I can't remember if it was here or in the news and announcements when I first posted. About once a week I do greater digging into posts rather than follow just the ones I might have posted in already.
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PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
While I am not one of the people to be negative about the amount of time it is taking to get Phase 2, I can say that my interest slowly becoming lost. I used to check multiple times a day for updates or to test things out, read the forums or just click items of interest, but I now check in about once a week, see that Phase 2 still has no ETA and then click away. The excitement that began in March has faded.
Perhaps my interest will grow again when there is more to test. I do like all the additions that have been added throughout Phase 1 and am glad they the Dev Team is taking the time to do things right in Phase 2. But, there are puppy videos to watch on the internet as well.
While I am not one of the people to be negative about the amount of time it is taking to get Phase 2, I can say that my interest slowly becoming lost. I used to check multiple times a day for updates or to test things out, read the forums or just click items of interest, but I now check in about once a week, see that Phase 2 still has no ETA and then click away. The excitement that began in March has faded.
Perhaps my interest will grow again when there is more to test. I do like all the additions that have been added throughout Phase 1 and am glad they the Dev Team is taking the time to do things right in Phase 2. But, there are puppy videos to watch on the internet as well.
This kind of response is fully expected and we see this kind of thing in all forms of media/ entertainment.
We understand and I expect an influx of activity around the release of Phase 2, 3, launch, and everything else this year.
For this toolset to be everything we want it to be, it will enhance the D&D experience around the table. Many people play once a week or every couple of weeks - the tools aren't needed on a daily basis. We will, however, have news, editorials, reviews, and much more as we move into launch.
Regardless, we certainly don't want puppy videos to be neglected! We'll see you more frequently soon.
Just wanted to say, as a dm, I'm loving the interface on my tablet. The ever-present 'table-of-content' off to the left of the text as well as quick-links within the texts provide quick and easy jumps to whatever info may be needed. Also loving the layout of the monster sheets. It would be cool to see a feature where I could create custom encounter list, saving time flipping pages between creatures in a battle I may have not seen coming.
Just wanted to say, as a dm, I'm loving the interface on my tablet. The ever-present 'table-of-content' off to the left of the text as well as quick-links within the texts provide quick and easy jumps to whatever info may be needed. Also loving the layout of the monster sheets. It would be cool to see a feature where I could create custom encounter list, saving time flipping pages between creatures in a battle I may have not seen coming.
Around here, we call those things, "part of phase 3" - there's going to be some really sweet stuff in campaign management! :)
I'm starting a new gaming group and would love Phase 2 and 3 to be started in time to test on this new group of D&D plays. Looking forward to the upcoming releases. Everything is great so far.
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"Don't think of it as being vastly out numbered, think of it as a wide shot selection" - The power of positive thinking
I'm looking forward to the character builder of course, but please don't push anything out as a, "here's the still in development preview." As others have pointed out, the user base doesn't comprehend that. Look what happened to Dungeonscape. They straight up said that what they were showing on the web was in early development but the "why isn't this thing perfect it's horrible" attitude from people who refused to comprehend what they were told they were going to see resulted in people basically reviewing their alpha-level preview as if it in any way reflected a final product. I don't want to see that happen again. I want digital access to current D&D content. I want what I was supposed to get years ago when 5E came out.
What you've offered for the compendium has been well polished and very encouraging and I hope that you release each of the next two phases with the same level of readiness. It's very encouraging that you recognize that users can't handle an actually beta-level version at your product.
Personally, I just want to know why Phase 1 got pushed out so soon as just a pretty database and forum if Phase 2 was so far from release. I can't imagine they honestly thought it would take more than about a month to get the links and everything working right. Was the Phase 2 release delayed because of an unexpected major issue or was it just someone making the release timeline who was overly optimistic about how much was already done?
I get that things go wrong. I just would like to know what. The website as it sits provides no function I personally find useful and all of the bugs seem to have been found 2 months ago. I'm just waiting for the tools and finding it difficult to remember to check for news more than once a week or so at this point.
Personally, I just want to know why Phase 1 got pushed out so soon as just a pretty database and forum if Phase 2 was so far from release. I can't imagine they honestly thought it would take more than about a month to get the links and everything working right. Was the Phase 2 release delayed because of an unexpected major issue or was it just someone making the release timeline who was overly optimistic about how much was already done?
