Wargear and their descriptions

[Steelmage99]

First of all let me preface this with the following statements;

-I thoroughly respect all the (unpaid) work you guys put into the data files for Warhammer 40K.
-I also have a full understanding of the legal minefield that has to be traversed in making these files.
-I play every single army in the Warhammer 40k universe (barring Chaos Daemons), and thus Army Builder really comes into its own for my use. Pen-and-paper or Excel might be good enough for people playing a single army or two, but when it comes to remembering the point-values of every single unit and option of every single codex Army Builder is my saving grace.

With that made clear it is time for a suggestion;

Can the newer Wargear sections be expanded a bit?
I am specifically thinking of the Wargear entries of Necrons and Grey Knights.
Almost all of Wargear options simply display the page number of the relevant codex when right-clicked, and I feel that this have gone too far.
As mentioned I am aware of the fact that the Army Builder program is not intended as any kind of replacement for the various codexes, but the ease-of-use and good interface of Army Builder is, in my opinion, suffering in the light of this recent development.

Time for an example;

Tomb Blades

Wargear;

Nebuloscope - See page 42
Shadowloom - See page 42
Shield Vane - See page 42

As the owner of the Necron codex I, of course, know that the three options of Tomb Blades are Increased Ballistic Skill, Increased Armour Save and Stealth.
My problem is that I sometimes have trouble remembering which is which.

After this post I of course will be able to remember due to the research done, but that is besides the point

I realize that I could simply activate an option and look at the changes in the stat-line, but I feel that a right-click displaying the above generic descriptions and a reference to the page number in the codex would do the job in a better, more intuitive way.

Now, I see two reason to why the page reference is the only thing being displayed;

One, legal ramifications.
Two, the increased work involved.

I don't feel that the first reason is really a problem, as the codex would still be needed when keeping to generic descriptions.
When it comes to the second reason, I can only say; "What can I do to help?". While I am sure I cannot make the files from scratch (having looked at the Creator and found it hard to use), but I am sure that, with a bit of instruction, I could learn to "proof-read" the various Wargear options and add generic descriptions.
In short, I am willing to help make Army Builder an even better program.

Comments? Shots to the groin? Suggestions?

[shaggai]

The concept of going from a thoughly verbose description of the wargear/special items to the page only description, has a roller-coaster history. Thoughout iterations of the files from 3rd to 4th to 5 editions has seen them go from full descriptions, to page numbers to full descriptions again and then back to page numbers. The main reason for this is essentially due to one reason. GW.

As many other websites and Chapterhouse can attest, they will threaten to sue or outright sue you if you do anything which could be construed as a unauthorized use of their IP (or infringe on their ability to bilk as much money as possible from their supporting customers - of course this latter statment is my opinion).

Now what we do here is done by fans of the game and we gain no monetary compensation nor do we have anything on this website which would allow you to compensate us in any way (such as ads or outright begging). While this in no way would be a claim to be allowed to do what we do, it does allow us to remain under the radar as it were (although that can be a sort of misnomer as it has been said that the design workshop of GW has been known to use Army Builder and the 40K lists).

So for the most part we have been left alone by GW as we support the game (outside of some editorial comments). A concession to remain so has been the idea to make it very hard to play (if not outright impossible) to play without a codex. Seeing this as something that could "benefit" us as well as helping GW in their main purpose of selling product, and thus allow us to remain litigation free, is the main reason for the lack of desriptions.

This is the main reason why there seems to be less descriptions in future items as opposed to older races. Unfortunately face the fact that this is not going to change, and of course when the bulk of 6th edition codices begin to come down, they will follow the same lack of wargear desciptions.