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Old 08-02-2013, 06:53 PM   #21
DangerousThing
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
For the record I'd be very happy with GURPS support for Hero Lab, which isn't to say I don't appreciate Armin's work. I'd be happy if GCA was more like Hero Lab. And I'd be willing to pay for data files.
Myself also. I don't feel like doing all the work to get a GURPS version of Hero Lab if it can't be distributed.
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Old 08-03-2013, 01:56 PM   #22
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
It's designed to be not just a character design tool, but to be a current-combat-status display tool. It's easy to mark down hit points, apply conditions which automatically update the relevant stats, and so on, track "spells used" or FP spent -- all those dynamic, temporary changes to the character that occur during play, particularly combat. It's an ease-of-UI question.

(In fact, it seemed to me back when our gruup used it for D&D 3.5 that the combat tracker was the real point of the tool, and the main reason it lets you design characters is just to have a way to input all the information it needs to do the tracking.)
The licensed part comes in here with character traits having their full text from the books included, so when putting a character together or using it as a character sheet you don't need to reference any books (well, assuming you already know the gist of what you're looking for from lists of traits/skills).

This includes the iPad version, which is the bit that makes it leaps and bounds better than almost all character-tracking stuff that's shown up on iOS.
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Old 08-03-2013, 02:22 PM   #23
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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The licensed part comes in here with character traits having their full text from the books included, so when putting a character together or using it as a character sheet you don't need to reference any books (well, assuming you already know the gist of what you're looking for from lists of traits/skills).

This includes the iPad version, which is the bit that makes it leaps and bounds better than almost all character-tracking stuff that's shown up on iOS.
I'd be happy with a pointer to the proper section of the PDF file. I think that's how I'd do it if I wanted to write something.
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Old 08-03-2013, 02:26 PM   #24
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
I'd be happy with a pointer to the proper section of the PDF file. I think that's how I'd do it if I wanted to write something.
Meh. I don't really care if it has rules text or not (I don't use the text in Hero Lab as a reference anyway, as it's often from early drafts that don't matched published text). I'd like a version of GCA that is as stable as Hero Lab, and that has the in-game tools. That's about it.
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Old 08-03-2013, 02:29 PM   #25
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

Having used Lone Wolf's Army Builder since it first came out I can say I've never been a fan of their yearly fee to use it.

If the license fee was reasonable and it was offered on Android (not evil Apple) I would try it but I'm happy with GCA
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Old 08-03-2013, 02:32 PM   #26
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Having used Lone Wolf's Army Builder since it first came out I can say I've never been a fan of their yearly fee to use it.
Licenses are one-time for Hero Lab, aren't they?
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Old 08-03-2013, 03:12 PM   #27
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
Meh. I don't really care if it has rules text or not (I don't use the text in Hero Lab as a reference anyway, as it's often from early drafts that don't matched published text). I'd like a version of GCA that is as stable as Hero Lab, and that has the in-game tools. That's about it.
I'm curious what would you do to improve GSA or GCS?

I'm thinking about actually getting into the programming of GCS because I've found a number of things I'd improve about it. For one thing I would really want to be able to increase the size of the text on the screen so my old eyes can actually read the darn thing. I also want to put it on my tablet for my players.

I would at least like to hear from people about what they'd like to see in a useful GURPS app of this kind.

For me, some items that I find I really want are
  • Easily scalable text for reading onscreen.
  • A click on a trait and it should open the PDF to the right page for the definition
  • Different ways of organizing skills and advantages. I want multiple skill boxes.
  • Nicely flowing text from page to page for the printed version.
  • I want to control what information is shown and what isn't. Do I want to see the TL printed out next to the skill? Do I want to see the HP threshold table?
  • I want the program to be cross-platform and to automatically sync between my computers so I can work on things at different places.

That's all I have right now. GCS does some of this, but not all of it. GCA's printing is wonderful, but a pain to set up.

I'm sure that everything on my list is doable, but I don't know how easily it can be done.

If anybody has any features they'd like to see in a GURPS character editor/play aid, please respond. If we get a good list, I can organize it and send it to Arman. Or maybe I'll program it for free for just the exercise or to see if I can sell it to SJ Games. Who knows... I used to be a very good programmer 10 years ago.
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Old 08-03-2013, 03:55 PM   #28
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
I'm curious what would you do to improve GSA or GCS?
What's GSA? As far as I can tell the main problem with GCS is that you have to input everything yourself (there's nothing like the GCA datafiles) but I haven't really looked at it since it was released.
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Old 08-03-2013, 04:23 PM   #29
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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What's GSA? As far as I can tell the main problem with GCS is that you have to input everything yourself (there's nothing like the GCA datafiles) but I haven't really looked at it since it was released.
GCA, not GSA. Sorry, a mistype.

GCS seems to have decent, but not perfect data files. Either that or I corrupted mine by accident.

I haven't looked into the source data files, but they are useable with some omissions/errors in the Martial Arts traits. I've had to enter a few techniques, but nothing major. One thing I want to do is to make a way to enter a wildcard skill and automatically link it to the important combat skills. For example, the Gun! wildcard skill could be linked to the various skills covered under this skill so that when the player moves a gun into his equipment list, the proper values could be set up such that the new gun is entered into the ranged weapon table.

I have a work around for now that I don't think will work in GCA as it involves skill containers and sub-containers (folders, basically).

If somebody wants an explanation, I'll be glad to write it up if anybody is interested.
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Old 08-03-2013, 04:24 PM   #30
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Default Re: Hero Lab support?

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
What's GSA? As far as I can tell the main problem with GCS is that you have to input everything yourself (there's nothing like the GCA datafiles) but I haven't really looked at it since it was released.
GCS has a library of traits to input. In my experience it works well to write up the character sheet but you still have to go calculate damage by hand in most cases.
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