I was also talking with Mapolis, who seemed to like the primitives tab idea. I still think it would be so useful. Basically, a tab to pick an untextured primitive, with a sub-menu to choose between 20 or so seamless textures, from stone to grass and carpet, etc. It would add so much without cluttering the list of assets.
Anyways, some of the other simpler requests are in that thread. You're right that we just don't know how much work it takes, but please ask yourself how long it would take for you to:
Make a plain and completely flat outdoor map with no audio effects, where we can build custom interiors.
Make an flat ground map that is nothing but water, so we can build water worlds.
Make a plain flat map with space all around it as the "sky," that we could build ship interiors with windows.
Make a set of transparent windows that are just squares. No curves etc. Just a few square and transparent windows with no logos.
No, we built the super base editor even before CoV (i.e. long before the sell off)
We heard very little praise back then for the editor, and got almost nothing but complaints. Our statistics showed that only about 10% of people used the base for anything other than a quick door to teleport around the rest of the world.
All of that is one reason we've been hesitant in doing it over again. We tried a new method with Hideouts in Champions, which seemed to be met with moderate success, but took a lot of work to build.
I've heard nothing about redoing ship interiors. My personal feeling is that there should be little customization on layout. If you have an Intrepid, you get an Intrepid class layout. If you have a Defiant, you get a Defiant class layout. But I think players should have control over a few different overall styles, textures, colors, and lighting. So all Galaxy Class ships would have the same layout, but you could choose from TNG style (beige, brightly lit) or 2409 style, or random style A, B or C. etc.
However, that is just my personal feelings on the matter, no work is being done on Interiors at the moment, and havent heard of it being added to the schedule at all. Plus, all of that would be a lot of work.
Funny you should say that Taco. I just spent TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS on a Regent, but I didnt get a Regent bridge or layout. Since Cryptic doesnt seem to think asking a player to give you $25 for a ship merits giving us at least a unique bridge to go with it, what do you all care what interior design we players may want for our ships? Cant have it both ways guys.
STO: @AGNT009 Since Dec 2010
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
In the end, though, what's the point of a ship interior if there is nothing to do that can't be done in a million other places? I don't even remember what bridge I have.
Cryptic has this amazing ability to devote all kinds of people and resources to making stuff like SFA, while no one in the room plans corresponding game mechanics that gives folks a reason to go there.
All the players rush in and ask, "What can I do here?" SFA was the funniest example. Players made up their own "find the rocket boots" prank. Looking for those rocket boots was the most time I've ever spent at SFA.
Maybe some of that has changed? IDK, it's been so long since I've gone to a place other than find the door for a foundry mission.
In the end, though, what's the point of a ship interior if there is nothing to do that can't be done in a million other places? I don't even remember what bridge I have.
Cryptic has this amazing ability to devote all kinds of people and resources to making stuff like SFA, while no one in the room plans corresponding game mechanics that gives folks a reason to go there.
All the players rush in and ask, "What can I do here?" SFA was the funniest example. Players made up their own "find the rocket boots" prank. Looking for those rocket boots was the most time I've ever spent at SFA.
Maybe some of that has changed? IDK, it's been so long since I've gone to a place other than find the door for a foundry mission.
As I recall, SFA was mainly designed as part of a new tutorial that never actually saw the light of day. But since they had already designed the area, they figured they might as well stick in the game anyway, hence what you just said. However, I must admit that the academies do serve as a good hub for the Doff system.
The problem Im seeing now is, you have that Foundry list you somewhat keep up. I want to play all those missions, but now that some are slowly getting featured and real XP rewards and such are coming, I dont want to play them yet. Im the type of player that only plays a Foundry mission once. I dont want to go back to something Ive already experienced now that is has been spotlighted. Can you update your list to specify which missions in your top foundry list are now spotlighted?
Sadly, the spotlighting process takes too long. The same problem we have now with people not wanting to play them will still exist. Unless there is a full time trusted committee of players applying the rewards to foundry missions as they come out, theres going to be a huge backlog of quality missions still getting ignored because people will only play whats spotlighted, and maybe not even then if they've already played a mission that is just now spotlighted. Cryptic can trust players with forum mod powers, why cant they trust some players like Kirkfat, Hav, Terrilynn, Admiral Murphy, etc that can play new missions, stamp their approval that its length is satisfactory and the mission isnt an exploit? They lock it in, and the author will have to resubmit for approval to get rewards reapplied if they want to make changes to their mission. I know Dan said something about that type of anti exploit tech being built into the Neverwinter foundry, but Im not holding my breath STO gets that any time soon if at all before STO folds altogether.
