Transferring Topics Between Campaigns

[ifandbut]

What about just letting us have more then 1 realm open at a time? I have alot of tables I would like to copy between my realms, not to mention lore when I have 2 games going on in the same world.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by ifandbut

What about just letting us have more then 1 realm open at a time? I have alot of tables I would like to copy between my realms, not to mention lore when I have 2 games going on in the same world.

While your realms may be set in the same world, Realm Works (from a programing perspective) is oblivious to that. There will be just as many that would not want to "pollute" one set of data for one Realm into a different Realm (ie file) because Databases seldom have an "undo button".
Like you describe, I also have several "game session groups" exploring the same world,,, just differing places...

The ability to transfer from one realm to another (both internally & through the marketplace) is soon to come and is the cleanest approach from a programing perspective... IMO.. and not to speak for LWD, Rob, or his team.

Rob, perhaps the middle ground is to allow the ability to create a duplicate realm when closing(via a save as) and allow for renaming it? This would give users the ability to create core versions of their realms and jumpstart them when a new group comes along, or to brainstorm, etc without impacting the original. In other database (And spreadsheet)applications we all can relate to making a duplicate to test drive something and preserve our base line data from corruption until we get the result we are looking for. This approach, like all realms, would still be contained within the same overall user database, and would not be markedly different to the user creating a new realm within the RealmWorks Database.. is it?

[Dark Lord Galen]

@ Ifandbut...

Was also curious why you just don't have different groupings, plots ect for each group and contain within ONE Realm? If they are within the same world? Unless there are rulesets and things that don't exist in one group that do for the other... there is really no need to separate.....
I approached it from a build world perspective first,, and down to regions, countries, cities, Peoples , PCs... but that is the nice thing about RW.. you can approach a lot of different ways to get the method you want.

[shayneb]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

@ Ifandbut...

Was also curious why you just don't have different groupings, plots ect for each group and contain within ONE Realm? If they are within the same world? Unless there are rulesets and things that don't exist in one group that do for the other... there is really no need to separate.....
I approached it from a build world perspective first,, and down to regions, countries, cities, Peoples , PCs... but that is the nice thing about RW.. you can approach a lot of different ways to get the method you want.

This is how I am handling this issue, but I wouldn't say it's ideal. For example, every time RW expands every section of my topics (I haven't yet figured out when it decides to do this and why), I have to scroll for a mile to get to my "second" campaign in my single Realm.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by shayneb

RW expands every section of my topics (I haven't yet figured out when it decides to do this and why), I have to scroll for a mile to get to my "second" campaign in my single Realm.

Yea that's a bit of an annoyance.. I would also prefer that the default were collapsed or some means of box check for preference... maybe in the future.

[ifandbut]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

Rob, perhaps the middle ground is to allow the ability to create a duplicate realm when closing(via a save as) and allow for renaming it?

I like this idea.
Also something as simple as letting us have more then one realm open at a time (or 2 copies of Realm Works open on the same computer accessing 2 different realms) would be great as well.

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

@ Ifandbut...

Was also curious why you just don't have different groupings, plots ect for each group and contain within ONE Realm? If they are within the same world? Unless there are rulesets and things that don't exist in one group that do for the other... there is really no need to separate.....
I approached it from a build world perspective first,, and down to regions, countries, cities, Peoples , PCs... but that is the nice thing about RW.. you can approach a lot of different ways to get the method you want.

While some of the adventures are set in the same world/universe they are separated by years or decades. So I want to be able to keep some events separate between the 2 campaigns so I dont get confused and miss the note that says an event happens in the future. Then, things that I wanted to keep the same I could export over.

Also, the main reason I wanted to transfer topics right now is that one group is moving to a whole different system and setting but I had made alot of random tables and the like that are generic enough to move between the 2 systems and I wanted to port them over to a new realm file. Yes, I could use an external application like Word or Excel but Realm Works was supposed to eliminate that need.

[ifandbut]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

Yea that's a bit of an annoyance.. I would also prefer that the default were collapsed or some means of box check for preference... maybe in the future.

OK, good...it is not just me. I wish it would save which topics were expanded between sessions of the program.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by ifandbut

I like this idea.
Also something as simple as letting us have more then one realm open at a time (or 2 copies of Realm Works open on the same computer accessing 2 different realms) would be great as well.

