Longer Bio's

[Dimensional Warrior]

would it be possible to add more space to our biographies. I could use at least twice the space or longer for some of my toons and it would be very much appreciated.

[dangeraaron10]

Seconded.  I had to take multiple deep dives into a thesaurus to try to fit as much story into such a tiny box as possible.  Good for expanding vocabulary, but not good for those who like to spice up their characters with a bit of creative writing.

[Dragon Crush]

It'd take some UI work, but the idea I had last time I saw this come up was slightly expand what's in the box (another 1-200 characters), but add a link you can click that'd bring up another ingame window for a fuller multi-page bio. There's tons of groups who monitor supers, no reason not to put a link to their database with your full life story, while the current box can be short and sweet version.

 

Adding - 

Also, it'd be cool if you had the option to have the short form bio say something different for each costume, while the long form you could write out the changes that brought about the costume changes in more detail.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Dragon Crush

[Outrider_01]

The description is long enough to describe the character, not long enough to tell their entire back story.   Short to the point, generally a better story as it leaves the rest up to the reader to imagine a bit more to the character. 

 

Quote

Batman is the secret identity of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy American playboy, philanthropist, and owner of Wayne Enterprises. Batman originated from an incident in Bruce's childhood; after witnessing the murder of his parents Dr. Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne, he swore vengeance against criminals, an oath tempered by a sense of justice. Bruce trains himself physically and intellectually and crafts a bat-inspired persona to fight crime.[7]

Batman operates in the fictional Gotham City with assistance from various supporting characters, including his butler Alfred, police commissioner Jim Gordon, and vigilante allies such as Robin. Unlike most superheroes, Batman does not possess any strange superpowers. He does, however, possess a genius-level intellect and is a peerless martial artist, and his vast wealth affords him an extraordinary arsenal of weaponry and equipment. A large assortment of villains make up Batman's rogues gallery, including his nemesis, the Joker.

974

Quote

A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.

622

Quote

Superman was born on the planet Krypton and was given the name Kal-El at birth. As a baby, his parents sent him to Earth in a small spaceship moments before Krypton was destroyed in a natural cataclysm. His ship landed in the American countryside, near the fictional town of Smallville. He was found and adopted by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark Kent. Clark developed various superhuman abilities, such as incredible strength and impervious skin. His foster parents advised him to use his abilities for the benefit of humanity, and he decided to fight crime as a vigilante. To protect his privacy, he changes into a colorful costume and uses the alias "Superman" when fighting crime. Clark Kent resides in the fictional American city of Metropolis, where he works as a journalist for the Daily Planet. Superman's supporting characters include his love interest and fellow journalist Lois Lane, Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen and editor-in-chief Perry White.

987 characters

Quote

Captain America is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum to aid the United States government's efforts in World War II. Near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in modern times. Although Captain America often struggles to maintain his ideals as a man out of his time, he remains a highly respected figure in his community, which includes becoming the long-time leader of the Avengers.

528 and a bit weak but sums up the background we know

[Naraka]

2 hours ago, Dragon Crush said:

It'd take some UI work, but the idea I had last time I saw this come up was slightly expand what's in the box (another 1-200 characters), but add a link you can click that'd bring up another ingame window for a fuller multi-page bio. There's tons of groups who monitor supers, no reason not to put a link to their database with your full life story, while the current box can be short and sweet version.

 

Adding - 

Also, it'd be cool if you had the option to have the short form bio say something different for each costume, while the long form you could write out the changes that brought about the costume changes in more detail.

Maybe they can use some features from this forum to offer a somewhat discreet pop-up window linked to your account that is easily navigatable and won't minimize the game window. Then you wouldn't have to worry about limitations. Might even be able to put in screen capture or art.

[aethereal]

Guys, nobody is reading your current-max-length bios.

[Troo]

so mean.. troo, but still.

[Zepp]

Creativity often arises from constraint.

Or, in other words...

Limitation is liberation.

Edited October 19, 2020 by Zepp

[WanderingAries]

Just pointing out that this discussion repeats at least once a quarter (of the year). It'd be best if we try to keep down the repeat threads by searching the forum first.

