HLO: "Starfinder Armory" content date?
 

Is there a time frame when the content from the new "Starfinder Armory" rule book will be added to Hero Lab Online?

We're concentrating most of our resources on getting PF2 ready for GenCon, so that book is unfortunately delayed. We'll try to get it released as soon as we can after returning from the convention.

I was really hoping to see Starships and the Encounter builder sooner rather than later. It would seem like Starfinder support (published and selling) will take second place to Pathfinder 2E (testing and free).

Pathfinder 2E, because... you know... starships...

Which is incredibly disappointing since what Hero Lab Online was touted as becoming may take forever to get to while they split their focus. I guess I am from the old school, get the job you said you were going to get done first, before adding more jobs to it. Starship Combat, party loot, etc was one of the big reasons I signed up for Hero Lab in the first place. Right now it feels like we are just spending money on a partial product.

There's nothing that HLO can do, currently, that HLC can't do better. Give us Starfinder for HLC!

Its two totally different teams working on this stuff. The team that puts in a game like PF2 has NOTHING to do with the team building server framework for Starships (ie shared resources). Once the framework of shared resources is in HLO then the other team can build the ships for Starfinder or Kingdom rules for PF1.

Currently putting out PF2 playtest does not affect getting other features like shared resources, better performance or GM tools done.

Shadow, understand, except that an Encounter builder would be part of the game resources, no? And even the starship builder doesn't have to be shared (at least in the beginning).

BTW, a good stress test begins in about 10 days. I'll be very interested to see how well HLO performs (in its present form) while at Gencon. Especially Saturday night during the special. Maybe LWD or Paizo should have some wifi available to support their customers. If the LTE gets overloaded, it'll be hard to not to blame HLO itself.

Its mixed really but the main part would be out side of the game developers. In addition putting together .por files (which is what the encounter builder uses) could easily be passed off to a contractor to build. That is once everything is in place in HLO. Meaning it would not even need game developers time.

True except its not good business to build something twice. If the game developers build ships now I would expect little to none of it to work with the new "shared resource" framework. This means ships have to be "re-built" again to work with the "shared resource" logic.

Not only does this mean double the hours LW has to invest but it would break ships people where using when New ships went live. This means even more time making sure the "old" ships work and the "new" ships work. And how long do you keep making "old" ships work? A month? 6 months? a Year?

I know it sucks to wait. I am in the same boat but I can't fault LW for wanting to build something once.

Wow, I didn't know that HLC came out for Android and Chrome OS!

Shadow, all good points. Except there's been a decent ship builder available less than a month after SF debuted. Can it be really that hard for LWD to whip something up to use since it'll be over a year and nothing yet? Especially since LWD is telling us that this is production stable and we're paying for it. Other than the $2/month charge for online functionality I don't need nor really want, what's the incentive to even continue development? Doesn't seem to be anything since I'm paid for and they can say "we're done, you get what you get". Harsh, yes, but since I'm paying by the month since they said that's the model they wanted to run with, then it seems like enhancements should be appropriately regular and visible progress.

We've not yet begun to charge for server access specifically because we're still bringing important functionalities online. So no one is presently paying by the month.

So is the clock ticking on the time that came with purchasing Starfinder content?

We have been extending the free time allotment on accounts automatically until we feel the program is stable and well enough out of its Beta phase to justify the fee. It was one of the perks of early adopters. We will be sure that everyone is aware well in advance when we start allowing for the purchase of server time. Until then, it's on us!

Thank you

Rone, thanks a bunch for the clarification.

My pleasure!

Nothing is out for Crome, it isn't an OS.

Android runs Apps and has a browser, but should not be something to run a complete "Program" on like Herolab (Classic). Not sure what your point would be, Toblakai, except that having a browser based character sheet can be used on a phone.

That would be the case for a character viewer, based on the "classic" herolab por files, which would have been easier to implement, use and develop than a complete rework of the program to work off a server and not do a lot of the work the program already does.

I think you totally got my point. By the way "Chrome OS" is what is running on Chromebooks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_OS

A Chromebook is not a PC, and can't run 90 percent of the programs out there. It isn't that the games can't run on the hardware, but that the OS is a Browser that plays games on the internets.

If you like Candy Crush, Chromebook is for you.

I do hope that Herolab Online can get the same functionality as the classic program, but it is nowhere near that yet. I believe browser technology has to improve quite a bit for it to be able to get to that level, but unless one of the third party browsers like Chrome or more likely Mozilla subplants IE or "Edge," this won't happen anytime soon. They just took a hit a year ago cutting out Java functions and seem to be more concerned about being "secure" than anything else.

I like Skyrim, Chromebook is not for me.

So no ETA on implementation then?

The single most requested thing we've been asked for years is to support Android. And the second most requested thing is to support the full spectrum of tablets and phones across all game systems. Switching to the browser-based model within HLOnline delivers a product that satisfies our #1 and #2 user requests.

Not exactly. The requests aren't for a static viewer. Users want full character editing capability. They want to do everything via their phone or tablet. And they want it for any device and every game system we support. That's fundamentally different from any sort of viewer derived from an HLClassic portfolio file and requires the full product to be available on all those devices.

