Cost of HLO?

[ShadowChemosh]

Last Updated: 2/26/2018
Note: Answers with links came from a Lone Wolf employee and I point back to the original post.
Official Hero Lab Online FAQ

Q1: When buying Starfinder/HLO what does the $35 bucks include?
A: (BJ) When you purchase the core rules, you get free service time (180 days) along with it. After that expires you can choose to pay for 180 days of service at $14.99 or 365 days of service for $24.99.

Q2: HLO is now available for purchase. Does that mean it already supports all the game systems herolab does (such as shadowrun)?
A: (Aaron) HLO currently supports starfinder, we plan to expand it to other systems in the future, but don't have a precise timeline for what systems will happen and when.

Q3: Once Pathfinder has been added to HLO and I transfer my Data sets to HLO when I buy new Data sets is it one purchase for both HLO and classic or do I have to by the data set twice to use on both programs?
A: (Mathias) So long as your purchase is available in both versions of the program its a one time purchase.

Q4: HLO lists that it supports 1 Concurrent Device. How do I get more? How do I use my Hero Lab Classic secondary licenses like it lists in the official FAQ?
A: We do not have an 100% official answer and most likely won't have one until Pathfinder gets moved to HLO. Currently Starfinder HLO supports only a single device.

Q5: So how do things work for those of us who own Herolab Classic? Especially when Pathfinder/Shadowrun support is added?
A: (Ian) For people who already have content purchased for existing game systems in HL Classic, we’ll have a minimal transfer fee (still to be determined) that will cover everything you already have for a game system. You won’t need to repurchase all your content. After that the ongoing pricing will be the same as a normal HLO purchase.
A: (BJ) The cost to transfer will be less than 20 dollars and include 180 days of service access.

Q6: Currently you have to buy service time in either 6 month or 1 year amounts. What about those of us that want month by month payments?
A: (BJ) We've been discussing the possibility of a month to month purchase. I can't promise anything, but it may be something we provide in the future.

Q7: If I stop paying for service time do I lose all access to my characters in HLO?
A: (Ian) If your subscription ends, you won't be able to change your characters, but you'll still be able to access them for viewing, printing, etc (as well as any export functionality once we get to adding that).

Q8: I would really like to save my characters from HLO locally on my own computer. Is this currently possible or coming soon?
A: (Ian) We’re planning to have statblock export, a data blob export that can be imported using a different HLO account (we have a user-unfriendly version of this already for admin purposes), and eventually a formatted JSON export suitable for use by third-party tools.

 

[wheredoigo]

It is not $70 per year. As with HL Classic you have to buy the content. The Starfinder CRB is $34.99 and comes with six month of server usage. Going forward the cost is $2.00/month for the server fee.

 

[BJ]

That is an oversight in our description and the fault is ours for not catching it. We had initially planned to have server access available for purchase in the store at launch, which explained this, but a last minute issue prevented us from having it up in time. Unfortunately, in all the chaos, no one thought to go add something to the descriptions of what we do have that answered this perfectly understandable question. I apologize for any confusion this has caused!

I will have a lot of official answers up later today.

But wheredoigo is correct. It will not cost $70 a year. It will work like Hero Lab Classic does now only with the addition of server access. When you purchase the core rules, you get free service time along with it. After that expires you can choose to pay for 180 days of service at $14.99 or 365 days of service for $24.99.

Hope that helps!

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Thanks BJ! I wanted to make sure I passed along the correct information.

Totally understand last minute changes happen.

 

[BJ]

You are most welcome!

 

[adzling]

i see herolab online is now available for purchase.

does that mean it already supports all the game systems herolab does (such as shadowrun)?

If not when will it?

thanks!

 

[Aaron]

i see herolab online is now available for purchase.

does that mean it already supports all the game systems herolab does (such as shadowrun)?

If not when will it?

thanks!

HLO currently supports starfinder, we plan to expand it to other systems in the future, but don't have a precise timeline for what systems will happen and when.

 

[LazarX]

So how do things work for those of us who own Herolab Classic? Especially when Pathfinder support is added.

 

[Ian]

So how do things work for those of us who own Herolab Classic? Especially when Pathfinder support is added.

We don’t have the exact numbers ready yet, but for people who already have content purchased for existing game systems in HL Classic, we’ll have a minimal transfer fee that will cover everything you already have for a game system. You won’t need to repurchase all your content. After that the ongoing pricing will be the same as a normal HLO purchase.

