I understand the reasons for stopping future support of UA materials. I'm less clear on why currently active UA material is being retired now instead of waiting for WotC's mandate.
Hello,
My guess is that at least some material is nearing the end of its playtest cycle and DnDB pulls UA at the end of playtest, as per their agreement with WotC.
The keywords being some and nearing. They could have waited for the end of cycle instead of pulling the plug on everything now. But no matter, it is done and the material is not coming back.
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Fatti non foste a viver come bruti ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza
I understand the reasons for stopping future support of UA materials. I'm less clear on why currently active UA material is being retired now instead of waiting for WotC's mandate.
Hello,
My guess is that at least some material is nearing the end of its playtest cycle and DnDB pulls UA at the end of playtest, as per their agreement with WotC.
The keywords being some and nearing. They could have waited for the end of cycle instead of pulling the plug on everything now. But no matter, it is done and the material is not coming back.
I can appreciate your opinion, but from my experience in program management that is highly impractical and just doesn’t make much business sense. It diverts resources to supporting some content in a staggered fashion that has ultimately been termed and when some of that content has an unknown end date for the playtest cycle (some playtest cycles have lasted many months). It makes far more sense to pick a date that gives users time to prepare for the change (in this case a date that coincides with the end of some material’s playtest cycle) and then pull the plug. It’s not perfect for every person but mothballing a program never is.
Wow, that's really unfortunate, the ability to play test content was really big for the discord play by post community, removing that and making it unable to be published will make this loads harder in the future.
The whole point of UA content as playtest material. Is to TEST the content in PLAY. Doesn't not allowing even the option completely invalidate the very concept of Ua Playtest content as a whole? Seriously disappointed with this development.
I never understood why DDB did UA in the first place. They have enough on their plate with improvements to core functionality and content without having to worry about the minutiae of the play test stuff. If I wanted the play test material, I’d HB it. Just my $0.02.
I never understood why DDB did UA in the first place.
Just me speculating, but I think they may have had the impression early on the UA would be relatively comparable to the official, existing mechanics and thus relatively easy to implement and the longer it's been going the more that impression has had to be adjusted.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The joke here is that they are saying it's to give them more time on adding more functions or improving others but we really know that it's going towards more fake dice for people to pay for.
The joke here is that they are saying it's to give them more time on adding more functions or improving others but we really know that it's going towards more fake dice for people to pay for.
You know the people who do that and the other designers are not the same right. You should watch the dev updates they are supposed to give you a bit of a look at what they are doing.
In this case, as always, "Archived" basically means, "No longer usable", correct?
Yes. But to be more specific, archived means no longer accessible.
If you have the UA on your character sheet, you can still use it. You just cannot put the UA back on if you remove it, since you cannot access it anymore as it is no longer part of the available options.
I never understood why DDB did UA in the first place.
Just me speculating, but I think they may have had the impression early on the UA would be relatively comparable to the official, existing mechanics and thus relatively easy to implement and the longer it's been going the more that impression has had to be adjusted.
I figured it was like the free peanuts bars used to put out.
We at D&D Beyond regret to inform you that we will no longer be supporting Unearthed Arcana content on our platform.
While we have loved giving users the opportunity to use new Unearthed Arcana playtest material offered by Wizards of the Coast on D&D Beyond, there are a multitude of factors that have made it difficult for us to do so in a way that presents the content the way it was intended, and in a timely way that does not divert our development resources. We love Unearthed Arcana on the team (Don't ask me how many Rabbitfolk Joe Starr has created... Just know that it's a lot!), but we know our team's resources will be best applied to developing features for content already a part of published books, and to improve your experience on the platform with upgrades like our new containers feature.
What does this mean for Unearthed Arcana still available on DDB? Active Unearthed Arcana content (noted with the (UA) distinction in the title) will become archived one week from today, on August 12th, 2021. If your character currently has UA content on their sheet, they will not be impacted. The naming tag will simply change from (UA) to (Archived). That content will no longer be available to add to characters that don't already have the content, and if you remove the content from your character, you won't be able to add it back to them.
How can I use new UA on my characters to playtest new content using DDB? While we will no longer be officially supporting this content, you are welcome to use our homebrew tools to create UA content you'd like to use. Remember that you should not publish content you are not the original author of, as doing so violates our homebrew rules and guidelines. However, private homebrew is automatically shared to characters inside of campaigns that you're a member of, so you can still share your efforts with your friends, players, and DMs!
While it's never fun to tell you all that we aren't going to be doing something, it was important to us to be straightforward with you all, to set your expectations for what D&D Beyond will officially support now and in the future. What we are going to be doing, is continuing the hard work on our Features System, which will help us better support existing, and new content going forward. I can't wait to be able to share more details about this going forward.
UPDATE
All Unearthed Arcana playtest content on D&D Beyond has now been archived, as of 12th August 2021, and may no longer be selected to add to a character.
Sad because I Love Rabbitfolk and Owlfolk so much 😟. But I Guess Haregon and Owlin are gonna be the same but more official?
