Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Germany
Posts: 282
|
I did enter quite a lot of info on my homebrews into RW, both "old" and freshly imagined data. So, I am a stuck for the momement.
And, yeah, daunting task is a polite description. But both Wolrd Anvil and YAPRS promised to, at least, think about an importer. Supporting Calendar Campaigner Tools: Realm Works, Campaign Cartographer 3+ and Add-ons, MapTools Games: home brew world, Lord of the Rings (CODA), Shadowrun, Earthdawn |
#11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 798
|
I would not say we are stuck , realm works is still a great tool, and eventually you will have a long time to decide. Imho the import / export is really annyoing but I can work within a single realm at the moment.
If you require multiple realms and support for multiple parties that use the reveal mechanic, well yeah, I can see that youre screwed.... Join the (unofficial) Realm-Works IRC Chat: #realm-works on the Rizon Network (https://wiki.rizon.net/index.php?title=Servers) -> Browser Client: https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net |
#12 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Louisville, Ky
Posts: 330
|
Except that I don't trust LWD enough to continue using it. Yes, my current realms are accessible, but I have had enough technical problems with RW over the years to expect sudden failures. I will still access current data if I need it, but I will not put more time, effort, and trust into it moving forward. It is not totally dead, but its in a retirement home.
|
#13 |
Senior Member
|
I agree. I would be happier if they were still releasing bug fixes, but they're not. Which leaves me in a bit of a pickle - none of the other similar programs does quite what Realm Works does.
-- Lexin GM from Gwynedd, Wales - seriously old school - playing RPGs since 1980! Tools: Realm Works, HeroLab, Campaign Cartographer 3+ |
#14 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Louisville, Ky
Posts: 330
|
Also, if you read the HLO forums, you realize they are way into the weeds on the main product. It is striking to me that much of what is being said over there mirrors things we said here years ago. LWD gives some reasons for the issues,but that was true with RW too. Things were always harder than expected, or some some other circumstance made things slower than expected. At some point you just become the company that has developed a pattern of over-promising and under-delivering. Gaming has changed a good bit over the last decade and I feel they are struggling to keep up. I really do wish them well and hope they turn it around. Rob is a well meaning, talented, and hard-working guy. I have no desire to see LWD go down. However, I have no expectation at all that RW will ever see development again.
|
#15 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Germany, so please bear with my English
Posts: 378
|
If the at least released the source code! I don't care if the used the commercial devexpress, which was their excuse not to - some genius (looking at you, Farling) will surely find a way to migrate that to openxava or some other opensource framework.
Or at the very least reveal the database structure and how to access it. RW is basically just a complex database viewer and if we had access to the db, we could create our own frontend. Find my stuff on _|_ F i c t i o n a l m a p s . c o m _|_ D r i v e t h r u R P G _|_ |
#16 |
Senior Member
Volunteer Data File Contributor
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,505
|
Quote:
|
|
#17 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 798
|
They might want to re-use / re-purpose RW parts in other future products from LWD. If they hand out RW for free, they might put themselves into a worse position on the market.
Furthermore, there is some Copyrighted content released and in circulation, once you provide the source code to the public, it might be easier to circumvent / disable all those mechanismns, like this odd obfuscation and cryptic error messages that make debugging harder. Anyways - maybe they have signed some agreements to ensure the released content is protected from "theft". Huge legal issues as usual - look at music or tv Join the (unofficial) Realm-Works IRC Chat: #realm-works on the Rizon Network (https://wiki.rizon.net/index.php?title=Servers) -> Browser Client: https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net |
#18 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: California
Posts: 295
|
If they ever come back to it, they need to consider the ability to load different databases and implement a single database per realm instead of a massive database holding all your realms. Just my opinion, but I think it might cut down on some of their headaches.
|
#19 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Vancouver, Canada.
Posts: 818
|
I'm of a mixed opinion on Realm Works.
I wasn't part of the kickstarter, so didn't come in with expectations of calendars or anything like that. I was already a Hero Lab (Classic) user, with almost all of the Pathfinder (1e) options. Seeing the integration of a Realm Works bestiary monster, into a running Hero Lab portfolio (with all the player characters in it), that really sold me. Joshua Plunkett's YouTube stuff, essentially. The current version of Hero lab (64-bit) doesn't work with that functionality, which sucks. I bought the Bestiaries specifically for that. However, they're another view of the monsters, and are still a useful product... having already bought them. I probably wouldn't have, if I knew there wouldn't have been the HL/RW integration. I have a lot of information in Realm Works. And it's a very nice tool for what it does. Primarily the auto linking of articles, and forcing it to obey capitalization. Any Article (on my end) has to have a two word title, with both first letters capitalized. It was a pain in the ass having single lower case words auto link to the Bestiaries, without actually desiring that. Type in (copy/paste from a PDF) something like "It was a whale of an issue" and there's an undesired link in whale. Still, can navigate to that article, manage names and remove the auto linking. Over time, that has become less and less of an issue. The auto linking has made so many things much easier in the world building. Even though the HL portfolios don't work as I wanted them too (with HL.64bit), I still get a good use from both products. I've had a few sync issues over the years. RW has always dealt with them. If need be, I could simply backup a current realm (on the preparation desktop), and then copy the file to DropBox and restore from backup (to the game session laptop). The cloud is easier, and very worthwhile. It's also revenue, even if it's not a lot of profit margin for LW. I really like the product, even in it's current state. In my ideal world, RW integration with HL-64 would be implemented. And HL classic options (PF 1e) would make it onto HL-Online. |
#20 |
|
|