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My experience with the Hero Labs demo.

P

plambert

Member
Hello!

I've heard a lot about Hero Labs over the years, and thought I'd give it a try.

This is an account of my experience.

First, I downloaded it, installed it, and ran it. That all went pretty smoothly.

It shows me a screen with the options to buy a license, enter a license, or use it in demo mode. I choose demo mode.

Then it shows a screen with a bunch of game systems.

At the bottom, it says "Checking for updates..." and there's a little animation that never ends.

I am interested in 4e, so I clicked the arrow next to "4e."

It says, "No update could be found for this game. Click the 'locate file' button to check for updates."

But there is no locate file button. Huh.

Maybe this is, itself a game, and I am supposed to guess what the developer means?

Well, there's an "import file" button. I will try that!

I click it and it shows me a file dialog, pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\HeroLab\Download\

But that directory is empty. So clearly that's not where I am supposed to find the 4e files.

There are a bunch of menus at the top of the window. I wonder if any of them could help me?

So I click on one. Then another. Then another. None are functional. I'm not sure why they're there, if I can't use them? Perhaps it is important that I know that, in the future, there will be a menu bar there for me to use, and those are the names of the menus?

I know! I'll try the "Get Updates" button. Maybe somehow that is what "click the 'locate file' button" meant?

I immediately get:

"The latest updates could not be retrieved successfully at this time. This could be due to a temporary problem accessing the hosting web-site. Please try again in a little while. If the problem persists, check that your firewall or internet security software is not blocking Hero Lab.

"The error received was: Error retrieving data! Please verify that you can load web sites in your web browser, and that your firewall or antivirus software is not blocking the product (ERR_CORE_INTERNET_URL_RETRIEVE when calling Internet_HTTP_Post 0x40010275)"

OK... not exactly a well written error message, but let's see what it means.

Maybe the hero lab website is down. I'll wait a few hours and try later.

...time passes...

Nope, still not working.

OK, maybe it's the Windows Firewall settings. I have no other firewall software installed.

So I turn off the Windows Firewall entirely. It colors lots of things red and gets very angry and stern with me, but it's off. And... nope. Same problems with Hero Lab.

Well, someone must be having this problem, right? So I come to the forums and search for a solution...

Wow. Every search requires that I enter a captcha. Apparently, entering one isn't enough!

I search for "No update could be found" and... lots of results. Too many. Oh! It stripped some of the words from my search, and I have apparently searched for "update found."

So let's try the most specific thing I can find: the error constant ERR_CORE_INTERNET_URL_RETRIEVE.

Zero results found.

Well, either I'm the first to see this, or I'm the only one who typed in the whole error. I would have copied and pasted it, but it isn't selectable. Do the developers really not want users to be able to copy and paste the error messages? Ahh, but that would get rid of the challenge of providing technical support! "It said there was an error." "What was the error?" "I don't know. Something about an error."

I try a few other searches. Some fail, until I realize I forgot to enter the captcha info again. At any time, I might turn into a spam bot!

I find one thread where it's suggested that a user try to reach https://lonewolfdevel.com/ to ensure it isn't blocked.

I can reach it just fine in a browser. So that's not the problem.

Time for the last resort. I click the button marked, "Help"

"The different games available for Hero Lab are displayed on this form. When you try to launch a game for the first time, it will download itself automatically."

Below this are several paragraphs talking about the 'locate file' button. Huh. Well, I guess that's not going to help much.

While I'm sure it's fantastic once it's working, and totally worth the price, I am looking for a tool that saves me time, rather than requiring a big upfront investment of time, effort, and learning.

So, I'm uninstalling Hero Lab. But I didn't want to do so without leaving feedback; I realize it can be hard to recognize the out-of-the-box experience when you're already deeply invested in a product, and I hope this information is useful to the developers in some way, even if it's just used as an example of the type of customer who isn't smart enough to use it. :-)

Thanks!

Paul M. Lambert
 
Did you try any of the other game systems or jsut the DD4? cause with DD4 you have to be a DDI subscriber through Wizards to be able to get the data for it. Herolab has mechanical support but they do not have the rights for the data. every other game system will be able to be used in demo mode though
 
Hmm. I'm surprised this issue never made it onto the forums. About once every 2 months, we have someone run into this problem and report it to technical support. I work it through with them to get them running properly.

I'm sorry you ran into this issue. It sounds like you spent a fair bit of time on this, and I wish you had simply sent a problem report to technical support or posted here earlier in the process. We could have probably gotten this resolved before you threw in the towel. At least this post will get the details officially onto the forums for anyone else who runs into it.

