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stormbringer77
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Just a thought, but I was wondering if it was possible to have the view-screen show an animated view of the space you're in, I.E, random space scenes in sector space, DS9 when you approach it, etc?
If there's a reason this hasn't been done, fair enough, but I just feel it'd be a nice touch to the bridge area, after all atm I just see a black canvas with a few white pixels on it which kinda detracts from the feel of Star Trek.
If there's a reason this hasn't been done, fair enough, but I just feel it'd be a nice touch to the bridge area, after all atm I just see a black canvas with a few white pixels on it which kinda detracts from the feel of Star Trek.
***The above ramblings are, as always, my own opinion. Based on my experiences and interpreted by my mind, they by no means reflect the universal truth (unless coincidentally). Peace.***
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This means there is no connection whatsoever between your bridge and the rest of the game. The only reason this would be possible I think are cutscenes which would play (and had to load seperately) every time you approach something.
The sad truth is: The Star Trek game everyone wants is just not Star Trek Online and it will never be
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Yup, this is about the best we could expect. Even this would be welcome though.
The problem with showing what's actually happening around you is that the game would have to load two different environments to run simultaneously, one of you on the ship interior, and one of whatever is in the space map you were on. There would also presumably have to be a little invisible avatar of you in that space map as a reference for where the "camera" should be when you look out the view screen. That's a lot of work for both the server and the game client.
I wouldn't mind a first person view mode where your various HUD windows are built into the frame of a viewscreen (basically just an elaborate overlay). Not sure how well that would work in practice though since your view would be very restricted and you'd constantly be getting blindsided by stuff.
500 years in the future and we still look like schmucks when getting our ID photos taken...
Even with this, I'd think it would be reasonably simple.... just add one variable to each character file. "Last space location visited". Use that variable to stick a (default for each location) different texture file on the viewscreen.
/shrug
I'd be happy with something along those lines, I'm not after playing STF's from the bridge or anything, just something a little more 'zazzy' to make the bridge feel a little more related to the rest of the game.
But that is very small scale, the wormhole is on the same map as the station interior, just outside the wall.
There exists a space outside the bridge, that is the reason you can see parts of your ship's hull on the Odyssey bridge for example.
But you can't move them through the space, because they are fixed geometry ,unfortunately, same as all those suspended asteroids and planet rings.
It would theoretically be possible to code the bridge as giant mounts in space, but then you couldn't just have the bridges, as that would look very strange, you'd have to build the entire HUUUUGE ships around them and make the space at least 10 times bigger to move around them convincingly.
I don't think that is possible for a long time.
Okay now that I've got your full attention, here's how it COULD be done and relatively easily.
Now mind you there's only one way this would work and it would require some fixes to the current map auto navigation system.
For those of you who don't use the auto-nav or don't use it enough to know, it's garbage. The map boarders are all over the place, meaning specifically the actual trigger zone that gives you the cleared for warp message aren't lined up properly. Secondly, the vast majority of the auto-nav paths are incorrect, for example try using auto-nav from sol system to Beta Ursa, guess what...You can't do it, Delta Voltanis gets in the way and messes it all up. The third problem is the auto-nav doesn't correctly adjust for a systems height in relation to the "map floor", meaning you still have to manually adjust your ship's angle properly to the planet before you can enter the system.
NOW, assuming they corrected all these problems here's how they COULD actually do this:
No matter where you are in a sector, the system calculates your distance from a system and gives you that readout, for example 3.45 ly. Now if you entered the bridge view, sat in your captain's chair and were able to give auto-nav instructions the system could use the calculations it already makes to load a view screen cutscene, it other words a video inset i the viewscreen window showing you at warp and then when you get into range showing the planet/system/base you're going to. the length of the scene played within the view screen would be determined by your distance from, in other words if you're 5.7ly away and it takes you're ship 28 seconds to get there it would play for 28 seconds where as another ship may only take 10 seconds from the same distance so the "cutscene" would start at 18 seconds not 0.
Following along so far?
Now, this is the point where you all say "Well how the %#& do you know they can do this when they say they can't??!!":
Simple. Firstly, timers are Cryptic's best friend, anyone that plays the game knows that. Secondly, I can think of several games all the way back from windows 95 if not earlier if I really thought about it that were capable of doing this. Thirdly, There are numerous freeware, shareware, payware game creator programs that are more than capable of doing this very easily.
So all this begs one very simple question, If I can come up with a viable solution for this why can't Cryptic?
