Unofficial HeroClix Character Guide...

[augiewan]

Hey all,

I have been working on a character guide for myself that shows the HC figs and gives all their vital stats. I started it for myself so I could study the figs without having to click through their dials, but I think it looks pretty good and figure I might as well share it with anyone else that may want to have a copy. I started it in Word but if I others want copies, I may go with pdf. once it's done, not sure yet.

Anyway, anyone who would like to see what it will look like, the full version of Infinity Challenge (nons, Uniques, and LEs) plus the superpower/team ability guide is complete. HT and CT will be done soon and I have a few other little things I plan to add. I'm interested in hearing what others think and getting feedback on what might make it better... :)

The full IC document is here: (beta) 3.7MB (right click and save, don't try to view in your browser, it's too big...)
http://www.augiewan.com/files/geek/heroclix/ClixStatsMasterBeta.doc
A sample of just one figure is here: 93Kb
http://www.augiewan.com/files/geek/heroclix/ClixStatsSample.doc

Thanks for looking... :)
augiewan

[ChromeWeasel]

The link doesnt work for me.

[augiewan]

D'oh! Sorry about that, it works now...

grumble...

augiewan :D

[augiewan]

Sorry again for all the link goofyness. They should both be working properly now...

Thanks for the heads up messages.... :)

augiewan

[ChromeWeasel]

I just went through the whole guide. Really nice job. It's definitely a better way of browsing through the characters than the official site has.

I'm sure you've already done a lot of work but I'd like to make a suggestion: You could provide links to relavent discussion threads or figure reviews from this forum. The Wizkids descriptions definitely help but aren't very in-depth.

[Lrddarkknight]

Looks really nice :) Except that the colour for toughness seems to be the same colour for defend(yellow)

Keep it up :)

[augiewan]

I don't know, I'd like to hear what others think about more links...

I started by using the links to describe the powers in the dial description tables, but then it dawned on me that the purpose was to print the thing, not to scroll forever on a computer screen. But that was my personal intent. If most people think they would be online on their computers while using the document, it would probably be worth adding more links as you suggested... :)

any thoughts?
augiewan

[TalonMC]

Awesome job augiewan! Very impressive! I'm looking fwd to viewing the completed version.

As for the links issue, I personally think this doc would be best used as you originally intended... printed and taken with you wherever you wish to create your teams. As long as the doc isn't left out in the open during the actual games, I think it will be a very helpful resource for team building when you don't have an online computer handy.

-MC

[augiewan]

Originally posted by Lrddarkknight
Looks really nice :) Except that the colour for toughness seems to be the same colour for defend(yellow)

Hmm, it looks quite a bit different to me on my screen. What about others? Do the orenge and yellow I used look too close to each other?

Let me know!
augiewan

[TalonMC]

The Yellow and Orange powers look different to me. No problem telling them apart.

-MC

[Lrddarkknight]

I guess its a problem with my comp or some that program I'm running.........

[Silver Viper]

Wow! This is awsome! Finally a good guide to clix figs! Thank you a lot. It's fine except for it would be a little better if you had their point cost and range next to their stats instead at the top. Just my opinion, but besides that it looks great. Thx

[ultimatemark]

Auggie,
Game of Ping-Pong?:D

Seriousely, you have too much time on your hands! I like what you've done, it makes it really easy to compare power levels of the same fig, one thing I've really been wanting. I'll pass this on to friends.

Thanks for your hard work.

[augiewan]

Thanks! :)

I'd be done with HT if I had a stinking Arthur Curry to take a picture of! :(

Anyone got an extra they want to give me? lol...

augiewan

[augiewan]

Well, the major part holding up my finishing the HT and CT sections of this document is the fact that I don't have all the LE figs from those sets to take pictures of.. If you have any of the following, I'd LOVE to get good pictures of them. If you're willing, try to get them in at least similar shots as I've used. Leave the pics large and I'll crop/resize them. Feel free to send them to me at augiewan@thespeakeasy.com Please keep them under 200kb each...

HT LE Arthur Curry (Aquaman)
CT LE Laura Brown (SHIELD Sniper)
CT LE Agent Beaulieu (Mandroid Armor)
CT LE George Tarleton (AIM Agent)
CT LE Paibok (Skrull Commando)
CT LE Felicia Hardy (Black Cat)
CT LE Rita DeMara (Yellow Jacket)
CT LE Dr. Doom (Doombot)
CT LE Dominic Petros (Avalanche)
CT LE Fred J. Dukes (The Blob)
CT LE Mortimer Toynbee (Toad)
CT LE Sue Storm (Invisible Woman)
CT LE Clint Barton (Hawkeye)
CT LE Blastarr of Balduur (Blastaar)
CT LE Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)

Of coarse if you have extras of them, I'd love to trade ya! :) My full trading list in in my sig line. I have tons of nons, lots of LEs and a bunch of other toys for trade (StarWars, Transformers, Simpsons, etc...)

