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Hero Lab Online and Starfinder Q&A

Dervish said:
I am curious as to exactly what feature Hero Lab Classic is missing that you believe Hero Lab Online will mystically manifest.
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Shared resources (i.e. loot tracking, spaceships).
The big one for me is auto-updating in MY tactical console when the players add buff to their sheet.
Mass application of buffs/debuffs to a group (and auto updating players characters with this info)

I am sure there are many, many more things that can be done with a connected model that cannot be done with a stand alone app.

And "mystically manifest" is an odd term here, magic doesn't really exist. It should be "Developer writes code".
 
Dervish said:
I am curious as to exactly what feature Hero Lab Classic is missing that you believe Hero Lab Online will mystically manifest.
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They've already said.
1) Starfinder has some group rules regarding ships that would be more difficult to manage in HLC than HLO.

2) Access from any device with a web client, be it Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux, whatever.

3) It's easier to develop for and support a single code base than to develop for and support a separate code base for each platform.

These are very practical reasons. Nothing mystical about them.
 
Since I am a staunch opponent of the "Lets move everything in the world to a subscription!" movement, will there be a 'lifetime subscription' license that we can purchase?

As an example, I would be willing to pay *tosses random, ballpark figure out* $60-$120 to never have to worry about ANOTHER endless payment that goes on forever and I have to track throughout my bills.

It is always a challenge to explain to people why it sucks to have to pay endlessly for Internet, Netflix, Spotify, Adobe products, a MMO flavor of the month, or whatever 6-12 'things' that we have to pay for as a subscription.
 
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I'm all for a subscription model. A buy-once model is harder to support for a hosted service and I doubt that 60-120 for a lifetime subscription is sustainable. Hopefully, they will eventually ofter StarFinder for HLC, but it isn't going to support all the features of HLO.

What I look for in subscriptions is flexible pricing. I only want to pay when I'm using it. I can cancel HBO Now when there is nothing I'm currently watching on it and start it up again when there is a new season of a series or a new series I want to watch. Similarly, I would like to pay for HLO only when I'm playing in or running a campaign using a supported system.
 
I don't buy the story that single purchase software is non-sustainable. I can't vouch for a smaller company like WolfLair, but Adobe, Microsoft and Valve didn't become behemoths selling subscriptions. (Yea, I know, they are a different market and a different product; tabletop RPG's are pretty niche)

Is there more money in subscriptions? Yea, of course. You're siphoning endless dollars from countless people, most of which have proven that they are unlikely to 'pause' or 'temporarily cancel' subscriptions during the times that they aren't using them.

Meh, I don't know why I am speaking into the ether, there are far more people than I would like to admit that would rather pay $10 a month forever rather than paying $100 for a product once.
 
qcgreywolf said:
I don't buy the story that single purchase software is non-sustainable. I can't vouch for a smaller company like WolfLair, but Adobe, Microsoft and Valve didn't become behemoths selling subscriptions. (Yea, I know, they are a different market and a different product; tabletop RPG's are pretty niche)
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It's just how the industry works now. Companies are outsourcing everything these days and that includes server infrastructure. LWD will almost definitely have their servers in a 3rd party data center. So they will be paying a monthly charge themselves and that charge will likely vary depending on how much bandwidth and storage they use. The more customers using the service the more the back-end infrastructure will cost.
 
qcgreywolf said:
Adobe, Microsoft and Valve didn't become behemoths selling subscriptions.
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Microsoft and Adobe make huge amounts of money from subscriptions.. B2B is where they make their money.

Also try buying Adobe Photoshop.. subscription only now.

Valve is different, its just an online store, they don't actually make much.
 
Steam is a different model. That's a distribution platform where they take a cut from the sales. LWD need to pay the content owner for that right so it's turned around and upside down.
 
Just as a matter of interest, has there been any suggestions to move any other of the official game systems over to HLO. I realise that Starfinder was the initial game, and this thread is full of speculation about pathfinder/pathfinder2, but what about the others?
 
From memory the original lineup was StarFinder > Pathfinder > D&D 5e.

Now Pathfinder 2.0 will slot in there somewhere.
 
Arjon Smithson said:
Just as a matter of interest, has there been any suggestions to move any other of the official game systems over to HLO. I realise that Starfinder was the initial game, and this thread is full of speculation about pathfinder/pathfinder2, but what about the others?
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From the FAQ: "Q: Will other game systems like Pathfinder and Shadowrun be supported in Hero Lab Online?
A: Absolutely! Once we conquer space, we’ll get to work on bringing the other systems online as well."
 
Since at least some new games are not going to be made available for HLC but only for HLO, are current HLC users going to be given free or reduced price HLO licences? Also, is HLO going to be set up to be usable offline?
 
I'm sure it hasn't been stated that new games (excepting Starfinder, and perhaps PF2) won't be available for Classic. Even if it did happen, why should Classic users get free/reduced packages for Online games?
It has been said many times that HLO will have a offline mode to view characters, but not modify them.
 
Since I don't want to use HLO for playing games but for character building, why should I be forced to pay for another licence for something I don't really want? The reason that Starfinder and PF2 have been refused to HLC users is simply because the intention is to develop them for online gaming and not for offline use. It would make sense for Lone Wolf to incentivise HLC users to switch to HLO so they can phase out HLC and concentrate on what seems to be their core business.
 
The only discount we've mentioned to date is that when an old system is ported over users will simply incur a minimal one-time replication fee (roughly 20 dollars) to have all the content you own in Classic available in HLO. That way no one has to purchase the books twice. That is, of course, entirely optional.
 
thaX said:
Is this in addition to the 24.99 for the license for PF1 on the Online model?
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I was just responding to this question this in another post, so this will be easy. :)

The replication fee will cover everything you own that we have replicated for Hero Lab Online, including core systems.

So if you, say, own the Pathfinder 1 core system, two bestiaries, and Ultimate Equipment and we've replicated those in Hero Lab Online, you will indeed have them in your account.
 
Do you have a list of items you've replicated so far in HLO? If we sign up to HLO and one or more of our packages hasn't been replicated yet, will there be an additional fee when it is?
 
Rone said:
I was just responding to this question this in another post, so this will be easy. :)

The replication fee will cover everything you own that we have replicated for Hero Lab Online, including core systems.

So if you, say, own the Pathfinder 1 core system, two bestiaries, and Ultimate Equipment and we've replicated those in Hero Lab Online, you will indeed have them in your account.
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Maybe I am just slow to today but what does this mean? :confused: :confused:

Lets use an example of PF1 comes out and I go to add it to my existing HLO account (I already own Starfinder and PF2). Which of the following are correct:

1) I pay $24.99 for a "new game" and then another $20* bucks on top of that for "converting" for a final price of $44.99?

2) I pay $20* bucks at sign up to get Core, APG, B1 and then when B2, B3, B4 comes out I pay again another $20* bucks?

3) I pay only the $20* bucks for converting everything for a final total cost of $20* with no additional costs in the future to convert data.

Thanks!

* 20 bucks being used as the place holder and I understand this price could change...
 
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