Realm Works Release Plan & Pricing

[Chemlak]

Yes. You would have to connect to the server to create the realm, but after that point you would never need to connect again, and do not need to pay for any cloud service features.

[zarlor]

I would add that you can also use the Player View (either on a second monitor or on your own by setting it up then turning your monitor to the players) at the tabletop as well, without having to pay for cloud service, too. Plus there are some way to set up a virtual monitor and/or window that you could h=make available to your players on the internet if you've got some basic technical skills. Also with no cloud service being required. So there are some functions of the program you can use to share with your players, and not strictly for yourself, without having to use the cloud service, and those no additional cost.

And I would add that it's frankly awesome for setting up worlds/scenarios, etc., even without the cloud service or using it to share anything with your players (although that is pretty useful, too, as I have found using a second monitor really helpful for giving them reminders of NPC names and such right on a screen they can see.)

[rob]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! We're working around the clock on this end, and it's a monumental juggle to bounce between development tasks, the forums, and all the myriad small tasks that go into actually releasing the product. Not to mention all the time trying to figure out creative ways to accommodate everybody's wants. It's a grueling process.

So it's VERY nice to hear that it's recognized and appreciated!

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by Chemlak

Yes. You would have to connect to the server to create the realm, but after that point you would never need to connect again, and do not need to pay for any cloud service features.

If I understood Rob's earlier replies correctly, the client would need to connect to the server for *each* realm created. No subscription would be required for that, but in order to have the necessary support in place should the user later decide to add a subscription, the client needs to communicate with the server during creation of each realm.

[Dervish]

Rob when you get a minute could you explain the rationale of making us contact your servers to start a realm project?

[rob]

Originally Posted by Silveras

If I understood Rob's earlier replies correctly, the client would need to connect to the server for *each* realm created. No subscription would be required for that, but in order to have the necessary support in place should the user later decide to add a subscription, the client needs to communicate with the server during creation of each realm.

Exactly correct. There's no reason you couldn't just create a half-dozen realms right at the start and then utilize them as you go. That would eliminate the need to contact the server for the future realms, since they would already be created and reserved.

Originally Posted by Dervish

Rob when you get a minute could you explain the rationale of making us contact your servers to start a realm project?

When you add content to your realm, every single piece of data has to be uniquely tied to that realm. When you sync your content up to the server, the same must hold true. We could delay doing this until a user wanted to sync his content up to the cloud the first. It would make the process significantly more complicated, though. Let's say you create a big realm and finally decide you want to sync it. When you first create it, your computer picks an id for your realm. Unfortunately, that same id gets chosen by UserB's computer when he creates a realm on his own computer. So there's a conflict. Now, when you sync your realm, we need to take all your content and modify it to eliminate the conflict. Then we need to send all your modified content back down to you and overwrite your material with the revised content. That's doable, but it's complicated and ugly, plus there are lots of opportunities for an error in all that logic to corrupt your data, which means lots more work for us and lots more testing to make sure it's all bulletproof.

Things get significantly MORE complicated when content sharing comes into play. Now we need to be able to uniquely distinguish content you created from content someone else created, plus we need to track which realm each piece of data originated from. However, we also need to allow all that content to behave as if you created it all (so you can modify it freely). At that point, we can't separately track which piece of content belongs to which realm via separate columns on each record without making everything incredibly convoluted. So we instead bake that information into the id associated with each piece of content, and the problem is solved.

If we bake the information into the id and let users potentially use conflicting values to flag their realm, we now have to fixup every single id of every single piece of data when you ultimately decide to sync your realm. Imagine a realm that's hundreds of megabytes in size (some of our Beta team members have realms that big), with hundreds of thousands of individual records. Fixing up all that data becomes a herculean task.

We sidestep all of these complications if we simply require every user to contact the server when creating a new realm. This reserves a guaranteed unique value for the realm, which can thereafter be baked into all the ids issued on the standalone client. When a user later decides to sync his data, all that data is guaranteed to have distinct ids from all other users. So there's no muss or fuss, and it all just works smoothly.

All of the technical details are a lot more hairy and not something I have time to delve into beyond this basic overview. Hopefully, this explanation makes sense. We did not make the decision to do things this way lightly. It was necessitated to avoid significantly more complicated problems, and we felt it was a very minor requirement to impose upon users for which the benefits far out-weighed the negatives and for which there is a very simple work-around. If someone wants to avoid having this impact them down the road, all they need to do is create a bunch of realms right away, as I outlined at the top of this post.

Hope this helps!

[woobyluv]

Let me see if I am processing this correctly...

When you start a new realm, it has it's own unique ID that is tied to your account, correct so far?

Ok assuming this is correct, then as part of the process of starting this new realm, it concurrently allocates a portion of the server/cloud with that realm's unique ID as a placeholder? Yes?

If so, then will the RW software auto attempt to sync or update the realm on the server, or will that be a toggle in the preferences? I'm assuming that if you don't have an active subscription, the RW software will bypass this step?

While some realms I may want to share with friends spread across the world, there are some realms I will want to create that I want to be private.

[rob]

When you create the realm, it's reserved on the server and the details for creating all the ids are sent down to the standalone client. Once you've created the realm, everything subsequent to that is completely up to you to initiate. So you can choose to never sync any of your realms to the server, or you can sync all of them, or you can selectively decide which ones are synced.

Automatic syncing is something that's still on the todo list, but it will need to be configured by the user once it's actually added. By default, nothing is synced until the user triggers a sync to occur (or configures auto-syncing to occur in the future).

[EightBitz]

Rob,

Regarding you and the crew working 'round the clock, it is my sincere hope that you and the crew take time off to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends. We'll still be here when you get back. If RW is ready before Christmas, great. If not, we'll still be here after.

I may be all bluster on the outside, but I'm warm and squishy on the inside. Merry Christmas, and be well.

[Silveras]

The other piece that I think addresses woobyluv's questions is that, from what I have gathered in previous posts, players will need to create accounts on the server. The GM who owns a realm will be able to grant access to the player accounts on a realm-by-realm basis.. so some realms can remain completely private, while none are automatically wide open for just anyone to peek into.