[Solarverse]

17 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

Just pointing out that this discussion repeats at least once a quarter (of the year). It'd be best if we try to keep down the repeat threads by searching the forum first.

Pretty sure the last time this was requested is when I requested it. I made some pretty strong arguments in favor of the change and still didn't win anyone over. I don't see it winning anyone over this time either, heh.

If @UltraAlt could explain what they find confusing I would be more than happy to elaborate.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Solarverse

[Bastille Boy]

You could write a short biography in the in-game form and link to a longer biography here: https://fbsa.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Main_Page

 

Several players (including me) have created threads in the Roleplaying forum with character lists. You could, if you wanted, include more detailed bios with your character lists. (If it's a long list, you might want to use the spoiler feature.)

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18342-list-of-character-lists/

 

Speaking only for myself now....when I'm in game, I love reading people's character bios, but I usually read them right before a mission starts, when there's not much time. If I have to touch the scroll bar to finish reading a character bio, I'm unlikely to finish it. So when I write my own in-game character bios, I limit myself to the visible space in a standard-sized info box, and I break the story into two or three short paragraphs.

[BrandX]

13 hours ago, aethereal said:

Guys, nobody is reading your current-max-length bios.

They have to be.  I get comments on my max length bio all the time.  🙂

 

But I try to make it more than just a story and I'd like to add a few more lines for RP purposes.  

[Grouchybeast]

17 hours ago, aethereal said:

Guys, nobody is reading your current-max-length bios.

I am!

 

I'm generally too lazy to write any for my own characters, but I like reading other peoples'.

 

ETA:  That said, I think they're a pretty good length at the moment.  Long enough to convey a reasonable amount of info, but short enough that I can read a bunch of them while waiting for a team to get rolling.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Grouchybeast

[Magairlín]

It'd be interesting to know how many characters' bios come within 100 or 50 characters of the limit.

[CFIndustries]

9 minutes ago, Black Orchid II said:

It'd be interesting to know how many characters' bios come within 100 or 50 characters of the limit.

My first drafts go over limit almost every single time. I write bios for all my alts. I even have all sorts of side Lore and headcanon in many cases.

 

Normally I'm only over a couple hundred characters (have a decent feel for the synopsis length).

 

I got used to Live where a large percentage of players had bios, and they were alot of fun. It's super-rare here on HC (at least on Torchbearer), but I keep looking for them since they are fun reading when they exist.

 

SIDE NOTE: A request for all you bio writers: use paragraphs please! It makes it so much easier to read than a solid wall of text.

[BrandX]

26 minutes ago, CFIndustries said:

My first drafts go over limit almost every single time. I write bios for all my alts. I even have all sorts of side Lore and headcanon in many cases.

 

Normally I'm only over a couple hundred characters (have a decent feel for the synopsis length).

 

I got used to Live where a large percentage of players had bios, and they were alot of fun. It's super-rare here on HC (at least on Torchbearer), but I keep looking for them since they are fun reading when they exist.

 

SIDE NOTE: A request for all you bio writers: use paragraphs please! It makes it so much easier to read than a solid wall of text.

 

And those enters only use 1 space.

[srmalloy]

47 minutes ago, CFIndustries said:

I got used to Live where a large percentage of players had bios, and they were alot of fun. It's super-rare here on HC (at least on Torchbearer), but I keep looking for them since they are fun reading when they exist.

I try to have a bio for my characters by around level 10, but I've let it slide on a couple; one I just added was for a level 41 character. Sometimes a coherent idea for a background just doesn't want to gel.

[UltraAlt]

On 10/18/2020 at 12:57 PM, Dimensional Warrior said:

would it be possible to add more space to our biographies. I could use at least twice the space or longer for some of my toons and it would be very much appreciated.

I certainly hope so, and, yes, there are alot of us that would appreciate it.

 

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, aethereal said:

Guys, nobody is reading your current-max-length bios.

I read other people's "current-max-length bios".

I try to check out bios when I have time on teams and read them regardless of how long they are.

