All's quite on the Western Front

[jkthomsen9]

Originally Posted by wurzel

A "number of weeks" can be six weeks, or maybe thirty-seven weeks. I think that was intentionally left uncertain.

Actually it feels more like thirty-seven.

I agree. For some unexplained reason that is completely my own. I expected it at or before PiazoCon, which was Memorial day weekend.

I bought RW several weeks before PiazoCon 2014, just days after the kickstarter finished. I discovered the program when I started registering what classes I wanted to take at PazioCon. I took every class for both RW and HL. I remember the excitement LWD had for this product.

I find myself in two camps. On one hand I am very disappointed in the software. I desperately need to be able to combine two of MY realms. I have entered a vast majority of the Inner Sea World Guide and many of the supplement material into one realm. I have entered Wrath of the Righteous Adventure path into another. I am running a group through the adventure path and need the two realms merged. I created the realms this way because I was told that the ability to merge was imminent and this was the way to do it.

Now I have painted myself into a corner. I am not willing to muddy up either of my two realms, nor am I willing to redo all the work to create a hybrid of the two. So I am stuck waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

On the other hand I remember the rocky start HL had. I remember taking an XML class so I could understand the program better, as I was an amateur programmer in the beginning. There were a lot of us writing custom data-sets to enter all the 3.5 and Pathfinder content. A few of us rose to the top, like chiefweasel and ShadowChemosh. Now HL content comes out with the release of the current content. Three weeks ago I wrote the first custom data set I have written in years. I needed to change a named magic item from a longsword to a Dwarven Waraxe, which is the only reason to use the editor anymore, to modify YOUR game away from RAW. I can not run my game without HL.

I have hopes that RW will get there. It is under the same leadership. I am frustrated that there are no workarounds to get the community where they need to be in the meantime. It is dame right infuriating to have literally hundreds of hours of my work locked up in a way that dose not allow me to use it in the way it was intended to be used. And so I wait.

[ThatOneMike]

Originally Posted by Mmurphy

I do not have a use for Realm Works anymore. After 3 years of waiting and the constant delays, I do not think it is worth waiting for any more. I have looked into the forums every now and then to see if there are any updates and may continue to do so in the future but for now, I'm done caring. In November/December 2015 we got 'first quarter 2016', now we only get 'soon' (second quarter 2016 is almost over). I am a Kick-starter backer so I will have a life time subscription to the cloud, if it ever comes. At the current rate I may be dead before it is released; only time will tell.

It's not useful to you at all?

[AEIOU]

Removing my comment. I'm cranky after three years. And it's been a long week. I'll wait until I have something constructive to contribute.

[jkthomsen9]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

Removing my comment. I'm cranky after three years. And it's been a long week. I'll wait until I have something constructive to contribute.

I completely understand.

[wurzel]

Having managed software projects for decades I know that one saying is true:
"Adding people to a late project makes ist even later." That is absolutely valid for projects that are several weeks behind schedule.
It is no longer valid if the project in question is years behind schedule.

I certainly don't know how complex a software RealmWorks is. But nevertheless I can't imagine that it is impossible to code a migration routine to merge or copy existing realms within, say, four weeks:
- Collect the data (topics, categories, whatever) from a particular view that the user has to define; (1 week)
- Write the data to a file; (1 week including test)
- Read the data file into a new view in the destination realm, maybe automatically renaming conflicting topics so the user can sort it out afterwards;
(2 weeks including test).

The above effort assumptions maybe invalid if the database used is extremely complex - using triggers, stored procedures and the like. But somehow RealmWorks runs on my computer, although I don't have a Oracle or similar license there. So I think that is not the case.

The only explanation that this doesn't happen I can think of is that RealmWorks is basically not intended to be used for self-created content but as a platform for the content market. Therefore all resources are put into finishing the content selling capabilities. From a monetary point of view that is completely sensible.

[MNBlockHead]

Realmworks works fine for my needs. I run a single campaign with a single group. There are features I would like, including custom calendars, printing, and I would like the content market to add content without all the data-entry work.

I check in on the forums one a week or so, but until the next update, there is not much to discuss.

