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5 years ago ::
Dec 07, 2008 - 2:59PM
#51
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2003
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Wow, DDI is looking mroe and more like E-Tools 2.0.
Why am I unsurprised?
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5 years ago ::
Dec 07, 2008 - 3:06PM
#52
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Date Joined:
Feb 24, 2002
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What frustrates me is that WotC could have easily sat on a finished 4e for another year, cranked out a couple of additional compendiums, adventures, Eberron supplements (i.e. - Planes of Eberron and other regions of Khorvaire), etc., and spend as much effort as possible on D&DI.
Having a final set of rules would have also made marketing and D&DI development much easier, too. They could have had concrete content to showcase, resolved errata before printing, and developed a better plan and schedule for publishing new material.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 8:09AM
#53
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What frustrates me is that WotC could have easily sat on a finished 4e for another year, cranked out a couple of additional compendiums, adventures, Eberron supplements (i.e. - Planes of Eberron and other regions of Khorvaire), etc., and spend as much effort as possible on D&DI.
Having a final set of rules would have also made marketing and D&DI development much easier, too. They could have had concrete content to showcase, resolved errata before printing, and developed a better plan and schedule for publishing new material.
Maybe, but if I had the choice between getting 4E in June 2008 without digital tools or 4E in June 2009 with digital tools, I would prefer to get it earlier.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 8:13AM
#54
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Date Joined:
Feb 24, 2002
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See, I'd rather have the whole package at the same time and not have known about 4e until GenCon 2008 with precise knowledge of how the plan to rollout the new content and applications. Instead, we had a year of "You'll be able to use all these great tools in June! You'll have PDF copies of the books for a nominal fee! No wait! We can't do that. You'll have access to a full online character builder and online gaming table. Oh, wait, that's not ready yet. Just keep looking at this character visualizer! Isn't it cool?! No, wait. That's not ready yet either."
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 9:14AM
#55
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
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I think what I am most concerned with is that people saw working demos of the character creator back in Feb/March. Somehow fans and communities are able to put character creators together in their spare time for fun, yet 10 months after the demo was displayed we have only the first 3 levels in a beta. I dont even want to think about when we will see anything solid about the virtual gametable.
Problems occur and mistakes are made but how long does it have to repeat and go on? Ok they miss a deadline, or have staffing problems; life happens.
I bet someone could start today creating their own D&DI version and have it completed before wotc gets theirs finished.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 9:26AM
#56
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Date Joined:
Feb 24, 2002
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Truthfully, the homebuilt apps don't compare to the D&DI app directly as D&DI has the responsibility of tracking who has access to what based on subscription. Additionally, it's maintaining an ongoing database that needs to be open and flexible to accommodate future developments in the game that the homebuilt apps might not be privy to. Thirdly, the development of those homebuilt apps weren't attempting to accommodate business and distribution models.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 9:40AM
#57
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
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Truthfully, the homebuilt apps don't compare to the D&DI app directly as D&DI has the responsibility of tracking who has access to what based on subscription. Additionally, it's maintaining an ongoing database that needs to be open and flexible to accommodate future developments in the game that the homebuilt apps might not be privy to. Thirdly, the development of those homebuilt apps weren't attempting to accommodate business and distribution models.
Maintaince of a program comes AFTER its released.
Planning for future expansion is basic project planning and programming.
Username and permissions? Are you really using that as a point on why wotc has a harder time with D&DI over hobbiests? If access permissions are causing a problem they need to just give up now.
I also disagree about having to accommodate the business and distribution model. Its a character generator its not going to be making characters differently to a user paying a monthly fee vs free. It has to follow the same character creation rules. Thats an enterily different topic then programming it in the first place.
Now I do agree that they dont fully compare. I would expect utilities and programs with less capabilities to take less time. But in the end, a program like D&DI shouldn't take 10 months to create. My guess is they have the programmers doing side projects and alternate programs instead of focusing on D&DI which would be making them revenue.
They already shut down gleemax to focus on D&DI, now we have had layoffs and more restructuring. They need to stop refocusing on D&DI and just make it already.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 9:41AM
#58
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Date Joined:
Aug 13, 2007
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Truthfully, the homebuilt apps don't compare to the D&DI app directly as D&DI has the responsibility of tracking who has access to what based on subscription. Additionally, it's maintaining an ongoing database that needs to be open and flexible to accommodate future developments in the game that the homebuilt apps might not be privy to. Thirdly, the development of those homebuilt apps weren't attempting to accommodate business and distribution models.
yes and no: while the homebuilt applications offer less features and most of the time, are not as actual, they are ready to use, often as easy to use as the officials, and they have considerably less effort put into them. imagine the same people working on their tools 2 or 3 years fulltime? definitely the result is a lot better compared to how DDI does.
also, the ddi database seems to be pretty far from "flexible", as the first expansion rulebooks already brought items which they can not fit into their database in the "near future".
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 9:44AM
#59
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Date Joined:
Feb 24, 2002
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also, the ddi database seems to be pretty far from "flexible", as the first expansion rulebooks already brought items which they can not fit into their database in the "near future".
That doesn't mean they didn't spend time and effort trying.
PS - I'm merely playing devil's advocate here. There's no excuse for not having completed at least a basic version of all of the tools by 4e release.
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5 years ago ::
Dec 08, 2008 - 10:07AM
#60
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2008
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PS - I'm merely playing devil's advocate here. There's no excuse for not having completed at least a basic version of all of the tools by 4e release.
LOL I follow you now and can appreciate that mentality 
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