Online Character Builder is LIVE!

[Abraxas]

Ok, earlier this evening I opened up the CB in chrome and went about recreating a Level 23 Warlord - everything went smooth and was actually running pretty snappy. It gave me time to really look at the layout with out getting frustrated with lag. I made it all the way to selecting powers/feats at epic levels then I had three errors and had to refresh in quick succession. After the error everything seemed to start running slower. If this happens to me again I'm going to time it.

I noticed some of the formatting is off - text not fitting into spaces mostly.
I also couldn't select any exotic chain armors - just chain mail. Hide, leather, cloth - all had the various exotic versions - but not chain.

Overall, I am not a fan of the layout. It just seems crowded. The equipment section is ... difficult. I'm not happy with the CB always defaulting which levels (character level + or - 3) to show when searching for items.

And now I can't open it in firefox or chrome.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

No WONDER WotC was talking about storing PCs on your HD and limits you to 20 PCs!

The problem isn't the file size of a character when it's stored on a server, it's when the printer converts the character information into what I assume to be a high-resolution image before printing the character sheet. I can't think of another explanation of how to get ~700 MB out of a ~150 kB dnd4e file.

 

[nerfherder]

We are the equivalent of car geeks here, though, really. We're the type of people who log on to car forums and discuss all about cars, including the theory of cars and transportation. By creating an account, let alone posting with it, we are no longer 'most folks.'

What do you mean equivalent of car geeks?

<Logs onto pistonheads.com to check the car forum>

Honda Civic like a Toyota Camry indeed! Can you do this in a Camry?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I just checked, there is no text in the PDF of my 1st level Half-Orc Barbarian, in the sense that there is nothing my PDF view recognizes as text. It's just one big image.

Of course! You've switched to semi-3e mode, meaning that your character is illiterate. He's got no use for text, he needs pictures!

 

[dvvega]

Playing with the character builder with my current characters imported I have only the following "issues":

It is slow - I'm working on a BIG machine here and it is slow. I normally run the CB in a "Share Screen" session from my laptop and it is faster than this Silverlight app. It might be because the servers are in the US and I'm in Australia.

The 20 character limit will obviously not be good enough for me. On the old CB I have every level of my characters saved in separate files so I have an historical record of what they were, what changed, etc. Not just the retraining but also notes about history/adventuring/etc. Sure, you could argue I do not need this since I could just keep adding notes and labelling them, however I like this system of filing. If I am in need of a quick character of a certain level I can look through my stores of characters and go - yes a 7th level Seeker today.

D

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

The 20 character limit will obviously not be good enough for me. On the old CB I have every level of my characters saved in separate files so I have an historical record of what they were, what changed, etc. Not just the retraining but also notes about history/adventuring/etc. Sure, you could argue I do not need this since I could just keep adding notes and labelling them, however I like this system of filing. If I am in need of a quick character of a certain level I can look through my stores of characters and go - yes a 7th level Seeker today.

D

This is a concern of mine as well, because I too use this "filing system". It will become somewhat of a non issue if we can (continue to?) export the .DND4E files.

 

[Bagpuss]

The 20 character limit will obviously not be good enough for me. On the old CB I have every level of my characters saved in separate files so I have an historical record of what they were, what changed, etc.

You know you don't need to do this with the old builder as it had a view at an earlier level feature built in.....

The new builder doesn't have this feature (another missing feature to add to the list) so you would have to do it this way, erm yeah 20 characters is going to be a problem.

 

[dvvega]

You know you don't need to do this with the old builder as it had a view at an earlier level feature built in.....

The new builder doesn't have this feature (another missing feature to add to the list) so you would have to do it this way, erm yeah 20 characters is going to be a problem.

It was just much easier to load what you needed, quickly - in my case anyway - instead of making it recalculate stuff.

In addition, importing two of my characters caused problems because of Essentials (which my group does not use). I had to fill in the choices that essentials brought into the game for my 12th level characters - it should have automatically recognised that I had already "chosen" the PHB options etc.

What I do like - I can use it on my Mac - finally - but at what cost really? I do not think it is worth a subscription compared to the previous CB however I have understood the anti-piracy move.

And so far my characters seem to have their numbers in the right places.

D

 

[sigfile]

And the armor you named does not exist. I even looked for it in the old CB and it does not exist. Where did the armor come from?

Shadowdance armor is out of Seekers of the Ashen Crown. I suspect that equipment introduced in adventures didn't make it in to the builder. That's certainly reportable. ((No, wrong - it's a different issue. Shadowdance is supposed to be both cloth and leather, but it only shows up as a cloth variant))

I did equip a +1 Rapier and it showed as being figured into the implement powers for both warlock and swordmage powers.

Just a stock +1 Magic Rapier? I can't replicate that behavior. The system doesn't seem to recognize weapons as implements at all.

 

[Lord Ernie]

Shadowdance armor is out of Seekers of the Ashen Crown. I suspect that equipment introduced in adventures didn't make it in to the builder. That's certainly reportable.

That's not a good idea. The latest update removed RPGA items from the Compendium and the Builder - there was some noise of RPGA fans about this, already - so it's not there for a reason.