Help with overpower.ca

[Jack]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone was willing to help with the website. A lot of stuff needed to be done doesn't involve any coding at all.

Scanning is a big one and I don't expect anyone to really provide help with it (if you do, I'm very specific with the types of scans I get -- must have all 4 rounded corners so that none of the card is missing, you might have noticed a lot of the current card scans are missing the top-left corner of the card, scanners leave off a margin since they don't expect you to need it.)

Mission/Event texts is needed for completeness, I only have the text relevant to game play, but I want to create a complete database that includes the name of the Missions as well as the small blurb (that probably nobody has ever read). The events also have texts too.

Meta rules for Marvels probably from a group of people. Right now, there are no meta rules affiliated with the new Marvels special codes.

There are probably more, like history of the game, etc., but I might ask JohnL for permission to use his write ups on the site.

[Kal-el]

I could help out with Mission and event texts.

[Jack]

That would be great, any format would be fine, as long as they are separated by missions.

[Kyle]

I'm willing to help with scanning. I'm sort of a lazy bastard, though, so know that up front. 

PM or reply with more info on what you need done.

[Jack]

Scans should have all 4 corners, preferably non-damaged cards. The backs of the cards are not needed if they are the common card backs (Marvel, DC, Image) but Missions will need the backs done. 600DPI preferred, TIFF/PSD format.

[Kyle]

Have you completed any scanning yet? Where would you like me to start? Characters, power cards...?

[Jack]

I've started scanning a few but I'm doing to re-do them with my new scanner (link). Any scanner will do as long as the sides aren't cut off.

I guess you can start with whatever sets you have. I guess what you can do is pick a box from http://overpower.ca/pages/opcc.php and scan it and zip it (I'll open up an account to my server for scans). I don't mind if the cards aren't cropped out -- probably better since I want cards to take a 1:1.4142 ratio, I just need the images digitized.
Post Merge: July 11, 2011, 09:03:37 AM
It looks like the scanning project will be quite big in terms of actual storage space. My idea for the database of cards would be:

Rough total number of cards is: 2800 (backs of missions, backs of cards with different copyright years, promotional card backs (Warlock, etc.)
"Master" copy of the scan: Scanned in and edited and saved as a 2000x1414 (or 1414x2000) 600DPI 24-bit PNG will take roughly 6-10MB per picture. Rough total size: 23GB - stored locally on my computer and backed up with bamf!. Will also find the time to upload them to a backup server.
"Web" copy of the scan: Saved copy of the "Master" copy at 420x297 (or 297x400) at 72DPI 24-bit PNG and ran through OptiPNG will be roughly 300KB per picture. Rough total size: 1GB - stored locally on my computer as well as on the overpower.ca server and whoever else wants a copy of it.

I might change my mind about the sizes to make it possible for people to print off the cards as proxies. Thinking 150DPI, so the web copies will be 371x525 roughly.

[CoS]

I'd love to be able to print directly from overpower.ca for proxi cards. It would be a huge community resource to give a step by step tutorial for proxi cards as well...

[JohnL]

There are probably more, like history of the game, etc., but I might ask JohnL for permission to use his write ups on the site.

No problem, use anything you like and feel free to edit it for clarity. And you might want to also check Onslaught's post on the evolution of the metagame. That is good stuff.
John

[Jack]

There are probably more, like history of the game, etc., but I might ask JohnL for permission to use his write ups on the site.

No problem, use anything you like and feel free to edit it for clarity. And you might want to also check Onslaught's post on the evolution of the metagame. That is good stuff.
John

Sounds great, thanks John! I'll try and find time to put them on the site!

[Kyle]

I've started scanning a few but I'm doing to re-do them with my new scanner (link). Any scanner will do as long as the sides aren't cut off.

I guess you can start with whatever sets you have. I guess what you can do is pick a box from http://overpower.ca/pages/opcc.php and scan it and zip it (I'll open up an account to my server for scans). I don't mind if the cards aren't cropped out -- probably better since I want cards to take a 1:1.4142 ratio, I just need the images digitized.

I don't keep my collection organized by set, I do it by character. Is that a big deal? Cause if you're doing the cropping by your standards, do you mind organizing by set as well?

[Jack]

I've started scanning a few but I'm doing to re-do them with my new scanner (link). Any scanner will do as long as the sides aren't cut off.

I guess you can start with whatever sets you have. I guess what you can do is pick a box from http://overpower.ca/pages/opcc.php and scan it and zip it (I'll open up an account to my server for scans). I don't mind if the cards aren't cropped out -- probably better since I want cards to take a 1:1.4142 ratio, I just need the images digitized.

I don't keep my collection organized by set, I do it by character. Is that a big deal? Cause if you're doing the cropping by your standards, do you mind organizing by set as well?

I guess it doesn't matter too much, just easier to organize which scans I have and which I don't.

[Jack]

And update on the matter. I've acquired a new scanner and I found a way to scan things much easier. I'm ditching the stupid business card scanner, it was too finicky to use and it didn't seem to be quite bright either. I'm selling it on eBay.

I can scan about 6 to 8 cards at a time (6 is optimal), load them into Photoshop, crop and align photos and run two actions I defined to help clean up any weird edges and fill in the rounded corners. Approximate time to scan 6 cards is 4 minutes if working continuously.

I'm also scanning into Adobe RGB 1998, I've noticed that I was using a horrible Frankenstein of colour profiles when scanning so I'm sticking to one and Adobe RGB 1998 sounds pretty damn good.

I've also decided to make things rounded at 1500x2100 (2.5 in by 3.5 in @ 600DPI) to make life much easier. This way the cards will be ~9.5MB each with a grand total of about 30GB. The web copy of the card will probably end up at 280 px by 392px (~225KB) or 300px by 420px (~256KB) when exported as a 24-bit PNG. I'm pretty bad at keeping promises but I'll try to get a lot of the cards scanned by the end of the year and then I'll slowly find time to crop them out and catalogue them.

Here's a sample of Crystal:

[garose74]

Another fine bit of work there Jack.

I wish my scanner was working so I could help you out with scanning the cards.

[Jack]

Scanning shouldn't be a problem, at least I hope not. The task seems straightforward for the most part.

I have noticed that there are some problems with the current database in terms of spelling and such, or Hero substituted for Character in Any Hero specials, etc.

If anyone wants to do a huge favour for me, load up OpDeck and go through all the specials, one by one, and make note of where typos occurred, that would be very super. By typos, I mean any actual typos, different capitalization, missing periods. If the text doesn't match 100% from the card to the box, note it down. The card code should be left alone as I think I've solved that problem already.

Same goes for Inherents on Character cards, or pretty much anything with an English sentence.