Some issues

[congressman]

HL v1.0g

bug: I increase my Con at level up and the HP modifier also increases, but it increases also for all previous levels.

issue?: I cannot customize elven chain through the GUI. I'm not familiar enough with D&D to know if +1 ELven CHain is kosher or not.

feature: I'd like the filtering views for skills, feats, items, &c. ala PCGen and also the pre-req tree views for skills and feats. Also, some sort of weekly or monthly update of data set conversion would be great (you do have have a deadline for deliverables and some methodology for tracking progress, yes?). And lastly, something here on teh website that shows bugs squashed and features to-do list? So I know what I can expected by $30 invetsment to look like in 6 months?

Thompson

 

[vivisect]

"bug: I increase my Con at level up and the HP modifier also increases, but it increases also for all previous levels. "

That's not a bug - this is how it should work. I can't find it in the SRD, but if you have the Player's Handbook, look in the classes chapter under experience and levels. It states that if your Con modifier goes up, that you add 1 to your HP for previous levels.

 

[DannyBoy2k]

Page 58, PHB: If your character's Constitution Modifier increases by 1, add +1 to his or her hitpoints for each level below the one just attained. Add these points before rolling for hitpoints.

 

[Colen]

At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:

>HL v1.0g
>
>bug: I increase my Con at level up and the HP modifier also
>increases, but it increases also for all previous levels.


As the other guys have pointed out, this is how the rules work.


>issue?: I cannot customize elven chain through the GUI. I'm not
>familiar enough with D&D to know if +1 ELven CHain is kosher or not.


You can't technically make +1 Elven Chain, since elven chain isn't a
base type of armor. However, you can make some custom armor that is
Chainmail, is made of Mithral, and has a +1 bonus - making it exactly
the same as "+1 Elven Chain" armor.


>feature: I'd like the filtering views for skills, feats, items, &c.
>ala PCGen and also the pre-req tree views for skills and feats.


This is already planned for everywhere you can choose from a list,
such as being able to filter spells by level, school, etc.


>Also, some sort of weekly or monthly update of data set conversion
>would be great (you do have have a deadline for deliverables and
>some methodology for tracking progress, yes?). And lastly, something
>here on teh website that shows bugs squashed and features to-do
>list? So I know what I can expected by $30 invetsment to look like in 6 months?


I'll let Rob answer this one. Rob?



--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[congressman]

Thanks to all who have responded, I appreciate it.

 

[kingpaul]

You can't technically make +1 Elven Chain, since elven chain isn't a base type of armor.

Why not? Its already masterwork because of the mithral. All you have to do is start adding the various magical enhancements you want on to it.

 

[rob]

At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:

Also, some sort of weekly or monthly update of data set conversion would be great (you do have have a deadline for deliverables and some methodology for tracking progress, yes?).

What do you mean by "data set conversion" here?

And lastly, something here on teh website that shows bugs squashed and features to-do list? So I know what I can expected by $30 invetsment to look like in 6 months?

Publicly doing the above can be a great thing for a large development team in a corporate environment. It's also a great thing for an ad hoc group of volunteers on a freeware project. But it's a significant overhead to setup and maintain, plus it's a wonderful way of locking in consumer expectations and handcuffing yourself as a company. We're a TINY outfit, so the overhead cost of this is extremely high. We also are extremely adaptive and responsive to the fluidity of the real world, so committing to feature X in a specific timeframe is typically a very good way to hamstring that ability.

For those reasons, we do NOT provide any sort of public schedule. We absolutely have an in-house plan (Colen and I just spent 10 hours together in a planning session today), but it's for internal use only so that it can be adapted as necessary to real world occurrences.

Every new product release includes a list of all significant bugs fixed and all features added or modified in some way. You'll find this in the release notes that are in the "readme.txt" file installed with the product.

Lone Wolf Development has been in business for 14 years, developing software both for ourselves and for numerous consulting clients in Silicon Valley. Our self-published products for the gaming industry have been evolving steadily over the past 9 years. Our first such product, Army Builder, has become the industry standard for tabletop miniatures. And this has been accomplished using the above approach all the while.

Hero Lab will continue to evolve. The directions in which it evolves will be dictated substantively by what our customer base asks for. We've already got a lot mapped out, but there is lots of room for adjustment, and we'll invariably hear ideas we never thought of from users. So we'll adapt the plan to create the best product possible and hopefully achieve the same result with Hero Lab as we have with Army Builder.

-Rob

 

[rob]

At 07:30 PM 2/11/2007, you wrote:

Colen wrote:
You can't technically make +1 Elven Chain, since elven chain isn't a base type of armor.

Why not? Its already masterwork because of the mithral. All you have to do is start adding the various magical enhancements you want on to it.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't that exactly what Colen outlined doing?

-Rob

 

[DannyBoy2k]

At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:
Hero Lab will continue to evolve. The directions in which it evolves will be dictated substantively by what our customer base asks for.

Which, looking at AB and how just plain damn good that program is...is EXACTLY how it should be.

Now, if you could only fix that damn spellcaster-class problem I have... :twisted:

No, in all honesty, I just thought I'd toss a 'damn good job and thanks for the help you give' your way. You deserve that and more.

/Daniel

 

[rob]

At 06:01 AM 2/12/2007, you wrote:

rob wrote:
At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:
Hero Lab will continue to evolve. The directions in which it evolves will be dictated substantively by what our customer base asks for.


Which, looking at AB and how just plain damn good that program is...is EXACTLY how it should be.

Thanks for the vote of confidence! We think it's been working pretty well, so we're going to stick with what works.

Now, if you could only fix that damn spellcaster-class problem I have...

