Pricing, iPad, and maybe bug?

[hiyami]

Alrighty, I'm a brand new Hero Lab user (this is my first post here) and I'm totally in love with the program! I'm loving the ease of character creation and I absolutely adore the encounter builder and tactical console. It's making my life way easier as a GM, especially with a new group of players. Since they're beginners, they're relying on me to know what I'm doing and since I'm only touching Pathfinder again after... about a year? I'm really, really appreciating the help because it makes it so I actually can't make a mistake.

That said, I've got three things I want to ask about!

1. I did see that the prices just went up - I guess I'm lucky I got the base game for a few bucks cheaper, but gosh darn if those extra dollars don't make my college student bank account sad as hell. That said, it makes complete sense and is totally fair (especially for the quality of this game, omg, I'm telling you guys I love this thing!). That said, the bundles are calling to me. I can't get anything right now, but if I wanted to in the future... Well, if I've already got a piece of it, could I get the cost of the item that I'd already purchased removed from the cost of the bundle?

Which maybe doesn't make sense, so as an example...

I own the Campaign Setting #7. I'm considering getting The Pathfinder RPG Campaign Setting Bundle 2008-2016, which is $99.99... (So not now, but one day when I have dollars!) It's advertised as being over 20% off the base price of the data packages.

But Campaign Setting Bundle already has #7 in it, which normally costs $5.99. At 20% off, it'd be $4.80. Is there a way that the bundle prices could account for my previous purchase and take $4.80 off? That way, it'd be $95.19?


2. I really, really love the iPad usability! I'm really enjoying the convenient of just kinda being able to chill out on the couch and make a character instead of doing it from in front of a desk and having to pretend I have good posture. That said, is there any anticipated support for Encounter Builder or Tactical Console? It'd be awesome if there was, but if there isn't, no big deal. It'd just, you know. Be super cool.


3. This last one is about the Pathfinder druid class's animal companions. I'm actually not sure if this is a bug/problem since I'm not super familiar with druids, but it notes that you can only have on General Purpose Trick for your companion, so I thought maybe I oughta point it out? I'd actually selected two of the General Purpose Tricks because I didn't know, but maybe if the others disappeared afterwards, that'd help? I had it toggled to 'Valid' only, so I thought I could have both when the system definitely told me I wasn't allowed to and I was a bit sad. But, yeah, maybe the 'Valid' toggle thing should let it update after you pick one of the General Purpose Tricks so the others don't also continue to show?


Annnnd, that's it for what I've got questions on at the moment. Answers, thoughts, discussion? Thanks so much in advance.

 

[charlieluce]

Welcome to the Hero Lab community!

Sadly, I can tell you from experience that there is no provision for taking previous purchases into account or doing anything like a roll-your-own bundle. Maybe some day in the future when the Store software is more sophisticated, but not in the near term.

 

[hiyami]

Oof, sorry, got distracted by life there for a few days.

I'm actually wondering if maybe getting a front-end programmer/designer person might help tidy up that sort of sales stuff. It'd be really cool if that did happen, but I figured it was worth asking, if only to maybe to see if it could one day happen.

Any word on questions two and three, perchance?

 

[ShadowChemosh]

3. This last one is about the Pathfinder druid class's animal companions. I'm actually not sure if this is a bug/problem since I'm not super familiar with druids, but it notes that you can only have on General Purpose Trick for your companion, so I thought maybe I oughta point it out? I'd actually selected two of the General Purpose Tricks because I didn't know, but maybe if the others disappeared afterwards, that'd help? I had it toggled to 'Valid' only, so I thought I could have both when the system definitely told me I wasn't allowed to and I was a bit sad. But, yeah, maybe the 'Valid' toggle thing should let it update after you pick one of the General Purpose Tricks so the others don't also continue to show?

General Hero Lab Support & Community Resources is a sticky thread at top of Forum where you request official support for issues. A bug is ANYTHING you think is not working correctly. Weather you know for a fact or are just wondering if it is wrong. Report it using the above links to get an official response from Lone Wolf.

