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For the record, the book is annoying for rules useage. I hope no one else wastes their money on this.


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Also, I very much doubt they will update these books. they never have before, why would they start now?

Watched Youtube video promoting it.
Looked it up on my Pad.
Liked how it looked.
Saw the price was the same as the fething paper copy.
Turned off Pad.

yakface wrote:

temprus wrote:

yakface wrote:
For anyone wondering what features are in or not in this new format, check out my detailed review here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/yakface%20Reviews%20the%20Digital%20Ultramarines%20Codex

Suffice to say, there is no army builder functionality here, this just an interactive version of the codex.

So you can not make a unit selection as they do in the sample video when he selects a dread, adds some options, and calls it Unit 1?

EDIT: In the video, it says "Army List" is Chapter 12.

Nope. He's just adding a note to the text.

You could try to ad-hoc an army list together this way (because notes do all show up in a summary page together), but it would be terrible...it would just be like writing a list by hand, only on a tablet. And plus, you'd only have one list available.

In short: no list building capability is in this ebook.

Great review, Yakface! Thank you very much! One thing though, the GW site has FINALLY updated the new prices and the print version and the digital versions are now both $41.25 (in the US). Looking forward to getting the codexes I have armies for and test driving myself.

As far as an army builder function in the digital version, we as customers should keep mentioning this to GW and maybe it will become a feature. I don't think there is any technical reason that this can't be possible...

They'll be too busy counting piles and piles of money to listen.

Scipio Africanus wrote:
Also, I very much doubt they will update these books. they never have before, why would they start now?

How would they have updated the books before, considering there are no prior ebooks?

d-usa wrote:

Scipio Africanus wrote:Also, I very much doubt they will update these books. they never have before, why would they start now?

How would they have updated the books before, considering there are no prior ebooks?

They put out a WD "cut & paste" update for 3rd edition SM & DE codex back in the day. They even made an updated edition with all those changes and started shipping the updated books out in place of the originals. They abandoned the practice after only those two books.

So, to have the digital codex updates and all, for about 40bucks, I also would have to shell out another 3-400bucks for an Apple product ?

Scipio Africanus wrote:For the record, the book is annoying for rules useage. I hope no one else wastes their money on this.

I've found the book to be superior to the print version when it comes to rules usage (the reasons why are in my review). What precisely do you find annoying?

So, I just pricede i-Pads at Wal-E-World(Wal-Mart) 399 and up to 729 for the things,,,Made by low paid workers in China for cryin' out loud! Just so I can download a 41dollar version of a book that is 30bucks in hard copy?

shasolenzabi wrote:So, I just pricede i-Pads at Wal-E-World(Wal-Mart) 399 and up to 729 for the things,,,Made by low paid workers in China for cryin' out loud! Just so I can download a 41dollar version of a book that is 30bucks in hard copy?

You do get an iPad with the purchase of an iPad.

I am allergic to Apple prices!


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That and a hard copy codex does not need to be plugged into the wall socket or cause worry about batteries.

shasolenzabi wrote:I am allergic to Apple prices!


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That and a hard copy codex does not need to be plugged into the wall socket or cause worry about batteries.

Nobody is going to stop you from using a print codex, so if it works best for you, then godspeed!

yakface wrote:Nobody is going to stop you from using a print codex, so if it works best for you, then godspeed!

I hope you are right. Wouldn't be surprised at all if GW makes iPads mandatory:
"If it doubles the costs for your first game, we do it"

Nice review, Yak.

I purchased it as soon as it was up on itunes after watching the youtube promo just for kicks and was pleasantly suprised. Its well done and can't wait for more (Orks in Particular).

I appreciated how they added a few more Chapters and brief descriptions of their lore, in addition to FAQ'd rules(although missed some, as Yaks review points out) and entirely new rules (Storm Talon). This leads me to believe they will update the codex when needed, as they already did when making the product.

I'm ever the optimist.

Lol, how fickle we are. We spend our days attacking games workshop, then they make something bright and shiny and we are suddenly back in love with them.

