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House Rules in the Character Builder
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5710728" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>In this case, speaking for myself, X and Y are things that the old tools did <em>over a year ago,</em> before WotC chose to discontinue supporting them (and they were well-received tools getting better and better that were largely functional) and switched to supporting new tools for at least the same price that did... far less. </p><p></p><p>And did it far less usefully and accurately.</p><p></p><p>As soon as X or Y are implemented, well of course we'll move on; but as long as the state of the "new and improved" tool remains "new and noticeably worse" than the old one, people have every right to complain. In addition, for some of us, the near-utter collapse of DDI (crap content in Dragon and Dungeon; month after month of expectations built up only to find them unfulfilled; the replacement of the tools with inferior versions) was a dealbreaker. It caused me to cancel my sub, and I have seen posts by a number of others saying the same. </p><p></p><p>I have been waiting for a functional, usable Monster Builder <em>that isn't significantly worse than the old one</em> ever since, wanting to re-subscribe but unable to justify paying more or the same as I was for something inferior to a tool that I already have on my hard drive. I mean, as a dm, the MB was the biggest draw for me to DDI; I don't need the Character Builder, since I don't play except once every three years or something, but I dm and custom build monsters <em>constantly.</em> And right now, it's more practical for me to do it in OpenOffice and just format and do the math by hand than it is for me to screw around with a MB that <em>still won't let me stick a monster it builds into my adventures.</em></p><p></p><p>I think people would stop bitching about the length of time it takes for it to arrive if it wasn't such an unreasonable length, especially when who-knows-how-many people are paying for it. </p><p></p><p>I started out as a DDI booster; I subbed very early, renewed it and maintained it until <em>half a year</em> of crap DDI had gone by before I gave up. Since then the online mag content (if you even want to call them "mags" anymore) has risen markedly in quality, but it isn't enough for me. I want the damn Monster Builder's quality and usability to be better than the one on my hard drive, but instead we've had something that started as a joke (the Monster Builder that can't build monsters!) and has gradually turned into.... a little less of a joke (hey, it can build monsters now, you just can't actually put them into an adventure with any level of convenience!).</p><p></p><p>Isn't the whole point of these tools to make my life as a dm easier? Like I said, it's actually easier and more practical for me to do a monster up in OpenOffice, so the MB still isn't up to snuff. </p><p></p><p>And I have <em>no idea</em> what is taking so much time. Is "export to rtf" something super technically difficult? I admit, I'm not a programmer, but it seems to me that if the old MB could do it and if the new one has been built on its back (which, according to many who have looked at the source code, it is), it shouldn't be <strong>14 months hard</strong> to get it working.</p><p></p><p>Yet, 14 months after WotC kicked the old MB out of the house, here we are.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 5710728, member: 1210"] In this case, speaking for myself, X and Y are things that the old tools did [i]over a year ago,[/i] before WotC chose to discontinue supporting them (and they were well-received tools getting better and better that were largely functional) and switched to supporting new tools for at least the same price that did... far less. And did it far less usefully and accurately. As soon as X or Y are implemented, well of course we'll move on; but as long as the state of the "new and improved" tool remains "new and noticeably worse" than the old one, people have every right to complain. In addition, for some of us, the near-utter collapse of DDI (crap content in Dragon and Dungeon; month after month of expectations built up only to find them unfulfilled; the replacement of the tools with inferior versions) was a dealbreaker. It caused me to cancel my sub, and I have seen posts by a number of others saying the same. I have been waiting for a functional, usable Monster Builder [i]that isn't significantly worse than the old one[/i] ever since, wanting to re-subscribe but unable to justify paying more or the same as I was for something inferior to a tool that I already have on my hard drive. I mean, as a dm, the MB was the biggest draw for me to DDI; I don't need the Character Builder, since I don't play except once every three years or something, but I dm and custom build monsters [i]constantly.[/i] And right now, it's more practical for me to do it in OpenOffice and just format and do the math by hand than it is for me to screw around with a MB that [i]still won't let me stick a monster it builds into my adventures.[/i] I think people would stop bitching about the length of time it takes for it to arrive if it wasn't such an unreasonable length, especially when who-knows-how-many people are paying for it. I started out as a DDI booster; I subbed very early, renewed it and maintained it until [i]half a year[/i] of crap DDI had gone by before I gave up. Since then the online mag content (if you even want to call them "mags" anymore) has risen markedly in quality, but it isn't enough for me. I want the damn Monster Builder's quality and usability to be better than the one on my hard drive, but instead we've had something that started as a joke (the Monster Builder that can't build monsters!) and has gradually turned into.... a little less of a joke (hey, it can build monsters now, you just can't actually put them into an adventure with any level of convenience!). Isn't the whole point of these tools to make my life as a dm easier? Like I said, it's actually easier and more practical for me to do a monster up in OpenOffice, so the MB still isn't up to snuff. And I have [i]no idea[/i] what is taking so much time. Is "export to rtf" something super technically difficult? I admit, I'm not a programmer, but it seems to me that if the old MB could do it and if the new one has been built on its back (which, according to many who have looked at the source code, it is), it shouldn't be [b]14 months hard[/b] to get it working. Yet, 14 months after WotC kicked the old MB out of the house, here we are. [/QUOTE]
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