I think this was very sad because I really LOVED to build Rabbitfolk. But hopefully when "Wild Beyond the Witchlight" comes the Harengon is as great as Rabbitfolk. Like I think you could've waited at least until you had these kind of races officially until you got rid of UA since we newbies loves to build these rabbitfolk and Owl-folks. Was it really so important to get rid of it before?
So in other words, we have to implement the UA ourselves and do your jobs for you? I pay for a subscription, I'm not paying to do your work for you. Bet you'd find the resources to make more sets of microtransaction dice though. Shame on you.
So in other words, we have to implement the UA ourselves and do your jobs for you? I pay for a subscription, I'm not paying to do your work for you. Bet you'd find the resources to make more sets of microtransaction dice though. Shame on you.
UA is about playtesting. There were a bunch of times where they were too slow to put it out and the survey was already out or even ended. Also, the subscription has nothing to do with UA.
I understand the though process behind the decision regarding staff time, but its deeply deeply disappointing. DDB has often been slow in incorporating UA into the system. Usually by the time it appeared, the feedback window was closed. That being said, I really hope DDB reconsiders this decision and dedicated staff time to promptly incorporating UA into the system.
Ultimately UA gives players new features, races, equipment, spells, etc to test in games. I was literally in the middle of making a Fairy Warlock character for a game today before i had realized it was all getting archived. Instead I turned to MPMB.
The time spent incorporating UA early for use, ultimately wins in the end as the UA is often part of an upcoming book (see the Gothic Lineages > Van Richtens Guide, or the Feyfolk and presumably the upcoming Fey book, Dragon UA for the upcoming Fizban's guide)
I include my voice in those deeply disappointed in the decision and hope that DDB reviews their decision and actually dedicated staff to making the UA work in the system. I would happily give up more character sheet backgrounds, dice aesthetics and other surface level BS for things that actually improve the system (like the bag inventory YAY)
I never understood why DDB did UA in the first place.
Just me speculating, but I think they may have had the impression early on the UA would be relatively comparable to the official, existing mechanics and thus relatively easy to implement and the longer it's been going the more that impression has had to be adjusted.
I figured it was like the free peanuts bars used to put out.
LOL IamSposta. And yeah, Pangurjan, I could see that possibly being the case. I don’t know how many devs, admins, writers, etc. DDB has employed, but it takes many cycles to get content to prod in my experience. The UA stuff has to be rewritten and archived as the official material comes out or scrapped altogether, and seems to me, makes the effort less worthwhile to the devs and the company as a whole, especially when there’s a lot of very worthwhile and anticipated dev that could be happening in its stead. That’s just my take though.
I understand the reasons for stopping future support of UA materials. I'm less clear on why currently active UA material is being retired now instead of waiting for WotC's mandate.
Hello,
My guess is that at least some material is nearing the end of its playtest cycle and DnDB pulls UA at the end of playtest, as per their agreement with WotC.
The keywords being some and nearing. They could have waited for the end of cycle instead of pulling the plug on everything now. But no matter, it is done and the material is not coming back.
I'm sorry, but I don't think you understand the playtest cycle. For WotC, they publish UA. Usually within two weeks a survey opens for an about two week window. After that window the "cycle" is actually over. D&D Beyond as a courtesy has tried to get stuff up, the most recent two I believe actually didn't go online till after WotC was done with its survey. WotC present policy allows users to read through, download PDFs of its UA, with the caveat that it's unofficial playtest material. It never goes away and most of it can be home-brewed into DDB (some things like the Mystic class can't be, and the Strixhaven classes would require a lot of effort to get something that approximates the cross-class subclasses).
Everything UA-wise DDB currently hosts is well past "the playtest cycle". Frankly, users have had the luxury/privilege of being able to integrate all this UA into their accounts per DDB's courtesy. Being sour and trying to make points about "some" and "nearing" in this instance is predicated on a misunderstanding of what UA is in the first place.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So in other words, we have to implement the UA ourselves and do your jobs for you? I pay for a subscription, I'm not paying to do your work for you. Bet you'd find the resources to make more sets of microtransaction dice though. Shame on you.
They were never under any obligation to implement UA, they did it as a favor for us and they did it feee of charge. Your subscription did it get you access to UA, it was free for all. They decided they cannot keep doing folks a favor is all.
The people who do the dice are just artists slapping skins on the same dice that were already programmed. The folks redesigning the software and implementing actual, official D&D content were the ones who kept getting pulled to work on UA. Then half the UA doesn’t work that way when it gets officially released, so half their work was wasted.
The keywords being some and nearing. They could have waited for the end of cycle instead of pulling the plug on everything now. But no matter, it is done and the material is not coming back.
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza
I can appreciate your opinion, but from my experience in program management that is highly impractical and just doesn’t make much business sense. It diverts resources to supporting some content in a staggered fashion that has ultimately been termed and when some of that content has an unknown end date for the playtest cycle (some playtest cycles have lasted many months). It makes far more sense to pick a date that gives users time to prepare for the change (in this case a date that coincides with the end of some material’s playtest cycle) and then pull the plug. It’s not perfect for every person but mothballing a program never is.
