-
Please note: In an effort to ensure that all of our users feel welcome on our forums, we’ve updated our forum rules. You can review the updated rules here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=5528.
If a fellow Community member is not following the forum rules, please report the post by clicking the Report button (the red yield sign on the left) located on every post. This will notify the moderators directly. If you have any questions about these new rules, please contact support@wolflair.com.
- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Realm Works Release Plan & Pricing
- Thread starter liz
- Start date
I would add that you can also use the Player View (either on a second monitor or on your own by setting it up then turning your monitor to the players) at the tabletop as well, without having to pay for cloud service, too. Plus there are some way to set up a virtual monitor and/or window that you could h=make available to your players on the internet if you've got some basic technical skills. Also with no cloud service being required. So there are some functions of the program you can use to share with your players, and not strictly for yourself, without having to use the cloud service, and those no additional cost.
And I would add that it's frankly awesome for setting up worlds/scenarios, etc., even without the cloud service or using it to share anything with your players (although that is pretty useful, too, as I have found using a second monitor really helpful for giving them reminders of NPC names and such right on a screen they can see.)
And I would add that it's frankly awesome for setting up worlds/scenarios, etc., even without the cloud service or using it to share anything with your players (although that is pretty useful, too, as I have found using a second monitor really helpful for giving them reminders of NPC names and such right on a screen they can see.)
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! We're working around the clock on this end, and it's a monumental juggle to bounce between development tasks, the forums, and all the myriad small tasks that go into actually releasing the product. Not to mention all the time trying to figure out creative ways to accommodate everybody's wants. It's a grueling process.
So it's VERY nice to hear that it's recognized and appreciated!
So it's VERY nice to hear that it's recognized and appreciated!
If I understood Rob's earlier replies correctly, the client would need to connect to the server for *each* realm created. No subscription would be required for that, but in order to have the necessary support in place should the user later decide to add a subscription, the client needs to communicate with the server during creation of each realm.
Exactly correct. There's no reason you couldn't just create a half-dozen realms right at the start and then utilize them as you go. That would eliminate the need to contact the server for the future realms, since they would already be created and reserved.
When you add content to your realm, every single piece of data has to be uniquely tied to that realm. When you sync your content up to the server, the same must hold true. We could delay doing this until a user wanted to sync his content up to the cloud the first. It would make the process significantly more complicated, though. Let's say you create a big realm and finally decide you want to sync it. When you first create it, your computer picks an id for your realm. Unfortunately, that same id gets chosen by UserB's computer when he creates a realm on his own computer. So there's a conflict. Now, when you sync your realm, we need to take all your content and modify it to eliminate the conflict. Then we need to send all your modified content back down to you and overwrite your material with the revised content. That's doable, but it's complicated and ugly, plus there are lots of opportunities for an error in all that logic to corrupt your data, which means lots more work for us and lots more testing to make sure it's all bulletproof.
Things get significantly MORE complicated when content sharing comes into play. Now we need to be able to uniquely distinguish content you created from content someone else created, plus we need to track which realm each piece of data originated from. However, we also need to allow all that content to behave as if you created it all (so you can modify it freely). At that point, we can't separately track which piece of content belongs to which realm via separate columns on each record without making everything incredibly convoluted. So we instead bake that information into the id associated with each piece of content, and the problem is solved.
If we bake the information into the id and let users potentially use conflicting values to flag their realm, we now have to fixup every single id of every single piece of data when you ultimately decide to sync your realm. Imagine a realm that's hundreds of megabytes in size (some of our Beta team members have realms that big), with hundreds of thousands of individual records. Fixing up all that data becomes a herculean task.
We sidestep all of these complications if we simply require every user to contact the server when creating a new realm. This reserves a guaranteed unique value for the realm, which can thereafter be baked into all the ids issued on the standalone client. When a user later decides to sync his data, all that data is guaranteed to have distinct ids from all other users. So there's no muss or fuss, and it all just works smoothly.
All of the technical details are a lot more hairy and not something I have time to delve into beyond this basic overview. Hopefully, this explanation makes sense. We did not make the decision to do things this way lightly. It was necessitated to avoid significantly more complicated problems, and we felt it was a very minor requirement to impose upon users for which the benefits far out-weighed the negatives and for which there is a very simple work-around. If someone wants to avoid having this impact them down the road, all they need to do is create a bunch of realms right away, as I outlined at the top of this post.
Hope this helps!
Let me see if I am processing this correctly...
When you start a new realm, it has it's own unique ID that is tied to your account, correct so far?
Ok assuming this is correct, then as part of the process of starting this new realm, it concurrently allocates a portion of the server/cloud with that realm's unique ID as a placeholder? Yes?
If so, then will the RW software auto attempt to sync or update the realm on the server, or will that be a toggle in the preferences? I'm assuming that if you don't have an active subscription, the RW software will bypass this step?
While some realms I may want to share with friends spread across the world, there are some realms I will want to create that I want to be private.
When you start a new realm, it has it's own unique ID that is tied to your account, correct so far?
Ok assuming this is correct, then as part of the process of starting this new realm, it concurrently allocates a portion of the server/cloud with that realm's unique ID as a placeholder? Yes?
If so, then will the RW software auto attempt to sync or update the realm on the server, or will that be a toggle in the preferences? I'm assuming that if you don't have an active subscription, the RW software will bypass this step?
While some realms I may want to share with friends spread across the world, there are some realms I will want to create that I want to be private.
When you create the realm, it's reserved on the server and the details for creating all the ids are sent down to the standalone client. Once you've created the realm, everything subsequent to that is completely up to you to initiate. So you can choose to never sync any of your realms to the server, or you can sync all of them, or you can selectively decide which ones are synced.
