HERO System Mobile

[Christopher R Taylor]

One of the best ways to build a character like Beast Boy in Teen Titans is a multiform power pool.  It has to be pretty specific and limited in the kinds of forms you can take (to control the power and scope of what they can do), but it works very well for the concept without costing a pointless fortune.

[Talon]

I received an "undefined" error loading a character from Dropbox, but the same file loaded successfully from Google Drive.

 

It's a nice app - my initial impression is that navigation can be a bit tricky (I keep wanting to swipe to go back).

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

On March 9, 2018 at 3:58 PM, rravenwood said:

O

A quick check shows that 1st edition is mum on whether the minimum STUN multiplier is 0 or 1, while 2nd ed. specifies that the minimum is 1.

As one who sat at the tables with the original Heroes, in the pre- 5th edition days, the RKA stun multiple was 1d6.

[rravenwood]

20 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

As one who sat at the tables with the original Heroes, in the pre- 5th edition days, the RKA stun multiple was 1d6.

 

Interesting!  I'm certainly not challenging your personal experience, but just out of curiosity and wanting to make sure I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that the original Heroes didn't follow the RAW 1d6-1 stun multiplier?

[Scott Ruggels]

37 minutes ago, rravenwood said:

 

Interesting!  I'm certainly not challenging your personal experience, but just out of curiosity and wanting to make sure I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that the original Heroes didn't follow the RAW 1d6-1 stun multiplier?

Actually, thinkng back, it varied depending on who was GMing.  usually with LDG during the Fantasy Hero playtest it was 1D6. But in the superhero games at cons it waas 1D6-1, but a one was always a one. (no zeo stun mod, usually)

[sentry0]

I've been working on a new build for the app over the last week in my spare time and I wanted to give a quick development update.

• Added many more knockback options to the damage tool (Zero G, Clinging, etc)
• Blast can now be long touched on a character and it will pre-populate the damage tool

I'm also planning on gutting the underlying file manipulation library and replacing it with a nicer and better maintained one.  Hopefully, this will address some of the file loading issues people have been experiencing.  This type of change can be disruptive so I'll need to do some extra testing but I already have had a good experience with this library on another app I built.  I don't think that it will be a magic bullet for all file issues because I know some of them are caused by custom ROMs, AV, and other security software but I believe it will be a step in the right direction. 

 

No exact ETA on the new build but it will be within this month unless something comes up.

 

 

[Cassandra]

On 5/2/2018 at 1:20 PM, eepjr24 said:

 

Even in 6e this is explicitly allowed in the rules.

6e1, pg 398

"A character could buy a Power such as Multiform or Summon through a Power Framework and define the alternate form(s) or Summonee(s) as having Power Frameworks of their own without violating the above rules, unless the GM rules otherwise."

 

I allow it on a case by case basis for extremely complex mechanics as long as it is not abused. And I have had a character who used it who was actually rather underpowered for the campaign but managed to get by because of the versatility. If it ever came to knock down drag outs, they were always the first one stunned out, though.

 

EDIT: I'll also say that I have been very lucky that the few munchkins I have had as players were not advanced enough in Hero Fu to even attempt this kind of thing. They tend more toward the VPP's and weird AVAD ("Was born on a full moon in Ireland") kind of things. Those who get the system enough usually have also understood balance as well.

 

- E

 

 

This is why I stick with the 5th Edition, along with the ability to look like Lynda Carter for 5 Points.

[sentry0]

OK, so the latest build (1.2.1) is now live in the app stores.  

 

Featurewise, it's a small changeset which can be viewed here - https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/96734-hero-system-mobile/?tab=comments#comment-2642800

 

 

Not in the notes: as promised I swapped out the underlying file libs and things seem fine in my own tests.  I've been loading files from all over the place on a Pixel 1 and 3 without issues...iOS is a little trickier as I don't have access to any iOS devices and have just been using the XCode simulator in my tests.  AFAIK everything is working across both platforms but I await to hear from you guys/gals ultimately to know if that is the case.

 

There's a new export template available for this build as well - https://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/449-xml-export-template/.  Stricktly speaking you don't need to update the export template but you may see these guys ��� in place of special characters like typesetter quotes if you DON'T upgrade your export template.  The upgraded template and app both work well together and support a much wider range of characters than before.

 

[John Desmarais]

Just installed the new version (actually, its the first time I've played with it).  On my iPhone I get an error when trying to load a character:

 

No such file "file:///private/va/mobile/Containers/Data/e*22B296-BD9E-47D0-8267-Ec383158FAAB/tmp/org.diceless.herogmtools-InBox/Spitfire.XML"

 

Happens with any xml character file I try to load (just replace the name at the end with the name of the specific file).  I also get a similar error when I try to open either of the file in the Library.  TO make thing even more interest, loading the same character file into the app on my iPad works just fine.

 

Any thoughts?

[sentry0]

45 minutes ago, John Desmarais said:

Just installed the new version (actually, its the first time I've played with it).  On my iPhone I get an error when trying to load a character:

 

No such file "file:///private/va/mobile/Containers/Data/e*22B296-BD9E-47D0-8267-Ec383158FAAB/tmp/org.diceless.herogmtools-InBox/Spitfire.XML"

 

Happens with any xml character file I try to load (just replace the name at the end with the name of the specific file).  I also get a similar error when I try to open either of the file in the Library.  TO make thing even more interest, loading the same character file into the app on my iPad works just fine.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Interesting, it's definitely a result of the latest round if changes I made.  I changed the low level library I was using for file management and this is unfortunately what I was afraid would happen ?

