talsharien
Well-known member
I have purchased the bestiary and it appears to add very little (except a slow running time) to my HL_Online, any thoughts?
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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Bestiary Problems
- Thread starter talsharien
- Start date
talsharien
Well-known member
Okay thanks, I shall await with baited breath for the opportunity to unleash the many promised beasties 
LimpingNinja
Member
Super agreed, was about to purchase but read the forums first. Still purchasing, but now at least expectations are not shattered.
I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of where the existing bestiary content is - When you click the red "Create Character" button, instead of leaving "Type" on its default of "Hero (PC)", change that to "Monster or NPC". Then, open that character and go to the Ancestry tab and choose an ancestry - there's 291 to choose from as of Friday's update (of 410 in the book). We've finished everything from level -1 through 8.
Also, for monsters who need new items to complete their statblocks, like the Aklys for Dero and Ogre Hooks for Ogres, those are available to add like any other weapon, but we'll get to the other scattered content that isn't used by the monsters themselves after the monsters are done (an example would be the poison in the Boggard section - none of the Boggards carry any doses in their entries here, so we left that for after the monsters.)
Also, for monsters who need new items to complete their statblocks, like the Aklys for Dero and Ogre Hooks for Ogres, those are available to add like any other weapon, but we'll get to the other scattered content that isn't used by the monsters themselves after the monsters are done (an example would be the poison in the Boggard section - none of the Boggards carry any doses in their entries here, so we left that for after the monsters.)
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Steel_Wind
Member
I have been a loyal and longtime user of Herolab. As for Herolab "Classic", I have a "full" copy. I flogged your product on our podcast for many years, too, and featured Colin as a guest on it over the course of those years as well.
I purchased PF2 and the Bestiary add-on last week. The Bestiary is simply not implemented. To call it even an "alpha" is to stretch the meaning of the term. Let's not kid ourselves here.
The Tactical Console and Encounter builder isn't built yet either. If the only thing you want to do is create a character using the CRB, it *mostly* works. But that's it; and that's all.
I'm a GM. I use Herolab to GM and run my game. How am I to do this, using this tool? It's essentially useless to me in its current form.
Please - get your act together. This level of product quality isn't okay. I understand these things take time, but you HAVE had nearly 20 months now leading up to this since Starfinder's roll out.
And by "not okay" -- let's not bandy words here. This product is currently beta. At BEST. Instead of serving your user base, your code implementation appears to be instead about about reducing your costs and increasing your revenue per user, all while providing less functionality.
A LOT less.
I purchased PF2 and the Bestiary add-on last week. The Bestiary is simply not implemented. To call it even an "alpha" is to stretch the meaning of the term. Let's not kid ourselves here.
The Tactical Console and Encounter builder isn't built yet either. If the only thing you want to do is create a character using the CRB, it *mostly* works. But that's it; and that's all.
I'm a GM. I use Herolab to GM and run my game. How am I to do this, using this tool? It's essentially useless to me in its current form.
Please - get your act together. This level of product quality isn't okay. I understand these things take time, but you HAVE had nearly 20 months now leading up to this since Starfinder's roll out.
And by "not okay" -- let's not bandy words here. This product is currently beta. At BEST. Instead of serving your user base, your code implementation appears to be instead about about reducing your costs and increasing your revenue per user, all while providing less functionality.
A LOT less.
Hi all! I'm afraid Lj got a little confused on this subject. This issue really had little to do with the number of excited people using the software. Though we do appreciate that so many wanted to try it!
Unfortunately, the poor performance is entirely our fault as we overlooked an indirect implication that increased the load when we launched PF2. Everyone is home now and working as hard as they can to get any performance issues hammered out and HLO should be operating much better even now.
We will be making an announcement soon offering free server time to those who suffered with us at launch.
We are discussing a better system for releases that will hopefully prevent stability issues from here on.
The launch of Campaign Theater in the near future will provide encounter building features for HLO. As we've said elsewhere, HLO is essentially a beta product. This is the reason we have yet to start charging anyone the subscription fee and are letting users continue on for free well past the initial free time given. We want to have a stable product that provides the appropriate functionality for both GMs and players before we call it a full product.
Hope that helps!
Unfortunately, the poor performance is entirely our fault as we overlooked an indirect implication that increased the load when we launched PF2. Everyone is home now and working as hard as they can to get any performance issues hammered out and HLO should be operating much better even now.
We will be making an announcement soon offering free server time to those who suffered with us at launch.
We are discussing a better system for releases that will hopefully prevent stability issues from here on.
The launch of Campaign Theater in the near future will provide encounter building features for HLO. As we've said elsewhere, HLO is essentially a beta product. This is the reason we have yet to start charging anyone the subscription fee and are letting users continue on for free well past the initial free time given. We want to have a stable product that provides the appropriate functionality for both GMs and players before we call it a full product.
Hope that helps!
You've said that on the forums, but for new or prospective users it's not at all clear that the product is a beta. There's no "early access" or "public betatest" indicators anywhere on the HLO website or marketing materials that I can find-- instead it's advertised like fully functional product would be.
That's a problem because it sets up an expectation in new users minds that they're getting a finished product, then when they buy in and start using it and find all sorts of "missing" or work-in-progress features, they're pissed off and feel (rightly or wrongly) a bit cheated. The maxim is "Under promise and over deliver", but the imo the HLO marketing does it the other way around, implying a full product and setting up a situation where new users excitedly pay their money, get on and find problems, come to the forums in frustration, and only THEN discover that it was a beta product all along. Or worse yet, they find problems and decide the product sucks without even bothering to search out the forums. That leads to bad word-of-mouth etc-- not because the product is actually bad but because user expectations weren't managed well.
Maidhc O Casain
Well-known member
This is well said.
I'll discuss with the team and see if we can make it more clear in the store.
I wouldn't consider HLO Beta personally. I would classify it as Early Access, although it is open to everyone.
But ya, for Bestiary, it should note more clearly what is not done. For instance, is it just missing creatures or are some creatures available not 100% ready to use? Maybe Beta is appropriate for Bestiary?
Now, to be fair, I would rather have the partial implementation as it is than wait another month for the whole thing to be finished. It was just confusing (and I would like to say I'm pretty computer savvy lol)
But ya, for Bestiary, it should note more clearly what is not done. For instance, is it just missing creatures or are some creatures available not 100% ready to use? Maybe Beta is appropriate for Bestiary?
Now, to be fair, I would rather have the partial implementation as it is than wait another month for the whole thing to be finished. It was just confusing (and I would like to say I'm pretty computer savvy lol)
Tricky110974
Member
Just to add that I have been a big fan of HLC, but the launch of HLO feels like one big overreach. So many ‘promises’ that have yet to be delivered; a pricing structure that seems so expensive compared to previous; and a feeling that loyal customers, who have spent hundreds of dollars, are being left behind. I get that things move on, but this feels like it moved too fast for the company and everyone is racing to catch up, but right now it’s not clear that they ever will.