Hi all. This weekend I began a rather ambitions project, building a tribute site to my many guys. See:
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/
I've got 116 heroes and villains, rogues and vigilantes, backed up with SentinelPlus as well as screenshots. With that source material sitting on my hard drive, it occurred to me they could have some sort of presence where others might occasionally notice.
Currently the site has a lot of dead links and missing pages. Eventually there will be over 125, including a page for each. Please let me know what you think. (Don't worry about hurting my feelings; constructive criticism early on would be greatly appreciated!)
Because maneuvering the site is so awkward right now, here is a drill-down set of links (the first is above):
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/serverIndex.html
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/OchreRook.html
I'll leave you with one of my wistful shots (and site-opener):
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fgames%2FCoH%2FHallsOfHeroes%2Fimages%2FDarkKi%2BCyrusThompson.jpg)
(24 Dec: changed URLs to reflect current location)
Hm, maybe there's a point to starting a site for sharing all of our CoX characters. A sort of memorial, I guess.
I recorded all of the info for my characters on O-portal just before shutdown.
http://ouroportal.com/wiki/User:Eabrace#Characters_and_SG_Affiliations
Nowhere near the 116 that you had, cohRock. It took me quite a while to get everything entered in, but I'm glad I managed to finish.
Good luck with your project. :)
Over the weekend I did a post in my CoH blog for every single one of my level 50 characters (of which I had fifty when all was said and done). Then I listed 10 more who were 35+. That's my own effort to archive my characters, if anyone cares it's at http://postalvalhalla.blogspot.com/ (http://postalvalhalla.blogspot.com/)
I'm glad other folks have the idea of memorializing their characters. Organica, I've started reading your blog, and I'm amazed you got it all done in a single weekend. Your commentary for each character is fun to read.
-- Rich
It was a lot of work, but it replaced the time I'd normally spent playing the game on a free weekend. I'm glad a few people will read some of it at least. ^_^ I had a file with all of my characters saved already, it was just a matter of listing them in order on a piece of paper, then uploading one at a time and writing whatever came to mind about that character, whatever I remembered most. It was very cathartic.
I know what you mean about the "cathartic" part. I enjoyed writing about Colt Blue (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Virtue/ColtBlue.html) this morning. Stuff came out that I'd never told anyone before.
One of the things that is taking me longer is that I'm doing old school web design. (Or more to the point, I'm probably one of the guys who helped build the old school.) In a text editor. With my feet. Ok, not my feet, but it feels that way sometimes.
And this morning, after I'd seen that Google had already started indexing the pages, of course I had to move them. The site already had a "CoH" directory, and I started "HallsOfHeroes" as a sibling directory to it, not a subdirectory. As an obsessive nerd, such a thing ..could ..not ..stand, and the issue has been corrected. The new site URL is:
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/index.html
Additionally, the pages are significantly more mature, and the interlinkings should be clear. Let me know if they are not.
Realizing that I don't have the only CoH memorial site, other folks' memorials are now being linked:
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/
Let me know (here or email) if you have something that should be added to the list.
-- Rich
Curiously, my character who knows himself least has one of my best bio's:
* Retcon the Never-Was (mutant scrapper) (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/RetconTheNever-Was.html)
I had to go thru hoops to get his bio-script to handle well in HTML. I would appreciate any feedback you may have in his presentation. Thank you.
-- Rich
Got your Geek on? Xor the Half-Adder (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/XorTheHalf-Adder.html) does. (Don't visit unless you want to read one of the Geekiest things, ever!)
My incubator, Infinity:
* http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/#green
It's amazing how several scheduled teams each week could help level up your characters. The Titanium Debtinators and coalition partners kept the teams going for many years, week after week. We had remarkably little drama during that time, and a lot of fun. I thank all who participated, SGmates, coalees, friends, and random invitees all.
-- Rich
Where was this statue ? I haven't seen this in any zone, I may have passed it unknowingly.
It looks like a Hero from the comic books.
