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Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 11
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I'm on the fence for purchasing Realm Works, and I have exactly 0 desire to have an ongoing cloud subscription, once the initial trial period runs out. However, I like the idea of being able to sync between desktop and laptop, which *ought* to be an "at your own risk of corruption" network/dropbox option. (Even better would be to have database locking features, but I'm not going to be too ambitious here...)
However, everything I see says that the database is essentially secured with machine specific information to prevent this use case from being available. Is there a technical reason for that, or is it solely to force people to use the cloud subscription? Edit: As an additional question - what happens if I replace hardware components without backing up my database? Am I just going to have to err on the side of paranoia - "always backup before a computer upgrade"? Or is there a way to recover the database post catastrophic hardware failure? (Like, say, motherboard) Edit #2: To be clear, this is the issue I'm asking about: Quote:
Last edited by mantrasong; April 12th, 2014 at 06:28 PM. |
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#1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greater London, UK
Posts: 2,623
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You can export the database to a file, transfer the file to another machine, then import the file into RW on that other machine (to entirely replace the whole database on that other machine).
Don't try copying the file without using the export/import function. |
#2 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 677
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+1 to this. It does allow you to port it to a hard drive and read it from there.
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#3 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 11
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Quote:
Yes, I can back up and restore, but I frequently switch between laptop and desktop freely for campaign development, and sync all of my data over Dropbox. I don't care about sharing with my PCs, that isn't a feature that matters to me. In fact, all of the main cloud benefits are things that aren't useful to my current play style. What matters to me is convenience in editing the database wherever I am. I don't want to pay $40/year for functionality I currently have via Dropbox. As much as I love the idea of Realm Works, the thought that I'd lose that ability makes me very reluctant to pay for it, because it *feels* like I'm being pushed towards a cloud subscription, even if I'm not "forced". I also remain very concerned about the possiblity of hardware failure corrupting the database for no reason besides the fact that the developers wanted to tie that information in. (My current computer isn't exactly the peak of stability, this is a real concern for me. I've already had to re-issue my Hero Lab license over email due to hardware failure, and I may yet do it again) Last edited by mantrasong; April 12th, 2014 at 04:38 PM. |
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#4 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Metairie, LA, USA
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
That's not to prevent you from being able to access the database from different machines at all, it's the nature of that kind of database... period. There's really only two ways to access that kind of database and Lone Wolf has made things as flexible as it is feasibly possible to do by even providing an export function. It's just the nature of the beast, not some attempt to force you to buy their cloud service. Ask any of my Oracle DBA's and SQL developers. It's just the way higher-end database software has to work. Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) |
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#5 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,458
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Quote:
On the one-hand, I would LOVE to have a central database that I can access from any computer. On the other hand, I know that would make the product more complex to manage, less affordable, and potentially less stable, or at least its stability would be much more dependent on how the user manages the product instead of how LWD packages and distributes the product. And your average gamer, even your average computer literate gamer, is either unqualified, unwilling or both to learn DBA skills to use this product. Ideally, yeah, centralized access would be great. Practically, it's just not that easy. Not that this was easy, I'm sure. The fact that so many people are saying that even with database crashes, they haven't lost data ... I find that surprising and impressive. And I'm sure it's due in no small part to the fact that LWD can keep a tight handle on how the DB is designed, managed and accessed. And I would rather have that reliability than centralized access. |
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#6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,458
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Quote:
I meant to say "either unqualified as a DBA or unwilling to learn DBA skills or both. I didn't mean to judge anyone as being unqualified to learn new things. |
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#7 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Metairie, LA, USA
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) |
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#8 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 11
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Quote:
I'm still concerned about the catastrophic hardware failure case, though. As someone who has worked in level 2 tech support, motherboard failures, particularly on laptops, aren't so rare that that should have been ignored in the trade-offs they made. With Hero Lab, which also authenticates to hardware, the most that I have to worry about is losing access to HL for a few days while I wait for them to re-issue me a license. With Realm Works, it sounds as if I'm at risk for losing access to my data altogether, in the name of, of all things, ensuring database consistency. Last edited by mantrasong; April 13th, 2014 at 06:29 AM. |
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#9 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Metairie, LA, USA
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
In any case, though, nothing at all prevents you from making constant backups if hardware failure is the concern for you (and, as a computer professional myself I would agree it should be). Cloud access can make that more convenient for you (hitting the "sync" button) but it isn't necessarily all that much easier than hitting the "export" button (and using Dropbox as your save location for the export) to make sure you've got a backup saved someplace or that you can then access from other systems. Lenny Zimmermann Metairie, LA, USA Data files authored (please let me know if you see any issues with any of these if you have/use them): Official (In the downloader) 50 Fathoms, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Deadlands: Noir, East Texas University, Necessary Evil (requires Super Powers Companion), Pirates of the Spanish Main, Space 1889 (original file by Erich), Tour of Darkness, Weird War II, Weird Wars: Rome Coming Eventually Evernight (LWD has completed their review but I have some fixes to make first... although Pinnacle mentioned this might get an overhaul to SWADE so I may just wait for that first. If you just HAVE to have this now, though, just PM me) |
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#10 |
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