Online Character Builder is LIVE!

[Mithreinmaethor]

1st attempt (last night) - crash, crash, hang. Gave up. Reported a bug and got back a totally inane response from WotC support.

2nd attempt (tonight) - really slow, but no crash. Tried to import my current character (hybrid feylock/swordmage), no luck. Tried to recreate it, found numerous bugs:
- Cannot choose Pact Boon as my Hybrid talent.
- Cannot choose any powers at all! The page is completely blank. When I open my charcter sheet, I find that CB has chosen them for me... and all wrong (all warlock powers are infernal pact, for example). Still no way to change them manually.
- Cannot add my Shadowdance leather armour. I search for it among the other leather armours, but find nothing.
- Cannot add the free Versatile Expertise feat our DM allows us. No house ruling.
- Open the character sheet again and see that all my warlock powers are used Unarmed and therefore not getting the enhancement bonus from my magic rapier. It didn't give me any Swordmage Implement powers, so I cannot check if those are correct.
- Cannot print out the character sheet. Three empty sheets of paper emerge from my Color LasetJet. Not a trace of my character on them.

All in all, pretty much useless.

Are you using a TSR-80 and a 300 baud modem? Just checking You are an oldtimer after all.

Actually can you tell us what browser and browser version you are using etc.

Edit: Ok I tried to create a character as you described above. I also was not able to add the Pact Boon as a Hybrid talent, it just did not show up as an option. And the armor you named does not exist. I even looked for it in the old CB and it does not exist. Where did the armor come from? Also I was able to choose each of my powers they were not chosen for me. I did equip a +1 Rapier and it showed as being figured into the implement powers for both warlock and swordmage powers. So I was only able to not find the Pact boon and the armor. Also mine runs smoothly and the only crashes I have had (2 of them) came when importing characters from the previous CB.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I want to be clear on this: I am a supporter of capitalism and let no one say otherwise.

Senator McCarthy is appeased!

What I can't understand or tolerate is "fired us as customers" nonsense. Its abandoning a good majority of value to "punish" a company for not offering a periphery service in the way he wanted.

You don't seem to quite acknowledge that "value" is an insanely subjective concept.

It's quite possible that the periphery service is the main attraction of the game for certain folks. Or that it's a prerequisite to play in the situation they find themselves in (forex, an online game over MapTool that requires DM oversight of CB files). Or the idea that additions become core strategies (ie: collectible toys in happy meals drive sales of happy meals and for MacD's in general when the toys were originally an additive ancillary product). Or even just that the experience is spoiled -- looking at the character sheet reminds you of the annoyance of making a character reminds you that you hate the CB and thus puts a damper on your mood.

Not getting a usable CB might mean that the "value" of 4e is entirely obliterated for some people.

Or at least that it is reduced below the value of something like Pathfinder (which has its own value that is quite competitive with 4e according to some measures...)

The Character Builder is not the be all end all of 4th Edition. It is an accessory, a periphery product. A toy. Self-righteously quitting the game because of the quality of a side toy is, well, stupid. Its cutting off your nose to spite your face. Its not merely throwing the baby out with the bath water, but burning the house down because you did not feel like cleaning a toilet. Its irrational, petty, and stupid.

That's only true if the CB is perhiphery, or if the alternatives provide no competitive value.

I am not saying people shouldn't stop paying for a product that they don't like. I am saying people who quit the hobby over what amounts to an add-on either have a total lack of perspective or are being mean or stupid. They are free to do it though. As I said, I am whole hearted supporter of capitalism. They are more than free to shoot themselves in the foot if they so choose. Or, hey, maybe it will turn out that Pathfinder will be better than sliced bread and they'll attain Nirvana. Just let it be known that this self righteous victim act they are putting on has grown old and tiresome.

They're not quitting the hobby. They're taking their fantasy mojo to another company.

Someone who buys gas at a Mobil station is still buying gas. They're just not getting it from the guys most recently in the news for killing millions of innocent dolphins and fish and birds and shrimp and livelihoods through negligence.

If they said they were leaving tabletop games altogether to play Diablo, that might be more like quitting the hobby, but Diablo provides a competitive value for some people (for others, it doesn't).

 

[fuzzlewump]

[MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION]
Good points, but are Pathfinder and 4E D&D really just two different gas stations? Yeah, they're both games, but are they similar enough for a statement like "I'm quitting 4E and going to pathfinder!" to really mean anything? For example, if someone says I'm quitting cars and going to bicycles! I mean, yeah, they're certainly related, but they're so different (and can coexist!) that there's not significant competition.

Of course, there is some amount of competition between the two, but I guess I'm just saying I find them different enough to play both if I wanted. And fellow players in my group here do just that.