Thanks for all the great feedback so far!
augiewan

[Marshal Law]

Nicely done document, something close to what WizKids should have produced long ago. Having said that, I somewhat agree with ealier comments on having the dial stats and points stats close to each other. More importantly, while your commentary is interesting, for most a more "Reader's Digest" version would be better. I.e. cut out the side notes, replacing the text block under the point stats with just the faction figure (allowing you to remove that block and thus move the dial listings up), so what you end up with is a "just the facts, Ma'am" listing.

Originally posted by augiewan
CT LE Paibok (Skrull Commando)
CT LE Felicia Hardy (Black Cat)
CT LE Rita DeMara (Yellow Jacket

My LE collection is poor, but I've got these. If you're still unable to get pics of them and/or stats by end of next week, I'll see what I can do about taking a digital snapshot of 'em and sending the info to you.

[quixotequest]

Augiewan:

I like your document but I would find it harder for making quick comparisons. I definitely like adding the play notes and character pics. It generally looks very nice. I'd use it more for "coffee table" reading, and if that were the case, I'd love if more detailed play notes like AZS's were included...but without all the funny prose.

In the interest of saving space, particularly on all the PAC and FAQ info I wanted my docs all in one portable space. My stats references I wanted logically organized but in fewer pages. But hey, different strokes for different folks. We design things differently.

If my documents can help you streamline yours, please feel free to download. (Or anyone reading the post for that matter.) They're here (http://homepage.mac.com/bryanjensen/filesharing.html)

[Logan Myrddin]

Can't you condense them? I mean, if I wanted to print this out, I'd have to have two pages for each character. That's a LOT of paper. I don't even want to think about the ink (which stays the same either way)! Otherwise, I've got nothing bad to say! Looks great! Thanks for doing us all such a wonderful service! On other boards, providing this type of thing for others would get you a rank above "member". Of course, on other boards there are more ranks. Anyway, I dub thee with the unnoficial rank of Daimyo, or Lord. Great job! <<<Final Fantasy end-fight Fanfare>>>

[augiewan]

Even at one character per page, I admit that it takes a decent ammount of paper and ink to print, but well worth it in my mind. I wanted to have a little room for personal notes and cramming two per page just didn't look good or leave any space.

I have to ask you Logan Myrddin, what do you mean by two pages per? I formatted it to fit one per page, does it not come out that way on your computer? How about others? Is the formatting not holding true? I may be forced to use PDF if that's the case. At least it hold it's formatting across operation systems and such...

That's frustrating if it's the case, PDF's are bigger files and get muddy... :( poo...

augiewan

[augiewan]

Originally posted by quixotequest
I like your document but I would find it harder for making quick comparisons. I definitely like adding the play notes and character pics. It generally looks very nice. I'd use it more for "coffee table" reading, and if that were the case, I'd love if more detailed play notes like AZS's were included...but without all the funny prose.[/URL]

Yes I agree totally. The original intent was more of the CoffeeTable view. Something I could sit in bed and read over before going to sleep. Read up and think about how to use the figs you don't usually use and keep things fresh.

As for the additional info, I was actually thinking of using some of Azs' stuff, but didn't feel right doing so. Azs, if you're reading this, what do you think? If it's cool with you, I'd definately give credit where credit is due. If not, my intention is to add my own commentary at some point, but I doubt it would be as good...

Originally posted by quixotequest
In the interest of saving space, particularly on all the PAC and FAQ info I wanted my docs all in one portable space. My stats references I wanted logically organized but in fewer pages. But hey, different strokes for different folks. We design things differently.[/URL]

Now your docs are absolutely great in their own right. They are perfect for those quick hits of info while forming a team right before a game. The PAC is beautifuly done.

I thing having both will be very complimentary to each other. Thanks! :) Do you plan on doing a DC stats doc?

augiewan

[jasonh08]

AWESOME!

[augiewan]

Originally posted by jasonh08
AWESOME!

LOL! A man of many words....

Thanks... :)
augiewan

[stray_flux]

Augiewan, Quixotequest:

You're both INSANE! It's great. That's just what I've been looking for.

Originally posted by augiewan
I have been working on a character guide for myself that shows the HC figs and gives all their vital stats. [/B]

Originally posted by quixotequest
If my documents can help you streamline yours, please feel free to download. (Or anyone reading the post for that matter.) They're here (http://homepage.mac.com/bryanjensen/filesharing.html) [/B]

I've been trying to do a Access database where I could sort and print out something like your layout, Quixo, but just for the figures I want/need to. I haven't had time to get at it lately though.

-stray

[BrianMachine]

I'm having trouble with losing the formatting.

Could you make a .pdf version available?

