CB's biggest failing by far: No custom content possible

[DNH]

posting a thread here doesn't really do anything either. Your best avenue for being heard is to send the complaint directly to WotC

As it happens, I have already submitted the question to Rule-of-Three. We shall see if it ever comes up.

 

[Riastlin]

As it happens, I have already submitted the question to Rule-of-Three. We shall see if it ever comes up.

Excellent question and my apologies if I came off too strong. FWIW, I agree that custom content would make the CB a LOT better. I'm not sure I would make it my top priority, but its certainly pretty high up there.

 

[Herschel]

Sorry but unless customers complain about a product, it will never change, because the developers will assume that everything is a-ok.

And tagging my concerns onto somebody else's "complain thread" does not make them more visible to the people who can do something about them, quite the opposite.

If you don't want to read this kind of post/thread, then don't read it. I thought the body of its content was perfectly clear from the title.

1. Constructive criticism is good, especially when done in the right fourm. This was neither.

2. It's all about your complaint as it's more important than everyone else's, huh?

3. Again, constructive criticism is good, reasoned discussion is good. You started out with two good sentences but then went "I've been wronged, I'll quit if I don't get my way".

4. Using post titles like "failing" is not a way to get your concern noticed by anyone who can make a difference. Why should they open a thread with a title that appears to be whining instead of one more cautiously/constructively worded like "The character builder works well as it stands but what I really would like it to do:"

 

[DNH]

I know I am risking veering wildly off-topic here but when 4e was first published, it was as though custom content was expected to be the norm. There was no official campaign setting, just the much-trumpeted "points of light" approach (which I rather liked). That has not really worked out the way it was initially presented though, and we now appear to have a rather well-formed 4e campaign world actually with the Nentir Vale and Hammerfast and Nerath and all the rest of it. The other established campaign worlds (Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dark Sun) all got the 4e treatment over the last three years too but that custom, homebrew aspect that so many DMs work so hard on has been completely left out of the CB now.

And here's another thing: we read on here so many times about "feat tax" and how most DMs now give out certain feats as bonus feats to correct faulty maths. Unless I am missing something, there is no way to do THAT in the online CB either.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

If you want 100% customization, why don't you just go download PCgen? Then you can spend hours hacking together all the text files and working out the formulas to get exactly what you want.

The character builder outputs XML, so why don't you go learn XSL and write your own transformation to create exactly the character sheet you want?

It's easy to complain. It's much harder to actually do something for real.

 

[DNH]

my apologies if I came off too strong

No, I don't think you did at all.

 

[DNH]

Another aspect to this whole issue has just occurred to me (must be on a roll!) ...

Mike Mearls has been harping on for months now about his spaghetti sauce thing, how D&D is different things for different players and different groups and how that is all valid and good. AND YET the key product, the flagship product, of DDi will not allow for custom content. It's the approved 4e way or nothing (or some kind of post-production hack). That's just not right.

 

[Herschel]

Why not? Is WotC supposed to "know" what every DM wants and produce a product for it? They prodcue a product for the content they control/know. Some minimal customization may be a nice feature but producing it is likely a low priority, and rightfully so.

 

[the Jester]

Mike Mearls has been harping on for months now about his spaghetti sauce thing, how D&D is different things for different players and different groups and how that is all valid and good. AND YET the key product, the flagship product, of DDi will not allow for custom content. It's the approved 4e way or nothing (or some kind of post-production hack). That's just not right.

Though I agree that the CB is pretty useless without HR support, at least for my group, I think you're overreacting here.

The CB is not there to encourage house rules, it's there to support 4e D&D and the DDI. House rule support would be great, but is it necessary to help support 4e? I don't think so.

OTOH, would it be a great incentive for many of us non-subscribers? I think it might be.

 

[Zaran]

I feel like we should not stop making these threads. We've already gone 2 months without any new bug fixes. I feel like if they stop getting complaints they will stop trying to fix the issues we have.