Realm Works 1.0.26 and 1.0.27 Now Available!
 

A new release for Realm Works is now available! This release has a lot of new goodies. In fact, it should have something for everyone.

The big things are the first handful of changes we highlighted at the start of the feature survey. There are also a bunch of usability tweaks and bug fixes. Due to the extent of all these changes, this release requires users to login to the server when first launched to properly coordinate various upgrade steps with the server.

The biggest highlights of this release include the following:

• Use drag-and-drop to create relationships and establish containment between topics and articles
• Identifiers on topics/articles have been split into a separate prefix and suffix for maximum flexibility
• Map pins support GM Directions for private versus revealable details
• Plots and plot points also support GM Directions
• Quick Create mechanism is revised and extended
• Filtering improvements make it much faster and easier to filter content
• Various revisions were made to different categories (see release notes for details on each)

Our goal was to get some major performance improvements into this release. However, those are still being worked on, and we didn’t want to delay this release further while we finished those up. So we’re planning another release before the end of the month that will include the performance boosts.

For a complete rundown of all the changes, please see the release notes available within the product. As always, if you run into any issues following this new update, please submit a bug report.

Bug report sent!

The details, for other users: when using quick create and adding aliases through the QC dialog box, the first word you type needs to be the last word of the alias, as hitting space will send the cursor home. There is no way (currently) to type a space after the first word you put in.

Edit: having said that, though, thanks to everyone at LWD for the update. Some of the new features and enhancements are brilliant.

@Chemlak, I responded to your support ticket as well. We're currently working on a new build for Realm Works. I'll update here when it's available.

Bug report sent!

When clicking the tab named Messages in the start screen RW crashes.

No biggie (no-one ever sends me messages anyway).

And thanks for the update.

A new Realm Works release (1.0.27) is now available, which fixes the issues that users flagged to us following the earlier update. Thank you to Chemlak, Vargr, and the other users the submitted support tickets to us!

"• Whenever the user adds or modifies the criteria used within the filter and/or scoping forms, the corresponding behavior is now automatically enabled. This makes filtering content much faster and easier."

Oh, praise mighty Jupiter (and the RW team)! :D

Isn't it great? Sometimes it's the little things. I'm looking forward to hitting my plotlines with copious GM notes.

Connection Retry "feature"
 

Anyone else getting this "Connection Retry" dialog box after installing the update? Installation occurred with no hiccups and immediately this box started popping up(okay, I guess that is a major hiccup). Checked firewall and Realm Works is allowed through (unless there is a specific port?). Program loads and then just goes to this box with no screen for the program or chance to enter a password given.

Ideas?

Dialog box text:

"You need to log in to Realm Works to complete the update process, but you don't currently have a connection to the internet. Please exit Realm Works, connect to the internet, and launch Realm Works again to log in and complete the update."

I'm trying to get the new version installed. I downloaded the update and ran it. It seems to have installed, but it keeps telling me I need a connection to the internet and I should exit realm works, connect to the internet, and try again. Obviously I have a connection to the internet if I downloaded it and posted this message to the forums. Any ideas??

I have submitted a bug report. However, I can not access my realm at all now. I am going to have to call off a game tonight if I can't get this fixed and the 3 day turn around time it give for bug reports is not making me feel optimistic. I should not have tried to update on game day, this is the second time I have made that mistake. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Suffering exactly the same problem as Meek75 even reinstalled a second time still claims the internet is not connected and refuses to proceed - this is a Windows XP system.

Same problem
 

After install and running Realmworks it pops up a msgbox that says an active internet connection is required to complete the install.

.. and exits.


Nice useful update.

... and tried downgrading to previous version and now says my database is newer and cannot be used.

.. and exits.

-------------------------------------

Another question about previous version install:

So I loaded an old copy of my database, now the previous version of realmworks runs, but says "Realmworks needs to update" Download it or continue working offline.

But the offline button is greyed out.

Why Lone Wolf Devs?

I'm running Windows 7

Same here. Bug report submitted earlier (as well as forum post that has yet to appear ). Perhaps server is down?

meek75, signalgk, bgrimm.. have you put in support tickets? The best way to get a response is to put in support tickets.. posting here is not guaranteed to be seen quickly, especially on a weekend.

Yes,

But I also chose to post here to voice my displeasure. And perhaps get public answer(s).

Same issue as meek75. Game day, sigh.

I'll take the liberty to answer on their behalf because I'm on the internets and this is what we do.

Because.

Because it's a complicated program.
Because the dev team is under a lot of pressure to produce due to a lot of us with unrealistic expectations.
Because bugs are always possible.
Because the sky on Expisillon-9 is lavendar.
Because the devs like to churn out broken updates. They are NE with strong chaotic tendencies due to the company's policy requiring worship of Tsathogga.
Because there are engine changes that are underway for Markets and Calendars and Exporting that aren't complete and may impact other functionality unintentionally.
Because the devs are human.
Because ooooooh shiny!
Because the devs like messing with self-important people on the internet that have a smug sense of entitlement.
Because it's a holiday weekend. Make love, not war.
Because the bug will probably be fixed before the holiday weekend is over because the devs are dedicated to making each and every one of us happy.

Because.

