Quick Update on Hero Lab Online from GenCon

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

I, too, would like to know if Starfinder is coming to Hero Lab "Classic." The original post was rather ambiguous about that.

Originally Posted by AJC

I think someone posted over on the Paizo forums and indicated they Starfinder was only going to released fro HL Online, at this time. IIRC, they were in attendance at the GenCon seminar.

We've slowly been getting our extended group's holdouts to give Hero Lab more of a chance, and not being able to add Starfinder and/or going to a subscription fee will kill that stone cold dead.

[Mystic Lemur]

I'm not switching to a program that requires an "always on" internet connection. The ability to edit portfolios from a browser would be nice, but not at the expense of the offline option.

[Farling]

I would hope that the data files which define the game are common between the desktop app and the web app; otherwise there is a lot of duplication/conversion that is going to be required.

Also, I wonder how they will store the "community pack" which is quite massive. They wouldn't want that much data used in almost every PF players "file store".

[Parody]

My assumptions are:

- HLO is online only, requiring an active connection to use. (They already said this.)

- HLO stores all information online. No portfolios in or out.
-- Side Effect: If you stop your subscription you lose access to your data.

- HLO is a closed system. No data files. No authoring kit. No custom outputs.

- Desktop Hero Lab is now in maintenance mode.


I only use Hero Lab for Pathfinder, so as long as that keeps working I'll be OK. We'll see what happens as they move forward.

[EightBitz]

I'm still waiting to hear some official answers.

[Toblakai]

Originally Posted by Parody

My assumptions are:
- HLO is online only, requiring an active connection to use. (They already said this.)

- HLO stores all information online. No portfolios in or out.
-- Side Effect: If you stop your subscription you lose access to your data.

- HLO is a closed system. No data files. No authoring kit. No custom outputs.

- Desktop Hero Lab is now in maintenance mode.

Point 1, that's fine with me.
Point 2, this would probably be a deal breaker for me
Point 3, this would be fine for me also.
Point 4, this would probably be a deal breaker for me

Regarding point 2 & 4, I play with about 9 people regularly all use hero lab. Probably 2 of them would be up to paying the monthly fee.
Two of the people that play use extra licenses of mine on an extra laptop and ipad. Will the online version still support 5 licenses (logins) on the same account? Will new data packs apply to both online and desktop versions?

They need to tread real careful here. The online version needs to add enough features to make it more valuable than the desktop version or it's not going anywhere.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

I'm still waiting to hear some official answers.

We all are. But if I'm going to make assumptions, I might as well start at the lowest common denominator of online "applications" and hope for more.

[branbric]

I was talking to a gent at their booth, and he stated that you would be able to use HLO as a game aide in an offline mode, but you would not be able to edit characters without a connection.
He showed me how "unsynced" content would show up red on the character sheet, and turn white when it synced back up.

[Tekwych]

Sorry, I have no use for an online product. If I can't use HL as a program with it and my data on the hard drive I will have to find some other program. And I really don't want to find another program.

[rob]

To those of you doing so, please stop posting assumptions and give us a chance to answer questions. We just got home from a crazy GenCon barely 24 hours ago. We're all exhausted. Some of us are sick from the "Con Crud". And I stated at the top that we would be providing answers this week, AFTER we got settled back in. Give us a chance to do that. Please?

Sheesh!

EDIT: For everyone else, please don't interpret the assumptions of others as fact and draw conclusions based on those assumptions. There's plenty of wrong information in this thread. We'll get you actual answers shortly. THEN you can weigh in with your opinions on how this is all going to work. Thanks!