We’ve run out of options about fixing the Java problems without a big intervention, which is currently being scheduled. The stability of the main search engine has been terrible for the last 4 days or so.

In the meanwhile, the search engine will keep being manually reset when it collapses (and the server rebooted when needed). That’s not ideal, so let me remind y’all of the “Alpha” button on the side, which is also a neat way to find something. Google can also help, though I don’t think they have the whole site indexed yet – do a search on Google with “writeups.org” added to the key words.

I started preparing this batch of profiles with the firm intent of catching up with the publication backlog, then realised that the backlog has already been caught up with. So this is a slightly abridged batch.

Roll call :

• A short note was added to the Bug-Eyed Bandit entry about his successor – since Bug-Eyed Bandit II is a non-entity who can’t have an entry of his own.
• MASS EFFECT. We’re about done with the first game, I think – meaning that this batch has an entry for Urdnot Wrex. Wrex is usually a sign that things are about to be finished.
  Furthermore, the guns have been spun out of our main Mass Effect 2 article since it was getting kinda big, and we already have a tradition of Weapons Locker articles. However, this is still work in progress.
• Our very old and terribad entry for Commander Kraken, a 1970s Marvel villain, was completely redone. There’s a first and a second entry despite him having all of four appearances – you’ll see why.
• TRIUNE UNDERSTANDING. The main entry in Gareth’s three-entries Triune arc – Jonathan Tremont, the Ron L. Hubbard of the Marvel Universe.
• Arthur Shaman, a super-minor mercenary with hypnotic powers working for AIM.
• JOHNNY MNEMONIC. A second entry by Pur_See_i8 about the movie – the Street Preacher, Dolph Lundgren’s character.
• SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS. Ethan now covers the Amazing Friends part, beginning with Firestar.
• Sergeant Gorilla is a typical Silver Age DC Comics oddity from a weird war story.
• DISCWORLD. For after all, is it not written that Gareth wrote an entry for Lu-Tze, the Sweeper ?
• THE RED STAR. It’s Skymarshall Urik Antares‘ turn to have his texts all reworked and improved and made more accessible.
• CADRE. The rest have been reviewed and upgraded – which mostly means that the capsule entries for the New Extremists now have much better illustrations.
  • Cloudburst
  • Death Angel
  • Gunshot
  • Meanstreak

Well, 4,879 entries now. Java leaks are becoming a problem though, we’re scheduling a review.

Some search engine difficulties during the past few hours as a re-indexation went weird. Should be good now, barring another JVM memory leak. Sorry ’bout that.

We’ve begun to use new surface blur application techniques to moderate the graininess of old comic book pictures – without adding a smudgy aspect to the image. These are the early stages and a few shots still look a bit forced, but generally illustrations from pre-1990s books will look better. In the best cases, you’d think it was a reprint.

Most old illustrations will not get revisited with this technique though, to avoid undergoing one more round of .jpg compression loss.

Anyway, roll call:

• Taurus (Cornelius van Lunt) has had a thorough round of texts and illustrations improvement. Last time we did that there were sudden revelations about the Great Wheel as the work was underway, but this time we’re good.
• SOUL CALIBUR. Tom’s SC entry for this batch is Raphaël Sorel, the cursed fencer.
• MASS EFFECT. Now covering two more fan-favourite characters as they were during the first game :
  • Tali’Zorah nar Rayya
  • Garrus Vakarian
• TRIUNE UNDERSTANDING. We start this arc of Gareth’s with a teaser of sorts – the very powerful Pagan.
• The Darkness section in the New Rules Files (Powers) for DC Heroes has been updated.
• MAN-BEAST. Many Bothans died to bring us this writeup, which was requested by the Teeming Millions of WORG readers an embarrassingly long time ago. The Man-Beast is a classic and… adaptable Marvel villain.
• The entry for the Cat (Greer Nelson) has had its texts polished, and the art was much improved.
• From Bionic Six we have an antagonist written up by Pur_See_i8 – the Perceptor.
• CADRE. More reviews and improvements for these handy, generic villains :
  • Brute
  • Golden Eagle
  • Heatmonger
  • Iron Cross
• X’iv is a Skrull assassin seen in Young Avengers/Runaways and written up by Gareth. We like Skrulls, they go well with our colour scheme.
• As long as his Runaways books are open, Gareth also wrote up the Dickensian villain, Provost.
• Red Wolf (William Talltrees) had a banner redone since the TPB was handy. Ditto for the Man-Ape, who had a banner and three illustrations redone. Our very old and semi-useless Man-Bull notes also got a new banner, for some reason. And there’s a new shot for Invincible, by the way.

This brings us to 4,870 entries. Given the emphasis on redoing/rewriting older entries, the big 5K is still quite a distance away.

