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Hero Lab for the Web

C

caudron

New member
I posted about this a bit on a thread about Android support, but figured rather than letting it get lost on page 5 of a semi-related thread, I'd make a thread just for this.

Hero Lab is screaming for a web-based client. It makes a lot of sense for the customers as well as for Lone Wolf Development themselves. The reasons include:

  • Access to characters from anywhere.
  • Mobile platform support becomes as easy as adding mobile-focused CSS to the page.
  • The ability to share characters with the rest of your group and with the GM.
  • The GM could view characters during the game.
  • If the players are tracking combat on the characters (HP/wounds, etc...) those changes could be real-time shared with the GM watching the character.
  • It's about a quarter of the complexity of writing a custom app for the mobile space and if done right would target Android and iOS at the same time.
  • It allows Lone Wolf to create a different, more profitable licensing model based around annual subscriptions or something.
  • It's cool. It just is. Accept it.

If a web client allowed me access to all the same features as the desktop version and added in that socializing aspect (sharing with the rest of my group and the GM) it would be a no-brainer. I would subscribe in a heartbeat and I can't imagine that I'm alone here.

What are the chances that something like this is in the works?
 
If it wasn't answered back when you first posted it, it is highly likely the development team has no answer for you on it right now, or no intention of developing this in the near future. As a company they're already stretched pretty thin with the projects on the table and Realm Works. Lone Wolf doesn't have hundreds of coders at their disposal to build things on demand.

Personally I see a big fault in your plan. Something you probably haven't realized is that Hero Lab is a compiler of XML code. Every time you load up the software, it recompiles the data packages you own. It would be difficult to transition this into an integrated online character builder.

Part of why I switched to Hero Lab was that its an offline tool. WotC tried switching 4e's character builder to an online application, and it failed, horribly. It was subject to instability issues and crashes during use.

While Lone Wolf does have an iOS app, look closely at it. You will see it currently only supports Pathfinder and is very limited in what it can do.

My suggestion would be that you look into Realm Works once it has launched.
 
RavenX said:
Personally I see a big fault in your plan. Something you probably haven't realized is that Hero Lab is a compiler of XML code. Every time you load up the software, it recompiles the data packages you own. It would be difficult to transition this into an integrated online character builder.
Click to expand...

A solution culd be to provide a exporter to .dnd4e format and work together with the iPlay4e site on this (which currently can display characters in .dnd4e format, but sadly not in Hero Lab format).

This would be limited to 4e, of course, as .dnd4e format is tied to this system.
 
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