STO: @AGNT009 Since Dec 2010
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
The problem Im seeing now is, you have that Foundry list you somewhat keep up. I want to play all those missions, but now that some are slowly getting featured and real XP rewards and such are coming, I dont want to play them yet. Im the type of player that only plays a Foundry mission once. I dont want to go back to something Ive already experienced now that is has been spotlighted. Can you update your list to specify which missions in your top foundry list are now spotlighted?
Sadly, the spotlighting process takes too long. The same problem we have now with people not wanting to play them will still exist. Unless there is a full time trusted committee of players applying the rewards to foundry missions as they come out, theres going to be a huge backlog of quality missions still getting ignored because people will only play whats spotlighted, and maybe not even then if they've already played a mission that is just now spotlighted. Cryptic can trust players with forum mod powers, why cant they trust some players like Kirkfat, Hav, Terrilynn, Admiral Murphy, etc that can play new missions, stamp their approval that its length is satisfactory and the mission isnt an exploit? They lock it in, and the author will have to resubmit for approval to get rewards reapplied if they want to make changes to their mission. I know Dan said something about that type of anti exploit tech being built into the Neverwinter foundry, but Im not holding my breath STO gets that any time soon if at all before STO folds altogether.
-stuff about how focusing on full canon ship interiors would increase likelihood of content drought-
Content is content, whether it's missions, new social zones and features (as opposed to bug fixes).
The only reason I am enthusiastic about this proposal is because I'd like to see canon customisation ship interiors that would have significant action on regular gameplay, and not just acting as a "house" to store loot or a "gateway" to other missions.
There is a lot of enthusiasm in this thread, and while I appreciate that, my original (hypothetical) proposal was meant as a guideline of something that is feasible. Building 42 fully flushed out decks for one ship, is not feasible.
I may have misrepresented / gone overboard with some of my ideas. My apologies.
Here's what I was meant to say:
- Each major ship class would have its own unique deck layout
For instance, the basic structure of a Intrepid ship interior would also be used by the Cochrane, Discovery and Bellerophon class variants
- No ship will have every single canon deck fully fleshed out - where possible, unnecessary rooms and corridors will be sealed off to conserve map space.
Therefore, the Galaxy interior WILL NOT have all 42 decks with every single crew quarter and ODN access panel
- Get rid of the current genericized and condensed three-deck layout (Command / Crew / Engineering) - they're hokey.
- Have the canon rooms located on relative decks, skipping entire unneeded decks where possible
On the Intrepid class:
Deck 1 will have the Bridge, Ready Room and Conference Room
Deck 2 will have the Mess Hall
Deck 3 will have the Captain's Quarters
Deck 4 will have the Security Complex (Armory + Brig + Holodeck) and Transporter Room
Deck 5 will have the Science Lab and Sickbay
Deck 10 will have the Astrometrics and Shuttlebay
Deck 11 will have Main Engineering
(Decks 6,7,8,9,12,13,14,15 will be omitted from the map)
(I'll try doing similar canonical but condensed deck layouts for as many other ship classes as I can)
- Have mission gameplay that actually takes place on the player's own ship interiors, instead of the current generic ones.
When I'm playing an FDC First Contact mission, if I'm on an Intrepid class the dignitaries would be in the Voyager conference room. If I'm on a Galaxy class they would be in the TNG conference room.
Or perhaps have ship boarding combat scenarios similar to Colony invasion that makes use of the player's own ship interiors.
- Limit customisation to choice of carpet, doorway, hallway and LCARS color schemes.
Even with these compromises I've listed, this would be good enough for most players. You don't even need to invoke the Foundry or making any more assets.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
I may have misrepresented / gone overboard with some of my ideas. My apologies.
Here's what I was meant to say:
- Each major ship class would have its own unique deck layout
For instance, the basic structure of a Intrepid ship interior would also be used by the Cochrane, Discovery and Bellerophon class variants
- No ship will have every single canon deck fully fleshed out - where possible, unnecessary rooms and corridors will be sealed off to conserve map space.
