Old Noob having problems

[ogre]

Alright,

I have bought Herolab. I have installed and updated it. My license is activated.

How do I gain access to my free version of Pathfinder. It will not work and says I can only run it in demo version.

My license info says I have d20 OGL 3.5 as owned, although I did not pick that and have only downloaded Pathfinder.

I bought this program at a brick/mortar store for $30. So I am supposed to gain access to one game system. I chose Pathfinder, it allowed me to download the updates. Then I restarted and it still tells me I don't own access to Pathfinder.

What am I doing wrong?

Chris

 

[ogre]

It still is attempting to force me to purchase the use of Pathfinder. It says I did it then when I restart it states I am using Pathfinder in demo mode then it tries to make me purchase it again.

This is really getting old and in my opinion quite possibly the worst licensing setup for any product I have ever dealt with in my 46 years of life.

Chris

 

[Thazar]

Most of the folks are at GenCon so forum posts from them will be a little slower then normal.

It sounds as if when it was installed and licensed you may have grabbed the wrong game system in error. (Easy to do with the store version in my opinion.) I would suggest sending them an email and see if they cannot reset your licence key to the system you really wanted.

I would recommend patience for now as the Pathfinder Hero Lab is pretty nice once you get it set up and used to it.

 

[Duggan]

Not any kind of official person here, but first, do send an email to support@wolflair.com. They have a skeleton staff who stayed despite the con, which should be enough for things like resetting licenses. Secondly, does it show any other game system as available? As stated, it may have accidentally let you pick up another game system.

But either way, emailing support generally gets you help pretty quickly for problems that can't be solved immediately.

 

[ogre]

alright,

like I said, I didn't pick a game system when I installed. I did not click on d20 ogl, but after install it states that it is owned. Which means the default setting at install forces you to pick it or it comes free with the game.

I have not downloaded anything other than Pathfinder updates. When I did finally get to the screen that asked me to choose a game, it was a drop down menu and I picked Pathfinder. It then said it would install and restart, which it did and then it once again says Pathfinder is in demo mode because I don't own it.

So like I said, this is getting tiresome.

I will probably take this back to the store at this point. I have spent 3 hours on it and it won't work.

I own my own computer store and know a bit about process and writing. This is the worst process I have ever been a part of.

Once you start installing this it should come up with all the games to pick from, instead it only shows d20 ogl 3.5

Even though I didn't mark the box, it went ahead and installed it anyway.

Now that its installed and updated, there is no place I can pick or choose that makes this process easy.

This is a basic programming issue. The best I can say is it must have been done on purpose since after checking many non Lone Wolf sites, this happens a lot.

Yet if you look on their own forum site this appears to have never happened. To me that is ridiculous.

I was warned by the game store owners that this would happen, so I researched this process and found that I should not choose anything so that I would be able to pick Pathfinder. Yet, no matter what I did it still installed d20 ogl 3.5 from Wizards. Yet I did not want that, did not pick it.

So I will wait until the morning then when the game store opens if I don't have an answer I will take this back to them and they will then return it to their distributor. With lots of people very unhappy.

Call me old fashioned but being able to buy a product with the features you want shouldn't be this frustrating. Especially when only a single feature is offered at install and you can't change it back after install.

Every option I pick now is asking for my credit card and more money for a feature I should have gotten at install.

As you can tell if you read this far I am pretty pissed off. As this process should have taken 5 minutes tops. Then I would have went back to the game store and been playing games for the last two hours plus, instead of banging my head on this crarp.

Chris

 

[Frodie]

I kind was in the same boat, but I sent them an e-mail and the switch it for me ASAP with no problems. It's a great program and worth the wait. Normally they are right on the ball with e-mails, but with everyone at Gen Con it may take them a moment. Anyways, I wish you luck and just give it some time.

 

[rob]

We just got back to the room after spending all day in the booth at GenCon. Here's what I'm guessing happened.

When you installed Hero Lab, you installed from the CD. Apparently, there are still some of the original copies of Hero Lab from almost 4 years ago floating through the distribution chain, and you apparently purchased one of them. At the time we first released Hero Lab, all we supported was d20 System, so the old product only knows of one game system to choose from.

During the installation process, you should have been prompted to download and install an updated version of Hero Lab. That would retrieve the latest version, which includes all of the other game systems. I'm sure you did that at some point to be able to download Pathfinder.

However, if you skipped the update process initially and activated your license immediately, the problem you report could occur. During the license activation process, you are required to select the game system to choose as "free" with your purchase. If you didn't update your copy prior to activating the license, the only game system shown in the list is d20 System. You probably just blasted through the process - like most people do when activating licenses - and overlooked this detail. That's how you almost certainly ended up with d20 System as your free game system.

