I use Hero Lab for Mutants & Masterminds. I have found it indispensible. It allows me to review character combinations quickly and even check my understanding of the rules. The only complaint I have is that, currently, you can not create your own output template.
I have to give HeroLabs two thumbs up on the new version.
I was checking out the new Pathfinder section in it last night. I really like what I saw. It is going to be a huge help in my home games and in The Cheese Grinder.
Not to mention you can export your HeroLab character into d20Pro! whoot! What a time saver.
We are more then likely going to ask our players to use HeroLab as their character creator since we can trust its output and know what we are getting.
Good job Lonewolf on the new version of Herolab!
Thank you for the head's up, and keep up the good work.
So glad its finally out. Such an excellent program. Looking forward the the other updates for Pathfinder later this month! [/QUOTE
Thats what im looking forward too the Bestiary and other additions
The V2.5 update will be out sometime this weekend. The summoner is in. We're squishing a few more bugs before we put out the new update.
When will we see the Kingmaker campaign traits?
When will we see the Kingmaker campaign traits?
Those are in the V2.5 update that will be out this weekend.
When will we see the Kingmaker campaign traits?Those are in the V2.5 update that will be out this weekend.
Awesome! Glad to hear that.
When many companies say 'sometime this weekend' it means 'by Sunday afternoon, if you're lucky'. With Lone Wolf it seems to mean 'we'll have it up inside of 12 hours'. :-) Thanks for that.
These guys are either really dedicated to their product or like to get things done so they can have their weekends off (maybe a bit of both).
I do have one more question, what's up with the perpetual 'new update' for Hero Images? No matter how many times I download this content the indicator just won't go away. :-/
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Any news on a mac version?
I would also love to see a Mac version. Unfortunately it seems that many companies think Mac users all want to run windows in a virtual machine to use there software. While I abhor that mindset this is one of the few pieces of software that I purchased despite it being windows only. I really like to play with my char sheet on my computer and I like herolab better then the free excel spreadsheets and other computer char solutions like TOS+ that I have tried.
These guys are either really dedicated to their product or like to get things done so they can have their weekends off (maybe a bit of both).
Or option C: hedging your bets. :-) Everything looked good for Friday night, but testing was still underway, so I hedged my bet, just in case we ran into bugs that would take another day to fix. :-)
As for having the weekend off, I *so* wish that were the case. I'm working all weekend to get things prepped for a tradeshow this week. :-(
I do have one more question, what's up with the perpetual 'new update' for Hero Images? No matter how many times I download this content the indicator just won't go away. :-/
Have you added your own images to any of the folders that comprise the collection? Or deleted any? If so, that's the problem. The Updates mechanism checks the "signature" of the folders comprising the images download. If files are missing or added, that's a viewed as a difference that implies the available update is newer.
Changing this behavior is on our todo list, but it's a minor annoyance that very few people have run into, so we've focused our energies on other features thus far.
Any news on a mac version?
We're working with another company on this project. We got back some preliminary results from them last week and the results were pretty mixed. We're in discussions with them about how to resolve the problem areas. So we're progressing on the effort, but it's not yet clear whether this is going to be a viable approach. We'll let everyone know as soon as we know something conclusive.
Unfortunately it seems that many companies think Mac users all want to run windows in a virtual machine to use there software.
Actually, that's not the mindset for us. The problem centers on one main issue. The Mac works in some dramatically different ways from Windows. Writing software that works equally well on both platforms typically entails a *team* of developers for *each* platform, with substantially different code bases for each platform. Given that our team size is two programmers *total*, that makes it very difficult to dedicate another team to the Mac. :-)
The alternative to the above is to do a partial port which cuts various corners and yields a product that *works* on the Mac but doesn't conform to all the Mac standards and conventions. The problem with this approach is that Mac users are generally very particular about having things behave in a standard manner on the Mac. Given this perspective, many prospective Mac users won't touch such a solution, which returns us to the option outlined above.
Now consider this from a business perspective. Depending on whose numbers you want to use, the Mac user base is roughly 10% of all personal computer users, with Windows claiming the rest (excluding 1-2% for other stuff). If it costs almost as much to develop software for the Mac market as for the Windows market, but your total revenue potential for the Mac market is 10% of the Windows market, you have to convert 10 times the percentage of Mac users to achieve the same revenue. If your costs are almost as high for Mac development as Windows development (assuming some code sharing), you have to sell roughly the same number of copies of your product to a potential market that is one-tenth the size.
Given that the RPG industry is pretty tiny overall, the development costs to write software for the Mac are generally prohibitive compared to the potential revenue available. If a business owner sees that he can invest $10 into something and stands to only make $3 back, he'd be throwing away $7 if he did it. The situation with Mac software and the RPG industry pretty much parallels that example.
So the only viable options for the Mac market are (a) do a partial port and hope that you get enough Mac users willing to accept the non-standard aspects of the product, or (b) write the entire product in a purely cross-platform language and environment. We're actively pursuing the former approach, but we're also mindful that there's certain minimum set of expectations that need to be satisfied to have a viable Mac solution. If we can't achieve that, we won't release a Mac version.
The problem with writing the entire product in a purely cross-platform environment is two-fold for us. First of all, you often get a "lowest common denominator" result that yields a much less powerful product with comparatively low performance. There are numerous examples of this across the full spectrum of software products. In our case, we also have an additional problem. We've got a massive investment in code (about 500,000 lines of C++ code) that was mostly developed long before cross-platform environments became truly viable options, so we'd have to completely rewrite everything for the new environment. That's at least a year where we make no meaningful forward progress on our existing products, just to get us back to where we are now, but with cross-platform support.
