That was me and you are right about the cost for HL being better than DDI. Still I wanted to ask if I were to get HL as a downlaod. What happens if my hard drive was to be out of commision and I can no longer access anything on it. Would I have to purchase everything again?
Others have outlined the basics on this, but I want to add one thing. Your license is tied to your email address. So you can lose *everything* and be able to get back up and running with Hero Lab. If you lose your license numbers, just download the product from our website and install it, then use the option on the License menu to have your license numbers automatically emailed to you. It works much the same as having a forum site email your login to you if you've forgotten it.
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Unless you have a crash as mentioned above. Then you are SOL.This is what CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and flash drives were invented for. You can install and update the Character Builder without having any connection at all to the internet. The files aren't even large. You could probably get a free gmail account and email them to yourself to have a permanent secure copy.
Sure you can, but if you didn't, you lose. With Hero Lab you can reclaim what you have paid for, with no extra effort on your part. Almost as if you actually owed what you paid for. Neat concept, eh?
Yeah really, learn from Wizard's mistakes... What gaming company has ever done anything even semi-competent regarding computer gaming (especially inhouse)? Even with outsourcing it it's less than 50/50, and with trying to do it internally (woot Gleemax) it's miserable. These companies are small and writers are ill-paid, that's a fact of life. Hiring one competent programmer will require salary likely equivalent to their CEO's, and it takes more than one competent programmer to put out a good character generator.
I know Wizards has done certain mistakes such as Gleemax. Yet I'm not asking Paizo to do something similar to Gleemax. A simple character builder is all I'm asking. Why does doing anything remotely digital either place them into a computer programming territory or Gleemax territory. I wish I had never brought this topic up.
As for Hero Lab I am on the fence. I may or may not want to buy it. It will coost me as much as a subscription to DDI while getting less than DDI offers. So for now we will see.
It's always simple when it's someone else that has to do the work. If GOOD character builders were simple everyone would be doing it. Heck, this thread probably wouldn't exist because you would have built your own in Excel or Small Basis or whatever. If you're coding and your program works then you're a programmer. Beyond that you're just talking in terms of the scope of specific projects. So, yes, maybe you should have though about how much work goes into something like a simple character builder before you bought it up.
Wizards had to go through a major case of FAIL before they got it right with the DDI. Most notably with E-Tools for 3.0. And Wizards is much bigger and probably has a bigger budget for this kind of thing than Paizo does.
Also and everytime a HeroLab thread comes up people always come out of the wood work to say that paying for a HL version of the Paizo books is crazy and a rip off or too much money of greedy or whatever.
There's a simple solution to all of that.
ENTER THE STUFF FROM THE BOOKS YOURSELF IN THE EDITOR.
You put the work and the time in to enter that stuff correctly an it's costs you NOTHING.
Except time. Other than that I'll keep paying them for the entries because I dont have the time or the patience to enter all of the feats and spells from a new book. And tha's WITH having access to the PDF's so it's mostly a matter of cut and paste from the PDF's to the HL program Editor.
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Slightly off-topic, but not at the same time. I used to play Hero System and loved Hero Designer and with it you can either manually enter things from the books or buy the pack from them, which cost anywhere from a couple of bucks for general stuff up to the price of the full book for large power packs that require several hours of input.
Sounds very similar to HeroLab, which granted I haven't used yet, but I'd love to. Gotta get money again first, which knowing the current economy will be a while.
Also, PCGen. Free, open source, cross platform, and has Pathfinder support.I never was able to get it to work. I admit I did not put a lot of effort into it either, but if I have to put a lot of effort into it, then the purpose is defeated. Is there a tutorial online somewhere?
PCGen is my character editor of choice. I've had occasions where I'd install it on a new machine and it wouldn't work. Usually, that was because I didn't have my Java path set up correctly, or I was using an older version of Java. There's a troubleshooting page in the help documents you downloaded with the program, and there's help online just a google away. My money is on the problem being in your path, though.
I like PCGen because it's free, satisfies most of my requirements for a character tool, and because I've been using it for so long. I can understand the reservations of someone new to it. Adding new content takes a little bit of reading to understand how to create new source files. But for Pathfinder, because it's a lot of OGC, that means they'll be updating the material fairly frequently, and that will also be updated for free in PCGen. They're not a business, they're a bunch of nerds with too much time on their hands, and I love them for it.
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For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
A Mac version is being worked on and should hopefully be available in Beta form before the end of the year.
Hyrum.
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For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
Ah so that is a deal breaker for me as well.
Beta version before end of the year. Maybe then but I'll probably wait tell it's official and not a beta.