Again very simple answer, they can and probably have. Here's the problem, you'd need a UI artist, an environmental artist, an animation designer or two, and atleast 2-3 core system programmers working dedicated to this project for probably 2-3 weeks and priority access to their development servers. Now why is that a problem, bottom line, money. Those people would be working on something that wouldn't bring in any income at all, and with the amount of work they would have to be dedicated to just this project, and on top of all that the viewscreens of every bridge would have to be modified to have a transparent viewscreen so the video would be seen properly. This is simply a quality of game issue that would have no return on the cost.
So basically everything I just typed was a waste of time, but it does prove/outline a possible and viable way that they COULD do this, not that they will.
What I remember saying, repeatedly now, is that it would take significant time and resources from all teams, and that the gain would be a relatively (imo) minor improvement.
Star Trek is actually a very minimalistic setting, just look at how it all started. It's not that it has to be a huge, bombastic effect but it's the minor details that make the game feel "right". The best Trek games were the point and click adventures back in the 90s and those used 2D handmade animations. Some of the best games of all times are open-ended games like "Pirates!" or "Mount and Blade" which offer a better feel of exploration and advacnement than a game called Star Trek Online which is about a franchise which was dedicated to the idea of EXPLORING the unknown. And those games, again, offer not as much on the large scale but a million small details which make them feel "cozy".
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i do not have such a thing on my Bridge!
http://i.imagebanana.com/img/srbtl5r3/GameClient2012113020394158.png
the icing on the cake:
i fly the Fleet Scourge and it doesn't let me change anything in the Ship Tailor either,
without me buying the Tier 4 C-Store Scourge or i get this error:
http://i.imagebanana.com/img/1e5p6l0s/GameClient2012113020335504.png
soo that Char/Ship is stuck with the Default Bridge forever and it does not even have a Viewscreen!
If they don't take the time to fix things like this (at least broken since Season 6, viewscreen maybe before that?) then why would you think that they invest time to hook up random animated pictures to so many Bridge-"Maps"
- that would require at least one picture for every sector/map your ship can be in (at least the major sectors).
- animated pictures are made up of 4 pictures, (think animated gif), so it would not look good either.
- it needs to be hooked up to every Bridge in the game (thats a lot of "Maps"), and the viewscreens have different sizes / forms, some even have different Pictures (because nobody ever thought to streamline the viewscreens in preperation for any upgrades to the game *duh*).
- and finally there needs to be code that lets the bridge-map know in what map the spaceship currently is to show the correct animated picture on the viewscreen...
so we need 1 texture guy (Thomas?) to make nice viewscreen pics of every sector
we need 1 Map artist (Taco?) to touch up the Bridge Viewscreens... on all 50 or so bridges (sounds boring)
and one Coder who supplies a bit of code with an extra "ship-location" variable that tells the interior what location the ship is in... plus a short list of all pictures and locations...
and if the locations is not known a default in-warp picture.
sounds to me like maybe 2-3 days of work for these 3 people.
do-able? yes... priority? none.
now if somebody could fix my viewscreen?
I don't even think they need to make a Animated screen for the players. I myself am rarely on the bridge so I couldn't care what is on a view screen. But the system already marks what areas of the game you are in hence when it puts you on the bridge and then drops you back where you last Where. What they could do is just make a default image for each sector and main hub. They do not have to do 50 Bridges because For the most part the bridges are all the same just with different colorings. What you can do is Make your images and just paste them into the Bridge maps Based upon the area you are in. If your at DS9 the map sends you to a DS9 visualed Map. Simple Cut and Paste of Bridge Designs and an adding of coding that Says if you leave to your bridge from X map, It pops you on X bridge with X visual on the screen. The only thing that has to be done is make the Images for each of the main Default Bridges for each designated Area and then Paste the made image to all the varients of that bridge pack.
For Example If you are at DS9 ( on station or in Orbit) and you goto the Bridge, you can just have a Picture of ds9 up on the Screen Like Games of the old, One stationary Image. Hell it's stationary Now, Just ad a image from where they are at. Again Only do it for the main hubs. If you are in Sector space, Just have Stars. If you are ESD have a picture of Earth or ESD itself, if at DS9 you see DS9, if at Qo'Nos you see Qo'nos. I think a Simple change will quiet the ones wanting to see a visual. With the factor that honestly there are not many different bridges out there, This can simply be Cut and Pasted into different packs to insert into the system.
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Like this one.
Not actually on the bridge, but we clearly get an impression that a communication via our bridge's viewscreen is going on. That'd be a step up from the boring bust and blank backgrounds we presently get.
Is it possible to go through the wormhole? I've never tried it but kind of wondered if it was functional.
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Now that could be a neat solution.