Browser technology already exists today that will allow us to accomplish everything we've got mapped out on our "core features" road map for HLOnline - features that will leave HLClassic in the dust by comparison. We definitely don't have everything in place yet, but the foundation is in place and we're building steadily towards what I see as a vastly more powerful, flexible, and useful product than HLClassic could ever become. :)

Armory and a few other books for other game systems slipped due to the push to get everything into place for PF2 Playtest in time for GenCon. We've got a little bit left to wrap up for the Playtest and then our attention will return to the books that slipped, with Armory being at the forefront of those. I don't know what a concrete ETA would be, since I'm not directly involved in that work, but I can definitely say that it won't be much longer. :)

I get what your saying about the most requested app for the program.

I think the online only App and not having an actual program hurts more than it improves the user ability to use it at the table.

Internet availability is not, nor will it be anytime soon, something that is a guaranteed certainty. If we could use an App to view and adjust our character as it is, a character viewer should be a feature or separate App that could use a saved character file to use without getting on the internet, and staying on it, for the ability to just see the character.

The App for the iPad has always been something that has potential, but seems to want to do to much rather than be an extension of the program that is on the computer.

I hope you can get the server app up to the point of being as good as the classic program, but thus far, it is a long way from happening. I am glad you hope to actually surpass the classic program, but the focus should be on at least getting on par with it, walk before running.

May be new, but I bought in for the character building, eventual ship building, and eventual combat Management/encounter builder. The fact that it is online is nice to be able to edit from everywhere, even work or the couch when inspiration strikes or I have the random moment to work.

If I had the choice I'd rather have all the DM tools available...but I'm willing to wait. I understand that character building and usability at the table should likely come first to serve the wider customer base. Doesn't stop me from obsessively checking the forums for release information or roadmap updates. I'm just hoping that PF2 doesn't push starfinder items aside...

PF2 impacted everything (Starfinder, PF1, Shadowrun, etc.) because we had such a small time window into which to make it happen for GenCon. Now that PF2 is largely in place, we'll be finishing up the remaining bits of PF2 and getting back to normal on support for everything else. All of the major functionality we'll be bringing online for HLO in the months ahead will apply to both Starfinder AND PF2.

Is there an update on the Armory for HLO? The book has been out for a while now.

Also, I don't think putting Starfinder on the back burner like that for a playtest is cool.

While HLO is being developed, I don't think it's wise as a company to try and do both PF2 and Starfinder while so many announced features are still missing. Should have just worked on HLO over the next year and release PF2 for HLO when PF2 is actually released.

Too late now.

I would also like to know an expected date for the armory. My players are dying to use the stuff, but since I have a lot of them and we use HLO I have to wait until it gets published to use. It wouldn't be as bad If we could create custom items and the like as in HLC, but this is how it is. Armory is a hot ticket item for people who use HLO, so it would really be good to know we are getting it soon and not just having it kicked back cause of the playtest.

That being said, thanks for coming our monthlies while you guys get things sorted! It means a lot!

Yeah it would be amazing if the Armory could be added soon. My players are dying to add some of the stuff to their characters.

We hope to have Armory out in September now that we have some time to catch up.

Experience shows that that means early October.

Eagerly waiting on this.

Will armory content be released before TPkon(21 september)?

I'm guessing more late October considering every single update they have done is PF2

If nothing else, an update to the road map and expected timelines would be nice.

I'd imagion we'll be lucky if it's out by October 21st.

Seems pretty clear PF2 is their focus and they'll get around to Starfinder when they have a chance, even though PF2 is just a playtest.

Hadn't fired up Hero Lab or been to the forums in a while and was hoping I would see Armory added but it hasn't. It really sucks that Starfinder has been neglected for a game that is not even out yet. I don't even want to think about how long it will take for the new AP content to become available. Remember Lone Wolf you promised to have Armory available shortly after Gencon. I call BS on there being a SF team and PF team, if there were we would be seeing SF content in a timely manner. I real wish I hadn't bought the PF2 module now because it only encourages them to neglect SF.

The thing is, the nature of the Pathfinder Playtest means that not using the latest updates makes the process basically useless for getting meaningful feedback to Paizo, which puts a lot of pressure on Lone Wolf to keep up.

It would have been nice to know ahead of time that SF would be put on the back burner until PF2 is released. The reason I bought HLO instead of using PC Gen was because I expected new content to be added to the system in a timely manner.

To be clear no one actually said this. What was said is that the team building the UI (web development, HTML, CSS, JSON) is a different team from the team that builds the game systems (PF1, Starfinder, PF2) using HL scripting language. Its also a different team that handles the binary application for Windows, Mac, iPad and HLO which is written in C++.

Unfortunately LW has one team of three people to do ALL the different game systems they support. Obviously currently PF1, PF2, and Starfinder have the largest amount of content that comes out at a monthly pace. This team of three is also the same group that answers questions on the forums and handles the bug reports for all game systems.

To grow LW has to add games but by adding games things are falling behind. But with new games and more income they may be able to hire more employees. But until the new game is out and making money they can't hire more plus new PF1 content is coming to a end at GenCon 2019. Its sort of a vicious cycle and a catch-22. :(