50 Fathoms broken links and other errors

[Fysh]

I purchased the 50 Fathoms Explorers Edition (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=S2P10015FG2) and I am quite disappointed - not with the 50 Fathoms material - but with the sloppy conversion to FG libraries.

There are so many broken links it is unbelievable.

Some are relatively unimportant, such as the Making Heroes -> Races page where all race information (except humans) are empty placeholders; this is not such a big deal because all the race information is slightly further down in the library.

But others are rather infuriating, such as in the GMs guide, Golden Triangles -> An Unnatural Storm - The Curse of Redbeard Rufuson link opens a page that says "<< New Story >> Click to enter text". Maybe the scenario information is in the library somewhere under a different link, or maybe it is not there at all - I currently have no idea.

Several pictures in the Artwork section such as Flintlock Pistol bring up empty images and the console error "Database Error: image: Invalid file (refimages/page105.png)" - Again, probably not a huge problem - depending what the pictures portray, and how relevant they are.

I have only been looking through materials for a short while, and the broken links and omissions are glaringly obvious. How can Smiteworks sell such sloppy conversions? Don't they perform even basic checks or editing?

Personally I am not too bothered about the occasional broken link, but I am concerned that there may be some material wholly omitted, and I do actually feel it may have been better to purchase the PDF myself, and do my own conversion.

It may be that in the 50 Fathoms libraries I do indeed have all the material that is included within the PDF, but given the sloppy finish, I have to say that my confidence levels are not high and I am now a lot less likely to purchase other setting material from Smiteworks.

[Mask_of_winter]

Some mistakes might have slipped in during the conversion from SW3 to SW4. All modules are built by users and submitted to Smiteworks for final approval. I went through the process myself when I submitted ETU and our submission was reviewed by the prez himself and we had to fix a number of broken links.

I've found a few of those mistakes myself in other modules, I reported them and they all got fixed. Rest assure this will all be taken care of shortly :)

[Fysh]

Yes I did wonder whether the conversions were carried out by volunteers. I don't wish for my comments to be seen in any way negatively toward Kevin Doswell who carried out the conversion, but moreso toward Smiteworks who are actually making money out of selling these items.

For the same price I could of had a professionally finished PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. We are not talking large sums of money, so I may well purchase the PDF too for my own peace of mind, but my point is I already paid once and shouldn't have to...

[Ikael]

Yes I did wonder whether the conversions were carried out by volunteers. I don't wish for my comments to be seen in any way negatively toward Kevin Doswell who carried out the conversion, but moreso toward Smiteworks who are actually making money out of selling these items.

For the same price I could of had a professionally finished PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. We are not talking large sums of money, so I may well purchase the PDF too for my own peace of mind, but my point is I already paid once and shouldn't have to...

Doing the conversion yourself requires lots of work effort and I am recommending purchasing these modules instead of jumping into that work. The benefit of you purchasing the modules is that they will be updated and broken links are going to be fixed. And these updates are free for you (FG updater takes care that you will get the new version). As a customer and consumer you have rights to be dissapointed (at first), but trust the system, these issues are going to be fixed and you will get the product you deserve :)

I have been helping Kevin in updating this module so I might have caused some of these issues unintentionally while doing v4 update. I can take look at this tomorrow.

[Fysh]

Yes I can see it would require a lot of work to create, and for the people doing the conversion it shows dedication and devotion to the game which has got to be applauded.

Initially I was not too bothered by a few broken links, but as I discovered more and more (some more serious than others) I found myself losing confidence in the integrity of the conversion.

If there are a large number of easy-to-spot errors which no-one has found and corrected, how many hard-to-spot errors might a module contain? These hard-to-spot errors could be quite subtle such as the wrong tables linked in the wrong places (see https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23788-HQ-Error-in-the-Supers-2nd-Ed-Companion) or indeed whole sections could be accidentally omitted.

What you have with the PDFs is material that has been extensively playtested and proof-read. The FG libraries may be more practical for immediate gameplay, but can never be guaranteed error free.

Ideally when you purchase a FG library you should also get the PDF as well, even if it costs slightly more. That way you ensure any potential errors in the FG libraries (even subtle ones) have a greater chance to be discovered and fixed which leads to higher quality products, and also gives the consumer choice in how they want to interact with the material. FG libraries are great for gameplay, but catching up with reading while on holiday lying on a beach, PDF is better!

[Doswelk]

I purchased the 50 Fathoms Explorers Edition (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=S2P10015FG2) and I am quite disappointed - not with the 50 Fathoms material - but with the sloppy conversion to FG libraries.

There are so many broken links it is unbelievable.

Some are relatively unimportant, such as the Making Heroes -> Races page where all race information (except humans) are empty placeholders; this is not such a big deal because all the race information is slightly further down in the library.

But others are rather infuriating, such as in the GMs guide, Golden Triangles -> An Unnatural Storm - The Curse of Redbeard Rufuson link opens a page that says "<< New Story >> Click to enter text". Maybe the scenario information is in the library somewhere under a different link, or maybe it is not there at all - I currently have no idea.

Several pictures in the Artwork section such as Flintlock Pistol bring up empty images and the console error "Database Error: image: Invalid file (refimages/page105.png)" - Again, probably not a huge problem - depending what the pictures portray, and how relevant they are.

I have only been looking through materials for a short while, and the broken links and omissions are glaringly obvious. How can Smiteworks sell such sloppy conversions? Don't they perform even basic checks or editing?

Personally I am not too bothered about the occasional broken link, but I am concerned that there may be some material wholly omitted, and I do actually feel it may have been better to purchase the PDF myself, and do my own conversion.

It may be that in the 50 Fathoms libraries I do indeed have all the material that is included within the PDF, but given the sloppy finish, I have to say that my confidence levels are not high and I am now a lot less likely to purchase other setting material from Smiteworks.

I am worried by this post, as I have just spent the last 18 months playing 50 fathoms and do not recognise these errors! (this was before 4.0 came out)

I'll check my copy now...

Hmm it seems somewhere along the line I overwrote the version I used to run my campaign (where I had fixed these errors and had been quality checked by Smiteworks, with an older version we used to update to 4.0)

:(

Right I'll have to go through every link and fix them all again! :mad:

Sorry about that Fysh, but please do not my mistake put you off buying other products here, Doug checks every product I send him and he ensures that all the products are saleable quality before he releases them, the recnet upgrade to SW 4.0 means that I have updated (with Ikael every SW product I have ever done, and this one slipped through the cracks!)

[Dr0W]

Sometimes I wish the PDF could be included for, maybe, an extra $5.

Just purchased the Super Powers companion and tried learning just from that: There's a key tablet that shows the number of powers that not only doesn't exist but is replaced by a table from an optional rule: I got so confused by it that just bought the PDF and finally figured out that there was something wrong. I would never be able to play it properly if I hadn't bought the PDF and wish I could learn and play just from my FG module. But maybe it was a broken link from the convertion from SW3 to SW4 since the tables probably have the very same name.

[Fysh]

Yes I was thinking that an extra $5 to have the PDF included would be reasonable.

A PDF is just so much more readable. It's only when you come to prepare for an actual game that you need that stuff within FG.

In FG 50 Fathoms all the 14 different ship types are given as NPC sheets that you can drag out which is great, however you can't see all the stats at a glance. In fact without creating your own spreadsheet it's very difficult to work out which is the fastest ship, or the strongest, or has the largest cargo capacity. I bet the PDF has all the information displayed in a table for easy comparison.

Having both the FG conversion and the PDF version together would be ideal.