Y'know a year or two back I had an idea for how to do something with this without bumping up the game's rating that would fit humorously with the holodeck theme.
Drozana Station. The player is taking a brief shore leave and rents a holosuite for him/herself and a BOff of choice with the intent of running an unspecified holoprogram. But there's an unusual power surge as they enter. The setting is a Vulcan Love Slave program, a tropical island filled with scantly clad men and women, but the story has been scrambled with a Captain Proton plot. The Love Slave herself is the main villainess, the beachgoers are her minions, and a large, muscular man plays the role of damsel in distress. With no way to turn off the program, the player and BOff are forced to finish the holonovel to escape.
One potential issue. While we can make it look black and white, that is through a post processing effect. People running on low end machines, and anyone who has manually disabled post processing would still see everything in color. . .
Admit it, Taco. You'd have a blast working on this project. So would lots of your friends.
I am definitely on board with this idea. The additional load on the player's machine from the post-processing effect isn't that big a deal, imo. I don't think it would affect me, but if it did, playing Captain Proton in colour definitely wouldn't stop me from enjoying the break from the dead-serious, galaxy-threatening missions we usually play.
Gotta wonder what the rewards would be, though. Can't take much of that stuff with you, unless you decide to slap a mobile emitter on the ray gun or something.
One potential issue. While we can make it look black and white, that is through a post processing effect. People running on low end machines, and anyone who has manually disabled post processing would still see everything in color. . .
Couldn't it be handled through a pre-processing effect if done like the Temporal Ambassador mission?
That showed you could partially replace costumes now, right? Ie. the costumes changed but the slider values and faces were intact.
I've dug through demo records and Foundry scripts before. Colors are stored in much the same way that slider values and costume parts are.
I think it would be a similar process where you force shift the colors.. (That might cause skin to have a pinkish or bluish hue which is why you'd shift to light blue green rather than grey. The color values mostly cancel out.) Then shift all hair colors to charcoal black. (I've toyed with this idea for creating a B&W Captain Proton inspired Foundry mission.) It does mean all players would have the same skintone but it would be a grey-looking skintone. (You'd also want to shift all cosmetic decorations like Cardassian spoon decor and makeup to black.)
playing Captain Proton in colour definitely wouldn't stop me from enjoying the break from the dead-serious, galaxy-threatening missions we usually play.
Exactly. Why does every FE have to involve some new threat to the universe? What made "Temporal Ambassador" feel so fun was because I was taking a break for the known doom and gloom reality of STO. It was still a doom and gloom reality, but at least it was a break.
It's amazing to me that Star Trek is so full of humor, yet STO is lacking it, most of the time.
Gotta wonder what the rewards would be, though. Can't take much of that stuff with you, unless you decide to slap a mobile emitter on the ray gun or something.
Well, we get starships from small crates that somehow drop from the pocket of a dead Klingon. Players also brought back that Bat'leth or whatever it was from hell.
I don't think anyone will complain about the ray guns, when we can instantly bring holoships into space, transform our own ships with holo-emitters, etc. The holo-ships fire real phasers, so why not?
Exactly. Why does every FE have to involve some new threat to the universe? What made "Temporal Ambassador" feel so fun was because I was taking a break for the known doom and gloom reality of STO. It was still a doom and gloom reality, but at least it was a break.
It's amazing to me that Star Trek is so full of humor, yet STO is lacking it it, most of the time.
Well, we get starships from small crates that somehow drop from the pocket of a dead Klingon. Players also brought back that Bat'leth or whatever it was from hell.
I don't think anyone will complain about the ray guns, when we can instantly bring holoships into space, transform our own ships with holo-emitters, etc. The holo-ships fire real phasers, so why not?
I want my ray gun!
You know what might make this sweeter? Dixon Hill vs. Captain Proton.
And while we're at it, my thinking has always been that there's a big gap in most holodeck worlds should the characters ever become sentient. For example: the Dixon Hill program. If all of them become sentient but Dixon Hill doesn't (since Dixon was a part played by Picard) then the only one who ISN'T real is Dixon Hill. Same thing with Captain Proton.
