Calendar

[Exmortis]

I truly believe that the call for printing is not so much that people desperately want paper at the table (though that's true for some), it's that I've put all of this information IN to realmworks and I have absolutely no way of getting it OUT.

OK NOW it makes sense, and yes I can see that as a requirement for the future, and something I may like as well.

 

[Dark Lord Galen]

It's not necessarily about printing so much as export.

If we could export to text, and then print from another program, awesome. If we could select all the text in a topic and copy it en masse and get a reasonably formatted text block on the clipboard, cool. If we could export a realm as an HTML document, fantastic. If we could create a PDF of our almanac and get it in a "One Topic Per Page" dump, marvelous.

We could take any of those things and print or publish or save as we want.

I truly believe that the call for printing is not so much that people desperately want paper at the table (though that's true for some), it's that I've put all of this information IN to realmworks and I have absolutely no way of getting it OUT.

Perfectly said.... I for one like not having the piles of paper (hope to reduce the 20 boxes of "stuff" thru years of accumulated maps and note taking into electronic), but some do prefer "hard copy" even in this electronic age.....
As Max points out, for me its the ability to CLEANLY export it elsewhere should I desire to do so.

 

[Dark Lord Galen]

I'm right there with everyone else wanting the calendar. My PCs will be battling werewolves soon and you know the importance of a calendar and moon phases with werewolves. But we need to realize that LW is busting their butts trying to get all parts done. They are a small company which means a small amount of employees. They aren't like Micro$oft (thank goodness) who has millions of dollars and thousands of employees to do the coding so it will take time. Unlike Micro$oft LW wants to make sure there are as few bugs as possible when they release a feature.

I met the LW team at GenCon, went to their seminars and even dragged my laptop in Sunday to get help from them. They were always helpful, friendly and willing to answer any questions people had. By Sunday they looked exhausted but Rob took the time to help me with a question I had when I brought my laptop in (many thanks Rob, your explanation really helped). Yes, we all want and need the calendar plus any number of promised features that we're waiting for, but realize how much we already have to work with.

We also need to realize that LW is basically inventing a wheel that has never been invented before. I'm sure in a few years there will be copycats releasing their versions, but LW is breaking the ground for a program that we GMs only dreamed of. Bravo LW!!!

Well said ruhar... and said as much myself elsewhere... I think many forget how SMALL they really are... see list here (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?p=190604#post190604)
AND your Micro$oft comparative made me laugh outloud... because its TRUE.. Thank the gods they are not M$..

 

[Dark Lord Galen]

In the demo I watched I was able to get a run down of the upcoming calendar feature and it does look awesome. It is capable of integrating multiple calendars where the user can cross reference dates.

An eye witness account for those that may have missed this snipit within another thread.

 

[ruhar]

Thanks, Dark Lord Galen, for reposting the eye witness account of the calendar. It sounds like it's better than I was expecting. I can't wait until it comes out, but I will.

 

[kad]

It is capable of integrating multiple calendars where the user can cross reference dates.

This is exactly the feature that I logged on tonight to suggest! Perfect!

-K

 

[kad]

But we need to realize that LW is busting their butts trying to get all parts done. They are a small company which means a small amount of employees. They aren't like Micro$oft (thank goodness) who has millions of dollars and thousands of employees to do the coding so it will take time.

I think we all do understand that, but LW uses this forum to determine what features people want the most. When we post here that "We really want feature XXXXX next", as long as we do it calmly and politely we are giving them the information that they have asked for so they can plan their work.

-K

 

[pyremius]

The Calendar will be a big one for me, as it should give me the opportunity to track things like item crafting times, construction projects, etc.

A button for "Advance Date" would be great as well. That way I can easily note that they explored building X on day 13, got half of building Y on day 14, and took two days to rest in camp before finishing building Y on day 17.

 

[ruhar]

The Calendar will be a big one for me, as it should give me the opportunity to track things like item crafting times, construction projects, etc.

A button for "Advance Date" would be great as well. That way I can easily note that they explored building X on day 13, got half of building Y on day 14, and took two days to rest in camp before finishing building Y on day 17.

That's a great idea. I never thought about tracking all of that.

 

[Sizzly]

I need the ability to create custom calendars. Desperately. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Exmortis]

That's a great idea. I never thought about tracking all of that.

Thats exactly why I have calendars in my campaigns, they are used to track all events, one for players and one for me. because player view will enable player calendars I put in my number one request, how ever a very very close second is calendar.

 

[evildmguy]

Are there plans to have a better entry system? As I enter birthdays for NPCs, it would be nice if I could just enter the date instead of having to click the data. While I do like that it keeps the last date entered, I want to be able to type it out.

