The amount of times I see massive support for features or fixes to be added to this site and these people literally refuse to do anything useful. There have been things being petitioned for since 2018 and they still simple ignore them. It's infuriating when I know any halfway decent web design student could do better if handed the licenses to be able to make a site better than this.
The dev team has been cut a few times since WotC bought this site... the devs don't choose what features or bugs get worked on... calling the Devs lazy is extremely disrespectful.
While I sympathize with the dev team for all the bone headed layoffs and cuts at the hands of the people in charge, I also think that there are a bunch of issues and missing features on here that even a single dedicated dev could probably knock out in a day or two of dev time and the simple fact of the matter is that in terms of actual features added or improved, there has been pretty much no progress in the last year or so. I won't say the devs are lazy, more likely it is some kind of management issue or corporate bureaucracy gumming up the works, but the simple fact of the matter is that from the perspective of a user, no actual work is being done and DDB needs to get its act together ASAP.
The management and marketing however, are throwing more "new products" at them than they have bandwidth for, and Homebrew and fixes on old products are what they can get done in between the work they're being told to work on. The speed of new products on the site is actually quite fast.
The management and marketing however, are throwing more "new products" at them than they have bandwidth for, and Homebrew and fixes on old products are what they can get done in between the work they're being told to work on. The speed of new products on the site is actually quite fast.
This - so much new stuff keeps getting shoved onto the Development Team that they almost definitely have no time to fix longstanding issues with the way the site operates e.g. Warlock players not being able to select anything other than Eldritch Blast to benefit from 'Agonising Blast'.
I'm not saying things should've be better because they absolutely should. Just look at the list of things that aren't operating under Classes for the 2024 Player's Handbook. Longtime users will remember the videos Adam Bradford would produce pretty much weekly outlining what had been made, what was being worked on and what was in the pipeline. Even if progress was slow, it was very helpful to have that communication and know that people were working on stuff behind the scenes to make this website better. Nowadays, updates happen with no communication (literally no announcement was made that players could FINALLY have the choice to turn off 2024 rules for Character Creation), but the updates still happen.
The lack of site development should not be blamed on the current team - it's Management and Wizbro's handling of this platform who deserve the ire of frustrated users. Blanketing all the Devs as 'lazy' is nether conducive, or helpful.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The management and marketing however, are throwing more "new products" at them than they have bandwidth for, and Homebrew and fixes on old products are what they can get done in between the work they're being told to work on. The speed of new products on the site is actually quite fast.
This - so much new stuff keeps getting shoved onto the Development Team that they almost definitely have no time to fix longstanding issues with the way the site operates e.g. Warlock players not being able to select anything other than Eldritch Blast to benefit from 'Agonising Blast'.
I'm not saying things should've be better because they absolutely should. Just look at the list of things that aren't operating under Classes for the 2024 Player's Handbook. Longtime users will remember the videos Adam Bradford would produce pretty much weekly outlining what had been made, what was being worked on and what was in the pipeline. Even if progress was slow, it was very helpful to have that communication and know that people were working on stuff behind the scenes to make this website better. Nowadays, updates happen with no communication (literally no announcement was made that players could FINALLY have the choice to turn off 2024 rules for Character Creation), but the updates still happen.
The lack of site development should not be blamed on the current team - it's Management and Wizbro's handling of this platform who deserve the ire of frustrated users. Blanketing all the Devs as 'lazy' is nether conducive, or helpful.
I agree with everything except for the last paragraph. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Putting the blame on management or the parent company is just as much a guess as blaming the devs.
Could a dev blog say what they are and will work on. Priorities and changes in plans may not allow for a ETA but knowing something is being worked on or considered would be nice.
Could a dev blog say what they are and will work on. Priorities and changes in plans may not allow for a ETA but knowing something is being worked on or considered would be nice.
The management and marketing however, are throwing more "new products" at them than they have bandwidth for, and Homebrew and fixes on old products are what they can get done in between the work they're being told to work on. The speed of new products on the site is actually quite fast.
This - so much new stuff keeps getting shoved onto the Development Team that they almost definitely have no time to fix longstanding issues with the way the site operates e.g. Warlock players not being able to select anything other than Eldritch Blast to benefit from 'Agonising Blast'.
I'm not saying things should've be better because they absolutely should. Just look at the list of things that aren't operating under Classes for the 2024 Player's Handbook. Longtime users will remember the videos Adam Bradford would produce pretty much weekly outlining what had been made, what was being worked on and what was in the pipeline. Even if progress was slow, it was very helpful to have that communication and know that people were working on stuff behind the scenes to make this website better. Nowadays, updates happen with no communication (literally no announcement was made that players could FINALLY have the choice to turn off 2024 rules for Character Creation), but the updates still happen.
The lack of site development should not be blamed on the current team - it's Management and Wizbro's handling of this platform who deserve the ire of frustrated users. Blanketing all the Devs as 'lazy' is nether conducive, or helpful.
I agree with everything except for the last paragraph. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Putting the blame on management or the parent company is just as much a guess as blaming the devs.