I always wondered if the holo-characters might try to create a "real" holographic Captain Proton or Dixon Hill to make their lives complete.
And if they do, it sidesteps likeness issues.
Imagine Constance Goodheart, Doctor Chaotica, and Satan's Robot realize that they're holo characters and that Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid aren't real but are parts played by Starfleet officers.
So they decide to CREATE a "real" Captain Proton and Buster.
And you get a delightful Frankenstein send-up of them creating Captain Proton as the teaser/trailer/cinematic.
The only problem is, they make him wrong. So we have to strap on jetpacks and laser guns to go in and save Constance and Chaotica from the defective Captain Proton they created to fill out their holographic world.
One thought is to make all the assets and characters in black-and-white. That way, even with disabling post processing, it would -still- be black-and-white.
This is my take on the monochrome issue as well. It might be worthwhile to compose monochrome assets completely from scratch. All player's would experience the same thing in missions using them.
And the bean counters insist, monochrome maps and assets could be sold as a Foundry set. To offset development should they not be used that often by the Devs afterward. But I just don't see even the Devs not coming back to the theme from time to time on their own.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
You know what might make this sweeter? Dixon Hill vs. Captain Proton.
And while we're at it, my thinking has always been that there's a big gap in most holodeck worlds should the characters ever become sentient. For example: the Dixon Hill program. If all of them become sentient but Dixon Hill doesn't (since Dixon was a part played by Picard) then the only one who ISN'T real is Dixon Hill. Same thing with Captain Proton.
I always wondered if the holo-characters might try to create a "real" holographic Captain Proton or Dixon Hill to make their lives complete.
And if they do, it sidesteps likeness issues.
Imagine Constance Goodheart, Doctor Chaotica, and Satan's Robot realize that they're holo characters and that Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid aren't real but are parts played by Starfleet officers.
So they decide to CREATE a "real" Captain Proton and Buster.
And you get a delightful Frankenstein send-up of them creating Captain Proton as the teaser/trailer/cinematic.
The only problem is, they make him wrong. So we have to strap on jetpacks and laser guns to go in and save Constance and Chaotica from the defective Captain Proton they created to fill out their holographic world.
So we have to strap on jetpacks and laser guns to go in and save Constance and Chaotica from the defective Captain Proton they created to fill out their holographic world.
I would have so much fun with that jet pack if they let me keep it.
I would have so much fun with that jet pack if they let me keep it.
What if you could keep it but could only use it in a PvP map on the rocky surface of Saturn (there's a science gag in there) and a Fleet Action where we team up in an epic boss battle with a giant gorilla? (Ie. naturally, the jetpack only works on the holodeck, ie. maps designed for it.)
If we did get jetpacks for holodeck content, there should totally be one fleet action and/or PvP map where we use space mechanics (with default ship stats, possibly based on our profession) but are costumed as flying people with jetpacks in space.
One potential issue. While we can make it look black and white, that is through a post processing effect. People running on low end machines, and anyone who has manually disabled post processing would still see everything in color. . .
Hoho, the plot thickens.
I got the sneeking suspicion you guys talked about this at one point.
What if you could keep it but could only use it in a PvP map on the rocky surface of Saturn (there's a science gag in there) and a Fleet Action where we team up in an epic boss battle with a giant gorilla? (Ie. naturally, the jetpack only works on the holodeck, ie. maps designed for it.)
Do you mean the fact that no one is sure IF Saturn has a solid surface at all?
Do you mean the fact that no one is sure IF Saturn has a solid surface at all?
Yeah and it most likely doesn't but, naturally, it would in Captain Proton.
My big request for Captain Proton is to be sure to include plenty of science that's deliberately wrong or outdated. Y'know, have a Planet X that's the 10th planet in Earth's solar system. The surface of Saturn. Moon people. That kind of thing.
Sherlock Holmes Ideas: Wearable Deerstalker Hat, Pipe, Perhaps A Violin Emote, Etc.
