DDI September/October Update info

[jbear]

A online character builder? Maybe. But would this really be something that would excite all fans (as mudbunny's enthusiasm seems to suggest?) Maybe it really works on all platforms but I am not sure that's really exciting enough to most of us. Obviously the majority of current subscribers is already using Windows. Many of us might see it as a problem, since it doesn't allow the "subscribe periodically to get latest update.

It seems more like to be something else. Whatever it is. Maybe it is part of the Adventure Tools. A Campaign Planning tool or something.

Wow, you read my mind!

So let's play with a little imaginative logic.

WotC has been working on a project that it hasn't been able to talk about until it is finished.
WotC's policy is not to announce new 4e software beforehand.
This policy exists because of its failure to produce the promised VTT.
This failure to produce the VTT may have caused a very negative customer reaction.
This policy exists becasue WotC does not want similar negative customer reactions.
WotC does not want negative customer reactions.

WotC fail to update the CB in September.
WotC makes will make an update in October but the Dark Sun and Essentials material will be restricted to the Compendium.

Dark Sun and Essentials have generated a second wind of interest in 4e.
WotC wants to attract new customers.
Essentials has unsettled some satisfied customers due to fears that this new direction will be the only future direction.
Both of these additions to the CB are big additions that a lot of people are waiting for with a good deal of illusion and many with growing impatience.
The delay is causing a negative backlash from unsatisfied customers.
WotC has offered refunds for september.
WotC does not want to lose current customers.

WotC has announced that it is reorganising feats.
Since Essentials release, Wizard's powers are being updated to have effects on a miss
Dark Sun introduces Themes.
Essentials introduce an alternative class structure to Fighters, Rogues, Clerics and Wizards.
It seems possible that these changes alone would be enough to cause a significant delay in such a big update.

WotC breaks radio silence with the announcement of a reduced update of the CB in October alongside the announcement of (a) new web based tool(s).
WotC has formerly declared that it has a department working on very exciting projects that can't be talked about until ready.

The announcement of web based tools has generated the rumour that the CB will be web based once it is released.
Such a possibility would protect WotC from pirating.
Many happy customers have had a negative reaction to this rumour.
WotC ceased the production of PDFs to protect themselves to some degree from pirating.
This had a negative backlash from customers.
Pirating of D&D books continues.
Some people are excited about a web based CB because it opens up the possibility of the CB being used on macs

I may have missed a few points. It's late and my mind is blurrier than my eyes and I can barely see the screen.

Can I draw some kind of conclusion from all of the above. Well lets imagine, the beginning of november rolls around and WotC finally make their long awaited announcement about this web based tool that they have been working on, which we presume they imagine is going to really excite customers, as opposed to having a negative backlash:

"Well guys, thanks for baring with us through september and october. A lot of changes have been introduced to the CB with Dark Sun and Essentials, not to mention we've reorganised the feat section from top to bottom. And it will be up and ready to go on Tuesday! And, now we have surprise fro you! The CB is now an exclusively web based application!!! So you'll all be as excited as we are, now you can use your CB on your macs!!!"

Ok, so I don't know what you can glean from all those tidbits of 'things we know' and 'things WotC must surely take into account the next time around' to try and figure out what is going to be announced, but if I had to put money on what it's NOT going to be, I'd say it was what I wrote above. It just wouldn't make sense. And if it were the case, surely there must be something more.

What that something more is who knows. But if we're betting ... I'd say it's going to be something cool enough that if they are going to make the CB web based, which they must know is going to have some kind of negative backlash, then the coolness factor of the other new tools far outweigh the 'suck' of no more tabletop CB.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Yeah, I certainly believe that if they introduce a new web-based character builder that it may(or may not) actually replace the current one. Imagine if what they announced was that there was an entirely overhauled CB problem that supported Essentials, built with a new UI from the ground up that allowed way more customization in terms of filtering out information that you didn't want to see than before.

While at the same time announcing that there would be a web-based version of the CB that read in the save files from the standalone version, was updated at the same time, and allowed you to create characters when at work, on a mac, or using your smartphone/iPad.

Even if they replace the standalone CB with a web-based tool, I could see some complaining, but in the end I think it's usefulness would outweigh the disadvantages. But that's coming from me who has internet access everywhere he goes but uses the internet more often at work(where I can't install the CB), and on my iPad(which has no character builder) than I do on my home PC.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

The only plus I can see on having a new CB is that I would have something that actually worked for once, as mine is very buggy and has been for months, and I'm the DM!

 

[Ahrimon]

The only plus I can see on having a new CB is that I would have something that actually worked for once, as mine is very buggy and has been for months, and I'm the DM!

Out of curiousity, if your the DM, why do you need the character builder?

 

[surfarcher]

Yeah, I certainly believe that if they introduce a new web-based character builder that it may(or may not) actually replace the current one. Imagine if what they announced was that there was an entirely overhauled CB problem that supported Essentials, built with a new UI from the ground up that allowed way more customization in terms of filtering out information that you didn't want to see than before.

While at the same time announcing that there would be a web-based version of the CB that read in the save files from the standalone version, was updated at the same time, and allowed you to create characters when at work, on a mac, or using your smartphone/iPad.

