User Interface Woes
 

Anyone having issues at their table with everyone always staring at their hero lab instead of at the game master? We are.

When a battle starts there is always massive button pressing to get characters updated based on the situation:

• Buff Spell cast - add the adjustment 3-7 clicks
• take hit point damage - 3 button presses (4 if non-lethal)
• Cast a spell - 3 button presses
• Use a consumable - now you have to sell it to remove it
• Equipment broken - need to find an adjustment (maybe use a shadow option)
• sword have the bane property - sorry, we cannot help you
• What is your concentration check modifier? Have to go to the magic tab

Don't get me wrong, we love hero lab. Everyone, and I mean everyone has ipads at the table running the software. Everyone uses their own licenses and we all own most of the packages. We love hero lab.

I am just wanting to know if anyone else is reaching a point where hero lab is becoming an amazing asset for character creation, but causes a distraction at the table. Now, I am not saying hero lab at my table is still not an asset. All the modifiers that hero lab calculates is an amazing help, especially since we use the wound threshold rules from unchained. I am just wondering if there are ways to improve the interface.

For example, the hit points window is a mess. Why not have a scroll wheel instead? Maybe two scroll wheels, one for non-lethal and one for lethal? I wouldn't even have it open a new screen to do this, just make it accessible from the main screen, like like when you scroll through your spell list.

Make consumables disappear once you used them, or gray them out and make the weight gone. Something easy that I don't have to use four clicks to get ride of the item.

Can we add spell buffs to the main screen, like you did with weapons? For example you have a list of prepared buffs, but you can still go to the adjustments tab to manage it

Weapon die roller, why not have it all on one screen? You press the dice and it rolls everything for you in one window. Simple. No pressing for a single attack, then leaving that window to roll for the damage. It is so clunky.

I have a ton more ideas, but I am just wanting to get a thought thread going. I am in full support of what you guys do and I am hoping we can have a constructive discussion that might give you ideas. I use hero lab a lot and have ideas!!

If you go to the adjustment tab you can add/remove common buffs there and just check/uncheck as needed. For most consumables there is a tracker on the in-play tab you can increment. Once the game is over you can then go thru and reset the counters as you sell what you dont need.

If your using the iPad interface the HP interface is about as easy as you can get. If you add a scroll wheel interface I will probably end up shooting someone because Ill spend forever fighting it to get the correct value. Right now you hit your HP icon, select the damage and then either heal or harm that amount.

A lot of your ideas are implemented on the iPad interface, but the PC version has more room thus shows more.

As for concentration or SR rolls there are adjustments to have those appear in the skill list which is always available.

I think it shows a problem with Pathfinder generally, which is similar to what happened with previous versions of D&D.

So many splat books introduce new spells, items, feats, and other abilities that players get swamped with possible choices; and so many modifications which can occur to a character.

Hero Lab certainly makes for much quicker modifications to all the correct stats when a spell buff (or debuff) occurs on a PC.