Lone Wolf Development Forums - Announcement about Subscriptions

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- Hero Lab Online Discussion (http://forums.wolflair.com/forumdisplay.php?f=95)

- - Announcement about Subscriptions (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=63802)

Announcement about Subscriptions

The official announcement about licenses is available at https://www.wolflair.com/licenses

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An initial announcement was made on facebook, but not referenced in these forums, see https://www.wolflair.com/hero-lab-online-subscriptions

Because I don't trust links to not go away...

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For those of you who’ve been asking how to renew your Hero Lab Online subscriptions, we have answers! Standard Service subscription renewals are now live in our store, and you can purchase them in increments of 6 or 12 months at any time. Six months of Standard Service is $14.99, or you can pick up a 12-month subscription for just $24.99 for the whole year.

If your subscription lapses, there’s no need to panic; your account reverts to demo mode, and advanced character creation, additions, and upgrades will no longer be possible. However, all your purchased content will be there waiting to advance when you renew your account. Additionally, you’ll be able to access and print characters in their current state, even with a lapsed account.

For everyone who’s been accessing our service for free the last many months as we’ve put the Campaign Theater Beta and subscriptions into place, we hope you’ve enjoyed playing in our sandbox. We want to thank you for all your playtesting and reports; it’s helped us immensely with making changes many of our users want to see. We aren’t turning off the free time just yet, but users will need to purchase Standard Service extensions by February 24th to continue with uninterrupted access.

New users who still have free time left from their initial purchase of Hero Lab Online can absolutely buy Standard Service extensions right away, but it isn’t necessary to continue using the service. Our system will send an email reminder when your access is about to expire.

What about group licensing? Many of you have requested that we institute some manner of party licensing or other group discounts for Hero Lab Online, and we’ve been listening! Prior to the February 24th renewal deadline, we’ll be unveiling new account types that allow groups more flexibility in how they share their services and play together. Keep an eye out for more news on exactly how that will work in the weeks ahead!

Well, my group isn't doing Starfinder right now and no interest in Shadowrun or PF2E so I guess I will lapse into demo mode.

Very interesting news. Will wait and see if they ever get old content converted as promised and open access for user created files for the games they don't normally cover but we all play.

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What about group licensing? Many of you have requested that we institute some manner of party licensing or other group discounts for Hero Lab Online, and we’ve been listening! Prior to the February 24th renewal deadline, we’ll be unveiling new account types that allow groups more flexibility in how they share their services and play together. Keep an eye out for more news on exactly how that will work in the weeks ahead!

excellent news!

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Originally Posted by jlong05 (Post 285640)

... Will wait and see if they ever get old content converted as promised and open access for user created files for the games they don't normally cover but we all play.

Definitely this.

If Pathfinder makes it to Hero Lab online, with third party addons (Community Package & Spheres), I'd love the features of Campaign Theater, and would happily support Lone Wolf.

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Originally Posted by jlong05 (Post 285640)

…Will wait and see if they ever get old content converted as promised and open access for user created files for the games they don't normally cover but we all play.

Yep. Pathfinder 1st would be awesome. Savage Worlds would be great as well. Without at least one of those two systems, HLO has nothing that I want.

Let's be honest though, PF1 is very much dying due to lack of first party support. Will they do it eventually? Maybe. But as a pretty small company, there has to be profit potential for them. I honestly don't see how moving 1E to HLO would be profitable for them.

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I will say, this bit of news is what is holding me off from actively subscribing and will make or break if this model proves functional at all.

For the purposes of group play, this should function similarly to sitting at a table with a pile of books. Even if it just restricted to PCs that are part of campaigns I create, my players should not have to re-buy material that I've already paid for.

I'm holding off on buying a personal license until I get clarity on the model as I've seen no indication upgrading to a group license by the 24th will be a seamless process. At the same time, it would be great to not be left with only a few days to decide before the deadline. Is it likely that group licensing details will be announced this week?

It's a bit worrying that the details have yet to be announced this close to when you start charging.

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Originally Posted by civory (Post 285838)

I'm holding off on buying a personal license until I get clarity on the model as I've seen no indication upgrading to a group license by the 24th will be a seamless process. At the same time, it would be great to not be left with only a few days to decide before the deadline. Is it likely that group licensing details will be announced this week?

Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm betting that the most we can expect is an announcement of how group licensing will work at some unspecified future date rather than any sort of implementation by the 24th.

Hopefully I'm wrong, because without this, it's basically useless to me as a forever DM.

The 24th is the date for "unveiling new account types". This doesn't mean they will be available from that date. I'd bet that we only learn what form "group licenses" will take and that actual implementation will be in coming in the following months.