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Linear Story Creation, aka, Keyfame Editing
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So, it seems a lot of Foundry mission authors are asking about the ability to add and/or subtract story elements at specific times during a mission. I know I've been searching around for a way to do so, myself, and have come across the topic several times.
Taking a look at the very basic elements of telling a story, the addition/subtraction of devices and characters are key to evolving a plot. I have been mulling this concept over for a while, and I've come to the conclusion that the best route might be one taken from animation and video editing applications.
Everything from Flash to iMovie to AnimeStudio Pro all use 'keyframes.' I would imagine that method of linear story creation is a completely different 'coding language,' given the need to start recording and monitoring specific lapses of time, but I really feel this is the direction Cryptic should be heading to make this Foundry system even more revolutionary.
For example, I'd like to be able to 'disable' a ship in a space battle, and being able to despawn and then spawn objects at a certain keyframe would certainly solve that problem. This ability to despawn objects might decrease server load, too... oh, but, hmm, having to store time lapse data might increase load a bunch, too... hrm...
Anyway, I'd love to see a Foundry UI much more akin to, say, AVID's Media Composer... I know that's a very extreme example, but that would certainly allow mission authors amazingly tight control over story, both client-side, and behind the scenes!
Taking a look at the very basic elements of telling a story, the addition/subtraction of devices and characters are key to evolving a plot. I have been mulling this concept over for a while, and I've come to the conclusion that the best route might be one taken from animation and video editing applications.
Everything from Flash to iMovie to AnimeStudio Pro all use 'keyframes.' I would imagine that method of linear story creation is a completely different 'coding language,' given the need to start recording and monitoring specific lapses of time, but I really feel this is the direction Cryptic should be heading to make this Foundry system even more revolutionary.
For example, I'd like to be able to 'disable' a ship in a space battle, and being able to despawn and then spawn objects at a certain keyframe would certainly solve that problem. This ability to despawn objects might decrease server load, too... oh, but, hmm, having to store time lapse data might increase load a bunch, too... hrm...
Anyway, I'd love to see a Foundry UI much more akin to, say, AVID's Media Composer... I know that's a very extreme example, but that would certainly allow mission authors amazingly tight control over story, both client-side, and behind the scenes!
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E.g. Something happens in the present, the mission should branch off into two different timelines based on your decision, each showing a new chain of linear events. I think Branching dialogue trees is something they want to add in, but I think adding in the ability to make objectives optional would let people make branching mission trees with different endings.
Then again, perhaps people would like to create, I know I would, missions with several paths that will all lead to the completion of the mission using the same ending.
it WOULD put the ROLE PLAYING GAME back into MMORPG
Is the player asking for triggered beam/warp in/out when objectives complete?
Not just that- the OP would like the ability to add non-linear progression- aka: multiple choice scripts that can lead to multiple endings.
This is definitely a desirable feature that would be great in foundry, and the only drawback I can see so far is a more convoluted story flowchart. However- it is still possible cryptic could make it work into their foundry GUI, and it would give us the ability to make missions that surpass what cryptic have made so far in quality
Honestly, as long as it takes. There's no point in beaming an away team to a ship to find and rescue the hostages.. if they've already got transport pattern enhancers set up, and won't beam away even if you activate them.
I wasn't going to place combat encounters on this map, so It's a complete waste of map building time and effort to even bother building the ship's interior if once we get there there's only NPC's standing around to chat with, and the only interaction you have with objects, is making glowing things stop glowing.
I'm most certainly willing to wait til it goes live to Holodeck.. and honestly, the integrity of my story is important enough, that I'd happily hold off on completing the mission, rather than compromise the objectives I have in mind. It may seem like a small matter to you, but when the entire first act of the mission is "locate damaged ship, rescue survivors" and there's no interactive way to search for and rescue the survivors.. and once I walk into the area where "Commander John" is standing there waiting for me.. he just keeps standing there once we've chatted. Can't beam him up.. can't have him follow my team either.
No offense meant to the foundry developers.. the foundry is an amazing tool.. but it's still very unfinished, and the mission objectives I want to use (set the explosive charges, "talk to" the injured crewmen and beam them away).. simply aren't present in the current version of the foundry. I'd rather wait til cryptic gives me the tools to build the mission(s) I want to create, rather than compromise the vision and build yet another "enter an area, see enemy, battle enemy, kill enemy, win" mission.