Therefore, the Galaxy interior WILL NOT have all 42 decks with every single crew quarter and ODN access panel
- Get rid of the current genericized and condensed three-deck layout (Command / Crew / Engineering) - they're hokey.
- Have the canon rooms located on relative decks, skipping entire unneeded decks where possible
On the Intrepid class:
Deck 1 will have the Bridge, Ready Room and Conference Room
Deck 2 will have the Mess Hall
Deck 3 will have the Captain's Quarters
Deck 4 will have the Security Complex (Armory + Brig + Holodeck) and Transporter Room
Deck 5 will have the Science Lab and Sickbay
Deck 10 will have the Astrometrics and Shuttlebay
Deck 11 will have Main Engineering
(Decks 6,7,8,9,12,13,14,15 will be omitted from the map)
(I'll try doing similar canonical but condensed deck layouts for as many other ship classes as I can)
- Have mission gameplay that actually takes place on the player's own ship interiors, instead of the current generic ones.
When I'm playing an FDC First Contact mission, if I'm on an Intrepid class the dignitaries would be in the Voyager conference room. If I'm on a Galaxy class they would be in the TNG conference room.
Or perhaps have ship boarding combat scenarios similar to Colony invasion that makes use of the player's own ship interiors.
- Limit customisation to choice of carpet, doorway, hallway and LCARS color schemes.
Even with these compromises I've listed, this would be good enough for most players. You don't even need to invoke the Foundry or making any more assets.
Isn't this exactly what I said? ????????????
I still think that you should be able to place props, trophies, and decorations everywhere. Things like cups, bottles, wine glasses, ship models, paperweights and stuff like that on your desk, a glass cabinet for ship models and trophies, make the fish tank in the corner of your ready room a floor trophy place, let people hang pictures and paintings on the walls, add little things to the rooms, like decorations to the lounge and that sort of thing.
Content is content, whether it's missions, new social zones and features (as opposed to bug fixes).
The only reason I am enthusiastic about this proposal is because I'd like to see canon customisation ship interiors that would have significant action on regular gameplay, and not just acting as a "house" to store loot or a "gateway" to other missions.
Content may be content, but knowing the players of STO, if it's going to be just new shinies, they are going to get upset. So if Cryptic put all their efforts into canonical interiors and nothing new to go along with it, that has long-term value, people are going to get rather discontent.
I still think that you should be able to place props, trophies, and decorations everywhere. Things like cups, bottles, wine glasses, ship models, paperweights and stuff like that on your desk, a glass cabinet for ship models and trophies, make the fish tank in the corner of your ready room a floor trophy place, let people hang pictures and paintings on the walls, add little things to the rooms, like decorations to the lounge and that sort of thing.
In other words, basic customisation options in-game, and Foundry for finer placement of knick-knacks. Cool, got it.
Content may be content, but knowing the players of STO, if it's going to be just new shinies, they are going to get upset. So if Cryptic put all their efforts into canonical interiors and nothing new to go along with it, that has long-term value, people are going to get rather discontent.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again - enhanced player-customisable ship interiors that are used in actual missions on a regular basis, not just shinies
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again - enhanced player-customisable ship interiors that are used in actual missions on a regular basis, not just shinies
Well as I said earlier in the thread, missions like repelling Boarding Parties or even having random ship interiors for PvP would make use of the interiors than just back and forth dailies.
Well as I said earlier in the thread, missions like repelling Boarding Parties or even having random ship interiors for PvP would make use of the interiors than just back and forth dailies.
Which was also exactly what I said...
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
Just came across a duplicate thread with an RP-oriented player who was otherwise basically also asking for improved ship interiors.
I've opted against the inclusion of a battle bridge, because most ships are either too small to have them, or that they don't have the saucer separation capabilities to warrant having such a room in the first place.
Of the few ships that in-canon do have such a room, it's difficult to justify what sort of core gameplay feature it would work with.
I'll probably add to my document later today.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
First, I'd just like to say that you did a wonderful job, and I'd like to thank you for putting this together.
However, I feel that one big reason the devs haven't mentioned starship interiors is that a lot of the suggestions are hard to implement. So, here's what I think would really help this proposal more realistic and doable:
Minor Decor: I think that placement of these items would be hard to do because each of the decks and rooms vary from ship to ship, and (if at all) a mix-and-match system would be much easier.
