Requested Capablities

[Dragnmoon]

Here is a list of Requests I would like to provide to Lone Wolf on capabilities I would like to see in HeroLabs. Anyone else is free to add to this thread what they would like to see. The reason why I am putting it here instead of the HeroLab forums, because some will be particular to Pathfinder

1. Capability to customize Character sheets - I know this is on your to do list, but it is about time it gets on the top, I am really starting to get frustrated with the default character sheet.

2. Capability to organize equipment lists by different columns, not just aphetically – Also for PFS it would be useful to remove items from the list that I cannot buy because I do not have the prestige to afford it.

3. Add a Stat Block only option in Print options - I was frustrated as hell when I realized I could not print my Bestiary encounters in the same format as in the Bestiary! To accomplish this I had to Copy past into another program, which is annoying as hell.

4. Better UI for the Editor – For people who have very little or no knowledge of programming your Editor is clear as Mud! What the hell is a bootstrap? You need to assume that the user does not have this knowledge and make the editor simpler and clearer. If I had the time I could teach myself but I don’t. If you want an example use the editor for RPGXplorer as a very well done editor.

5. The Ability to add Traits, Feats, Spells, similar stuff by name only. – I love that I can just add a new item that is blank and just add the cost and weight afterwards provide us the ability to do the same with all the other things we add to the character. I would like this so I can have the ability listed on the character sheet and adjust afterwards or by the Adjust Tab until you have added it in the database later on when you start adding more Paizo books. As an example I wanted to add a Trait that is not in your database yet, but to do so I had to use your editor which As I stated above I hate, it would have been much easier to just had it in name only, and adjust what I needed to adjust in the adjust tab.

I am sure I will come up with more.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

5. The Ability to add Traits, Feats, Spells, similar stuff by name only. – I love that I can just add a new item that is blank and just add the cost and weight afterwards provide us the ability to do the same with all the other things we add to the character. I would like this so I can have the ability listed on the character sheet and adjust afterwards or by the Adjust Tab until you have added it in the database later on when you start adding more Paizo books. As an example I wanted to add a Trait that is not in your database yet, but to do so I had to use your editor which As I stated above I hate, it would have been much easier to just had it in name only, and adjust what I needed to adjust in the adjust tab.

I am not sure I understand why you can't do this? Using your trait as an example you can just do a New(Blank) Thing and input the Name, the Desc Text, and give it a unique ID. Then with mouse clicks choose the type of trait and now even select a specific god or race. No scripting required. Then do a Test(Now!) and the trait can be added to your character.

Then like you said just go to the adjust tab and do the adjust yourself.

A little more work would be to copy a trait(many are VERY alike) and take its script to do the adjustment for you so you don't forget after adding it to a character.

So one can just enter a Thing (used with a capital I am referencing things inside the Editor in a very Generic term) with text and a Unique ID and be done. For weapons or armor about 99% of everything you need to do to these Things is just a mouse click.

Hope that helps.

 

[Sendric]

I think what he wants is to be able to do it without using the editor in the same way that you add a weapon or armor to the character sheet. Of course, the reason why you can do that with weapons and armor is because there are so many different types that it doesn't make sense to add them all via the editor. With traits/feats/spells/etc, it's easier to use the editor.

 

[Dragnmoon]

I think what he wants is to be able to do it without using the editor in the same way that you add a weapon or armor to the character sheet. Of course, the reason why you can do that with weapons and armor is because there are so many different types that it doesn't make sense to add them all via the editor. With traits/feats/spells/etc, it's easier to use the editor.

I disagree, It would be much eaiser to do it they way i suggested like weapons and equipment, The Editor is a BEAST!!!!

 

[Sendric]

I disagree, It would be much eaiser to do it they way i suggested like weapons and equipment, The Editor is a BEAST!!!!

The editor isn't so bad. Even I'm figuring out how to do things with it. In fact, I'm adding Psionic Powers from Complete Psionics for the d20 system, and it really couldn't be much easier imo.