MaidMercury, I don't know which statue you mean. I have several pictures of heroes near statues, but none linked directly above. You don't have to provide a link if you don't want; the character name will be enough info.
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on another note, this barely in: Eau Naturel (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/EauNaturel.html)
I liked Thai Bow with the Bow Tie, of course. ;D
Skewlines, of course! He was in that PI secret chamber for months; as I understood it, the only way in was to have someone already there port you.
Quote from: MaidMercury on December 24, 2012, 12:25:20 AM
Where was this statue ? I haven't seen this in any zone, I may have passed it unknowingly.
It looks like a Hero from the comic books.
MaidMercury, rescanning thread, I'm guessing you mean the picture in the first post (upon which I just fixed its link). That's Cyrus Thompson; his statue was in Kings Row in front of the tram station for the past several years. The actual photo was taken on the Beta server, where they moved him across the street, in front of a whole building memorializing him.
And yes, he was a hero from the CoH comic books. The story was
Smoke and Mirrors by Troy Hickman, issues 4-6. He later adapted it directly into the game, as Twilight's Son Task Force (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Twilight%27s_Son_Task_Force) in Ouroboros.
Quote from: cohRock on December 24, 2012, 03:35:06 AM
MaidMercury, I don't know which statue you mean. I have several pictures of heroes near statues, but none linked directly above. You don't have to provide a link if you don't want; the character name will be enough info.
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on another note, this barely in: Eau Naturel (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/EauNaturel.html)
Cool, Rock! I really like your Hall of Heroes and remember your Eau Naturel character. I find I'm missing CoH tonight, hence perusing these forums. Have a safe and joyous holiday! 8)
Thank you....I can't believe I didn't see this in my 6 years with the game.
I should have messed around more in Kings Row.
Least now I understand the significance.
Again, Thanks!
Quote from: cohRock on December 24, 2012, 08:31:43 PMSkewlines, of course! He was in that PI secret chamber for months; as I understood it, the only way in was to have someone already there port you.
That's not true. It took me until the day before shutdown to get clear instructions, but the route I was given worked: You head down to the southeast corner of the PI map, then head north along the east force field; a little way up from the corner, there is a gap in the force field that you can get through at the right angle that will let you into the water outside the force field. From there, head east until you reach the edge of the map, then go all the way down to the 'ground' under the map. Head back WNW along the ground until you're under the Arena, and then type '/stuck', and you'll be ported into the Matrix room.
Thanks, John.
Quote from: MaidMercury on December 25, 2012, 12:25:28 AM
Thank you....I can't believe I didn't see this in my 6 years with the game.
I should have messed around more in Kings Row.
It wasn't super obvious. The statue was probably 100 yards away from the tram station's ramp, and facing away from it. In the i24 beta, they turned Cyrus around, but moved him across the street, in front of a new building dedicated to him.
Quote from: srmalloy on December 25, 2012, 05:08:51 AM
That's not true. It took me until the day before shutdown to get clear instructions, but the route I was given worked: You head down to the southeast corner of the PI map, then head north along the east force field; a little way up from the corner, there is a gap in the force field that you can get through at the right angle that will let you into the water outside the force field. From there, head east until you reach the edge of the map, then go all the way down to the 'ground' under the map. Head back WNW along the ground until you're under the Arena, and then type '/stuck', and you'll be ported into the Matrix room.
Heh, damn! How'd I miss that? ;) You sure you didn't have to click your heals three times too, typing, "There's no place like Matrix"?
Seriously, the one thing I don't follow in your instructions is mention of "the force field". Did the SE corner of PI's map have one? Most of the zone had no barrier. If you swam far enough out, you would auto-zone to Talos. Just asking in the hope that this will become not moot.
There was one building on one of the monkey islands where you could log out standing near a door that was clickable, but partially covered with dirt. When you logged back in you would be under the map, but would have to quickly toggle on hover to keep from plummeting.