We can fix this for you. If you send an email to support@wolflair.com, the free game system can be swapped out. We're all at GenCon right now, except for one person who stayed behind. Nancy should be able to get this sorted out for you. Be sure to provide her with three clear pieces of information:

1. Your license number
2. The game system you didn't want (d20 System)
3. The game system you *do* want (Pathfinder)

Armed with that information, Nancy can make the swap for you. After that, you'll need to run the Reactivate License wizard (under the License menu) to re-synchronize your copy of Hero Lab with the changes on the server. Once that's done, you should be good to go.

Sorry for the confusion and the hassle with this. We aren't able to control the fact that a few ancient copies of Hero Lab are still floating through the distribution channel. All we can do is get this fixed for you as smoothly as possible.

If you want to send the above info directly to me, I'll take care of it myself late tonight. You can send the info to me directly at helpdesk@wolflair.com.

 

[ogre]

Yep must be an old copy, but I did not choose d20. I left the box unmarked, then downloaded the update, then eventually got to the pick a game drop down box and picked pathfinder.

Which of course didn't work. Imagine that.

Sounds like this is a regular thing. I would suggest you recall the old product and this won't happen again.

It really gives you guys a bad name to have a product, which I special ordered from my local brick/mortar store. Because I like to support mom/pop local stores. Only to have a product delivered that could be 4 years old.

Thanks again, I will send another email to you guys with the info.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[ogre]

Or perhaps you can send out a sticker, mass produced to attach to old cd boxes that give a quick hint about how to fix the problem.

Chris

 

[ogre]

Well,

still no response from Nancy. I am sure she is overwhelmed by all the things she has to do.

 

[Duggan]

Sounds like this is a regular thing. I would suggest you recall the old product and this won't happen again.

It really gives you guys a bad name to have a product, which I special ordered from my local brick/mortar store. Because I like to support mom/pop local stores. Only to have a product delivered that could be 4 years old.

I think you're overstating the ability of Lone Wolf to control the flow of software that they distributed 4 years ago... they probably went through a central distribution company and since then copies have gone all over the place. With the economy like it is, I would be surprised if all of the companies still even have the same address, let alone having kept the same name. And this is assuming that the box you bought hasn't been resold in the process...

As for the "late" reply, 2-3 days is standard most places. Lone Wolf has done much better than that in my experience, but you're not their only customer. Ultimately, I think you're going to be satisfied with the product once you get past this minor bump.

 

[ogre]

Duggan,

A known issue, which this is considering this has been going on for over 4 years. You think might have a sticky or a spot in the FAQ.

Nope this issue is skipped over entirely. Yet my brick/mortar owners warned me about it and said I shouldn't even buy the product because no attempts had been made to fix this problem yet.

Rob was nice enough to point out what is wrong, but like I said. It is very easy to help someone like me with a problem if only Lone Wolf would bother to put up a note on their main website stating that brick/mortar stores may have old copies and there is a known issue with old copies, so do Step A, Step B and Step C and then you don't have a problem.

So instead I have to waste the better part of a day attempting to make something work that won't work. I had even done research prior to buying this that should have allowed me to do it correctly. But know where could I find reference to this issue either on Lone Wolf or on this forum.

Which means it has not been addressed correctly.

In business when a mistake happens it is a chance for the Owner to show one or two things.

1. Fix it immediately and take steps so that others that end up with same problem will know what is wrong and how to fix it.

2. Hide problem and then only admit something is wrong after the fact. Take minor steps to fix only problem that is public and once again hide problem so that it is not seen.

Personally I find the first answer is always the best. It is honest, we all make mistakes and it not only fixes the original problem but makes it easy for anyone else affected in the same way to be able to find an answer.

I know GenCon is going on, but that still does not answer the problem as to why there isn't a sticky on the forums and why there isn't something on their website for potential buyers to beware when purchasing from brick/mortar stores.

I am old fashioned and like to see my local game stores flourish. So even when I want a product they don't have I will spend extra money and wait longer just so the dollars go thru them. I also donate time to build terrain for them as well as run game demos for them.

So I hope that Lone Wolf takes an extra step in the future to make sure this does not happen again to anyone else.

It is now day two, my software does not work. Nancy is holding down the shop alone and has yet to respond to my email. Rob has responded and that was very much appreciated.

If I can make Hero Lab work with Pathfinder then I will in the future buy all the Pathfinder add ons and possibly include some of the community add ons as well.

thanks all and sorry for ranting,

Chris

 

[huntercc]

The #1 rule I always follow when buying software of any kind is to look for & download product updates before installing anything. That goes for games, productivity software, etc. The only time I have seen a software package out of the box that did not need an update, was when that package was no longer being maintained by its developers. This is often the case when buying video cards, etc - the device drivers are almost guaranteed to be out of date straight out of the box.

