eloquentaction
First Post
I'm a little lost here. Unless I missed something in a post, no one needs to be online to use the UCS. Just as someone would have your set on their computer, so would anyone using the UCS. I also use my laptop at some games (some GMs don't permit it, personal preference), so I'm fully anticipating this release. If you're referring to the DDI project, that's only going to be during the intial character creation, per my interpretation (possibly needing it for character leveling?). However, this is not a mandatory requirement. Your cards are nice and by all means, if you feel a stand-alone approach is right for you, feel free. This is purely a voluntary project that other designers are being invited to join. Some will, some wont.
I may not be a designer myself, but I feel that this is a great approach for the exact reasons DrunkenEwok and elequentaction pointed out. once complete, not every design need to feel pressured into keeping the set up to date. Contributors could actually alternate updating the UCS. It's efficient and logical, as Spock might say. Also, no one designer can predict the future and crap happens. This way, any one designer can feel comfortable knowing that when life throws a wrench at you, someone out there will continue the work until you're able to get back.
The UCS just uses MSE. No online required. I can understand DennisB's viewpoint, but I think he's being a bit too optimistic; life throws strange curves at you, including stay-at-home dads. Tomorrow you may find you have no spare time for the next 3 months and everyone that's come to rely on your cards will be yelling at you for the next 273 new classes, books, and dragon articles. That's what the UCS is all about - once you have your template out there, someone ELSE can update the UCS and your template is still up to date. It's the best of both worlds.
The DnDI project WILL require access to the DnDI Character Generator, but so far that doesn't require online access except to download it. That might change with the full release (I honestly don't know on this one).
It will require you make any changes using the DnDI character generator, then 'save' the changes - the DnDI Project will then spit out the character sheet PDF and any cards relevant to your saved character. Yeah, it's a 2 step process that's kind of a pain in the rear, but it allows the best of both worlds. And since we don't have access to the Character Builder code - it's the best we can do at the moment.