Quote from: cohRock on December 27, 2012, 12:11:47 PMSeriously, the one thing I don't follow in your instructions is mention of "the force field". Did the SE corner of PI's map have one? Most of the zone had no barrier. If you swam far enough out, you would auto-zone to Talos. Just asking in the hope that this will become not moot.
If you swam/jumped/flew to the eastern edge of the zone, you'd run up against an invisible solid wall sort of like the ones that you'd see in instanced outdoor missions, except the transparency was dialed way up, making it invisible (like the one you could hit east of the BAF in Imperial City, although I think that was a bug) except for certain angles. You had to be a little careful not to hit the south edge of the zone, because you were liable to get popped into northeastern Talos, but you could skate back and forth along the eastern edge until you found the gap in the barrier and escaped to the eastern edge of the water.
Thank you for the additional clarification, srmalloy.
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Back on topic, does Ion Quest (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Pinnacle/IonQuest.html) have his Cloak of Darkness on?
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fgames%2FCoH%2FHallsOfHeroes%2FPinnacle%2Fimages%2FIonQuest.jpg)
My page for Walk Softly (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/WalkSoftly.html) mentions that it was counter-productive to choose Dark Armor with Titan Weapons, because no one could see you using them. Then I get to Ion Quest, and his first picture clearly shows his spines. So I'm not sure whether it is Ion's other armors which are making him dark, but still somewhat visible, or the spines attacks were specifically programmed to be seen even with Cloak of Darkness on.
Quote from: cohRock on December 29, 2012, 10:56:55 PM
Thank you for the additional clarification, srmalloy.
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Back on topic, does Ion Quest (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Pinnacle/IonQuest.html) have his Cloak of Darkness on?
Spines would show with default Cloak of Darkness running sometimes.
QuoteMy page for Walk Softly (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/WalkSoftly.html) mentions that it was counter-productive to choose Dark Armor with Titan Weapons, because no one could see you using them. Then I get to Ion Quest, and his first picture clearly shows his spines. So I'm not sure whether it is Ion's other armors which are making him dark, but still somewhat visible, or the spines attacks were specifically programmed to be seen even with Cloak of Darkness on.
Uh, long before Titan Weapons was added to the game you had the option to set Cloak of Darkness to not hide the character model. (No fade or pulse.) The introduction of power customization included that as a setting for Dark Armor.
Quote from: Nyx Nought Nothing on December 30, 2012, 12:12:25 AM
Uh, long before Titan Weapons was added to the game you had the option to set Cloak of Darkness to not hide the character model. (No fade or pulse.) The introduction of power customization included that as a setting for Dark Armor.
<blank stare> ... and you didn't tell me this two years ago, why?? ;)
Seriously, I do wish I'd known that.
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The good news is, all primary pages have been written and uploaded, 134 of them in 30 days! 116 were individual character pages, the rest, indices of one sort or another. The final three were characters from Virtue:
* Full Sneeze (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Virtue/FullSneeze.html)
* H HeLiBeBC NOFNe (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Virtue/HHeLiBeBCNOFNe.html)
* Horse to Water (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Virtue/HorseToWater.html)
I'm sure I'll be tweaking pages over time. If you ever happen to notice typos, factual errors, or something you think should be included, let me know. There is an email link at the bottom of every page. I certainly would welcome that info posted here as well, along with any general comments you may have.
One page is still planned I'll include traces of (the very few) characters I've deleted over the years, plus my native folks from the first massacre a year ago, when the test server was permanently wiped. Of those, only one has been preserved in pixels. Meet my necro/FF mastermind from Test, Pallor:
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2FPallor1.jpg)
I'm having fun perusing your Hall of Heroes! 8)
I occasionally view the site on my Android cellphone. With its 4-inch screen, my fat fingers don't do well accessing characters from the alphabetical index page (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/alphaIndex.html). The names are just too close together. That got me thinking, how could I make an easy modification that would make it easier to tap the right name? So far this is what I've come up with:
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2FstaggeredHoH_alpha.png)
What you see is added information to each line. Instead of just a column of centered names, I've staggered non-link text to the left and right of each name. The extra text is yymm date and character level. (I screwed up the Black Eis line. Level was always supposed to be next to name.)
