Yes, that is hypothetically possible. The main problem is the time necessary to generate a proper MSD. Doing that for every class of ship in the game is not something we can realistically accomplish.
Especially with the number of kitbash options available to many of the ship.
What about hooking up the Interiors to the Foundry system? Obviously, it is too time consuming for the devs to create each interior that we want, but there are lots of players that love to do this. There is the Quarters tag for Foundry missions that has just been released and it should be much easier to attach those missions for the ship interior than designing a bunch of new interiors. Another possibility is using a modified Foundry system designed specifically for ship interiors.
Im dead curious what program you guys use to mesh model all of your worlds?
Is it the same one that say Sims 3 use? I know when sims went pay for stuff, and customisable houses, everyone in that community paid ea bring in expansion pack after expansion pack.
I am bit of a foundry person and a 3d modeler myself when i have the time, so i kind of appreciate the work that goes into STO.
What is MSD?
Whether you think you are right or wrong, either way you are RIGHT.
So, if its possible to implement a "trophy like" system for MDS' could we not also have something similar to that for the types of chairs that our bridge has, and the type of helm they have, nothing too fancy, still within "lineage" of the bridge model. These are things that can really immerse a player, and Im sure most of us would buy into whatever you can come up with.
An MSD is a detailed deck- and systems-plan of the entire starship, whereas the outline-images used on ESD are simply... well... outline without any interior detail. However, as it is also done on the shows, MSDs can come in various different detail-stages. Some just show a deckplan, others include nity-gritty details and in-jokes like flux-compensators and Weyland-Yutani symbols.
We don't have a detailed one on our ships, do we? I've only ever seen the transparent outline. Are they interactable, and I just didn't know it? :eek:
What about hooking up the Interiors to the Foundry system? Obviously, it is too time consuming for the devs to create each interior that we want, but there are lots of players that love to do this. There is the Quarters tag for Foundry missions that has just been released and it should be much easier to attach those missions for the ship interior than designing a bunch of new interiors. Another possibility is using a modified Foundry system designed specifically for ship interiors.
Highly specialized system 1: Foundry
Highly specialized system 2: Ship Interiors
I have absolutely no idea how those would interact with each other, or if it's feasible to access one from the other.
I'm either very confused, or (more likely) just ignorant.
Isn't the MSD just that diagram thingy of the ship on the display?
Yes, "just." But they don't appear out of thin air. Someone has to make that texture. And something as intricate as an MSD takes a good while to make. And doing that for several hundred ships, is several hundred good whiles.
So, if its possible to implement a "trophy like" system for MDS' could we not also have something similar to that for the types of chairs that our bridge has, and the type of helm they have, nothing too fancy, still within "lineage" of the bridge model. These are things that can really immerse a player, and Im sure most of us would buy into whatever you can come up with.
Again, yes, doing it for the MSDs is hypothetically possible, the main constraint is the time necessary to make MSDs (see above)
And again, "Trophy like systems" are really just a hack, and are not something we can/should be expanding to cover a lot of stuff. I'm hesitant to keep using this. The more we do, the more people will want it, and it is not reasonable, or feasible to use this system in any kind of broad way. This is a slippery slope*.
(*note that this started with MSDs, and now it's Chairs on your bridge.)
Seriously though, the Foundry is probably the way to go on this. Given my knowledge of how these things are done, I feel like it would probably be doable to have a system where we'd make our interiors, then "bake" them into the game. Then again, I haven't the slightest idea how the STO engine works. It seems to be rather limiting, honestly.
But in any case, I think the real issue here isn't the interiors themselves so much as the fact that they're kind of useless. We'll need content involving them before it's worthwhile to spend time on them, I'd say.
Also, am I missing something? Why is a super-detailed MSD such a big deal? Wouldn't just an outline work fine...? Or better yet, overlay the outline of the ship onto a pattern of lines to create the impression of deck details without having to custom-draw them for each vessel.
Anyway, yeah. This will happen eventually, in some capacity. The devs do listen to us, and they do change things based on it.
Highly specialized system 1: Foundry
Highly specialized system 2: Ship Interiors
I have absolutely no idea how those would interact with each other, or if it's feasible to access one from the other.
Might take a lot of work to do, but a way to get customizable ship interiors is to create a Bridge Foundry mission and an Interior Foundry mission, then hook them up in the Ship Customization window where you can select Bridge, Interior, hull, windows etc. So when we go to our bridge through the drop down menu, we would go to a player created bridge instead of a Cryptic designed bridge.
I know Dan Stahl was talking about customizable ship interiors 2 years ago in the June 2012's Ask Cryptic.
"Q: (Jared1701) Are there still plans to bring crafting, a working shuttle bay, and new mini games to ship interiors and if so when?
Dstahl: These items had shown up in previous Engineering Reports as designs we were discussing and wanting to put in the game, but are not currently being worked on. At this time, we are focused on Starbase interiors. Neverwinter is working on a Foundry addition to build custom interior spaces (room by room). Once this feature is done and ready, we will have the opportunity to import something similar into STO. At that time, we would consider opening up the ability for players to fully customize their own ship interiors room by room and prop by prop. That is a ways off at this point, though."
