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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5352571" data-attributes="member: 5143">I've listed the reasons I believe this to be the case way upthread.  I don't think it's "proof" just that it seems a possibility. My only problem with this interpretation is that we've been told that the Character Builder update team is completely separate from the development team for new tools.  The lead for the DDI tools team assured us of this during a couple of posts on the Wizards message board.  He wanted to make sure everyone understood that updating the character builder didn't interfere with any new tools they were working on and vice versa.I mean, it's possible that they considered the work to convert the character builder over to Essentials to be a big enough project that they needed the "new tools team" to help them finish it and since the new tools team was busy they couldn't get the support they needed.  But then again, we've been told the new tools team has been working on their new project for months and months, so I don't know why they'd expect to get their help all of a sudden.Or...they purposefully put off updating the character builder because they assigned the task of creating a character builder capable of handling Essentials months ago to the "new tools team" and that team is running behind and hasn't finished it yet.  Which is the way I'd do it if I knew a big change needed to be made to the character builder in a couple of months.Not only that, but any tool capable of handling Essentials would likely require a reworking of how the data for the character builder was stored.  In other words, it would likely require a conversion all of the existing data over to the new format.  Possibly requiring that the data be reentered.I have no idea if the tool will be online only.  I never said that, other people are jumping to conclusions.  But if I was doing it, I'd want there to be a web-based version of the character builder to accommodate users of non-PC devices(possible iPads, smartphones, Macs), and users of shared computers.  There's been complaints about a lack of an iPad app and Mac support for ages.  This allows you to support both of them(not completely, but mostly) with only 1 application.I'd probably anticipate the outcry over the fact that the tool can't be used offline.  I'd either dismiss these people because I think that preventing pirating and forcing each member of a group to get their own account is more important than annoying some people who can't use the tool online OR I'd make 2 tools, one online and one offline that used the same data format so we only have to make one update per month.Which one they'll choose, I don't know.  And it's certainly possible that they just stick with the status quo and hack Essentials into the character builder without making a web-based character builder and they are just extremely disorganized in finishing that.</blockquote>

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