I think you're vastly oversimplifying the issue. The tech required is likely much more than 2 days of work. Not a coder, so I don't know for sure, just basing this off of my previous experience with such endeavors.
Creating texutres requires loading each map and taking a proper screenshot at least, and could require more effort if we want anything fancier than that. That's probably 2-3 days, but could be much more.
Applying what is potentially 50-100 new system textures to 50 viewscreens, and hooking all of that up to work with this "new tech" is significantly more than 2 days of work. We basically have to duplicate the screen X times (X being the number of different images) and then tag each of those new screens with what it is, so the 'tech' can swap them out. Then we do that for each of 50+ bridges.
And all of that doesn't even take into consideration what you see when you look out a window. . .
Doable? yes. . . worthwhile? Questionable.
My main issue, as I've stated before, is that bridges are in a sad state already, and I would rather start over from scratch, include things like this, and do it right, than to try and hack this into an already limping system. But, that requires more time/work/effort/cheese.
Did someone say cheese?
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Have to say I agree with Taco , a rebuild from the ground up is the best way to go here. Can't wait to see what the Neverwinter team is working on and what they can use in STO to make Ship Interiors a much better experience.
My question would be: since we have the ability to mount trophies on our walls, could we not use a similar mechanism for things like viewscreen images, MSD images (the big master systems display of the ship on the wall of the bridge (in the rear of the bridge on Defiant and Intrepid-class ships, for example)), or dedication plaques to mount on the wall of the bridge?
Could they not just be two-dimensional (or very thin three-dimensional) pieces we could buy or earn, and then mount in a specific place, just as we do trophies? So I could have a Galaxy-class bridge, with a blank space on the aft bulkhead and I could purchase/earn an MSD for whatever type of ship I actually fly. Then I could place that appropriate MSD item on the wall in that blank space. Or I could purchase/earn a picture of DS9 to put up on my viewscreen.
Would that also involve a lot of tech? It seems that system is already in place in the form of trophies.
However. We could EITHER make it automatic (auto-detect ship type, and place appropriate MSD, auto-detect last system, and replace viewscreen) OR we could make them options that the player chooses. I don't think we could do both (i.e. auto select, with player override if desired). Maybe we could, but that's all tech questions. And either way, there is a considerable amount of work in either/both approaches.
The tech is sort of there. Trophies as they are currently implemented are a royal PITA to work with. The tech we used in Hideouts for Champions is better, but still requires a lot of hand working, naming, tagging, referring, and ensuring nothing is busted. It's much more work than people seem to think.
ok, it depends on how messy the code is and how familiar the coder is with all of it.
2-3 days if you know how it all works together and your head is already inside it.
If you first need to analyze and understand old code, that in the worst case someone else wrote,
yes then the *research time* could be a lot longer than just writing some actual code for it.
(i had some bad experiences in that regard, coding styles of different people in the same language can still be very different and confusing).
*mind blown*
didn't even think of that.
now that i can agree with 100%, there are very few Bridges that are worth keeping (TOS+Defiant of course, the LockBox bridges maybe, maybe 2 or 3 others). And i say that having bought all of them in the C-Store and wouldn't mind getting rid of all of them if we ever got better ones, ...with some functionality and life (DOff Faces walking around, in my chosen default Ship Uniform, on my ship would be real nice for example.)
I don't believe this will ever happen though ;P
Any improvements to the current Player Interiors, would likely be "minor", which I'll agree would be a rather big waste of time, when there are more pressing concerns such as bug fixing.
On the other hand, a 100% removal of existing interiors, and re-building of Player Interiors, I would whole-heartedly support. I'd even go so far as to suggest potentially making an entire "Season" update have Player Interiors as it's main focus, if the newly revamped interiors would tie into other aspects of the game as well. PVP Combat on the bridge for example (suggested in the original STO trailer, on a Galaxy bridge). The game could certainly use alot more story content (in place of repeatable events), but the Foundry serves it's purpose, if the mission rewards would be "rewarding" enough.
I am not a developer, so I wouldn't even know where to begin to undergo such an extensive task. But I do know that the end result could be incredibly rewarding, and as Star Trek takes place, a lot within the confines of ones own Bridge, it stands to reason that it may be beneficial to give players the true feel of commanding their ships (both from within the ship, and "outside" in sector/system space).
Speaking of MSDs, there was a player mod a while back to put the proper MSDs (or whatever MSD you wanted) in your ship. Could we at least get MSDs relatively quickly? Even if the other stuff would take a long time...
This sounds like a job for... Thomas the Cryptic Cat
The MSDs for the bridges could be based on the default style for each class. Bridges that are "based on" Defiant for example, would have a Defiant MSD.