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A Will and a Barclay [On Holodeck]

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
For 147 days, many captains had been greeted by clones of the same officers over and over on the bridges of their starships. After all that time, could we really go on ignoring it without asking why it has happened? And more importantly; could we have gone on without having a good laugh about it?

To those ends I present to you "A Will and a Barclay". A mission that I made in the hopes to do two things; present to us a canon explanation for the old Bridge Officer clones bug as well as continue a legacy long missing from the STO universe, the Barclay Family!

Explore the in character reason why this terrible holographic affliction has occurred to our vessels and meet the person accidentally behind it; Amanda Barclay, the daughter of Reggie "Broccoli" Barclay. Enjoy this simple, yet fun, attempt at STO humor and satire while stumbling through the effects of "Barclay Emitter Syndrome" and the continuing holographic legacy of the Barclay family.

With almost 9000 reviews (at the time of writing), this is has been a well received humor and light combat mission, although heavy on the dialog side. As with all my public missions however, dialog skip options are provided and in this particular mission obviously marked.

With such one word reviews as:
    "stupid"
    "dum"
and
Alongside polar opposite and glowing reviews applauding its humor, creativity, and effects... you know it's going to be good.

And don't worry, if you missed the original bug this is citing, you'll still find this fun! Many other new players did!


Mission: A Will and a Barclay
Author: XR-377
Allegiance: Federation
Project ID: ST-HK34VLMD5
Level Requirements: None

Mission Info:
Help a young duty officer at Starfleet Academy discover the reason why there appeared to be Clones of Bridge Officers aboard the bridges of every vessel in Starfleet (as well as the Klingon Defense Force).

Enjoy this humor filled mission that attempts to explain a bug plaguing the game for 147 days.
Author Note: As this mission does not depict copyrighted actors or likenesses it does not violate the Foundry EULA.


As always, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions and spelling errors found here so I can read/address/fix them! And most of all, I hope you have fun and have a good laugh.


.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Federation Mission - A Will and a Barclay
    Author: XR-377
    Allegiance: Federation
    Project ID: ST-HK34VLMD5


    Excerpt Start


    Summary: This is a very good mission with some good laughs and friendly little pokes at Cryptic all in good fun. The map designs are really well done. The story dialog is well written and the varieties of responses, including the "Skip Dialog" buttons, are excellent. I only made a note regarding the "Skip Dialog" button on the one map but its use throughout the mission is very well done. I would definitely recommend this mission to anyone who likes a good, funny story with excellent map design and some battles thrown in for extra measure.


    Excerpt End


    Thanks again for authoring and for giving me the chance to review your work. You did a great job with this mission from design through execution. I suspect even the Cryptic devs have a sense of humor and would enjoy the pokes if even just a little. :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Well it's official!

    The last Tribble server patch fixes the Cloned Bridge Officer Bug! Since Cryptic will be enjoying the holidays it is a fair bet to make that they will be throwing that update out to the Holodeck server with the next Skill Rework, so a fair estimate of one to two weeks at most!

    When the fix goes live I will be republishing this mission with adjusted text to deal with the fix and put the bug into past tense! But before that patch hits, you still have a chance to see the original mission and actually claim you fixed the whole problem yourself! Brag to your friends!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Here is a wonderful review by PerseusTong, who has been running the Clone Counter in the Bridge Officer section of the STO Forums.

    I thank everyone who has enjoyed my mission thus far and has had fun with it.

    I've just played XR-377's Foundry episode A Will and a Barclay

    Let me get the negatives out of the way first....
    1) I don't really get the title.
    2) The foundry music assets seem extremely limited so the familiar STO background tunes don't match the scenes very well. This isn't the author's fault. It's just the nature of the foundry.

