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User Generated Content: How powerful must the tool be?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
This is something Cryptic must get right. This tool must be decently powerful!

Maps:
Maps must be fully customizable. Though Preset maps (like DS9, Starbase One, etc) are nice we have to also be able to customize the layouts of our maps to a great extent. Basically like in the GREAT WarCraft III editor where you can "paint" the objects to the map and make it have a unique feel.
This goes for ground and space. If I want to put a planet down give me a huge list of the available planets, let me select it, then let me put it down where I want it to be. Let me pick a hallway and let me "draw" where it leads.
Give me enough options to truly be able to make a map my own. Like if I want to make an outdoors map give me all those crazy buildings and statues. Give me as many options as possible so the customization of the maps can be great.

At the same time, again, have a selection of preset maps too so if we want to have a UGC thing happen in DS9 we don't have to recreate it. Though we could if we wanted to. ;)


NPC Control:
Control over NPCs,friendly or enemy, must be vast.
I want them to do what I want them to do. I want to be able to script them and do actions from making them walk a specific path, to making them shapeshift, to making them say what I want them to say, etc etc etc. The list goes on.
I must have full control over placing enemies and allies. Everything NPC!

Let us even control enemy stats. It doesn't seem we're going to get rewarded anyways (too abusable) so why not let me customize the stats of a Vulcan Love Slave to be in the Q power area? :P
The more control over the NPCs we have, from their actions to abilities to stats, the better the stories we can make and the more immersive we can make it.


Real Character Controls:
Hey now this is a big one. If we want let us CHANGE what character someone is (kind of). Like if we want to disguise our character. Maybe there will be a cutscene that an author wants to play out while your character is frozen or watching from afar.
Maybe our UGC takes place in the past and everyone has to wear an Original Series uniform! Maybe everyone needs to be human for this UGC.
Maybe you play some UGC where you're transformed into a chair. Who knows! :P
The point is let us control the real player characters to some extent. This would be limited to avoid abuse (and I'd think any UGC would have an "ESCAPE" button to just leave at any moment).


Environmental Controls:
From rain, to fog levels. Maybe you're under fire and you shake from time to time. Simple idea.


Make it CRAZY GAME friendly:
UGC often has non-sense crazy games that are just for fun. Things which don't even attempt to make sense or follow any lore.
Like maybe there's a UCG of hide and seek. Maybe a minigame crazy festival like Uther Party from WCIII UGC or maybe a crazy STO version of Tower Defense.
These should all be possible. They're fun, have insane replay value and add to the experience.


DIFFERENCIATE LORE UGC and JUST FOR FUN UGC:
Some people, for some crazy reason, don't like crazy games that make no sense (I love them). There should be two sections to browse for these UGC games. Games that the authors attempt to stick to the lore and be serious. And then just a section for everything else.





I'm sure I'm forgetting something.



UGC is to many people the epitome of replayability. Though not all of it will be of quality (some just trash) if there's enough community support and if the tools are strong enough you've got yourself the potential to have incredible amounts of content and replayability added to whatever medium.
To me if Cryptic gets it right THIS is when stuff will get interesting. I'd look forward to making my own stories in it too.



Also as a side note... I don't care if there's ZERO reward for this. UGC is often stupidly fun for me.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Much more interesting/useful to me, personally, would be the ability to merge the UGC system and the Demo rec/Playback system seamlessly.

    It would let me create environs and situations from scratch to film, and (ideally) let me script all the action right down to weapons fire.

    If you think about it, the UGC system itself is really half of that, its only a matter of hooking it into the Demo system, and adding controls for character actions/pathing, which you would need anyways for making missions.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    If I'm correct in my assumptions, the new Weekly Content updates we're to get in Season 2.0, may be done with the UGC tool-set, so hopefully we'd be able to see in action just what can be accomplished with the UGC. :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Personally, what I want is access to most of the various ship/base interiors we already have in game(Fed, Klingon, Romulan, Borg), the ability to generate a random space system or planet surface(like in exploration), and access to most of the NPCs and ships already in game. Add to that the ability to write your own mission dialogue and players will be able to make just about any story they want.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    boy I really hope the STO UGC system cant be easily exploited like CoH was......



    that would be a shame.....



    .
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    boy I really hope the STO UGC system cant be easily exploited like CoH was......



    that would be a shame.....



    .

    The solution is pretty easy: either dont allow people to level from UGC, or make UGC leveling reduced from normal leveling.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    It better be as powerful as the Starcraft 2 map editor or I quit!

    Seriously though the Starcraft 2 map editor is so powerful you can make an fps, a puzzle game, an open world sandbox game. And oh yeah, in case you don't know starcraft 2 is an rts for it's base game. All those other things are strictly fiddling with the UGC.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    But that would take away from the musts of customization. I honestly don't think that everything the OP has as a must is a must. I certainly think that stats should be locked, or if not locked, the have a % variance that can be set to randomly change the stats within say a 10% field.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Why the heck would you want stats locked? You'd be so limited in your bosses and just about everything then. That would be severely limiting in many many ways.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    make it so that you cant invite other peopl;e into it. Then CBS cant cry the "we must approve it first" thing and it mifght actually get into game. Given that Ive seen the 17 step CBS approval system posted numerous times, it looks like any idea from this possible stystem would be three years waiting to get into the game imn any meaningful form from what you tried to put into it, wether ot not its "holographic" (that argument is pretty damn funny to me given that this entire UNIVERSE is essentially "holographic" in nature, and ISNT canon anyways - unless this game is changing the canon and I never knew it).
    Why the heck would you want stats locked? You'd be so limited in your bosses and just about everything then. That would be severely limiting in many many ways.

    It would also keep people from locking themselves in the holoshed at lvl 1 and emerging RA lol
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    As I said, NO REWARDS!

    What you say is irrelevant. The thing about the UGC stuff is that it'll be so dynamic, content rich and fun that you won't care that there's no reward.
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