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Wow, that's really unfortunate, the ability to play test content was really big for the discord play by post community, removing that and making it unable to be published will make this loads harder in the future.
The whole point of UA content as playtest material. Is to TEST the content in PLAY. Doesn't not allowing even the option completely invalidate the very concept of Ua Playtest content as a whole? Seriously disappointed with this development.
I never understood why DDB did UA in the first place. They have enough on their plate with improvements to core functionality and content without having to worry about the minutiae of the play test stuff. If I wanted the play test material, I’d HB it. Just my $0.02.
Just me speculating, but I think they may have had the impression early on the UA would be relatively comparable to the official, existing mechanics and thus relatively easy to implement and the longer it's been going the more that impression has had to be adjusted.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The joke here is that they are saying it's to give them more time on adding more functions or improving others but we really know that it's going towards more fake dice for people to pay for.
You know the people who do that and the other designers are not the same right. You should watch the dev updates they are supposed to give you a bit of a look at what they are doing.
In this case, as always, "Archived" basically means, "No longer usable", correct?
Yes. But to be more specific, archived means no longer accessible.
If you have the UA on your character sheet, you can still use it. You just cannot put the UA back on if you remove it, since you cannot access it anymore as it is no longer part of the available options.
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Not quite. If your character already has the content added you can continue to use it. You just cannot add it to any new characters.
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I figured it was like the free peanuts bars used to put out.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Sad because I Love Rabbitfolk and Owlfolk so much 😟. But I Guess Haregon and Owlin are gonna be the same but more official?
Steve Östmark (Ö = Oe)
I think this was very sad because I really LOVED to build Rabbitfolk. But hopefully when "Wild Beyond the Witchlight" comes the Harengon is as great as Rabbitfolk. Like I think you could've waited at least until you had these kind of races officially until you got rid of UA since we newbies loves to build these rabbitfolk and Owl-folks. Was it really so important to get rid of it before?
Steve Östmark (Ö = Oe)
So in other words, we have to implement the UA ourselves and do your jobs for you? I pay for a subscription, I'm not paying to do your work for you. Bet you'd find the resources to make more sets of microtransaction dice though. Shame on you.
UA is about playtesting. There were a bunch of times where they were too slow to put it out and the survey was already out or even ended. Also, the subscription has nothing to do with UA.
I understand the though process behind the decision regarding staff time, but its deeply deeply disappointing. DDB has often been slow in incorporating UA into the system. Usually by the time it appeared, the feedback window was closed. That being said, I really hope DDB reconsiders this decision and dedicated staff time to promptly incorporating UA into the system.
Ultimately UA gives players new features, races, equipment, spells, etc to test in games. I was literally in the middle of making a Fairy Warlock character for a game today before i had realized it was all getting archived. Instead I turned to MPMB.
The time spent incorporating UA early for use, ultimately wins in the end as the UA is often part of an upcoming book (see the Gothic Lineages > Van Richtens Guide, or the Feyfolk and presumably the upcoming Fey book, Dragon UA for the upcoming Fizban's guide)
I include my voice in those deeply disappointed in the decision and hope that DDB reviews their decision and actually dedicated staff to making the UA work in the system. I would happily give up more character sheet backgrounds, dice aesthetics and other surface level BS for things that actually improve the system (like the bag inventory YAY)
LOL IamSposta. And yeah, Pangurjan, I could see that possibly being the case. I don’t know how many devs, admins, writers, etc. DDB has employed, but it takes many cycles to get content to prod in my experience. The UA stuff has to be rewritten and archived as the official material comes out or scrapped altogether, and seems to me, makes the effort less worthwhile to the devs and the company as a whole, especially when there’s a lot of very worthwhile and anticipated dev that could be happening in its stead. That’s just my take though.
I'm sorry, but I don't think you understand the playtest cycle. For WotC, they publish UA. Usually within two weeks a survey opens for an about two week window. After that window the "cycle" is actually over. D&D Beyond as a courtesy has tried to get stuff up, the most recent two I believe actually didn't go online till after WotC was done with its survey. WotC present policy allows users to read through, download PDFs of its UA, with the caveat that it's unofficial playtest material. It never goes away and most of it can be home-brewed into DDB (some things like the Mystic class can't be, and the Strixhaven classes would require a lot of effort to get something that approximates the cross-class subclasses).
Everything UA-wise DDB currently hosts is well past "the playtest cycle". Frankly, users have had the luxury/privilege of being able to integrate all this UA into their accounts per DDB's courtesy. Being sour and trying to make points about "some" and "nearing" in this instance is predicated on a misunderstanding of what UA is in the first place.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
They were never under any obligation to implement UA, they did it as a favor for us and they did it feee of charge. Your subscription did it get you access to UA, it was free for all. They decided they cannot keep doing folks a favor is all.
The people who do the dice are just artists slapping skins on the same dice that were already programmed. The folks redesigning the software and implementing actual, official D&D content were the ones who kept getting pulled to work on UA. Then half the UA doesn’t work that way when it gets officially released, so half their work was wasted.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting