Shadowfoot
Well-known member
Is there any news about Campaign Theater? Is it still coming?
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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Campaign Theater
- Thread starter Shadowfoot
- Start date
TheMaskedFerret
Well-known member
Soon® means We have no idea, but it will eventually happen... Soon®
"Holidays" of what year? According to the last official announcement, Campaign Theater was due out in June of 2019...
"Holidays" of what year? According to the last official announcement, Campaign Theater was due out in June of 2019...
There are also lots of holidays, spread throughout the year.
"Holidays" of what year? According to the last official announcement, Campaign Theater was due out in June of 2019...
Actually the last official announcement was "the holidays" of course which holiday and which year is up for interpretation, but I suspect it meant the Thanksgiving/Christmas time frame of 2019.
We are definitely still working on this and do indeed want to put it out Soon™. We are still hoping for a "holiday" release (sometime in the Thanksgiving thru Christmas season).
Significant portions of these features are in good shape internally, but the tactical part of campaigns will require processing many more characters and put additional strain on the servers. Because of this, we are putting significant effort into improving our backend stability, capacity, and robustness. The last thing we want is this new feature causing problems and destabilizing existing features. That effort is taking some time, but will definitely be worth the wait.
Significant portions of these features are in good shape internally, but the tactical part of campaigns will require processing many more characters and put additional strain on the servers. Because of this, we are putting significant effort into improving our backend stability, capacity, and robustness. The last thing we want is this new feature causing problems and destabilizing existing features. That effort is taking some time, but will definitely be worth the wait.
It shouldn't significantly increase data use for players. If any increase is noticeable, its likely going be purely that there's more *activity* happening (spells flying around and what have you). Regardless, we've designed tactical updates to players regarding other characters to be extremely light. Loading a few images on Instagram or Facebook would dramatically outweigh the data being sent. Also, Campaign and Tactical functionality will be purely opt-in, so if you're truly on a stringent data budget, you can continue using HLO as you currently do with zero changes to data usage.
For GMs, it may actually REDUCE their data usage, possibly in a big way, depending on how they are using the product.
If a GM is regularly switching between characters right now to run a game in HLO, the new Campaigns feature streamlines this significantly, loading "lightweight" versions of the characters on their device from which they can perform most in-game operations (GMs can of course still load the full version of a character as needed, in case they want to make deep changes like changing classes, etc).
I just messed around with herolab for 30 minutes to determine usage. I pulled up and messed with 2 characters, one starfinder, one PF2 and then created a PF2 character. It used 5.9mb, this was done in an incognito tab so it would have to load everything as if for the first time.
I opened a second tab and closed the first, pulled up HLO again and the usage was only 130K to load up a character, so with caching it uses very little data. I then let it sit for 60 minutes occasionally messing with it and it used 30k (looked at a gear list I hadn't looked at yet) more.
This is like 1 minute on Instagram, and pretty much no data used if you already have it cached. Even if the campaign theater is 5 times this per hour it is pretty much nothing.
I opened a second tab and closed the first, pulled up HLO again and the usage was only 130K to load up a character, so with caching it uses very little data. I then let it sit for 60 minutes occasionally messing with it and it used 30k (looked at a gear list I hadn't looked at yet) more.
This is like 1 minute on Instagram, and pretty much no data used if you already have it cached. Even if the campaign theater is 5 times this per hour it is pretty much nothing.
Shadowfoot
Well-known member
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "multiple license use". Are you wanting a way for multiple different people to use a common set of content? Or a single person to simultaneously use multiple devices?
LimpingNinja
Member
Thanks for the update, for me - moving from DNDBeyond where I can easily tab between characters, while my players have their character open as well, and manage the campaign (albeit in a less robust manner than I want) this has been a main feature that I have been waiting for by LoneWolf.
I original purchased HLO to see what PF2 would look like and whether it had the same functionality as DNDBeyond because I personally don't like managing that crap. Then I kept it running on the "Soon" announcements, even renewing in March for the mid-year release. While I understand you are a small shop and you have fired people so have less staff, it is just a reality that I will not resubscribe if it lapses past my next re-up date. Everything up to this point I've just consider development funding.
Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I think it is fair to say.
Additionally, I keep seeing this:
I think many people are looking for ways for their family and friends to join a campaign and either have limited resource sharing.
While I can't speak for ShadowFOOT - I personally prefer the model offered by DNDBeyond where as a DM for my family I can spend the cost myself and share limited time resources for my campaigns specifically. My family creates accounts and doesn't have to buy all the books and pay large monthly or annual fees to keep accounts.
User story: As a family of 5 people and the DM of our games, I would like the ability to run a campaign without having to buy expensive subscriptions and digital books for all of my family members much as I do with other online services and physical books.
I would have to understand what the base cost of $175 for 180 days of access for my family of 5 would get me over the other service beyond "it's pathfinder!" because the model doesn't seem functional to me. Additionally, when running campaigns of mixed users online and offline - having a single source toolset is very helpful but a $35 per user per campaign (assuming 6 month campaign) is not palatable.
What are you resubscribing to? The server access fees aren't supposed to start until the campaign theater is out. I haven't paid any yet and I have had Starfinder for well over a year. Realm works does have a server fee though, are you paying that?
Shadowfoot
Well-known member
The first option, where I have paid for the content and access, and my players can create and play characters within my campaign, just as they can do with the books, and are not compelled to buy them themselves. I have 5 players and paying a small amount for simultaneous access is what I’m after. I wouldn’t want them seeing characters I’ve created as NPCs but I’m okay with them creating characters viewable by all.
Currently I’ve been creating the characters with them all on my account, and they use the PDFs for play.
So would the way D&D Beyond work for you? GM buys and players in the campaign can use his resources? Or do you want full access like with HLC? Because I think they have no desire to repeat the HLC model where 5 random people can use it anywhere at any time for 1 price.
Shadowfoot
Well-known member
I don’t use D&D Beyond, but that sounds like what I’m after. That is, I pay extra and my players can use my resources in my campaign. I doubt all my players will buy their own subscriptions so I want an option when I can permit them to use my content without paying for 5 more full licences.
LimpingNinja
Member
That wasn’t really the meat of my post, but good to know - I purchased multiple assets to extend because I read: Hero Lab® Online License,Server Access Expiration: November 27, 2019; Regardless, at this point my reticence still wouldn’t change so the fact that it affected a potential long-term customer doesn’t change.
Also, I’d wager I feel more strongly about the second half of my post on licensing anyways. Especially now given that I’ve not paid any fee that I haven’t made myself
