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Dynamo

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Everything posted by Dynamo

  1. Dynamo

    Super Names

    Re: Super Names Woo, '08 and '09 were busy years. A year of night classes, which led to a year of working at Microsoft Game Studios. I'm between contracts now and have some time to burn until January. Looks like we've had plenty of new suggestions. Let's see if I can't fit in a Round Up. Um... Step 1: Find my old Excel file. Watch this space.
  2. Re: PDFs on Kindle There may not be a more conservative industry than printing. Some printers have moved past PDFs to better, but some have yet to enter the digital age. The place I worked at the turn of the century HATED change. Both the management and the union fought technology improvements tooth and nail. (It's worth noting that they are long gone to the tar pits.)
  3. Re: PDFs on Kindle I did not know that. Coolness.
  4. Re: PDFs on Kindle I don't know what Andy's process is. There are dozens of ways to approach document design, even within one application. Thus, I don't know how trivially his process could be modified. I am saying that the tagging process itself is trivial. It takes more effort to determine the order and insertion points of the floating elements than the tagging process takes. That sort of design decision is where a professional like Andy earns his kibbles. The tagging itself could be handled by a temp except it would take just as long to communicate said design decisions as to just do it. Anyway, I've said my bit. Not getting 6e tagged for reflow won't make me not buy the PDFs; Hero is still the line I've decided to take 100% digital, though sufficiently attractive 6e books may see me buying both. A tagged 6e would be nice, and I think it would be advisable, but in the end I'm just one consumer, no matter how much I think I know. I don't see it as my role to convince anyone of my PoV; I just try to publish info as I see it. /threadjack
  5. Re: PDFs on Kindle Going back through a document would be a pain in the butt, no argument there. However, tagging as you go really is trivial. I believe Andy is using InDesign, which makes it super simple as of CS3, but I'll admit I don't know about prior versions. Afterthought: I wouldn't suggest going back through the PDF archive to tag for reflow. Not with 6e on the distant horizon. But 6e would be a nice place to start. I believe PDFs are the industry standard for file formats sent to a printer (my last job dealing with print publishing ended in 2000), not the relatively low fidelity files we consumers use, but massive files with very high resolution pics and other graphical data. InDesign and Quark, the industry standards for print document creation, output both from a master native file. That native file is where the tagging is done. Even if the printer uses something other than PDF, InDesign and Quark would still output the file format called for, either including or leaving out the reflow tagging, since the print version should be 100% unaffected. The reason to do this is that print media, while nowhere near dead, has only a limited remaining reign as the King of mass publishing. Portable display devices are the future. I currently read my Hero books on a 4" 480x640 PDA screen using PocketXpdf, which at least can re-render a PDF page into plaintext, though it's a little hit or miss about where to place floating elements that aren't reflow tagged. It would be great to read it with the floating elements logically placed and pictures appearing at all.
  6. Re: PDFs on Kindle Sorta... Last I checked, you had to submit your material over the Internet to be queued for conversion and either download them via the normal Kindle process for a small fee (very small) or download them over a wired Internet connection into the device via USB. Due to the vagarities of my computing situation, I don't always have immediate Internet access. I want these particular file formats natively supported, and I want to transfer them directly to the device. I'm not saying the Kindle is trash for not having this feature. In fact, I'm still strongly considering its acquisition. Expanded file support and a color display are merely aspects of my dream eBook reader.
  7. Re: PDFs on Kindle Not precisely. The reflow tags don't affect the way the PDF prints. They are followed when a display interpreter wants to reflow the content to a simpler format, such as a small screen that really only display a single column, or a text reader for the visually impaired, essentially anything that needs to read the content in a strictly linear fashion. The tags specify the order that sidebars, pullouts, textboxes, tables, pictures, and the like should be interspersed into the text. Hero's books are exactly the kind of document that benefit most from reflow tagging. Afterthought: Hero-type books are considered to not reflow well, because without tagging the reader's attempt at default reflowing will phail horribly.
  8. Re: PDFs on Kindle It's not that much more work. Adobe publishes a how-to document (as a PDF of course) that covers the internal tagging necessary to allow a document to be reflowed by the reader to "accessible" layouts as well as easier use by text readers for the visually impaired, etc... There really isn't much excuse not to do the work as the document is being created.
  9. Re: PDFs on Kindle The Kindle can hold hundred of books at a time. Hero PDFs tailored for the Kindle would definitely tip the final scales both on getting a Kindle and going all electronic for my Champions collection.
  10. Dynamo

    Quantum Powers

    Re: Quantum Powers
  11. Dynamo

    Quantum Powers

    Re: Quantum Powers Why does realism even come up in threads like this? I generally veto Power Pools except when the system lacks the ability to replicate the power concept, as in the case of power copying. Gadget pools with appropriate Limitations are my only regular exception to this rule. I consider the point cost of Multipower slots to represent the time and effort invested in learning a new power stunt. In fact, I'll normally permit a player with points saved up to come up with power stunts on the fly.
  12. Re: Game Design: Champions Online I tried to edit the main Subject line for this thread so I can continue to use it without getting it confused with the official Champions Online, but it didn't work. So aside from this bump, I'll let this thread die and start another referring back here when I get the urge to continue the topic. What? It's my thread. I can necropost it if I want.
  13. Re: Who's Who on the Champions Online forums? Managed to grab Dynamo. All I need now is my helmet smilie.
  14. Dynamo

    Champion??