We should have another update out in the next few days that addresses various bugs and adds some new stuff. Hang tight just a little bit longer, please.

No, in all honesty, I just thought I'd toss a 'damn good job and thanks for the help you give' your way. You deserve that and more.

Thanks!

-Rob

 

[kingpaul]

At 07:30 PM 2/11/2007, you wrote:

Colen wrote:
You can't technically make +1 Elven Chain, since elven chain isn't a base type of armor.

Why not? Its already masterwork because of the mithral. All you have to do is start adding the various magical enhancements you want on to it.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't that exactly what Colen outlined doing?

Colen stated that Elven Chain wasn't a base armor. I was attempting, obviously unsuccessfully, to ask why it wasn't. I don't see any reason why you can't start with the armor Elven Chain and begin modifying from their instead of having to create new armor based off of chain mail.

 

[kingpaul]

At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:
It's also a great thing for an ad hoc group of volunteers on a freeware project.

Now, what could you be alluding to with that comment?

 

[DannyBoy2k]

Colen stated that Elven Chain wasn't a base armor. I was attempting, obviously unsuccessfully, to ask why it wasn't. I don't see any reason why you can't start with the armor Elven Chain and begin modifying from their instead of having to create new armor based off of chain mail.

Ummm...because it isn't? Elven Chain isn't in the PHB as an armor, at all. Chain Shirt, yes. Chain Mail, yes. Elven Chain, nope.

In fact, when I went to look-see, it's specifically noted noted under magic armor, which sort of points to it being most emphatically NOT base armor. Pg. 220 of DMG

 

[kingpaul]

I read the DMG entry (which isn't open content) and then read the RSRD entry (which is). Neither of them say "this is not a base armor". So, we come back to my question, why can't you modify elven chain if you find it? Its made of mithral, so meets the masterwork requirement for magical armor.

In fact, any of the specific armors can be modified further if the characters have a) the money and b) the skill to do so.

 

[rob]

At 09:06 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote:

rob wrote:
At 07:00 PM 2/10/2007, you wrote:
It's also a great thing for an ad hoc group of volunteers on a freeware project.

Now, what could you be alluding to with that comment?

Actually, the two things I had firmly fixed in my mind where (a) a collaborative freeware project that I was involved in a number of years ago and (b) the team developing the 40K data files for our Army Builder product. Both efforts actively leverage(d) a public task list, progress reporting, etc. Obviously, the reference equally applies to the PCGen project that is near and dear to your heart, but I'm sorry to say that wasn't what I was thinking of when I wrote the reply. :-(

-Rob

 

[kingpaul]

At 09:06 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote:
but I'm sorry to say that wasn't what I was thinking of when I wrote the reply. :-(

:shock:

I'm hurt!

:lol:

 

[rob]

At 03:07 AM 2/13/2007, you wrote:

I read the DMG entry (which isn't open content) and then read the RSRD entry (which is). Neither of them say "this is not a base armor". So, we come back to my question, why can't you modify elven chain if you find it? Its made of mithral, so meets the masterwork requirement for magical armor.

In fact, any of the specific armors can be modified further if the characters have a) the money and b) the skill to do so.

While there is technically no explicit statement that elven chain is not a base armor type, there is also no explicit statement that it is. As such, it is left to the reader to infer his own conclusions. Given that elven chain is not included in the presented table of armor types, this lends towards the inference that it's not a base armor type. Clearly, at least one user here has drawn that inference, and that's the inference that we drew in creating the data files.

Given that the user can construct elven chain from the base armor types presented in the table, one could readily argue that "elven chain" represents a "derived" armor type instead of being a "base" armor type. It can also be readily argued that the base armor types presented in the table form the core set of components upon which any type of armor can be constructed, which therefore establishes them as an appropriate "base" set of armor types, with anything else being "derived".

Obviously, none of this is absolute. But, given that there is no specification either way and a purely subjective choice needs to be made, it's a well-reasoned and perfectly serviceable framework to utilize. It's also one that will likely be shared by a large percentage of the user population, as evidenced by the comments already posted.

We can argue the relative merits of whether it's pronounced "toe-may-toe" or "toe-mah-toe" till we're blue in the face. Without anything absolute either way from the SRD, we chose the framework that we did within the d20 files based on what seemed (a) accurate and (b) intuitive. If we determine it needs to be changed at some point in the future, it can be changed.

I have no intention of arguing subjective choices where there is no "right" answer. If a GM rules that elven chain is a "base armor type" for his game, then that is his prerogative. Since Hero Lab allows the desired armor to be constructed out of the necessary components, this is irrelevant to HL and something between the players and GM. In the end, the user is covered, either way. That's really all that matters, as far as I'm concerned.

-Rob

 

[Dhuran]

I can get spells on a costum list just fine. The problem I'm having (running vh but have had it since spellcasting was added to the editor), is that no matter what I try, I can't seem to get my class to have any spells-per-day. The button's on top (of the class panel) for spells-per-day is always blank, and if I add a spell to my list, no spell tab appears and I have no spell castings.

 

[Colen]

At 11:01 PM 2/17/2007, you wrote:

>I can get spells on a costum list just fine. The problem I'm having
>(running vh but have had it since spellcasting was added to the
>editor), is that no matter what I try, I can't seem to get my class
>to have any spells-per-day. The button's on top (of the class panel)
>for spells-per-day is always blank, and if I add a spell to my list,
>no spell tab appears and I have no spell castings.


Hi there,


Could you email me the files that you're having this problem with?
Please send them to colen@wolflair.com so that I can take a look at them.


Thanks,



--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[Dhuran]

Okay, the files are on their way (trying to manually add the dread necromancer class from hero's of horror).

Let me know if you got it.