Automatic syncing is something that's still on the todo list, but it will need to be configured by the user once it's actually added. By default, nothing is synced until the user triggers a sync to occur (or configures auto-syncing to occur in the future).
Automatic syncing is something that's still on the todo list, but it will need to be configured by the user once it's actually added. By default, nothing is synced until the user triggers a sync to occur (or configures auto-syncing to occur in the future).
Rob,
Regarding you and the crew working 'round the clock, it is my sincere hope that you and the crew take time off to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends. We'll still be here when you get back. If RW is ready before Christmas, great. If not, we'll still be here after.
I may be all bluster on the outside, but I'm warm and squishy on the inside. Merry Christmas, and be well.
Regarding you and the crew working 'round the clock, it is my sincere hope that you and the crew take time off to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends. We'll still be here when you get back. If RW is ready before Christmas, great. If not, we'll still be here after.
I may be all bluster on the outside, but I'm warm and squishy on the inside. Merry Christmas, and be well.
The other piece that I think addresses woobyluv's questions is that, from what I have gathered in previous posts, players will need to create accounts on the server. The GM who owns a realm will be able to grant access to the player accounts on a realm-by-realm basis.. so some realms can remain completely private, while none are automatically wide open for just anyone to peek into.
Absolutely correct. GMs will have complete control over what realms are/aren't available and to whom they're made available. Syncing to the server can be performed on realms without even exposing the existence of those realms to anyone else.
Thanks for pointing that out!
Kendall-DM
Spy
Having met with and spent some time with the Lone Wolf staff at Gen Con, I can say without a doubt that these guys and gals, to a person, are dedicated to both producing a high quality set of products as well as serving the gaming industry as a whole. Everyone needs to remember that Lone Wolf is a small company, and many of its employees work long hours just to produce a quality product for us, the consumers. I'm convinced that rob doesn't sleep at all, I'm thinking he's part cyborg.
So, it's very easy to imagine why things are delayed. There just isn't enough time in the day (or week, or month, or year even) to do the work that needs to be done to meet the quality that each and every member of the RW team expects from creating their products. RW is an exceptional product, as most of the Beta team can attest to, and it will probably be the flagship product for some time for Lone Wolf. One cannot under value the need for the LW team to get it right the first time around. First impressions are long lasting, and many a product has fallen to obscurity because one company or another has rushed a product out the door only to have it fail.
In other words, the wait is worth it, and it will be worth it.
So, it's very easy to imagine why things are delayed. There just isn't enough time in the day (or week, or month, or year even) to do the work that needs to be done to meet the quality that each and every member of the RW team expects from creating their products. RW is an exceptional product, as most of the Beta team can attest to, and it will probably be the flagship product for some time for Lone Wolf. One cannot under value the need for the LW team to get it right the first time around. First impressions are long lasting, and many a product has fallen to obscurity because one company or another has rushed a product out the door only to have it fail.
In other words, the wait is worth it, and it will be worth it.
gloranphile
Well-known member
+1 to everything Kendall-DM just said, especially this:
As a Beta user, I can attest to the long hours and hard work that goes into fixing minor (and sometimes major) errors we come up with, and with every release of RW that comes out, I'm consistently impressed with the program's abilities and coverage.
As a Beta user, I can attest to the long hours and hard work that goes into fixing minor (and sometimes major) errors we come up with, and with every release of RW that comes out, I'm consistently impressed with the program's abilities and coverage.
Or to put that another way....
*puts on a Beanie Propeller hat and gets in the back of the Wolf Lair Car*
"Are we there yet?"
@jerrycnh - That's great
I have not met any of them but the impressions I've gotten from them is right on the mark from this.
Last edited:
flamepulse
Well-known member
hopefully its safe to say pre-christmas 2014 is the plan.
Honestly i will be ecstatic if we see this before years end, im not expecting it till march.
Baffled
The frustrating piece is that it is in the hands of non-beta and non-early access members but not the general public. Knowing that lone wolf would be differentiating between general kickstarter backers (i.e. non beta and non early-access) and everyone else would have been worth knowing back during the kickstarter pitch. I get that they want server syncing up and running, but if you have paying customers who are fine with waiting for that feature to be implemented, why are you making them wait to use your product if it is already in the hands of paying customers who aren't beta testers?
Especially when it seems like all the reviews are positive to glowing. I just don't understand the strategy.
And yes, I saw the push to get it ready for Christmas, but (and I'd Love to be wrong on this) I think that's just another missed deadline.
I guess I just want to start making my realm and i'm tired of waiting.
The frustrating piece is that it is in the hands of non-beta and non-early access members but not the general public. Knowing that lone wolf would be differentiating between general kickstarter backers (i.e. non beta and non early-access) and everyone else would have been worth knowing back during the kickstarter pitch. I get that they want server syncing up and running, but if you have paying customers who are fine with waiting for that feature to be implemented, why are you making them wait to use your product if it is already in the hands of paying customers who aren't beta testers?
Especially when it seems like all the reviews are positive to glowing. I just don't understand the strategy.
And yes, I saw the push to get it ready for Christmas, but (and I'd Love to be wrong on this) I think that's just another missed deadline.
I guess I just want to start making my realm and i'm tired of waiting.
With you 100%, KefKaz. I'm guessing they're all on break for the holidays. Which is great. (Happy Holidays, guys, and I hope you're enjoying time with your friends and families.) But, it just would have been nice to have had a quick update before they left instead of them just going dark like this.
Knightblde
Well-known member
Well I woke up this morning to an unsolicited, personalized support email about my account. That tells me they are still at it.