Even if they replace the standalone CB with a web-based tool, I could see some complaining, but in the end I think it's usefulness would outweigh the disadvantages. But that's coming from me who has internet access everywhere he goes but uses the internet more often at work(where I can't install the CB), and on my iPad(which has no character builder) than I do on my home PC.

Lucky you.

What about those of us whos workplace actively blocks WotC?

Who do over 90% of their prep in transit, without internet?

In that scenario we get sodomized.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Out of curiousity, if your the DM, why do you need the character builder?

To check my player's sheets when they send them to me before the game, then I can have a very good look at them and ask for changes. It's also handy to store the character sheets just in case (as has happened) a player loses theirs and needs another copy.

 

[mattcolville]

I have no idea what's going on inside WotC, but I know what I'd like to see, and I have an idea of where WotC dropped the ball.

When I speak of dropping the ball here, I do so in the context of some very, very successful e-tools. The DDI is a huge success and, like Encounters, is a major source of positive press for the game. I've seen posts from dozens if not hundreds of users who cite the DDI, or the Character Builder specifically, as the thing that hooked them on the new edition. So I'm in no way accusing the e-support of being a failure.

But the one thing WotC should have been concentrating on is user-generated content. If you give the users the tools they need to create and share and modify their own content, you will create a hugely robust player base for your product.

The CB has a lot of virtues, but the fact that it's not online means that if I want to make, say, a Human Templar Sorcerer-pact Warlock, I have to do it all myself. In spite of the fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of players have already done it.

In this age, that's criminal. A criminal waste of time and duplication of effort. WotC's highest priority *must be* the ability for players to share and collaborate on content so I don't have to make the 5,000th Warlock, especially when he's no different from several hundred other Warlocks.

I should be able to go online, search for builds that match my criteria, and see what's popular. What are the most popular Warlock builds? What are the most popular Sorcerer-king Pact warlock builds? I should be able to compare the most popular ones, vote on them, create my own version and share it and let it compete in the marketplace of ideas.

Why can't I easily browse through all the PCs in the campaign I'm playing in? Because they're not all online. If they were all online, using collaboration software that let me create groups and control public/private settings, I could join my friend's campaign, see all the existing characters, and make intelligent decisions about what I should be playing. Work to make my character complement, or contrast, the existing characters. Some free tools already do this.

That's just for players. You do the same thing for GMs, and now you've got the ultimate GM tool. Something that would make Dungeon and Dragon content look paltry by comparison.

The zeitgeist of the pre-90s RPG era was the DIY nature of everything. GM's spent hundreds of hours creating volumes of content, dungeons, adventures, house rules, campaign settings that only a handful of players ever saw.

I don't know if they still do that, I think kids today spend their free time somewhat differently than we did (though not worse, I'm not saying there's a difference in quality, only type), but if you had these kinds of tools, I think we'd see a sea-change back toward that stuff.

If I can create my own Encounters, Dungeons, Adventures, and upload them, share them, vote on them, copy them, modify them, if I can create my own monsters, modify existing monsters, create level-appropriate versions of existing monsters, then I have effectively become an unpaid WotC employee. They, for free, leverage *at least* my time, if not also my skill and experience. And maybe what I create is crap. Ok. So you give the users the ability to make that determination and communicate it to others. Reviews, votes, tags. These are proven winners. They work.

My GM friends and I have done a phenomenal amount of work on our games, spent hundreds of hours on custom-content. WotC should be *desperate*, really genuinely going INSANE to find a way for me to get that content out to the widest number of users. I'm doing their job for them, for free, and it's in their best interest--and more important, I submit, than anything else right now--for them to give me the tools to do this online in the first place (i.e. not create the content locally, then find a way to transfer it to an online app, I should be making this stuff *in* the tool) and then share it and let it compete in the marketplace of ideas.

There's a free app someone kludged together called the Combat Manager. I believe there's a newer app that's even better. The Combat Manager is, in my opinion, the most important e-tool we've ever seen. And it's free and easy to use. It makes running D&D4 so easy, so *ridiculously* easy and fun that you can run the entire game on the fly, with zero prep work. It's so liberating that I can't really describe it, you have to just get a laptop and download it, and use it.

But even that tool is nothing like as powerful and useful as a WotC version could be. Because while the Combat Manager lets you copy monsters from the Monster Builder and paste them into the CM, slowly accumulating a local library of monsters for the CM, and lets you import CB files preserving all the powers and stats, that's still *some* work on your part. How much better if you just logged in and *all* the monsters were at your fingertips? *All* the characters were already there because it knew which campaign you were playing in?

This is no fantasy. No careless product of wild imagination. The Combat Manager is real, I've used it. One guy did it on his own for free. There *must* be a WotC version and it *must* be online and allow me to share and collaborate information. It should be the most important thing WotC is working on, and my only fear is not that they don't think this is a good idea, it's that they don't realize how important it is.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I have no idea what's going on inside WotC, but I know what I'd like to see, and I have an idea of where WotC dropped the ball.