I wasn't sure if this had been discussed or not.

Thanks!

edg

 

[Xenophon223]

So, I bought RW at GenCon as did half my play groups, it's literally the best $50 I've spent a few decades.
Since it's my understanding that the Calendar is functional, it's just the UI that's a mess (at least that's what i got from reading the thread) is it possible to preload a couple calendars even before the custom option is finished? Pick a couple popular settings like maybe Forgotten Realms and the Golarion calendars put the structure in with an update? That would maybe cover a bunch of people (FR would cover me) quickly.

 

[rob]

Are there plans to have a better entry system? As I enter birthdays for NPCs, it would be nice if I could just enter the date instead of having to click the data. While I do like that it keeps the last date entered, I want to be able to type it out.

That would be ideal, but I don't think it's realistic anytime soon. The calendar mechanism is completely generic, so users can define all sorts of bizarre calendar structures. We would need to provide a way for users to enter a text version of every crazy structure they can think of, with full validation and conversion. That would entail a huge amount of work.

I'm sure other here on the forums can quickly cite some calendars that will be high in demand and that will be extremely complex to support text entry. Ones that leap to my mind include the various Tolkein calendars and the Warhammer 40K universe. Realm Works will be able to model those calendars appropriately, but text entry of those dates would vastly increase the complexity - both of supporting them in Realm Works and for users to enter all that complexity properly. So that's something that would likely be a feature for the "would be nice" list to look at in the future.

 

[rob]

So, I bought RW at GenCon as did half my play groups, it's literally the best $50 I've spent a few decades.
Since it's my understanding that the Calendar is functional, it's just the UI that's a mess (at least that's what i got from reading the thread) is it possible to preload a couple calendars even before the custom option is finished? Pick a couple popular settings like maybe Forgotten Realms and the Golarion calendars put the structure in with an update? That would maybe cover a bunch of people (FR would cover me) quickly.

Calendars are something that enter a grey area of intellectual property. Some entities would argue that a calendar is protected as IP and therefore couldn't be provided by us without a license. Likely IPs in this camp include Tolkein and Star Wars. Other entities would be fine with it. The mechanics of the calendars typically wouldn't be protectable, but all the distinctive names for months/days/seasons/etc quite possibly would be.

So we're proceeding cautiously in this area right now. Our plan is to get the calendar mechanism properly implemented and get licenses into place with many of the IP holders in parallel. For those we aren't able to work out, we'll look at providing the mechanics for some and allow users to assign the various names and such appropriately. For anything we can't risk doing ourselves (subject to discussions with our IP lawyer), we'll have the calendar mechanism in place for users to independently implement the calendars they need.

 

[Chemlak]

The oft-requested Forgotten Realms calendar is another one of those awkward ones. 12 months of 30 days each with 5 "festival days" per year that fall outside (between) the normal months, plus a leap year day added after one of those festival days every 4 years.

I'd quite hate text entry trying to figure out "Greengrass 1365".

 

[JustinThomason]

I know that the calendar feature is already high on the priority list, but I'd officially like to add my vote to this.

It is by far the next most important feature for me (more than even the Player edition, honestly), and one of the promised features that I have been most looking forward to since I first started following Realm Works as a concept three or so years ago.

 

[evildmguy]

That would be ideal, but I don't think it's realistic anytime soon. The calendar mechanism is completely generic, so users can define all sorts of bizarre calendar structures. We would need to provide a way for users to enter a text version of every crazy structure they can think of, with full validation and conversion. That would entail a huge amount of work.

I'm sure other here on the forums can quickly cite some calendars that will be high in demand and that will be extremely complex to support text entry. Ones that leap to my mind include the various Tolkein calendars and the Warhammer 40K universe. Realm Works will be able to model those calendars appropriately, but text entry of those dates would vastly increase the complexity - both of supporting them in Realm Works and for users to enter all that complexity properly. So that's something that would likely be a feature for the "would be nice" list to look at in the future.

Well, darn, but I understand.

Actually, as I have been entering dates more, it hasn't been too bad because it saves the last date entered. What would make it tough is if the dates are done chronologically or if they do cover a very big range.

Thanks!

edg

 

[Exmortis]

For my own game worlds I have always just used simple 12 months 28 days a month.

I dont care about atomic clock level of accuracy, but I do want to simple track basic time tracking, and 28 days with 12 months works well.

 

[Farling]

My worry is that because some of the in-game calendars are complex, we are not going to have the abilty to quickly enter dates using the keyboard for any of the calendars.