New DDI aps
- Thread starter jaelis
- Start date
ObsidianCrane
First Post
Being a bonus doesn't mean it should be judged by a lower standard.
If by overly harsh you are talking about the "its useless" comments then that's fair enough, one person's useless is anothers godsend. But if you are refering to faults, and issues then criticism is valid.
If by overly harsh you are talking about the "its useless" comments then that's fair enough, one person's useless is anothers godsend. But if you are refering to faults, and issues then criticism is valid.
inati
First Post
Criticism of the tools is fine. Holding the tools up and declaring that this is the sum total of a year's worth of development time is a laughably comical stance.
I think people's real problems and frustrations lay in the fact that these are supplementary applications, but there isn't anything to supplement. People want the turkey, not just the cranberry sauce.
I think people's real problems and frustrations lay in the fact that these are supplementary applications, but there isn't anything to supplement. People want the turkey, not just the cranberry sauce.
Well, here's another idea:
The levels (and thus the XP values) in the Encounter Builder are correct and the MM entries are in error. Evidence? The level-based bonuses to their abilities are off.
I've pointed the discrepancy out before, here and here.
All of the minions I pointed out (replace snaketongue initiate with snaketongue zealot) have plausible levels in the Encounter Builder.
So I say: Horray for another piece of stealth errata
kaomera
Explorer
That's the gist of the problem: The content currently up isn't the sum total of all of the work that WotC has done over the last year plus, but it is all they currently have to show for that work. I wouldn't mind so much (I'd rather they took the time to do things right), except that they are now talking about charging $8 per month ($60 for 12 months, but that blows almost all of my gaming budget for three weeks...). Dungeon and Dragon are nice, but I'm not sure I get that much use out of them.
Darkthorne
First Post
Jhaelen,
If the MM is in error then I actually find THAT more disturbing. WOTC design this encounter calculator supposedly with fixes in it but didn't include them in the updates? That seems a tad half-arsed. We didn't get it right the first time (in the MM itself), didn't catch it the second time, didn't catch it on the updates on the 16th (third time) fixed(?) it on this encounter generator but haven't posted them as updates? Feels like some of the garbage that was being dished out w/ 3.5 near the end where the right hand was obviously not talking to the left.
If the MM is in error then I actually find THAT more disturbing. WOTC design this encounter calculator supposedly with fixes in it but didn't include them in the updates? That seems a tad half-arsed. We didn't get it right the first time (in the MM itself), didn't catch it the second time, didn't catch it on the updates on the 16th (third time) fixed(?) it on this encounter generator but haven't posted them as updates? Feels like some of the garbage that was being dished out w/ 3.5 near the end where the right hand was obviously not talking to the left.
Well, they have to start somewhere
As I mentioned in the other threads the alternative is that they forgot to increase the attribute bonuses. I.e. they started creating minions only at levels 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26 and later decided to increase some of the minions' level to have more variety. The levels in the encounter calculator would then represent an older incarnation of the minions.
The problem is that due to the exception-based monster design and missing guidelines for creating minions noone can really tell which is the case. We currently have to trust the designers to spot all the errors. I also have the impression we won't get errata for every error the designers spot. We'll only get errata for errors that are deemed important enough to make a difference. This might be one of the cases they didn't see as important.
There are other monsters that make people wonder if they've been set at the correct level like the needlefang swarm or the deathjump spider. I consider it likely that these will be included in later errata and changed in some way.
Zaran
Adventurer
Personally, I don't agree with this statement. I feel like the game is half there when compared to the three 3.5 core books. Right now the game is missing: Good Aligned monsters (whether I want to use the for evil campaigns or as allies to Good PCs regardless), 4 PC classes, and things to spend money on besides magic items.
The 3 core rulebooks allow us to basically play a minature game like Warhammer Quest with everything else placed in the GMs lap to make up or use the 3.5 books as reference.
And I know that these things will be put in the game later. That's what really urks me about it. It seems like WotC is trying to force us to spend money on books by removing things that we want when they really should be creating new content in non core books that we will want to buy to improve on our campaigns.
jaelis
Oh this is where the title goes?
Regardless of whether one agrees with those complaints or not, none of those things are in the DDI either. So how is that relevant?
Zaran
Adventurer
You are right. I guess I am feeling like we aren't getting what we are paying for. I don't feel like the online tools are that useful. In my opinion, it feels like they gave us something that the scratched together to appease us and they are minimally useful at best. I feel like they are telling us "if you want the rest, you have to pay us more. " I will not pay for DDI unless I see the full product and it is trully as useful as they made it seem when they pitched 4e to us.
