New Character Builder from WotC!

[Ahrimon]

Because what they are now offering is a tenth as useful as what we had before and costs the same amount of money.

It's OK to admit WotC screwed up badly with this buggy, slow POS online CB - we won't tell them.

Luckily a fellow ENWorlder has found a program that will allow me to add custom content to the old builder. Woot.

Do share please.

 

[CAFRedblade]

Do share please.

I think this is the link he refers to, posted in the Online CB is Live thread.
cbloader - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

[Nytmare]

On the way home from work, what was really bugging me about the change solidified in my mind.

The character builder and adventure tools, as they were, became (quite literally) an invaluable tool in my DMing routine. The books were there simply for their fluff, and I learned to completely rely on the software to track all of the crunchy bits.

Now, with things changing from a purchase that I owned to a service that I do not want to rent, I'm left in the lurch because there's an daunting and immense heap of technical information that I never bothered to learn and that's going to keep coming out at a fairly quick pace.

Yeah, I can go back and start reading the books for the crunchy bits and making characters the old fashioned way, but the more ... satisfying isn't the right word, but it's the closest my brain can currently supply, answer is probably to just stick with what we've got till we get bored with it, or something better comes along.

 

[darjr]

On the way home from work, what was really bugging me about the change solidified in my mind.

The character builder and adventure tools, as they were, became (quite literally) an invaluable tool in my DMing routine. The books were there simply for their fluff, and I learned to completely rely on the software to track all of the crunchy bits.

Now, with things changing from a purchase that I owned to a service that I do not want to rent, I'm left in the lurch because there's an daunting and immense heap of technical information that I never bothered to learn and that's going to keep coming out at a fairly quick pace.

Yeah, I can go back and start reading the books for the crunchy bits and making characters the old fashioned way, but the more ... satisfying isn't the right word, but it's the closest my brain can currently supply, answer is probably to just stick with what we've got till we get bored with it, or something better comes along.

Great way to put it. I'd add that I still like 3.5 and am also playing Pathfinder. So I just called it quits on 4e and am going Pathfinder for most of my D&D. I actually feel really good about supporting Paizo.

 

[Darkthorne]

Hitting the F5 key FAR too often cause this "new & improved, FASTER program" freezes far too often. What's with the microtext anyways? I can read some serously small handwriting, but that is rediculous. Would be better if it had some zoom effect. I've imported 1 character with some problems. I tried creating different characters but got literally lost of my original design idea of where I was going due to the lag time for it to finishing "processing" which is the new word for this program is freezing again. I DO have a partial build done, but silly me tried doing it level by level.... again too damn long, never finished it.
Ok next day, figure it would be better and it still is choking. What does Wizards consider to be BETA testing seriously? How does their definition of what BETA testing differ THAT much from what their customers expect? What benchmarks did they use/put in place to determine each aspect of of the new builder was up to snuff? What restricted parameters did they expect their paying customers run their games? I mean who's the one that thought "Yeah, this is only a tool to print out a character sheet, and no there's no chance anyone may level up midway through a game" Wait, there's more, whoever uses our program will always have internet and a way to connect whenever and whereever they may be playing. Ok, yup I can print the next level up version IF I think I am close, but why the heck do I want to waste that much ink? And if I die, I'm basically screwed for the remainder of session and might as well go home if I am not playing a low level guy. 4E is so updated w/ eratta and the amount of cross referencing between the splat books is too extensive to do in a timely fashion, that is what the character builder is to do to make faster, this does not accomplish that in layout design or functionality. There are more issues than just this, but I haven't the time, nor desire to point out the obvious flaws WOTC "tested" for. I was a yearly subscriber, but just shut off my auto-renew, because WOTC can't straightforward/realistic on what they can deliver. Ideally WOTC should give a timeline (not one this specific date) when they believe (I'm being generous here) certain problems will be fixed. They should also give a timeline when adjustments/improvements will be made (as in what order of priority). Going forward they seriously need to raise the bar for their BETA testing, not just inhouse testing tapped directly into their servers. Hold back products that simply aren't ready and be wait for it......HONEST to your customers. Don't make statements "inferring" you are doing an update to an existing tool when you have no plans to do so. I would much rather wait for something useful (I'm not saying awesome or outstanding) as opposed to receiving something that is still listed on their website as "Create and edit 4th Edition characters with ease" when all my adjectives for this program is less than positive. As a customer I would much rather you be honest with me, then blowing smoke and hype about how awesome something is and on release you deliver the opposite. I get and understand speedbumps.
This is not a speedbump, it's a sinkhole

 

[Obryn]

Because what they are now offering is a tenth as useful as what we had before and costs the same amount of money.

It's OK to admit WotC screwed up badly with this buggy, slow POS online CB - we won't tell them.

Luckily a fellow ENWorlder has found a program that will allow me to add custom content to the old builder. Woot.

For what it's worth, I agree 100%. Also for what it's worth, I decided to give them three more months. I like the insurance, honestly, that the campaign's characters will be saved no matter what happens to the physical sheets, and I simply can't use the old builder for the process.

So I'm still mad, still hate the new CB (especially that ridiculous marketplace), but will give them three more months.

-O

 

[the Jester]

I just tried out the new CB for the first time- gack! Not worth the effort.

I'm very disappointed. My (annual) sub goes through like March I think; when it comes time to renew, I'll have to see how much it has improved. My yardstick for 'worth it to renew' is currently:

• A character builder as good as the old one
• A Monster Builder as good as the old one

In other words, if I am paying for less than before I probably won't bother to renew my DDI sub. Which makes me sad- I had high hopes for the digital initiative, and I still do, but I now have low expectations.

It is possible that greatly improved Dungeon and Dragon content could fill the gap for me, but it has been depressing watching the digital mags dwindle over the last few months- I don't feel like I've seen a proper adventure in a while.

 

[tentfox]

Is anyone else finding the program completely unable to load characters at the moment? This is exactly what I feared, being at the mercy of their servers.

 

[Caerin]

Is anyone else finding the program completely unable to load characters at the moment? This is exactly what I feared, being at the mercy of their servers.

Yeah, it hasn't been working for many people the last few hours. Mudbunny said they are working on it.

 

[Grabuto138]

On the way home from work, what was really bugging me about the change solidified in my mind.

The character builder and adventure tools, as they were, became (quite literally) an invaluable tool in my DMing routine. The books were there simply for their fluff, and I learned to completely rely on the software to track all of the crunchy bits.

Now, with things changing from a purchase that I owned to a service that I do not want to rent, I'm left in the lurch because there's an daunting and immense heap of technical information that I never bothered to learn and that's going to keep coming out at a fairly quick pace.

Yeah, I can go back and start reading the books for the crunchy bits and making characters the old fashioned way, but the more ... satisfying isn't the right word, but it's the closest my brain can currently supply, answer is probably to just stick with what we've got till we get bored with it, or something better comes along.

Pretty much my sentiment.

I use the Compendium as much as the CB since I DM so I will keep my subscription so I don't have to buy the books. But in its current form the CB is not useful for me. At a minimum I need to add a bonus feat and I would really like to see the math. I made some characters the hard way for essentials so it is doable but it sucks to loose such a cool feature.

In the long term I really like like to see some sort of social networking function.