Mapolis that sounds amazing. So by the way you're talking, will Cryptic devs who don't necessarily get the chance to write for STO get their hand at UGC?
Missions can currently be faction locked to Klingon, Fed, or open to both factions.
I've got a few ideas for Klingon only missions as well, but beware... I'm going to make them really really difficult. Not like those easy missions the Feds get where they gather sparkling space dust all day
Q: LordOfPit: How will the UGC handle story-arcs that attempt to offer different gameplay paths to the two different factions in STO?
Dstahl: Players can decide to make a mission for one faction or the other, or for both. If they select both, they will have the option to write specific dialog for each faction. It is still TBD where multi-faction content can take place in game (it may be limited to very specific locations that all players have access to).
Q: Kovorn: Fleet Starbases...i.e. player housing but for guilds/fleets. I've had a few people in the fleet requesting so I thought I'd ask. On the radar?
Dstahl: This is on our radar for the upcoming year. We want this feature to be released when we increase the level cap to 61 as a Fleet Admiral level feature. The goal is that it would work in conjunction with Fleets and the UGC tools.
I am curious if we can create Series like with the Deferi, so that you have to finish Mission 1 to get access to Mission 2, but so that it tells you *hey there's a new one*
and so that you can keep them coming as you create them?
Or like a Series of Holo novels that you have Part 1 2 3 and just can select them on the Panel in front of the (not yet existing) Holodeck.
Also i would like to know if we can place Missions in the real world?
for example a Story told by the 2 Guys that stand outside of the Klingon Great hall and tell Storys to people ...about what happened to the Klingon Empire between the TV Series and 2409, how they conquered the Gorn and what not....
one more thing i realy would like be able to do is to create my own custom PvE Mobs.
give them a fresh look, new weapons, diffrent skills, diffrently sized groups etc.
Well... those are the ideas i am kicking arround, i will not start thinking further about it until i see what i can do with the tools and if i am even able to understand them ^^ (god knows i will never understand how photoshop works... :rolleyes: )
You can definitely create entire episodes that do not have any combat whatsoever.
NPC behavior controls, such as idle animations, patrols, and world interactions are under development, but many of the details are up in the air at the moment so I can't elaborate just yet.
As for the cinematic tools, we actually have a system in place to record movies with a camera in STO right now, and I believe we plan to leverage that system for UGC. I don't think it will appear in the first release, but I'll post about it when it's getting closer
I realize specifics are up in the air but Dstahl mentioned swiping Neverwinter's new dialogue system.
Would it be fair to expect that we'll see dialogue in the future be less popup based and more cinematic based?
Missions can currently be faction locked to Klingon, Fed, or open to both factions.
I've got a few ideas for Klingon only missions as well, but beware... I'm going to make them really really difficult. Not like those easy missions the Feds get where they gather sparkling space dust all day
To quote Susan Ivanova; UGC may be "our last, best hope for victory".
Mapolis that sounds amazing. So by the way you're talking, will Cryptic devs who don't necessarily get the chance to write for STO get their hand at UGC?
Absolutely. Usually designers and writers do most of the story planning for our episodes, so UGC will allow all Cryptic employees to contribute their own missions to the game. There's a lot of excitement around the office about this
I am curious if we can create Series like with the Deferi, so that you have to finish Mission 1 to get access to Mission 2, but so that it tells you *hey there's a new one*
and so that you can keep them coming as you create them?
Or like a Series of Holo novels that you have Part 1 2 3 and just can select them on the Panel in front of the (not yet existing) Holodeck.
I don't think we currently have the ability to require prerequisite missions to accept other missions, but it seems like a reasonable feature. You can at least require a specific level range to play your mission, so you could potentially write a series of missions that takes you from level 1 to level cap.
Also i would like to know if we can place Missions in the real world?
for example a Story told by the 2 Guys that stand outside of the Klingon Great hall and tell Storys to people ...about what happened to the Klingon Empire between the TV Series and 2409, how they conquered the Gorn and what not....
