All editions Feature Request- Create Team

[Shadowchaser]

Okay, here's something that's popped up a few times. I'll be sitting there, putting together a 'Team' portfolio by going through and importing heroes from different portfolios one at a time. Wouldn't it be great if I could select 'Import Team' and choose multiple portfolios to draw heroes from in one pass?

It would save me a lot of redundant clicking.

 

[Deadmannumberone]

Or a 'create party/group' option for all game systems. Not a bad idea.

 

[Sketchpad]

I think it's a cool idea and would love to see a Team option have info for bases, vehicles and background boxes. I know folks have asked about associating files in the past, maybe this could be another way to implement that?

 

[Shadowchaser]

It might be, but I'd be happy simply having the option to import heroes from multiple files with one function instead of having to import from one file at a time.

 

[Sketchpad]

You do realize that you can important a team of characters and save them as a single portfolio as it is right now, right? I load a team every time we play as one file ...

 

[Shadowchaser]

You do realize that you can important a team of characters and save them as a single portfolio as it is right now, right? I load a team every time we play as one file ...

Yes, but when all my players send me their characters seperately, I then have to import them one by one. Which happens every time I start a new campaign.

Which has been frequently, lately. PLUS when I want to make a combat portfolio, I may want to import a bunch of different villains into the fight for one session. Having to import them from different files takes time, I'd love it if I could pick multiple files to import from.

Sorry if that intent wasn't clear in the above posts, but this is the pinciple reason behind wanting to do this.

I do save the teams as a team portfolio, but being able to create that porfolio from seperate ones quickly and easily would be the thing I'm looking for. Having to do them one by one is time consuming.

 

[Parkbank]

So far no member of lonewolf entered the stage, right?

I am using HL recently and I thought about something similliar.

It would be great, if - instead of saving characterfiles as a portfolio - you could create characterfiles and handle them single-file with one part of the program and create portfolios for the combat tactics part of the program. When you change the single-file char in combat (ability loss e.g., xp, etc.) it should than, through interference of the user, be possible to save the changes back to the single-file characters.

Edit: Of course, it would be good to have the option to open several single-file chars at once (tabbing) - but they should not be treated as portfolio.

I guess that would speed up the game-play a lot. As it is now, you have either to handle a huge amount of monsters and NPCs for the time playing, or you have to delete and import files all the while. In long campaigns some of the NPCs stats change (lvling up, new equipement, etc.) - that complicates it further...


Edit: PS: I'm not using HL for M&M but PFRPG, but didn't want to open a new thread for this problem... maybe it would be better placed in a general topics forum, as it is not a specified M&M Problem?

 

[Duggan]

^_^ They're listening. They're always listening. *eerie music*

That said, Colen's the general Hero Lab guy and he's been systematically making releases for the various products, so he may not have had time to reply. But yes, this does sound like a more general feature so it might get better exposure in the general Hero Lab forum since every system pretty much faces the same issue.

 

[Colen]

Creating "teams" is already handled within Hero Lab. From the "Portfolio" menu, choose "Create New Hero" - that will create a new, blank, top-level hero in the portfolio. Or, choose "Import Hero from Portfolio" to bring in a hero from another portfolio.

As a GM, let's say you save a bunch of enemy NPCs in a single portfolio, to use in a game. When you want to bring them on, choose Portfolio -> Import Hero from Portfolio and choose the portfolio with the NPCs in it. You can then import them all into the current portfolio with only a couple of clicks, to face your heroes.

Once you're done with them, you can use Portfolio -> Delete Heroes to get rid of them, and then you're ready for the next encounter.

Being able to import from multiple portfolios at once is an interesting idea - I'll add it to our to-do list for the future. However, using the standard windows file dialog, you can only select multiple files to open if they're in the same folder; that would be a pretty big restriction on how it was used. You're better off simply pulling all the heroes into the same portfolio beforehand and importing them all at once.

 

[Parkbank]

The Problem is, if you import a NPC in a Portfolio and than - during the session - the NPC Stats change (e.g. because one of the PCs steals a thing from the NPC, or a permanent ability drain, etc.) you will have two different copies of the NPC...

 

[jamesewelch]

I agree with Parkbank.

I'd like to see an option to "Import and Link" characters. Meaning that if the imported character is linked, then it updates the source. I have multiple PCs in one Portfolio (players), but sometimes they do concurrent solo fights. Which means, I just create new temporary portfolios for the fights. During the fights, they get hurt or whatnot, but it doesn't update the master/source character. I then need to transfer any wounds, Hero Points, etc. back to the other, or delete the master and import the updated one from the temp/combat portfolio.

 

[Shadowchaser]

I agree with Parkbank.

I'd like to see an option to "Import and Link" characters. Meaning that if the imported character is linked, then it updates the source. I have multiple PCs in one Portfolio (players), but sometimes they do concurrent solo fights. Which means, I just create new temporary portfolios for the fights. During the fights, they get hurt or whatnot, but it doesn't update the master/source character. I then need to transfer any wounds, Hero Points, etc. back to the other, or delete the master and import the updated one from the temp/combat portfolio.

Synching up characters like this would be cool, so I could make sure that all my versions of Hero Alpha are up to date, specially with attention to the Journal and experience points.

Hm. That leads me to another feature request, which I shall post as its own thread...