HERO System Mobile 2.0

[sentry0]

I just wanted to give a quick update about the last week of development... good news and bad news I guess.

 

The good news is that I have enough of a working application to start an alpha test.  A special thank you to all the people who signed up!  I'll have something available for Android and iOS within the next day or so.

 

The "bad" news is that World of Warcraft Classic has stolen my free time!  Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

 

I'm working on balancing my free time between WoW and developing the app (and being a husband somewhere in there too )... I'm not going to lie, WoW killed my forward velocity on this project.  I am still committed to making this thing work though and will find the time to get it done.

 

More info to come once I get alpha test launched.

[sentry0]

Alpha test invites are going out!

 

The app is currently under review for iOS and will hopefully pass through review soon so I can get it out there to testers.  I'll be emailing testers as soon as I have a valid TestFlight link to share. 

 

The Android version of the test app has been approved and I've sent out the link to testers.

 

I wanted to publicly thank everyone who signed up for the test, I know people are busy and I really appreciate you giving some time to this project.

[Tywyll]

My requests:

Keep all 5th ed functions, including H.E.R.O.

While I understand you not wanting users to create characters in the app, a blank text field would be very handy for recording notes, gear, etc during play so you don't have to swap into a different app.

 

Like in a FH game, you find a magic sword or some other treasure...clearly you can't update  your character in the app. Normally you'd write it on your sheet, but you can't, forcing you back to paper. If you could jot it down in a note field you wouldn't need to swap devices/apps.

 

[Alarond]

On 8/11/2019 at 10:15 AM, sentry0 said:

I've been mulling over a major change to the app; I want to do away with the export template and read directly from the .hdc files HERODesigner uses.  Far and away, the most common support question I get is from people trying to read from their .hdc file directly.  My rationale for using a custom XML export template was originally to provide the app insulation from upstream XML changes Dan Simon may introduce... after having seen it in action for the last year and a bit, I don't think it's worth the trouble.  This would be a breaking change once it goes live, so a major point increase makes sense

 

Below is a collection of random thoughts going through my head right now.  Please feel free to chime in with any comments and suggestions.

 

Features I want to implement:

• Character portraits
• Opening multiple characters at once
• tablet support
  • This doesn't mean writing separate UI for iPads/Tablets, this is only to scale the app properly

 

Things possibly on the chopping block:

• The H.E.R.O. tool (remove or upgrade to 6th edition)
  • People get confused and think the app is only for 5th edition because of this tool
• The "Library" docs
  • They bloat the app size
• The overall look and feel of the app
  • Anyone interested in helping is welcome

 

Stuff for nerds:

• I'm contemplating open sourcing the code, any interest?
  • The app is written using the React-Native framework (JavaScript based, non-negotiable)
  • There's some messy corners that could need some love
• I am in bad need of unit tests, note to self...stop slacking
• Need to switch the storage system to use a proper DB in order to house all the data for images/characters
• Should probably look for a good image scaling lib for portraits
• Switching to reading a .hdc file directly would be a huge impact
  • We would gain better granularity than we have now in terms of powers, skills, etc
  • Would open up more possibilities for the app in the long run 

 

At any rate, I'm soliciting feedback, so have it.

I would be interested in taking a look.  I'm a fellow coder, mostly worked with angular but I've been playing around a little with ReactJS recently.  I've also created a lot of DBs and Rest APIs over the years.   I have a gitHub account here - https://github.com/Alarond 

 

[sentry0]

So it's been a while since I did anything with this project.  Real life got in the way for a bit there but I'm back at it.

 

Here's some of the goodies I've been working on:

• Primary/Secondary Characteristic display
• Naked Modifiers
• Compound Powers
• VPPs
• Various bug fixes reported by the first round of testers

Here's a screenshot of the Characteristics screen with a character that has a bunch of characteristics purchased as powers and set to add to secondary characteristics:

 

 

I've added a toggle labelled "Include Secondary Characteristics" which will add or remove any characteristics purchased as powers and set to add to add to secondary characteristics.

 

When set to the off position this is what the same character looks like:

 

 

There's still lots left to do but I'm thinking of opening up the beta to the general public soon.

 

More details to come.

[Scott Ruggels]

Looks great so far. When will it be on the Apple store?

[sentry0]

1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Looks great so far. When will it be on the Apple store?

 

It is currently on the App Store and the Play Store.  

 

This version I'm working on will probably be in development for a bit more but I think I will open up the beta to the general public.

 

I'll put up some links to join the beta in this thread tomorrow when I have a beta build ready.

[sentry0]

I am pleased to announce the start of the first open beta of the Hero System Mobile app. In this beta you may test the experimental feature of loading characters directly from Hero Designer files. To test this new feature simply load a character file created by Hero Designer which ends in .hdc.