    OK....Now to the positives.
    1) XR-377 has actually come up with the most clever in-game explanation for the "Clone" bug glitch I have yet heard. I'm not going to spoil it here. Suffice it to say it's much more convincing than the Clone invasion meme that has become standard fare around here. It's one of those face slap "I'd wish I'd thought of it." kind of explanations. Canon Adherence 9.0

    2) Technically, the author presents the player with a curious wonderland of artifacts, at one point actually transforming the player into an artifact. This technique fits well with his Clone explanation as well as his attempted solution to the problem. The techniques are a bit dis-orienting for the player, but that kind of adds to the fun, so I gather that this was the author's intention. It's a light Star Trek episode in the vein of the Helna series....(and Helna, that quirkly Rigelian Minx, also makes an appearance.) Technical 8.5 (Author loses a half point because the bridge still smells like roasted Targ.)

    3) XR-377 has created one of the most endearing heroines in STO Foundry in Amanda Barclay, related via a bit of Star Trek Touchstoning to one of TNG's most beloved engineers. Plus Amanda is pretty hot. Touchstoning and hotness. 10.0

    4) This is a very text heavy episode, but it has both Ground and Space combat....sort of. If you like to read then simply know that this is a very cleverly written episode. The jokes and wink, wink nudge nudge moments abound as do visual snicker inducing sight gags. It's all in fun, but with a definite Star Trek flair. Comedy Writing 8.0

    5) Gameplay is smooth and, except for the fact that the entire episode revolves around a software coding error, the story and game seems bug free. So Gameplay gets a 9.0

    6) Story writing was excellent. 9.0

    All in all, an excellent episode. Well worth the time to play and review it. How good was it? It dragged me away from Star Wars for the 30 minutes it took to play. I don't regret a minute of it.


    Overall score 8.92

    Awesome.

    Clone Watch: Day 139

    Clone Watch Server Status:
    Redshirt: Cloned
    Tribble: Not Cloned
    Holodeck: Cloned
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    I love this episode!!!
    Not only do you have an excellent story that flows nicely (and hilariously!), it's very well executed!
    10 stars :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    I am proud to say that, not only has "Barclay Emitter Syndrome" been solved, but as of the moment it went live so did the Post Bug rework of A Will and a Barclay.

    I have gone through and made slight alterations to the mission to reflect the fact the bug is no longer appearing on the ships bridges. But that doesn't necessarily mean all our problems are solved. After all... a Barclay is involved.

    These changes may not be large enough to warrant a replay for those of you already familiar with the mission, but I hope they can still capture the feel of the original issue as well as give an option for the new players who never experienced the bug first hand to enjoy themselves playing it non the less. Not to mention any excuse to poke fun of Q, the Bug ships, and the Skyrim/TOR launch is worth a jab or two.

    Since this does contain a bit of text reworking, and spelling isn't my strong suit, there are no doubt errors hidden among the quips and tongue and cheek jokes. If you happen to see an error please let me know here or via in game mail! I am more than happy to fix it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    I really enjoyed Amanda's personality. Look forward to more of your missions.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Leviathan, thanks for not only your kind reviews but for calling attention to the bug that happens when groups ran it.

    I have since cleaned up the situation with a crew of little pink men who can remove the offending obstacles if someone finds themselves on the wrong side of them.

    So that said, "A Will and a Barclay" is now suitable for groups of all ages and sizes. Go nuts!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    YAY!

    I really love Amanda's personality. It's just a delightful use of characterization.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Very enjoyable mission. Best so far.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Despite being a returning Silver player and thus missing out on this bug I still enjoyed this mission immensely, it actually made me laugh out loud several times, thanks.

    p.s. Barclay is spelled as Barlcay in a couple of places, the NPC's name on the Enterprise bridge is spelled that way, and again in one of the dialogue buttons soon after she gets turned green (may be a screen or two after that, I don't remember exactly when).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    Waaa! Thanks for those catches! Sometimes my left hand types faster than my right. I actually published the mission as "A Will and a Barlcay" for over three days until I caught it. xD

    I'm glad that as a player who never was exposed to the bug you still enjoyed it. It makes doing the text reworking when the fix came totally worth while.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    I really enjoyed this mission, had me laughing out loud!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    A recent act of necromancy to another post about this mission made me realize I should bump the official one before the inactive cut off hit. Rather than simply posting nothing with it, I figured it'd be nice to post the original short story I wrote back in October here as well. As it was the original fevered creation that brought Barclay into all this, and what eventual inspired the whole thing.