Yes its nice, but is it really worth it. GW is going digital finally,
thats good
..0

I hope they do, because we all saw how well that turned out for Ex Illis.

NELS1031 wrote:Nice review, Yak.

I purchased it as soon as it was up on itunes after watching the youtube promo just for kicks and was pleasantly suprised. Its well done and can't wait for more (Orks in Particular).

I appreciated how they added a few more Chapters and brief descriptions of their lore, in addition to FAQ'd rules(although missed some, as Yaks review points out) and entirely new rules (Storm Talon). This leads me to believe they will update the codex when needed, as they already did when making the product.

I'm ever the optimist.

Yeah that's the real kicker or kick in the nuts issue for me.

GW don't offer any recompense for buying a new codex with each new revision, you have to buy the new codex. I just can't see GW changing that so you effectively buy this digital ed and it will update to a new edition of the rules. Since i assume C:SM is almost certainly going to be updated first you might find yourself having to buy a new digital C:SM in say 12 months.

£25 isn't allot but I'm no fan of wasting money on a short lived product if it ultimately means spending another £25 next year.

Not only that but a lot of us can remember that GW already has form when it comes to 'forgetting' about their digital offerings. The Interactive Army list situation springs to mind - they very quickly and quietly dropped support for that; I only hope that the digital codex plan doesn't go the same way.

filbert wrote:Not only that but a lot of us can remember that GW already has form when it comes to 'forgetting' about their digital offerings. The Interactive Army list situation springs to mind - they very quickly and quietly dropped support for that; I only hope that the digital codex plan doesn't go the same way.

Twice. They dropped support for the IAL twice

The first time it came out it was quite good, people made custom army files and keep them updated and GW would host them on a tucked-away niche of their site to download and things were fine - GW sold the product, fans supported it, GW's only outlay was a couple of kb of space and some bandwidth and things got on fine. Then GW decided to screw over everyone who'd bought the IAL by releasing essentially the same program, but locked down and in two parts - Armies of the Imperium and Enemies of the Imperium. No custom army files, so it relied on GW for updates, and there weren't many of those...

so that's the historical context for this: GW release product, GW can't be bothered to support product properly, fans pick up the slack, GW shut down everything, then sell basically the same product all over again, but in a way that the fans can't support even if they wanted to.

Will be interesting to see how long people have to wait for the first patch

I think that once it goes to android then it will be a good deal for them. However I feel that the limited market might be a bad thing. I look forward to trying to buy all the new books as they come out for it(once it is on android) However I will not be buying the old books as I already have most of them.

I bet GW is going to make you pay when they add updates to the ebook though.

I am anti-Apple and I am also a pen and paper guy... I still like to sit cross legged on the bed and scratch out lists. It would have been better to just release good clean pdfs of the books that any platform could use. Put me down for 0$ on this scheme.

I like my Datapad

MetalOxide wrote:I bet GW is going to make you pay when they add updates to the ebook though.

I wonder if they will go for the micro transaction route. A lot of computer MMOs found out that they can make more money charging $1 for this, and 50c for that, rather then just a flat $10/mo. If you can get under people's "that's cheep!" threshold, you can bleed them for a lot more then if you just tried to get a chunk out of them.

I'm not going to buy a White Dwarf. But I'd probably pay a buck or two for the rules for the storm talon, even if I wasn't going to buy the model. Special named characters from the fiction line for .99c each? I'm sure people would snatch them up. I'd probably get all the Ultramarine ones. And I'm a tight-fisted, penny-pinching scrooge.

I can see microtransactions being really good for them honestly.

Even if it is something like, say an FAQ update for a buck or 2. That is easy to justify on the wallet to not have to carry around a stack of extra paper to reference.

I have to admit, I'd prefer PDF conversions, especially if they were reasonably priced. The iBooks 'interactivity' features look neat, but I'm guessing will not be used well in these products or many others.

OTOH, if these included Cool Stuff like a mini-army-builder, that'd be worth a bit.

sparkywtf wrote:I can see microtransactions being really good for them honestly.