The problem with adding feats/spells/traits/etc the way you want to do it is that you'd have to do it for every character. If you create it in the editor it will always be there for whatever character you want to use it with, and you can make it add whatever adjustments are needed. Granted, your way would be easier if you are only ever using the feat/etc with one character, but I think for most of us we'd want to be able to use that new thing for multiple characters without having to create it every time.

 

[Dragnmoon]

The editor isn't so bad. Even I'm figuring out how to do things with it. In fact, I'm adding Psionic Powers from Complete Psionics for the d20 system, and it really couldn't be much easier imo.

The problem with adding feats/spells/traits/etc the way you want to do it is that you'd have to do it for every character. If you create it in the editor it will always be there for whatever character you want to use it with, and you can make it add whatever adjustments are needed. Granted, your way would be easier if you are only ever using the feat/etc with one character, but I think for most of us we'd want to be able to use that new thing for multiple characters without having to create it every time.

My Idea is for as a Stop-Gap as they Input all of them from Pathfine over the next few years.

I am glad you find it easy, For myself it is not, and others I have spoken to as well.

 

[risner]

I am glad you find it easy, For myself it is not, and others I have spoken to as well.

Ive been looking for a "usable" character sheet (app) for years. I've looked at etools, PCnet(sp?), rpgxplorer, and 5 to 8 different excel sheets to settle on my own custom excel sheet.

I looked again at HL in June at Paizocon and found it the closest to perfect of anything that came before it. The editor was easier to use than all the others before it. Despite the editor being hard to use (by some) it is the easiest of it's type.

The problem is that the complexity of the problem is what makes the editor more complex than you would wish. In short, I don't believe it can be made easier without making it complex.

 

[Jhalad]

I'll admit, the editor is not incredibly easy, especially since it uses a unique programming language. But, that said, I've been learning by stealing. ie. I find another feat/trait/prestige class/etc that emulates what I want, and then just copy the code over. It would be great if there were a GUI that allowed all of this to go in easier, but the existing GUI covers the basics really well. There are A LOT of feats/traits/prestige classes out there that are simply too varied to allow for the makers of HL to cover all predictable aspects, especially at such a low price.

I bought Microsoft Frontpage years ago to easily create my own SRD, which I continue to make and use to this day. It cost $200, and covered most of what I wanted to do very easily. That said, it was made by dozens of people over hundreds of man hours by a company with the resources to do it.

Hero Lab has probably only a 10th of the resources that Microsoft does, and still manages to put out a decent product. Could it have more, yes? Could it have a lot yes? Heck yeah. I'm sure that the HL staff with continue to update and improve the base program as they can, but until then, we just gotta work on it as we can and learn. Programming is never easy, but I personally like the challenge. One thing I do wish for the whole stealing/converting aspect is that there was a list of common commands that change between versions of games (ie. translating something from 3.5 to pathfinder).

All I can say is, you can't have everything. Try and be patient and enjoy what is there already. In support of your ideas, I, too, would like to see a filter based on prestige points for buying gold piece items, and the ability to customize the character sheet some would be great. Be patient, and they'll get to it. They've got a massive amount of stuff on their plates, and the fact that they respond to our questions/posts on the forums as fast as they do is a great plus.

 

[Dragnmoon]

Let me get something straight,

Especially with the UI, I know it would take a lot of effort and time to make it more User friendly, I am not saying I want it NOW NOW NOW!!!, All I am saying is it is something I would like to see and I think it is worth the effort of Lone Wolf to put the effort into it.

 

[Dragnmoon]

I have Something else to add as a request.

Please add Spells to the HTML Statblock.

Currently I am using the HTML output for Obsidian Labs, and it would be nice if it included the spells.

 

[BenT1]

My own little request

I also would like to see soon.

1) An formatable character sheet. WITH the Concentration Check number on it.

2) A Stat Block printout choice.

3) The ability to shift focus on the summary panes with slider for smaller screens.