 

[Ryujin]

[MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION]
Good points, but are Pathfinder and 4E D&D really just two different gas stations? Yeah, they're both games, but are they similar enough for a statement like "I'm quitting 4E and going to pathfinder!" to really mean anything? For example, if someone says I'm quitting cars and going to bicycles! I mean, yeah, they're certainly related, but they're so different (and can coexist!) that there's not significant competition.

Of course, there is some amount of competition between the two, but I guess I'm just saying I find them different enough to play both if I wanted. And fellow players in my group here do just that.

Any analogy will fall apart, if you look too closely at it. The best I can come up with is that they're both cars but that 4e runs on gas, and Pathfinder runs on diesel. You get more for your money with Pathfinder, but there are fewer stations. It's easier to find a station for 4e, but it'll cost you more to run.

And the whole thing brings to mind the old open letter from Lee Iacocca to Bill Gates.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Good points, but are Pathfinder and 4E D&D really just two different gas stations? Yeah, they're both games, but are they similar enough for a statement like "I'm quitting 4E and going to pathfinder!" to really mean anything? For example, if someone says I'm quitting cars and going to bicycles! I mean, yeah, they're certainly related, but they're so different (and can coexist!) that there's not significant competition.

Of course, there is some amount of competition between the two, but I guess I'm just saying I find them different enough to play both if I wanted. And fellow players in my group here do just that.

Man, sometimes I think people loose all sense of perspective on this hobby.

D&D and Pathfinder like a bike and a car? They're more like...I dunno...a Honda Civic and Toyota Camry. To the car dorks, I'm sure there's a world of difference. But to most folks, they'll both do the same basic thing in the same basic way.

They're both fantasy-genre tabletop RPG's, and they're even more similar to each other than most other fantasy-genre tabletop RPG's are to them (Warhammer is quite different from both!).

 

[fuzzlewump]

Man, sometimes I think people loose all sense of perspective on this hobby.

"people," as in... me? Go ahead and say so if you think so. I'm right here.

D&D and Pathfinder like a bike and a car? They're more like...I dunno...a Honda Civic and Toyota Camry. To the car dorks, I'm sure there's a world of difference. But to most folks, they'll both do the same basic thing in the same basic way.

They're both fantasy-genre tabletop RPG's, and they're even more similar to each other than most other fantasy-genre tabletop RPG's are to them (Warhammer is quite different from both!).

Fair enough. We are the equivalent of car geeks here, though, really. We're the type of people who log on to car forums and discuss all about cars, including the theory of cars and transportation. By creating an account, let alone posting with it, we are no longer 'most folks.'

That aside, I still think 3.5 and 4E are quite different. Obviously we disagree there.

 

[Remathilis]

Some people have reported file sizes of up to 1 GB.

The next problem is that you can't edit the pdf when you print to pdf (which is around 10 MB for a character sheet, btw).

No WONDER WotC was talking about storing PCs on your HD and limits you to 20 PCs!

 

[I'm A Banana]

"people," as in... me? Go ahead and say so if you think so. I'm right here.

Nah, not specifically, sorry if I gave that impression. Just seems like the idea that D&D and Pathfinder are very distinct is amongst the galaxy of ideas that seem to lack perspective on the hobby to me. Also amongst that galaxy: the idea that someone leaving D&D is leaving the hobby. Or 90% of Edition Wars.

Fair enough. We are the equivalent of car geeks here, though, really. We're the type of people who log on to car forums and discuss all about cars, including the theory of cars and transportation. By creating an account, let alone posting with it, we are no longer 'most folks.'

Oh, definitely. But not everyone who posts here is necessarily that hardcore about it. One reason that they might go spend money on some other system over this is because that other system might give them an experience close enough to the one they're getting here to be fun.

That aside, I still think 3.5 and 4E are quite different. Obviously we disagree there.

Heck, maybe some of the people who are going to play other games over this don't think they're that different, either, and that could add in to their decision.

Mostly I'm just trying to help explain to the incredulous and confused why someone might go play Mouse Guard instead of 4e for the next few months, and why that's not really that big of a deal.

 

[fanboy2000]

No WONDER WotC was talking about storing PCs on your HD and limits you to 20 PCs!

That was my first thought.

I just checked, there is no text in the PDF of my 1st level Half-Orc Barbarian, in the sense that there is nothing my PDF view recognizes as text. It's just one big image.

 

[shmoo2]

Created a new character, worked well. Saved.

Imported a character from the old CB, added an Essentials feat (only crashed once). Saved.

Now, when I try to load either character the Builder freezes irrevocably.
I can't access either of my characters. At all.

Has anyone else had this problem and been able to solve it?

A Character Builder program that does not allow me to use the characters I've built is not useful. At all.