Even if it is something like, say an FAQ update for a buck or 2. That is easy to justify on the wallet to not have to carry around a stack of extra paper to reference.

So let me get this straight: you, as a GW customer, are advocating for them to charge you for a service that every other gaming company provides for free?

You want them to charge you when they fix something that is wrong with their game?

And people wonder why GW doesn't worry about the flaws in Failcrap...

PhantomViper wrote:

sparkywtf wrote:I can see microtransactions being really good for them honestly.

Even if it is something like, say an FAQ update for a buck or 2. That is easy to justify on the wallet to not have to carry around a stack of extra paper to reference.

So let me get this straight: you, as a GW customer, are advocating for them to charge you for a service that every other gaming company provides for free?

You want them to charge you when they fix something that is wrong with their game?

And people wonder why GW doesn't worry about the flaws in Failcrap...

To have something implemented in right away without any personal work, sure I will pay for it.

Army Builder charges (apparently) to have your software automatically update, where is your complaining about that? Oh wait it isn't GW so it must be okay. I am not saying they should charge for an FAQ, but if they want a buck to change my ibook instead of me having to open a PDF, it is worth the saved time to pay the dollar.

sparkywtf wrote:
To have something implemented in right away without any personal work, sure I will pay for it.

Define "work", please.

Is downloading a PDF = work to you?

Is getting a couple of stickers and putting them on top of your book = work?

sparkywtf wrote:
Army Builder charges (apparently) to have your software automatically update, where is your complaining about that? Oh wait it isn't GW so it must be okay. I am not saying they should charge for an FAQ, but if they want a buck to change my ibook instead of me having to open a PDF, it is worth the saved time to pay the dollar.

AFAIK, no, Army Builder doesn't charge you to update its sofware. AFAIK Army Builder only charged you when it went from version 2 to version 3, like every other software manufacturer in existence. Heck, like every other miniature game in existence charging you for a new version of their rules. Notice how I say AFAIK allot because I never actually got version 3 of AB since people still keep making the current 40K and Fantasy army lists for V2.2 so I never felt the need to pay for V3.x.

Charging you for a FAQ would be the same as a software company charging you for a patch that makes the software work...

And you would pay 1 dolar for a FAQ instead of downloading a PDF... Do you actually have a job or are you still in school? Don't mean to offend you but you seem to have a really poor understanding of the actual value of money, so you being in school and dependent of others for your income would explain that.

PhantomViper wrote:

sparkywtf wrote:
To have something implemented in right away without any personal work, sure I will pay for it.

Define "work", please.

Is downloading a PDF = work to you?

Is getting a couple of stickers and putting them on top of your book = work?

And this is exactly what GW has been doing for how long now?

What makes you think that they will drop support for their paper books just because they are also selling a digital version at the same time?

PhantomViper wrote:

sparkywtf wrote:
Army Builder charges (apparently) to have your software automatically update, where is your complaining about that? Oh wait it isn't GW so it must be okay. I am not saying they should charge for an FAQ, but if they want a buck to change my ibook instead of me having to open a PDF, it is worth the saved time to pay the dollar.

AFAIK, no, Army Builder doesn't charge you to update its sofware. AFAIK Army Builder only charged you when it went from version 2 to version 3, like every other software manufacturer in existence. Heck, like every other miniature game in existence charging you for a new version of their rules. Notice how I say AFAIK allot because I never actually got version 3 of AB since people still keep making the current 40K and Fantasy army lists for V2.2 so I never felt the need to pay for V3.x.

Charging you for a FAQ would be the same as a software company charging you for a patch that makes the software work...

And you would pay 1 dolar for a FAQ instead of downloading a PDF... Do you actually have a job or are you still in school? Don't mean to offend you but you seem to have a really poor understanding of the actual value of money, so you being in school and dependent of others for your income would explain that.

Actually, Army Builder does charge you. You pay for a yearly license to get the automatic update. When that license expires you can either renew or update manually.