Current state of the online Character Builder

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

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?

Check out this new thread from Chzbro.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/297756-temporary-fixes-character-builder-online.html

Apparently the feature is already there in the builder, there just isn't a place to turn it on yet. So a work-around has been discovered. Create a blank character file in the old offline builder that has Inherent Bonuses turned on. Then import it into the new builder whenever you need to create a new character for that campaign.

 

[mattcolville]

1. Stability
2. Speed
3. Rules issues

For me anyway...

I wonder if this isn't the reverse of how it should be done.

Because Silverlight doesn't know anything about D&D--and never will--they're probably always going to be storing every click server-side. Which they're already doing and people are complaining about.

But it *does* mean that when it crashes, you have *literally* only lost one click and can just relaunch the page and pick up where you left off. So IF the rules all worked, you'd AT LEAST be able to get your dude done.

By working on the problems in this order they maximize how long we have to wait before we'll be able to make our characters.

 

[RangerWickett]

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?

Check out this new thread from Chzbro.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/297756-temporary-fixes-character-builder-online.html

Apparently the feature is already there in the builder, there just isn't a place to turn it on yet. So a work-around has been discovered. Create a blank character file in the old offline builder that has Inherent Bonuses turned on. Then import it into the new builder whenever you need to create a new character for that campaign.

Alternately, you can do the easy cheat and just assign the PCs each a magic weapon, magic implement, magic armor, and magic necktie, and let that figure out the math for you.

 

[Destil]

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...

Depends a lot on the initial design (and the availability of non-programmer experts in whatever you're doing). I've seen software where business logic can live entirely in data without programmer intervention, but it tends to be things with limited internal interactions.

So most likely not. Still, I would hope at least basic stuff like simple feats can be created or modified without taking up the time of a programmer.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I wonder if this isn't the reverse of how it should be done.

Because Silverlight doesn't know anything about D&D--and never will--they're probably always going to be storing every click server-side. Which they're already doing and people are complaining about.

But it *does* mean that when it crashes, you have *literally* only lost one click and can just relaunch the page and pick up where you left off. So IF the rules all worked, you'd AT LEAST be able to get your dude done.

By working on the problems in this order they maximize how long we have to wait before we'll be able to make our characters.

No it is not, Silverlight is a framework and the client knows only what the developer codes for, pretty much like any other framework. They most likely choose Silverlight for this because it uses a similar event model as WinForms so most of their UI code was re-usable, if not optimal. Hence, it is passing every click to the server because that is the way windows forms does it.
It would not surprise me that once the get the stability and rules implementation issues sorted that it will be replaced by something else. Probably a mix of HTML5 and what ever javascript framework is popular and supported by MS at the time.
It wil be a while at their current rates of progesss before they are ready to make that switch though.

 

[Destil]

Silverlight is basically MS's flash alternative, albeit a little more dev oriented and a little less designer oriented. Since the old CB was already in .NET silverlight should have them them reuse most of that old code base by just building a new UI on top of the existing code.

Who knows what it'll be in the future, Microsoft sure as hell doesn't. Their plans for support of silverlight vs. HTML5 are clear as mud.