No Character Builder Update

[mac1504]

Don't kill the messenger, but I just received this email (don't recall receiving other WOTC notices, or "broadcasts" as they titled this one) about the DDI character builder:

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
D&D Insider Subscriber,



Unfortunately, we will not have a data update ready for the D&D Insider tools in September. The process of integrating the new changes from Dark Sun and Essentials is taking a bit longer than we expected, and we plan to update the Character Builder in early October. We will continue to keep you informed of any changes to the schedule, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.




Sincerely,


The D&DI Team

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I think that people are entitled to feel agrreved somewhat at the delay. I also reckon that the suggestion that they did not have enough staff to handle all the changes is also correct.
That said they should review how their content management system works.
My belief would be that when they are at development/playtesting stage they the playtesting should also be using an inhouse version of DDI to create characters, monster and so forth. THe inhouse database should be able to record what is new and what has bee updated and when the stuff gets published then all approved changes should be replicated automatically to the external database.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I see your point, but I'm not a programmer and I don't think I should wait with a smile in the face waiting for a delayed update of a product I pay monthly for.

Not my problem if Wotc has no programmers to do the job.

Raise the price then and see if people think it's worth or not.

Judging by recent low quality articles and delays on MB and CB I'd say no.

It is not a programming job. Or if DDi database has been designed properly it should not be a programming job. It should be simply a question of enough people that can do head down data entry.

 

[Theroc]

Here come the screams of entitlement.

Personally, the current month's update isn't so important to me as HAVING the CB updated to the normal version in SOME capacity. >.> I got this thing on Friday or saturday, STILL haven't gotten it working.

However, it could be a technical error on my end, so I'm not blaming Wizards yet.

 

[Mengu]

I was as hyped about the update this month as everyone else, but the delay doesn't come as a surprise.

Essentials and Dark Sun both require massive changes to the CB. Their dev cycles are based on pushing a certain amount of updates, they can handle a book and a magazine every month.

But for this month, even the extra 2 weeks obviously didn't cut it. It's a classic case of expectation vs reality. For this update they not only need to add content, which usually isn't as big a deal since each new feat or power is normally fairly self contained, but they have to change the way classes work.

Dark Sun themes are a new mechanic, equipment from Dark Sun alone is like adding in a new AV. Some races already had optional mechanics so adding the new racial options from E# shouldn't be a big deal. There will be a lot of maintenance and clean up for all the wizard powers that changed, and all the feats that changed. This part is like a massive errata update. Then there is all the new E# class mechanics, removal of powers, etc. And then rules have to be established for multiclass power swap feats that work differently for these new builds, not only with your typical multiclass, but also with the a-typical and obscure bloodline power swaps such as Bogtangle Warrior.

Getting all this squared away in 4 or even 6 months, is not that feasible. How much we pay WotC doesn't really matter in this case because regardless of how much man-power you throw at it, an increase in project scope like this will take time.

On the business end, they should be giving next month's DDI subscription free for those who had subscribed this month. I know people who subscribe for a month every now and then. For those monthly subscribers who based their decision to subscribe for September since they knew Dark Sun and Essentials material would be in CB, it's a rather frustrating let down because now, not only do they not get what they thought they would, but they have to subscribe another month to actually get the content that was promised. This free extension shouldn't even require an email to support.

 

[hafrogman]

I think my main problems with the delays are these:

1) It looks like they've bitten off more than can chew, and their service is suffering for it. Dark Sun was released quite a long while before any essentials product. There is no reason for them to try and cram all the changes into a single update.

2) The custom campaign element features are quite badly implemented. Normally this doesn't bother me too much, as I'm not using them. But when I want to implement my new Dark Sun character without the update, it becomes a problem. I can manually type in a power card, and force it into a character, but there's no real information associated with it. I can't assign that power a class, level, type or use rate (at-will, encounter, daily). Then I try and assign my hand-typed new Warlock at-will as my half-elf's dilletante power and it crashes the program every time.

If the September update had been smaller and designed to only encompass those books that were on sale in August, I'd be happier. If the existing program was capable of being tweaked for me to add my own information, I'd be happier. Combine the two issues, and waiting eight weeks for a book to be implemented into the program I pay for every four weeks (or actually every 52, but you get the idea) is indeed something that fills me with nerd-rage of entitlement or whatever you want to deride it as.

 

[avin]

Still, they were aware this would take a lot of time and prepared for it.

It's not the first missed update, MB got one when MM3 launched.

One would thought they would learn the lesson and start working early, cause this books were ready a good time before they reach us.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Don't kill the messenger, but I just received this email (don't recall receiving other WOTC notices, or "broadcasts" as they titled this one) about the DDI character builder:

Yep, I just got it too. Wow. I'm really disappointed about this one. I was really looking forward to playing in D&D Encounters with a character I made. But I really hate making characters by hand.

And when the characters builder update was scheduled for the 21st, at least i had one day before Encounters began.

 

[Ryujin]

Don't kill the messenger, but I just received this email (don't recall receiving other WOTC notices, or "broadcasts" as they titled this one) about the DDI character builder:

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
D&D Insider Subscriber,



Unfortunately, we will not have a data update ready for the D&D Insider tools in September. The process of integrating the new changes from Dark Sun and Essentials is taking a bit longer than we expected, and we plan to update the Character Builder in early October. We will continue to keep you informed of any changes to the schedule, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.




Sincerely,


The D&DI Team

OK, now I'm annoyed. 'Late' I can take. 'Not' is a different story.

 

[Shazman]

Yes, people have a notion that they are entitled to get what they paid for. How ludicrous.

Exactly. The people that paid for a ddi subscription to get the September updates are getting ripped off. They are paying for a product and not receiving the product. I believe that could technically be considered fraud. If they want to refund customers subscriptions or give them a month free, that would be fair. It probably won't happen, but it would the right thing to do.