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Remember that SOI was delayed
rinkster
Member Posts: 3,549 Arc User
One of the things I'm really enjoying about Sphere of Influence, as I replay it countless times to get the goodies for all my toons, is the details.
There is already a ten page thread about the mention of the Andromeda Galaxy.
There are all sorts of little nods to trek lore and nuggets of bridging informations studded all over the FE.
Now, I know the release of this FE was delayed...ostensibly to get Mr Dorns lines done.
However, I wonder how much little polishing of details happened in that time as well.
Seems to me that, while I stand ready to crticise Cryptic when they get things wrong (Valentines Day Massacre Patch for instance) its also important to give them a thumbs up when they get things right.
A talky FE like this stands and falls on the details.
They got them right this time, and I do wonder how much of that is due to the somewhat imposed delay.
There is already a ten page thread about the mention of the Andromeda Galaxy.
There are all sorts of little nods to trek lore and nuggets of bridging informations studded all over the FE.
Now, I know the release of this FE was delayed...ostensibly to get Mr Dorns lines done.
However, I wonder how much little polishing of details happened in that time as well.
Seems to me that, while I stand ready to crticise Cryptic when they get things wrong (Valentines Day Massacre Patch for instance) its also important to give them a thumbs up when they get things right.
A talky FE like this stands and falls on the details.
They got them right this time, and I do wonder how much of that is due to the somewhat imposed delay.
Post edited by rinkster on
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Excellent examples, indeed the first Half Life was delayed because the team felt they could improve it.
However, then there's the poor old Duke.
Oh dear.
They were prepared to do the mission without him when the approvals came in.
I'm sure there could have been other little polishes but that Worf's addition was a probably something they'd been putting out feelers for awhile that came together quickly enough that somebody said, "Hey! He's an 'expert' on Iconian Gateways having dealt with two before. Let's get him involved."
And frankly, they still need to tweek that room. ESD is see through and on the wrong side of Earth and Qo'nos is missing Praxis.
It was such a great feature but when it switches constantly back and forth from voice to text dialog, it looks and feels so incomplete and rushed. Especially when you have most of the main characters speak their dialog at one point and then switch to a text dialog for the rest of the mission. Does anyone else feel that way? Did anyone else notice that one character will speak at one time but not again? Other than that, great job?
Minor details. :rolleyes:
It's still the coolest level in the whole game.
Didn't say it wasn't. :P
But they keep saying they are Star Trek fans, but ignore such detail. Its like they went "Eh, close enough".
I really hope we get more missions like it.
Sorry, these are my fault. I put ESD in, and we saw that it was busted. We expected to get a software fix for the issue, so I left it there in the mean time. Unfortunately, I then got sidetracked and it fell off my radar.
These planets are done in the skyfile, as I've discussed before. Unfortunately, Praxis isn't so much of a moon anymore, but an asteroid belt, and it wasn't practical to include it in the skyfile version.
Always a plus to get some insight, Taco.
Who designed the platforms?
One thing that impressed me was that unlike the rolling barrels in Barge of the Dead, mne cart in Mine Enemy, floating platforms in ESD that wobble, these platforms actually moved.
The other stuff is handled with a static solid object that is off or on and an animated object in the same place that is a non-solid object. These platforms were, well, real platforms. I fell off one that was retracted as I was running along it so the entire moving pwalkway had realtime collision detection.
That almost says to me there might be further plans for this map that emphasize the mechanics of the walkways. (I kept thinking how awesome an STF in there would be.)
I was thinking someone said this was impossible before. I've done hacky stuff in the Foundry by having a series of shuttles appear and disappear but moving terrain is a new one on me. If you could anchor people gravitationally to the platform instead of the ground, you could even have flying carpet, fight on a shuttle type effects.
Though a fight on a shuttle as a planned event might make the most sense with the shuttle stationary and the ground beneath it as a moving object with a kill volume effect for touching it. (And, yeah, I was trying to work up a "fight on a shuttle" effect back when the Foundry first launched, long before "Into Darkness.")
If the platform is stationary and it's the ground actually moving beneath it, nobody would slip off of the shuttle. Likewise, I guess, rocking bridges could be accomplished by actually tilting a bridge 90 degrees beneath the player, having the camera rotate along with the bridge (imperfectly to create a shake), and having a volume effect like the one in the Winter Event lake that causes the player's fall to use a different animation. That's assuming you can't simply add gravitational sources that tug players.
Ah, got you to speak! /kukuku
Software huh, thought it was just a rendering glitch. Like some detailed objects don't have bottoms. Well long it's not forgotten.
Well its incredible enough that you managed to evolve the game where different skyfiles are workable. If you recall our conversations earlier this year regarding viewscreens changing skyfiles or our discussion about the moon orbiting the Earth, I believe at the time you said it wasn't feasible. But yet since then you managed to make the unfeasible, feasible. I would say that is a significant breakthrough, don't you think?
I could this technique being used in future content where you could actually have transitionless maps, and accomplish what the Foundry authors have done on occasion. And would be nice if this could be integrated into the Foundry someday.
As for Praxis, why not move it far away so it's small like you did with the Earth's moon (in giving that feeling of distance), and use dark gas clouds in a narrow band that acts as the Praxis debris belt. Since it's so far away, people really wouldn't think "where are the asteroids", but more would rather think "ah its so far away that you cant see them".
And with ESD /swings a watch at the end of a chain. Say it with me........ Weeeest Cooooast.
I disagree. I find that voice over the first sentence or so from the dialogue is the best option. It's captivating enough and at the same time, it doesn't make me loose time. (Indeed, in my first plays, I tend to let characters speak their mind fully which takes a LOT longer than reading the dialogue. If only the first sentence is read by actors, it easily puts me in-character and yet I don't have to wait doing nothing for them to finish the whole text.)
Not to mention, the less audio, the smaller and faster patches, the less strain on the servers...
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!