Needless to say, the alternatives here are all pretty frustrating. As a business, we *want* to support the Mac platform. But doing so has to ultimately make sound business sense. We're actively looking for a way to achieve this. But we haven't found the solution yet. :-(
Given the scarcity of companies writing niche software for the Mac, I'm guessing that's true for lots of other companies out there as well.
While I abhor that mindset this is one of the few pieces of software that I purchased despite it being windows only. I really like to play with my char sheet on my computer and I like herolab better then the free excel spreadsheets and other computer char solutions like TOS+ that I have tried.
Thanks!
These guys are either really dedicated to their product or like to get things done so they can have their weekends off (maybe a bit of both).Or option C: hedging your bets. :-) Everything looked good for Friday night, but testing was still underway, so I hedged my bet, just in case we ran into bugs that would take another day to fix. :-)
As for having the weekend off, I *so* wish that were the case. I'm working all weekend to get things prepped for a tradeshow this week. :-(
I do have one more question, what's up with the perpetual 'new update' for Hero Images? No matter how many times I download this content the indicator just won't go away. :-/Have you added your own images to any of the folders that comprise the collection? Or deleted any? If so, that's the problem. The Updates mechanism checks the "signature" of the folders comprising the images download. If files are missing or added, that's a viewed as a difference that implies the available update is newer.
Changing this behavior is on our todo list, but it's a minor annoyance that very few people have run into, so we've focused our energies on other features thus far.
Sorry about your weekend. :-)
I do have images that I have added, I guess that could be it but I thought I noticed it from the day I started the trial and it never went away. As you say though, it's a minor issue, just thought I'd mention it. I love Hero Lab by the way, I'm very glad I decided to buy it after many months of debating about it. I'm hoping I'll need to buy the full CoC package soon as well.
Downloaded the new set, but since I am in Demo mode it is not accessible, and based on another Hero Lab thread, it won't be. Sorry, I will be deleting Hero Lab from my laptop.
The following is *NOT* a slam against Lone Wolf Development, but my current policy regarding purchasing products.
I have been burnt too many times, and I will no longer purchase application software that I can not test drive, nor purchase preorder books, magazines, etc. that are not available when I pay the money.
-- david
Papa.DRB
The Pathfinder v2.6 dataset is out, now with all APG base classes and Kingmaker supported.
Downloaded the new set, but since I am in Demo mode it is not accessible, and based on another Hero Lab thread, it won't be. Sorry, I will be deleting Hero Lab from my laptop.
The following is *NOT* a slam against Lone Wolf Development, but my current policy regarding purchasing products.
I have been burnt too many times, and I will no longer purchase application software that I can not test drive, nor purchase preorder books, magazines, etc. that are not available when I pay the money.
-- david
Papa.DRBThe Pathfinder v2.6 dataset is out, now with all APG base classes and Kingmaker supported.
You can test drive the product, that's the whole point of the Demo mode. You can't take it on a cross country tour, but they even removed the speed governor and you can open the baby up all the way to 20th level.
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Downloaded the new set, but since I am in Demo mode it is not accessible, and based on another Hero Lab thread, it won't be. Sorry, I will be deleting Hero Lab from my laptop.
The following is *NOT* a slam against Lone Wolf Development, but my current policy regarding purchasing products.
I have been burnt too many times, and I will no longer purchase application software that I can not test drive, nor purchase preorder books, magazines, etc. that are not available when I pay the money.
Your loss buddy! Best character generation software I've ever used.
I have a quick question, what is the opinion on purchasing the disk from your local gaming store versus purchasing the online version from Lone Wolf Development. Pros and Cons?
The nice thing about online is its the most current version of it, would be a definite bonus
Downloaded the new set, but since I am in Demo mode it is not accessible, and based on another Hero Lab thread, it won't be. Sorry, I will be deleting Hero Lab from my laptop.
For Pathfinder, the only things missing from Demo mode are the new APG playtest material. Everything else is fully available, which means you can test drive 99.99% of the content and all functionality. The APG material works exactly like everything else that you can fully access - i.e. all classes work the same basic ways - so you can readily extrapolate how the APG classes will work. And others here on this forum can vouch for the content actually being present and working, so it's not a matter of trusting us that the material is included.
Your position on this is unfortunate, but I can wholly understand being burned in the past. There's no way any demo solution will be perfect for everyone, so perhaps one day you'll get a chance to see the APG material in action at a friend's house or a Con. Then you can re-assess. :-)
I have a quick question, what is the opinion on purchasing the disk from your local gaming store versus purchasing the online version from Lone Wolf Development. Pros and Cons?
Here are the differences:
1. The version on the CD at the local retailer isn't the latest version. However, it will prompt you to download the latest update when you install it.
2. If you don't mind the extra step, buying the CD version supports your local retailer. If you want to see your local retailer continuing to support all the stuff you play, then I encourage you to buy there.
Oh, one last trick. Buy the CD from the local retailer, but *DON'T* install it. Download the latest version from our website and install that. Then activate your license using the license info on the card included with the CD. This saves the extra install and update step while still supporting your local retailer. :-)
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Any news on a mac version?We're working with another company on this project. We got back some preliminary results from them last week and the results were pretty mixed. We're in discussions with them about how to resolve the problem areas. So we're progressing on the effort, but it's not yet clear whether this is going to be a viable approach. We'll let everyone know as soon as we know something conclusive.
Really appreciate you looking into it!
I'd happily settle for an iPad app :P