Request more bridges. Particularly Saber, Ambassador, Excelsior

davidwford · July 2015

cidjack · July 2015

I do believe some of the bridges you have linked are copyrighted by the people who made them.

adamkafei · July 2015

I do wish people would stop trying to link ex-astris, it never produces the intended picture.

As far as these bridges, I'd like some of them but I know thee is very little money in it for Cryptic.

cmdrscarlet · July 2015

Excelsior bridge? Why is my money bouncing off the screen?!

captainoblivous · July 2015

Never going to happen. Devs themselves have stated that they don't like making interiors as it's too much work for too little return.

EDIT

And yes, I echo the sentiment of not linking to ex-astris. They have a policy of not allowing hotlinking to their sites.

jcf28309 · July 2015

captainoblivous wrote: »

Never going to happen. Devs themselves have stated that they don't like making interiors as it's too much work for too little return.

well thats kinda silly,theres a demand for something and the reason theyre not supplying it is because they dont like too? thats a poor buisness practice in my opinion,id like to see variations on the origins bridge as its on of my favorites but feels under used,new corridor interiors would be nice too.

cmdrscarlet · July 2015

It's actually not poor practice. They've built bridges and the demand must be too low for them to put in the time and resources to make more. T+R are put for new ships, and that makes sense, but for the rest ... not so much.

Plus, I recall reading somewhere that bridges have to be cavernous because of the way the in-game camera works, or something like that. So to see a correctly-scaled bridge is also something we simply *can't* have.

dareau · July 2015

jcf28309 wrote: »

captainoblivous wrote: »

Never going to happen. Devs themselves have stated that they don't like making interiors as it's too much work for too little return.

well thats kinda silly,theres a demand for something and the reason theyre not supplying it is because they dont like too? thats a poor buisness practice in my opinion,id like to see variations on the origins bridge as its on of my favorites but feels under used,new corridor interiors would be nice too.

A bit of research (and avoidance of all the ancient links) will show that the Dev Team themselves - and I think the great Tacofangs was one of the posters, especially relevant since this is one of his areas of expertise - indicated that it takes like a month's worth of work to produce a single bridge.

Unfortunately, the returns from the C-store on the already existent bridges have "not justified" the dedication of said interior artist(s) (read: made enough money to pay the salaries of the people doing the construction).

Therefore, as far as "business practices" go, they're making "the right decision".

Now, the "current practice" is to release bridges & interiors that are made for "other reasons", like them being a centerpiece of a mission series. The Voyager and Origins bridges were constructed in this manner - Origins as part of tutorial revamp, Voyager for the Delta Quadrant series. Convincing the Devs / writing team / etc. that the aforementioned Excelsior (or other TMP-esque bridge), Ambassador, other "canon" or "Cryptic designed" bridge needs to be designed as part of a revamp / mission series / major in-game need is the current "best chance" of getting a certain personal desire fulfilled...

And for the record, I would love to supplement my TOS Connie bridge with an TMP one. While my understanding of every little detail behind it is lacking, it sure seems that 75% of the TWOK bridge "exists" within the Connie one - two new chairs (Captain's and crew), retexture everything else, maybe tweak the door area's polygons and cut-paste a console and that redesigned door area for the second turbolift. Bridge for sale.
Perform second "slight rearraingement / texture tweak" and this bridge, and much like the movie set it was filmed on - Enterprise's bridge becomes the Reliant's bridge.
Third retexture and the addition of a few "standing transparent displays" and this becomes the 1701-A & Excelsior bridge.

But then, for all I know, the only part of the Connie bridge that can transfer to this TMP-era collection is the area that's supposed to designate the wall size, and everything else would need to be 100% new creations. Then we start looking at the month's worth of developer time, etc. etc.

So, is it too late to convince the Dev Team that with all this Iconian business and Time Travel stuff going on that we need to get ourselves stuck on a "holographic recreation of the TMP Miranda/Enterprise/Excelsior" bridge because all this time travel stuff wound up snagging Harrison off the Ent-B and he needs to be stuck on a holo of "his era's" bridge so he doesn't get corrupted with too much future knowledge and he can't be mind-melded / mind-wiped of anything he sees on that Temporal Instigation's Dept. ship?

captainoblivous · July 2015

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

Plus, I recall reading somewhere that bridges have to be cavernous because of the way the in-game camera works, or something like that. So to see a correctly-scaled bridge is also something we simply *can't* have.