What do you think? I could really use some feedback here.
Would it be improved if I changed the date format from 0904 to Apr09? This first pass I went with something easily sortable, but having 3-letter month names would seem to improve readability.
Any suggestion would be much appreciated, even something entirely different.
{added} Firecrackers keeping me awake, so I thought I might as well see what it looked like with the revised date format.
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2Fstag2HoH_alpha.png)
Note that I haven't yet decided on whether to make the mod, or what it will be. I do think this one is more readable though.
Although I'd still really, really like feedback, even if you don't like something, this may be the fat-finger mod:
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2FstaggeredHoH_alphaHeads.png)
(I included the "C" column so you can compare with what the page has now.)
Basically it will add 3 mini-head shots, followed by 3 lines of text, etc. To avoid just one head-shot on a line, there can actually be from 2 to 4 mini-head-shots in the last group, as you can see above. You can click either the text name or the head shot. Also, hovering the mouse above a picture will show the character's name.
The head shots already exist, and I use them on each server's index page (e.g. Infinity (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Infinity/)). Those are all 100 pixels wide, though. For the mini-head shots, I'm using the same images, but telling HTML to show them as only 40 pixels wide.
What do you think?
Should I put a border around the images, which might help people realize they are clickable?
(The downside to me is that, to me, the red frames make the images look ugly.)
Fat-finger mod (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/alphaIndex.html) posted. I went with something different than shown above. You'll have to visit to see what it looks like. Hopefully the page is better for both full size browsers and smartphones/tablets. Looks good and functions well on my Android phone.
Try it out. I'm especially curious how it looks on an Apple® device with Retina display.
With over 100 pictures, it can take a few seconds to completely load. But I figure if that Pixar® guy (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,7567.0.html) isn't shy about his page with 365 pictures, I shouldn't be either. Plus the head-shots will be pre-populated should you explore the site and visit any of the individual server index pages.
... fat finger worries. How 2012.
Now we're dynamic, with bigger heads (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/serverIndex.html) and smaller busts (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/Beta/) than ever before!
That dude from Pixar® drove me to popup, but I have more 50s!
I've still got to dynamize my alphabetical index page, and most of the individual server index pages, but I'm getting there.
If there are any web geeks amongst you, the following tale of web-design woe may be of interest. For the rest, feel free to click the [back] button now.
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Like so many problems in the
City of Heroes, it was Monstrous Monstress' fault. She was driving the whole page crazy, and something had to be done. Merely hovering the mouse over her name could cause unspeakable behavior!
So, of course, I'm going to speak about it. Feel free to stop reading if not interested in the details of really weird web page behavior.
The problem has several roots. We'll start with me implementing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). One of the capabilities I liked was making links significantly change when the mouse passed over them. One of the changes was to set the text in bold. (Monstrous Monstress knew she could warp bold. She was evil with bold!)
Then there is my addiction to complex tables. Why not start out a big four-column table with three columns, having the middle one span the two center columns below? Don't worry, you'll find out. (Monstrous Monstress already knew, and took full advantage.)
Finally, there is my unparallelled ability to ignore the obvious. Is the four-column table getting too fat, because of a few long-named characters? Shrink the text on those few lines. Implementing a new class that shrinks the text in little pop-up panes? Cool. Oh no! The pop-up text gets double shrunk for those cases where I had already shrunk the text. How do I fix this? Ask the good folks at HTMLforums (http://www.htmlforums.com/css/t-how-to-avoid-cascaded-double-text-reduction-151818.html). (All the while, Monstrous Monstress was laughing. She was already at work, playing trampoline with my web page -- even before I implemented the pop-ups. Somehow I missed her evil happy howls.)
