New Video Tutorials Now on YouTube

I've whipped up a few online video tutorials to help with using AutoHARP. They are

Part 1: Installation and Initialization of AutoHARP

Part 2: Creating a New Character Sheet

Part 3: Character Maintenance

Part 4: Adding a Level to Your Character

Part 5: Finishing off our character Sheet

Part 6: Advanced Features: Adding a race and profession

Part 7: Advanced Features Continued

More video tutorials to come. If people have questions about the application I may put together a Q&A video.

AutoHARP is officially available on RPGNow

I wanted to give people here a few helpful links.

Purchase the full Harp Fantasy Database: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115091/AutoHARP-Fantasy
Purchase the full Harp Sci-Fi Database: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115095/AutoHARP-SF
Download AutoHARP: https://sourceforge.net/projects/autoharpsuite/
Submit bugs, enhancement requests: https://sourceforge.net/p/autoharpsuite/tickets/?source=navbar
News: http://autoharpsuite.blogspot.com/

You go to http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php to ask questions or you can post them to the discussion board on the SourceForge website.

Right now AutoHARP works for Windows XP and Windows 7. I have not tested the application under Windows 2003, Vista or 8. I would be interested from anyone who runs either of these Operating systems to let me know if the application works under them. AutoHARP is soon to be released under Ubuntu and should work for versions from 10.04 and up. I currently have someone helping me out on that end. Installation on Ubuntu will require the Java Runtime Environment to be installed on your machine so you can run a JAR file. I am uncertain about any other Linux distros and have been warned that AutoHARP may not work under them without a proper debian package.

Another thing to note. Although I have mentioned this software is open source and freeware (it's the databases you are purchasing that are under commercial license) I don't have a recent upload of the source code. I am having difficulty getting an SVN to run here where I am living. They have a very particular proxy server set up and TortoiseSVN doesn't like it very much or the proxy server doesn't like TortoiseSVN. Either way, until I can figure out the issue, the code available is a very dated, very old build.

Again, thanks for purchasing the Full databases and for using AutoHARP.

AutoHARP to be officially released Friday June 7th

I have just received confirmation from Iron Crown that the full Harp Fantasy database will be available on OneBookShelf on Friday June 7th. The full database for Harp Sci-Fi will be released the following day, Saturday. I am excited to be able to share the full blown AutoHARP application. There are plans to have additional databases included such as Sci-Fi Extreme, Martial Law and College of Magics.

A word about the installation files. For Windows users the installation file is an .exe so installation should be normal. For Linux I have done something a bit different. I have used an installer program called IzPack which is cross platform and creates a .jar file. In order to run this .jar you must have the Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer. For Ubuntu users I think JRE is automatically installed but I'm not entirely sure. If not it should be easily available from the Ubuntu Software program. I did it this way because I have tried unsuccessfully to create debian packages and IzPack actually worked and was a lot easier to setup and maintain.

Here are some important links for AutoHarp

AutoHARP on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/autoharpsuite/
To submit a bug or enhancement request: https://sourceforge.net/p/autoharpsuite/tickets/?source=navbar
To discuss or ask questions about AutoHARP: https://sourceforge.net/p/autoharpsuite/discussion/
Wiki site for AutoHARP (FAQ): https://sourceforge.net/p/autoharpsuite/wiki/Home/

I plan to create a demo that will go over the high level usage of the application.

Thanks again and I hope you enjoy AutoHARP!

AutoHarp Version 1.0.0.2 now available (including linux build)

With this version, both Windows 7/Vista/XP and Linux Ubuntu are supported. I do believe that other linux distros will work with this build so for those not running Ubuntu try it out anyways and let me know what distro your using and if it works.

This version does address a few bugs

• Combat Tracker Save state file was malformed and has been addressed. 
• Movement maneuver would crash if you didn't give a value for the feet per hex. It was defaulting that value to zero and as a result dividing by zero. 
• The "TwoFourSixRules" node appearing in the character save file has been changed to "CategoryCosts".

Enhancements include

• Icons now customized for each application: a better resolution icon for harp and a new icon for the combat tracker. 
•  The type font for Harp Sci-Fi is now consistant in AutoHarp. 

Next on the list is to get my Martial Law and College of Magics databases updated as well as start working on the Sci-Fi Extreme database.

Happy Harping!

[Patch] Version 1.0.0.1 now available

UPDATE

Version 1.0.0.1 is now available. This is an emergency patch that resolves an issue where AutoHarp will randomly crash after completing the New Character wizard. Other issues addressed with this patch are:

• Resolves crash in XP when the application is closed
• Added color coding to the Human column when the user selects user as to better indicate user action. This happens as well when the user selects Human for greater hybrid
• Icon added to installation file.
• Tooltips added for menus and toolbar
• Hybrid lesser selections will change to none when the user selects a greater hybrid or a new race.
• Hybrid greater and hybrid less change to none when user selects a new race.
• Combat tracker application is now renamed to AutoHARP-Combat Tracker.exe
• Banners added for the New Character Wizard.