Crowd control: this would take up data on storage centers. I don't think this level of control is necessary and it would be much cooler/better to simply tie in your crew count to crowd control (if at all)
Gender/species control: Would be hard to implement because it would require a lot of data (you would select species and/or gender, and their servers would have to randomize within those parameters, see character customization of STO)
Changing uniforms of your crew: Controlling species-specific uniforms would be hard to implement and also take up lots of data. Instead: create a trans-species uniform for each department and for each gender. (one costume for Engineering Male, one costume for Medical Female, etc.)
One way that would help save data on servers, data centers, would be to make your computer assemble the different decks (e.g. the server tells client layout and gives the client the individual rooms/hallways)... I don't know how that would affect system performance, though
Also, I think it would be a great idea to add another currency similar to energy credits that would allow you to purchase starship customizations (both interior and exterior). You would earn these credits by completing the starship mini-games that you listed. The current mix-and-match system would still be the same as before, except that you would use the new credits and some items cost more than others (holographic LCARS would cost more than TNG or VOY).
One last note: I don't want to sound purely negative, but merely add constructive feedback. I would love to see everything on your proposal (other than what I have listed ).
Well your idea gave me an idea of potentially how we can have what some Trek fans been wanting in STO - to actually fight from the bridge.
I'd also love to see this, but I really don't see any real reason to do this. The ships would be much harder to manuever with only the viewscreen. In Star Trek cannon, the helm station has all kinds of data at the display to help position the ship, rather than one viewscreen.
This is by far the most comprehensive cache of Interior Development ideas I have seen on these forums.
One can only hope that the Devs will take some time and give this a look through. Then maybe we can start getting some updates.
I always thought the C-Store would be used for just this sort of thing. Want TNG era officers on your ship? But the TNG Officers module from the C-Store. Want an Excelsior bridge? But it from the C-Store.
But so little focus has been given to the vanity items of this nature. Instead, it seems they would rather spend their time doing lockboxes and stuff.
There is so much potential in our ship interiors, and they have gone virtually wasted over the past 18-24 months.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Minor Decor: I think that placement of these items would be hard to do because each of the decks and rooms vary from ship to ship, and (if at all) a mix-and-match system would be much easier.
I don't see how that is a problem.
Under the proposed system, when a player's own ship interior is loaded, the first loads the deck layout appropriate to the ship class, replaces textures with the major decor choices the player had made, and then reads off a list of 3D coordinates to place instances of Foundry assets.
Crowd control: this would take up data on storage centers. I don't think this level of control is necessary and it would be much cooler/better to simply tie in your crew count to crowd control (if at all)
Non-issue. It's simply a player configurable upper limit.
Gender/species control: Would be hard to implement because it would require a lot of data (you would select species and/or gender, and their servers would have to randomize within those parameters, see character customization of STO)
Non-issue. Randomising the features of wandering NPC crewmen is not needed.
Changing uniforms of your crew: Controlling species-specific uniforms would be hard to implement and also take up lots of data. Instead: create a trans-species uniform for each department and for each gender. (one costume for Engineering Male, one costume for Medical Female, etc.)
Non-issue. Trans-species uniform for both genders and departments were my original intention. No more that six NPC crew uniform data would need to be stored.
One way that would help save data on servers, data centers, would be to make your computer assemble the different decks (e.g. the server tells client layout and gives the client the individual rooms/hallways)... I don't know how that would affect system performance, though
This would have been fine if rooms and corridors were interchangeable between ships, and that connections consisted of straight segments / junctions.
The problem is that canon Trek features ships corridors with a variety of curvatures, depending on the profile of the ship hull itself. While you can in theory make module for various different curved segments, in reality it would be easier for devs (as Taco himself suggested) to have ready made deck layouts for each ship class, with the mix and match decor.
Also, I think it would be a great idea to add another currency similar to energy credits that would allow you to purchase starship customizations (both interior and exterior). You would earn these credits by completing the starship mini-games that you listed. The current mix-and-match system would still be the same as before, except that you would use the new credits and some items cost more than others (holographic LCARS would cost more than TNG or VOY).
I'd prefer sticking to existing currency, to keep things streamlined.
Good to see you've been reading my proposal in detail, though - I'll add those clarifications to the document.