Yes you can do exactly what you described, although you'll have to make use of already existing NPCs, doors and objects in the game world. You can't save off a copy of the Great Hall with all of the NPCs, stores, etc. in tact, but I can throw up unpopulated versions of our social maps for UGC use.
one more thing i realy would like be able to do is to create my own custom PvE Mobs.
give them a fresh look, new weapons, diffrent skills, diffrently sized groups etc.
This is definitely something we would like to do, but it won't be available in the initial release.
Well... those are the ideas i am kicking arround, i will not start thinking further about it until i see what i can do with the tools and if i am even able to understand them ^^ (god knows i will never understand how photoshop works... :rolleyes: )
We're trying our best to make the tool intuitive and fun to use, but we will also provide training videos to help minimize the learning curve.
Are we going to be able to restrict certain abilities on some maps? For example, maybe entering a Nebula will drop your shields, forcing you to fight differently. I even had an idea for a racing mission, kinda like the VOY episode "Drive." If I wanted full impulse to be disabled for that mission so that players would need to be resourceful to win the race, can I do that?
Absolutely. Usually designers and writers do most of the story planning for our episodes, so UGC will allow all Cryptic employees to contribute their own missions to the game. There's a lot of excitement around the office about this
I have a question.. is there any chance in hell we'll be able to save data om the module or on the character or somewhere? You see, in an ideal world, it would be rather nice to be able to track standing with certain factions/previous choices of the player on earlier adventures, and have the new adventure develop differently/have different options based on said actions.
I'm still curiuos if the UGC missions can be faction-locked? I personally do not wish to share KDF content with the feds whom said we are not worthy of attention.
Oooh, you keep a list of names? Or you mean all Fed players? Hrm. I wonder who'd be at the top of the Klingon hate list...
I
This is definitely something we would like to do, but it won't be available in the initial release.
Hm. So no costuming/scaling of mobs? I guess I'd thought we'd be able to design the characters' facial features/scars/tattoos/uniforms because CoH allows for this and seemed like the reasonable model to follow.
So I guess I won't be able to create a new Klingon named Karrg or something and give him (for example) Shoulderpads 3 and Gauntlets 2 and give him custom dialogue taunting players as he betrays the empire to work with Sela or something like that. It somewhat confuses me about what UGC is without some customized NPCs/enemies, since telling a story becomes difficult without the ability to create/use characters.
I mean, I suppose I could have J'mpok hail players and challenge them to fight his ship or Quinn do the same but without the ability to tailor NPCs, the story potential is pretty limited.
This seems to be the place to get UGC answers so I have got one.
I have an idea for a really cool mission. However, to do it right would require the players to take control of an opposing faction ship much like how the Klingons had to capture a runabout in one of their new story missions. Will this be possible?
We're trying our best to make the tool intuitive and fun to use, but we will also provide training videos to help minimize the learning curve.
Mapolis,
So can we assume that the tool set wont per se be dumb down? To a certain degree there will be complexity to them for those that want the complexity and does that mean that there will be far more dynamic means to creating more elaborate missions?
So can we assume that the tool set wont per se be dumb down? To a certain degree there will be complexity to them for those that want the complexity and does that mean that there will be far more dynamic means to creating more elaborate missions?
Cheers,
Acidrain
Lets hope. I would like it complex enough to chase away the silly designers.
I have a question.. is there any chance in hell we'll be able to save data om the module or on the character or somewhere? You see, in an ideal world, it would be rather nice to be able to track standing with certain factions/previous choices of the player on earlier adventures, and have the new adventure develop differently/have different options based on said actions.
I don't believe we currently have this feature in the game as you describe it. I could see it keeping track of what missions you've done, and possibly feed that into the mission dialog trees or something. That would be cool to have in the game in general.
Are we going to be able to restrict certain abilities on some maps? For example, maybe entering a Nebula will drop your shields, forcing you to fight differently. I even had an idea for a racing mission, kinda like the VOY episode "Drive." If I wanted full impulse to be disabled for that mission so that players would need to be resourceful to win the race, can I do that?
Hmm, I think something like this might be as simple as making a few different special volumes available as objects you can place in your map, but I'll have to look into it a little more. Some things are done using a complicated system in our proprietary tools that UGC doesn't have access to yet.
Hm. So no costuming/scaling of mobs? I guess I'd thought we'd be able to design the characters' facial features/scars/tattoos/uniforms because CoH allows for this and seemed like the reasonable model to follow.
