Something people may have missed in all the excitement of the new Chaos Space Marine and Dark Angel picture leaks is the notice from Homer at AB40k maintainers, those magnificent folks who provide and update the Warhammer 40k data files for Army Builder.
Late last night a comment which was part of their global announcements was updated instructing people to download the newest 40k update through Army Builder's update system. We were told the files would only be available for a short amount of time and wouldn't be available through email or other means after they had been taken down.
As of now, that post has been removed and replaced with the general announcement. no longer commenting on the possible doom and gloom of not having updates in the future. The latest glimmer of information can be found in this thread on the AB40k Maintainer forum. This is basically 'we don't know, wait and see' style of reply.
I love using Army Builder. It helps me decide what I will need to purchase and what I plan to build for later use. I like not having to create my own Excel spreadsheets to make an army list, or flip through my book constantly and use pen and paper to make my lists. In 6th edition, you could have to flip through 3 separate books just to make an army list, being the main army, allies, and fortifications.
If AB40 Maintainers will no longer be able to update these files, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'll probably try to fumble through the files myself and hope I can figure out the program to make my own files. Unfortunately, I may not have the time to do so. If nothing else it reminds us how fantastic the crew over at AB40k Maintainers are for sacrificing their time to keep these files up to date.
What about you? Do you use Army Builder for Warhammer 40k? What will you do if they are no longer allowed to update their files?
Surprisingly I'm still using the older version (2.x, still have the ancient 1.4 CD :-)), and hoping they continue to get updated... You weren't talking about the v2 stuff were you?
ReplyDeleteI've been using the newest version of Army Builder, version 3.4. The most recent version of 6th edition WH40k files is 1.02, but things are looking grim regarding updates beyond that (and whether even that version will stay up much longer).
DeleteLast night I was going to post on this, but then thought I was mistaking the V2 comment for being the current version. However, Homer, one of the file maintainers, took to forums last night and left a comment on how they were given a C&D from Games Workshop (which means it was about the 40k files and not the Army Builder program). Since then the comments have been removed and left with a "Watch here for updates".
The link in the above post is very current (August 17th). Here's hoping we can get some better information soon, and I'll update as soon as I know anything else.
Try out Battlescribe, they also have mobile versions, and it's free :)
ReplyDeleteI've tried Battlescribe about a month ago but got frustrated trying to edit the files and the files they do have aren't updated very often as there are less volunteers to do so. It's a fine system, just don't have the patience for it myself.
DeleteAfter the Eldar update, I won't need to do any more updates, so I'll be able to edit the files as I see fit.