You've never seen a web page bounce? I don't have a video, but here are two images demonstrating it:
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2FHoH_MMshift1.png) (https://images.weserv.nl/?url=r0k.us%2Frock%2Fjunk%2FHoH_MMshift2.png)
The mouse doesn't show in these pictures, but you can see the mouse-over event in the second. The text went bold and her pop-up displayed. The pop-up has nothing to do with this weirdness, though. Just the bold.
Can you see how the whole table contents shifted down? Let's run thru a full cycle.
- move mouse over Monstrous Monstress' name, causing hover event
- her name goes bold forcing column wider in the inward direction
- the centered text block at top, colspan'ned to be two wide got skinnier
- the centered text block reformats itself, adding a new row of text
- the entire table contents shift down that one line
- Monstours Monstress' name moves below the mouse. hover event ends
- her name is no longer bold and column goes back to normal width
- the centered text block above regains its normal width, loses extra line
- the entire table contents shift back up that one line
- Monstrous Monstress' name is now under the mouse again, causing hover event
- her name goes bold, etc., etc., bouncy, bouncy, evil, evil, unto the ends of time!
When the obvious spits in my face, I do notice.
- Split the table into two, making the top three-column part its own table.
- Remove div from outlier lines, which shrunk their text size.
- Remove normal override from the span declaration for those pop-ups.
- Reformat the actual indexing table, from four-column, three-row to three-column four-row
Stay alert, web authors. Monstrous Monstress may have been foiled this time, but I assure you, her villainy lives on.
(Should anyone desire to see this effect in action, i preserved the original page, as alphaIndex_4col.html (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/alphaIndex_4col.html). I could only see it in Firefox. I did not see it happen with IE or Chrome, but that could have been not getting the page width right. The magic, problematic width depends on browser width and your default font size. Note: this post is slightly revised from what I posted (http://www.htmlforums.com/css/t-how-to-avoid-cascaded-double-text-reduction-page2-151818.html) on the afore mentioned HTMLforums.)
Wow, you stayed this long and aren't a web geek? I'm impressed!
What is likely my final page, for The Deleted (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/deleted/), is now up. It's not complete, but there is sufficient content for it to be put online.
I'm posting about it now because of the bottom, "Test Server Commentary" section. It talks a lot about PvP. I seldom PvP'd, though, and would appreciate feedback and corrections. Thank you.
Quote from: cohRock on December 24, 2012, 08:31:43 PM
And yes, he was a hero from the CoH comic books. The story was Smoke and Mirrors by Troy Hickman, issues 4-6. He later adapted it directly into the game, as Twilight's Son Task Force (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Twilight%27s_Son_Task_Force) in Ouroboros.
Easily one of my fav stories in the game. Never knew it was from the comics, or was a Troy Hickman story till post shutdown.
Quote from: srmalloy on December 25, 2012, 05:08:51 AM
That's not true. It took me until the day before shutdown to get clear instructions, but the route I was given worked: You head down to the southeast corner of the PI map, then head north along the east force field; a little way up from the corner, there is a gap in the force field that you can get through at the right angle that will let you into the water outside the force field. From there, head east until you reach the edge of the map, then go all the way down to the 'ground' under the map. Head back WNW along the ground until you're under the Arena, and then type '/stuck', and you'll be ported into the Matrix room.
I always got in there from the top, right on Monkey Island. Log out near a 1/2 buried door, then log back in, and that has you enter below the map. Then proceed to fly to the arena as you did. I gave tours a lot, tho, and often just ported people in, it wass SO much easier to do that.
Heck, there were prolly abot 3 other ways in, too. Kinda bummed I didn't get a chance to pop back in one last time...
EDIT: Just noticed that SKEWLINES scooped a chunk of my comment. Credit where due, and all..... Glad to have the confirmation it wasn't just a figment of my memory...
I love HTML5. It made it super-easy to add optional music to my HoH Home Page (http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/).
Should I credit the music as "Williams Square" or "William's Square"?