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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 6:25AM
#1
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I've been out of the DDi loop for awhile. Is it worth what it was about a year ago? Has the content amount gone up or down? How about the quality? Price? Is it worth subscribing to this over some other online service?
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 7:27AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jun 30, 2008
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No. I was paying by the year for a couple of years, but cancelled my renewal a few months ago.
There is hardly any crunch in the magazines if you care about that. Price is the same. OCB is a little better, but no major improvements. We had a beta online game board for a while that was decent, but they shut that down a couple of months ago. Compendium is the same.
It might be worth getting a one month subscription and downloading all the magazine content since there have been a handful of very good crunch articles with things like many good new themes, a good new warpriest domain, and improvements to the seeker.
my handbooks & builds
Show
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 9:05AM
#3
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Its worth more yes. While i wish there was more crunch published by WoTC (books or DDi), i still have the same need for the tools DDi provide and still use them as much as i did, except for the Monster Builder, which i don't use quite as often now that the D&D VT was transferred to GTO and doesn't import monster file from it.
The Character Builder has more content that it used to have a year ago, more Feats, Powers, Themes Classes, Races etc..
The Monster Builder has more content that it used to have a year ago, more monsters.
The DDi Compendium has more content that it used to have a year ago, more Feats, Powers, Themes, Classes, Races, Monsters etc..
Dragon Magazine has more content than it it used to have a year ago, specifically 12 issues worth of contents. The ammount of content published each month compared to last year is about equal and the crunch is in decline though.
Dungeon Magazine has more content than it it used to have a year ago, specifically 12 issues worth of contents. The ammount of content published each month compared to last year is about equal.
Only the Character Name Generator hasn't been getting any content increase basically. Same names it had a year ago.
So because DDi is quadrantic, it is worth more as time go by, since there is more content accessible for the same subscription fee. Sure if you look at the magazines alone it might not be the case since you may own copies of previous issues when you re-subscribe and so you might see it as you pay only for the current year's content, but it is in fact incorrect, since when you pay for DDi you pay for more than just the magazines alone. You pay to have access to a suite of online tools.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 12:16PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2010
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The crunch content of the last 12 months of Dragon Magazine is less than what we had on a single issue of Dragon Magazine 2 years ago...on my gaming now we only have 1 DDI for the entire group...
And Plaguescarred... that's not how subscription model works...you need to give new content constantly...that's how those services works, you have to give new content worth of the subcription every month...
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 1:19PM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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The magazines do give new content every months, not as much as it used to, but at least as much as a year ago.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 2:04PM
#6
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I think the quality of the adventures has increased DRAMATICALLY over the past year. I would've bought these adventures on their own, so I feel I'm getting my money's worth.
And I can't imagine running a 4E game without a database of monsters and powers just because WotC has released so much stuff that the original books are basically unusable. That's not good, but bottom line, because so much of the PC and DM material is in these stat blocks rather than something I can eyeball or make up, I couldn't run a 4E game without these resources. Granted, that's money I'm spending on software rather than books. I'm not buying Heroes of Scarytown because I have all that stuff in the character builder. I'm substituting the software for Monster Vault 86: Slightly Smaller Dragons.
Granted, because the push to Next has been so hard and fast I'm not running a 4E game anymore and I can't see myself going back to that clunky combat system. I still think the adventures alone are worth it. And they will continue to be worth it only if I get some guidelines for how to build my own monsters and expanded spell lists so I can adopt some of these great adventures.
DMAIA: DMs Against Immediate Actions - Turning 6 seconds into 15 minutes since 2008.
Vampire Class/Specialty in 2013!
Wizard: I cast Burning Hands.
Rogue: I grab a torch and a can of hairspray.
I prefer Next because 4E players and CharOpers can't find their ass without a grid and a power called "Find Ass."
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8 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 3:25PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2010
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No. I was paying by the year for a couple of years, but cancelled my renewal a few months ago.
There is hardly any crunch in the magazines if you care about that. Price is the same. OCB is a little better, but no major improvements. We had a beta online game board for a while that was decent, but they shut that down a couple of months ago. Compendium is the same.
It might be worth getting a one month subscription and downloading all the magazine content since there have been a handful of very good crunch articles with things like many good new themes, a good new warpriest domain, and improvements to the seeker.
This. Certainly don't sign up for a year. And if they keep doing this **** "release the whole mag at once" thing, you'll wanna time your sub so you actually get both Dragon and Dungeon. If I didn't like playing on the character builder so much, I would've dropped my sub months ago.
Wizards of the Coast can suck it.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 5:15AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2010
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I think it's awesome how after a year the CB still glitches and has numerous bugs and incorrect calculations.
Really makes me feel like I'm getting my money's worth.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 9:34AM
#9
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I agree with the character builder sentiment. I play with it constantly. If I could figure out how to get an offline version working again, I'd probably do that instead.
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8 months ago ::
Nov 02, 2012 - 12:05AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2009
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We had a beta online game board for a while that was decent, but they shut that down a couple of months ago.
Ha. Glorious.
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