Dixon Hill: Wearable Fedora And Trenchcoat (for Male And Female), Tommy Gun Weapon (even If Its Only A Special One Like The Winter Weapons), Emote Similar To What Picard Did In First Contact, Etc.
Yeah and it most likely doesn't but, naturally, it would in Captain Proton.
My big request for Captain Proton is to be sure to include plenty of science that's deliberately wrong or outdated. Y'know, have a Planet X that's the 10th planet in Earth's solar system. The surface of Saturn. Moon people. That kind of thing.
Ever watch the old Buck Rogers show? Hehe.... that should provide some interesting inspiration.
I have 3 eps on DVD, one of them makes references to colonizing either Neptune or Uranus.
Wow... I have Elite Force but haven't played it in years. I can't remember a CP Holodeck mission at all! Was it an optional side mission or something? I might have to try it again (And hope it runs on Windows 7) to find out?
This could be totally wrong, but I remember an expansion pack to EF that included a virtual Voyager where you could explore every deck of the ship. This holodeck mission was included in that expansion, so it wasn't part of the regular game progression.
Admit it, Taco. You'd have a blast working on this project. So would lots of your friends.
Isn't that what I said?
We could make all the assets in B&W sure, but your player costume will have color. We wouldn't be able to go through and make B&W versions of every player costume texture, and swap those, so if we were required to do the B&W through assets, your entire player costume would have to be replaced with one in character to the whole Captain Proton mythos. Maybe you could play Proton himself. Might have to be a single player mission like Temporal Ambassador to make this make any sense (HA!)
We could make all the assets in B&W sure, but your player costume will have color. We wouldn't be able to go through and make B&W versions of every player costume texture, and swap those, so if we were required to do the B&W through assets, your entire player costume would have to be replaced with one in character to the whole Captain Proton mythos. Maybe you could play Proton himself. Might have to be a single player mission like Temporal Ambassador to make this make any sense (HA!)
Swapping player costumes for Captain Proton themed gear makes sense.
The big thing I see is that it would be ideal to maintain slider values and face/ridges.
And like I say, if the art folks have to do all this work, there should probably be some highly repeatable content that shares the work like Captain Proton Fleet Actions and PvP maps. It's an insane workload for a mission.
And my overall feeling is that it would be ideal to setup building assets to be reusable.
I've suggested before looking at recreating certain soundstages for reuse in the game. It probably requires research at Ex Astra.
But for example, take the Desilu back 40 in Culver City. That can be used for Edith Keeler's mission, Miri's Planet, and Beta III from Return of the Archons, Ekos (the TRIBBLE planet), and the planet from A Piece of the Action. And probably reasonably be used for a modern day city street, a Captain Proton set, etc. with tailoring.
I'll add a bit of fun trivia: this lot was Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. Kirk and Keeler walk by Floyd's Barbershop in "City on the Edge of Forever." (An episode of the Andy Griffith Show also featured the 21st street mission.) You can see the Mayberry Courthouse and most of the town in a state of post-apocalyptic ruin in "Miri's World."
For "Patterns of Force", they actually took the Paramount execs' offices and flew TRIBBLE flags from them.
It's a very historic set. Tara from Gone With the Wind (which was used in Miri's World) became Stalag 13 in Hogan's Heroes. Kirk fought Wyatt Earp outside of the Andy Griffith Show Courthouse. Which was also Gotham City in the 60s Batman. And Chicago in The Untouchables.
People have done a fair number of 3D models of the town. Here's Google Sketchups:
We could make all the assets in B&W sure, but your player costume will have color. We wouldn't be able to go through and make B&W versions of every player costume texture, and swap those, so if we were required to do the B&W through assets, your entire player costume would have to be replaced with one in character to the whole Captain Proton mythos. Maybe you could play Proton himself. Might have to be a single player mission like Temporal Ambassador to make this make any sense (HA!)
I could imagine a costume replicator near the holodeck that provides these costumes for free or a small energy cost. And have a mechanic similar to the EVA suits, where you can't go into the mission unless you are wearing it.
