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Old 03-10-2018, 09:59 AM   #41
wmervine4
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Noblesville, Indiana, USA
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Drone 5 View Post
Considering that GCA 6 has been underdevelopment for over 5 years now with no release date in site, I think it would be a good idea IF SJ Games to a look at Hero Lab again.
This sounds harsh to hear, but is probably a fair point though I'm ambivalent about which existing application would be best. I do like Lone Wolf and I actually use their Realm Works product for my campaign management, but I never considered Hero Lab because it doesn't have GURPS support. Like others, I'm not willing to invest the time in customizing it when this would only be useful to me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Drone 5 View Post
Don't get me wrong, I love GCA - BUT......
Many know issues have not been addressed in years! and I mean year!!!!
There is no quality control on the data files.
It is being worked on by a single person- he moves, changes life style or job, drops dead - where are we then?
This is scarily common in my experience with software development. There are often knowledge silos were only one person really knows a piece of software or a major chunk of that software. From a business perspective, I understand the desire to sell more copies of the official product, GCA, but there will come a day when it requires such old underlying software (OS mainly) that it is essentially unsupportable. Having another option that has more active development may be reasonable. Of course, it's not my decision. I'm just making an observation.

With the recent rise of VTTs and idea (however realistic or unrealistic) that SJ Games might someday offer official support for a product like Fantasy Grounds, it would make sense to me to consider extending official support to other character creation/management applications. My ideal would be to have something like a VTT with a built in character creation mechanism, but with the industry the way it is, it doesn't seem like there is going to be one unifying force that rises up to bring disparate niche applications together into one uber application that would support all facets of TTRPG organization, management, and play. Just look at Lone Wolf as an example. They have Realm Works for campaign management and Hero Lab for character creation/management, but they are two completely separate applications.

I apologize for my pie-in-the-sky dreamy ranting, but it seems to be in my nature (I am a Product Manager by day; possibly related, possibly not) to have a large scale, strategic vision and think down the paths of possibility around whether my imaginings could potentially be workable. Anyway, it's fun for me to dream. I feel like I've read somewhere before, "everything that has ever been created was first imagined", and I really like that idea.
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Old 03-10-2018, 10:32 AM   #42
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

Quote:
Originally Posted by wmervine4 View Post
From a business perspective, I understand the desire to sell more copies of the official product, GCA, but there will come a day when it requires such old underlying software (OS mainly) that it is essentially unsupportable.
GCA4 is Windows-only, and runs fine on the latest 64-bit Windows 10. Its weakness is that it's written in VB6, and fixing that is a motivator for GCA5. That is being developed, and the work has been reasonably active recently. So I wouldn't give up on it yet.
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Old 03-11-2018, 10:22 AM   #43
wmervine4
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Noblesville, Indiana, USA
Default Re: Hero Lab support?

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
GCA4 is Windows-only, and runs fine on the latest 64-bit Windows 10. Its weakness is that it's written in VB6, and fixing that is a motivator for GCA5. That is being developed, and the work has been reasonably active recently. So I wouldn't give up on it yet.
I love GCA and am not giving up on anything. I will be quite happy when a new version is available. I use GCA constantly and always have it open during games to keep track of the details of all the party members plus any NPCs or creatures they are interacting with.

It is pretty stable for me, but I will note that the application is a big sluggish when switching between characters or the different tabs of information when there are a lot of characters loaded. This is part of the reason I started putting the weapon stats for NPCs and creatures into the combat tracking spreadsheet I use since it's a bit faster than GCA in some instances.
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