Possible DDI News...

[Festivus]

One other question not answered yet (and I asked in that linked thread) is what they plan to do about security on the site. At present, the site isn't HTTPS and is susceptible to sidejacking... you can bet I wouldn't use that in a public venue without using a VPN connection first to encrypt my session.

I am betting they can't answer that question because it's a security one, and policy prevents them from saying anything, but putting the entire system online... and not offering secure pages when we are logging into that system? Yikes.

 

[CovertOps]

So their big announcement is that they're now going to offer us... Less?

Well, that will save me several dollars a month.

That depends on your definition of "Less". If less means that you have the same tool, but it's only available online then yes you have less. Try suggesting to Mac/Linux users that THEY have less.

Yes. The free gravy train has ended. Why are we shocked?

I am annoyed at, but understand, why it is internet only.

Of course, I am annoyed at Silverlight, but we kind of knew their dedication to MS with the original character builder. =(

Our groups plays where we all have wireless internet access so bing internet only will not really affect us, but we do use IPlay4E, which rocks, so I hope that the API or Exporting option gets remedied quickly.

Being able to print out or PDF characters is going to be very important for those who do not have internet access for their game places.

As a developer I don't think that Silverlight has anything to do with a dedication to MS and if it does then they (WotC) are just plain idiots. With any project (especially software) you want to target as many different platforms (the most customers) for the lowest cost and easiest development (development tools) in the shortest amount of time (development time). The biggest limitation they had was they were doing web development which eliminates a LOT of options based on the type of interface they need.

 

[fanboy2000]

Well, score one for the internet rumors!

I have serious doubts this will be as easy or elegant to use as the current CB. The screenshots on the official announcement don't lead me to believe any differently. However, I'm willing to give it a fair shot.

Personally, I wouldn't call the current CB easy or elegant.

 

[Scribble]

As a developer I don't think that Silverlight has anything to do with a dedication to MS and if it does then they (WotC) are just plain idiots. With any project (especially software) you want to target as many different platforms (the most customers) for the lowest cost and easiest development (development tools) in the shortest amount of time (development time). The biggest limitation they had was they were doing web development which eliminates a LOT of options based on the type of interface they need.

PaoloM also indicated that the tools wonm't ALL be silverlight. They're each being built based on what they need them to do, and the demands of the tool.

Case in point the Compendium is not silverlight.

 

[Pour]

I'm not against internet being required. I primarily DM online. What worries me is that at launch the new builder is not a complete program. There are still a lot of significant portions intended for updates. That leaves me wary considering their track record with updates and finishing products.

And I suppose, as DM, I more wanted news on MB or another suite program. I wonder if we'll ever get the complete electronic suite.

 

[the Jester]

Having read the thread over on the WotC site and now having more information, I have to say I'm increasingly concerned that the Character Builder may be entering a half-done state. Crap- too many important pieces of it don't sound done.

Between that and the lack of a Monster Builder that works, this seems like a step backward; this doesn't seem like a "Hurray!" to me, more like a *groan.*

But I'll keep an open mind and try it out when it releases; we'll see. That will also be a good test of the WotC servers.

 

[Scribble]

Between that and the lack of a Monster Builder that works, this seems like a step backward; this doesn't seem like a "Hurray!" to me, more like a *groan.*

But I'll keep an open mind and try it out when it releases; we'll see. That will also be a good test of the WotC servers.

I think it's kind of a little of both.

From the sounds of it they've re-organized how they do the digital stuff... So it sounds almost like a step backwards to prepare for a leap forwards.

Hopefully it pans out.

 

[Ryujin]

.NET is very heavy weight. It runs slow on my pretty fast machines. I've run Silverlight apps and they are much faster so I'd expect that to be LESS of a problem. The only possible downside is if he's running dial-up.

The above mentioned "export" functionality will solve your problem (or the evil shared password - not that I'm recommending that).

I won't miss laptops at the table instead of character sheets.

There's a performance issue that I don't think many people are thinking of, let alone addressing; server loading. How many of you play on Friday night? Saturday? What kind of server farm will it require to serve the database needs, of all those client systems? We've got a rather extensive collection of database servers here, and yet the 40K students, who log on at the beginning of each semester, can drag them to their knees.

 

[Scribble]

There's a performance issue that I don't think many people are thinking of, let alone addressing; server loading. How many of you play on Friday night? Saturday? What kind of server farm will it require to serve the database needs, of all those client systems? We've got a rather extensive collection of database servers here, and yet the 40K students, who log on at the beginning of each semester, can drag them to their knees.

They indicated they've tested it with a demand size much larger then their current DDI user base... and it worked. So hopefully it will be ok.

 

[FreeXenon]

Covert Ops, I completely agree with you. I think that me using the word dedicated is a bit strong. They used .net for the original Character Builder so I assumed that they are still going to work with MS products as much as possible to use their MS developer base as much as they can.

As a developer I don't think that Silverlight has anything to do with a dedication to MS and if it does then they (WotC) are just plain idiots. With any project (especially software) you want to target as many different platforms (the most customers) for the lowest cost and easiest development (development tools) in the shortest amount of time (development time). The biggest limitation they had was they were doing web development which eliminates a LOT of options based on the type of interface they need.