A new pack of DC Adventures stats, mostly to get the Thing stuff and the Carol Danvers stuff out. Roll call :

• The series of four Thing (Benjamin Jacob Grimm) benchmarking entries – Early, Classic, Spiked, Modern – by Pawsplay
• The third benchmarking entry for the Invisible Woman, by Pawsplay
• Cammi (Drax’s former sidekick)
• Rampage (Stuart Clarke)
• Steel (John Henry Irons)
• The Daredevil benchmarking entry, by Mister O.
• Snapdragon (Sheoke Sanada)
• Onyx (pre-Crisis)
• Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel — entry 1, entry 2, entry 3

Here we go again, with plenty of cool stuff :

• MASS EFFECT. Three entries this time since I’m drowning in the material:
  • Kaidan Alenko during the first two games
  • Mandala Shepard during the prologue of Mass Effect 2
  • Dr. Liara T’Soni during the first game
  • Also added a note to the ME1 singularity that I kept forgetting, and continuing to take notes on ME2.
• Gareth has a big, detailed entry about Vixen. Because Vixen is cool, damnit ! Go, foxy lady !
• James Woo’s pre-Agents of Atlas entry was extensively rewritten for style, clarity and concision – then split in two so it’s an even quicker read and more illustrations could be fitted in. Part 1 is the Yellow Claw era, part 2 is scattered appearances from 1967 to 2005. Part 3 (Agents of Atlas) saw some cosmetic modernisation, but has not been updated yet.
• DISCWORLD. Yes, we’re that cool – or at least Gareth is : we do have a Granny Weatherwax entry now.
• It’s been a while since we’ve had a New Universe entry so Pufnstuff pitches in with an article about Mastodon.
• CADRE. More rewrites for style, and pictorial improvements, for these handy villains. Since the last batch:
  • Fastball
  • Nightfall
  • Shrike
  • Devastator
  • Starshrike
  • Backlash (slight update, too)
  • Blind Faith
  • The recently-revised Crowbar and Shatterfist I now also have better illustrations
• RUNAWAYS. Gareth’s Runaways entry for this batch is Klara Prast, a young chlorokinetic from 1907.
• THE RED STAR. The entry for Alexandra Goncharova has been thoroughly rewritten for style, clarity and accessibility.
• In our “hey, why not” department, Pur_See_i8 has an entry for Riot, from the intensely 80s Jem and the Holograms cartoon.
• Ethan wrote up the cartoon version of Spider-Man – specifically the 1981 Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends version (the one with Firestar and Iceman).
• NEW POWERS. The Shockwave Power for DC Heroes has been finalised and added to the document, since there are several characters using it on the site.
• ART. What remained from this OHOTMU series :
  • Chase Stein (Talkback)
  • Taskmaster
  • Tombstone
  • Jimmy Woo (writeup 3)
  • Wild Thing (MC2)
  • Warhawk (writeup 2)
  • T-Ray
  • Vulcan
  • Super-Skrull
  • Furthermore, shots from reprints of old Avengers issues now adorn :
    • The iconic (at least for me) Quicksilver shot now heads the column
    • Black Widow (writeup 2) entry, though it’ll have to be reillustrated at some point
    • The Split-Second Squad
• SOUL CALIBUR. ¡Arrr! Tom throws in ye Cervantes de Leòn ! ¡Avast!
• It’s been a while since I used a Mitch Foust illustration for a super-heroine, so let’s add one to the Lady Blackhawk entry since Zinda is fitting for (not too cheesecakey !) pin-up illustration. Again, Mr. Foust’s gallery is here.

That’s a total of 4,862 entries, given the emphasis on improving existing entries (which, the reasoning goes, most people will probably be reading for the first time given the amount of material).

I missed a comment from John that was made to an older post – just caught it whilst cleaning the spam filters (you wouldn’t believed how much spam comments areas attract. Thanks for filters.)

The three main answers are:

• Writeups.org usually assume a DEX of 10 for Superman, based on the version of the character that has been active for most of the 1990s and 2000s. This is explained in the FAQ, but I’m going to explain it a bit further since I’m planning to reorganise the FAQ soon so it looks less… large. Some writeups assume the DEX of 15 for Supes – for instance the Universe AZ one – usually because they have a more Silver Age Superman in mind, but this is normally noted in the Reasons section. Thus, Diana’s DEX 12/Martial Artist 13 for the Gail Simone era assume that Clark has a DEX of 10.
• Likewise, almost all writeups use the interpretation of INT as perceptiveness/mental nimbleness and WIL as analytical/deductive power, which isn’t how official writeups work but is the way the actual rolls are made in the game. Why it’s not covered in the FAQ is inexplicable and will be fixed soon-ish.
• For conversations (as opposed to comments) the group is the best place. It is possible to registrer then not receive any e-mail, so there’s no downside – and no risk of your messages being missed.

Excelsior ! Now to catch up with the backlog that accumulated whilst I was sick.