Currently working on a linux build. Next update should happen on Dec 9th.

AutoHARP is officially in Beta!

Iron Crown has officially made public AutoHarp on their website. You can go to the following link to follow the thread on their forum,

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=12795.msg164962#msg164962

The plan is to let users play with the application for a few weeks and then GCP will release the commercial version of the database on OneBookShelf. The application again is Freeware under a Reciprocal Public License 1.5. Currently the code found on Source Forge is old and not updated. I am having problems logging into my SVN account from where I live. Hopefully I can resolve the issue soon and start keeping the repository updated.

I will make further announcements about releases here as well as updates made or being made. Currently I am keeping up with whatever bug reports come in and any suggestions for the future. I will make concurrent releases of AutoHarp based on time or number of bugs or urgency of the bug itself. The next update to AutoHarp will be 1.0.0.1 and currently includes the following

• Banners for the New Character Wizard that illustrate which database the character is designed under
• If a user selects a human for a race, the human column is now color coded green to indicate user action, rather than just asterix in the cell. Also when a user selects a human for a greater hybrid, the blood column is also color coded green to indicate user action.
• Installation file now called AutoHARP<version>-Install.exe.
• Combat Tracker now called AutoHARP-Combat Tracker.exe
• Default install directory now the Program Files directory.

Future plans include finishing up work with Martial Law and College of Magics so these databases are ready to go when Iron Crown is ready to make the books available. I also plan to start work on the Harp Sci-Fi Xtreme database which include information from the Harp Sci-Fi Xtreme book.With Martial Law will come a new Combat system as well.

Happy Harping!

From the Iron Crown Website

This is the tenth of our scheduled Director’s Briefings.

Normally John Seal of Aurigas gets to talk about the business aspects and the cool software tools that have already arrived or are being built to support ICE games, and I focus on upcoming books. So to mix things up a bit, I thought I would say a few words about the business end and about software.

On the business end of things, I am very pleased to report that our accountant has crunched the numbers and Guild Companion Publications Ltd made a reasonable operating profit in 2011. (Of course, I already knew that we had made a profit but the accountant’s job is to ensure that all the numbers are reported in a way that conforms to how the UK taxman wants to read them.) These profits will be and are being ploughed straight back into the business to finance the next waves of new products across multiple game lines. That’s the good news. There isn’t any bad news.

Onto cool software tools and the Rolemaster Classic Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. I’ve never used any virtual tabletop software, being fortunate enough still to be a participant in an active local gaming group, so the demo I had of the software in April was a real eye-opener. Prior to the demo, I had downloaded all the necessary software and had a ten-minute go at trying to do something with the trial version, but really hadn’t made significant progress. An hour and a half later in the company of two very experienced users/developers and I could see how it worked and how to use it. This is a fantastic package for running distributed games where the gaming group is scattered across a country. It is also a great package for running a face-to-face game where the GM and the players want the computer to do the legwork. I hope that we’ll see a HARP/HARP SF edition in the future.

Speaking of software for HARP, Aurigas has licensed the creator of AutoHARP to commercialise his character creator and support tools for HARP. We are currently testing AutoHARP to check the character reconstructions for HARP Martial Law. Expect to see a version of AutoHARP that is wholly compliant with the new HARP Fantasy to be released in the near future. This will be sold through our presence in the OneBookShelf network.

And back to news about product development.

HARP Fantasy has now entered its layout phase – we expect to see it emerge in both pdf and print-on-demand versions in a couple of months. We also hope that we’ll be able to put HARP Fantasy into distribution (and hence game stores) via an imprint partner perhaps later this year. A quick reminder about the time-limited discount coupon for the HARP Fantasy pdf – once we release it as pdf, there’ll be announcements via a newsletter and the forums about how to get the discount. Keep watching so you don’t miss out. In terms of its revision, work is underway to make the characters at the back of HARP Martial Law consistent with HARP Fantasy. Once that is complete and that’s all we have to do, then Martial Law will go into the layout queue as its new artwork is already finished. HARP College of Magics and Loot: a Field Guide are next on the revision queue and we will be commissioning a similar enhancement of Cyradon and the new HARP Bestiary.

Last month, we noted that we might speed up the pdf return of some RMSS products where we had secured agreement to rescue them from copyright limbo. Peter Mork’s School of Hard Knocks was duly returned as a searchable scanned pdf in April. With Cyber Europe, we’re simply waiting on confirmation that its author can access his royalties via OneBookShelf.

Rebranding of the Spacemaster: Privateers products continues slowly but surely. As they emerge, we will put them back on sale directly.

The authors working on the seven Rolemaster projects continue to toil away to finalise their drafts. I expect to be talking in detail about some of these projects next month.

The next scheduled Director’s Briefing will be presented in early June.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd.

I would like that thank both John and Nicholas for the license and I look very forward to the future of AutoHarp with Iron Crown.