So who else now has the Hero Lab Character Generator for SR4a? Options

[cryptoknight]

I just picked it up. I'm sure I'll be busy adding data to it since it's missing most of the expansion books as of now, but so far it looks really nice.

[Korwin]

Its finished? *goeslooking*

[suoq]

I just picked it up. I'm sure I'll be busy adding data to it since it's missing most of the expansion books as of now, but so far it looks really nice.

I'll give up Chummer when your pry my keyboard from my cold dead hands.

[Bobby]

I do love Chummer myself, but I'm going to take a good look at the Demo version and see what I think overall.

[Method]

I have the beta. I was unaware that it has been officially released? Gencon I assume.

And for what it's worth the folks at Lonewolf are busy adding the expansion material as we speak (or type as it were).

[Starglyte]

I picked up and I am impressed with it.

[cryptoknight]

I have the beta. I was unaware that it has been officially released? Gencon I assume.

And for what it's worth the folks at Lonewolf are busy adding the expansion material as we speak (or type as it were).

Must be nice to have the Beta. Yes their official release date was today. So when I got up this morning for work I picked it up.

Wish I could have gone to Gencon, but I seriously wanted this for over a year. So far adding stuff that was missing is simple enough.

I could probably put in most of the missing qualities fast enough given the pdfs of the books.

[cryptoknight]

I'll give up Chummer when your pry my keyboard from my cold dead hands.

I played with Chummer for about 10 minutes and just didn't like it at all.

If I wanted to use a free one, I'd keep using DK's spreadsheet.

[cryptoknight]

Here's an example... it only has the core SR4a races, not the metavariants like Dryads...

Creating a Dryad with Symbiosis and Glamor took me less than 5 minutes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Amazeroth]

What are you guys talking about exactly? Would it be possible to get some links?

[Fyndhal]

Must be nice to have the Beta. Yes their official release date was today. So when I got up this morning for work I picked it up.

Wish I could have gone to Gencon, but I seriously wanted this for over a year. So far adding stuff that was missing is simple enough.

I could probably put in most of the missing qualities fast enough given the pdfs of the books.

When is the last time you tried it? Nebular has done a fantastic job improving it over the last few months. At this point it has nearly everything I could want.

[Crazy Ivan]

When is the last time you tried it? Nebular has done a fantastic job improving it over the last few months. At this point it has nearly everything I could want.

Indeed. Nebular has designed an amazing program. You would need some serious features to convince me that HeroLabs put out a superior product in terms of anything more than the style and design of the borders, which is neglible to me.

[cryptoknight]

When is the last time you tried it? Nebular has done a fantastic job improving it over the last few months. At this point it has nearly everything I could want.

About 3 weeks ago. It just didn't impress me at all.

[Starglyte]

What are you guys talking about exactly? Would it be possible to get some links?

http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab

[cryptoknight]

What are you guys talking about exactly? Would it be possible to get some links?

Wolflair's Licensed HeroLab Ruleset for Shadowrun which was released today.

http://www.wolflair.com

[Abdul Alhazred]

Question is ... How much for the supplements ? I don't want to pay 15 bucks per book like Pathfinders system. Dosnt seem worth it.

[Warlordtheft]

That to me, this is the kicker. I'm not going to pay for each source book when other free options with all the source book material is out there.

[KarmaInferno]

Yeah, well, Lone Wolf is trying to make money.

The other character generators out there? Not so much.

It probably does not help that character generators fall into such a legal grey zone.



-k

[cryptoknight]

That to me, this is the kicker. I'm not going to pay for each source book when other free options with all the source book material is out there.

Until the free application developers get tired of maintaining the code. And go the same path as NSRCG.

That's the kicker for me... if I buy the data packages from Wolflair and they stay in business (which is more likely if I do) then I'll have free updates and free support, and the software will continue to be maintained.

If I use a free tool like Chummer, and the developer gets burned out, where am I then if a bug crops up, or I upgrade to a 128 bit system and the software needs to be updated?