When I speak of dropping the ball here, I do so in the context of some very, very successful e-tools. The DDI is a huge success and, like Encounters, is a major source of positive press for the game. I've seen posts from dozens if not hundreds of users who cite the DDI, or the Character Builder specifically, as the thing that hooked them on the new edition. So I'm in no way accusing the e-support of being a failure.

But the one thing WotC should have been concentrating on is user-generated content. If you give the users the tools they need to create and share and modify their own content, you will create a hugely robust player base for your product.

The CB has a lot of virtues, but the fact that it's not online means that if I want to make, say, a Human Templar Sorcerer-pact Warlock, I have to do it all myself. In spite of the fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of players have already done it.

In this age, that's criminal. A criminal waste of time and duplication of effort. WotC's highest priority *must be* the ability for players to share and collaborate on content so I don't have to make the 5,000th Warlock, especially when he's no different from several hundred other Warlocks.

I should be able to go online, search for builds that match my criteria, and see what's popular. What are the most popular Warlock builds? What are the most popular Sorcerer-king Pact warlock builds? I should be able to compare the most popular ones, vote on them, create my own version and share it and let it compete in the marketplace of ideas.

Why can't I easily browse through all the PCs in the campaign I'm playing in? Because they're not all online. If they were all online, using collaboration software that let me create groups and control public/private settings, I could join my friend's campaign, see all the existing characters, and make intelligent decisions about what I should be playing. Work to make my character complement, or contrast, the existing characters. Some free tools already do this.

That's just for players. You do the same thing for GMs, and now you've got the ultimate GM tool. Something that would make Dungeon and Dragon content look paltry by comparison.

The zeitgeist of the pre-90s RPG era was the DIY nature of everything. GM's spent hundreds of hours creating volumes of content, dungeons, adventures, house rules, campaign settings that only a handful of players ever saw.

I don't know if they still do that, I think kids today spend their free time somewhat differently than we did (though not worse, I'm not saying there's a difference in quality, only type), but if you had these kinds of tools, I think we'd see a sea-change back toward that stuff.

If I can create my own Encounters, Dungeons, Adventures, and upload them, share them, vote on them, copy them, modify them, if I can create my own monsters, modify existing monsters, create level-appropriate versions of existing monsters, then I have effectively become an unpaid WotC employee. They, for free, leverage *at least* my time, if not also my skill and experience. And maybe what I create is crap. Ok. So you give the users the ability to make that determination and communicate it to others. Reviews, votes, tags. These are proven winners. They work.

My GM friends and I have done a phenomenal amount of work on our games, spent hundreds of hours on custom-content. WotC should be *desperate*, really genuinely going INSANE to find a way for me to get that content out to the widest number of users. I'm doing their job for them, for free, and it's in their best interest--and more important, I submit, than anything else right now--for them to give me the tools to do this online in the first place (i.e. not create the content locally, then find a way to transfer it to an online app, I should be making this stuff *in* the tool) and then share it and let it compete in the marketplace of ideas.

There's a free app someone kludged together called the Combat Manager. I believe there's a newer app that's even better. The Combat Manager is, in my opinion, the most important e-tool we've ever seen. And it's free and easy to use. It makes running D&D4 so easy, so *ridiculously* easy and fun that you can run the entire game on the fly, with zero prep work. It's so liberating that I can't really describe it, you have to just get a laptop and download it, and use it.

But even that tool is nothing like as powerful and useful as a WotC version could be. Because while the Combat Manager lets you copy monsters from the Monster Builder and paste them into the CM, slowly accumulating a local library of monsters for the CM, and lets you import CB files preserving all the powers and stats, that's still *some* work on your part. How much better if you just logged in and *all* the monsters were at your fingertips? *All* the characters were already there because it knew which campaign you were playing in?

This is no fantasy. No careless product of wild imagination. The Combat Manager is real, I've used it. One guy did it on his own for free. There *must* be a WotC version and it *must* be online and allow me to share and collaborate information. It should be the most important thing WotC is working on, and my only fear is not that they don't think this is a good idea, it's that they don't realize how important it is.

They did a questionaire a couple of months back about what most D&D DMs wanted as the next tool. Campaign management won with a sizable lead. So, i think that your impression is wrong. And i hope you're not fazed when i tell you that the *things* that *Wotc* *must* do are pretty unimportant to me. YMMV

 

[mattcolville]

They did a questionaire a couple of months back about what most D&D DMs wanted as the next tool. Campaign management won with a sizable lead. So, i think that your impression is wrong. And i hope you're not fazed when i tell you that the *things* that *Wotc* *must* do are pretty unimportant to me. YMMV

My impression is certainly not wrong, as I'm not talking about what people might answer when asked what they want (never a good way to guide development), I'm talking about the needs of the product.

What you or I might personally want (a pony!) is not relevant to my point.

 

[Zaran]

They did a questionaire a couple of months back about what most D&D DMs wanted as the next tool. Campaign management won with a sizable lead. So, i think that your impression is wrong. And i hope you're not fazed when i tell you that the *things* that *Wotc* *must* do are pretty unimportant to me. YMMV

What questionnaire are you referring to and more importantly where did they give the results? Their whole problem has been not saying anything to us