Questions and wanted features thread!

[Noctivagus]

This might represent a small portion of the gaming audience for RW, but will there be forum output support for those of us who primarily play games on play-by-post forums? I'm thinking simple BBCode output that will copy nicely into the forums, complete with a customizable check box form to select exactly what information to copy.

Also, is it too late to request a built-in espresso maker? And a milk steamer. That would really, really help with my writing. And besides, there's so many cool features coming up in this program that I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, you know? :P

Really looking forward to this!

Thanks!
Steve

[Maidhc O Casain]

Originally Posted by Noctivagus

This might represent a small portion of the gaming audience for RW, but will there be forum output support for those of us who primarily play games on play-by-post forums? I'm thinking simple BBCode output that will copy nicely into the forums, complete with a customizable check box form to select exactly what information to copy.

I second this - almost all of my gaming is PbP these days. (I second the espresso maker request as well!)

[Shayd3000]

Heck - why not add a poser-like 3d character portrait studio while we're at it!

[McTaff]

*Casts Thread Necromancy*

I have a card system that I use for player inventories. If the player does not have the card, then they do not have the item. On the card, they can track charges/doses remaining, or any other variables. At the end of each gaming session I write up new cards (on MS Word) and print them out on 'business card' printable cards, which works quite well.

Problem is, it can be hard to reconcile anything which isn't exactly the same on the card with what it really does. For instance, if the item does not communicate it's current remaining charges, or has abilities the player doesn't know about, or is cursed, or for whatever reason has something the player does not know.

As a DM, we also have to rely on the players to use the honour system in tracking their spells used and so on.

Now that the electronic age is upon us, it would be interesting if (through the use of a WiFi network) that players could download a (free) "mini-HL-or-RW client" for smartphones/iphones/ipod/ipad which would allow them to import their Hero Lab character sheet, but is controlled primarily by the DM. That way, it would be easy to simply edit on-the-fly the characters ourselves, from the Realm Works host device.

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For instance:

I am the DM, operating from a laptop that is hooked up to an external monitor/TV screen, showing the players the usual stuff. Players submit an electronic copy of their character sheet in the days preceding the first session of the game.

The players open up their devices, and they have an immediate mini-character sheet up there, which they can browse through the normal stats associated with a character sheet. They also have limited access to their spell lists, inventory and abilities. They are able (when the DM enables functionality) to place check boxes/use an incremental plus-or-minus selector
to designate their memorised spells, and so on.

Once they have chosen their spells or whatever they need to do, the DM locks it in, and they Go Adventurin'.

A fight breaks out, and Bob the Wizard announces "I'll cast a fireball". I simply click on the player icon (which I assume I can always see in RW?), go to his spell list, and uncheck one of his memorized fireball spells. Easy.

Next, John The Cleric casts Cure Light Wounds from a wand. I open up his inventory, find the wand, and use an incremental selector, hitting the minus sign which removes a charge.

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This also allows the DM to track what long-duration spells are currently active, and should also show the effects of any active spells on both the DM side and the player mini-character sheet. If a player casts a 10-hour duration spell at 10am, his mini-character sheet will show it in effect and change any applicable stat changes. When the DM increments the time, it remains in effect until the time is incremented beyond 6pm, at which time it expires and 'falls off'.

Also, if Realm Works can be used to manage the player character sheets, integrating direct control of experience point rewards, whether it be ad-hoc, or per-encounter, or (like I do) simply awarding levels to the players when they reach a certain turning point in the campaign, would be extremely beneficial.

