Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,517
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Quote:
I would like to see an option, even if it means offline only realms can never be uploaded to their servers* and can't be viewed by player clients. I don't think it'll happen, though. Cloud service (with related features) and purchased content are too important. But you never know, and the only way to let people know you care is to talk about it, so here we are. Hope this helps. * Aside: I don't see why they couldn't be converted later, even if it means waiting a long time while your local client talks to the server to create a new realm/base ID, imports all of your data and reapplies all of the links or updates all of the IDs, and (optionally) removes the offline only version. Maybe not simple, but doable. Like almost everything we ask for. :) |
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#11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 411
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Here's a previous discussion about this, with a Realm Works employee's thoughts:
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=49006 |
#12 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: California
Posts: 295
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seems to me that if the whole problem is a unique identifier you could do a couple things. First generate an account based unique identifier when you first purchase and set up your account that would be part of every entry. Second, create a blank unique identifier inside the offline created realm that can be populated if you ever try to sync up a realm with the cloud. Put the two together and you'd probably have even less of a problem with unique identifiers and an offline only setup (after initial download and setup of the program).
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#13 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 411
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Let's not get into re-engineering the RW back end, or making guesses about how it works or should work.
That makes for cranky devs. :-D |
#14 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,517
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Oh, come on! It's a lot easier making the program when you're the one sitting in the comfy armchair and not the ones doing the programming and testing. ;)
But seriously, I think most of us are here because we're trying to understand what it is we have in Realm Works, why it works like it does in various situations, and make suggestions in what we think would improve it. Every once in a while that's going to include discussion about why it was written the way it was. Heck, I'm still wondering why it has the weird scroll bars. Last edited by Parody; May 19th, 2014 at 08:03 AM. |
#15 |
Senior Member
Volunteer Data File Contributor
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Chicago, IL (USA)
Posts: 10,729
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Quote:
Honestly I was trying to figure why does it matter in this day and age if a tool needs internet access? Its obvious you have access to the internet as your posting to the forums. You also downloaded the software from the internet and will get all future updates from the internet. I mean I can't think of ANY game I played in 5+ years that does not need constant internet access. Hell watching TV or Movies requires a internet connection and most peoples phones require internet connection. So who cares if RW connects to the net for 2 seconds to make a unique ID for your Realm? Hero Lab Resources: Pathfinder - d20pfsrd and Pathfinder Pack Setup 3.5 D&D (d20) - Community Server Setup 5E D&D - Community Server Setup Hero Lab Help - Hero Lab FAQ, Editor Tutorials and Videos, Editor & Scripting Resources. Created by the community for the community - Realm Works kickstarter backer (Alpha Wolf) and Beta tester.- d20 HL package volunteer editor. |
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#16 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 798
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Freedom is about choice and there are still loads of programms that work offline. Of course they might be various reasons - bandwidth, location w/o internet and so on. But I see your point that most of the computers are connected anyway. However the services that you run at a given time online are limited, and personally for example I setup firewall / router and try to whitlist the things that need to go out...
In the end it comes down to trust... Being online being connected all the time also allows for significant tracking and other options that the companies gain - this trust was often disappointed in the past by various companies and it will continue to happen. I'm not blaming the company here , I also bought realm works, and I trust that they do what they are saying. But being online - in my eyes - is often more hassle than additional value for me as user. That's why I personally opted to avoid the cloud use for now (I understand that it's not fully working anyways, yet). And I hope that they will not make me a 3rd class customer of theirs for that. From a company standpoint I can understand, they want to get monthly fees out from their customers and of course they can try. Market will decide eventually and I wish them all the best Last edited by Acenoid; May 19th, 2014 at 12:47 PM. |
#17 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,517
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Quote:
They've already given us the workaround: make a bunch of empty realms. I think that's silly, but whatever. A very distant second reason is that I am often in places without Internet access. Even in a major city it's not everywhere, and everywhere appears to include where I've worked recently (blocked) and where I've gamed recently (no WiFi and bad cell reception.) Most of my usage is at home, so this isn't much of an issue to me. Quote:
A lot of the games I play were purchased online and get patches online (if there are any at this point!), but I can still start a new game if I unplug the computer from the network. Quote:
My Mom's side of the family lives on a farm about 15 minutes outside of the nearest town. For a long time they only had dial-up because nothing better was available in their area, and even now I have no cell service there. They have satellite TV and some form of fast Internet. I know a few people who only watch TV over-the-air, including my Dad's side of the family. They decided that cable or satellite wasn't worth the cost. They miss a few things but between what's there and DVDs they have plenty of things they can watch. IIRC, they have some form of fast Internet but no WiFi. (They only have the one computer.) We can keep throwing examples back and forth, but again it's more about freedom than anything else. There's other freedom issues at the moment too (you basically can't get data out of Realm Works) and I suspect much of what I'm doing right now is prototyping that will be discarded and redone once we all see how sharing content actually works and if/how data is exported and so on. I've been tempted to just put it aside and come back in a year or whenever everything's up and running, but for now I'm playing and learning like everyone else. TL;DR: Does it stop me from using Realm Works? No. Does it make me not want to use and recommend it? Yes. * Let's see: the two Star Wars MMOs, Diablo 3, Kingdom of Loathing (the one I've played recently), and...(looks through what's currently installed) oh, I guess I installed Guild Wars when I built this computer. So technically five. Did I mention my favorite types of video games are adventures (point-and-click/Sierra style) and RPGs**? ** I just finished Paper Mario***. That was a fun one! *** The Nintendo 64 one. Last edited by Parody; May 19th, 2014 at 06:26 PM. |
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#18 |
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 8,232
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Also, Army Builder definitely still has full licensing. We reached a point where we weren't adding lots of new features regularly, which was the whole point of having the license renewals, since the revenue from the renewals paid for the new features. Once we stopped adding significant features, we stopped the renewals. Quote:
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The ability to work offline is extremely important. The fact that you choose not to use the cloud in any form at all - even the free aspects - will probably result in some minor annoyances. We have to tailor the product to the core audience, which means the majority of our users. Anyone outside of that group will encounter occasional limitations due to the product not be optimized for their preferences. This is true of absolutely every product ever created. It does not make someone a 3rd class customer. Quote:
This comes back to my response to @Acenoid above. We have to optimize the product for the majority of users. Those outside the norm will run into things that don't work perfectly for their preferences. However, the important thing is that we DO still provide a workable solution. I believe we've done a very good job of accommodating most users adequately across the entire spectrum of features within Realm Works, especially in this particular case. |
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#19 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Rochester, MN
Posts: 1,517
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Quote:
For the rest of it, it's just a spot where we'll disagree. It doesn't stop me from using Realm Works. It's just one of those things that rubs me the wrong way. |
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#20 |
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