Longer the better.

To me, it is kind of weak not to write a bio for a City of Heroes character, but we all have or own opinions.

 

I mean you have a bio at all?

 

Do you randomly pick a power with no connection to it, then hit the random costume thing once, and then go into the game?

 

I figure at least some thought went into it even if it was just picking the power that  you thought was going to be OP, planned to use a cookie-cutter mids build, and at least hit the randomizer until you saw something that looked cool.

"I have the most OP powerset currently used in CoH. I read it on the internet. I am going to be the most powerful character on the game because I am going to use mids to build it. The costume looks cool so I wear it. If you read this, please invite me to your AE fire farm. I want to powerlevel to 50, because playing the game is boring."

 

But I do run into the RESDADDFcv like-named characters, so I know some don't have the time to try to figure out something original for a character name related to their concept ... even though they can edit their name after creation, but I figure some of these have been genericized due Code of Conduct issues.

 

City of Heroes is a character creation game with lots of character creating options. One of those is creating a bio for your character that other players can read in-game.

 

I think the bio is the explanation to others of why you think the character your build it cool, so not having a bio is basically saying to me that you don't really care about the character you created.

But again, that's just me. Feel free to play how you want to play the game.

[UltraAlt]

22 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

I try to have a bio for my characters by around level 10, but I've let it slide on a couple; one I just added was for a level 41 character. Sometimes a coherent idea for a background just doesn't want to gel.

I saw a great bio today were someone had basically put in notes to use in creating their bio when they got around to it. I thought that as kind of cool.

[FrauleinMental]

19 hours ago, aethereal said:

Guys, nobody is reading your current-max-length bios.

A few people do, but I think it mainly happens when we get bored waiting for a team/raid to form up.  I get occasional comments about my main's bio, which is only one character below max length.

[CFIndustries]

32 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

planned to use a cookie-cutter mids build

That's no excuse! Even my cookie-cutter "inexpensive" fire-farmer has a bio. Granted, it's creative sarcasm about the confusion of farming and auctioneering in a super hero game, but…still has a creative bio told as a very basic origin story… 🤪

 

Back to the OP…I'm okay with the current length. Sure I'd like a tad longer, but that's straight-up selfishness, mostly. I agree too much longer and it wouldn't get read by non-RP players. Back on Live there were special purpose wikis for full character stories and people would write a synopsis with a URL for the in-game bio, which is better for RPers anyway (you can include pics, lots of details, formatting, etc.).

 

So if the devs threw another 250–500 or so characters that probably wouldn't be the end of the world. But as much as I like bios, I'm not pining away in dismay over the current limit. As @Zepp said, it just forces more creativity.

[Lines]

I also read a lot of bios during downtimes, but I'd definitely draw the line over a certain length.

 

The amount people are willing to read is a much better factor to limit by than the amount people are willing to write.

[Darmian]

Most of mine have a bio, some arrive fully formed, some take a while as I get used to what the character is and how they could have become what they are through play. Some obviously have defaults written in to them that you can either go with or kick against, WS/PB and VEATS, but a direction is provided. Similarly for the arc route taken in Praetoria.  I wouldn't demand anyone have a bio but you know, it's nice to see them. 

 

*Exceptions being characters designed to be in an RP situation.

[Si1verg1ass]

I too would like to have more characters for bios.  If someone doesn't read bios, fine, don't think you are how everyone else is.  I know quite a few people read bios.  I have 119 characters w/ 96 of them having bios and I frequently get comments for them. 

 

I would love to have the ability to add that little bit extra because like CFIndustries I ALWAYS go over the limit the first time.  Sometimes it is painful to cut out things, makes it sound chopped up.  I know that I would love to have double what we currently have and that still wouldn't be enough in some cases. 🙂

 

I also wish that the editor wasn't so wonky.  It captures hidden characters (for example, if you use a backspace instead of the delete) and eats up your character count (by like 4 to 6 characters each time). I would love to have the ability to just paste TEXT, not hidden garbage in from a word program.  That would be a lot harder though, I fear, as you would have to filter them out programmatically.