I always thought the C-Store would be used for just this sort of thing. Want TNG era officers on your ship? But the TNG Officers module from the C-Store. Want an Excelsior bridge? But it from the C-Store.
A most excellent suggestion.
That's what MMO monetization should be about - account-wide purchases of ship interior styles / rooms / costume pieces, rather than "I WIN" buttons.
I'll add this too.
Now that most of the ship interior customisation features have been more or less established in this draft, I'd like to turn my attention to the "Shipboard Mysteries" missions.
My intention is that they will be like the episode missions, except that they would happen mostly inside the ship, and can be played in any order. They would also have an actual plot rather than the randgen exploration's "Scan five plants" or "Kill five enemy groups".
Some ideas, perhaps?:
- One of your enlisted crewmen is accused of murder, and it's up to you and your BOffs to uncover the truth.
- A disease picked up by a member of your away team is making its rounds throughout the ship. Halt it in its tracks before it potentially spreads to other ships, starbases and planets.
- etc.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
Updated the document to clarify various issues, also added a small section on shuttlecraft interiors (that will have greatly reduced gameplay functions and simply use the current "main" ship decor options)
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
While I love my TOS interior, I would kill for more of it. I would gladly pay for (and I'm sure a lot of others would to) a more fleshed out TOS interior. Hell, if I knew how to do it I'd try to build the whole damn inside myself. I think it would add a lot to immersion if I could explore my whole ship and maybe see where my boffs and doffs quarters are, etc.
There are tons of blueprints out there, so I think it could be done. I just wonder if it's too tall an order?
I think it would add a lot to immersion if I could explore my whole ship and maybe see where my boffs and doffs quarters are, etc.
BOff and DOff quarters are a bit much, IMO. It's hard to justify a compelling gameplay feature for individual officer quarters, other than just placing props around.
I myself have 15 BOffs (Department heads and junior officers), which makes for a lot of extra unnecessary map space.
RP and immersion should not be the core reason for improved ship interiors.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
RP and immersion should not be the core reason for improved ship interiors.
That doesn't mean it cannot be a nice bonus. Having little quarters for say your First Officer and Chief Engineer would be rather amusing for RP reasons, and you could justify it by having it connected to bank space or Doff Contacts or something.
While I love my TOS interior, I would kill for more of it. I would gladly pay for (and I'm sure a lot of others would to) a more fleshed out TOS interior. Hell, if I knew how to do it I'd try to build the whole damn inside myself. I think it would add a lot to immersion if I could explore my whole ship and maybe see where my boffs and doffs quarters are, etc.
There are tons of blueprints out there, so I think it could be done. I just wonder if it's too tall an order?
Well I believe it was once said that Cryptic uses 3d Max for STO modeling, if you were willing to go to the lengths of making an accurate TOS interior and contain all the important visitation spots, they might consider it. Else the only alternative we got is making Psudeo interiors using the Foundry.
Right now I've done just that in making a TOS D7 Interior using the foundry that have spots we seen in like the Conference Room, Engine room, hallways, and the even the Cloaking Device Room.
Well I believe it was once said that Cryptic uses 3d Max for STO modeling, if you were willing to go to the lengths of making an accurate TOS interior and contain all the important visitation spots, they might consider it. Else the only alternative we got is making Psudeo interiors using the Foundry.
Right now I've done just that in making a TOS D7 Interior using the foundry that have spots we seen in like the Conference Room, Engine room, hallways, and the even the Cloaking Device Room.
Cryptic refuses to accept voluntary submissions of any kind, full stop. I tried to offer one of the devs help with coming up with a particular section of code that would resolve an issue (I no longer remember what the issue was) and the response I got was "well, you're welcome to try, but even if you're able to figure it out, I don't think we'd be allowed to use your work."
This is all nice but it doesn't really treat ship interiors as a content hub or consider mechanical approaches.
I think there need to be minimum customization areas, at least one well-designed deck that is the same on every ship, aside from colors, lighting, and LCARS. I'd be inclined to make this a deck with a brig, a lab, a holodeck, and a shuttlebay. Structurally like a TNG deck, more than likely.
I can also think of compelling reasons why bridges shouldn't be very custom but that boils down to tech for a feature I'm angling for.
Otherwise, I'm fine with roleplay and basic functions on the existing Crew and Engineering decks with custom NPC placements... and I think they should have freeform decks sold as slots where we can dress and costume every NPC in the Foundry if we like.