It looks awesome, and I look forward to printing out the finished version.

~Brian

[D_Ronin]

Very nice but I caught one little mistake in a text.

When talking about Kang (V) you say that he gains incapacitate and enhancement.

Kang never gains any enhancement. A minor detail :)

[augiewan]

Originally posted by BrianMachine
I'm having trouble with losing the formatting.

Could you make a .pdf version available?

It looks awesome, and I look forward to printing out the finished version.

~Brian

Someone else PMd me a suggestion for the formatting that may fix the problem. I'll probably work on it later tonight and post a new version tomorrow to see how it owrks for people... :)

PDF will be a last option a it creates a larger file than Word does and it getts really muddy with smaller text... :(

augiewan

[quixotequest]

Augiewan: By making a reference to AZS's work I was just complimenting the style and depth of his information, the sometimes-lengthy-but-always-funny-and-enjoyable prose notwithstanding. I wasn't clear but I would recommend you write your own notes, with a little more depth, but not use his material.

Do you have Acrobat? Yeah if you have a plug-in to let you rip a PDF directly from Word you might end up having an inferior product. Being in the publishing industry, Word is not PostScript friendly in the way Acrobat is. But if you self-publish, it helps to have the full version of Acrobat so you can control the quality level of the photos and the refinement/clarity of the fonts. Done properly, a PDF will still be comparitively samll and maintain high quality. Yes, Word is also very size-efficient, but its files are not cross platform friendly like PDF, nor are they PostScript efficient. PDF is worth the trade-off for this level of control, IMO. You can also manage color output much better, too. I also like that it has some basic levels of security you can improse.

I'd definitely work on getting control of PDF process if you want to make your documents more usable by people. Good luck.

[shin-goji]

augiewan, this is a massive and very impressive undertaking. I am awed by your skills and dedication. Incredible job.

[Silver Viper]

I finally got done with printing all of it out, arranging them in the right order, putting holes in them with a hole puncher(thank god it was a 3 ring one), and putting them in a notebook. It was work, but it was far worth it. Thx again.

[XocgX]

What Shin said! You are amazing!

What a board?!

[augiewan]

I have a full version of Acrobat 5. I'll have to play with the destiller a bit, cause I'll admit I've only tried it so far with the default settings and it was truly ugly... :( Pixelated the images something fierce as well as made a lot of the smaller text muddy and unreadable while at the same time making the file about 20% larger than the original Word doc. I'd be ok with making the file size larger, but I can't justify the quality drop...

I'll play with it tonight... I'll be ready with the HT set as soon as I get the format issue out of the way...

Thanks again for all the feedback.... :)
augiewan

[quixotequest]

Augie:

For example, the PDF I did of my combo PAC has 6-point type. I allowed Distiller to downsample the "team logo" images, since they were originally web images and not high quality anyway. Using "press optimized" settings the type prints out really clear. And its about 200-something k. The Postscript file alone was over a Meg. I'm sure as you fool around with Distiller you will find the setting that preserves the appropriate quality.

I use QuarkXPress because the control over fonts, typesetting, etc., is so much better over Word. Creating PDFs is the only way I can share my Quark docs with the world since so few people outside the publishing/graphics industry uses the program.

[Ironman44]

Thanks for this!

it rocks.

I will wait patiently for the other sets.

[augiewan]

Hey quixotequest, I know what you mean about Word. I almost did the doc in Adobe Pagemaker, but opted for Word only because of compatibilty for most people. Now that it looks like I'll go PDF anyway, I wish i had started in PageMaker. It's still not QuarkXpress, but it's worlds better than Word... :)

Thanks again for all the feedback everyone. It's nice to know others will get some use out of the work going in to it. I've actually been spending a lot of my typical night-time down time for work-ralated projects, so this has been on virtual hold for about a week now. I'll get back to it soon...

augiewan

[quixotequest]

Augiewan:

Without getting into the discussion about "bloatware" that is Microsoft software, I think you should start over in Pagemaker. I do like Quark better but Pagemaker is still miles ahead of Word for the purposes you need. Wise use of style sheets and master templates should allow you to tame the information pretty fast. And considering that there are still two sets yet to be done and a third on the imminent horizon, I'd think your wasted time now will outweigh the frustration of changing it all later.

After all, Word is a word-processing program. Pagemaker is a layout and design program. Your text is already processed, so why use a screwdriver when there is a nail that needs to be hammered?

You know, if your're going to go all out and create a "coffee table" reference work, why not write up some bios about the characters? I'm sure there are a lot of HeroClix users, including myself, who would love to read a brief bio about the character in question. I really think your stats tables could be significantly reduced in size to make space for such fun-to-read info.

Anyhow...you're doing a good job.

[XocgX]

Augiewan,

Great job, when will you move on to the other sets?!