As described by Lone Wolf, the subscription fee ($24.99/year) is meant to cover the cost of running the servers; the data content would be purchased separately just at it is in Classic.

The content you are buying is the core system, like Starfinder or PF2, which will use the HeroLab Online engine to make your character. One can not actually buy HLO, only access to the server that contains the program, otherwise called an App, to access the information for the system you purchased.

I also believe you need to keep buying the licenses for additional content as before. (Hopefully at a discounted price from what Classic price points are)

This is a user of Classic answering with the information I have gleaned from trying the HLO web portal and the discussions with friends while looking at information here on the web site and on the forums.

There is a one-off payment to add each new package to your subscription.

The subscription charge remains the same regardless of how many packages you've added to your account.

The $2 per month fee allows you to use our service from all major web browsers on any device.
Future data packages will still need to be purchased, but only once, then they are unlocked forever.

So ... buy the program that can only be used online... buy to core for the game you want to play... buy the countless addons for the core that you bought... then pay monthly fee... to be ble to access all the content you have already purchased...

Yes.
The only difference from Herolab Classic is the last bit.

You say this like it's unreasonable. Cloud storage and servers cost $$. Man-hours for data entry cost $$. And LW is a company, formed for the purpose of making it's founders/owners $$.

So yeah - I pay LW to do the programming and data entry to make my indulgence in my hobby as a player and as a GM easier. And yeah, I pay LW the price of a cup of coffee per month to maintain their servers and online access.

And here's the best part... If I don't like paying LW to do this programming and data entry, and if I don't like paying them to maintain their servers, all for the express purposes of making it easier to participate in my hobby and of fulfilling the purpose of the company's existence (to make them and their employee's $$), all I have to do is not purchase the product!

C'mon! LoneWolf is a business! Businesses make $$ for their owners so that their owners can pay their mortgages, buy groceries, etc. and so that they can pay their employees so their employees can do those same things. And it's a luxury business! As end users, our lives don't depend on our ability to afford this luxury service - we buy it if it's worth the $$ to us. If it's not, we don't buy it, and we do all the "work" of tracking our game stuff for ourselves.

But please, for the love of Pete, stop bashing LoneWolf for trying to make a profit off of their hard work!

@ Maidhc O Casain, great response! Tabletop players vote with their dollars. For me, HLO is the best solution that I have found so far and worth the price point. I am a lazy GM, I would much rather pay a relatively small amount of $ for having it all just work. Once the Campaign Theater comes out at end of month, I think it's going to be fantastic!

For you it might be a great value. For me I have 4 people in my house that have a copy that I have bought, Thats 4 programs, 4 starfinder cores 4 x all the addons and now They want another 100 a year to keep those 4 copies functioning.

Starfinder core 34.95 X 4 = 139.8
Armory 12.95 x 4 = 51.80
alien Archive 12.95 x 4 = 51.80
Alien Archive 2 12.95 x 4 = 51.80
Pact Worlds 12.95 x 4 = 51.80
Dead Suns 12.95 x 4 = 51.80

total 398.80

Cost to use the program that I have spent all this money on when this subscription goes live (2 more books coming out by then by the way) will be 100 a year on top of that 400 already spent. For some of you that might be chump change for me that's a significant portion of money. I wish you all the luck in the world with it. It is a good program... You are just pricing me out of the equation. As is you cant even just add the content in yourself because ..... "subscription". So Unless I want to just eat the 400, I have to subscribe just to keep my purchases functioning.. It's why I moved away from Roll 20 and on to Fantasy Grounds. I love the program, Just for me personally when subscription hits I will just eat the upfront cost I have spent and be done with hero labs....

I honestly don't know yet whether or not it will be worthwhile for me. I have no plans to move to PF2, and already have pretty much everything I need for PF1 in HeroLab Classic. So if LW does, in fact, follow through and make PF1 available in HL Online for a one time "portage" fee, paying that 2 bucks a month for the subscription will be fine with me.

But even if it's not - even if it turns out they won't port the HLC stuff over and want me to buy every book all over again, I won't hold it against them. I won't buy it, mind you, but it's their product, their hard work and their livelihood, and they have a right to profit from it if they can.