Comments
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
If/when that happens, I'll be very happy. Until then I will continue to press the issue.
Thanks Taco. here is an old list we made a long time ago.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=251331&highlight=Feature+Request+Primitives
I was also talking with Mapolis, who seemed to like the primitives tab idea. I still think it would be so useful. Basically, a tab to pick an untextured primitive, with a sub-menu to choose between 20 or so seamless textures, from stone to grass and carpet, etc. It would add so much without cluttering the list of assets.
Anyways, some of the other simpler requests are in that thread. You're right that we just don't know how much work it takes, but please ask yourself how long it would take for you to:
Make a plain and completely flat outdoor map with no audio effects, where we can build custom interiors.
Make an flat ground map that is nothing but water, so we can build water worlds.
Make a plain flat map with space all around it as the "sky," that we could build ship interiors with windows.
Make a set of transparent windows that are just squares. No curves etc. Just a few square and transparent windows with no logos.
Make a set of stairs.
These are some of our requests.
Funny you should say that Taco. I just spent TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS on a Regent, but I didnt get a Regent bridge or layout. Since Cryptic doesnt seem to think asking a player to give you $25 for a ship merits giving us at least a unique bridge to go with it, what do you all care what interior design we players may want for our ships? Cant have it both ways guys.
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
Cryptic has this amazing ability to devote all kinds of people and resources to making stuff like SFA, while no one in the room plans corresponding game mechanics that gives folks a reason to go there.
All the players rush in and ask, "What can I do here?" SFA was the funniest example. Players made up their own "find the rocket boots" prank. Looking for those rocket boots was the most time I've ever spent at SFA.
Maybe some of that has changed? IDK, it's been so long since I've gone to a place other than find the door for a foundry mission.
As I recall, SFA was mainly designed as part of a new tutorial that never actually saw the light of day. But since they had already designed the area, they figured they might as well stick in the game anyway, hence what you just said. However, I must admit that the academies do serve as a good hub for the Doff system.
The problem Im seeing now is, you have that Foundry list you somewhat keep up. I want to play all those missions, but now that some are slowly getting featured and real XP rewards and such are coming, I dont want to play them yet. Im the type of player that only plays a Foundry mission once. I dont want to go back to something Ive already experienced now that is has been spotlighted. Can you update your list to specify which missions in your top foundry list are now spotlighted?
Sadly, the spotlighting process takes too long. The same problem we have now with people not wanting to play them will still exist. Unless there is a full time trusted committee of players applying the rewards to foundry missions as they come out, theres going to be a huge backlog of quality missions still getting ignored because people will only play whats spotlighted, and maybe not even then if they've already played a mission that is just now spotlighted. Cryptic can trust players with forum mod powers, why cant they trust some players like Kirkfat, Hav, Terrilynn, Admiral Murphy, etc that can play new missions, stamp their approval that its length is satisfactory and the mission isnt an exploit? They lock it in, and the author will have to resubmit for approval to get rewards reapplied if they want to make changes to their mission. I know Dan said something about that type of anti exploit tech being built into the Neverwinter foundry, but Im not holding my breath STO gets that any time soon if at all before STO folds altogether.
Capt. Will Conquest of the U.S.S. Crusader
BranFlakes is keeping an index: http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/foundry/foundry-spotlight
Content is content, whether it's missions, new social zones and features (as opposed to bug fixes).
The only reason I am enthusiastic about this proposal is because I'd like to see canon customisation ship interiors that would have significant action on regular gameplay, and not just acting as a "house" to store loot or a "gateway" to other missions.
I may have misrepresented / gone overboard with some of my ideas. My apologies.
Here's what I was meant to say:
- Each major ship class would have its own unique deck layout
- No ship will have every single canon deck fully fleshed out - where possible, unnecessary rooms and corridors will be sealed off to conserve map space.
- Get rid of the current genericized and condensed three-deck layout (Command / Crew / Engineering) - they're hokey.