    So here, enjoy! And if you would like to see the original post, there is a link right here!

    So here you go, the story that started it all; "Broccoli Did It..."


    Broccoli Did It
    By XR-377

    The Captain rubbed his forehead indignantly as he listened to the female voice, that normally belonged to a young lathe woman, come out of the mouth of a two meter tall Cardassian.

    “I-I really didn't mean for this to happen, Sir.”

    “I have no doubt,” the Captain shifted his weight, “but that doesn't change that it did happen.”

    “B-but I had the best intentions!” the voice meekly retorted as the large Cardassian began to unconsciously fiddle with his hair. The dumbfounded superior officer stretched his neck in an attempted to avoid letting his amusement show.

    “You see, if I was following 'the Good Captain's Guidebook' right now is where I would make some kind of allegory about the road to hell and what it is paved with. However, I'm more interested in finding out just exactly why my bridge appears to be staffed by clones of the same three officers.”

    “It's not only those officers!” the voice announced with a slight edge of pride.

    “So I've been told...”

    “And it's not always three!” it added hopefully. The Captain again sighed, leaned forwards, and rubbed the back of his neck.

    “Specialist Barclay, would you please just explain to me how this happened.” Amanda Barclay gave a bit of a nervous chuckle and shifted in her seat; therefore the Holographic image of Bridge Officer Gurren Torrok that was being displayed over her body did so as well.

    “Y-you see... You know how there have been great strides in Photonic research as of late Captain?”

    He nodded. Slowly.

    “W-well, since holoemitters are now standard on the bridges of all Federation vessels there is a movement in the photonics field to attempt an emergency holographic officer system for operations. Like the standard EMH but for members of the bridge staff; in case the bridge is suddenly depressurized or is filled with a rapid acting nuerotoxin or the entire officer crew simultaneously develop a case of p-”

    “I get the point Specialist,” the Captain interjected, while noting that the more excited her tone of voice the less stutter she gave.

    “Yeah, well, it-t uh. It's been a private project of mine and I recently thought I had a breakthrough. So when I was doing the recalibration of the bridge holoemitters I kind'a... a-also... took the opportunity to test my preliminary program.”

    “Without notifying any of the senior staff or your supervising officer?”

    “I u-uh, didn't want to bother them,” the Cardassian face smiled nervously.

    “So I'm guessing what happened isn't exactly what you had in mind for your test.”

    “No! Of course not! Changing the images of officers aboard the bridge was far from my original intention! I mean, what point is that? I was trying to formulate a way for programs to actively display and function on the bridge and even then I was only working on the Photonic aspect! The programing for the-”

    “Specialist, focus.”

    “Oh! O-oh right. Sorry S-sir. W-where was I again?”

    “You were about to explain to me what exactly your programing to the Holoemitters was intended to do.”

    “Oh, of course. Well... It was only supposed to test the emitter system using recorded images of the Bridge Officers and test if they would display in various locations around the bridge. But... it kind'a got away from me. I don't know why but instead it's-s merely displaying a few of the collected images over top of any officer that enters the bridge. W-with the exception of the Captain of course! I never even considered registering Captains into the system. I mean, if the captain was incapacitated to the point that an EH would be needed you'd expect the bridge staff to-” Catching the weary look of the Captain her tone slowed and returned to topic. “L-like I said Sir. I was simply trying to test the emitter system when the program began displaying the wrong images and rejecting my input. I don't know why but the program is now deeply engrained into the bridge systems. That wasn't something I programed.”

    The Captain, who by this time had risen to his feet and began pacing through his ready-room, recalled something, “Specialist Barclay, you mentioned a breakthrough you had.”

    “Right well it's pretty exciting! You see tha-”

    “JUS-” He stopped and composed himself, “Err... Just the specifics if you please.”

    “O-of course Captain. O-one of the biggest problems I had been dealing with getting a way for the small scale bridge emitters to process the advanced programing required fast enough to be effective. I f-found a new algorithm to use and I thought it would solve the problem. It obviously did though so it's a big succe-”

    “Where, exactly, did you find this 'new algorithm' Specialist?”

