WW ICC Digital Tools Announcement - Page 2

karpomatic · November 25th, 2009, 07:44 AM

well count me in for the beta testing! I love all this stuff.

resplendenthawk · November 30th, 2009, 09:06 AM

Thanks for responding, Rob. Some followup questions, if you wouldn't mind indulging me.

So, is the announced addition strictly for the LARP crowd, or will it be equally useful for Tabletop gamers?

Is there an ETA on when we might get more official detail regarding the product, or on the actual release of the product itself?

How does this announcement impact the delivery of the other Core lines in the Hero Lab tool? Does WW announcement signal a renewed interest in expediting the vetting process? Can we expect, for example, to see some other Core supplements like Mage, Hunter, or Giest potentially coming at a quicker pace? Or will any gains on that front be negated by development time being allocated towards the plug-in that would otherwise be spent on the character tool?

Thanks. Very much looking forward to understanding more about how this tool might impact my games.

The_Dark_Mike · December 1st, 2009, 06:41 AM

Gonna throw my guess into the magical hat:

Hero Labs already specializes in character sheet development. So take that off the table.

The most difficult part of any game system, imo, is COMBAT.

I bet that Lone Wolf is creating a GUI combat resolution system. You choose the game system, choose the combat styles and stats, then click every turn for resolution. If someone wants to say, dodge, instead of grapple, click on the 'grapple' button to make it go away, and drag and drop a 'Dodge' block, then hit 'resolve'.

It'd tie in nicely to the Hero Lab character sheets and could be cross-platformed.

Lawful_g · December 1st, 2009, 08:18 AM

I would like to see Mage sooner rather than later, as far as WoD stuff goes.

The_Dark_Mike · December 1st, 2009, 12:28 PM

Mage seems to be real popular, and from what I understand is a high priority. Personally, never cared for it myself. Maybe I just wasn't exposed to it right. I'm sure that if I was under a master ST my impression would change.
But really, and this is just my opinion, the demographic for Werewolf seems larger than Mage. I could be wrong.
Would love to see 'Hunter', of course.
With LW and ICC now getting to be more friendly, I imagine that progress will move on a much faster track than before, especially if the 'Project X' allows LW to hire more staff due to profit. I know I'll be buying a copy if it is as quality as the HL software.

rob · December 1st, 2009, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by resplendenthawk

So, is the announced addition strictly for the LARP crowd, or will it be equally useful for Tabletop gamers?

It should be equally useful for both types of games. We have a prototype that we have used in our tabletop games here. We showed the prototype to White Wolf earlier this year and they loved it, so they wanted to incorporate it into their suite of tools for their LARPs. However, the tool will have just as much value for the tabletop versions of their games.

Quote:

Originally Posted by resplendenthawk

Is there an ETA on when we might get more official detail regarding the product, or on the actual release of the product itself?

We should be announcing more details in the first quarter of next year. Our current plan is to have it released by the end of the second quarter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by resplendenthawk

How does this announcement impact the delivery of the other Core lines in the Hero Lab tool? Does WW announcement signal a renewed interest in expediting the vetting process? Can we expect, for example, to see some other Core supplements like Mage, Hunter, or Giest potentially coming at a quicker pace? Or will any gains on that front be negated by development time being allocated towards the plug-in that would otherwise be spent on the character tool?

Excellent questions. The vetting process currently involves a completely different set of people at White Wolf than those involved in the tools suite. The hope is that this situation will morph somewhat after the first of the year and become more conducive to us getting additional WoD data files out there faster.

There is definitely a competition of sorts between all the tasks on our plate right now. We just don't have enough staff to do everything we want, but we also lack the finances to hire lots more staff right now. We added one person earlier this year to help us develop data files for various game systems, so we're hoping we can leverage his time to offset the extra time we spend on developing the new tool. It's a constant juggle, and we're figuring it out as best we can along the way.

The_Dark_Mike · December 3rd, 2009, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob

It's a constant juggle, and we're figuring it out as best we can along the way.

Why can't EVERY software developer be this honest???? People are very forgiving, or so I believe, if treated like adults and told the truth up front. Thanks for setting the bar, Rob! Maybe someone will notice.

Duggan · December 16th, 2009, 07:12 AM

Count me in amongst the people who would be interested in helping out with Beta-testing. ^_^ Heck, if you're looking for a developer, I'd be up for moonlighting work in that area, but I'll settle for beta-testing.

Nockerkin · March 17th, 2010, 07:55 PM

What's the update on this software. I currently have a Live Action game of Vampire with over 30 players. I use HeroLabs to track all the Characters and several of my Assistant ST's want to go with an Excel form of Character Tracking... I've suggested to them to be patient as HeroLabs is currently working (at least from this threads suggestion) an online version of the software. It's nearly the end of the first quarter and it would be great to have something to show them to cool their heels a bit.

Great job on the updates so far

Thanks for all the hard work!

Jim

rob · March 19th, 2010, 02:51 PM

We're going to be unveiling an early preview of the new product at a tradeshow next week. After that, we can start divulging some of the details here on the website and forums.

Please note that we're not going in the exact same direction as White Wolf on this project. They're borrowing a lot of our solutions and adapting them in their own way. We'll hopefully be talking with White Wolf about this in more detail next week (at the tradeshow). I haven't been able to verify yet whether the key people from WW will be at the show, though.

karpomatic Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: South Jersey Posts: 134 November 25th, 2009, 07:44 AM	well count me in for the beta testing! I love all this stuff.
#11

Lawful_g Senior Member Volunteer Data File Contributor Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,245 December 1st, 2009, 08:18 AM	I would like to see Mage sooner rather than later, as far as WoD stuff goes.
#14

Duggan Senior Member Volunteer Data File Contributor Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,502 December 16th, 2009, 07:12 AM	Count me in amongst the people who would be interested in helping out with Beta-testing. ^_^ Heck, if you're looking for a developer, I'd be up for moonlighting work in that area, but I'll settle for beta-testing.
#18