So I guess I won't be able to create a new Klingon named Karrg or something and give him (for example) Shoulderpads 3 and Gauntlets 2 and give him custom dialogue taunting players as he betrays the empire to work with Sela or something like that. It somewhat confuses me about what UGC is without some customized NPCs/enemies, since telling a story becomes difficult without the ability to create/use characters.
I mean, I suppose I could have J'mpok hail players and challenge them to fight his ship or Quinn do the same but without the ability to tailor NPCs, the story potential is pretty limited.
You can create custom costumes for NPCs using an editor much like our character creator. You can't do something like invent a new kind of torpedo to give to your enemy encounters. Scaling of encounters will depend on the level range you have selected for your project as well as the level of the person who is playing your episode. So you can't just throw a level 45 Romulan ship into a project set for levels 1-5.
Mapolis,
So can we assume that the tool set wont per se be dumb down? To a certain degree there will be complexity to them for those that want the complexity and does that mean that there will be far more dynamic means to creating more elaborate missions?
Our goal is to make UGC tools powerful enough to create most if not all of the current episodes in STO with the same level of complexity.
Will we be able to do branching missions, where there could be two or more possible outcomes based on what choices the player makes?
Will we be able to give out accolades for completing missions?
Will we be able to scale mobs to the players level? Like say, mobs in one part of the mission are set to match the players level, but in another part, they're a few levels lower, or higher?
Will it be possible to have npc or mobs that are attackable, but can't be killed. Say a ship being disabled to be boarded, or a character that must be disable and then confronted?
It's been stated that there are planet surfaces for several of the planets in the Sol system, like Earth, but they haven't been included in the game because there hasn't been any content written for them. Will these elements be available for use with the UGC?
You can create custom costumes for NPCs using an editor much like our character creator. You can't do something like invent a new kind of torpedo to give to your enemy encounters. Scaling of encounters will depend on the level range you have selected for your project as well as the level of the person who is playing your episode. So you can't just throw a level 45 Romulan ship into a project set for levels 1-5.
What about giving certain abilities to custom enemies like Metaphasic shields (ability that makes certain enemies invulnerable for about 10 seconds) to a Cube?
I don't believe we currently have this feature in the game as you describe it. I could see it keeping track of what missions you've done, and possibly feed that into the mission dialog trees or something. That would be cool to have in the game in general.
One would think that would be a basic requirement for any serious Role Playing Game with a modicum of depth. There have also already been a few missions that have had the player make some decisions with implied future consequences. It's sad to hear that these kinds of things aren't tracked.
Scaling of encounters will depend on the level range you have selected for your project as well as the level of the person who is playing your episode. So you can't just throw a level 45 Romulan ship into a project set for levels 1-5.
i would have thought the missions would be level agnostic, and scale to the player like the weekly episodes?
that realy would be best i think?
Would make more sense, especially for Klingons i wouldn't know if i should make my missions for lower or higher level chars... the Fed's have enough low level missions to get up there without ever seeing a weekly or nebula mission, as Klingon you realy have a hard time to get XP with *intresting* missions.
How much control will we get with the environment? I am talking about doing things like selecting the textures, changing elevation levels, placing structures and the like.
I have played a few game with mission creators and most if not all had the ability for you to get GENERALLY what you wanted across but you never were able to give the maps that personality you wanted. I ask as the Breen missions had alot of map personality and I say that is one big part of their success and if we can have ability for that all the better.
I am just think about scripting a mission that has your team trying to get to the top of a mountain and we are forced to play on flat level terrain, right there that map just feels wrong dispute any text and story.
Also would it be possible to write multiple endings for the missions based on your decisions? I have wanted script a dilo/combat mission. In that your best ending would be via no violence but you can still pass the mission without it but you will get a totally different path from one another.
Hmm, I think something like this might be as simple as making a few different special volumes available as objects you can place in your map, but I'll have to look into it a little more. Some things are done using a complicated system in our proprietary tools that UGC doesn't have access to yet.
Man, that sort of thing would be awesome.
Haha, there's lots of stuff i'd love to have in UGC that probably even the mission developers dont have...
