sentry0

Here's a preview of the apps new look and feel... the screenshot quality is OK, it's a little sharper and has a bit more contrast in person.
 

Yes, in fact I now have experience writing code that will scale properly based on device size from another app I wrote.
 
It's unlikely that I will be doing much more than scaling it, to start.  In the future, I may write screen size specific screens but that would be sometime off in the future, if ever.

It's built for phones and will run on tablets in compatibility mode.
 
I have no plans of bringing it to desktops at this time.

Development hasn't stopped per si, I'm just letting it settle for a bit now that it's mostly stable.
 
There's a couple of low hanging fruit in my list of things to fix/add that I plan on tackling soon-ish
 

This is well said.  I actually will gloss over the use of END for a couple of games unless things get really out of hand (powers with Increased END basically).
 
You may want to consider a soft entry into the system and add more crunch as you go until you've hit the "realism" level you want. 

I have been out of TTRPG's since around 1998 except for a single Call of Cthulhu campaign I ran for a few roommates that had never played an RPG before in 2001 or so. And I can happily say I am so glad I came back to one of my old stand by's since there was a lot of haze from the explosion of systems and books in the 90's which incidentally was one of the reasons I stopped playing.  I felt like things were getting too "gimmicky" or in other cases too serious about an activity that was ostensibly about "having fun". I felt that games were trying to sell us on their "Twist" or Color instead of focusing on giving us the tools to explore "The Beyond" that is what I think attracts the majority of us, regardless of personal agenda, to RPG's in the first place. I felt that a lot of shitty products were eating up my money and then ending up in an enormous, " X system to Y system Conversion Notes" or "Setting Materials" piles which also incidentally was (is?) generally not conducive to getting laid of which was also a hobby of mine at that age.
 
So things conspired as they do and I began travelling for work for extended periods and lost contact with my fellow players. I used video games in an attempt to fill the RPG hole but honestly is simply isn't the same. I enjoyed getting together, sharing snacks, arguing, laughing, arguing about something in no way, shape or form related to the game, going through weird pre-roll rituals, completely getting the GM's well planned questline derailed, etc. Basically, I pretty much enjoyed the entire enterprise.  So I always missed playing  and having recently bought the Champions Complete PDF and the Unchained adventure module I can say I am truly impressed with the way HERO has stuck it out. I think there is still some work to be done on the "ease of access" for new players that might be interested in a TTRPG,  but I feel like the system is General enough to be what a "Universal" system can be. Kudos for the direction the system is taking and thank you for making coming back enjoyable. You guys make good games.🥇👍

Have you looked at Proportional on pages 139-140 of the Hero System Advanced Player's Guide? It does exactly what your looking for.
 
The Advantage Table
Value. Increase In Power Or Ability In A Situation Happens.
+1/2.   Ability has 1.5x as many points.
+1.       Ability has 2x as many points.
+2.       Ability has 3x as many points.
+3.       Ability has 4x as many points.
+4.       Ability has 5x as many points.
Etc...and so on.
 
Value Modifier.                     How Frequent The Increase
2 less Advantage.               Veay Uncommon.
1 and 1/2 less Advantage. Uncommon.
1 less Advantage.                Common.
1/2 less Advantage.            Very Common.
 
The minimum of the advantage is +1/4.
 
There is also a Limitation version, but it is only a Partially Limited power using Limited Power. You can have both the Proportional Advantage AND a Partially Limited power with a Limited Power in one power.

This is well said.  I actually will gloss over the use of END for a couple of games unless things get really out of hand (powers with Increased END basically).
 
You may want to consider a soft entry into the system and add more crunch as you go until you've hit the "realism" level you want. 

They say that hitting water with enough velocity is about the same as hitting concrete.  Assuming that's not just an urban legend you would probably be done either way.
 
Maybe if you're feeling generous a die or 2 may get knocked off.

I will be releasing the app with support for both types of characters.  Just reading in a HD character still leaves a lot of work on my plate to do things like calculate costs, totaling modifiers, calculating STR damage, etc.  The end result is that there are a lot of things that I have to code for.  Which means more bugs.
 
What I'll end up doing is provide people with messages to inform them that they're either using a deprecated character format (the XML export) or the experimental HD format when they load a character.  This will keep people  informed about upcoming changes to the app in regards to loading characters and provide a fallback if you come across a bad bug in the new format.
 
Not that it means much to people but I will be bumping the version number to 1.3.0 when I release this feature.  This will include a deprecation message for users of the export template.  At some point in the future (once the bugs are worked out) I will remove support for the export format entirely and do a 2.0.0 release.

Here's the skill screen...I assigned a skill some miscellaneous Advantages/Limitations just for testing.  The Martial Arts, Perks, Talents, and Powers screens will likely be quite similar... a lot of the work at this point is foundational as I build out classes and components to process and display the character.
 
Points to whoever spots the easter egg Simon put in
 
Note that the math doesn't work right now so ignore the Cost.
 

Hmmm, looking at the UI what I could do to save some space is hide the Base and Cost fields until the plus button is pressed.  I don't think people generally need to know that info at a glance so there's really no need to clutter the main display with it.

Hmmm, looking at the UI what I could do to save some space is hide the Base and Cost fields until the plus button is pressed.  I don't think people generally need to know that info at a glance so there's really no need to clutter the main display with it.

Here's a preview of the apps new look and feel... the screenshot quality is OK, it's a little sharper and has a bit more contrast in person.
 

I plan on always supporting whatever HD supports so there is no worries there.

However the new interface is much smoother. Very clean. Suggestion. Have any function associated strictly with 5th ed. displayed with 5th ed. ‘s green color, while the rest remains 6th ed. blue. 

Here's a preview of the apps new look and feel... the screenshot quality is OK, it's a little sharper and has a bit more contrast in person.
 

That's a good question, one that comes up indirectly often. 
 
Theoretically, you could write the XML document that HD creates by hand (or some other means) and the app would read it in just fine.  The app will only care about a subset of the data that's available through a HD file, which means you could write a trimmed down version of the full file.  That's still a daunting task... one fraught with error and frustration, I suspect.
 
Given that Hero Designer...
Exists Does what it's supposed to do Is actively maintained and supported Is the defacto, officially sanctioned tool to make a character  ... it doesn't make a lot of sense to not use it as a basis for the app.
 
People ask from time to time for the app to allow you to build and modify characters directly... to be clear, I have NO intention of going down that road given all the previously mentioned points regarding the state of Hero Designer.

The are available in the downloads section of the site. Go to where the templates are and the oldest download should be the one you're looking for. It has the title "HERO Designer Built-In Templates" by Simon.
 
Lee

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.

Cool app, thanks for the time and effort you put into making it!

It's a really good intro for anyone coming from D&D, not just high schoolers.
 
There's a possibility that I will be introducing a bunch of older D&D players to Champions in the new year.  I'm totally lifting this ?