@ifandbut...
Your not grasping something fully....
any realms your create (or later purchase via marketplace) still reside within one database. Your database, coded to you the user. The situation you are describing (if I understand your desire correctly) would be opening multiple "files" (ie Realm sources) simultaneously within one database file. This is a situation (I believe) LWD is trying to avoid for a multitude of reasons. (IP, file corruption, etc are some that I wont address here)

To utilize your own analogy and your familiarity with another software, EXCEL.
While 99% of users have a familiarity with the use of a spreadsheet that number is far less when it comes to multiple users opening and operating within the same file at the same time ( I would speculate less than 20%). It's not that excel can't do it, it simply raises an additional level of programming to do such. For each shared user within the open spreadsheet (ie file or "realm" if you will) changes occur that must be rectified as approved or rejected by someone (usually the owner/ creator of said file) before those changes are executed and the file is saved....

Could LWD do this within a database? sure... the mechanics are not "that" dissimilar to when one syncs the realm they have with the one they have stored on the "cloud". As you have probably noticed, you can, at times, have a realm at home that is more current than the cloud or have a realm on the cloud more current than one on the PC... Realmworks asks you which takes precedence before proceeding. The choice you direct becomes preferred & RW ignores the other file.RW takes the architecture and data from the approved one you direct. Imagine having to do that within the OPEN ACTIVE REALMS within your database file for each of the changes you make to the realms in one session? A potential for LOTS of approvals and interruptions as realm works reconciles which change is applied where based on your "approvals".

Could you have 2 open simultaneously with one active and the other inactive (ie like spreadsheets again)? Maybe, clicking with a mouse to indicate which is currently active for you the user... possibly. But that is the easy part... I am certain that there are several complications within the C language RW is built on that would need addressing to make this even possible. I, However, defer to LWD and Rob on this parse... having not seen the core coding, it isn't my place to hypothesize the complexity of executing such.

Realmworks ,in its current state as a database file, looks at your realms as independent "spreadsheets of information" (for lack of a better comparison for this conversation) Taking the data you have already approved, and displaying it in a template (either default or customized by you).

Do both files (realms) know the architecture and structure of the template? sure, but you may have differing items on each such as calendars (as you noted) or differing geography etc... for Realmworks to maintain this separation (that you established by creating two realms to begin with) it treats them as such, separate. You could have simultaneous realms open but in its current state RW would have to be installed twice, to separate cloud accounts, etc.... for Realmworks to maintain that separation cleanly. And until the market place there would be no way the two could share data within each of there files (realms) with the other. Further I would speculate there would not be a time in the near future that you could do this simultaneously in two open realms.

Generally, this is also one reason databases, as opposed to spreadsheets, do not have an "undo" button. Actions within a database are executed when the command function is given, ie press edit button, etc. Once done the change becomes part of the whole and can't be "undone" without repeating the process. in a star trek vernacular it becomes part of the collective conscious of your Realm. Whereas you can close a spreadsheet without saving it and have tens of hours (depending on how long its been since you saved last) of work lost... excel doesn't execute any changes till you approve them,,, ie through an approval process (when "Shared") and by saving.

So the Realmworks core software would have to support the ability to determine which "realm" what changes apply to and separate default resources (ie memory, display, etc) into two, three, more realms? Certainly a potential tax on hardware. But for realmworks, it is several more layers of software programing to "run" simultaneously or merge together what was separate to begin with.

I hope you don't take any of this to offense... it isn't intended so... email and forums are a difficult venue to communicate by and not knowing your level of knowledge dealing with databases versus spreadsheets, I thought all that are not aware of such would find the detail helpful.

Best Regards
DLG

[AEIOU]

When the sexy marketplace is active, this issue should become moot. You'll be able to create a "master" realm, upload to the market as a private file, and then download it to create a copy as often as you'd like.

While I presume the realms in the marketplace are snapshots-in-time, I assume one could overwrite downloaded material with a newer snapshot or that there will be some of releasing corrections/addenda for released materials. So you could put everything about the world and ruleset into your master and then copy that data over the active ones which have the plots for their particular group to keep them all up-to-date with the current world/ruleset info.

[ifandbut]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

@ifandbut...
Your not grasping something fully....
any realms your create (or later purchase via marketplace) still reside within one database. Your database, coded to you the user.

Ya, I did not understand that.

I assumed realms were their own separate files and when you selected the realm you wanted to work with it opened that file, just like one excel file is independent from another file, yet one excel file can have several tabs.

I wonder why they decided to have everything in one big file instead of separate files for each realm? And if everything is in one big file then why can each realm only access a small part of that file and not data from other parts/realms?

I am aware that software development is complex and nothing is just "as simple as ...". But all this information is just raising more questions about why some things are the way they are. What advantages did Realm Works get by putting everything in one big file instead of separate files for each realm?

I get that this is the way things are right now and no amount of feature requesting or complaining will change that. However, I still would like to understand WHY things are the way they are.