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Realm Works Status Update

R

rob

Administrator
Staff member
Hi folks!

I've been dark on the forums for the better part of a week now and I wanted to take a minute to give everybody an update of what's going on at this end. I'm going to keep this relatively brief, but I need to cover the critical bits...

1. We have another release in the offing that we've been hard at work on. It should be available early next week. Yes, it will have the ability to delete realms. :) There will also be lots of bug fixes and usability refinements. It seems that releasing the product to thousands of new users uncovered a bunch of stuff that hadn't been reported before. :)

2. We have been putting together a substantive Best Practices guide that includes all sorts of tips and tricks. The goal is to make it available next week as well, but I'm worried that might be too optimistic. So stay tuned and we'll get that document to you in the near future.

3. We've been folding an actual Pathfinder Adventure Path into Realm Works. We chose Rise of the Runelords as our test case. We'll be using this work as the basis for putting together concrete recommendations for everyone as they tackle putting assorted published content into Realm Works. We'll also be able to provide some screenshots with examples of how we've chosen to model various things. As part of our effort, we're also giving thought to delivery of the material, so we'll also be able to provide some helpful guidance for those of you who are looking to share/publish your content.

4. I have not been answering questions on the forum this week because I found that it consumed a huge part of every day, and that meant that I wasn't getting work done that needed to be done. My plan is to block out a healthy chunk of time once or twice a week, during which I'll answer all the questions I can. However, I have to find a balance between answering questions and actually completing all my development (and other) responsibilities. So it's going to be a juggle. I have to finish up some things before taking out the hours to answer everyone's questions that have been queuing up, so I probably won't be able to do that until late this weekend. Thank you in advance to everyone for your patience!

5. To those of you who have been answering questions for others on the forums, THANK YOU! It's wonderful to see that many of you are quickly getting the hang of things with Realm Works, and it's awesome to see you taking the time to help out each other. It's greatly appreciated!

6. Please spread the word about Realm Works! The single most powerful form of marketing is word-of-mouth recommendations. If you like what we've created, please let others know about the product, whether it be your gaming group, on forums you participate in, on your blog, or whatever makes sense for your situation. Thank you in advance for whatever exposure and assistance you can provide!

I think that covers it for now. Thanks again for everyone's support and patience!

-Rob
 
Cheers Rob thanks for the update and make sure to thank the whole team for us too! :)

rob said:
3. We've been folding an actual Pathfinder Adventure Path into Realm Works. We chose Rise of the Runelords as our test case. We'll be using this work as the basis for putting together concrete recommendations for everyone as they tackle putting assorted published content into Realm Works. We'll also be able to provide some screenshots with examples of how we've chosen to model various things. As part of our effort, we're also giving thought to delivery of the material, so we'll also be able to provide some helpful guidance for those of you who are looking to share/publish your content.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that RotRL will become available as purchasable content? Do you have a timeframe for this or expected price details?

I expect you are probably not ready to comment on the last 2 questions, but I just want to get an idea of whether I should bother copy-pasting the next 5 chapters in to RW, or wait for the purchasable (and time saving for me) content to become available.
 
Jaynay27 said:
Does this mean that RotRL will become available as purchasable content? Do you have a timeframe for this or expected price details?
Click to expand...

Yes, is this RotR going to be the "official" thing, or is this just a test run that won't be shared outside of screenshots?
 
And if it's a test run, wouldn't it be better to test with one of the Kickstarter stretch goal items? That way you could have a head start on those . . .
 
Mowgli said:
And if it's a test run, wouldn't it be better to test with one of the Kickstarter stretch goal items? That way you could have a head start on those . . .
Click to expand...
But this way LWD will have a direct proof of concept to show Paizo. Plus, given how often people have mentioned this campaign/AP/whatever, it would probably be a popular item as an initial offering in the store.
 
Dr_Automaton said:
But this way LWD will have a direct proof of concept to show Paizo. Plus, given how often people have mentioned this campaign/AP/whatever, it would probably be a popular item as an initial offering in the store.
Click to expand...

Sure, but really any complete work done by the development team could serve as proof of concept. Once it's complete and published it could be shown to anyone as an example of what could be done, regardless of the original publisher.

And I freely acknowledge that RotRL is probably the most popular AP ever - certainly up at the top of the list - and that lots of folks want it.

I mentioned the stretch goal publications because those publications have been specifically promised for completion already, and "paid for" by the Kickstarter backers. Just seems like good customer service to work on the stuff that's already been bought.

I'm definitely not trying to start an argument here, or to imply that LWD is lacking in customer service - if I weren't a well satisfied customer I wouldn't have kept buying the HeroLab supplements, and wouldn't have pledged as a Kickstarter for RealmWorks. Was just asking the question.
 
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Actually Mowgli the best way to look at the RotRL Ap being added as a bonus and that is what I would like to see. While I am wanting the Kickstarter stuff I want this actually more. Would I want to see the AP I really want. sure.. but I will settle for this, a bonus! :)
 
Yep, I get that. I want RotRL in RealmWorks too.

But the single - the only - thing about LW that I regularly stew over is that they keep putting old stuff on the back burner in order to put out new stuff. There's stuff in HeroLabs that's been tagged as "The effects of [. . .] haven't been implemented yet" for at least three years. That does bother me, especially when I run into one of them when making a character and it becomes obvious I've paid for an incomplete product. I buy 'em anyway, and I'll keep on buying 'em, because in every other way I can think of they're a great company and they put out great, quality products.