- Have the canon rooms located on relative decks, skipping entire unneeded decks where possible
Deck 1 will have the Bridge, Ready Room and Conference Room
Deck 2 will have the Mess Hall
Deck 3 will have the Captain's Quarters
Deck 4 will have the Security Complex (Armory + Brig + Holodeck) and Transporter Room
Deck 5 will have the Science Lab and Sickbay
Deck 10 will have the Astrometrics and Shuttlebay
Deck 11 will have Main Engineering
(Decks 6,7,8,9,12,13,14,15 will be omitted from the map)
- Have mission gameplay that actually takes place on the player's own ship interiors, instead of the current generic ones.
Or perhaps have ship boarding combat scenarios similar to Colony invasion that makes use of the player's own ship interiors.
- Limit customisation to choice of carpet, doorway, hallway and LCARS color schemes.
Even with these compromises I've listed, this would be good enough for most players. You don't even need to invoke the Foundry or making any more assets.
Isn't this exactly what I said? ??????
I still think that you should be able to place props, trophies, and decorations everywhere. Things like cups, bottles, wine glasses, ship models, paperweights and stuff like that on your desk, a glass cabinet for ship models and trophies, make the fish tank in the corner of your ready room a floor trophy place, let people hang pictures and paintings on the walls, add little things to the rooms, like decorations to the lounge and that sort of thing.
Content may be content, but knowing the players of STO, if it's going to be just new shinies, they are going to get upset. So if Cryptic put all their efforts into canonical interiors and nothing new to go along with it, that has long-term value, people are going to get rather discontent.
I had to reiterate because a few other posters assumed we would get to build everything from scratch.
In other words, basic customisation options in-game, and Foundry for finer placement of knick-knacks. Cool, got it.
I'll send you a PM in a moment.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again - enhanced player-customisable ship interiors that are used in actual missions on a regular basis, not just shinies
Well as I said earlier in the thread, missions like repelling Boarding Parties or even having random ship interiors for PvP would make use of the interiors than just back and forth dailies.
Which was also exactly what I said...
http://bit.ly/STOShipInteriorProposal
Ideas and suggestions welcome.
Very nice... while I can't think of anything off the top of my head that I would add/change, if I think of something, I'll yell.
I've opted against the inclusion of a battle bridge, because most ships are either too small to have them, or that they don't have the saucer separation capabilities to warrant having such a room in the first place.
Of the few ships that in-canon do have such a room, it's difficult to justify what sort of core gameplay feature it would work with.
I'll probably add to my document later today.
First, I'd just like to say that you did a wonderful job, and I'd like to thank you for putting this together.
However, I feel that one big reason the devs haven't mentioned starship interiors is that a lot of the suggestions are hard to implement. So, here's what I think would really help this proposal more realistic and doable:
Minor Decor: I think that placement of these items would be hard to do because each of the decks and rooms vary from ship to ship, and (if at all) a mix-and-match system would be much easier.
Crowd control: this would take up data on storage centers. I don't think this level of control is necessary and it would be much cooler/better to simply tie in your crew count to crowd control (if at all)
Gender/species control: Would be hard to implement because it would require a lot of data (you would select species and/or gender, and their servers would have to randomize within those parameters, see character customization of STO)
Changing uniforms of your crew: Controlling species-specific uniforms would be hard to implement and also take up lots of data. Instead: create a trans-species uniform for each department and for each gender. (one costume for Engineering Male, one costume for Medical Female, etc.)
One way that would help save data on servers, data centers, would be to make your computer assemble the different decks (e.g. the server tells client layout and gives the client the individual rooms/hallways)... I don't know how that would affect system performance, though
Also, I think it would be a great idea to add another currency similar to energy credits that would allow you to purchase starship customizations (both interior and exterior). You would earn these credits by completing the starship mini-games that you listed. The current mix-and-match system would still be the same as before, except that you would use the new credits and some items cost more than others (holographic LCARS would cost more than TNG or VOY).
One last note: I don't want to sound purely negative, but merely add constructive feedback. I would love to see everything on your proposal (other than what I have listed
I'd also love to see this, but I really don't see any real reason to do this. The ships would be much harder to manuever with only the viewscreen. In Star Trek cannon, the helm station has all kinds of data at the display to help position the ship, rather than one viewscreen.
This is by far the most comprehensive cache of Interior Development ideas I have seen on these forums.
One can only hope that the Devs will take some time and give this a look through. Then maybe we can start getting some updates.
I always thought the C-Store would be used for just this sort of thing. Want TNG era officers on your ship? But the TNG Officers module from the C-Store. Want an Excelsior bridge? But it from the C-Store.
