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YARPS as RW Alternative

G

gloranphile

Well-known member
So one of the alternatives offered on another thread to RW was YARPS, which is doing a Kickstarter now and has beta access.

Has anyone used it yet and if so, how intuitive/useful as an alternative to RW did you find it?
 
It is still in Kickstarter mode at the moment... but one of the things they are looking at in their idea hub is migration of RW data into YARPS.
 
I'm not impressed by the prototype and to be blunt, a project that has raised $16k and had a goal of only $5k shows that the lead(s) have no idea what software development costs.

Sure anyone with a little knowledge can whip up a browser app in a couple of days but that is no indication of the time, and therefore money, required to get a complete project.
 
kbs666 said:
I'm not impressed by the prototype and to be blunt, a project that has raised $16k and had a goal of only $5k shows that the lead(s) have no idea what software development costs.

Sure anyone with a little knowledge can whip up a browser app in a couple of days but that is no indication of the time, and therefore money, required to get a complete project.
Click to expand...

When I did a search, they tried previously in June 2018 when it did not reach it's target. This year's target was set as half of last year's.

Maybe it is another sign of the available audience for such tools.
 
daplunk said:
I used it... it was not pleasant to use.
Click to expand...

I'm actually quite happy with it. Admittedly I'm not turned off to a web based solution as many are - but I found this one easier to dive into than World Anvil. I've been inputting enough since the release of the prototype to play a session or two and I can speak more on that next month some time.

Of course its not as feature heavy as RW at the moment.
 
gloranphile said:
Can you go into some detail? Was it the UI or overall?
Click to expand...

I'll say that one of the things that does turn me off at the moment is the apparent lack of an ability to remove empty fields. I do like RWs one key stroke way of deleting all empty fields. Currently its not possible (quickly or otherwise I believe) in Yarps.
 
I tested a little bit and my first conclusion is as follows:

It is still a prototype, not even close to a real beta yet. So it should be considered more of a proof of concept than a ready-to-use tool. Having said that, the basic concept is solid imho and with further development it can be a real alternative to RW (IF you can accept a web-based solution. If not - why are you even reading this?).
The GUI needs getting used to - same as RW - and will surely be further streamlined. The concept of how things are related and places and NPCs are linked is nice, but does not fully replaces RWs autolinking feature. Description are not broken down in snippets but are rather long text fields, as you would see in a printed module.

So yes, it still needs work, but if they put it in and listen to the community they future may be bright. The idea hub they put up is a huge plus in my book and shows that they are willing to build the tool the users want.

Ingame tools like fog of war etc. aren't implemented yet as far as I can see. I'm waiting for these as I heavily rely on maps and pics for navigation and conveying my world. They do seems to have a few nice collaboration lined up, but we'll see.
 
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kbs666 said:
I'm not impressed by the prototype and to be blunt, a project that has raised $16k and had a goal of only $5k shows that the lead(s) have no idea what software development costs.

Sure anyone with a little knowledge can whip up a browser app in a couple of days but that is no indication of the time, and therefore money, required to get a complete project.
Click to expand...

You payed little attention to their kickstarter.
The kickstarter campaign IS NOT to found development cost of Yarps, that is internally covered by their company's money.

Kickstarter founding is asked to spead up the realease, according to a clearly shown timeline. Even if it haven't been founded, it would have been release in 2021; according to how much it raises, they can devote more dev time to its development, and it will be released earlier, or much earlier.
I think it's a very clever thing to do, and that a similar thing has to be done by LW to found further development of RW, just to say.

Speaking of the prototype, I like it. Sure it has to improve a lot, but it's in a pre-alpha phase, and it's already usable and rather interesting.

And, a thing that is very important for me, they are really very responsive to the community's imput.
 
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clithgow said:
I'll say that one of the things that does turn me off at the moment is the apparent lack of an ability to remove empty fields. I do like RWs one key stroke way of deleting all empty fields. Currently its not possible (quickly or otherwise I believe) in Yarps.
Click to expand...

It will be, that is only a prototype limitation :)
 
Syrkres said:
If a web application is acceptable, then you may want to look at https://www.worldanvil.com/ it seems decent, though only web based (which also I do not like).
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According to me, Yarps is already better than WA, and with the scheduled features for version 1.0 only (non considering further development) would be much much better.

