advice to anyone still wondering if they should purchase a DDI subscription today

[HarbingerX]

For me, the DDI isn't worth the money right now.

I don't DM 4e, so none of the prep tools are useful to me. Neither is Dungeon. My DM doesn't allow anything from Dragon, or from any of the newer books except on a case by case basis, so both the Compendium and magazine are of very limited use.

The character builder could be useful, but it alone isn't enough for me to spend the money on the whole package. Keeping one character up to date just isn't worth $60 a year for me.

Get a one-month subscription for $8. Then cancel renewal. You then have the Character Builder with data current as of that week. Since your DM doesn't allow you to add things without approval, you won't care that you're missing out on the free updates. Do that maybe once a year if you really want to pick up data from the newer books.

 

[catsclaw227]

Access even for a short while is not bad: you can download the magazines, look at all the bonus stuff, use the moderately useful (but ultimately not too helpful) encounter builder (the other "bonus" features - aka simple flash tools that are only good because of the database they are linked to - are fairly useless), and update the new character builder. However, the character builder in particular is misleading: like so many PC games these days, they have released the beta. I, for one, do not believe we should have to pay to beta test a product, and have been very disappointed in what they've given us so far (yet remain hopeful).

I find the encounter builder VERY helpful, especially when I was converting my 3.5 AoW campaign. The flash tools are the interface that adds value to the database. By your definition, most ALL flash tools are useless and the only value is the back-end data access capabilities, unless you are talking about eyecandy only flash.

I also don't see the "beta" aspect of the builder. It's been rock solid for me and my group. What bugs and errors are you getting that make you consider it beta?

 

[CharlesRyan]

I also don't see the "beta" aspect of the builder.

The "beta" complaint is out of date. The Character Builder exited beta and was released as a finished piece of software on 27 January.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Oh, and another thing.

One of the conceits of D&D Insider is that subscribers are, well, insiders. They get to do things like playtest classes that aren't published yet. And access software that's still in beta.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Have you all noticed the survey link at the top of the page? If you are satisfied or disatisfied with DDI, it is a good opportunity to give some feedback.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

I love the Character Builder though I think the complete package should be free to all players, not just the subscribers. You want to make it easy for new players to get into the game, not more difficult. CB makes character creation easy even for first time players.

Effectively they do this, as it is freely available for doing characters at levels 1-3 (and that is where most new players will start the game, I imagine).

Cheers

 

[evilbob]

The "beta" complaint is out of date. The Character Builder exited beta and was released as a finished piece of software on 27 January.

No; my point is that is has just as many bugs - more, for me anyway - as the beta product did. In fact, other than a few interface changes, I didn't see any difference between the beta and the "released" version. (It was still missing some of the same information, for example.)

 

[catsclaw227]

No; my point is that is has just as many bugs - more, for me anyway - as the beta product did. In fact, other than a few interface changes, I didn't see any difference between the beta and the "released" version. (It was still missing some of the same information, for example.)

Have you considered the idea that some (or many) of the bugs you thought you had weren't quite as bad as you thought?

EDIT: I realized that this post might sound snarky... FAR from my intent. It is mostly to point out the difficulties of bug reporting, tracking and fixing. If we really want to help fix the bugs, when we find one, we need to be vigilant and try to narrow down where we think the actual exists, and why. Some bugs seem big if you happen to stumble on the one rare exception when it happens.

In another thread, you claimed that ruffian rogues and maces don't calculate right:

I have tried many times to make characters with the thing and every single time I've run into a bug. These bugs range from "vexing" (wizard spellbook spells print twice) to "annoying but I can rewrite it" (item bonuses not added appropriately to stats) to "I cannot use the power attack/damage calculator at all" (ruthless ruffian rogues cannot use maces with rogue powers).

Then, after a follow up post claimed it worked fine for them, you "clarified" to say that it was a Bugbear using a large weapon - certainly not as common.

I'm also using large weapons (bugbear); I wonder if that makes a difference. And yes, I wasn't more specific because of this exact kind of response.

And in about 5 min, it was determined that it was only with Bugbear and Large Maces and Large Clubs because of the Ruthless Ruffian thing, and that with a Large Dagger (for instance) it works just fine. That's an even narrower configuration.

You even said, above in the quote, that you didn't want to list specifics about your bugs because you might get a response where someone refutes your bug claim.

Do you think it's possible that your bugs aren't as bad as you feel they might be? It's also best, if you are willing to submit bug reports to help improve the product, to be very specific with your submission so that they can pinpoint the issues.

Tracking and repairing bugs reported by users is very difficult because, more often than not, the bug reports are vague.

I've even gotten bug reports that simply say.. "It doesn't work." Not helpful.

 

[Nebulous]

The builder alone is worth the price of admission. It rocks on toast.

The CB is my favorite part of the DDI, even over the compendium. Having monster stats is extremely useful, yes, but being able to compile a character in minutes, at any level, and print to full color with power cards is a truly exceptional thing.

Now, as someone mentioned, a Treasure Parcel builder would be awesome.

 

[evilbob]

Have you considered the idea that some (or many) of the bugs you thought you had weren't quite as bad as you thought

I think I know what you're saying here, and I certainly can believe I have higher standards than other people. Either that, or I'm amazingly good at finding bugs and everyone else just misses them.

The mace + ruffian thing: I wasn't aware that only large maces didn't work because I hadn't tested regular maces, but yes I did know that large <<any light blade>> worked, as well it should. And yes that race is probably on its way out, but that was just one of several things that I found without really trying. Speaking of large <<any light blade>>, I also noticed that it also incorrectly adds bonus Str damage to ALL weapons when using rattling attacks - as opposed to only when using a mace. So there's another one. (Also, when looking for items for that character, Strikebacks and Dwarven Throwers - both level 10 hand items - aren't in there. Did I miss some massive change to level 10 hand items?)

I didn't say before that I didn't want to talk about bugs because I might get a response that would refute it; I said I didn't want to get into nitpicks and hash out a bug report over a thread that had nothing directly to do with bugs in the CB.

Thanks for helping me make that one bug report more specific. I feel confident that many if not all of my other reports are pretty solid.