I wonder if one day we'll look forward to new episodes for potential new UGC content as much as the episodes themselves
The hard part will be catering to players of different difficulty preferences than my own...ahrg.
Scaling of encounters will depend on the level range you have selected for your project as well as the level of the person who is playing your episode. So you can't just throw a level 45 Romulan ship into a project set for levels 1-5.
Our goal is to make UGC tools powerful enough to create most if not all of the current episodes in STO with the same level of complexity.
Regarding the level ranges, will players be restricted to playing UGC only at their level range, or can it scale up and down with teams, sidekicking, etc. Can we make epiodes comparable to featured episodes, in which everyone can play regardless of rank?
Thanks for the details. It's nice to finally get some.
Comments
Which will bring only more glory for the empire!
Dstahl: Players can decide to make a mission for one faction or the other, or for both. If they select both, they will have the option to write specific dialog for each faction. It is still TBD where multi-faction content can take place in game (it may be limited to very specific locations that all players have access to).
Q: Kovorn: Fleet Starbases...i.e. player housing but for guilds/fleets. I've had a few people in the fleet requesting so I thought I'd ask. On the radar?
Dstahl: This is on our radar for the upcoming year. We want this feature to be released when we increase the level cap to 61 as a Fleet Admiral level feature. The goal is that it would work in conjunction with Fleets and the UGC tools.
and so that you can keep them coming as you create them?
Or like a Series of Holo novels that you have Part 1 2 3 and just can select them on the Panel in front of the (not yet existing) Holodeck.
Also i would like to know if we can place Missions in the real world?
for example a Story told by the 2 Guys that stand outside of the Klingon Great hall and tell Storys to people ...about what happened to the Klingon Empire between the TV Series and 2409, how they conquered the Gorn and what not....
one more thing i realy would like be able to do is to create my own custom PvE Mobs.
give them a fresh look, new weapons, diffrent skills, diffrently sized groups etc.
Well... those are the ideas i am kicking arround, i will not start thinking further about it until i see what i can do with the tools and if i am even able to understand them ^^ (god knows i will never understand how photoshop works... :rolleyes: )
I realize specifics are up in the air but Dstahl mentioned swiping Neverwinter's new dialogue system.
Would it be fair to expect that we'll see dialogue in the future be less popup based and more cinematic based?
To quote Susan Ivanova; UGC may be "our last, best hope for victory".
Absolutely. Usually designers and writers do most of the story planning for our episodes, so UGC will allow all Cryptic employees to contribute their own missions to the game. There's a lot of excitement around the office about this
I don't think we currently have the ability to require prerequisite missions to accept other missions, but it seems like a reasonable feature. You can at least require a specific level range to play your mission, so you could potentially write a series of missions that takes you from level 1 to level cap.
Yes you can do exactly what you described, although you'll have to make use of already existing NPCs, doors and objects in the game world. You can't save off a copy of the Great Hall with all of the NPCs, stores, etc. in tact, but I can throw up unpopulated versions of our social maps for UGC use.
This is definitely something we would like to do, but it won't be available in the initial release.
We're trying our best to make the tool intuitive and fun to use, but we will also provide training videos to help minimize the learning curve.
I'm actually not sure what Neverwinter has planned for their dialog system, but I'll find out
Basically you can expect that we will try to cover all of the dialog features we currently have in STO first, and then branch out from there.
Are we going to be able to restrict certain abilities on some maps? For example, maybe entering a Nebula will drop your shields, forcing you to fight differently. I even had an idea for a racing mission, kinda like the VOY episode "Drive." If I wanted full impulse to be disabled for that mission so that players would need to be resourceful to win the race, can I do that?
Oh man I am so pumped for UGC. I have BIG plans!
awesome, I look forward to it.
Oooh, you keep a list of names? Or you mean all Fed players?
Hm. So no costuming/scaling of mobs? I guess I'd thought we'd be able to design the characters' facial features/scars/tattoos/uniforms because CoH allows for this and seemed like the reasonable model to follow.