More things. Amazing, eh ? Roll call :

• EXCEL CHARACTER CREATION SHEET. This sort of thing is usually popular – Erik has built an Excel 2007 spreadsheet that computes characters and gadgets. The entry includes the file and instructions.
• MASS EFFECT. Now’s the time for a big profile of the protagonist, Commander Shepard — or rather a Commander Shepard, since most players have their own version of them. Shepard’s kinda good at saving the galaxy.
• The Gypsy (Early) profile by Gareth covers Gypsy’s vintage Justice League career.
• The entry for Jillian Woods was split in two for clarity and brevity, and both halves completely rewritten. She thus now has an entry for her career as Shadowoman and one for her career as Sepulcre.
• SPIDER-MAN CARTOON. Ethan wrote up the version of Swarm who appears in the vintage Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon – the space alien one.
• ART. More illustrations from the 2008 run of the OHOTMU – though in some cases it’s just higher-quality versions of the shots we already had. Several of the entries receiving better illustrations really need to be redone, though. Roll call :
  • Radioactive Man
  • Razorback
  • Red Wolf
  • Rocket Racer
  • Sasquatch
  • Nicholas Scratch
  • Shatterstar
  • Speed Demon
  • Sphinx
  • Spot
  • Stegron
  • Strong Guy
• The Bug-Eyed Bandit is an Atom villain from the 1960s, who has since made some vague appearances. He’s very Silver Age, but he could actually be useful.
• RUNAWAYS. Don’t be Skrull to a heart that’s true – Gareth now introduces Xavin to WORG.
• The entry for Steel Raven was rewritten for style and concision, and has a new OHOTMU illustration.
• STAR TREK. Doug wrote up no less than Q – stats-wise that’s easier in DC Heroes than in most systems.
• CADRE. More of the Cadre DCU jobbers got streamlined, improved profiles. In this batch:
  • Shatterfist II
  • Black Mass
  • Crowbar

And that’s 4,851 entries.

We’ve done fewer stats since old entries were being upgraded instead, but here’s a not-so-small pack of entries who received DC Adventures stats:

• Heather Hudson (Classic)
• Amanda Waller (Classic)
• Firebrand (Danette Reilly)
• Pagan (Marian Mercer)
• Johnny Too Bad
• Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (gisted)
• Zombie Sergeant (DooM II)
• Basilisk (Basil Elks)
• Synth
• Mister Fantastic (gisted)
• Nemesis (Soseh Mykros)
• The Fury (Lyta Hall) — Entry 1, entry 2, entry 3
• Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)

The page width for the site is pretty conservative – roughly 950 pixels, if memory serves. The picture columns are 300 px wide, and the column of text content is about 500 px wide plus some white space on the sides.

This choice was made in part because netbooks were big back then – then tablets emerged, though the most recent ones have very good resolution. But more broadly it was motivated by knowing that people don’t generally have high-performance monitors. The two most common screen resolutions for WORG readers are 1366×768 and 1024×768 – with 1280×800 close behind. At these resolutions you’ve got a bit of blank (well, green) screen on the right, assuming your browser window is at full width – which isn’t a good assumption.

The space left at these common resolutions is about the width of the illustration column… basically, enough space for me to slip an advert in, when that will become necessary to pay for the hosting (so roughly five years ago).

Still, I’m considering slightly bigger images when we redo the next version in a few years – the difference between a 300-pixel-wide illustrations column and a 350px one is larger than it sounds. And I assume many people frequent the site in good part for the images as our illustrations slowly get better.

The width of the content column is unlikely to change, though – it’s the length for a line of text that is best-suited to most readers.

Anyway, roll call for a quick, small batch while I have a bit of time.

• The entry for Overmaster’s Cadre in the DC Universe was rewritten for style and concision.
• After the cartoon version, here’s a full profile for the comic book version of the original Sportsmaster – a veteran DCU villain.
• The entry for the pre-Crisis version of Onyx (DC Universe) had its texts polished. He he. Onyx. Polished. Ditto for the first Shatterfist (also the DC Universe one) who was largely rewritten.
• Lady Vermin of the Knights of Wundagore, in case your game needs a flying rat that shoots energy blasts.
• If flying rats that shoot energy blasts are not your thing, Pur_See_i8 wrote an entry for cyberpunk mercenary Johnny Mnemonic – the version from the eponymous movie.
• MASS EFFECT. Now it’s Ashley’s turn - Gunnery Chief Williams reporting. Furthermore, the main article is finalised for now, with various additions and changes — and a note about how this material would require extensive playtesting.
• The first two entries for Carol Danvers (entry one, entry two) have had yet another minor round of rewriting for clarity, since they’re complex entries.
• The third Carol Danvers entry (early Ms. Marvel) was thoroughly overhauled and extended to cover everything up to the costume change in late 1978. Lot of new material and what was already there was reorganised and partially rewritten.
• Superstar, from the Busiek/Immonen series of the same name, as written up by Bryan.
• UNIVERSE AZ. Azrael’s newest entry is about a version of Blossom – from the Powerpuff Girls – operating in his super-heroes universe.
• And an entry for Sonny Crockett by Mike – from the movie version of Miami Vice.

4,842 entries.