That doesn't mean I'm not constantly thinking about the future, but I'm not willing to wait. I also have to admit, I'm also excited about the tricks we are required to come up with to make our stories without compromising the story's vision so much so that the story doesn't even get made.
I got that part but I'm having trouble seeing how it really relates to keyframe editing. I struggle with the analogy.
Adding simultaneous objectives and more complex triggers have been requested for a while now - it's just I'm not sure how that really relates to keyframe video editing.
um... you can do that, so long as you beam away at the same time.
Poor Shakespeare. He created all those plays before the advent of film.
Shakespeare could give scene direction.. and actors could move. Actors could also introduce props into the scene. If a play were written like that, no one would see the need for such a scene.. and building complex sets for such a scene would be preposterous.
We have no dirty clothing options.
We have no injurred NPC Contact options.
We have no flesh injury options.
We have no "dirt" options.
We have no "radiation" option for space missions that raises red alert and slows the ship (like in the briar patch)
We have no option to ask an NPC contact to follow us (like Miral Paris)
We have no option to have an NPC "leave" once we've talked to them (like Khan)
We have no option to either place, or remove an object (like when we place/disarm the spacial charges)
We have no option to independently beam up generic NPC's (like on the SS Azuza)
We can't even unlock a door.. much less destroy one with melee attacks.
The situation I've described is a very real one in my story. There are SEVERAL groups of survivors.. and my goal is to enter the ship, locate group one (and in the process, find a clue that advances the story).. rescue them, or erect transporter pattern enhancer poles, get them to follow my team, or at least get them moved to a beam-out point.. then move on to finding the NEXT group of survivors, and the next piece of information that helps explain the story.
This is not your usual shoot-em-up skirmish, it's an actual long arc mission I am planning.
We can't save maps, and we can't reuse them. Which means that if I want to rescue just THREE groups of survivors, I have to build three maps that seem reasonably identical, and transition from map 1 to map 2 in order to remove the first group of survivors? And what if by some strange chance, the player finds group 2 first, or wanders off into the area where group 2 will be on map 2?
I wanted to do something different, something more Star Trek than "there are reports of Klingons in the area.. don't talk to them, don't try to reason with them, just KILL THEM ALL ON SIGHT.. OH AND FEEL FREE TO FIRE FIRST... slaughter them from behind.. or in their sleep if possible."
I love this game, and I realize it could be so much more if people like myself, with lots of free time, could add the sort of long-story content that made the Devidian and Breen missions so popular. But to do that, we need the tools. and they're not there yet.
Sometimes it's worth putting off a project until the right tools are available.
When the foundry goes live on Holodeck, I'll work on other stories.. and yes I'm sure I'll make a few senseless battles as well. the STO engine excels at those. I'll keep my larger story on the back burner until we can rez-in pattern buffers and til we can establish a point in the story when NPC's should "start" (beam in) and "end" (beam out).
That's got me even more confused... and I lived through the 60s.
If Joe Klingon is meant to speak or act "after" several native Risan women offer you a er..back massage? That can somewhat be controlled as well. But what your asking for is some kind of "timer" for an event,after a "trigger" or waypoint objective is met, thing is if it is random and not based on something done by the characters actions, it sounds like timing delays of idles/weight emote sequnces of npc's, otherwise the order on Flowchart pretty much "is" your keyframe.
I was joking. I'm in my mid 20s.
I'm joking too. :-)
Some more triggers: time (i.e. if x minutes pass, spawn these NPCs/objects, fail mission conditions, etc.)
but dont forget the branching objectives either. It would be nice to make a mission where people truly have options to how the mission progresses.
branching objectives are highly desire but they're the antithesis of the OP's "Linear Story Creation" - hence the omission.
I agree but was trying to stay on topic... linearly, if you will.
haha. linearity sucks- even when not in games.
oh well
as someone else clarified, the ability to manipulate story elements at an individual frame level.
sorry. i should have just given an example of what i'm trying to do:
Player scans disabled ship A
ship B warps into range
ship B starts venting plasma
firefight ensues
player disables ship B
ship B starts drifting, other FX, etc
player then interacts with disabled craft
and, I was suggesting that this could all be done if we were able to "exchange" objects at specific points in time, and if we were able to spawn and/or despawn objects at specific points in time.
d3n
There's a lot I'd request to fulfill the example you have:
These are all things I'd absolutely love to see
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3207339&postcount=2
d3n