game systems offered on army builder so if you play more than just 40k you will be pleasantly surprised to find other games supported. I have been using Army Builder for more than five years and this is the best incarnation by leaps and bounds.
Questions for comment:
- Do you use Army Builder?
- What improvements still need to be made?
- Why don’t you use Army Builder?