I hear your point, however it's the the people at the top that have slashed the development staff, pushed towards making Project Sigil with...mixed results before letting go of most of the team, got rid of Piecemeal / A La Carte without warning and, most recently, created a 2048 character limit on campaigns (without warning I should add. Yes, they then fixed it, but that also was actioned without any communication).
Decisions like these rest with Management. Or at least, you'd think so. You're right that we don't know WHO exactly is making these decisions, but decisions have to made from somewhere - it's not illogical to guess it's either D&D Beyond Management or Wizards of the Coast Management.
Just to add to my original post, it should also be mentioned that another reason why development on this site is sub par is because the site was originally made by a third party, before being bought by Wizards of the Coast. Essentially, the developers inherited an old code that they have to work around. Here is a copy and paste from Davyd's post from this thread that explains in better detail:
'...The software was not created by the developers of D&D, it was created by a team outside WotC and then acquired by WotC. This means that there's a legacy codebase they inherited which means (as is the case with every legacy codebase everywhere) there are likely aspects of the codebase that cannot be changed without:
High risk of breaking the site
Rebuilding the codebase from the ground up, thus negating the point of acquiring it in the first place
Taking down the site for financially inviable lengths of time
Forcing a non-zero amount of users to rebuild their characters
Some combination of the above'
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
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The amount of times I see massive support for features or fixes to be added to this site and these people literally refuse to do anything useful. There have been things being petitioned for since 2018 and they still simple ignore them. It's infuriating when I know any halfway decent web design student could do better if handed the licenses to be able to make a site better than this.
The dev team has been cut a few times since WotC bought this site... the devs don't choose what features or bugs get worked on... calling the Devs lazy is extremely disrespectful.
While I sympathize with the dev team for all the bone headed layoffs and cuts at the hands of the people in charge, I also think that there are a bunch of issues and missing features on here that even a single dedicated dev could probably knock out in a day or two of dev time and the simple fact of the matter is that in terms of actual features added or improved, there has been pretty much no progress in the last year or so. I won't say the devs are lazy, more likely it is some kind of management issue or corporate bureaucracy gumming up the works, but the simple fact of the matter is that from the perspective of a user, no actual work is being done and DDB needs to get its act together ASAP.
I think the Devs are doing a good job.
The management and marketing however, are throwing more "new products" at them than they have bandwidth for, and Homebrew and fixes on old products are what they can get done in between the work they're being told to work on. The speed of new products on the site is actually quite fast.
This - so much new stuff keeps getting shoved onto the Development Team that they almost definitely have no time to fix longstanding issues with the way the site operates e.g. Warlock players not being able to select anything other than Eldritch Blast to benefit from 'Agonising Blast'.
I'm not saying things should've be better because they absolutely should. Just look at the list of things that aren't operating under Classes for the 2024 Player's Handbook. Longtime users will remember the videos Adam Bradford would produce pretty much weekly outlining what had been made, what was being worked on and what was in the pipeline. Even if progress was slow, it was very helpful to have that communication and know that people were working on stuff behind the scenes to make this website better. Nowadays, updates happen with no communication (literally no announcement was made that players could FINALLY have the choice to turn off 2024 rules for Character Creation), but the updates still happen.
The lack of site development should not be blamed on the current team - it's Management and Wizbro's handling of this platform who deserve the ire of frustrated users. Blanketing all the Devs as 'lazy' is nether conducive, or helpful.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
I did not want to say yes or no.
I am hearing many things about the DEV on Online team.
Cutting Staff.
programmers of the sight no longer working on the site.
I am just waiting and wanting more work on the character creator.
I agree with everything except for the last paragraph. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Putting the blame on management or the parent company is just as much a guess as blaming the devs.
Could a dev blog say what they are and will work on. Priorities and changes in plans may not allow for a ETA but knowing something is being worked on or considered would be nice.
There is a roadmap for the Maps VTT at least. On the Maps page. https://dndbeyond.com/games
I hear your point, however it's the the people at the top that have slashed the development staff, pushed towards making Project Sigil with...mixed results before letting go of most of the team, got rid of Piecemeal / A La Carte without warning and, most recently, created a 2048 character limit on campaigns (without warning I should add. Yes, they then fixed it, but that also was actioned without any communication).
Decisions like these rest with Management. Or at least, you'd think so. You're right that we don't know WHO exactly is making these decisions, but decisions have to made from somewhere - it's not illogical to guess it's either D&D Beyond Management or Wizards of the Coast Management.
Just to add to my original post, it should also be mentioned that another reason why development on this site is sub par is because the site was originally made by a third party, before being bought by Wizards of the Coast. Essentially, the developers inherited an old code that they have to work around. Here is a copy and paste from Davyd's post from this thread that explains in better detail:
'...The software was not created by the developers of D&D, it was created by a team outside WotC and then acquired by WotC. This means that there's a legacy codebase they inherited which means (as is the case with every legacy codebase everywhere) there are likely aspects of the codebase that cannot be changed without:
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.