Obviously any amount of work to create this system would pale in comparison to the daunting task of making enough interiors for players.
Oh sure, sounds great. But the reality is one ice cream filled belly plus one bouncing pony ride equals 1 upset belly and 1 pony with puke on its head...
Just say no to mixing ice cream and ponies!
Yes, "just." But they don't appear out of thin air. Someone has to make that texture. And something as intricate as an MSD takes a good while to make. And doing that for several hundred ships, is several hundred good whiles.
I guess the intricacy is wasted on me.
So long as the outline vaguely resembles my ship, I'm happy. I don't think I've looked that closely at it before. Hm, I wonder what my graphics are even set to... :P
Comments
Oh. Well, when you put it that way, I am okay with it. Hm. I wonder if we can tie the sundae to a stick to motivate said pony....
Especially with the number of kitbash options available to many of the ship.
I am for this suggestion.
Is it the same one that say Sims 3 use? I know when sims went pay for stuff, and customisable houses, everyone in that community paid ea bring in expansion pack after expansion pack.
I am bit of a foundry person and a 3d modeler myself when i have the time, so i kind of appreciate the work that goes into STO.
What is MSD?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Master_systems_display
I would gladly pay for access to such an upgrade.
We don't have a detailed one on our ships, do we? I've only ever seen the transparent outline. Are they interactable, and I just didn't know it? :eek:
Highly specialized system 1: Foundry
Highly specialized system 2: Ship Interiors
I have absolutely no idea how those would interact with each other, or if it's feasible to access one from the other.
Yes, "just." But they don't appear out of thin air. Someone has to make that texture. And something as intricate as an MSD takes a good while to make. And doing that for several hundred ships, is several hundred good whiles.
Again, yes, doing it for the MSDs is hypothetically possible, the main constraint is the time necessary to make MSDs (see above)
And again, "Trophy like systems" are really just a hack, and are not something we can/should be expanding to cover a lot of stuff. I'm hesitant to keep using this. The more we do, the more people will want it, and it is not reasonable, or feasible to use this system in any kind of broad way. This is a slippery slope*.
(*note that this started with MSDs, and now it's Chairs on your bridge.)
Seriously though, the Foundry is probably the way to go on this. Given my knowledge of how these things are done, I feel like it would probably be doable to have a system where we'd make our interiors, then "bake" them into the game. Then again, I haven't the slightest idea how the STO engine works. It seems to be rather limiting, honestly.
But in any case, I think the real issue here isn't the interiors themselves so much as the fact that they're kind of useless. We'll need content involving them before it's worthwhile to spend time on them, I'd say.
Also, am I missing something? Why is a super-detailed MSD such a big deal? Wouldn't just an outline work fine...? Or better yet, overlay the outline of the ship onto a pattern of lines to create the impression of deck details without having to custom-draw them for each vessel.
Anyway, yeah. This will happen eventually, in some capacity. The devs do listen to us, and they do change things based on it.
Yo mama is an MSD! *Beavis and Buthead laugh*
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Master_systems_display
I'm sorry to people who I, in the past, insulted, annoyed, etc.
Might take a lot of work to do, but a way to get customizable ship interiors is to create a Bridge Foundry mission and an Interior Foundry mission, then hook them up in the Ship Customization window where you can select Bridge, Interior, hull, windows etc. So when we go to our bridge through the drop down menu, we would go to a player created bridge instead of a Cryptic designed bridge.
I know Dan Stahl was talking about customizable ship interiors 2 years ago in the June 2012's Ask Cryptic.
"Q: (Jared1701) Are there still plans to bring crafting, a working shuttle bay, and new mini games to ship interiors and if so when?
Dstahl: These items had shown up in previous Engineering Reports as designs we were discussing and wanting to put in the game, but are not currently being worked on. At this time, we are focused on Starbase interiors. Neverwinter is working on a Foundry addition to build custom interior spaces (room by room). Once this feature is done and ready, we will have the opportunity to import something similar into STO. At that time, we would consider opening up the ability for players to fully customize their own ship interiors room by room and prop by prop. That is a ways off at this point, though."
Obviously any amount of work to create this system would pale in comparison to the daunting task of making enough interiors for players.
Oh sure, sounds great. But the reality is one ice cream filled belly plus one bouncing pony ride equals 1 upset belly and 1 pony with puke on its head...
Just say no to mixing ice cream and ponies!
Would they need to really interact with each other though?
All you'd need is a foundry anchor point on the bridge.
Pick up your preferred interior mission from the foundry menu, as presently, go to your bridge and then use the anchor point.
Not elegant, but it would leverage the new player housing tag in the foundry to give people interiors and even missions based in them.
A foundry anchor IS interaction between the two maps.
Yeah, but about the minimum you can get though.
Bridges currently tie into banks systems, doff systems, and ship selection systems.
Essentially they're all portals to other areas of code.
Why not zoidberg? Sorry, foundry.
(Don't know if this would be any easier to implement, though...)
I guess the intricacy is wasted on me.
So long as the outline vaguely resembles my ship, I'm happy. I don't think I've looked that closely at it before. Hm, I wonder what my graphics are even set to... :P