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First, certain things have to be included in Realm Works to meet most of what I am suggesting:

- Functionality included to act as a 'server' for mini-character sheet(s) that is updated over a network (or even the internet), and relevant applications for android devices, Apple devices (iPad, and iPod Touch/iPhone), and laptops/netbooks.
- The ability to change/edit a player character sheet in the equivalent of Hero Lab at any time while playing, and to update their mini-character sheets (including everything from base stats, to inventories) with any changes.
- Ability to output those character sheets in a simple file that is a printable format (PDF, etc).
- Ability to hide the number of charges/doses/uses of an item from the player.
- A "time" function for the DM to increment the current time as required.
- A "rest" function which resets any spells-per-day (for sorcerers/bards,etc) or abilities-per-day (such as channeling), and opens up spell lists to be modified.
- Ability to designate how players receive experience.

...amongst others!

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This wouldn't be an intended to get rid of the paper character sheet, it is simply a way to augment it. Plus, the character sheet is always up to date, and can be sent to the player after the gaming session is over in a Hero Lab file (or PDF?) ready to be printed out for the next gaming session if so desired. In addition, those people who play over the internet (i.e. through Skype or similar) to join a group, this has profound effect on how much more information the player has available to them.


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Oviously most of this would be reserved for a future version of Realm Works, particularly as writing seperate apps for different devices and getting them to retreive data from a specific host device is complex. But I think it would provide a facet to Realm Works that would increase it's appeal to a wider audience.

[McTaff]

As an aside:

What plugins would be available inside the program for adding specific content types?

A Flash player?
Media player?
What image types would it recognise? (RAW, jpeg, tiff?)
PDF viewer?

I don't know who would use this stuff specifically. I mean, I definitely would use a media player if it were embedded, even if it were a plugin version of VLC...

[rob]

Some of the features requested above (e.g. GM-controlled changes to characters in a distributed fashion) are better implemented within Hero Lab and already on our todo list. For those that are appropriate to Realm Works, some are already integrated into the product and some are on our future plans list.

We'll be posting updated details on Realm Works in the next few weeks, and that should give everyone a much more accurate understanding of what RW is targeted to achieve.

Please continue posting wish list items here, as it's immensely helpful to know what capabilities gamers want.

[McTaff]

Going back to the multi-monitor setup thingie (my first post on the topic on page 3 was very long winded)....:

Essentially if something is multi-monitor/ -window aware, one drawback could be (in some cases) that the second monitor may not be visible to the GM (in the case that you use a monitor as your DM screen).

Sounds daft, but there is the potential for someone to not see something they've put up for the players to see, when it shouldn't be revealed! (I will have three monitors on my setup; two for me as a 'screen' and the second monitor cloned output to a giant TV facing the players, so I should be okay... but not everyone here will have the bizarre setup I have!)

[rob]

We've developed the concept of a "Player View" window for exactly this purpose. It will *only* show things that have been revealed to the players. Once you see it in action, I'm pretty sure you'll be quite happy with the mechanism. If not, we'll refine it a bit to address any remaining "holes" in how it works.

[McTaff]

A little left field... and not exactly RW, but seeing as RW would be my third LW program... Have you guys tried implementing a Lone Wolf "program manager"? (Lets call it the Manager Program for the purposes of me keeping my story straight)

I'm not really thinking along the lines of Impulse or Steam, just something, if launched, opens up a small slick window with a little menu of all of your LW programs with some functions:
- The Manager Program icon can be docked to my taskbar (preferably the system tray)
- Can launch any of the LW programs directly from a context menu from the Manager Program icon itself (i.e. without launching the Manager Program), or from within the Manager Program once it is opened (naturally)
- Allows you to update any LW program without launching the LW program itself (and perhaps has the potential to perform scheduled updates for valid licences during system down/idle time)
- If a program is selected within the Manager Program, it shows an info screen that tells me everything I have installed for that specific program (with a readout of when my licence is due for renewal if applicable, what data packages I have installed, and what others are available, etc. without having to launching a browser window.)
- also shows useful links once a program is selected (FAQ, Forum, Purchase Data Packages, Help, etc)


It's late and I'm tired and rambling on, but it makes perfect sense in my head. Now if I could just get my fingers to say what I mean....

[chiefweasel]

Isn't that how Tron started? lol.