Author Topic: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3  (Read 4126 times)

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Offline DavidKlecker

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AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« on: April 30, 2017, 05:57:15 PM »
I'm making great progress with 2.3. In fact I'm confident I will have a release for the end of May with it. Here are the following updates:

1) Finished up the NPC Generator so that it now can create a random Robot or AI.
2) Cleaned up all screens and wizards in AutoHarp so that it's not cluttered. Armor and Weapons have been separated into two tabs, as well as Talents and Cyberware. The New Character Wizard and the New Level Wizard have been updated as well so there is less clutter on the screen.
3) I have added a new tab called Journal. This is where you can type up adventure notes during game play and bring them up later.
4) Adjusting money has changed. You now just add the exact coins you are adding in the List control, rather than with the text box given.
5) Printing is completely updated to eliminate Device Context printing and support HTML printing. Character sheets are saved into a temporary file and opened with your default web browser. To print use your web browser which should handle different page formats better. The printing page is static and doesn't resize, but it should fit most page standards, especially A4 which I was told is used in Europe. Printing is this way will also make it possible to print all skills, items, talents, training packages and spells without limitation.
6) Statistics Database is updated to include a new type for statistics to differentiate between physical and mental stats.
7) Any bug fixes from 2.2 that gets reported.

It's all I can think of for now.


Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2017, 04:43:28 PM »
Soooo, any word? It is (checking calendar...) pretty far past end of May. I am looking forward to this release. I will say the improvement with 2.2 was noticeable. It is still quite fragile and often unintuitive, but it has made strides. I am hoping that you can do the same in the next release.

I will also add that I still think your price model is.... not well thought out. Really, most of the bad reviews on DTRPG are because it is one of the most expensive character generators out there and is not in any way the most polished. I think you should consider putting all the bits and pieces into one package and just sell that, maybe for $30. But buying the base, the fantasy DB, then marital law and then magic, and then architect, it is an $60 product to use it to play HARP... that is not reasonable. I know you are thinking that you want to make enough on each product to make it worthwhile, but I am also guessing you are killing your sales and reading the reviews, you are hurting yourself. Consider it market segmenting at this point. You have probably made most of the sales at this price level that you are going to.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2017, 05:16:42 PM »
Also, I want to complement you on the tutorial videos. That was a great addition. The software itself was basically undocumented, but your videos fill that need very well.

Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2017, 02:49:19 AM »
Hi,

The AutoHARP version 2.3 files are with me for entry into RPGNow.

Best wishes,
Nicholas
Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2017, 04:05:38 AM »
AutoHARP 2.3 is now available. The AutoHARP Folkways dataset will follow soon.

Best wishes,
Nicholas
Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2017, 08:51:42 AM »
Hi Darb. Thanks for the input. It's nice to hear constructive criticism and I definitely LOVE constructive criticism. I want to know where the strengths and weaknesses of the software are. Granted I will sometimes have a counter argument and not all experiences are the same but it definitely helps. The reviews I also think stem from a miscommunication on how to install the software. You also mentioned the software is undocumented. Does the Help section not work? If so, I have to fix that. The documentation with the help section is probably not intuitive.

Funny thing... I don't know the market for RPG software so I honestly do not know where the pricing "should" be. It is a complex piece of software and it's just me (one person) working on it since the beginning so I definitely know it's unpolished and I doubt it will ever get to be completely polished simply because I just don't have the 8 hours a day to work on it. I get about 1 hour here and there. Therefore I certainly do not think it should be priced as professional software is priced as I am a one man team and one man teams are always limited in scope, time, and quality assurance. I am definitely on board for "fixing" the pricing. Let me talk to Nicholas about some ideas and we will get back to it.

I also realize the changing the price now is only going to make those who bought it at full price angry. Therefore I will definitely look towards ways to make them "happy" in some regards. If it a free voucher for an add-on they don't have or something. Again I'll talk to Nicholas and I will get back to this. Thanks again for the feedback.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2017, 09:46:45 AM »
I understand about the price, you should be compensated in a way that makes sense for you to put the work in. But I do think it is a bit on the high side. The 4 products (for the fantasy game) are really best thought of as one product for playing. At very least Architect should be packaged in because without the ability to add things like training packages the app is very limited for practical use. You could do something like, by $40 of the products and get the remaining ones free. So buy the base and Arch. and get Magic and Martial, or buy those two and get Arch. Still gets you $40 and people like to get 'free' stuff and might be incentivized to buy more. Do you know how many customers buy how much of each? Anyway, something to think on.