I guess my thinking about this was that I don't want the KS stretch goals to get pushed aside in the name of other (more popular?) stuff, but now that I think of it, it's probably going to be up to FGG and Pinnacle (and whoever else tossed Realms into the Kickstarter project) to do them for RW rather than LoneWolf.

So, never mind . . . Carry on, LW! Get RotRL done so I can buy it too :D.
 
Mowgli said:
But the single - the only - thing about LW that I regularly stew over is that they keep putting old stuff on the back burner in order to put out new stuff. There's stuff in HeroLabs that's been tagged as "The effects of [. . .] haven't been implemented yet" for at least three years. That does bother me, especially when I run into one of them when making a character and it becomes obvious I've paid for an incomplete product. I buy 'em anyway, and I'll keep on buying 'em, because in every other way I can think of they're a great company and they put out great, quality products.
Click to expand...

They do tend to have an idea about their business model that I don't think is necessarily the right one. Obviously working on RotRL is relevant because they want the marketplace and so forth feature to be implemented at relatively high priority. I personally think that this will never be even remotely an important part of Realm Works, this being a software for world creators first and foremost. Not saying that there's no use to it, but I honestly think there are other, more 'boring' things to do: I for one would like to see some improvements in terms of interface responsiveness and performance. Then again, I do realize that any time spent optimizing a piece of software that is still planned to receive multiple core feature updates is essentially wasted time since one has to re-optimize it with every addition.
 
Important Clarification...

A good chunk of the Kickstarter material has already been entered. We've got two staff members working full time on that effort right now. We can't RELEASE any of that stuff until we get a few more critical building blocks into place for Realm Works itself, but we're well underway on getting everything in.

So why are we going to use RofRL as our reference? The reasons are many. First, in a number of cases, we're NOT working from the published PDFs for Kickstarter material (we've got material in Word docs and the like). In addition, we started with the simpler material first, since we first needed to work through how best to do a lot of stuff ourselves. So we don't have anything big in place yet that was derived from a published PDF. What the vast majority of users are clamoring for is an example of going from a published PDF into Realm Works, so we need to provide that and don't have a good example yet.

Another factor is that we don't yet have an official license in place from Paizo for doing their Adventure Paths and the like. A license IS in place for all the rulebooks and such, but not yet for setting/adventure content. Paizo has basically said "We're keenly interested, but we need to see it in action with our material to truly believe." So our objective is to give them a concrete example of THEIR material so they can clearly see all the same benefits that you folks are envisioning (and seeing already with your own material).

The best solution is to put RotRL into Realm Works to showcase it, both to Paizo AND to users as a prime example of how to do stuff. I'm actually doing large chunks of the work myself, as doing so allows me to better write the "Best Practices" guide with concrete examples. I'm also identifying things that we need to adjust in how we're currently handling all the Kickstarter material to make the content even more useful. So this effort isn't derailing work on the Kickstarter material at all. It's in parallel and will ultimately enhance that work, as well as providing valuable insights to users in the form of concrete examples.

Hope this helps!!! :)
 
Awesome Rob - thx again for the clarification.

I REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. hope Paizo (particularly) come to the party on this one :D

I begrudgingly cancelled my Paizo AP subscription several months ago due to a combination of living in Australia (shipping costs and exchange rate) and the small increase in AP costs (though if I lived in the USA this would have been less of a problem). The ability to purchase Paizo AP material for RW (and herolab) would make me a paying customer again, so there is clearly a benefit for Paizo...I am sure I am not the only one with these issues!

Is there anything more we can to do express our (customers) interest to publishers?
I don't wanna spam them all with emails etc, but perhaps posting a message on the Paizo/3rd party messageboards indicating our interest, where RW users can sign in and add their support?
 
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Go to Paizo\s web site and shout it from the roof tops!!! :)
You do not have to spam the site but starting a thread with Realm Works in mind is a start and trying to get other people involved :)
 
monsterfurby said:
Obviously working on RotRL is relevant because they want the marketplace and so forth feature to be implemented at relatively high priority. I personally think that this will never be even remotely an important part of Realm Works, this being a software for world creators first and foremost.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to point out that, aside from the business explanation Rob gave, the Marketplace is linked to the Repository functionality.. the Repository is the delivery mechanism for purchase in the Marketplace. It is also the tool for you to re-use your content.

Ok, you have a home-brew world (so do I). But if you want to run more than one campaign in it, without spending large amounts of time clearing "play data" out of the "setting baseline data" -- or more time re-entering the same data into a new Realm -- so you can start fresh.. then you need that Repository. Because that's what will let you enter that home-brew world once and use that data, "clean", in multiple campaigns.

The Marketplace is also what will let you share your home-brew world with other interested GMs and players.. free, or for pay, as you choose.

I, for one, disagree that it "will never be even remotely an important part of Realm Works".. on the contrary, I think it will be one of the most important parts. Of course, that just goes to show how opinions and perspectives differ. :)
 
Silveras said:
Ok, you have a home-brew world (so do I). But if you want to run more than one campaign in it, without spending large amounts of time clearing "play data" out of the "setting baseline data" -- or more time re-entering the same data into a new Realm -- so you can start fresh.. then you need that Repository. Because that's what will let you enter that home-brew world once and use that data, "clean", in multiple campaigns.
Click to expand...

Just for the benefit of my understanding, you would do that (as I think I've read before elsewhere in this forum) by creating and populating your realm as a base realm and never running any games from it. You would then copy it, and use the copy to run any single game instance.

Is that correct?
 
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