Current state of the online Character Builder

[Destil]

One of the oft-ignored but critical rules of thumb in software development:

1. Make it run.
2. Make it accurate.
3. Make it fast.
4. Polish it.

If the engineers who are sorting out the crash issues are the same people who need to fix the rules issues, they've got some big problems. The software shouldn't have been designed to to require that level of knowledge to implement stuff / the team should be big enough to have some dedicated rules people who can do 90% of the work there.

I'm guessing one or both of the above isn't true, given the state of CB from day one (and everything I've heard about Magic Online cards being maintained by the programmers).

 

[Jhaelen]

The software shouldn't have been designed to to require that level of knowledge to implement stuff / the team should be big enough to have some dedicated rules people who can do 90% of the work there.

I think this belongs in the realm of wishful thinking.

I've never been involved in a software project that was either specfied to a sufficient degree of details that didn't require interviewing an expert or had an expert available for 90% of the time. I'd say average availability of experts is closer to 5%; in exceptional cases maybe up to 20%.

That's just my personal experience, of course, perhaps things are better elsewhere...

 

[RangerWickett]

Is there a location or thread where we can report issues with the CB? I just noticed that a hybrid wizard can't select magic missile as a power.

Additionally, if you take the arcane initiate multiclass feat, you can't pick magic missile as the power you can use once per encounter.

Edit: Nevermind. You just have to click that 'show additional options' button. That is not very obvious.

 

[Scribble]

Is there a location or thread where we can report issues with the CB? I just noticed that a hybrid wizard can't select magic missile as a power.

Guess the darkness is safe for another day...

 

[Shemeska]

Guess the darkness is safe for another day...

Someone give this man XP for me.

 

[sigfile]

Is there a location or thread where we can report issues with the CB? I just noticed that a hybrid wizard can't select magic missile as a power.

There sure is. Report a Bug

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Added one for me!

Heh. But on a quasi-serious note, if you followed that addition strictly, you'd never get any software done. All version 1.0 software stinks. (I guarantee if you look hard at the exceptions, you'll find that they aren't really 1.0. This is why software that can't stink on launch has Alpha and Beta testing.)

See Things You Should Never Do, Part I - Joel on Software for a good example of what can happen when you make a radical change to an existing product, too. (Gee, wonder why this applies?)

I've never had much faith in the upper management of WotC when it comes to software development. But if someone in middle management is doing the right thing (fixing crashes before features), the last thing we want is upper management jostling their elbows.

Really, the only things constructive that upper management could do on this right this minute is either offer alternatives or offer compensation. Give money back to subscribers. Throw money at the problem by running the old CB in parallel, using a different team (assuming that it is documented well enough to do that), until such time as the new version is ready to go. Offer reduced prices for the subscription in the interim. That is an upper management call. But someone decided to gamble that they could make the leap from old to new without a parachute, and now they are finding out what happens when the gamble fails.

If it were me, and I cared enough to make those previous kinds of gambles, then I'd shoot for the mid-term payoff. I'd run the online version as an open and free beta for three to four months (existing subscriptions being extended by the same amount). Get some good will, get a host of people hitting it, and get them hooked.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

If the engineers who are sorting out the crash issues are the same people who need to fix the rules issues, they've got some big problems. The software shouldn't have been designed to to require that level of knowledge to implement stuff / the team should be big enough to have some dedicated rules people who can do 90% of the work there.

I'm guessing one or both of the above isn't true, given the state of CB from day one (and everything I've heard about Magic Online cards being maintained by the programmers).

Probably somewhere in the middle. Most of the guys are working on the crashes. Maybe a handful are starting on step 2. But they can only do so much. All it takes is to need someone else's input for an hour to get your next contribution finished, but that hour simply isn't available from the other person right now. Of course, this is the kind of thing that you can't know for sure from the outside.

Also, it is the kind of thing that gets discovered and acted upon when things like the current situation happens. You can bet that if someone is sitting on 80%+ finished rules changes that can't roll out because of a bottleneck, they'll work to remove that bottleneck. This part of software design and software management is like being an offensive lineman in (American) football, though. Only your coach notices all the things you do right. Screw up one time and get your QBs head ripped off by a 300 lb defensive end, and that's what the fans notice.

 

[Gundark]

Added one for me!

Apparenty according to the mythbusters you can polish a turd.

 

[Gunsmoke]

I am currently in a campaign that uses the inherent bonuses option from DMG2, I've looked for it in the new CB but cannot find it. Is it there or is that a feature to come later?