In this Guest Blog, StarbaseUGC stops by to let players know how they can play community-authored Foundry missions, and learn to create their own missions.
Heres a really crazy idea: when someone unlocks the "Investigate Officer Reports" daily mission in game, maybe include a link or button that links to this blog or the Foundry section on the web site?
Heres a really crazy idea: when someone unlocks the "Investigate Officer Reports" daily mission in game, maybe include a link or button that links to this blog or the Foundry section on the web site?
Straight jacket time!!!!!
Space The Final Frontier For many, these words were the beginning of a journey of imagination, introspection and adventure. When it was announced that Star Trek was going to be coming to the world as a Massively Multiplayer Online game, it was only natural it would attract the interest of fans around the world. Within a year of the games launch, the developers added a feature that gives ANY player of the game a voice rarely available in most online games the ability to make their own content.
B/c Cryptic obviously can't. At times it feels like I'm playing my first phase foundry missions.... :rolleyes: And after Season 5 (or was it 4 hmmm) broke the Foundry for about 2 months....whoosh..there went all the know-how I used to have...learning how to make missions all over again pretty much..
Great job on both the article and the trailer, but there's one think that sticks out: I believe you have to specifically sign up to become a "Reviewer" before you can access the "Review Content" tab.
I could be wrong, but I don't have that tab so something's up either way.
Great job on both the article and the trailer, but there's one think that sticks out: I believe you have to specifically sign up to become a "Reviewer" before you can access the "Review Content" tab.
I could be wrong, but I don't have that tab so something's up either way.
Thanks, im glad you liked it.
The review content tab is one that you have to enable, by signing up to be a reviewer, that tab contains missions that have just been published and have less than 5 ratings. To make it into the main community authored tab, the mission must have 5 ratings.
For most players, there isn't a great need to use that tab as the same content is available in the other tab and they can still review a mission.
Nice direction to take things, but ultimately useless unless better processes exist to bring playing foundry missions into the mainstream of the game.
Not simply by wrapper, or spotlight but through adopting hundreds of existing missions and applying them as part of the official stream (or through random encounter). In my opinion at least.
Thanks for the honor and the mention of my mission.
Honestly Return to Terra Nova is a great example of foundry building (the Ziggurat) canonical story tie in and proof that things don't always have to be shot in the face to succeed.
So thank you for writing it so I had something to feature
Nice direction to take things, but ultimately useless unless better processes exist to bring playing foundry missions into the mainstream of the game.
Not simply by wrapper, or spotlight but through adopting hundreds of existing missions and applying them as part of the official stream (or through random encounter). In my opinion at least.
Correct. Foundry will absolutely never take off as true "content" in this redheaded stepchild role it's occupied since it launched.
Given that it's the whole point of the Foundry, it's been rendered quite pointless except as a curious toy for the truly bored. There are far more productive ways (err at least in game terms) to spend one's time in STO. It just doesn't matter where it counts.
Nice direction to take things, but ultimately useless unless better processes exist to bring playing foundry missions into the mainstream of the game.
Not simply by wrapper, or spotlight but through adopting hundreds of existing missions and applying them as part of the official stream (or through random encounter). In my opinion at least.
One of the larger issues with this sadly is the fact that missions aren't 'modular' where you can pull them out of the foundry and plug them into the regular game. if there was a way to do it and allow the original author to modify them, that would be the best.
Honestly Return to Terra Nova is a great example of foundry building (the Ziggurat) canonical story tie in and proof that things don't always have to be shot in the face to succeed.
So thank you for writing it so I had something to feature
I'm also very proud of the community for doing almost all of this without any of my knowledge. Although I'm a little worried about traffic stats, if startrek.com links, it makes me very, very proud that so much of the site is run independently by the community.
It's kind of amazing. I created this website and now I just suddenly realize: "Hey, there is a new podcast associated with this website." "Wow, there's going to be a featured episode by the site I created."
It's so awesome that the site is user generated. Thank you to Cerb, PF, and everyone else who makes that possible.
Correct. Foundry will absolutely never take off as true "content" in this redheaded stepchild role it's occupied since it launched.
Given that it's the whole point of the Foundry, it's been rendered quite pointless except as a curious toy for the truly bored. There are far more productive ways (err at least in game terms) to spend one's time in STO. It just doesn't matter where it counts.
I'm also very proud of the community for doing almost all of this without any of my knowledge. Although I'm a little worried about traffic stats, if startrek.com links, it makes me very, very proud that so much of the site is run independently by the community.