 

[BJ]

The cost to transfer will be less than 20 dollars and include 180 days of server access.

Thanks, Ian! You're a great help!

 

[Jamz]

FYI: I won't be buying HLO unless the server usage can be purchased month by month and/or paused.

I don't know about anyone else but our group switches games so it would be silly to buy HLO for Starfinder when we are still playing Pathfinder and not sure when we will start Starfinder. And when we do play Starfinder, we may only play for 2-3 months at a time.

This is in no way a b!tching about the pricing model. I'm simply conveying, from a customer perspective, why I'm not purchasing it.

If/when they add Pathfinder or give us more options than 6 month of sub options, I will need to hold off... I'd love to buy the package now, play with it a little bit and then let it sit but then I'm waisting 6 months of server time. :-/

 

[morpheusdreams]

well you can certainly tell why they won't offer free trials of this

 

[BJ]

We've been discussing the possibility of a month to month purchase. I can't promise anything, but it may be something we provide in the future.

Morpheus we do offer free trials. You can make use of our demo account indefinitely at no cost, just like Hero Lab Classic. http://www.wolflair.com/hlo/

 

[ShadowChemosh]

We've been discussing the possibility of a month to month purchase. I can't promise anything, but it may be something we provide in the future.

A few of my players have mentioned the preference of a month to month charge instead. Usually when you buy many months you get a discount. Just mentioning what allot of software/companies do and I think why some where surprised with only a 6 month or 12 month subscription.

 

[BJ]

A few of my players have mentioned the preference of a month to month charge instead. Usually when you buy many months you get a discount. Just mentioning what allot of software/companies do and I think why some where surprised with only a 6 month or 12 month subscription.

I do not disagree. It's a bit complicated on our end so it isn't something we can just decide to do and turn on. We are exploring options though and have been for a while. Only so many dreams can be realized in any given day!

 

[ShadowChemosh]

I do not disagree. It's a bit complicated on our end so it isn't something we can just decide to do and turn on. We are exploring options though and have been for a while. Only so many dreams can be realized in any given day!

Yep totally understand. Just wanted to pass along some feedback from people not on the forums.

I am personally fine with either 6 months or month by month.

 

[Jamz]

We've been discussing the possibility of a month to month purchase. I can't promise anything, but it may be something we provide in the future.

Morpheus we do offer free trials. You can make use of our demo account indefinitely at no cost, just like Hero Lab Classic. http://www.wolflair.com/hlo/

That would be nice. Allowing us to "suspend" the account would be acceptable as well. I would buy 12 months if I could pause it for 3-6 months, continue, repeat.

(And I wouldn't expect a day by day suspend, more like, suspend account at the end of the month, so, month to month)

 

[BJ]

That's not a bad idea! I'll file it away.

 

[Jodokai]

I love Hero Lab Classic. I have almost every package for Pathfinder and all the licenses since my wife and I each have our own Desktops, iPads and we share a Laptop. I've spent hundreds of dollars on Hero Lab. I want to make that clear so during the rest of my post you're not thinking "Ah he's just being cheap"

My issue is that you're making me buy a car, but I can only rent the keys. If there ever comes a day where renting the keys is no longer worth the cost, I've lost everything I put into the car. That money is just gone.

I pay $20 for the program, and then pay for all the packages, but if my sub ever lapses, I can no longer access the things I've purchased. That doesn't seem right.

Now right now the sub fee is $2 a month, no big deal, can you promise that that price won't go up? Of course not, and of course that price will eventually go up, how often and how much? You can't answer that. As I've said I've spent hundreds of dollars on Hero Lab Classic, and when I think about how upset I would be if I had to rent the ability to use the things I spent hundreds of dollars on, and the rent went higher than the worth to me, and all that money simply went down the drain. That's ridiculous.

I purchased Hero Lab Online, to try it out and give it its fair shake. I also wanted to see what would happen with the Alien Archive, I thought maybe the packages would be cheaper, but when I saw the alien archive was $12.99 the cost of a Bestiary, for something that has less than half the content of a bestiary I wanted to scream.

I hope Starfinder comes to Classic Hero Lab, until then, I'm glad you have a money back guarantee.

 

[Ian]

I pay $20 for the program, and then pay for all the packages, but if my sub ever lapses, I can no longer access the things I've purchased. That doesn't seem right.

If your subscription ends, you won't be able to change your characters, but you'll still be able to access them for viewing, printing, etc (as well as any export functionality once we get to adding that).