 

Are you loading from iCloud?  Could you try loading right off the iPad itself or vice versa and let me know if that works for you?

 

Phil

 

 

[John Desmarais]

10 minutes ago, sentry0 said:

 

Interesting, it's definitely a result of the latest round if changes I made.  I changed the low level library I was using for file management and this is unfortunately what I was afraid would happen ?

 

Are you loading from iCloud?  Could you try loading right off the iPad itself or vice versa and let me know if that works for you?

 

Phil

 

 

 

I was attempting to load from iCloud (also had tried OneDrive).

 

I moved the files to put them locally on the iPhone and tried to load from there - same error.

[sentry0]

2 minutes ago, John Desmarais said:

 

I was attempting to load from iCloud (also had tried OneDrive).

 

I moved the files to put them locally on the iPhone and tried to load from there - same error.

 

Ok, really weird.  I'll see if I can straighten it out over the weekend.

 

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Phil

[Toxxus]

I'm having the same issue on my Android phone (Samsung Note 8).  Last build makes character import busticated.

[sentry0]

16 minutes ago, Toxxus said:

I'm having the same issue on my Android phone (Samsung Note 8).  Last build makes character import busticated.

 

Couple of things: 

• I've had issues reported by other users before using a Note, while it's likely that it's the latest update it may not be
• Try loading off the phone directly and/or Google Drive
• PM me the file in question so I can test

Phil

[Toxxus]

Everything was working fine until the last update.  I use it at least a couple times a week.  Yesterday it stopped working.

[sentry0]

10 minutes ago, Toxxus said:

Everything was working fine until the last update.  I use it at least a couple times a week.  Yesterday it stopped working.

 

Gotcha, well I located a couple of bugs in the code...one iOS specific and one was a general bug.

 

I'll make an update later tonight after I finishing testing.

[John Desmarais]

10 minutes ago, sentry0 said:

 

Gotcha, well I located a couple of bugs in the code...one iOS specific and one was a general bug.

 

I'll make an update later tonight after I finishing testing.

 

Btw, (since I’ve got your attention) any chance of adding in awareness for tablet-size displays?  As nifty as it is on a phone, it would rock on my iPad with the ability to really take advantage of the extra real estate.

[sentry0]

7 minutes ago, John Desmarais said:

 

Btw, (since I’ve got your attention) any chance of adding in awareness for tablet-size displays?  As nifty as it is on a phone, it would rock on my iPad with the ability to really take advantage of the extra real estate.

 

The phone is/was my target device size.  I don't actually know what would be involved with supporting a tablet but I'm not opposed to looking into it to see if what would be needed.  I imagine I would have to just create new screens to utilize the space...may be a fun project.

 

Phil

[sentry0]

I made some changes to the file loading code and I started a rollout to production a few minutes ago.

 

They should be hitting your device sometime soon for Android and hopefully over the next day or so for iOS.  iOS seems to always take a bit longer than Android to review their apps.

[John Desmarais]

On 2/15/2019 at 8:31 PM, sentry0 said:

I made some changes to the file loading code and I started a rollout to production a few minutes ago.

 

They should be hitting your device sometime soon for Android and hopefully over the next day or so for iOS.  iOS seems to always take a bit longer than Android to review their apps.

 

Just installed v1.2.2 on my iPhone and my iPad.  

 

The good news: it now works the same on both devices.

 

The bad news: throws that error when loading a character on both devices.

 

Alas...

 

[sentry0]

16 minutes ago, John Desmarais said:

 

Just installed v1.2.2 on my iPhone and my iPad.  

 

The good news: it now works the same on both devices.

 

The bad news: throws that error when loading a character on both devices.

 

Alas...

 

 

Oh no!  It was working for me in simulation but there must be something different between the simulator and a real device.  Not the first time this has happened tbh.

 

Was the error message you saw the same as your original post?

 

I'll look into it tomorrow.

 

Phil

[John Desmarais]

13 minutes ago, sentry0 said:

 

Oh no!  It was working for me in simulation but there must be something different between the simulator and a real device.  Not the first time this has happened tbh.

 

Was the error message you saw the same as your original post?

 

I'll look into it tomorrow.

 

Phil

 

 

Yep, same message.

 

JD

[sentry0]

1 hour ago, John Desmarais said:

 

 

Yep, same message.

 

JD

 

Alright, it was a surprisingly easy fix but it was buried at the end of their docs.  Once I came across the fix I had to get a little late night hacking in but I'm feeling pretty confident in this fix.  I reset my simulators and things are looking good on my end but as you probably know, the Xcode simulators and I have a love/hate relationship.

 

I'll push the new update into production tomorrow.

[John Desmarais]

10 hours ago, sentry0 said:

 

Alright, it was a surprisingly easy fix but it was buried at the end of their docs.  Once I came across the fix I had to get a little late night hacking in but I'm feeling pretty confident in this fix.  I reset my simulators and things are looking good on my end but as you probably know, the Xcode simulators and I have a love/hate relationship.

 

I'll push the new update into production tomorrow.

 

Cool.

[sentry0]

22 hours ago, John Desmarais said:

 

Cool.

 

The 1.2.3 build was just approved by Apple.   I'm feeling pretty confident that this will finally address the loading issues that you've been experiencing.  I was able to simulate both iCloud and local file loading on iPhones and iPads without issue...hopefully the real devices will behave the same this time now that I've reset my simulators to their default states.

 

Give it a whirl and let me know if I hit the mark.

 

Phil