Is unlocking the costume editor the single most important Foundry improvement?

thehavraha

Through some ... unusual Foundry awkwardness I've found the ability to make some very ... unusual outfits.

http://i47.tinypic.com/69nqj4.jpg

Here's the thing. Most of this is broken. Then names of options are there but they're not all unlocked, they're not all tagged, they're not viable.

But whether it works is beside the point.

Why can't we make green cat people with shaved bodies or furred bodies or Pink Andorians wearing Klingon armor? Isn't that what the Foundry is all about? Being able to bring whatever we can imagine for our stories to life?

Why isn't this the #1 thing being worked on right now? Sure assets are important, but what's more critical than your villain, a Romulan who has joined the Jem Hadar so she's wearing their armor?

Or your hero? A Rigelian who was vacationing on Risa so she's wearing the Orion bikini top?

Is this not the stuff that makes the Foundry go round?

designationxr377

You know, I'll throw my weight on this too. Whatever small amount that may be.

I remember a Dev interview for I believe PrimetimeUGC where they mentioned they didn't want us full access to some of the raw stuff because you could get some really weird things, such as Tholian bodies overlayed with non tholian skins or weird combo's like shown by hav.

But... you know what. I think there could be worth risking some really odd stuff if it gives the chance to dig into the awkward alien bones that made some things seen on TOS some fun.


Personally, I think unmitigated access to all costume options (the purchased race bug thing) should be taken care of before this, if they are not related.

(But... I'd also think an author subscribe system is more important than even that.)

markhawkman

Are you using the Borg Boff suit for the lower body?

But I agree. the costume editor is annoyingly limited. It would be nice if we could use all the options.

lincolninspace

I watched Primetimeugc last night and during the interview it was mentioned that all costume options are unlocked for the Neverwinter foundry. With all the enticing options over there people are gonna leave Sto and create stuff in the Neverwinter foundry. Personally i like my women green, shaven and cat faced. Also I think Mr. Stahls concerns are moot regarding the costume editor since nude mods (yes some players can see you nekkid) and all the stuff you can already do with the foundry are no better anyways. It may not be publishable but a mission full of profanity or other offensive content could still be screen capped and published.

erei1

lincolninspace wrote: »

Personally i like my women green, shaven and cat faced.

Like your coffee ? I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that one.

Also I think Mr. Stahls concerns are moot regarding the costume editor since nude mods (yes some players can see you nekkid)

They can already see me in underwear each time I beam out, without 3rd party program, no big deal.

Anyway, back to topic. I agree about more freedom on the foundry mission. Simply make sure there is no option for fully naked people and stuff like that, but if we want to do really weird stuff, I'd say that's part of the foundry.
And a pink gorn with cat face is less weird than 10battleships on top of each other, inside a nebula, that simply wait the final blow.

drogyn1701

While it is certainly important, I don't think it's necessarily the most important.

Costumes, to me, aren't the most important part of a mission. You only see them shoulders up in dialogue and very small on maps.

I think the most important thing is more assets. For Q's sake we need more floor/ceiling options, more Federation walls, things to help us build more convincing and varied starship interiors.

Still, if they decide they want to work on the costume editor, that's cool with me.

lincolninspace

erei1 wrote: »

Like your coffee ? I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that one.


They can already see me in underwear each time I beam out, without 3rd party program, no big deal.

Anyway, back to topic. I agree about more freedom on the foundry mission. Simply make sure there is no option for fully naked people and stuff like that, but if we want to do really weird stuff, I'd say that's part of the foundry.
And a pink gorn with cat face is less weird than 10battleships on top of each other, inside a nebula, that simply wait the final blow.

No my coffee is pink obese and borg implanted.

lincolninspace

drogyn1701 wrote: »

While it is certainly important, I don't think it's necessarily the most important.

Costumes, to me, aren't the most important part of a mission. You only see them shoulders up in dialogue and very small on maps.

I think the most important thing is more assets. For Q's sake we need more floor/ceiling options, more Federation walls, things to help us build more convincing and varied starship interiors.

Still, if they decide they want to work on the costume editor, that's cool with me.

In the interview Mr. Stahl made it sound really easy for them to do.

drogyn1701

I don't think difficulty is the barrier here. It's stahl actually tasking someone to work on it or someone doing it in their spare time and stahl giving the ok to put it in.

Plus, overcoming his objection to people making really crazy costumes. Personally I'm fine with crazy costumes... but I'm not the one running this game.

zorbane

CBS seems really strict on what they're allowing in the game...I could see them explicitly telling Cryptic that they don't want weird things combos (like green cat women)

ajstoner

Would it be helpful and nice? Sure. Would it be "the single most important Foundry improvement?" No, not at all. Branching objectives would fill that role to my thinking and there would be plenty of stuff between.

lincolninspace

zorbane wrote: »

CBS seems really strict on what they're allowing in the game...I could see them explicitly telling Cryptic that they don't want weird things combos (like green cat women)

And yet you CAN have green cat women so you already can make weird things so why not just unlock the whole thing?

markhawkman

zorbane wrote: »

CBS seems really strict on what they're allowing in the game...I could see them explicitly telling Cryptic that they don't want weird things combos (like green cat women)

And yet I keep running into Zentraedi player characters.

It is probable that the char creator is designed specifically to not allow certain things. Obviously Zentraedi aren't one of them though. It always has bugged me that "alien" chars are not able to use a LOT of appearance options.

azurianstar

I can understand Cryptic wanting to limit some things in the Foundry, but I find it a bit too limiting. For an example, when creating an alien species, you are limited to Federation or KDF clothing and equipment.