I have never had a major problem with Hero Lab that anybody from Lone Wolf has not been able to help me out with in a reasonable time. You have the unfortunate luck of purchasing their software at a time when their support system is mostly unavailable to you. I know I'm not the first person to say this so far, but hang in there and I'm sure you will be most satisfied with their product. Any other time of the year, they have an excellent support system and are very responsive to their customers. The user community on this forum is also very responsive and normally able to help out with many other issues / questions that people have.

 

[ogre]

Nancy got things sorted out. Hero Lab is up and running for Pathfinder and I bought the updates so I have a full install of all the Pathfinder info.

I still think Lone Wolf needs to post something in the FAQ area and have a sticky in the Hero Lab area for frequest problems.

Just my two cents.

Thanks everyone for helping me, it is appreciated.

Chris

 

[rob]

Yep must be an old copy, but I did not choose d20. I left the box unmarked, then downloaded the update, then eventually got to the pick a game drop down box and picked pathfinder.

With the license activation process, it's not possible to leave the game system unselected. Something has to be chosen or the process will fail. So I'm at a loss as to how this could have occurred.

Sounds like this is a regular thing. I would suggest you recall the old product and this won't happen again.

I'm not sure what the definition of "a regular thing" is from your perspective. I just took a look at the number of licenses that have needed to be "swapped" out on our server this year (like yours). They can be counted on one hand. Compared to the many thousands of licenses sold during that period, that's an incidence rate measured in the tenths of a percent.

We sell to distributors. Those distributors re-sell to other distributors. Somewhere along the chain, the distributors sell to retailers. We don't have control over anything once the product leaves our location en route to a distributor.

New production runs are only manufactured at reasonable intervals. We've been shipping updated product to distributors for awhile now, so few old copies should exist in the channel.

If we were to try to "recall the old product", we would be laughed at by our distributors. The cost would be prohibitive across the chain. The same applies to issuing stickers or any other sort of process, especially since the number of old copies lingering should be small.

At this point, based on our best estimates, there should be no more than a few dozen of the old copies strewn around the globe (probably less). So any sort of effort to solve this through the distribution channel makes no sense.

Posting something in the FAQ is a perfectly sound suggestion. When a problem is reported to support once every month or two, though, it doesn't register as something that "lots" of users are running into. Consequently, this issue never got flagged as needing to be posted prominently. That's not intended as an excuse - simply an explanation. When we get back from GenCon next week, we'll get this posted.

I'm glad that Nancy got everything sorted out for you and that you are running smoothly finally. I need to head off to the booth for GenCon now. I'll follow up on this further once we get home.

 

[ogre]

Thanks Rob for taking the time. It is greatly appreciated. During my initial install I did leave d20 unselected. Yet the install process installed it anyway. I keep a laptop at the local gamestore without internet capability. How do I install my second license on that. Bring it home, hook it up? Then take it back down there. When I say local I mean two towns away in Northern Idaho. So 40 minute drive or so.

 

[Lawful_g]

I don't know if the town with the game store has a Starbucks or a McDonalds with free wireless, or if your laptop can do wifi, but that is another, perhaps quicker option to connect to the internet.

 

[ogre]

No WiFi at the mall where the game store is located. I will just bring it home and reinstall. No biggie. Have to rehook up a wifi usb to the laptop or just plug in the router directly to the laptop.

 

[rob]

Thanks Rob for taking the time. It is greatly appreciated. During my initial install I did leave d20 unselected. Yet the install process installed it anyway. I keep a laptop at the local gamestore without internet capability. How do I install my second license on that. Bring it home, hook it up? Then take it back down there. When I say local I mean two towns away in Northern Idaho. So 40 minute drive or so.

Just got home from GenCon late last night. So I'm trying to get caught on everything now....

For this, you can potentially use the "Manual License Activation" wizard on the License menu. However, you will need internet access somewhere along the way to complete the activation process. Using the "manual" process, you run a wizard on the non-connected computer to capture the necessary data. This data can be copied to a memory stick. Then you upload that data to our server from a computer with an internet connection and receive back a proper key file, which can be copied to the memory stick for return to the original computer. Once you are back on the original computer, you copy the key file into place and launch Hero Lab.

Since the laptop is easily portable, taking it home to setup is likely the easier solution. However, if you can get 2 minutes of internet access somewhere in the town where the laptop resides, you can use the manual process above and save the extra driving.