My Opinion on another Savage Worlds character creator program

[zarlor]

I assume by adding to it you mean adding in data files. And I would kind of agree with that to some extent (I actually mention that above, even.) But part of that is also what gives it a pretty high level of flexibility in what can be done with the program that can't be done in the others. It's one thing if you just wan to add some piece of equipment or the text of an Edge (and not necessarily all of the effects of that Edge), which to be honest is actually pretty easy to do in the Editor for HL as well as those other programs (and yes, other than Savage Outfitter, those are the progs being alluded to.) It just looks harder because of all the other options, which you can always just ignore.

However, having all of those other options, the ability to modify the stats on your sheet, or even conditionally do so if you are using HL at the table, the add other effects and so on, is an ability HL just has available right up front. Sure it's got a steep learning curve for doing that and the documentation can be more than a little cryptic (especially for folks with no real programming experience) but at least you've got several of us here who are active enough on the forum to try and help folks get over that hump, and some of the folks with Lone Wolf who check in here occasionally as well to give some of the really in-depth help if we get really stuck.

WCC may still be in beta, but it completely missed the MAIN selling point of its Kickstarter, that it would read any SW PDF and import it with all modifiers built in. It can't do that at all, so it's being done manually. And it's currently missing any good way for the customer to manually make their own stuff up, at least not well. Worse is that it is NOT in Beta, not at all. Current release version is 1.0.2. That 1.anything means it's the final release version, not beta, and no place that I could see on their site clearly defines the product as Beta.

Savage Outfitter is... well, barely a character creation program, IMHO, but I haven't bought it because it just looks abandoned and not really well done, I don't think. So overall I cannot give a fully informed opinion on it.

So to me the big competitor here is MetaCreator. Which to me has it's plusses (which, in part, you note but I also think you don't get all the functionality of adding something like a custom race that HL can do) and minuses which made it a big toss-up when I was originally deciding which one I really wanted to use for my gaming group in the long run. Now, with all of the data files that are now available for Hero Lab (and now that I have gotten past the biggest hump of working out how to make things for HL, knowledge of which I've tried to share on this forum) I think HL is hands-down superior to the other options.

Are there still issues with HL? Absolutely. And when I find them I try to bring them up in the threads on this forum for those things. Do they get fixed fast? It kind of depends on the issue, but generally no. They do tend to eventually get fixed, though, but I think we have to realize that for Lone Wolf their Savage Worlds line probably doesn't even hold a candle to the money they make on Pathfinder, so that's going to be their priority, period. That can be a bit frustrating, certainly, but as far as I can see it's still getting us more content and capability than any other character creation solution for Savage Worlds out there.

So there is a bit of a hump to get over to use HL well, but in the long run it's proven, for me, to be a worthwhile effort. We just need the kind of documentation for really using the editor (maybe even some tutorial videos) that they started on for their Wiki for a full on game system. Too many folks (including myself, originally) get confused by that Wiki thinking we'd need to duplicate a game system in order to make a data file, when we just needed to make a data file and set sources on it to help keep the things we do separated when needed. Stuff like that.

[jbearwillis]

I agree with everything you have said Lenny, I have all those programs except Savage Outfitter and by far Hero Lab beats them all. WCC is very disappointing, it has fallen short of what they said. Yes it's nice for the person that just wants the words on a character sheet with no descriptions, but I and many of the people I play the game with love a lot of detail. Not just the basics, Hero Lab gives us most of what were looking for. LIke you said, is it perfect, the answer is no, but what program every is. It does live up to it capabilities. Each game system is getting upgrades, Maybe not to our wants, but then there is only so much time and people to go around in a 24 hour time period. So I say that with Wolflair being as small as they are, have done a superior job to the rest and at a great price. Also not to mention all the community help that is here. It's seems that every time some one new jumps on board we seem to learn something new also.

Also to say HL is good, but adding to it is an abomination. Is a bit short coming. It does have a small learning curve, but I have no programming experience at all, which I think help me in the long run. I just jumped in and tried to do things and sometime they worked and sometimes they didn't, but with help from the community and Wolflair I got my data files to work. I push the program in directions I don't think people expected it to be able to do even me, I just didn't take no for an answer. that's how I got the Starships to work in the program with most of the bells and whistles. Even if WCC gets High-Space into it, I feel and believe that mine will be of much more use then their file will be. Mine does a lot more then just adds text< but that is just my opinion and only mine, I speak for no others.