But so little focus has been given to the vanity items of this nature. Instead, it seems they would rather spend their time doing lockboxes and stuff.
There is so much potential in our ship interiors, and they have gone virtually wasted over the past 18-24 months.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
I don't see how that is a problem.
Under the proposed system, when a player's own ship interior is loaded, the first loads the deck layout appropriate to the ship class, replaces textures with the major decor choices the player had made, and then reads off a list of 3D coordinates to place instances of Foundry assets.
It does not create whole new maps from scratch.
Non-issue. It's simply a player configurable upper limit.
Non-issue. Randomising the features of wandering NPC crewmen is not needed.
Non-issue. Trans-species uniform for both genders and departments were my original intention. No more that six NPC crew uniform data would need to be stored.
This would have been fine if rooms and corridors were interchangeable between ships, and that connections consisted of straight segments / junctions.
The problem is that canon Trek features ships corridors with a variety of curvatures, depending on the profile of the ship hull itself. While you can in theory make module for various different curved segments, in reality it would be easier for devs (as Taco himself suggested) to have ready made deck layouts for each ship class, with the mix and match decor.
I'd prefer sticking to existing currency, to keep things streamlined.
Good to see you've been reading my proposal in detail, though - I'll add those clarifications to the document.
A most excellent suggestion.
That's what MMO monetization should be about - account-wide purchases of ship interior styles / rooms / costume pieces, rather than "I WIN" buttons.
I'll add this too.
Now that most of the ship interior customisation features have been more or less established in this draft, I'd like to turn my attention to the "Shipboard Mysteries" missions.
My intention is that they will be like the episode missions, except that they would happen mostly inside the ship, and can be played in any order. They would also have an actual plot rather than the randgen exploration's "Scan five plants" or "Kill five enemy groups".
Some ideas, perhaps?:
- One of your enlisted crewmen is accused of murder, and it's up to you and your BOffs to uncover the truth.
- A disease picked up by a member of your away team is making its rounds throughout the ship. Halt it in its tracks before it potentially spreads to other ships, starbases and planets.
- etc.
While I love my TOS interior, I would kill for more of it. I would gladly pay for (and I'm sure a lot of others would to) a more fleshed out TOS interior. Hell, if I knew how to do it I'd try to build the whole damn inside myself. I think it would add a lot to immersion if I could explore my whole ship and maybe see where my boffs and doffs quarters are, etc.
There are tons of blueprints out there, so I think it could be done. I just wonder if it's too tall an order?
I myself have 15 BOffs (Department heads and junior officers), which makes for a lot of extra unnecessary map space.
RP and immersion should not be the core reason for improved ship interiors.
That doesn't mean it cannot be a nice bonus. Having little quarters for say your First Officer and Chief Engineer would be rather amusing for RP reasons, and you could justify it by having it connected to bank space or Doff Contacts or something.
Well I believe it was once said that Cryptic uses 3d Max for STO modeling, if you were willing to go to the lengths of making an accurate TOS interior and contain all the important visitation spots, they might consider it. Else the only alternative we got is making Psudeo interiors using the Foundry.
Right now I've done just that in making a TOS D7 Interior using the foundry that have spots we seen in like the Conference Room, Engine room, hallways, and the even the Cloaking Device Room.
Seriously? Okay, everything makes sense now. No wonder their engine is so primitive. 3ds Max is Terribads. :rolleyes:
Cryptic refuses to accept voluntary submissions of any kind, full stop. I tried to offer one of the devs help with coming up with a particular section of code that would resolve an issue (I no longer remember what the issue was) and the response I got was "well, you're welcome to try, but even if you're able to figure it out, I don't think we'd be allowed to use your work."
I think there need to be minimum customization areas, at least one well-designed deck that is the same on every ship, aside from colors, lighting, and LCARS. I'd be inclined to make this a deck with a brig, a lab, a holodeck, and a shuttlebay. Structurally like a TNG deck, more than likely.
I can also think of compelling reasons why bridges shouldn't be very custom but that boils down to tech for a feature I'm angling for.
Otherwise, I'm fine with roleplay and basic functions on the existing Crew and Engineering decks with custom NPC placements... and I think they should have freeform decks sold as slots where we can dress and costume every NPC in the Foundry if we like.