HM3: Export options

I'm currently working on adding options for how you want to export your character image, and this is the dialog box I have so far:

How do those sizes grab you? The 200x300 size I figure will mostly be used for portrait views, so you can have a handy image for using as a forum avatar, for instance. Should I have something similar intended for widescreen use? What size would that be?

Note that I am not 100% sure I can actually do all of this, especially exporting as portrait and widescreen, but I figure it's better to start out aiming for the stars.

Safe word, safe word!

When last we left our outer-space, far-future adventure, Doctor Octopus' illegitimate cyborg love child was wrapping its metal tentacles lovingly around our only spacecraft. We decided to stand idly by as a witness to this Grand Theft UFO, and as a result:

You watch while, like some robotic garbage collector, the spider vehicle lifts your spacecraft off the ground and ascends into the clouds, leaving you standing helplessly on the barren rust-colored ground. A loneliness sweeps over you worse than any you experienced in space. You strap on your backpack and start walking over the flat, rubble-strewn terrain, trying to travel in a straight line.

The sun never shows through the clouds; the sky gets darker. Nightfall will soon be upon you. You have no idea how far you've traveled or how far you are from civilization -- if there is any civilization on this sad world.

Soon it's almost completely dark. At least you're not cold. You like on the hard, sandy ground and try to sleep. You manage to doze off.

You're wakened abruptly by a sound overhead. Opening your eyes, you see the spider vehicle hovering over you. The wires are already unreeling. You jump up, yelling at the craft above, hoping someone on board will hear you, but no one answers. Instead, wires drop down and get in position to wrap around you.

You try to remember the secret word the Oracle of Time gave you. Maybe you should use it now!

Well, Intrepid Bystanders, what will it be? Do we get nervous at the sensuous approach of those silky, glinting tentacles like some Hentai movie gone wrong and shout out our Safe Word, or do we grit our teeth and see our far-future adventure out to the end, hoping to get a free guided tour of Doctor Otto Octavius' Pleasure Palace of Ye Olde Earthe?

[polldaddy poll="4610854"]

HM3: Custom color saving

I've just updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha so any custom colors and swatches your character has will now be both saved and loaded. Old characters saved prior to this release will not be affected in any way.

If you have a bunch of custom colors active, then you load a previously saved character, your current custom colors won't be overwritten with white -- only non-white custom colors from the saved character get applied. In other words, your custom palette doesn't get wiped out by loading a save.

What that means is, you could in theory set up a whole suite of custom colors that you use a lot, and then save that "character" as something like "Jeff's Custom Colors". When you start a new session and character, the first thing you could do would be to load "Jeff's Custom Colors", and all the colors you'd saved would now be active. It's a way of saving your palette between sessions.

I also changed the default size for "Save as JPG/PNG" to 500x750.

The "Save" box now goes away when you click "OK".

Finally, I implemented a small bug fix where the custom color picker was showing on top of the save/load dialog box.

Please let me know if you have any problems with the release, and enjoy, all you custom color creators!

RP: Set queer tube to purple!

(From "Man'O'Mars" number 1, 1953.)

HM3: Major Save/Load code change now LIVE

I have just uploaded a fairly major change to the way HeroMachine 3 handles saving and loading characters, and how it masks and layers items. Details after the jump, but the take-away is that going forward you should have a lot fewer problems loading and saving. And hopefully the "stuck item" bug will go away too.

All of your previously saved characters should still be there, so you won't lose anything. It all ought to just work better.

I also want to give a special shout-out to everyone who contributed in the last thread on this subject, you all helped a lot. Particular thanks go to Violet, who sent me her saved-character .sol file, and Panner, who gave some exceptionally helpful, detailed, and specific bug reports that were incredibly helpful for tracking down all this. Thanks a ton!

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RP: Enter … the Legion of Wimps!

(From "Man'O'Mars" number 1, 1953.)

Poll Position: The Greatest Super-Hero Costume EVER?!

HeroMachine is all about making cool looking characters in even cooler looking costumes, so I thought it would be appropriate for us to talk about which iconic characters do the duds the best:

{democracy:171}

Deciding who should be on this list was tough. I felt like the character had to have achieved a certain level of awareness in the general cultural consciousness. A devastatingly awesome costume worn by a one-off character in a third-tier comic isn't going to make the grade to be considered one of the greats.

Second, I felt like the costume should say something about who the character is, or what their powers are, or what they stand for, or something about the general universe and publishing house they inhabit, or even all of the above. As someone who put together a similar list a few years ago said, you ought to be able to hand someone who knows virtually nothing about comics a list of character names and a list of pictures, and they should be able to put them together.

Finally, and this is much more nebulous, they have to look good.

And with that, we're off!

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RP: 1990s comics recruitment ads

(From "Space Action" number 1, 1952.)

Caption Contest 93: Fleeing the Scene

With hearty thanks once again to Glenn3's "Say What? Pictures", your challenge this week is to come up with the best replacement dialog for this comics panel:

I love this panel. Why is Captain Triumph flying away from a burning building? Or is it filled with some other noxious substance, perhaps left on purpose by our jodhpur-wearing friend (I put the over-under on fart jokes this week at 17)? I can't wait to see what you all come up with! The best entry (as judged by yours truly) wins the author's choice of either any item they like or any portrait to be included in HeroMachine 3′s final release, or a custom black and white “Sketch of the Day” style illustration (you pick the subject, I draw it however I like)!

All entries must be left as a comment (or comments) to this post. Keep ‘em clean (appropriate for a late-night broadcast TV show), but most importantly, keep ‘em funny!

No limit on the number of submissions beyond normal self-editing (i.e. don’t spam crappy entries hoping to get lucky), so good luck to everyone. Contest closes next Monday.

Character Contest 57 Winners

Many thanks to everyone who entered Character Contest 57: Aquarius! I've picked out some of the best of them (in my personal opinion, of course) below, and at the end I'll announce which of them is the overall winner.

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