It's kind of amazing. I created this website and now I just suddenly realize: "Hey, there is a new podcast associated with this website." "Wow, there's going to be a featured episode by the site I created."
It's so awesome that the site is user generated. Thank you to Cerb, PF, and everyone else who makes that possible.
Yeah...sorry about that boss, guess you will know come the weekend
One of the larger issues with this sadly is the fact that missions aren't 'modular' where you can pull them out of the foundry and plug them into the regular game. if there was a way to do it and allow the original author to modify them, that would be the best.
I think Brandon touched on this during the latest recording of Podcast UGC. In that it is a tough situation considering an author could then update the missions to include inappropriate material without notice.
Perhaps it would be better handled like a wiki entry where permission is required to make the change viewable to the public, and the option to revert exists.
However, I make my comments conscious of the fact that Cryptic, and STO's, resources are finite, and I feel that the clear cut adoption and integration into mission flow/random encounter is the best chance to fill out the game in ways the devs will never have the resources to do.
Ideally the time spent greenlighting submissions, perhaps in themselves chosen by plays/votes/whatever - so as to remove competition bias and to take advantage of the fact that Cryptic owns all created content, would be considered an investment in the future content of the game - overall.
Much akin to how long it takes for official missions to be made, I imagine more than one foundry mission could be approved in that time (or alongside if they can facilitate an increase in personnel to overview this) and modifications made were needed to the missions themselves before inclusion (again, this does not necessitate consent by the authors as per Terms of Use - thus simplifying the process).
My ideal sign of this would be to see post-season six that a better infrastructure has been developed to achieve this. Hopefully whatever is the result of the code-merge it will at least improve stability and handling by the devs of our creations, but ideally, it will mean that future updates will not be so far apart, and that real, tangible changes can be made on a continual basis from now on, instead of on a yearly basis etc.
I think that initiatives like this, and the work that starbase UGC and the wider community have been trying, are simply a - remarkable testament - to the passion that can really drive this utility to it's true potential - but we really need to look to the future more in terms of working according to a determined and realistic goal/strategy to bring foundry directly into the game (and to work towards it with each and every step) as opposed to taking inspiring, yet ultimately blind 'small steps' into the unknown to try and bring foundry more into the fold (which I feel this is - although thats not to say I don't wish it success).
I just feel we could do more if we were able to plan with the developers a solid future - but our hands are tied in many ways (not least because we can't deal with the core foundry team directly). So until we see what the code-merge brings, I remain vexed.
Sorry, not what I meant. What mission is this thumbnail from? The part circled in red.
That map is actually going to be in my upcoming Klingon mission 'Star Crossed Daggers'. Been working on it off and on for nearly a year.
It's a story that sprouted from my "Duty, Honour and Sacrifice" Federation story arc.
I'm really glad people enjoyed the trailer :-D
And Kirkfat, it's simply brilliant all you did and continue to try and do for the community, without you, we wouldn't be here doing this
Correct. Foundry will absolutely never take off as true "content" in this redheaded stepchild role it's occupied since it launched.
Given that it's the whole point of the Foundry, it's been rendered quite pointless except as a curious toy for the truly bored. There are far more productive ways (err at least in game terms) to spend one's time in STO. It just doesn't matter where it counts.
Last time I checked plenty of people were complaining that MMO's as of late especially Cryptic-made ones were single-player instances with no feel of community or epic massive crowds. Then along comes this unique tool that allows people to bond together over creating their own content and telling their own stories, so much so that these people bond together OUTSIDE the game itself and create their own website, a chatroom and YouTube channels and still others complain the Foundry is futile???
Say what you will about Cryptic and their games but in this case, the Foundry proves to be a Community Builder and in MMO's that's always a Win and that's where it counts and to all who're involved, that matters a whole lot!
Comments
It was an honour to be asked to do it.. can't wait until friday ;-P
*is still nervous*
Great job !
Straight jacket time!!!!!
B/c Cryptic obviously can't.
I could be wrong, but I don't have that tab so something's up either way.
Thanks, im glad you liked it.
The review content tab is one that you have to enable, by signing up to be a reviewer, that tab contains missions that have just been published and have less than 5 ratings. To make it into the main community authored tab, the mission must have 5 ratings.
For most players, there isn't a great need to use that tab as the same content is available in the other tab and they can still review a mission.
Not simply by wrapper, or spotlight but through adopting hundreds of existing missions and applying them as part of the official stream (or through random encounter). In my opinion at least.