I recall tacofangs talking about this some time ago. I remember him saying that there is nothing in the engine that stops us from having decently scaled interior sets. What does stop them from doing that is this notion that it would "restrict movement when in ground combat using these sets" and that this would be a "bad thing". Quite how it would be a bad thing escapes me, but that's just me.

EDITED TO ADD

dareau wrote: »

And for the record, I would love to supplement my TOS Connie bridge with an TMP one. While my understanding of every little detail behind it is lacking, it sure seems that 75% of the TWOK bridge "exists" within the Connie one - two new chairs (Captain's and crew), retexture everything else, maybe tweak the door area's polygons and cut-paste a console and that redesigned door area for the second turbolift. Bridge for sale.
Perform second "slight rearraingement / texture tweak" and this bridge, and much like the movie set it was filmed on - Enterprise's bridge becomes the Reliant's bridge.
Third retexture and the addition of a few "standing transparent displays" and this becomes the 1701-A & Excelsior bridge.

But then, for all I know, the only part of the Connie bridge that can transfer to this TMP-era collection is the area that's supposed to designate the wall size, and everything else would need to be 100% new creations. Then we start looking at the month's worth of developer time, etc. etc.

Unfortunately no. The floor plans of the tos and tmp connie bridges might share some details, but the vast majority of those two are totally different. There really isn't all that much one could transfer between the two, one would have to rebuild the model from scratch pretty much. That's something bridge commander modders found out when a guy called Baz1701 over at BC-central made his tmp bridge sets.
The only one that I know could have something like that done using the tos bridge as a basis would be the st3 excelsior bridge. I definitely remember reading that the excel set used in that film was actually the redressed tos bridge! The other tmp bridges you mentioned could likely use each other as a basis, as could some of the early tng sets.

davidwford · July 2015

If they need to have a game use for more bridges and interiors, the Foundry is the clear reason for doing so. If nothing else, it gives the programmers more areas which they could use in the future.

For example, the mission "Rapier" requires the player to enter the Wormhole, board the USS Rapier, and then return to DS9. The bridge in that mission is simply one of the Defiant bridges from the bridge pack. By creating the Rapier bridge, they could "remaster" that mission with voiceovers and the new Rapier bridge.

bendalek · July 2015

Short answer? No.
Long answer? If they are going to spend any resources at all on bridges, how about, you know, at least 1 new Romulan bridge? Feds have access to dozens already, and the KDF also get several options. Yet despite the time frame since LoR was released, Romulans still have only 1 bridge and no C-Store ones.

I Guarantee that they WOULD make $$$ if they built a couple of Romulan Bridge Packs.

turbomagnus · July 2015

Unfortunately, we're never going to get new bridges for the ships we've already got (including the 'non-standard' ships like the Vulcan D'Kyr, Caitian Atrox, Orion FDCs, Gorn Support Vessels or Nausicaan destroyers, all stuck with standard Fed or KDF bridges) because it's easier (a bridge as compared to a bridge, a crew deck and an engineering deck) - and more profitable - to create bridges for lockbox and lobi ships to use as an enticement to try and get people to spend money on master keys because, 'oh, wow!', the new lock box ship comes with a matched bridge...

Never mind all the people that would pay good money to have things like Gorn/Orion/Nausicaan bridges on Gorn/Orion/Nausican ships, or actual TOS and TNG-era bridges for the T'liss and D'Deridex (as seen in TOS: "Balance of Terror" and TNG: "Face of the Enemy") or more accurate bridges for Excelsiors Refits, Ambassador Refits, etc. for role-playing purposes...

Ultimately, the problem is - and I know some of you have heard me say this before - that it's all a vicious downward spiral; interiors have no real functionality in-game and plenty of players don't even bother visiting their ship interior unless a mission requires them to (One in the Romulan storyline, one cross-faction and one optional mission for Klingons, if my memory is certain...), so the environmental art team focuses on other locations, which leads to interiors having no purpose and players not bothering with them and it just spirals down... Why does anyone think the Tuffli, D'Kora and Cell Ship have some of the most popular interiors in the game, whole chat channels dedicated to bridge invitations? Because they have FUNCTIONALITY - Dabo, Trade assignments, special assignment chains and so forth... - they give people a reason to visit them.

lizwei · August 2015

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

It's actually not poor practice. They've built bridges and the demand must be too low for them to put in the time and resources to make more. T+R are put for new ships, and that makes sense, but for the rest ... not so much.