I get that things go wrong. I just would like to know what. The website as it sits provides no function I personally find useful and all of the bugs seem to have been found 2 months ago. I'm just waiting for the tools and finding it difficult to remember to check for news more than once a week or so at this point.
Thanks for taking time to post.
Nothing (outside typical minor issues/ bugs) has gone wrong with development of Phase 2 and 3. In fact, things have gone really well and we're excited to get it in everyone's hands.
We are also on track to release Phase 2 and 3 close (within a couple of weeks, which is very close for web development) to when we internally targeted to do so.
To set the record straight, we released Phase 1 when we did because of a couple of reasons:
Digitizing the raw files from WotC intended for book publishing is somewhat challenging - it's not a 1:1 conversion. A great deal of manual effort is involved and we wanted to make sure the content and data that was digitized was solid since it literally touches every other thing we'll build. It's the foundation, and we want a strong one.
The functionality available in Phase 1 was already incredibly useful in my own games, and we got that feedback from many alpha testers. Since it was done and ready to use, why not just turn it on for everyone to be able to use it? We made the call that it was better to let people do that instead of sticking it on a shelf to collect dust.
At the end of the day, people will end up waiting 3 to 4 months from announcement to launch of the toolset. This is a far shorter window than has been seen for something like this in the past (announcement, maybe seeing a screenshot or two, then not hearing anything for three months, then the project falling through after a year). I can also bring up that what we're doing is fairly complicated stuff - trust me, there are real reasons it hasn't been done yet.
And I wouldn't worry so much about remembering to check the news to see what's going on with the other two phases. We will get the word out all over the place when it's ready to release!
I can say I've been wanting to test more, but I also know it has been pretty interesting getting the foundation to really work. If that didn't work, the rest would work poorly or not at all. I an definitely say looking things up here has helped a lot with games I have played since this site opened and with my play by posts that I enjoy here. Many times what I go with is actually in the free stuff and knowing it is here, makes a quick look up faster than going to the pdf to scroll for it. Of course, some things are PHB only and not free, but at least a lot of things I can find quickly as a player and even for a little thing I tried DMing last week to see if the people liked my style as an option.
I'm not surprised that you are finding the next two phases will come out a lot closer together. There is a lot of similarity in how they will function with pulling all the foundational stuff together. I'll definitely dive in and try to give some solid feedback that is constructive and report any bugs I find, just like I did with phase 1. Thankfully, the last couple weeks or so if I find something it is already reported though I'll check it and see if it is fixed or try to duplicate it to give you more information what it is doing. I think most of the issues left in phase one are just making things fit more nicely on mobile or smaller screens because something do get lost off the edge of the screen and sometimes it lets you scroll and sometimes it don't. Other than the visual quirks I know you are working on, you have managed to get the foundation pretty solid.
Thanks for all the effort and I look forward to how the rest plays out.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
It seems to me a lot of people are still not understanding the fact that when Phase 2 and 3 are opened up it's still gonna just be the SRT and free data... This means they will effectively not be useful in a real game session since the SRT is but a small fraction of what is contained in the PHB.
That being said, it still needs testing and feedback so I'll be screwing around with it a lot. Looking forward to what's coming up!
It seems to me a lot of people are still not understanding the fact that when Phase 2 and 3 are opened up it's still gonna just be the SRT and free data... This means they will effectively not be useful in a real game session since the SRT is but a small fraction of what is contained in the PHB.
That being said, it still needs testing and feedback so I'll be screwing around with it a lot. Looking forward to what's coming up!
With that being said, a lot of people have found it a useful resource. I've seen numerous posts of people using it to make characters for various reasons. My DM used it to manage his monsters at last weeks game, and said it was much faster and easier than his usual method. While it may not be the full toolset, it's not completely useless.
Ah. Probably why people missed it, then. :p
I can't remember if it was here or in the news and announcements when I first posted. About once a week I do greater digging into posts rather than follow just the ones I might have posted in already.
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain
PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
"All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost..." - Bilbo Baggins
While I am not one of the people to be negative about the amount of time it is taking to get Phase 2, I can say that my interest slowly becoming lost. I used to check multiple times a day for updates or to test things out, read the forums or just click items of interest, but I now check in about once a week, see that Phase 2 still has no ETA and then click away. The excitement that began in March has faded.
Perhaps my interest will grow again when there is more to test. I do like all the additions that have been added throughout Phase 1 and am glad they the Dev Team is taking the time to do things right in Phase 2. But, there are puppy videos to watch on the internet as well.