    “We-w-well,” the image of the Cardassian began to look around the room as if for an escape, “Y-you know how w-we found that I-i-iconian ruin during the ship's last voyage in the Eridian Belt?” The Captain's breathing stopped and he stood like a statue in mid stride. “I took a look at some of th-the programs we c-collected from the data cache' recovered for inspiration,” she said before coughing in an attempt to break her stutter. The look her Captain gave her as he turned around was... complex.

    “You're telling me you used an Iconian virus, like the one that destroyed the U.S.S. Yamato and nearly destroyed the Enterprise-D, from a thousand year old data cache, that I expressly ordered to have sealed away from accessing any ship systems, as a template for a Holographic Program?”

    “N--n--no,” the Cardassian leaked like a kitten, “I j-just used some of it as inspiration.” The Captain flopped back down into his seat and again found his face resting in his palm.

    “Tell me Specialist Barclay, have you ever read Mary Shelley; wrote a nice little horror story about a monster created from corpses?”

    “I m-may have seen... a holonovel of it.”

    “So you know you've created a monster then?”

    “Heh... heh... It's alive?” She hazarded meekly with a nervous grin. The fact it looked like an oversized Cardassian man was doing it made it a little more unnerving. The fearful stare continued as she tried to guess her Captain's next action. What he did when he finally stopped shaking his head was far from what she was expecting.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    He laughed.

    “Well I have to hand it to you Amanda.” Cardassian eyes blinked confoundedly. “I make no secret that I like to collect what other captains would call 'misfits' for my crew. It adds a certain variety and diversity as well as a break up from the conundrum of daily routine. So when I heard that the only daughter of the infamous Reggie Barclay was a Photonics Science Specialist and looking for a Duty Officer posting I had to jump on it. Before your father taught at the Academy he had what most would call an interesting carrier to say the least. You know they actually named a disease after the man?”

    “Y-y-ye-es, I-I kn-n-now.” Amanda's eyes faded as years of teasing and ridicule seemed to descend back upon her on mass. Even at the Academy the name nickname of “Broccoli” would sometimes loom after her. She always wondered how exactly her father's infamy spread so far when he never made it higher than Lieutenant.

    “But he was a good man, and a good officer. He had a passion for his work that is seldom found and rarely utilized for good means. You obviously don't have nearly the social awkwardness that he started his carreer with and already your genius in the field of Photonics is showing. I just...” He chuckled again, “I was expecting interesting adversity from you and you did not not disappoint.”

    “But, Sir! It works!” The specialist rose to her feet in an inspired attempt at defiance. “S-sure we can't get it out of the system or shut it off but, you know, but it runs and takes less energy to run for a week than it takes to replicate a cup of coffee. And it only happens on the bridge! All it will take is some tweaking and a little more elbow-grease to get the kinks out. If someone is able to get this to work it could be a great thing for Starfleet!”

    “Make no mistake I'm impressed. Even if you did it by accident your project has developed... great scale. And as far as your creativity Starfleet itself is having a hard time following your work.”

    “S-S-Starfleet, Sir?” The comment caught her ear. Why would Starfleet be interested in her debacle, let alone know about it already? The Captain took a breath, he still held what some might call a smile of pride on his face.

    “You know the reason why the Iconian virus that the Enterprise and Yamato encountered was thought to be so dangerous?”

    “S-something about it being adaptable and digging its' way into every ship system... or... something similar.”

    “Exactly that in fact. Also its' infectability. All it took was a simple data transfer of a fraction of the coding for it to become ingrained into the Enterprise's system.” The specialist's eyes slowly began to widen as the pieces began to fall together. “So naturally then, shortly after you attempted your test, when we sent a tight-beam transmission to Starfleet command...”

    “The coding spread to the mainframe...” her fear and despair made way for shock and awe, “and was then disseminated to...”