4) Tactical console gets very slow/crashes in big combats. (The SAVE button is your friend ) It can take upwards of 5 seconds or more to move from the active character to the next character. (Dual Core 3200 amd with 3 megs memory)

5) The ability to turn off weight of containers and/or items in the Adjustments/Gear/Weapons/Armor tabs. This to simulate characters dropping backpacks, weapons, shields, etc. in combat. I.E. we have a military campaign and tend to carry Med loads getting places, but drop the backpack 'o stuff to get to the light load for combat.

 

[Thazar]

I make a "Custom Location" on the gear tab and label it ground. You can then select a backpack or whatever and store in on the "ground" to drop the weight.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

1) An formatable character sheet. WITH the Concentration Check number on it.

Check out THIS post about the concentration issue. It maybe what you are looking for.

 

[Mathias]

2) A Stat Block printout choice.

File...Output Active Hero Summary

 

[rob]

4) Tactical console gets very slow/crashes in big combats. (The SAVE button is your friend ) It can take upwards of 5 seconds or more to move from the active character to the next character. (Dual Core 3200 amd with 3 megs memory)

We're wrapping up work on an maintenance update to Hero Lab right now. In this update, we've identified and fixed a few crash issues, plus we've improved performance of the Pathfinder data files by a factor of about 5! So the speed should dramatically improve shortly.

As for the crashes, if you haven't reported them to technical support, please do so. That way, we can make sure that we've fixed them in the next update.

 

[Dragnmoon]

File...Output Active Hero Summary

Which is not a Print out Choice... So Please stop pointing it out as so...

I want the Ability to Just print out Stat Blocks from Hero Labs..

The Active Summary is Useful for example for Obsidian Portal, But Currently you can not Print out just a Stat block from Hero Labs.. This should be standard function for a Character Generator.

 

[Thazar]

While this is not exactly what you are looking for you can export the portfolio as stated and save it to a text file. This can then be printed. It is an extra step... and removing that step would be of help. It is a method that will let you print a stat block from Hero Lab without a lot of effort or programing.

 

[Dragnmoon]

While this is not exactly what you are looking for you can export the portfolio as stated and save it to a text file. This can then be printed. It is an extra step... and removing that step would be of help. It is a method that will let you print a stat block from Hero Lab without a lot of effort or programing.

It is nice and useful... But.. It is not what I was asking..

This thread is about requesting capabilities to be added.. and one of the thing I am requesting is the ability to print the stat blocks from herolabs with out going through that extra steps.

I am surprised it is not already there.. It should be a Standard feature in any Program like this..

As a Character Generator I am finding this tool very useful, But for monsters and NPCs Herolab has a lot it still needs to work on to that well.

 

[shadestemple]

1)I agree with a previous, a 'drop' option for gear/weapons/etc but until then I will use the suggested 'custom location'.

2) Like the conditions I like to see a 'check box' for Fighting Defensively and Total Defense. Can I make custom Conditions until then? Though temp mod will also work for now too.

3) Also I like to see a sliding scale 'check box' for Power Attack and Combat Expertise but until then I will happily use Temp Mod feature.

I do want to say that program is great for making characters and I finally used it at a game and it was great. It made things a lot easier for me. I recommend Hero Lab all the time.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

1)I agree with a previous, a 'drop' option for gear/weapons/etc but until then I will use the suggested 'custom location'.

2) Like the conditions I like to see a 'check box' for Fighting Defensively and Total Defense. Can I make custom Conditions until then? Though temp mod will also work for now too.

The editor is very powerful and allows you to create your own stuff including Conditions. See the links in my signature to two websites that host community created add ons. At the d20pfsrd link in the Misc. folder their pf_Adjustments that has a bunch of additional conditions and spells. It does not yet have The Fighting Defensively and Total Defense. Though that is not a bad idea to add...

3) Also I like to see a sliding scale 'check box' for Power Attack and Combat Expertise but until then I will happily use Temp Mod feature.

Not following this one as their is NO sliding scale for these feats in Pathfinder. They are either ON or OFF.