Thanks for the update, it's only hard to wait because Phase 1 works so well
Well, I am excited to see what comes out no matter what (and I might watch kitty videos as well during the wait).
I am certain my attention will be fully captivated again soon :)
Just wanted to say, as a dm, I'm loving the interface on my tablet. The ever-present 'table-of-content' off to the left of the text as well as quick-links within the texts provide quick and easy jumps to whatever info may be needed. Also loving the layout of the monster sheets. It would be cool to see a feature where I could create custom encounter list, saving time flipping pages between creatures in a battle I may have not seen coming.
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I'm starting a new gaming group and would love Phase 2 and 3 to be started in time to test on this new group of D&D plays. Looking forward to the upcoming releases. Everything is great so far.
"Don't think of it as being vastly out numbered, think of it as a wide shot selection" - The power of positive thinking
I'm looking forward to the character builder of course, but please don't push anything out as a, "here's the still in development preview." As others have pointed out, the user base doesn't comprehend that. Look what happened to Dungeonscape. They straight up said that what they were showing on the web was in early development but the "why isn't this thing perfect it's horrible" attitude from people who refused to comprehend what they were told they were going to see resulted in people basically reviewing their alpha-level preview as if it in any way reflected a final product. I don't want to see that happen again. I want digital access to current D&D content. I want what I was supposed to get years ago when 5E came out.
What you've offered for the compendium has been well polished and very encouraging and I hope that you release each of the next two phases with the same level of readiness. It's very encouraging that you recognize that users can't handle an actually beta-level version at your product.
When the next phase comes out, will we get an heads up before it goes live, or will it surprise us? And if so, just how much heads up?
You are doing a great job! I am looking forward to what's coming next!
Thank you for the update, this has been an invaluable tool even as is. I can't wait to see what is next. Bz guys
Personally, I just want to know why Phase 1 got pushed out so soon as just a pretty database and forum if Phase 2 was so far from release. I can't imagine they honestly thought it would take more than about a month to get the links and everything working right. Was the Phase 2 release delayed because of an unexpected major issue or was it just someone making the release timeline who was overly optimistic about how much was already done?
I get that things go wrong. I just would like to know what. The website as it sits provides no function I personally find useful and all of the bugs seem to have been found 2 months ago. I'm just waiting for the tools and finding it difficult to remember to check for news more than once a week or so at this point.
At the end of the day, people will end up waiting 3 to 4 months from announcement to launch of the toolset. This is a far shorter window than has been seen for something like this in the past (announcement, maybe seeing a screenshot or two, then not hearing anything for three months, then the project falling through after a year). I can also bring up that what we're doing is fairly complicated stuff - trust me, there are real reasons it hasn't been done yet.
And I wouldn't worry so much about remembering to check the news to see what's going on with the other two phases. We will get the word out all over the place when it's ready to release!
Thanks!
I can say I've been wanting to test more, but I also know it has been pretty interesting getting the foundation to really work. If that didn't work, the rest would work poorly or not at all. I an definitely say looking things up here has helped a lot with games I have played since this site opened and with my play by posts that I enjoy here. Many times what I go with is actually in the free stuff and knowing it is here, makes a quick look up faster than going to the pdf to scroll for it. Of course, some things are PHB only and not free, but at least a lot of things I can find quickly as a player and even for a little thing I tried DMing last week to see if the people liked my style as an option.
I'm not surprised that you are finding the next two phases will come out a lot closer together. There is a lot of similarity in how they will function with pulling all the foundational stuff together. I'll definitely dive in and try to give some solid feedback that is constructive and report any bugs I find, just like I did with phase 1. Thankfully, the last couple weeks or so if I find something it is already reported though I'll check it and see if it is fixed or try to duplicate it to give you more information what it is doing. I think most of the issues left in phase one are just making things fit more nicely on mobile or smaller screens because something do get lost off the edge of the screen and sometimes it lets you scroll and sometimes it don't. Other than the visual quirks I know you are working on, you have managed to get the foundation pretty solid.
Thanks for all the effort and I look forward to how the rest plays out.
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain
PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
It seems to me a lot of people are still not understanding the fact that when Phase 2 and 3 are opened up it's still gonna just be the SRT and free data... This means they will effectively not be useful in a real game session since the SRT is but a small fraction of what is contained in the PHB.
That being said, it still needs testing and feedback so I'll be screwing around with it a lot. Looking forward to what's coming up!
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
Can't wait for phase 2