November 16th release for Web-based Character Builder

[Kurtomatic]

Heh, I knew they had to be cooking with silverlight, so none of this comes as a surprise to me.

However, there will undoubtedly be some problems, both real and imagined. So fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables to the upright position as we may be experiencing some turbulence.

 

[avin]

Microsoft already decided go HTML5 and Wotc embraces Silverlight?

Fantastic...

 

[drothgery]

Microsoft already decided go HTML5 and Wotc embraces Silverlight?

WotC had a WPF Windows app. Unless they wanted to rewrite almost the whole thing from scratch (and WotC hardly had the time or money to do that), the only way to do it as a web app was in Silverlight.

Microsoft is supporting HTML5 in IE9. That doesn't mean they're abandoning Silverlight (at all; Windows Phone 7 apps are Silverlight apps).

 

[webrunner]

Hmm, the selection for picking a Leader character is called "healing".. kind of a slap to the face to the can-heal-but-not-the-focus buff-and-action-granting leaders.

 

[AnthonyRoberson]

Where is the chorus of apologies from the fanboys that said I was being 'paranoid' and 'jumping to conclusions'? Hmm? Nah...I didn't think so.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Well, funny how when I canceled my auto-renew upon WotC's first mentioning upcoming "new" online tools I was actually thinking for a split second that I might be to unfair to automatically assume the worst possible about WotC. But now WotC once again proved that I was not.

This is unfair. WotC made a mistake in the original character builder in allowing the entire 4E rule set available for a pittance. While it was a great deal for value seekers (like myself), it was an unsustainable model. I think, if we are honest, we understood that the original CB model was not going to last.

The other route that CB could have gone is micro-transactions. To get book X for the CB, you'd have to spend a certain amount. Once purchased, you'd have it forever. Under this model, CB could have remained a desktop application.

Either way, the changes being made to CB are done to protect WotC's intellectual property. There is a value to the rule set and they can't continue to give it away for next to nothing.

 

[captainspud]

This has been in development for 6+ months. The MS announcement was last week.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Ouch. iplay4e just got crushed.

A shame, I really liked using it at the table on my ipad.

 

[Scribble]

Ouch. iplay4e just got crushed.

A shame, I really liked using it at the table on my ipad.

Once the export function returns it'll be usable again I'd think...




Also the hint at them opening up the API could open the door for some awesomeness in the future.

 

[captainspud]

Not necessarily. They've only been saying that "sharing" will be worked back in-- which could be as simple as an option to send a character to another DDI account. In fact, that's a far simpler solution than building an XML exporter.

So, yeah. Pretty sure iPlay4e and similar tools won't have anything to feed off at any point in the future..

<-- still cautiously thinks this is a positive move