The bridges they used to sell were all utter garbage.
Basing the demand for proper bridges on those monstrocities is ridiculous.

Plus, I recall reading somewhere that bridges have to be cavernous because of the way the in-game camera works, or something like that. So to see a correctly-scaled bridge is also something we simply *can't* have.

The Voyager, TOS and a few other bridges completely disprove this.

captainoblivous · August 2015

d tos bridge

lizwei wrote: »

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

It's actually not poor practice. They've built bridges and the demand must be too low for them to put in the time and resources to make more. T+R are put for new ships, and that makes sense, but for the rest ... not so much.

The bridges they used to sell were all utter garbage.
Basing the demand for proper bridges on those monstrocities is ridiculous.

No, it isn't absurd. People rarely used bridges and ship interiors full stop. That's the reason why bridge sales have always been so poor, because said bridges are off the beaten track and give no reason for the players to go to them.
Ps. They still sell them.

turbomagnus · August 2015

lizwei wrote: »

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

Plus, I recall reading somewhere that bridges have to be cavernous because of the way the in-game camera works, or something like that. So to see a correctly-scaled bridge is also something we simply *can't* have.

The Voyager, TOS and a few other bridges completely disprove this.

No, actually I also remember them saying this back with S8.5 and the Federation Tutorial Revamp that gave us the 'Origin' bridge; we got the bridge but not the interior because the current Federation interiors had been designed for missions and the doorways and rooms were out-of-scale because of Bridge Officer pathing issues to keep BOffs from getting stuck whenever a player moved.

If you'll notice, the TOS and 'Belfast' interiors never actually appear in missions and most of those taking place on Voyager in the 'Intrepid (2410)' interior are single-player missions where BOffs are not a concern.

captainoblivous · August 2015

turbomagnus wrote: »

lizwei wrote: »

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

Plus, I recall reading somewhere that bridges have to be cavernous because of the way the in-game camera works, or something like that. So to see a correctly-scaled bridge is also something we simply *can't* have.

The Voyager, TOS and a few other bridges completely disprove this.

No, actually I also remember them saying this back with S8.5 and the Federation Tutorial Revamp that gave us the 'Origin' bridge; we got the bridge but not the interior because the current Federation interiors had been designed for missions and the doorways and rooms were out-of-scale because of Bridge Officer pathing issues to keep BOffs from getting stuck whenever a player moved.

If you'll notice, the TOS and 'Belfast' interiors never actually appear in missions and most of those taking place on Voyager in the 'Intrepid (2410)' interior are single-player missions where BOffs are not a concern.

This is a good point given the horrific ai of the boffs, but it is ultimately moot as boffs aren't used on the interiors like that except in foundry missions iirc.

giannicampanella · August 2015

Wow, when will this community appreciate that ex-astris-scientia thoroughly disallows hotlinking?

Of note for Excelsior fans: the Prometheus bridge from Voyager was a simple redress of the Excelsior bridge from the movies. Ergo, the Prometheus bridge pack in-game is extremely close to a canon Excel-lento bridgicle.

And I've been saying for years that Cryptic is financially TRIBBLE. "*whine, whine, whine* there's no demand! blah, blah, blah". Guess what, Jack, you bloody well MAKE demand by making cool stuff. Jebus.

davidwford · August 2015

Okay, what is the deal with the Zahl bridge? It looks like they took the generic laboratory map and created a bridge with it. Not much different than the Tuffi freighter bridge. I am not complaining, but all this talk about bridges not important, yet they manage to find the time to create bridges for almost all of the non-standard faction ships save for the Risian ships(and the KDF major allies).

cmdrscarlet · August 2015

Well new bridges for new ships is one thing, bridges for old ships is another. Note that "new" refers to non-Fed/Rom/KDF ships.

bloodyriz · August 2015

I still hope Taco gets the green light to do up something for the long neglected Risian ships.

giannicampanella · August 2015

^ Agreed. They are very fun ships. They should be a pack with bridge.

davidwford · August 2015

bloodyriz wrote: »

I still hope Taco gets the green light to do up something for the long neglected Risian ships.