And there would need to be somekind of incentive that makes you not want to wear normal armor while in a Captain Proton episode. Like Proton's armor having the ability to absorb "raygun" damage. (Normal Armor has no effect).
And to prevent people from using Star Trek weapons, they would have no effect due to "plotshield". But Captain Proton's Raygun sure does.
Comments
Gawd, I had to skip those episodes on subsequent re-watches of the series.
That being said, I'd totally play a FE about it :P
Kirk's Protege.
I really like that idea. :cool:
...and I am not even a fan of holodeck episodes!
Admit it, Taco. You'd have a blast working on this project. So would lots of your friends.
@Taco: can we get a B/W mask for Foundry plz?
My character Tsin'xing
Gotta wonder what the rewards would be, though. Can't take much of that stuff with you, unless you decide to slap a mobile emitter on the ray gun or something.
Couldn't it be handled through a pre-processing effect if done like the Temporal Ambassador mission?
That showed you could partially replace costumes now, right? Ie. the costumes changed but the slider values and faces were intact.
I've dug through demo records and Foundry scripts before. Colors are stored in much the same way that slider values and costume parts are.
I think it would be a similar process where you force shift the colors.. (That might cause skin to have a pinkish or bluish hue which is why you'd shift to light blue green rather than grey. The color values mostly cancel out.) Then shift all hair colors to charcoal black. (I've toyed with this idea for creating a B&W Captain Proton inspired Foundry mission.) It does mean all players would have the same skintone but it would be a grey-looking skintone. (You'd also want to shift all cosmetic decorations like Cardassian spoon decor and makeup to black.)
I fully support it, as long as I get those rayguns!
Exactly. Why does every FE have to involve some new threat to the universe? What made "Temporal Ambassador" feel so fun was because I was taking a break for the known doom and gloom reality of STO. It was still a doom and gloom reality, but at least it was a break.
It's amazing to me that Star Trek is so full of humor, yet STO is lacking it, most of the time.
Well, we get starships from small crates that somehow drop from the pocket of a dead Klingon. Players also brought back that Bat'leth or whatever it was from hell.
I don't think anyone will complain about the ray guns, when we can instantly bring holoships into space, transform our own ships with holo-emitters, etc. The holo-ships fire real phasers, so why not?
I want my ray gun!
You know what might make this sweeter? Dixon Hill vs. Captain Proton.
And while we're at it, my thinking has always been that there's a big gap in most holodeck worlds should the characters ever become sentient. For example: the Dixon Hill program. If all of them become sentient but Dixon Hill doesn't (since Dixon was a part played by Picard) then the only one who ISN'T real is Dixon Hill. Same thing with Captain Proton.
I always wondered if the holo-characters might try to create a "real" holographic Captain Proton or Dixon Hill to make their lives complete.
And if they do, it sidesteps likeness issues.
Imagine Constance Goodheart, Doctor Chaotica, and Satan's Robot realize that they're holo characters and that Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid aren't real but are parts played by Starfleet officers.
So they decide to CREATE a "real" Captain Proton and Buster.
And you get a delightful Frankenstein send-up of them creating Captain Proton as the teaser/trailer/cinematic.
The only problem is, they make him wrong. So we have to strap on jetpacks and laser guns to go in and save Constance and Chaotica from the defective Captain Proton they created to fill out their holographic world.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "holo-novel" thing is already something they've taken a look at.
Klingons in cowboy hats. It's the future and we're all a part of it.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
And the bean counters insist, monochrome maps and assets could be sold as a Foundry set. To offset development should they not be used that often by the Devs afterward. But I just don't see even the Devs not coming back to the theme from time to time on their own.
Holodeck stories next to transporter malfunctions are staple Star Trek story lines! Would be great fun
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
My character Tsin'xing
I would have so much fun with that jet pack if they let me keep it.
What if you could keep it but could only use it in a PvP map on the rocky surface of Saturn (there's a science gag in there) and a Fleet Action where we team up in an epic boss battle with a giant gorilla? (Ie. naturally, the jetpack only works on the holodeck, ie. maps designed for it.)