Also note you better asking questions in the correct game forum and not general HL. Each game system is VERY VERY different.

 

[hiyami]

Oh, wups. I feel silly - I'll go ahead and throw the third one into the appropriate thread. Thanks for the heads up. ^o^

Now... Maybe anything on the second question then? o: Or does that fall under Pathfinder, too? (Seeing as that's the system I'm more interested in... But also, you know, there's D&D5?)

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Now... Maybe anything on the second question then? o: Or does that fall under Pathfinder, too? (Seeing as that's the system I'm more interested in... But also, you know, there's D&D5?)

Just to be clear I don't work for LW so I can't say about the future. But currently no the iPad app was made for single players using a character with maybe a familiar or animal companion.

I have heard of some people trying to open up 20+ character portfolios and the app just does not handle that well at all. Or iOS just closes the app down once it runs out of memory.

Its really more of a Player App than a DM app really. Though sometimes I will run a single complicated NPC on the app.

Its been mentioned by many on these forums that they use a Windows based tablet instead. Its mentioned in the Android thread. That gives you a good "Best" of all worlds approach.

For my group I have 4 iPads, 1 windows tablet, and one full windows laptop in use by my players. Honestly those on the iPads seem to do everything the quickest as it even rolls dice. The windows tablet user just has to do "lots" of swipe/presses/gestures to get things to work right.

 

[hiyami]

Okay, that's... Extremely useful to know and answers all three of my questions in some way, shape or form. Forums are awesome~

Thank you!

 

[Silveras]

Oh, wups. I feel silly - I'll go ahead and throw the third one into the appropriate thread. Thanks for the heads up. ^o^

I don't speak for LoneWolf, but I have a long-standing bug report in because there is an issue with replacing the default assigned General Training (at least for Dog animal companions of a Huntmaster Cavalier.. not sure how or if that pertains to other, less specific, cases).

At the time when I posted it, HeroLab showed a Validation Error when assigning a second General Training .. but that's the only work-around I know of for the bug I reported.

 

[Farling]

2. I really, really love the iPad usability! I'm really enjoying the convenient of just kinda being able to chill out on the couch and make a character instead of doing it from in front of a desk and having to pretend I have good posture. That said, is there any anticipated support for Encounter Builder or Tactical Console? It'd be awesome if there was, but if there isn't, no big deal. It'd just, you know. Be super cool.

Whilst iPad doesn't do the encounter builder or tactical console.

If you really wanted to use something to handle these on an iPad then you could look at Combat Manager.

Personally I've moved on from an iPad to a windows tablet/laptop hybrid for doing this since the desktop version of HeroLab is so much easier.

 

[hiyami]

...Dog animal companions of a Huntmaster Cavalier...

I was doin' it with a Wolf animal companion for a Druid, so I think it's probably the same issue? HeroLab told me about the problem when I checked for validity, but I was surprised that it didn't prevent me from making the mistake altogether considering how efficient HL has been everywhere else.

...Combat Manager.

How is that program? I've considered it in the past, but I didn't bother touching it (because textbooks are expensive), but I might be able to try it later... And I would definitely agree that a laptop or desktop would be loooooads better, but since some of my players are, well. They have problems with putting down their phones and stuff, so I don't want to encourage that behavior when I've got 'em immersed and stuff. An iPad is just kinda out of the way when I'm not actively doublechecking stuff, but the laptop/desktop is a bit too obvious. ;A;

 

[Silveras]

I was doin' it with a Wolf animal companion for a Druid, so I think it's probably the same issue? HeroLab told me about the problem when I checked for validity, but I was surprised that it didn't prevent me from making the mistake altogether considering how efficient HL has been everywhere else.

HeroLab warns you, but it does bot stop you. LWD can't predict every house rule, and it would be much harder for users to force it to let them do something than to just ignore a warning that does not apply under their house rules.

 

[hiyami]

Ooooh, that's a really great point, Silveras! I hadn't been thinking about house rules since we haven't actually made any yet. Thanks! Definitely gives me more perspective on this matter.