 

I want to call out that the old way of loading characters by exporting them as XML remains unchanged. This means that you can try the beta with a minimal risk to yourself as you can always load your characters the same way you always did.

 

To get into the beta simply click the following links and follow the instructions:

 

	Version	Status	Link
Android	1.3.0	Live	https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.herogmtools
iOS	1.3.0	Live	https://testflight.apple.com/join/VnuJAmln

 

I want to stress that loading characters directly from Hero Designer files is still very much in the experimental stage. A lot of power costs simply don’t calculate properly and I’m certain there will be other bugs! If this scares you then I would ask you to consider carefully if you want in on the beta.

 

Currently, only characters created in the following way qualify for loading:

• The character must be 6^th edition

 

My goal is to eventually fully support the other templates and 5^th edition but I’m starting small for now before I expand the scope of development.

 

You can report bugs by using any of the methods below:

• Use the app bug reporting facilities;

• DM me via this site;

• Email me at phil.guinchard@gmail.com;

• Post in this thread.

 

If possible, please send along the character you’re testing with so I can examine them in detail; this is super helpful for my debugging.

 

I plan on doing a lot development over the holiday break so the beta builds should be coming your way at a much quicker clip than before.

 

Thank you to anyone who tries the beta, your feedback and support is greatly appreciated!

[sentry0]

The beta test for iOS should be live now.

[sentry0]

I'm starting to deploy the 1.2.8 beta build... this build fixes a bug which would occur when trying to load a character with a missing or empty trait such as a character built with no Talents or Perks.

 

Keep checking the table at https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/98754-hero-system-mobile-20/?do=findComment&comment=2740009 for status updates.

 

[sentry0]

Quick update:

• I fixed a bug with multipower slot costs
• I did a pass through the Enhanced Senses and have them sorted out

Next on the block is probably going to be working on template support.

 

I will be doing family stuff for a bit so I won't be able to develop or push the updates I mentioned in this post until sometime after Christmas.

[C-Note]

Love it so far.  The "Equipment" tab is missing.  Is this a "to do" or a bug?  Thanks.

 

edit: Just noticed this. Nevermind!

• The character must have been created with the Superheroic template.

[sentry0]

1 hour ago, C-Note said:

Love it so far.  The "Equipment" tab is missing.  Is this a "to do" or a bug?  Thanks.

 

edit: Just noticed this. Nevermind!

• The character must have been created with the Superheroic template.

 

I haven't touched equipment just yet... there's a stub in the code for it but that's about it 😁

[sentry0]

I am in the process of rolling out the latest beta build to both Android and iOS app stores.

 

Here's what's new with this build:

• Enhanced senses should work now
• Flash is calculating its cost correctly
• AoE advantage is calculating properly
• Toggling secondary characteristics now applies to the Skills page
• Density Increase and Resistant Defense now add to stats and skill checks
• Fixed a bug that was preventing Powers, Talents, Perks, etc from displaying if there was only one item

Keep checking the post at https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/98754-hero-system-mobile-20/?do=findComment&comment=2740009 to see the status of the rollouts.

 

[sentry0]

I am rolling out the 1.2.10 beta4 build as I type this.  This is a big build in terms of features and bug fixes.  I added in a number of large-ish missing features and fixed a couple of gnarley bugs that was causing the app to straight up crash.  

 

What's new and been fixed in this build:

• Added support for built-in templates other than Superheroic
• Added support for user created custom templates
• Added the equipment tab
• Added support for Multipower slot types (Fixed and Variable)
• Enhanced Perception is now aware of the show secondary characteristics flag
• Fixed a couple of bugs with Compound Power
• The Language skill now calculates its cost correctly
• Fixed a bug with loading multiple characters one after each other

Keep checking the post at https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/98754-hero-system-mobile-20/?do=findComment&comment=2740009 to see the status of the rollouts.

[sentry0]

I am currently rolling out the 1.2.11-beta5 build to the iOS and Android app stores.  This is mostly a bug fix build but I did do a pass through the Martial Arts screen and they now show much more useful information.

 

What's new:

• Fixed some issues with Hand Killing Attack
• Fixed some issues the Hand-To-Hand Attack
• Martial Art maneuvers now show much more useful info
• Fixed a crash with the "Load" option from the sidebar
• Fixed a display issue the Equipment items which were Compound Powers

Keep checking the post at https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/98754-hero-system-mobile-20/?do=findComment&comment=2740009 to see the status of the rollouts.

[sentry0]

I found a couple of bugs with martial art maneuvers in the latest build (1.2.11 beta5):

• Extra damage classes were not adding in properly to the total damage calculation
• Moves that inflict killing damage were not displaying their damage

Both are fixed on my development build and will be available in the next betta build.