    “Every vessel in Starfleet.” Specialist Barclay fell back into her seat, the ramifications of her actions streaming across her eyes. As a result the Cardassian sitting in front of the Captain looked like a lost child. “Also,” the Captain added, “if Klingon Intelligence is as good as I'm inclined to believe it is than it's a safe bet to make that every I.K.S. and affiliate vessel has it as well.”

    “You mean...?”

    “Yep.” He said succinctly. “Every bridge aboard every serving starship is now populated by what appear to be bridge officer clones. Congratulations, you've inadvertently created the most infectious, yet benign, computer virus of the 25th century.”

    “Oh... mygod. I've created another Broccoli Plague.” The thought made the precession through her brain like a funeral march. The Captain sighed again, but still wore a smile.

    “Starfleet is opening a task group at the Academy to try and solve the problem. But considering the last Iconian virus could only be stopped by something akin to a full system reboot it will probably take some time to solve the issue. As both its' creator and the person with the most experience with the subject right now I have been asked to transfer you back to the Academy and have you put under the care of Lieutenant Ferra. He's in charge of the Duty Officer postings there.”

    “I understand, Sir.” The captain stood up and walked passed the bewildered and distant Photonic's Specialist on his way back towards the Bridge. As he did so he patted her on the shoulder.

    “Disaster or not, I'm sure your father back at the Academy will be proud.”

    “I've got a name to live up to Sir.”

    When he re-entered he surveyed the bridge. It was currently populated by various copies of the same three officers; at the moment his Chief Medical Officer, the Cardassian Ensign, and a Female Klingon Lieutenant Commander. Giving another chuckle and shaking his head he made his way to his seat.

    “Which one of you is my acting ship's councilor?” he asked standing behind his Captain's chair. Two women raised their hands. He glared at them flatly before one began snickering.

    “Sorry, Sir, couldn't resist,” the deep voice of his Bolien Chief Engineer responded. “I'll just make my way back down to Engineering.”

    “You're the real one than?” the Captain said with one eyebrow raised.

    “I am Sir, you'd like me to go and make sure Specialist Bro... Barclay is taking the news well?”

    “I would.” The real person smiled and nodded before leaving, and the Captain returned his attention to the front. He looked around one more time with a hand on his knee before he began to point around. “You three, who I will now call Ensign Torroks one, two, and four. If one of you would be so kind to contact Fleet Command and inform them we are on our way while the two others preform a full ships diagnostic on the vessel's Holoemitters?” They all grinned and nodded before setting about their tasks. “You there, Lt. Commander Shonorru on the left, if you would please plot course for Sol. Warp 7.”

    “Aye Captain,” they smirked before engaging the warp drive.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    This adventure was the most fun I've had in either this game or Champions Online. When the latter's Foundry finally goes live, you really need to try your hand at a couple of Foxbat adventures.

    And that was considering I never played this game until the F2P, and only know about the bug in question because of this Mission's intro.

    Let's see more of Amanda. (Maybe she can help defeat invading hologram cultists from the Delta quadrant! Remember those guys?)

    And really... someone said the Mission was "dum"? They actually spelled it that way? Seriously?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012

    And really... someone said the Mission was "dum"? They actually spelled it that way? Seriously?


    Like I said, with reviews like that, you know it will be good.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I'm having a issue with this mission and it's preventing me from completing it.

    When I am at the point where I see a picture of the classic enterprise with the question 'it looks like you are trying to open up a new holodeck program Y/N ?'.

    When I click to proceed it boots me back to login saying it couldn't load the destination map. I tried closed STO and reopening, doesn't help.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I recently came across this bug and have withdrawn the mission until I can isolate a fix. I think it may have something to do with the fact my account receded to silver yesterday. I'm doing a republish to see if it fixes, I will edit to state if the bug is fixed or not.

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I will be sure to let you know if the fix works so you can complete it.



    Edit: I've gone through and tested it twice after a republish and can't reproduce the error. If you'd be willing to try again and let me know if it is still broken I'd appreciate it. Although if you don't I understand. I really just hope you get a chance to see the full mission as intended.

    In any case! Thanks again for bringing it to my attention and I hope it is now fixed.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I'll try it out the next time I'm logged in :)
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