Open Letter on the 2024 Encounter Calculator

/rant on

To say that I'm disappointed that one cannot get access to the latest and greatest version of the Encounter Calculator except through the Maps VTT would be an understatement.  Don't get me wrong - I see nothing wrong with the Maps VTT.  I just don't use it.  I have friends who prefer Roll20, so when I'm gaming with them, that's what I use.  I prefer Foundry for its flexibility and breadth.  Maps VTT came late to the game, and, so far, it's fine for what it does.  But -- I just don't use it.  Why must I use it just to mess around with possible encounters?

Locking the 2024 encounter calculator behind the Maps VTT makes the encounter calculator less than useful to me.  I have to have a fake campaign, with a fake map in order to use the encounter calculator.  I have to do all this even when I'm just in the speculative part of assessing encounters to present to my players, who I'm gaming with at my table -- not across a VTT.  Doing that extra work wasn't necessary with the "beta" encounter calculator (that looks a lot like the 2024 version of the encounter calculator).  Keep it integrated with the Maps VTT if you must, but at least provide a way to use the new encounter calculator without having to jump through all the Maps VTT hoops in order to use it.  

Thanks.

/rant off

BTW, I read the excellent Encounter Builder 2024 thread initiated by Caerwyn_Glyndwr: Feb 5, 2025.  It's been a minute since that thread.  I still would like to see D&D Beyond fix this issue.