If you mean the caps at the end of the post, its not a mission but simply a map I created just for the screencap purpose.
for note its a custom space map, with some background manipulation
planet class m 07
planet class d 04
planet class y 11
you can manipulate the background of the space from the 'root' of the map, give this a gander on what I mean
http://starbaseugc.com/index.php/sto-ugc-tutorial/video-tutorial-the-skies-and-depths-of-rigel-iv/
Honestly Return to Terra Nova is a great example of foundry building (the Ziggurat) canonical story tie in and proof that things don't always have to be shot in the face to succeed.
So thank you for writing it so I had something to feature
Correct. Foundry will absolutely never take off as true "content" in this redheaded stepchild role it's occupied since it launched.
Given that it's the whole point of the Foundry, it's been rendered quite pointless except as a curious toy for the truly bored. There are far more productive ways (err at least in game terms) to spend one's time in STO. It just doesn't matter where it counts.
Whenever the demo record issues get straightened out, cerberusfilms has also been working on a machinima project using the foundry called Reunion
One of the larger issues with this sadly is the fact that missions aren't 'modular' where you can pull them out of the foundry and plug them into the regular game. if there was a way to do it and allow the original author to modify them, that would be the best.
I'm also very proud of the community for doing almost all of this without any of my knowledge. Although I'm a little worried about traffic stats, if startrek.com links, it makes me very, very proud that so much of the site is run independently by the community.
It's kind of amazing. I created this website and now I just suddenly realize: "Hey, there is a new podcast associated with this website." "Wow, there's going to be a featured episode by the site I created."
It's so awesome that the site is user generated. Thank you to Cerb, PF, and everyone else who makes that possible.
What would make it count for you? XP? Shinies?
Yeah...sorry about that boss, guess you will know come the weekend
Sorry, not what I meant. What mission is this thumbnail from? The part circled in red.
ah thats all cerberusfilms on that one, but again its just a map created for illustration purposes and not from a playable mission...yet
I think Brandon touched on this during the latest recording of Podcast UGC. In that it is a tough situation considering an author could then update the missions to include inappropriate material without notice.
Perhaps it would be better handled like a wiki entry where permission is required to make the change viewable to the public, and the option to revert exists.
However, I make my comments conscious of the fact that Cryptic, and STO's, resources are finite, and I feel that the clear cut adoption and integration into mission flow/random encounter is the best chance to fill out the game in ways the devs will never have the resources to do.
Ideally the time spent greenlighting submissions, perhaps in themselves chosen by plays/votes/whatever - so as to remove competition bias and to take advantage of the fact that Cryptic owns all created content, would be considered an investment in the future content of the game - overall.
Much akin to how long it takes for official missions to be made, I imagine more than one foundry mission could be approved in that time (or alongside if they can facilitate an increase in personnel to overview this) and modifications made were needed to the missions themselves before inclusion (again, this does not necessitate consent by the authors as per Terms of Use - thus simplifying the process).
My ideal sign of this would be to see post-season six that a better infrastructure has been developed to achieve this. Hopefully whatever is the result of the code-merge it will at least improve stability and handling by the devs of our creations, but ideally, it will mean that future updates will not be so far apart, and that real, tangible changes can be made on a continual basis from now on, instead of on a yearly basis etc.
I think that initiatives like this, and the work that starbase UGC and the wider community have been trying, are simply a - remarkable testament - to the passion that can really drive this utility to it's true potential - but we really need to look to the future more in terms of working according to a determined and realistic goal/strategy to bring foundry directly into the game (and to work towards it with each and every step) as opposed to taking inspiring, yet ultimately blind 'small steps' into the unknown to try and bring foundry more into the fold (which I feel this is - although thats not to say I don't wish it success).
I just feel we could do more if we were able to plan with the developers a solid future - but our hands are tied in many ways (not least because we can't deal with the core foundry team directly). So until we see what the code-merge brings, I remain vexed.
That map is actually going to be in my upcoming Klingon mission 'Star Crossed Daggers'. Been working on it off and on for nearly a year.
It's a story that sprouted from my "Duty, Honour and Sacrifice" Federation story arc.
I'm really glad people enjoyed the trailer :-D
And Kirkfat, it's simply brilliant all you did and continue to try and do for the community, without you, we wouldn't be here doing this
Hear, hear!
Say what you will about Cryptic and their games but in this case, the Foundry proves to be a Community Builder and in MMO's that's always a Win and that's where it counts and to all who're involved, that matters a whole lot!
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Let's hope that sbugc doesn't crash, lol.