[cryptoknight]

Yeah, well, Lone Wolf is trying to make money.

The other character generators out there? Not so much.

It probably does not help that character generators fall into such a legal grey zone.

Except of course for the ones that have a license to exist.

[suoq]

If I use a free tool like Chummer, and the developer gets burned out, where am I then if a bug crops up, or I upgrade to a 128 bit system and the software needs to be updated?

My experience is that the cost of the tools has little impact on the chance of that happening. Paid tools that no longer bring in money are just as quickly abandoned as free tools where the developer gets burned out. One advantage that free tools have is that when a developer wishes to stop supporting a product, they're often able to hand off everything to a new developer. (As an example, after Ancient History decided to no longer maintain the incredible products produced over the years, a number of people offered to maintain them. PACKS is still available.) It's also possible for an independent developer of freeware to hand off responsibility for a project to other individuals or groups of individuals for short periods of time if maintenance or conversion is desired.

Much of the data in Chummer is stored in .xml format, making it easy to modify and add on to. The character sheets are in .xsl format making it possible to add new styles of character sheets. Much of the technical information is stored on the Chummer Wiki ( http://www.dndjunkie.com/chummer/wiki/MainPage.ashx ) including information about adding custom data files ( http://www.dndjunkie.com/chummer/wiki/Cust...ta%20Files.ashx ). Should the tool be abandoned today and a new book come out, a number of us could simply create the custom data files for the book and publicly make them available.

[KarmaInferno]

Except of course for the ones that have a license to exist.

Well, I suppose.

Whether or not a license is NEEDED or not is the grey area. Game mechanics are generally not protected by Copyright Law. You can get a Patent on them, but usually mechanics, the kind you can reduce to formulas on a spreadsheet, fail the "creative" requirement.

That said, if nothing else you do need a license for any trademarked words or logos belonging to the game maker.




-k

[Prime Mover]

Somehow I missed Chummer until seeing this thread. Good looking project.

[Saint Hallow]

I have no problems paying for a product & supporting a game company if the product is worth it. There have been plenty of freeware that has been better than the licensed stuff, bit sometimes players and fans need to note a bullet if just to keep a franchise alive.

If the builder is good, lemme know. I will put in my order today.

[cryptoknight]

My experience is that the cost of the tools has little impact on the chance of that happening. Paid tools that no longer bring in money are just as quickly abandoned as free tools where the developer gets burned out. One advantage that free tools have is that when a developer wishes to stop supporting a product, they're often able to hand off everything to a new developer. (As an example, after Ancient History decided to no longer maintain the incredible products produced over the years, a number of people offered to maintain them. PACKS is still available.) It's also possible for an independent developer of freeware to hand off responsibility for a project to other individuals or groups of individuals for short periods of time if maintenance or conversion is desired.

Much of the data in Chummer is stored in .xml format, making it easy to modify and add on to. The character sheets are in .xsl format making it possible to add new styles of character sheets. Much of the technical information is stored on the Chummer Wiki ( http://www.dndjunkie.com/chummer/wiki/MainPage.ashx ) including information about adding custom data files ( http://www.dndjunkie.com/chummer/wiki/Cust...ta%20Files.ashx ). Should the tool be abandoned today and a new book come out, a number of us could simply create the custom data files for the book and publicly make them available.

Well Herolab is something like 15 years old.

I loved free tools... NSRCG was a die by tool for SR3, when Sr4 came out and everything changed, what happened to it?

If Neb decided today to quit supporting or working on Chummer and walked, what would the impact of SR5 be to it?

If SR5 came out tomorrow, I'm pretty sure, I'd be able to buy a new game system or data file for Hero Lab, within a period of time, and just go on my merry way with the same character management tool I might use for Pathfinder, D&D 4e, Cthulhu, etc.

And for that matter, managing the data files is more robust for HL. I can actually write code to sit behind various qualities and make the whole thing work. And I get that with my license.