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HeroLab
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
- Start date
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Hero Lab has a nasty licensing system - you do not buy the software, you license it for up to two computers at a time. The computers must have internet access. However the license does not need to be renewed.This is an improvement over their license for Army Builder, which is renewed every year for a fee.
The D20 SRD is the only system that currently comes with the program, expansions cost money. The good news is that a portion of that goes to the publisher of the game.
More information here.
The Auld Grump
The D20 SRD is the only system that currently comes with the program, expansions cost money. The good news is that a portion of that goes to the publisher of the game.
More information here.
The Auld Grump
Allura
First Post
Which do you think is the best for character creation/maintence, particularly for custom characters? Our group tends to tweak things a lot, either with house rules, things snagged from Dragon, non-WotC books, etc. Currently, we're using an excel spread sheet from "Steve," that's full of vlookups, etc. It's huge, it's unwieldy, only one player really knows enough excel/vba to tweak it, but at least we *can* tweak it. It's an awesome sheet, and very powerful, but it's not supported anymore.
kingpaul said:
Since I see you on their boards pretty regularly, I'm surprised you haven't noticed that they added templates weeks ago. Their newest release (Saturday) adds support for splitting and merging equipment very nicely. It also added integrated editing for all sorts of new stuff. The previous release added full container handling, so I can put stuff into sacks, then the sacks into my backpack, then my backpack on my hero, etc. I can then easily transfer my backpack to my horse and everything in the backpack goes with it. Very sweet!!
So you might want to refresh yourself on what they have/haven't added at this point in time.
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Hero Lab has got the best interface of any of the tools available. It's fast and reliable, which is more than can be said for quite a few of the alternatives. I've been using their Army Builder product for YEARS, and it's been a wonderful tool. Since the company has been around for a long time (10 years?) and been putting out quality products that entire stretch, I didn't hesitate to pick up Hero Lab once I played around with the demo. They're a stand-up company from all my experience with them.
I'm now using Hero Lab in two separate games, one as a player and the other as a DM. It's in-game capabilities are excellent, as I use it in-game for both of the games I'm in.
As with any new product, there are some things I'd love to see added, but it's overall a great tool. And they keep adding new stuff every few weeks! Hero Lab makes life so much nicer. And it's so much faster and easier to use than the other tools I've tried. Some people might prefer a different interface, but Hero Lab did a lot of stuff "right" for my tastes. They've got a FREE demo available, so everyone curious should take it for spin and make their own assessment.
Hero Lab supposedly supports templated monsters, but I haven't actually tried doing that myself. They've got all the templates, as far as I can tell. And they have all the monstrous races, too. I just haven't played with combining them.
One of the great things I love about Hero Lab is how easy it is to add new material. And when I've needed to do special stuff, the scripting capabilities have made it all possible (and relatively painless). It sure is a lot faster and easier for me to add my own custom material into Hero Lab than with some of the other tools I tried.
I'm sure some of the other folks here will say that their favorite tool is easy, too. The real question that they don't address is that they have spent MONTHS (or longer) learning how to use those tools. I was creating new stuff in Hero Lab in an afternoon. For someone new to a tool, I really don't care how long it takes an expert to add something. I want to know how long it will take ME to add it. With Hero Lab, it was quick.
TheAuldGrump said:
How is the licensing system "nasty"? It took me less than a minute to get the product activated. And, unlike lots of other software products I regularly use, they were nice enough to include a free second license to put the product on TWO computers. So I put it on my home computer and my laptop. If I want to put it on a third computer, it will cost me a whole $10 for a third license. [I've been thinking about doing this to have a copy at work to play with at lunch.]
Also, you do NOT have to have internet access on the computer where you want to use the product. I thought I saw something about it within the product, so I just double-checked. They have what they call "manual" license activation. Basically, you can use a webpage to activate the license from one computer and copy a keyfile over to a non-internet computer to activate it.
So is your complaint effectively that you want the product to be free? If so, then use one of the free tools that are available. You'll get what you pay for. I prefer something of high quality from a company that will stand behind it. That entails that I actually part with a few dollars. I don't know about you guys, but I'm used to spending $60 on computer games nowadays and hundreds of dollars on other software I use regularly. I spend a LOT on RPG gaming stuff every year. So I don't mind spending a whole $30 for a well-written piece of software that will be highly useful on an ongoing basis.
Maybe it's just me, but the time I spend wrestling with a tool is time I've lost. That time has a value. For $30, if Hero Lab saves me an hour over a free tool, I'm ahead of the game. Even if that hour of savings comes in 5-minute chunks of time, it's still a win for me.
Having been an Army Builder user for a long-time, I also don't find the $13 per year that they charge unreasonable. It's no different than spending $40 every three years to buy a major new upgrade to the product. Since it's the same amount of money to me, I really don't care. And if it keeps the company in business and making great software products that I can really USE, everybody wins!
kingpaul
First Post
You're quoting a statement of mine that was over a week old to begin with. From their news releases, some templates were added on 2/16, more on 3/11...my post was on 3/8. So, I think my statement was, in fact, a valid one. They didn't have, at the time, complete template support, so couldn't handle templates.labyrinth said:
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2WS-Steve
First Post
With the recent addition of templates and monstrous races Hero Lab is something I'll start to give some real consideration to.
One thing I like is that I can enter data either via the in-game editor, or via XML files, so I'll have to see how well it handles my Second World Sourcebook stuff.
One thing I like is that I can enter data either via the in-game editor, or via XML files, so I'll have to see how well it handles my Second World Sourcebook stuff.
kingpaul said:
So if a tool were missing, say, one template out of dozens, your definition would be that the tool "doesn't support templates"? The implication of that assertion being "not at all"? Sheesh. That's a pretty inaccurate way of portraying something, IMHO. All or nothing (aka black or white) doesn't work too well in a world that is an entire continuum of grey.
I'll have to be mindful of this philosophy when reading any assertions made in your posts in the future. And you might want to consider the misinformation such assertions can portray to others.
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