The help section is much better, but the videos were fantastic. I didn't futz with the help so much because the videos. 

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2017, 09:54:50 AM »
Just fired 2.3 up, looks good. I really do think you have done a good job refining it with each iteration.

The items list is working for me now.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2017, 10:05:52 AM »
On main gauche and sai not showing up as shield, is it possible that it is looking for shield training talent and, not finding it, giving the untrained 0 bonus? It should check for weapon skill as non-zero to give trained bonus.... maybe that?

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2017, 10:15:25 AM »
So the equipment location function is wonky. On the character sheet there is a section for 'equipment worn' but that doesn't seem to populate. And in the equipment tab, it would be nice to have a dropdown menu in the inventory section to place the item, rather than using 'edit item'. That is not very intuitive and adds quite a bit of work. And the locations should also have 'arms', 'legs', etc rather than just right and left versions, because things like greaves need to be entered twice now for locations to be correct.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2017, 10:26:48 AM »
Did combat tracker not appear in 2.3? And I can't figure out how to add a new campaign. Are those things depreciated? It is too bad because they made the app a much more useful.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #11 on: August 01, 2017, 03:50:05 PM »
The pricing scheme is much better, really good job with that. Thank you for listening. And I put my money where my mouth is, bought them all (for fantasy).

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2017, 04:29:40 PM »
But ok, now the statistic assignment page in the new character wizard is not working. ... Game stopper bug. It  does not calculate nor does it even display the stat names correctly. And it just crashes after assigning adolescent skills. Soooo, I will try to reinstall. Maybe installing the new DBs a problem? But not great.

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #13 on: August 06, 2017, 02:04:52 PM »
Someone else was having an issue with that. Do me a favor and check the manage books section. My bet is that the statistics is pointing to a database where the statsticsfromharpfantasy.xml is not even populated. It might have happened with the Martial Law, College of Magics, or Folkways database. If that is the case then it's a matter of the installation itself which is fixable through the manage books, but that's not intuitive enough for the casual user to find out. However it does isolate the issue and I should be able to make a fix. In fact I should look at this today as you won't be the first and I'm 99% positive I know how it is happening.

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #14 on: August 06, 2017, 02:05:37 PM »
Combat tracker should be appearing. It was for me earlier. :(

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #15 on: August 06, 2017, 02:06:24 PM »
I have to admit I don't think I honestly tested the equipment location in a LONG while. It's possible I broke it a while back and never knew it. I'll check that out as well.

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #16 on: August 06, 2017, 02:09:27 PM »
Just fired 2.3 up, looks good. I really do think you have done a good job refining it with each iteration.

The items list is working for me now.

Thanks! My favorite part of 2.3 is the print screen. That was a big project that went through 3 iterations between 2.2 and 2.3 and in the end I settled for the solution presented. Printing is now ALL HTML. However there is no way to customize it. That's not a possible solution until certain things move along in WxWidgets. The NPC generator should also prove to be a LOT better. I tested it against the Martial Law examples and even added quite a bit of AI to it when it comes to where to put ranks. Hopefully it creates characters that slanted to the profession and not random.

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #17 on: August 06, 2017, 02:23:36 PM »
Yikes! Combat tracker took a mighty crash! That's embarrassing. Let's hope I can fix it soon.

Offline darb

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #18 on: August 06, 2017, 11:27:44 PM »
I reinstalled and it seems to be working. Possible that order of install overwriting something? But it is working for me now.
The print process is very good. Yes it would be nice for some customization, but for now it looks good. And since I think most of my gaming will be online now, it is useful process.  Nice.

Offline DavidKlecker

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Re: AutoHarp - Update on 2.3
« Reply #19 on: August 08, 2017, 10:17:13 AM »
I tried to recreate it by installing the databases in many different orders. I can't seem to replicate it. So I'm not certain as to what is causing it. :( Combat Tracker isn't as bad as I thought. It returns errors if you tell it to create a new encounter for a database that doesn't exist. I'll have to remedy that. Were you able to find Combat Tracker in your install?