    Re: Champion?? According to the article in this month's Game Informer, every power will be available to every character, but the cost of each will vary according to your chosen "class." The same paragraph in the article goes on with the example that any class can "tank" but each class will do it differently.
  15. Re: Every Myth Is Not True Here's my take: This is boring. Boring again. And back to interesting. Just pulling the fantastic elements out of legends is an interesting mental exercise but doesn't make for engaging backstory for an inherently fantastic genre. Unifying the fantastic elements in legends so that they support a single-source superpowered setting makes it engaging again. Whether the source of superpowers is mutations, genetic seeding by the "Ancients", magical surge, undead contagion, divine descent, or the Mazarin-Rashoud node (see Aberrant), tying it into mythical events, and providing various ways for the PCs to learn about said tie-ins, strengthens your setting's backstory.
  16. Re: City of Heroes Some Thoughts On Making Hero Taste More Like CoH Take the CoH Archetypes and write them up like the Archetypes from Champions. Bricks are recast as Tanks or Scrappers; Energy Projectors and Egoists are split into Blasters, Defenders, and Controllers; Martial Artists become Scrappers. Encourage or mandate lower defenses on "squishies" perhaps by giving each Archetype its own sets of Caps. Do similarly with Origins from CoH, but maybe take it a step further and make them actually count for something in game, like making powers that work only on Mutants or don't work at all against Naturals. Instead of trying to convert Power Sets, encourage their like by applying Elemental Control liberally. Make sure the players know they're getting a discount for anything that stays in the theme. Defender Power Sets will be a little challenging since Adjustment Powers are pretty spendy when applied AoE at range and are a pain in the tuchas to apply on the fly. Controller Power Sets are tougher still, since Hero doesn't do Status Effects much. It might be worth porting over rules from GURPS or d20, which both do something very similar to Status Effects. Opposition should be concentrated in agent-class foes (minions) with a scattering of low-powered supers or elite agents (lieutenants), fewer really tough opponents (bosses), and a serious threat at the center of the action (elite bosses and archvillains). In the early parts of a scenario, keep fights short, mainly punctuation to information gathering and roleplaying. I find this goes against the grain in many Hero game groups, where any fight must be a serious challenge and takes most of the evening. While there are game-mechanical possibilities to Enhancements and Salvage, I think your best bang for your buck will be found in working into the campaign and scenario backgrounds the bits you find by reading the Info text on these items. Write up the manufacturers of the Technology Enhancements; replace Champions Universe questonite with impervium (remember it also inhibits psi); work out some technobabble concerning the Science Enhancements; send your PCs chasing after a Volume of the Obsidian Libram.
  17. Re: Gestalt: Is there anything you didn't like? There's always one player in every group running a published setting that just can't stand it when some element of said setting is altered by the GM. I used to avoid published settings for this very reason, but my A-hole identity has strengthened over the years so now I'll run and alter a published setting just make them cry.
  18. Re: Game Design: Champions Online
  19. That depends upon what we give them for aggro-management powers. If the opposition in instanced scenarios scales to team-size and Power Rank, then we have a large spawn of foes who may or may not decide they need to bash on the buffee. Foes in WoW already aggro nicely to buffers and healers. CoH has the ability in its aggro algorithm, but the values are zeroed out. Can you say Squishies? If play is balanced around a maximum buff value, the game becomes unsoloable. If I make a game like that, my wife has a small fund set aside to have me killed, since she hates teams larger than a duo. It's not that hard to devise an algorithm to create opposition in an instance that scales to team-size and Power Rank. With a little more skull sweat buffers, tanks, healers, debuffers, crowd control or any other functional specialization can be accounted for, even Disadvantages. Especially if a character has a Reputation. If I was a mastermind in a superheroic setting and heard that Icy McIcer, known for a critical weakness to heat and flame, was gunning for me, I'd make damn sure to get Amana Range and Mike Rowave on my payroll real quick. I disagree. 2 scrappers and 6 defenders have been able to steamroll on Invincible since the Reputation system was devised. Neither I nor the developers (AFAIK) think this is a problem.
  20. Re: Game Design: Champions Online While a turn-based Internet-capable game similar to Neverwinter Nights would be workable, I just don't see a turn-based MMO getting any market traction. I could be wrong. The Neverwinter Nights general model permits both GM-arbitrated and GM-less play based on a pre-written scenario. It can be played single-player or over any network connection to a hosted server, supports persistent environments, and can be linked to other servers to allow characters to pass between. As I mentioned above: So initial Power constructs would be pregenerated a la USPD, with customization options appropriate to the Power and SFX. In a perfect world, a library of animations and artwork would be accumulated, crafted by developers and the community, supported by a similar library of Power constructs. A user would elect to buy a Lightning Bolt, choose and customize the Power construct from a menu system, and then choose from a menu of animations (one-handed with heroic pose, leap in the air with a two-fisted forward thrust, baseball pitch with windup, etc).
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