Of course, anyone has its preferences, not disputing them, only wanted to give my opinion :)
 
Merion said:
The GUI needs getting used to - same as RW - and will surely be further streamlined. The concept of how things are related and places and NPCs are linked is nice, but does not fully replaces RWs autolinking feature.
Click to expand...

Autolink feature is planned for Yarps 1.0, this is the first reason that pointed me towards this tool, I can't do without autolinking anymore :)
 
Cammagno said:
You payed little attention to their kickstarter.
The kickstarter campaign IS NOT to found development cost of Yarps, that is internally covered by their company's money.

Kickstarter founding is asked to spead up the realease, according to a clearly shown timeline. Even if it haven't been founded, it would have been release in 2021; according to how much it raises, they can devote more dev time to its development, and it will be released earlier, or much earlier.

I think it's a very clever thing to do, and that a similar thing has to be done by LW to found further development of RW, just to say.
Click to expand...

Heh. LoneWolf said almost exactly the same thing. Direct from the RealmWorks Kickstarter:
Unlike many software Kickstarters, initial Realm Works development is nearly complete.
We've been evolving Realm Works for over three years and will be releasing it in July, 2013. Numerous features are already in place, as we demonstrate in the video, but there are many more we want to include in the initial release. Your support of this Kickstarter will allow us to accelerate our current development efforts so we can pack more features into the product in time for its public release.
Click to expand...
 
Cammagno said:
You payed little attention to their kickstarter.
The kickstarter campaign IS NOT to found development cost of Yarps, that is internally covered by their company's money.

Kickstarter founding is asked to spead up the realease, according to a clearly shown timeline. Even if it haven't been founded, it would have been release in 2021; according to how much it raises, they can devote more dev time to its development, and it will be released earlier, or much earlier.
I think it's a very clever thing to do, and that a similar thing has to be done by LW to found further development of RW, just to say.

Speaking of the prototype, I like it. Sure it has to improve a lot, but it's in a pre-alpha phase, and it's already usable and rather interesting.

And, a thing that is very important for me, they are really very responsive to the community's imput.
Click to expand...
No. I know software development and saw the numbers and laughed.

5k is 25 man/hours (roughly). That's 3 days. If they're claiming that will speed delivery by more than a week...

Which is why I dismissed this. They seem to be trying to hit a spot between all volunteer open source and proprietary software, but still coded by volunteers. That never works.

Just to be clear the prototype was something I could put together in an afternoon. No one, no one at all, should be backing this based on that.
 
kbs666 said:
No. I know software development and saw the numbers and laughed.

5k is 25 man/hours (roughly). That's 3 days. If they're claiming that will speed delivery by more than a week...
Click to expand...

From the kickstarter.
- €5000 will allow them to finalize YARPS 1.0 within autumn 2020, with start of beta phase in september 2020 and start of alpha phase in may 2020
- €30000 will allow them to finalize YARPS 1.0 within summer 2020, with start of beta phase in july 2020 and start of alpha phase in april 2020
- €60000 will allow them to finalize YARPS 1.0 within spring 2020, with start of beta phase in may 2020 and start of alpha phase in febbruary 2020

This mean that each 30k euros will speed up the release of a couple of months, that is realistic, according to the cost of dev work in Europe (I don't know where do you live, but the costs you spoke about are not realistic for example in Italy, here they are much less expensive).

kbs666 said:
Just to be clear the prototype was something I could put together in an afternoon.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I don't believe you on this.

kbs666 said:
No one, no one at all, should be backing this based on that.
Click to expand...

I backed 200€, and I'm happy to. I'm already using the prototype in this stage, and is already better, according to me, than all the other products out there, excluded RW.

RW is good, but it has too much things that are frustrating - some of them very easy to fix/improve - and that I can't bare anymore now that I know that it will never improve.
I'll keep using it for all my old realms for at least one year, mabe two or more, but I'll never create a new realm, i prefer to use a new platform that is actively developed by a very active group.
You say they are volunteer, I don't care if they are, for now their attitude is much more professional than LW, they are listening the community, they are quickly answering, they are changing things to follow community suggestions, they are looking for cohoperations and finding them.
Just an example: they already released a prototype importer from CSV, a thing that the professional LW never did in all these years.
 
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