[JustinThomason]

Realm Works works great for my current needs. I am only running a single campaign and for the time being it does what I need it to do. I do wish I could share realms with myself, but the program does so many things that nothing else does I have no reservations using and recommending the software. Lone Wolf has a solid track record of increasing the utility of their products over time (Hero Lab has gotten lots better in just the four or five years I have been using it, and it was the best character manager I had used to date when I got it).

I am very much in the camp that is preferable to do it right the first time, and I imagine the content market must be a bear of a project to make sure the UX is acceptable.

[Mmurphy]

Originally Posted by ThatOneMike

It's not useful to you at all?

No, my GM'ing style is 'open'. I don't have any plan when the players and I come to the table. I let the players go where they want and do what they want, I make up the scene(s) as they are walking through them based on what they do. I have pre-generated maps (about 3-400) of various landscapes, towns, villages, buildings, and dungeons that I pull out when/if I ever need them. Most gaming sessions stop at a real time, usually right in the middle of something important going on so I don't need a 'set scene to stop the game at'.

What I wanted to use Realm Works for was to track 'what happened during the last game' and to track the calendar we us (30 days a month, 12 months a year--sun rises at exactly 6am and sets at exactly 6pm regardless of where you are in the world--A goddess controls the sun and she likes consistency--Year starts in Spring and ends in Winter). Since the calendar is a low priority and my typed notes into Word work for reminders, it is not very useful to me. I was hoping to use things like 'pirates guild to free port' and 'Grand temple of Jing' to see if 'pre-planned' modules work, but at this time, I have really stopped caring.

[Farling]

Originally Posted by wurzel

I certainly don't know how complex a software RealmWorks is. But nevertheless I can't imagine that it is impossible to code a migration routine to merge or copy existing realms within, say, four weeks:
- Collect the data (topics, categories, whatever) from a particular view that the user has to define; (1 week)
- Write the data to a file; (1 week including test)
- Read the data file into a new view in the destination realm, maybe automatically renaming conflicting topics so the user can sort it out afterwards;
(2 weeks including test).

What about remembering which bits of information (snippets?) are protected by a particular individually marked piece of IP and therefore can't be edited or shared with other realms owned by other people without owning either that data already or some other sort of license mechanism that allows sharing of some data?

How about creating a mass of new database IDs which will be unique for the new realm?

How about implementing their sharing approach, which is to share the realm within the cloud database so that changes to the original realm can easily be mapped across into the realm containing the share, without having to do another manual export and merge?

Even using your method, a second merge would cause conflicts between the contents of your "dump" file and the contents already in the realm, so we need to remember the original database ID as well as the final database ID. Then if the realm containing shared data is merged into a third realm, then you would have to store three database IDs for each piece of information (and extend that endlessly based on further realms, to storing an unspecified number of changes).

What if the original realm was shared into two other separate realms, and then you want to merge one of those separate realms into the other realm that already has parts of the original realm?

I somehow see that as more than 2 weeks of implementation; never even mind the number of tests which would need to be written to ensure that it will work under all conditions.

(Please note: I've been in the software industry for 28 years, and have been producing software estimates for future product evolutions for most of that time alongside actually implementing a lot of those estimates.)

P.S. Apologies to Rob for providing an incomplete analysis of your "merge" requirements, but I wrote the above in under 5 minutes. I didn't perform a full requirements breakdown, therefore there will be many missing requirements.

[Teresa]

In a general sense RW is an awesome monster of capability and adaptability, even if it is still missing so many functionalities (and some of them promised very early on).

On the other hand, the usefulness depends merely on each user's specific needs and style, which can make it then be described as a useless overgrown beast or as a wonderful work in progress (or anything in between).

For me, as a worldbuilder, not a gamer, RW is useful and, as calendars and the web-export thingie, plus printing and whatever other useful functionalities (that I don't know yet how great they'll be for me) will slowly make their appearance, its usefulness will increase.

I really do need the calendars now in order to fine tune my approach to Realm building, so I'm busying myself in other areas of my worldbuilding project that are in need of development outside RW.