Sean
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You can view the character sheet within Demo mode. You can use Print Preview for this purpose. At present, the character sheet output offers only a moderate amount of customizability. A high priority for the next big feature release is full support for customized character sheet output. So that's in the works.
Yeah, probably my only complaint is that if you have a high level character or something with a lot of special abilities, the final output sheet is often VERY jumbled.
That and gestalt support would be cool.
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For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
A Mac version is being worked on and should hopefully be available in Beta form before the end of the year.
Hyrum.
Galnörag neatly files his excuses, where is the beta information signup mailing list?
For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
Thanks! Mine doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of other Excel-based sheets, but I do strive to keep it Mac-friendly!
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Thanks! Mine doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of other Excel-based sheets, but I do strive to keep it Mac-friendly!For myself, there is only one reason to stay away from HeroLab, and that is Mac support. I know, I know I could run Windows on my Mac, and it isn't a question of ability to do it, it is the notion of paying 170+ for a legal license of the operating system to run a single application. For those who think $30 is steep, well, $200 + is steeper. So for me it is either PC Gen, or excel spreadsheets (which so far only Erian_7's works really well in Office for Mac, or Open Office.)
That being said, I'm not grossing, I live with my choice, and if Hero Labs ever makes a Mac Compatible version I will buy it, until then, I won't.
I could be wrong, but I think yours is also the only PFRPG spread sheet that has non-core races, and APG beta classes, so sucks to the other sheets :)
I hafta buy it...and then buy a license for 20 bucks or so...and then buy additional support for any new books that come out...that seems kinda crazy to me.If it was just the program to buy, and the licenses for new systems were like 5 or 10 and including any update or addition to that system, I'd probably go ahead and pick it up, but effectively having to pay twice for every book, once for the book and once for the HeroLab support? Nah..
Your choice - you can always just use the editor to add the actual feats (etc.) you need, rather than paying someone else to type them in for you.
You still need to activate the license for the game you want to edit data for in. If all you want to use Herolab for is Pathfinder, great, you unlock Pathfinder for free with purchase. But if you want to unlock the other game systems and make data for that as well, that's $20 per system. It can get expensive. For some it's worth it. Personally, I don't have that kind of money (and if I could, I would want to unlock more than one system).
I understand why HeroLab does what it does the way it does, but personally I can't support (or rather, keep supporting--I bought HeroLab to use for Mutants and Masterminds) that business model. And doubt I am alone in that. Those who can, be glad you are lucky and able to do so.
Fortunately, as Erian7 notes, there are a number of free builders--maybe not as user friendly as HeroLab but very powerful and helpful. I'm looking forward to PCGen's build 6 -- looks like it will be great. And for just character generation, I love sCoreGen. And Erian7's own sheet is fantastic as well. It's great they have taken the time to put those things together, for those of us who can't pave our driveways with gold and RPG materials. If we have driveways at all. ;) In seriousness, I know programming that kind of stuff is a lot of work, and it's very, very much appreciated that these choices are available for free.
Yeah, probably my only complaint is that if you have a high level character or something with a lot of special abilities, the final output sheet is often VERY jumbled.
That and gestalt support would be cool.
A few people have asked for gestalt support, but not many. So that's still on the todo list.
Could you please send me a character that demonstrates this "very jumbled" behavior? If we have something concrete to reference, it will make fixing this issue much easier. Please send the saved portfolio to helpdesk at wolflair dot com. That way, it will go directly to me and I can make sure it gets looked at.
Thanks!
Galnörag neatly files his excuses, where is the beta information signup mailing list?
The Beta signups have not even been considered yet. Once we have something working well in-house, we'll begin the search for guinea pigs, er, volunteers :-), to put a Beta release through the wringer. That's still a few months out, though.
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A few people have asked for gestalt support, but not many. So that's still on the todo list.
Consider me being one of the "Few" that are asking for Gestalt support. I think that the lack of posts in your forums Rob is not from lack of people wanting support. In my opinion they just do not want to continue to cross post all the time when there are already threads made about Gestalt. I wish that it would be moved "UP" in priority so that it can be done with out using a work around that I for one have no idea on how to use what so ever. Video tutorials would be a good thing too as the Authoringwiki is very confusing to say the least.
In the few threads in your forums for Hero Labs I go there all the time looking for and hoping for a glimmer of hope in that you have finally come up with something to support Gestalt character. One of the many DM's in our group loves to do Gestalt and I would LOVE to use Hero Labs for this but am unable to at the moment for lack of knowing how to make it in Hero Labs.
In reading your threads on Lone Wolf on Gestalt there is some kind of work around but it does not make much sense to me at all. Creating multiple classes at once is basically just a multi-class character and not Gestalt.