So I guess I won't be able to create a new Klingon named Karrg or something and give him (for example) Shoulderpads 3 and Gauntlets 2 and give him custom dialogue taunting players as he betrays the empire to work with Sela or something like that. It somewhat confuses me about what UGC is without some customized NPCs/enemies, since telling a story becomes difficult without the ability to create/use characters.
I mean, I suppose I could have J'mpok hail players and challenge them to fight his ship or Quinn do the same but without the ability to tailor NPCs, the story potential is pretty limited.
I have an idea for a really cool mission. However, to do it right would require the players to take control of an opposing faction ship much like how the Klingons had to capture a runabout in one of their new story missions. Will this be possible?
Mapolis,
So can we assume that the tool set wont per se be dumb down? To a certain degree there will be complexity to them for those that want the complexity and does that mean that there will be far more dynamic means to creating more elaborate missions?
Cheers,
Acidrain
Don't worry.Your not anywhere near the top of the threat/hate list.:)
Lets hope. I would like it complex enough to chase away the silly designers.
I don't believe we currently have this feature in the game as you describe it. I could see it keeping track of what missions you've done, and possibly feed that into the mission dialog trees or something. That would be cool to have in the game in general.
Hmm, I think something like this might be as simple as making a few different special volumes available as objects you can place in your map, but I'll have to look into it a little more. Some things are done using a complicated system in our proprietary tools that UGC doesn't have access to yet.
You can create custom costumes for NPCs using an editor much like our character creator. You can't do something like invent a new kind of torpedo to give to your enemy encounters. Scaling of encounters will depend on the level range you have selected for your project as well as the level of the person who is playing your episode. So you can't just throw a level 45 Romulan ship into a project set for levels 1-5.
Our goal is to make UGC tools powerful enough to create most if not all of the current episodes in STO with the same level of complexity.
Will we be able to give out accolades for completing missions?
Will we be able to scale mobs to the players level? Like say, mobs in one part of the mission are set to match the players level, but in another part, they're a few levels lower, or higher?
Will it be possible to have npc or mobs that are attackable, but can't be killed. Say a ship being disabled to be boarded, or a character that must be disable and then confronted?
It's been stated that there are planet surfaces for several of the planets in the Sol system, like Earth, but they haven't been included in the game because there hasn't been any content written for them. Will these elements be available for use with the UGC?
What about giving certain abilities to custom enemies like Metaphasic shields (ability that makes certain enemies invulnerable for about 10 seconds) to a Cube?
One would think that would be a basic requirement for any serious Role Playing Game with a modicum of depth. There have also already been a few missions that have had the player make some decisions with implied future consequences. It's sad to hear that these kinds of things aren't tracked.
i would have thought the missions would be level agnostic, and scale to the player like the weekly episodes?
that realy would be best i think?
Would make more sense, especially for Klingons i wouldn't know if i should make my missions for lower or higher level chars... the Fed's have enough low level missions to get up there without ever seeing a weekly or nebula mission, as Klingon you realy have a hard time to get XP with *intresting* missions.
How much control will we get with the environment? I am talking about doing things like selecting the textures, changing elevation levels, placing structures and the like.
I have played a few game with mission creators and most if not all had the ability for you to get GENERALLY what you wanted across but you never were able to give the maps that personality you wanted. I ask as the Breen missions had alot of map personality and I say that is one big part of their success and if we can have ability for that all the better.
I am just think about scripting a mission that has your team trying to get to the top of a mountain and we are forced to play on flat level terrain, right there that map just feels wrong dispute any text and story.
Also would it be possible to write multiple endings for the missions based on your decisions? I have wanted script a dilo/combat mission. In that your best ending would be via no violence but you can still pass the mission without it but you will get a totally different path from one another.
Woot!
10/char
Haha, there's lots of stuff i'd love to have in UGC that probably even the mission developers dont have...
I wonder if one day we'll look forward to new episodes for potential new UGC content as much as the episodes themselves
The hard part will be catering to players of different difficulty preferences than my own...ahrg.
Thank you for the reply, i appreciate the explanation.
Regarding the level ranges, will players be restricted to playing UGC only at their level range, or can it scale up and down with teams, sidekicking, etc. Can we make epiodes comparable to featured episodes, in which everyone can play regardless of rank?
Thanks for the details. It's nice to finally get some.