Whys and Wherefores - Some HLO Insights

[darkops]

Originally Posted by rob

NOTE TO EVERYONE:

As valuable as this dialog is, I also have a ton of development work I need to do. I spent a huge chunk of the last few days writing the initial post and responding to all the questions here. So I now need to focus on all my development tasks.

I think that the most common and pressing questions/concerns have been expressed and answered in the dialog above. So I'll return here to answer further questions in probably a few days.

Thanks for your patience!

Thanks Rob. I really appreciate you taking time out to respond to my comments and concerns. I recognized prior to posting that many of my comments, suggestions, and observations are not easy to implement or economically feasible for a company of your size. However, I hoped that putting out some of those ideas would help convey customer feedback that would be of use and allow the open discussion of issues that I or many of my players have identified. Perhaps some essence of the feedback will help the development team moving forward. Whether that be increased communication, putting a focus on certain features, or opening up an internal discussion about what can be done to minimize barriers for HLC users to transition to HLO.

With respect to any personal life disruptions. While it is no one's business to know about these things, I think you'll find that many of us have a healthy respect for your position. My wife has only recently beaten a 2-3 year stint with cancer which has exacted various tolls on our family, her career, and things we previously took for granted. At the end of the day the most important thing is your health and happiness. Making sure you have a good work life balance and avoiding burnout are important. If it is the difference of product/feature delay or your health, I can at least speak for myself and say that you are much more important!

Your time and candor are appreciated. Thank you.

[Happydevil43]

This is simply the best piece of communication I have seen come out of LWD in ages... I applaud you for it.

Would be nice if you could post a link to this in the RW forums (where I usually lurk), and I only came in here because I was looking for any details on when/if PF1 may be ported into HLO and stumbled on it by accident.

I saw a comment about blogs and how developers don't have time to do that sort of stuff... totally get that - I wouldn't want my dev's doing communications, especially when we pay them to write code....

So I thought I would suggest that you do have some serious champions (aka Shadow, Daplunk - who makes absolutely kick*** videos I might add, and I am sure there are many more) that may be (or already are ) used as beta testers who could take some of that load and could help ?

I use a similar approach when running my applications projects, to get business champions to help with the comms - it really helps keep the peasants from finding pitchforks.... although some of my lot have only recently discovered fire

As with others I'd like to add - please look after yourself.

[Fuzzy]

I would have been extremely happy if Hero Lab could work as the 'server' for a web based UI. This is not something I feel the need to pay to have 'hosted' elsewhere, if I could do it myself. Long ago there was discussion of an API to have other programs access the Hero Lab back-end - this would have been the quickest path to an Android client. Throwing out everything and starting from scratch, while completely changing the business model - just makes no sense.

[Duggan]

@HappyDevil:
I'd caveat community contribution with that it often adds the stress of working with contractors, and not knowing if they'll hit the deadline, with the additional problem that people working for free often get distracted by other projects, especially paying ones, necessitating grooming another person. I don't know that that will drop Rob's stress level.

[Unikatze]

The main problem I have with a server fee is if it's monthly.
Unfortunately my group doesn't play every single month, and we do tend to go on months long breaks. So paying a monthly fee for something I won't use doesn't appeal much to me.
It's the reason I stopped paying for Premium Roll20 and Syrinscape.
I'd be more than fine paying it yearly though.

[Duggan]

Originally Posted by Unikatze

The main problem I have with a server fee is if it's monthly.
Unfortunately my group doesn't play every single month, and we do tend to go on months long breaks. So paying a monthly fee for something I won't use doesn't appeal much to me.
It's the reason I stopped paying for Premium Roll20 and Syrinscape.
I'd be more than fine paying it yearly though.

Hmm... at least as stated thus far, it seems like there's no real penalty to stopping and starting the service (Rob has explicitly said all of the data remains available if unmodifiable), so the current model may still work for you.

That said, I feel your pain on the difficulty of getting the group together. I get once this month and once the next. We didn't play the last two months.

[Unikatze]

Originally Posted by Duggan

Hmm... at least as stated thus far, it seems like there's no real penalty to stopping and starting the service (Rob has explicitly said all of the data remains available if unmodifiable), so the current model may still work for you.

That said, I feel your pain on the difficulty of getting the group together. I get once this month and once the next. We didn't play the last two months.

Ah. That's good. I sure hope the fee is "nominal". Don't really care for $20 a month if I can only play one session.

I have connection issues here, and the fact you can view your character without internet is a huge plus.

I'm very excited about fully implemented HLO though. The possibilities are awesome.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Unikatze

Ah. That's good. I sure hope the fee is "nominal". Don't really care for $20 a month if I can only play one session.

I have connection issues here, and the fact you can view your character without internet is a huge plus.

I'm very excited about fully implemented HLO though. The possibilities are awesome.

Current listed price is $2.50 a month paid in either 6 or 12 month batches.

People have been asking for the ability to actually pay month per month.

In addition the monthly fee has not started yet for anyone.

[thaX]

They have upped it to two Fifty instead of a flat two bucks?

Hopefully, there is a discount for getting the 6 month/year buy in.

[Rone]

You can choose 180 days of server access at $14.99 or 365 days of server access at $24.99. The latter equals out to $2.08 a month.