WotC D&D Beyond current development

[Nikosandros]

Does anyone know what is the current status of DDB development? I haven't followed too closely, but there are no more development updates and I think that the devs are also not posting anymore on the forums. The latest software update appears to have been in August and the upcoming "general features system" still seems to be in limbo.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Does anyone know what is the current status of DDB development? I haven't followed too closely, but there are no more development updates and I think that the devs are also not posting anymore on the forums. The latest software update appears to have been in August and the upcoming "general features system" still seems to be in limbo.

Yeah people have been wondering, but AFAICT, you have the same information as the rest of us.

WotC took over, everyone breathed a sigh of relief as were sure WotC money would ensure DDB improved, particularly in terms of communication and development, and now DDB seems to be "worse than ever" in both of those regards, and just basically a vehicle from promoting WotC products (even more than it was before).

There are still key features that were noted as being needed in 2019 and 2020 by the DDB dev team (and indeed, were expected by early-mid 2021) that are totally missing, as we approach 2023. If they don't manage to add starting Feats for Dragonlance in a few days that's going to be... pretty bad.

It's pretty weird. I can only assume WotC have some sort of revamp planned and are working entirely on that, with the current DDB just in "maintenance mode" so it can keep pulling in those tasty subscriptions.

 

[Velderan]

There are still key features that were noted as being needed in 2019 and 2020 by the DDB dev team (and indeed, were expected by early-mid 2021) that are totally missing, as we approach 2023. If they don't manage to add starting Feats for Dragonlance in a few days that's going to be... pretty bad.

Glad it's not just me that noticed this missing. It seems like the workaround is to manually add a feat once the character is created. Hope they provide an actual fix.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Glad it's not just me that noticed this missing. It seems like the workaround is to manually add a feat once the character is created. Hope they provide an actual fix.

Yeah at least they're Feats this time so we can just buy the book and do that!

Their "workaround" for both Theros and VRGtR was completely unacceptable, which was "manually homebrew-create every single Supernatural Gift/Dark Gift you want your players to be able to use, as Feats, using our incredibly clunky and tricksy system, then apply them as Feats, post-creation. Oh and if you try to share them to save others the trouble in future, we'll shut you down and you may also get in trouble! No we won't create them as Feats ourselves, we point-blank refuse to do the 'extra' work, because the real feature will arrive in a couple of months*!"

* = That "a couple of months" was prior to June 2020, note. There's literally no possibility they couldn't have done it by now if they'd wanted to. Jerks. It's the opposite of a priority for them I guess.

 

[Oofta]

We simply don't know what's going on behind the scenes. The impression I get is that initial development was rushed (big surprise) and they didn't build in enough flexibility. They could be doing a major revamp internally to get ready for the 2024 release, but who knows. They were bought out in April, between project planning, determining budget and establishing goals, there's a good chance any major revision, if any, was started months after they were bought out. Depending on the scope of the change it could be a months long project or a year long project.

D&D is a complex domain and is quite difficult to model in a way that it all works together, there's a lot of weirdness they have to figure out and testing any modification at all would be a bear.

The only ones who could provide more details are on the DndBeyond team and they aren't talking for obvious reasons.

 

[bedir than]

I'll never get Tasha's style sidekicks will I?

 

[John Lloyd1]

My theory is they need to get the general feature system working. They are going to need that or it will be a real pain to support OneD&D.

 

[Dausuul]

It's pretty weird. I can only assume WotC have some sort of revamp planned and are working entirely on that, with the current DDB just in "maintenance mode" so it can keep pulling in those tasty subscriptions.

That would be my assumption too. Probably they're aiming for a big update to support 1D&D by release, which would require major changes anyway.

 

[pukunui]

I'll never get Tasha's style sidekicks will I?

Sidekicks are available through the Extras tab. Are you wanting something different?

 

[bedir than]

Sidekicks are available through the Extras tab. Are you wanting something different?

That's treating them just like a pet. You can't have a Warrior Wolf that gains levels per Tasha's Sidekick rules