I'll start by asserting this is not an issue with Hero Lab - the culprit is something else on your computer. Hero Lab uses the standard built-in Windows API for accessing the internet. The same standard mechanism has been in use across all of our products for many years, and it works well on hundreds of thousands of computers. So the trick is in figuring out what is gumming up the works on your particular computer.

Since we use the standard Windows API for internet access, it means that every internet security product (McAfee, Norton, etc.) will intercept all the calls that Hero Lab makes. This creates an external factor for which many users aren't aware of the implications.

Sometimes, the issue is due to a bug in how the internet security product works, with the security product not maintaining 100% conformance to how the Windows API behaves. In order to insert their security logic, such products replace the standard built-in Windows functions that Hero Lab calls with their own versions. If the replaced version isn't 100% consistent with the behavior of the original function, it can fail and report an error incorrectly. This has occurred numerous times over the years. The problem miraculously corrects itself after a week or two - and the correction coincides with an update of the internet security product.

More often, the issue stems from the user needing to properly configure the internet security product(s) to allow Hero Lab through. The security tools automatically recognize major products (e.g. web browsers, Microsoft Office, etc.), so those products are implicitly allowed access to the internet. Other programs are blocked by default, so the user needs to go into the configuration settings of the security tool and explicitly allow those programs to get through. Hero Lab falls into this category.

The problem is that users are misled by this behavior. They assume all programs should be getting through to the internet since all the major ones are getting through. Consequently, they never think about the fact that Hero Lab is being blocked by default and needs to be explicitly allowed through.

A third possibility has also arisen, which is due to a change in a recent update to Internet Explorer. It turns out IE changed the settings to use a LAN proxy. This will generally make internet access fail for all programs, so it's not usually a factor when a problem is encountered specifically with Hero Lab. If this IE change affects you, let us know and we can outline the steps to correct it.

Now that I've provided some context, let's look at the diagnostic process. Obviously, the first thing to check is that you can access the internet from other programs. Assuming that works, the next thing to do is ensure that each internet security tool is configured to allow Hero Lab through. This includes Windows Firewall and any other tool (or tools) that might be installed on your computer, such as McAfee, Norton, etc.

If that doesn't solve the problem, the next step is to load the "Authoring Kit Sample" game system that is installed with Hero Lab. Once you're in, go to the Tools menu, then the Diagnostics sub-menu, and select "Check Internet Connection". This will run some diagnostics on Hero Lab's access to the internet in an effort to narrow down the problem. If the diagnostics don't help you identify and fix the problem, copy and paste the report into an email to support@wolflair.com. We can then take a look at the report and hopefully uncover more details about what is going wrong.

If you need to send us the diagnostics report, you can still get up and running with Hero Lab, even though the product can't access the internet. You'll simply need to use your web browser to handle all the downloading until we can get the problem figured out for you. Here are the steps you'll need to know to accomplish this.

* Start by loading the Authoring Kit Sample game system.

* To activate your license...
1. Go to the License menu and use the Manual License Activation option.
2. When the wizard completes, switch to your web browser on the same computer to follow the final instructions given by the wizard.
3. Download the file into the specified location on your computer.
4. Restart Hero Lab. The license should now be activated.

* To download data files for game systems...
1. Go to the Help menu and select View Latest Updates on Website.
2. Download the game systems you want to use, making a note of where you saved them on your computer.
3. Now go to the Tools menu and select Import Files.
4. Navigate to one of the files you downloaded and select the file.
5. Then follow the instructions to complete the import process.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each game system you downloaded.
7. Now go to the File menu and select Switch Game System. The games you downloaded should now be available for use.

Hopefully, this will prove helpful to the next person that runs into this issue.
 
Thanks for the response!

In the Windows Firewall, Hero Lab is listed with full access.

I have not knowingly installed any other firewall software, although I seldom use Windows, due to the tendency for software to appear that I never asked to install.

Below is the output of the diagnostics.

Thanks!

Paul M. Lambert

-----

Hero Lab 3.6c encountered a problem while trying to access the internet.

This error is almost always caused by your firewall or internet security software, which is incorrectly blocking internet access to this product.

Please add this product to the "allow list" or "whitelist" of your firewall and internet security software. Once this is done, it should be able to access the internet as normal.

For debugging: InternetOpenURL err 12057. No message.

Retrieval from wolflair.com succeeded.

For debugging: 6.1 b7600 p2 v smj0 smn0 mask00000100 t1

If this information did not help solve your problem, right-click this message and choose "Copy to Clipboard", then paste this information into an email to support@wolflair.com.
 
So, in the meantime, I downloaded the 4e.hl file.