If we did get jetpacks for holodeck content, there should totally be one fleet action and/or PvP map where we use space mechanics (with default ship stats, possibly based on our profession) but are costumed as flying people with jetpacks in space.
10char
Actually, I've been working on a Foundry mission of that for a while now. I think people might be impressed.
Of course, gotta get it done first. :P
Hoho, the plot thickens.
I got the sneeking suspicion you guys talked about this at one point.
If you are going to voice suspicions, then please add a Dr. Chaotica laugh.
Muhahaha.
Thought KuhahahaHAHAHA. :P
My character Tsin'xing
Yeah and it most likely doesn't but, naturally, it would in Captain Proton.
My big request for Captain Proton is to be sure to include plenty of science that's deliberately wrong or outdated. Y'know, have a Planet X that's the 10th planet in Earth's solar system. The surface of Saturn. Moon people. That kind of thing.
This. All Of This!!!!
Joined - 9/2011
"You Best Make Peace With Your Dear & Fluffy Lord" - Malcolm Reynolds
I have 3 eps on DVD, one of them makes references to colonizing either Neptune or Uranus.
My character Tsin'xing
This could be totally wrong, but I remember an expansion pack to EF that included a virtual Voyager where you could explore every deck of the ship. This holodeck mission was included in that expansion, so it wasn't part of the regular game progression.
Isn't that what I said?
We could make all the assets in B&W sure, but your player costume will have color. We wouldn't be able to go through and make B&W versions of every player costume texture, and swap those, so if we were required to do the B&W through assets, your entire player costume would have to be replaced with one in character to the whole Captain Proton mythos. Maybe you could play Proton himself. Might have to be a single player mission like Temporal Ambassador to make this make any sense (HA!)
Swapping player costumes for Captain Proton themed gear makes sense.
The big thing I see is that it would be ideal to maintain slider values and face/ridges.
And like I say, if the art folks have to do all this work, there should probably be some highly repeatable content that shares the work like Captain Proton Fleet Actions and PvP maps. It's an insane workload for a mission.
And my overall feeling is that it would be ideal to setup building assets to be reusable.
I've suggested before looking at recreating certain soundstages for reuse in the game. It probably requires research at Ex Astra.
But for example, take the Desilu back 40 in Culver City. That can be used for Edith Keeler's mission, Miri's Planet, and Beta III from Return of the Archons, Ekos (the TRIBBLE planet), and the planet from A Piece of the Action. And probably reasonably be used for a modern day city street, a Captain Proton set, etc. with tailoring.
I'll add a bit of fun trivia: this lot was Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. Kirk and Keeler walk by Floyd's Barbershop in "City on the Edge of Forever." (An episode of the Andy Griffith Show also featured the 21st street mission.) You can see the Mayberry Courthouse and most of the town in a state of post-apocalyptic ruin in "Miri's World."
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4551/kirkfloyd.jpg
For "Patterns of Force", they actually took the Paramount execs' offices and flew TRIBBLE flags from them.
It's a very historic set. Tara from Gone With the Wind (which was used in Miri's World) became Stalag 13 in Hogan's Heroes. Kirk fought Wyatt Earp outside of the Andy Griffith Show Courthouse. Which was also Gotham City in the 60s Batman. And Chicago in The Untouchables.
People have done a fair number of 3D models of the town. Here's Google Sketchups:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?clid=c9b583b8cd3baa6aea3e4d6c8003e506
Here's Doug Drexler talking about it:
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/40-acres-backlot-culver-city-a-hollywood-legend/
The sets have been razed and it's the current location for Cougar Town.
Coolcoolcool.
I could imagine a costume replicator near the holodeck that provides these costumes for free or a small energy cost. And have a mechanic similar to the EVA suits, where you can't go into the mission unless you are wearing it.
And there would need to be somekind of incentive that makes you not want to wear normal armor while in a Captain Proton episode. Like Proton's armor having the ability to absorb "raygun" damage. (Normal Armor has no effect).
And to prevent people from using Star Trek weapons, they would have no effect due to "plotshield". But Captain Proton's Raygun sure does.