So it would be nice if you could have a non-party affiliation and allowed to customize NPCs that don't use Federation or KDF costume options, but in the Foundry you have much more alien costume options. And with equipment, I would like to choose what they use. Like turning off Thalaron weaponry when using Romulans or turning off everything but basic weapons so I can have my Foundry mission more like Star Trek and not STO Star Trek.


So be nice if we could have more freedom in this area.

ajstoner

From what has been said in interviews, the reason that costumes are unavailable is that they are not sure which ones work in what combinations. DSthal has said that he is open to opening them up and letting us figure it out on our own if the community shows enough interest so I suggest we get on him about that.

The alien editor has already been stepped-down once because (I presume) they didn't want players making custom versions of races in the game that are otherwise restricted as C Store items, faction availability, etc so that likely won't change.

markhawkman

ajstoner wrote: »

From what has been said in interviews, the reason that costumes are unavailable is that they are not sure which ones work in what combinations. DSthal has said that he is open to opening them up and letting us figure it out on our own if the community shows enough interest so I suggest we get on him about that.

I support that idea.

azurianstar

ajstoner wrote: »

From what has been said in interviews, the reason that costumes are unavailable is that they are not sure which ones work in what combinations. DSthal has said that he is open to opening them up and letting us figure it out on our own if the community shows enough interest so I suggest we get on him about that.

The alien editor has already been stepped-down once because (I presume) they didn't want players making custom versions of races in the game that are otherwise restricted as C Store items, faction availability, etc so that likely won't change.

Not talking about the Holodeck, I'm talking Foundry. Just look at how many times we've seen people create new aliens dressed up in Federation, KDF, or the off-duty outfits?

As for the Alien creator with the Holodeck, I been wishing for years they add tails, claws (not the current ones), beaks, and snouts and make non humanoid lifeforms. Which really would be nice for the Foundry too.

sander233

zorbane wrote: »

CBS seems really strict on what they're allowing in the game...I could see them explicitly telling Cryptic that they don't want weird things combos (like green cat women)

Isn't that basically what Robert Blackman and co. did for many many years?

Brannon Braga or whoever would walk in and say "Robert, we need an alien for a background shot. About five feet tall, dark blue with a furry head."

And Blackman would say "No problem. You want a tail with that?"

And Braga would say "Sure, why not."

Aliens are supposed to be, well, alien. Nothing's too wierd for Star Trek, even that incredibly-disturbing-yet-somewhat-arousing cat-faced, semi-nude green chick.

This game already put titties on a Saurian, for crying out loud. We could do no greater sin against nature even if we tried.

ajstoner

azurianstar wrote: »

Not talking about the Holodeck, I'm talking Foundry. Just look at how many times we've seen people create new aliens dressed up in Federation, KDF, or the off-duty outfits?

Yes but these things have all been checked and cross-checked with one-another and found to work properly, and then they have to be added into the foundry itself. The reservations he expressed were mainly combinations of costumes and skins that they never worked with, such as Tholians and Undine using uniform pieces which, apart from not working, might cause the game to crash.

azurianstar wrote: »

As for the Alien creator with the Holodeck, I been wishing for years they add tails, claws (not the current ones), beaks, and snouts and make non humanoid lifeforms. Which really would be nice for the Foundry too.

Supposedly the character creator is getting updated in the near future.

skydawnknight

We also have to keep in mind, that some of the costumes we create using the import function might be unintended errors that will get "fixed" in the future. I really hope this is not the case, but you never know.

Right now, if you make a fed costume, and then switch the faction to KDF, some of the menus, color options, and pulldowns for the outfits go all sorts of weird, and vice versa, making some of the options useless. Not sure if that's just my experience. But who knows what will happen once that gets adjusted as well.

kirksplat

drogyn1701 wrote: »

While it is certainly important, I don't think it's necessarily the most important.

Costumes, to me, aren't the most important part of a mission. You only see them shoulders up in dialogue and very small on maps.

I think the most important thing is more assets. For Q's sake we need more floor/ceiling options, more Federation walls, things to help us build more convincing and varied starship interiors.

Still, if they decide they want to work on the costume editor, that's cool with me.

I agree with this opinion. Costumes are barely seen in STO. But my ugly transporter pad is noticed right away.

evilmark444

Imho, the addition of combat objectives other than "kill enemy" (ie disable, incapacitate, survive, etc), is more important than costumes and set pieces. Don't get me wrong, I'd love more visual options, but thats more of a bonus and additional functionality should be the top priority. I'd also like to see the ability to make "boss" encounters but I could see how some authers could use it as a griefing tool.

denizenvi

I say open up the editor. Playing around with import options, it still has some restrictions (can't put beard on a gorn, etc), and it makes sense that some combinations might just not be possible. But I'm all for authors being able to mix and match whatever at least works. If it doesn't look right or clips in all the wrong places, what's the problem?


Considering we can place objects in all sorts of ways to make nonsensical maps, why wouldn't this work for costumes? The combinations that actually 'work' will far outnumber the funky cat-people with gorn chests and nausicaan fingers.

chicochavez

evilmark444 wrote: »

Imho, the addition of combat objectives other than "kill enemy" (ie disable, incapacitate, survive, etc), is more important than costumes and set pieces. Don't get me wrong, I'd love more visual options, but thats more of a bonus and additional functionality should be the top priority. I'd also like to see the ability to make "boss" encounters but I could see how some authers could use it as a griefing tool.

Agreed on this. Anyone who's played my series knows there would be plenty of use of a disable objective instead of just kill. I'd also like the ability to make friendlies invincible/respawn disabled like you have in the Tau Dewa patrols.