Hero Lab Online and Starfinder Q&A

[nylanfs]

Originally Posted by rob

I still haven't kicked the Con Crud I got upon return from GenCon (over two weeks now). And I'm extremely frazzled with everything coming together at the same time for both RW and HL. So I'm very edgy and doing all I can to retain my composure at times. To quote BJ, it's best not to "poke the bear" right now.

Ick, I heard that a LOT of people got a bad case of it this year. I've never had more than a moderate cold after GenCon so I supposed I should count myself lucky.

[Alewis]

Thank you for taking the time for this FAQ and it was helpful in understanding the "why" of this.

Just remember, "New Coke" was a colossal failure.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by rob

I recommend subscribing to our monthly newsletter and making sure to get notified of updates on our Facebook page. When we officially open up the Beta sign-ups, we'll be announcing it in those places for sure (among others).

I would like to ask the small favor that this information when released will be in a location that everyone can get too. I refuse to have any social media accounts and when HLO information was only on an individual employees Facebook account I and others where locked out of it.

I then had to rely on second hand info which turned out to only be partially true. So I may only be speaking for myself but I would really appreciate that the beta info is share equally with all HL customers.

[rob]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

I would like to ask the small favor that this information when released will be in a location that everyone can get too. I refuse to have any social media accounts and when HLO information was only on an individual employees Facebook account I and others where locked out of it.

NOTHING on BJ's Facebook page was official in any manner whatsoever. She was trying to gather up QUESTIONS for us to properly answer while at the same time trying to stave off a group of angry villagers with pitchforks and torches. In the interest of avoiding the same fate as a certain famous monster, she threw out a few slabs of meat (read: small nuggets of info) to slow them down so that we could get those answers properly published.

The two places I cited will be guaranteed to be where we announce further details on the Open Beta. I'm sure there will be others, such as somewhere here on the forums. If you get our newsletter, then you'll get the announcements, so please make sure that's the case. You can sign up on our website. Beyond that, I don't know the specifics of everywhere the news will be posted.

Note: The announcements will go up on the various locations in rapid succession - not simultaneously. That's simply because they will be handled by ONE person. We're a tiny company, so we don't have teams to do all this stuff.

[BJ]

Everyone was given the opportunity to post questions in places I could see to be answered. Facebook users had our business page and a variety of other groups/pages to post in and the post in question was not private, it was a public post. Any of the nearly 2 billion people who have a Facebook account could have viewed and commented on it. Just as users here had all of our forums as their playground and any one in the world could have signed up and posted questions had they seen fit. I collected questions from ALL of these places, as well as a variety of emails and private messages across multiple platforms. Just as some of you don't do Facebook, some of them aren't interested in what they see as not only an antiquated means of communication but often a bitter and unappealing area in which to communicate what they want to know. The ability to ask questions was granted in areas everyone could get to based on their personal use preferences and comfort level. And the FAQ was made available in all of those areas as soon as it was available.

Similarly, Hero Lab Online beta announcements will be posted here, in a variety of social media places, our website, and in the Newsletter. Everyone prefers to receive their news in different ways and we try to accommodate that.

[Rush]

Hi! Quick question regarding payment for the HLO subscription. Will there be options beyond monthly credit card charges to pay for it? Specifically, I'm thinking of each account having a pool of funds that is drawn on before the monthly CC charge, with various ways of funding the pool (one-time CC charge, Paypal, Bitcoin, mailed-in money order, "gift cards" bought by a friend and applied to your account, etc.) Or will a credit/debit card of some kind be absolutely necessary?

[Hendel]

Originally Posted by Alewis

Just remember, "New Coke" was a colossal failure.

New Coke was a failure because they took away the product millions were used to drinking and gave them no choice but to drink the new product or go somewhere else.

Learning from that Coke Classic was brought back until the new Coke product was dropped and Coke Classic became just Coke again.

However, further learning from that produced wildly successful product lines that are actually better representation of what is going on with Hero Lab. Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and a few other minor variations are enormously successful and run concurrent with the primary Coke line.

So HLC (Coke Classic) will continue, but HLO (call it Diet Coke/Coke Zero for comparison only not that it is anything less than the classic version) will continue and hopefully be wildly successful. Who knows what the future holds for both product lines, but in business the one that generates the most income will eventually win out and we have solid assurances from a reputable company that all of our investments in HLC so far will not be wasted.

I for one trust them and look forward to it with anticipation.

Thanks!

[kellhorn]

My biggest remaining question is exactly how view-only the offline view is. If I can't do things like apply buffs to characters, deal and subtract damage, add items I find, etc. then a printout is more useful because it's easier to scratch down numbers on the character sheet than pull out a notebook to keep track of everything.

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by rob

Custom content is expected to be integrated into the master version and keyed to the users who are granted access to it.

I understand how this is likely to work for things like the various Community Packs, but how is it going to work for (1) individual groups custom content, and (2) Authoring Kit systems?

While I'm asking, how does HLO work if a group doesn't have all the same data packages? How does it distinguish between the GM and players, and do simultaneous logins on the same account affect that?

[BJ]

Originally Posted by Rush

Hi! Quick question regarding payment for the HLO subscription. Will there be options beyond monthly credit card charges to pay for it? Specifically, I'm thinking of each account having a pool of funds that is drawn on before the monthly CC charge, with various ways of funding the pool (one-time CC charge, Paypal, Bitcoin, mailed-in money order, "gift cards" bought by a friend and applied to your account, etc.) Or will a credit/debit card of some kind be absolutely necessary?

At launch, you’ll need a credit card. However, some of the things you’re asking about we fully intend to have available in the future.