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So I'm sure many of these have been said, but lets just say them anyways just because:

1) Lags too much. I understand that it's supposed to be browser based for portability between systems, but I'm sure that many of us preferred performance over portability when we're trying to quick-reference things from the character builder mid-game. With the lag involved (resulting from the game updating stats and pulling information from the web) it's guaranteed to bring any game whose players use the Character Builder itself (rather than pen-and-paper sheets) to a grinding halt whenever any player receives a new item.

2) Too much sorting. I know that's going to be ironic, but there is such a thing as too much sorting when you have to change 3 different settings that you didn't have to touch before - especially when each setting changed clicks into #1 above. Default options for all sections should be a Show All sorted by Source rather than design. Make the detail sorting secondary. For example, when I go to pick a class, don't immediately ask me "Do you want to be a Defender, Striker...?", but instead let me see the list and if I want to sort by class style, let me pick that later. Sorting out options that are always invalid are fine (Divine classes in DS), but don't sort things away such that I have to go find the All button.

3) Your "Level" Hit lines are busted. On powers that include tweaks based on a character's Level, instead of stating what Level those are required, they instead are included as a subsection to the last part of the power labeled as "Hit:" See "Stalking the Prey" (Wasteland Nomad - Level 3 Encounter) as an example.

4) Scroll wheel does not work.

5) Scroll wheel does not work.

5) The Stout property does not appear to work correctly, both on weapons that already have it (Double Scimitar) and weapons that can be given it by feats (Quarterstaff via Staff Fighting). In the first case, a Stout weapon cannot be held 1-handed, but instead always defaults to Two-Handed and has no apparent way to add a different Off-Hand weapon (Stout appears to imply the weapon can be held as such; if I misunderstand this, ignore it). In the latter case, the Quarterstaff does not gain the Stout property - to work this as intended, a second Quarterstaff must be bought and equipped as Off-Hand.

6) The shop interface is EXTREMELY clunky. Separating the ability to add and remove items behind two different windows is both redundant and irritating when you accidentally add the wrong item. Either the Marketplace and Inventory windows need to be merged back into one window, or an inventory list that can be accessed at the exact same time as buying items should be made available. That may seem a little demanding, but this system just makes the whole inventory interface completely inefficient.

7) Main Hand and Off-Hand slots on the Character Sheet don't appear to work. In my case, it's a Vicious Quarterstaff +2 equipped in the Main Hand, and a second one equipped in the Off-Hand (see #5).

8) Scroll Wheel does not work. (Can you tell that's a really needed function)

8) The Character Sheet should have type-able fields on it like the old one did. (see #1)

9) Where are Inherent Bonuses?


Many of the gripes Sudro2 points out are also true. If you're going to limit how many character sheets we can cloud, then at least give us the ability to export the sheets to a file format where we can save them on a personal system for backup. That leads into another potential gripe (that I'm sure must have come up in a development meeting). What happens if/when the Wizards servers go down? Likewise, what happens if those of us who use the Character Sheets on the computer (again, see #1) aren't able to access the internet due to a dead zone or something? You're now looking at two more things that inconvenience this new system more than the original system.

I understand the point you made (somewhere) about reducing Piracy through linking this system to an individual's ID, but forcing a traditionally pen-and-paper game to switch to a significant reliance on internet is asking for trouble. As Sudro also said, many of us have the soul DDI subscription for our group because we understood that it was pointless to purchase a new subscription for each of us. Now all you're doing is making it far harder for people to play this game instead of easier by inconveniencing group play.

We don't play D&D alone - it's a group game. When costs involved in playing can be spread out amongst the several players (consider: 1 DM + 5 players sharing 1 DDI subscription means a very reasonable investment of $12 per player per year), we're much more likely to participate as opposed to being forced to each make large purchases (also consider: 1 DM + 5 players each purchasing 1 DDI subscription means individual investments of $70 and a group investment of $420).

I was planning to upgrade to a year subscription here when the new CB came out. However, as others have said, I don't plan to renew my DDI subscription anymore without a major overhaul of the Character Builder. If not functionally, then at a minimum the lag issue needs resolved. One thing I'd really like to see, in combination with the "export a character" above, would be an offline Character Sheet viewer that works with this system - something that we can download to our individual computers and use to view the Character Sheets we create (through the new Character Builder, obviously) without needing access to the internet. Heck, even an integrated "Export to PDF" would do the trick, for the most part.

Nov 16, 2010 -- 4:08PM, sudro2 wrote:

I won't be cancelling my DDI sub given how much I like the Compendium, but I really hope that the CB moves back towards at least the basic layout and functionality of the older client-based version. In the meantime, even in the absence of updates, I'll continue using the old one.

compleatly agree, with your assesment. i will settel with the CBC. as long as the OCB does not impruve, and no must have update arrives (i can skip essentials) DDI is history.

my subscribtions runns til january and it will not be renewed.