Indeed. There is another opportunity next summer for a bridge for the Risa ships.

bloodyriz · August 2015

davidwford wrote: »

bloodyriz wrote: »

I still hope Taco gets the green light to do up something for the long neglected Risian ships.

Indeed. There is another opportunity next summer for a bridge for the Risa ships.

Only if the Risians decide to give us a ship of their design again and not another Ferengi boat.

davidwford · August 2015

bloodyriz wrote: »

davidwford wrote: »

bloodyriz wrote: »

I still hope Taco gets the green light to do up something for the long neglected Risian ships.

Indeed. There is another opportunity next summer for a bridge for the Risa ships.

Only if the Risians decide to give us a ship of their design again and not another Ferengi boat.

I hope so. The Corvette was an escort and the Liner was a cruiser. I hope they make a science based ship. They could call it "Risan Explorer" or "Risan Rover". Something related to safari viewing.

bltrrn · August 2015

davidwford wrote: »

bloodyriz wrote: »

davidwford wrote: »

bloodyriz wrote: »

I still hope Taco gets the green light to do up something for the long neglected Risian ships.

Indeed. There is another opportunity next summer for a bridge for the Risa ships.

Only if the Risians decide to give us a ship of their design again and not another Ferengi boat.

I hope so. The Corvette was an escort and the Liner was a cruiser. I hope they make a science based ship. They could call it "Risan Explorer" or "Risan Rover". Something related to safari viewing.

Explorer/Rover? Sounds like a ground vehicle to me; deal.

primar13 · August 2015

Hey OP!

Stop Hotlinking! So that we can actually see what you are linking!

Link the Page that the image is on and not the image

leviathan99 · August 2015

TMP Connie is a bit more than a retexture.

Now "The Cage"/"Menagerie" Connie or "Animated" Connie would be fairly doable with limited work.

I'm hoping they consider a pack based on "The Cage" for Trek's 50th anniversary next year. That would basically involve the TOS Connie with new bridge railing and recolored textures (ie. pale blue doors, orange and blue tinted controls, tan bedspreads). Desk lamps at the helm. An alternate lighting scheme. The turtleneck sweater costume for NPCs and maybe a landing party jacket and technician variant.

Mirror Connie pack would similarly be doable. It's just different NPCs, emblems on the doors, an agony booth, and a Tantalus Device.

I am of the opinion that the best way to make ship interiors viable is to plan on double uses and double sales. Release one as a promo, toss one in a lockbox, sell one. (I doubt you could generate interest selling multiples the same way.) Make sure the bulk of the work is usable between versions.

Also, two things keep me from buying more interiors.

1) I CAN'T buy the Voyager interior. It isn't an option since I own at least one Voyager variant. The bundle doesn't exist for me on the C-Store.

2) Lockbox ships can't use the interiors. This makes them inaccessible to the demo who generate a lot of economic activity in the game. My feeling is that the inconvenience of visiting them adds another layer of non-participation on top of the fact that there's nothing to do on bridges.

captainperkins · September 2015

When they added the dilithium mining it was a completely new "game" within the game. For the fiftyith star trek anniversary we need the following: Updated ship interiors. The undiscovered country style 23rd century ship interior with bridges of the motion picture Connie, the undiscovered country Connie and the excelsior as well as ambassador bridges. The Galaxy class starship interior would be a a retextured interior of what I described above, with larger hallways and a Holodeck that functions.

We need a new reason to visit ship interiors not unlike the dilithium asteroid game. Perhaps ship poker, customizing quarters, doing on board missions with dilithium rewards etc.

Along with this ship interior upgrade we need the full wrath of khan costume sets as well as admiral kirks movie tunics, and the phaser pstols with updated effects. The wrath of khan phaser could have a pulsing fluorescent Orange beam on setting 1. Setting 2 would fire tiny parallel beams that set the target on fire. The game engine has the ability to make those effects!

Also when using those uniforms if we could have flip communicators or wrist watch communicators with tos transporter effects for greater immersion.

These bundles can be called "the legacy pack" and celebrate all of the original movies. I know most players would buy their favourite interiors and costumes. The reason interiors haven't made much money is because they sucked and nobody wanted them. I still use my intrepid and tos interiors as well as defiant. I love the authentic interiors.

bloodyriz · September 2015

Dude I am still waiting for the Risian bridges, of course with the ending of the Risian line, I doubt it will ever happen.

Request more bridges. Particularly Saber, Ambassador, Excelsior

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