[sentry0]

I'm rolling out the latest build to the Android and iOS app stores.  This build (1.3.0) is a release candidate and if things go well I will be pushing it to the production channels of the app stores.

 

What's new in this build:

• Fixed a bug with extra DCs not adding to martial arts damage
• Fixed a display bug with martial maneuvers that did killing damage with a weapon
• App navigation is much improved now

Keep checking the post at https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/98754-hero-system-mobile-20/?do=findComment&comment=2740009 to see the status of the rollouts.

 

Hero 5th Edition

The app does not currently officially support loading 5th edition characters directly from Hero Designer files.  You can still load in 5th edition characters via the usual way (use the export template, load that file into the app).  I need to do an analysis to see what would be involved in loading in a 5th edition character directly from a Hero Designer file to determine if I want to do that work.  I'm not going to mix words here; I'm not interested in supporting old versions of HERO if it's going to be a lot of extra work.

 

With that said, I would welcome anyone who is interesting in helping out with supporting 5th to join me on the project.

 

Odds and Ends

Behind the scenes, I've been doing a significant amount of refactoring to the codebase to upgrade libs and clean up things.  I started using a library called Redux to manage the state of my application more effectively.  Ironically, way back when I started this project I added in Redux to my libs but only used it sparingly.  By adopting its use across the board I was able to significantly clean up my codebase so it's much easier to reason about and more structured.

 

I also performed a major upgrade to the navigation library I'm using to allow for a much better navigation experience.  Basically, before this upgrade when you would hit the back button you would probably end up going to the home screen regardless of where you were.  Now, the library will accurately return you to where you were which included remembering what tab you had open (if any) and even where on the Screen you left off on.

 

I also upgraded most of the core libs on the project to newer versions.  This resulted in a massive amount of child library upgrades but everything is working fine.

 

Finally, I am using a new bundling tool for Android which will result in significantly smaller application sizes.  Essentially, the old style of bundling an app made for a bloated APK and the new style produces a very svelte package.  On my phone this reduced the installation size from ~40m to ~13m.  A pretty massive improvement.

 

This effort to refactor the code moves the project closer to possibly releasing it as an open source project.

[sentry0]

On 11/21/2019 at 2:03 PM, Alarond said:

I would be interested in taking a look.  I'm a fellow coder, mostly worked with angular but I've been playing around a little with ReactJS recently.  I've also created a lot of DBs and Rest APIs over the years.   I have a gitHub account here - https://github.com/Alarond 

 

 

I'm not ignoring your post... I am very seriously looking into moving the repo into the public domain.  I'm looking into licensing options and will very likely releasing the sourcecode under the Apache 2.0 license sometime in in the near future.  The code was also a little messy in some places which has been (mostly) rectified in my work to support Hero Designer files directly.  There's still some spots I'm not super happy with but it's coming along.

 

Once I have the licensing sorted out and have the code in a "good enough" place it will be open for anyone to have a look at.

[Alarond]

I get it and it all sounds good.    

 

[sentry0]

I'm prepping the next production build which will be released sometime this weekend for iOS and Android and wanted to make a quick update.

• I had new icons, splash screens, and a logo created for the app
• I added in a "Combat" screen for Hero Designer characters
  • It's only tracking STUN, BODY, and END right now
  • I will be expanding it to include other useful combat information
• I added a warning message when loading 5th edition characters from Hero Designer directly
  • Loading a 5th edition character mostly works
  • You're basically on your own until I can support them fully
    • Loading the output of the XML export template works as usual
• I finished all the tasks necessary to open source the app
  • I will complete the process of open sourcing the code this weekend and make an announcement
  • I added an automatic linter check when committing code
    • I linted all of the codebase
  • WIP: running unit tests on commit
    • Having an issue mocking an upstream library I'm using for navigation
• Other sundry items and bug fixes too boring to speak of here

I will be ending the beta this weekend, probably tomorrow (2020-01-11).  I just wanted to give a special thank you to everyone who participated in the test program, I am very grateful for your help with this project.

[sentry0]

On 1/5/2020 at 2:41 PM, Alarond said:

I get it and it all sounds good.    

 

 

HSM is open source now - https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/99286-hero-system-mobile-is-now-fully-open-source/

 

[Alarond]

Ok very cool. I just started a new job and am going to be real busy the next week or two but I will take a look as soon as I can. 

 

[sentry0]

1 hour ago, Alarond said:

Ok very cool. I just started a new job and am going to be real busy the next week or two but I will take a look as soon as I can. 

 

 

No rush, it'll be there forever now

 

[ScottishFox]

I downloaded a copy and the first thing that stands out is the newer more modern look to it.

 

I was able to load a character from the old .xml file without issue.  I'll try to do one off one of my HDC files with custom powers/skills when I get home.

 

Thanks for putting this all together!