When I tried to open it, I got a message about having two copies of Hero Lab open. I suppose it's possible I might have wanted two copies of Hero Lab open, but is that really the most likely scenario?

So, I quit Hero Lab entirely, and tried again.

This time, it allowed me to import the 4e rules. And it told me to use the Help -> 4th Edition Manual... menu option to learn how to use the DDI importer.

However, that option doesn't work. It opens a local file:// URL which points to .../herolab/Data/4e/docs/manual.htm

There is a Data/4e directory, but it doesn't contain a docs directory.

Maybe I'm insane, but even if the original downloading had not had firewall issues, I would still be looking at help that either doesn't exist, or uses the wrong names for things, right?

OK, 4e is weird, because of the lame licensing from WotC. I'll try Pathfinder, and see if that works.

Paul
 
OK, the pathfinder.hl file loaded fine, and I can use it, so the program at least works.

However, none of the file:// links under the Help menu work. Again, there is no PathFinder Manual or FAQ--these point to non-existent files.

Is all the documentation full of references to UI elements that do not exist?

Is this lack of attention to detail typical for Hero Lab? Should I just pretend there is no "Help" menu?

Paul
 
I don't use 4E so I can't speak to that, but I do know there is plenty of documentation for Pathfinder. When I click on the "View Manual" button, it takes me to "file:///c:/games/herolab/Data/pathfinder/pathfindermanual.htm" as I have it installed under C:\Games.

My first "out of the box" experience with HL gave me no problems whatsoever, it just worked. Since then I have found that one of Lone Wolf's many strong points as a company is their support. When people have issues with the software, they are extremely helpful and are more than willing to spend time to make sure everyone is able to use their program.

If you are truly interested in trying out the software, I believe you will benefit from spending time either trading emails or forum posts regarding your issues. They haven't once let me down!
 
I'm not sure about the internet access problem. Colen is the expert on that stuff and I just asked him to take a look at the diagnostic info you posted above. So he should get back to you on that tomorrow.

However, I *do* have a theory on all the other weirdness that's going on. I'm guessing that you are (a) running Windows 7 (possibly Vista) with strong security settings enabled, (b) using an account that does *not* have administrator privileges, and [here's the clincher] (c) you elected to install Hero Lab beneath the "Program Files" folder. If you combine all three of those variables together, then you'll get very confusing behaviors from Hero Lab.

An explanation of what's going on within Windows can be found in a post I made earlier this year. The post is in reference to our Army Builder product, but Hero Lab shares the same framework, so the same issues apply. That post is below, in case you want some insight into a very weird and confusing behavior of Windows.
http://forums.wolflair.com/showpost.php?p=36515&postcount=15

If you installed HL beneath "Program Files" and don't have Administrator privileges, Windows security will silently move files and/or block access to services. All in the name of safety and without bothering to tell you what it's done. Assuming I'm correct, all the weird behaviors (and possibly the internet access issue, but I'm not sure about that) should be solved by simply running Hero Lab with sufficient privileges.

You can accomplish this very easily. Locate the shortcut you normally use to launch HL. Instead of left-clicking on it to launch the product, right-click on it instead. From the menu that appears, select the "Run as Administrator" option. Does the User Manual show up properly now? Does everything else appear to now work properly? It's possible this won't solve the internet access issue, but the other issues should now go away.

Assuming this fixes the problem, you can configure HL to always be launched with the necessary privileges. Right-click on the shortcut again and select the "Properties" option this time. On the "Compatibility" tab, check the box labeled "Run as Administrator" and save the changes. Now you should be able to launch HL the same way you're used to and it should always start with Administrator privileges.

Note that, if Hero Lab is installed into the default location suggested by the installer (or anywhere other than beneath "Program Files"), this problem does not occur. If you continue to have problems after trying the above, you might consider uninstalling the product and re-installing it in the default location, which should eliminate these problems.

Solving this issue is a high priority for inclusion in the next big feature update for HL, but it's still a problem in the current V3.6c release.
 
plambert said:
Below is the output of the diagnostics.

Thanks!

Paul M. Lambert

-----

For debugging: InternetOpenURL err 12057. No message.

Retrieval from wolflair.com succeeded.
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

According to the information I've found error 12057 is sometimes caused by your system's date being incorrect (your system thinks the time is different from when it actually is, so it thinks that a certificate has expired when actually it hasn't.)

Can you please verify that the clock in Windows displays the correct date?

If the date looks correct, try following these instructions, restarting windows, then checking for updates in Hero Lab:

http://louisville.edu/it/information/topics/rncp/ca-ssl-error.html

(Restarting windows may be important, so please don't forget to do that.) Does that solve your problem?
 
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