Your mileage may vary. Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear. I speak for no one, not even myself. This end up.

I put in a ticket too, but it said 3 days response time :( I really blame myself for even attempting the update today. This not the first time an update has broken me.

Exactly the same Problem as Meek75

Edit: I put in a ticket too, but after one Minute I try it again and the Launcher open and I can logged in!

I'm hoping that enough people are having the issue that it will get LW attention. If you guys over at LW are working on it I'd love to know it. Calling off a game will seriously suck and I don't want to call it at the last moment. Calling off a game will not do much for my groups faith in RW (which I'm pushing).

I've flagged this to the developers, but unfortunately I don't have any information at this time or an ETA on the fix. It's likely one of them will chime in with more information.

Thanks Liz. Knowing someone is aware of it helps.

The connection issues should be fixed. Please try again.

It appears to be back up and running. Thanks!!

LOL.

Although in the month of fernaculary on Expisillon-9 it's vermillion.

@bodrin: True dat

Just mind one important rule of thumb:

** Update not shortly before "game day" **

LWD updated several times before weekends and on rare occasions there were some critical bugs that prevented some players from using the software. So probably it's best towait with the update after your game and important edits are done unless the update brings some major news :)

Regarding downgrading I'm sure its possible. Probably you just have to put some of the backup versions that RW creates into the hardcoded DB folder. But it is probably safest to wait for the fix...

On the serious side LW may wish to go to a release schedules of Mondays instead of Fridays. I would say 90% of games happen over the weekend and employees and support staff are often NOT around during the weekend. This makes a bad combination really. Where a Monday drop would allow a week for people to install and get support with any issues.

One of changes I did on my job site was change the days we "drop" new releases into production. We changed from Friday's to Sunday nights as this way my support staff was on Monday morning and ready to support the business with any issues. The support guys where less stressed as it was the beginning of the work week instead of Saturday that is their day off. The business got better response and everyone is happier. :)

I couldnt agree more, Shadow. With both Hero Lab and Realms Works. I never update (if I can avoid it) on the fridays before games.

The problem is in the past with RW, it has sometimes "forced" an update (unable to sync without updating). With something like HeroLab, you can choose to wait (I always do), but RealmsWorks hasnt always allowed that.

In additon to Shadow's valid points about support staff, you probably want to time your updates for the least disruption possible. Many companies try to do their software releases in time when it will likely affect the least amount of users (my industry has very few users on weekends, so we release on friday nights), but this industry has the majority of their users on weekends, so maybe fridays is the worst day for LWD to do software releases.

One more point of notice LWD staff seems to be pretty responsive, even after their release providing fixes.

Several good points being made. Friday is rough for releases due to games scheduled. However, I could have waited to update until today, but got excited about the release and gambled. Also, LW had been predicting a release for two weeks, and had already pushed it back a week. If they had missed the release for another week even more people would have been disappointed. All in all, I'm happy with the speedy fix LW got in place.

I don't believe we have ever had a release that was forced as in you HAD to grab it when available. We have had releases where you cannot login or sync to the server without upgrading, but you still have the option of holding off on that release and working offline. For this last release, we also put in a warning that you must login if you proceed with the upgrade during the installation, so you had another chance to back off on installing, if you had a game coming up.

I think what he is trying to say that some of versions prevent sync until you upgrade and that makes it feel like you are being forced. One of the important features of RW is the the Cloud as I build on one PC and DM on my laptop. So to get to my "data" that is in the cloud I have to update my laptop on game day to get to that data. :(

P.S I never meant to infer in any way RW support is not great. Just that I think people should get there weekends. That time away to recharge is very important for techies and so I was saying that the LW crew deserve weekends doing none RW related stuff.

Exactly right on what I meant. I do the same thing. I build on my PC and bring laptop to where we game. I now sync a couple of days before the game. There had been a few thursday/friday releases that had caused me problems, but with RW and HeroLab, which is why i was agreeing with ShadowChemosh that an early week release/deployment schedule might be better for you as both a company and for the customers than an end of week one.

I also completely agree that the staff is very responsive, and I appreciate that.

We strive for earlier in the week releases, also, but we don't always make it for various reasons. In this particular case, we had wanted to get the release out as there was one bug that was affecting several people that we had fixed and wanted to get it into their hands rather than waiting for another week. And, unfortunately, we weren't ready for the release earlier in the week. At least it was a relatively early Friday release so that we could react to the crashes quickly and fix them.

I'd also prefer Monday/Tuesday releases over Friday ones, even if it means working around a bug for one more game session. (Assuming I'm using it when I get back into the GM chair. :)

I have to throw my hat in with the group here asking for releases at the beginning of the week. Since I run games on Friday night and into Saturdays it means not having to download updates in the middle of a game session which is much more convenient. Monday or Tuesday releases would give me time to download the newest updates before a game session and not interrupt the game in progress.

I guess I will chime in and be the lone voice for those that play weekend nights NOT weekends. Though I understand everyone's situation but there are groups and more than just mine that play during week ngihts, for us its wed, it used to be Tues for about 5 years.

So for me? I love any release on Tbursday or Friday.

Monday / Tuesday releases for me too.

I game on Friday's and Sunday's so an update at the weekend is not always great!