Lone Wolf Development Forums  

Go Back   Lone Wolf Development Forums > Realm Works Forums > Realm Works Discussion

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
killraven
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 6

Old September 3rd, 2014, 06:25 PM
I'm curious to know what the Player's Edition looks like.

Does it look and navigate exactly like the GM's edition?

Is it more like a wiki interface with a series of searchable articles all liked to one another using the containing topic/relationships?

I'm hoping for more of the latter to be honest. (if not in the client, maybe the web version)
There seems to be a pretty steep learning curve for the interface. While it is completely worth it for me as a GM so far, I'm not sure my players would want to have to go through that just to see the content.
killraven is offline   #1 Reply With Quote
Joe
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 688

Old September 8th, 2014, 02:10 PM
Hi killraven,

I asked Liz to split off your post, because I wanted to get some feedback from you and potentially get others' feedback as well. I think this is better suited to a new post than buried at the bottom of another one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by killraven View Post
I'm curious to know what the Player's Edition looks like.

Does it look and navigate exactly like the GM's edition?
Yes. It looks and navigates exactly the same. This is by design. One important reason for this is that GMs who want to play as players in someone else's realm can use their existing Realm Works GM edition copy to do so, rather than needing to buy and/or run a different application. This also ensures that those using GM Edition and those using Player Edition have access to the same features when they are players together in a given realm.

Additionally, GMs can put GM Edition into "Player Mode" in order to see their realm from a player's perspective, with the appropriate information and functionality hidden. This would be much more difficult to do if GM and Player editions looked and navigated very differently.

Quote:
Originally Posted by killraven View Post
Is it more like a wiki interface with a series of searchable articles all liked to one another using the containing topic/relationships?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "like a wiki interface". Both GM and Player edition both allow searching, both allow link-based browsing, and both provide hierarchical containment and relationship-based browsing. It also provides other things which might not be provided by a wiki, such as filtering by tags, timeline, reveal history, etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by killraven View Post
I'm hoping for more of the latter to be honest. (if not in the client, maybe the web version)
There seems to be a pretty steep learning curve for the interface. While it is completely worth it for me as a GM so far, I'm not sure my players would want to have to go through that just to see the content.
The web version will necessarily look and navigate differently from the Windows desktop applications. It will also (initially) be focusing on presenting content to players more than GMs, so it will be geared towards that audience from a depth/complexity/ease-of-use perspective. My goal for it is that anyone comfortable using basic modern web apps (Facebook, Twitter, G-Mail, YouTube, etc) will have no problems using the web app.

I'm curious about your statement "There seems to be a pretty steep learning curve for the interface." While I agree with this and we're working to improve it, I think the majority of the difficulty and learning curve of using Realm Works centers around content creation rather than reading and browsing. This is primarily because content creation, organizing, arranging, and interweaving are intrinsically complicated actions, regardless of the tools you're using. Players won't be doing any creating (initially), so a lot of that depth and complexity gets discarded.

I want to know a little bit about specific pain points you foresee your players running into. So do me a favor: open a realm that you have a decent amount of content entered for. You will need to reveal some starting information beforehand (e.g. the starting region and town, famous NPCs, kingdoms, history, etc).

Now put the realm into "Player Mode" and browse the content. Put your player hat on and just focus on reading and navigation. What parts are you (imagining) your players will trip up on? What will they try to find and be unable to? What dead-ends will they hit, and what ways will they get lost and not know how to get back on track? Are there some advanced features that might get in the way, or are they tucked away safely enough that most players won't be tripped up by them? Let me know what you think.

Last edited by Joe; September 8th, 2014 at 02:18 PM. Reason: clarity
Joe is offline   #2 Reply With Quote
Parody
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,515

Old September 8th, 2014, 04:09 PM
Just so you know, the Enter Player Mode button isn't there yet for those of us not in the Beta. (1.0.1017.175)


Last edited by Parody; September 8th, 2014 at 04:15 PM.
Parody is offline   #3 Reply With Quote
chiefweasel
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Miamisburg, OH
Posts: 1,322

Old September 8th, 2014, 05:03 PM
ok, dumb question, but how can a player get the player edition to test out? I am on the beta team

Web site - Cheese Weasel Logistics - www.cheeseweasel.net
Twitter - @CheeseWeaselGMZ
For user created content check out www.d20pfsrd.com and www.cheeseweasel.net
For video demos of Hero Lab go to http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChiefweasel?blend=9&ob=5
chiefweasel is offline   #4 Reply With Quote
Parody
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,515

Old September 8th, 2014, 05:08 PM
Page 32 of the Gamer's Guide says the button will appear on the end of the Home tab of the ribbon. (I'm not on the Beta team, so that's all I have to go on.)

Can't help you get an actual Player account, sorry. (We also can't delete posts on this forum, apparently. :(


Last edited by Parody; September 8th, 2014 at 05:14 PM.
Parody is offline   #5 Reply With Quote
rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old September 8th, 2014, 08:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiefweasel View Post
ok, dumb question, but how can a player get the player edition to test out? I am on the beta team
Please check the Beta team forum for details. Instructions are provided in a thread over there. It's the sticky thread at the very top entitled "Requesting Player Licenses for Beta Testing".
rob is offline   #6 Reply With Quote
rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old September 8th, 2014, 08:17 PM
Short explanation for @killraven:

Player Edition will look almost exactly like the GM Edition, except that only revealed information will be downloaded to the players and no editing options will be enabled. Other visual exceptions generally consist of cosmetic differences, such as the thumbnails for smart images always being a placeholder icon instead of an actual thumbnail (to ensure the thumbnail reveals no clues).

Hope this helps! And sorry for the confusion Joe caused. It's easy for us to lose track of what's in the Beta and what's not since we're always focused on the latest Beta version.
rob is offline   #7 Reply With Quote
Tharmiones
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 56

Old September 9th, 2014, 03:30 AM
So if I understand that right: The players will not have the possibility to take "notes" within Realm Works?
Tharmiones is offline   #8 Reply With Quote
rob
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232

Old September 9th, 2014, 04:35 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tharmiones View Post
So if I understand that right: The players will not have the possibility to take "notes" within Realm Works?
They WILL be able to take notes. They won't be able to edit any of the content YOU'VE written and shared with them. Their notes are separate from the story content, just like yours. Sorry for not making that clear.
rob is offline   #9 Reply With Quote
Tharmiones
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 56

Old September 9th, 2014, 05:00 AM
Ok thanks for making this clear.
Tharmiones is offline   #10 Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® - Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
wolflair.com copyright ©1998-2016 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. View our Privacy Policy here.