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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Killer Shrike" data-source="post: 1355221" data-attributes="member: 1829">Hero DesignerOK, disclaimer: used HD v1 heavily right after its release and was an early beta-tester for HD v2. I dont work for Hero Games, and am a hard core HEROs gamer. So, everyone should be clear on where my bias lies.Now that my bias is clear, lets hit a few points:HD v1 has some fixed strictures, true, but it did what it was designed to do which was enforce the official rules of the game. In this regards it was an amazing piece of software. It was in many ways a learning tool and a calculator. It wouldnt let you do things incorrectly, which might be inconvenient for concientious home-brewers, but is invaluable to newbies trying to learn the system. For the "Custom" minded every type of ability had a "CUSTOM" object to allow the definition of the not-in-the-rules bit you wanted to add.As far as the specific of selling back characteristics, two bits: 1) must have been selling back 2 or more figured characteristics, which is illeagal. 2) HD v1 would still let you do it by taking the characteristic as a Power and taking it down to a negative value. v2 wont let you do it this way, but does have a toggle on the campaign guidelines to allow more than one figured to be sold back.On top of enforcing the rules strictly, it was also pretty much bug free, and all bugs were fixed within a few days of being identified at worst and often the same day. Futher the application was altered on several occasions to accomadate FAQ rulings and erratta in an extremely timely fashion.All in all v1 was a solid piece of software, and I still have a copy installed of v1 so I can deal w/ older characters if need be (not all of my players have upgraded to v2 frex).The documentation is actually pretty good in my opinion, being a good blend of technical documentation and user documentation.HD v2, released a few months ago, does not in any way fall into "adds a few extra features, but in general does not address the straight-jacket issue at all". Nothing could be further from the truth actually. v2 is a superlative product, and does in fact allow a vast amount of customizability. Many many many options are available, and plus since all the base files are done via inheritable XML templates editable in something as simple even as notepad, the program can be highly configured even beyond the toggles available via the interface.There are numerous features and customizable options, an incredibly extensive export template model that allows all kinds of character sheets to be designed in a variety of formats, support for all genres, incorporation of all "official" rules additions from the genre books, extensive ability to make custom preFabs and character Templates, and so on. The modifier intelligence alone is worth its weight, dynamically changing the many modifiers possible for a power construct as it is being built. This system is such an aid to new players, and even an old hand like me will get caught out on some obscure rule that I had forgotten or misinterpreted -- but HD didnt.The documentation for v2 could stand to be a bit more comprehensive, but it would be difficult for it to be 100% up-to-date because the program keeps getting enhanced with user requests and great new features.Not a week goes by that at least one new wouldnt-it-be-cool feature gets put in. Like last week for example, I requested Conditional export tags to output and/or control the layout of Powers by their Type (Attack, Defense, Movement, etc), to allow me to make various GM's notes type exports of entire team rosters, spitting out all their defense values with powers on one printout for example. Within two days this major feature was added to the application and rolled out. I discovered a couple of inconsistencies, such as the behaviour of Compound Powers and the Talent Combat Luck which is a very common defense not being counted as a Power. Within a day Compound Powers count as a composite of all the types of the Powers involved in them, and Combat Luck will show up as a Defensive Power if bought on the Powers tab rather than the Talents tab. What kind of customer services is that? Unheard of, thats what kind.As far as Dan Simon, the developer of the software, being curt: Yes, its true, Dan does not have the worlds greatest people skills. He can be curt, rude, and outright surly at times. Here's a news flash -- he's a Developer; he's not paid for his people skills. He's not an employee of HERO Games -- they contracted the software from him. He's constantly being bombarded by people asking for endless additions and mods, and many of these people are mostly confused or coming out of left field. He has a thankless and pretty much unwinnable position in all this. The application will never be "done" really, as there will always be one more thing to add, one more enhancement to put in, one more refinement to make. Well, lets just say I dont envy him the bs he has to wade through. Here's the thing though, despite the occasional crotchetiness, he obviously cares about and takes pride in the quality of his work. When he does things he does them all the way. He'll argue over a seemingly minor thing on the one hand that goes against his design philosophy, and then add in a massive new bit of functionality that no one even thought to ask for, but quickly realizes they really wanted. He's odd like that <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />All questions are answered fairly and quickly, and any actual problems are addressed rapidly. People that keep asking for the same thing over and over again after he's said no can expect the roughside of his tongue however. But hey, he's just a gamer like all of us, not a game designer or corporate lackey. Try not to get too upset about it. Its not that big of a deal. Plus, there is no more consistent way to apply the math rules of the HERO System than HD, version 1 or 2. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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