How to Assemble the Asset Shortlist

thegreendragoon1 · November 2013

UPDATE: Primar13 has been kind enough to organize a poll based on asset suggestions made here. We want to get as many authors represented here as possible. This list won't have everything everyone wants, but I think most won't have any trouble finding plenty of things they'd like to see in the Foundry.

Link to the poll

So I just got done listening to Stoked Radio's interview with Al Rivera and at the very end the discussion turned to the Foundry and the specific point that Al made was that he'd be happy to pass along an asset request list that the artists could tag, but that the longer it was, the less likely it would be to happen. He gave 100 as an example of "probably too long." And in reality, it should probably be much shorter.

Now I'll looked at the Foundry request thread from time to time and "gargantuan" is the adjective that comes to mind? My question is, how would you prioritize such a list? How do isolate the assets that would give the community as a whole the most bang for their buck? What things do we have the most desperate need for? How much consensus between authors is there for specific assets? Are detail objects more important than maps or vice versa?

EDIT: Castmodean had a good question about what qualifies as assets. In this case I'd say detail objects, buildings, planets and possible maps.

lincolninspace · November 2013

I think we really need more assets for ship interiors. Right now we can build passable Starfleet interiors but we lack working doors for TOS,Klingon and Romulan interiors. Aside from that a few missing costumes like Bajoran military are really hurting. Finally cryptic maps we need more of them as well as more mission entry doors especially in Tau Dewa (Romulan Republic space). That would be my list.

thegreendragoon1 · November 2013

Let's say for the sake of argument that we had to come up with a list of 30 unique and specific assets (detail, building or planet) currently somewhere in the game along with 5 maps. How would you compile the list?

Would it work to subdivide the list into key categories or come up with some kind of voting system?

pendra8080 · November 2013

More and better textures on slabs and solid walls.
10 additional space wall types (2 Fed, 2 Rom, 2 Klg, 4 generic)
6 additional opening doors. 2 Rom, 2 Klg, 2 generic
4 carpets
5 food related items. Such as plates with meals and empty.
5 vehicles. Cars, trucks, tanks whatever.
Solo Toolbox, Fire extingusher, Bomb, Book, Bag
An empty map
And slice up a map to, say 10 big sections or slabs and introduce them as assets. That could be the basis of custom generated outdoor maps

.

castsbugc · November 2013

I might edit this post, but I mist just post into separate ones, we will see:
#1) the new bridge
#2)ship interiors (with working warp cores)
more later as I deliberate

paxfederatica · November 2013

Given the big deal Cryptic made of Legacy of Romulus, it seems to me that any new asset list should be heavy on LoR stuff. I'd go so far as to propose an even split between LoR-related assets and other assets in any shortlist.

adverbero · November 2013

I'd say if we're aiming to shorten the list, probably best to look at the most generic items, Like the opening/closing doorways for all factions, better floors, ceilings and walls. Stuff we can use for map building and set dressing in a wide variety of story applications

I'd say something more generic would get us much more usability across many maps

Also a blank ground/interior map would be very versatile i think

drogyn1701 · November 2013

Maps
Romulan Player Ship Interior
Dyson Sphere Space
Dyson Sphere Ground
New Romulus Ground
Starfleet Academy

Objects
As many floors and ceilings as possible. Just square chunks lifted from current interiors
More ceiling lights
Tholian Consoles
Reman walls, consoles and thelaron device from the Scimitar Bridge
Windows
Walls from the new Fed interior
New Romulus assets such as:
-Colony exterior walls
-transporter pads
-Command Center interior walls, floors, windows
-ruins
Walls, floors and other parts from the Captain's Table (see screenshot)
Ships (ground versions we could put outside windows, could use the ones that hang from the ceiling in Utopia Planitia)
Partially assimilated Romulan walls and tech from Mind Games
Walls from Nukara Interior (They're similar to Facility 4028)

Editorializing just a bit, but I find it kind of sad that they've failed to add these things AS THEY WERE CREATED and now there's a HUGE backlog and he wants us to choose.

zorbane · November 2013

I agree wiht adverbero that we need things that can be used by everyone in many different missions, not those specific "oh I wish I had a table that was 4 feet long and 2 feet high, it'd make this map real great" objects

Faction doors, walls, ceilings, lights, flooring would be at the top of my list

thegreendragoon1 · November 2013

So I'm just going to just add that no one should look at this as the only things that will ever be added to the Foundry, but things that are the most immediate needs. Think of this as Foundry triage.

I'm also noting that many people are listing interior/exterior building assets such as walls, ceilings, doors and floors over say freestanding objects. Are people feeling this is one of the most immediate needs?

Here's another question to throw into the mix. If we were to subdivide this hypothetical list into different categories, what percentages should they be?

primar13 · November 2013

Will update when I come up with more.

A Few Things I would really like are:

--The ability to make an interior map from scratch...
--I also want the starfleet Academy map the Outside Ground map along with the new starfleet academy shuttlebay..
--The Shuttlebay from the starship from the tutorial mission would be nice too.
--Interiors and Exterior Ground maps and Space Maps of All Fleet Holdings (FED and KDF)

A Few Long time Goals.
- Use of Current Game Maps. (a entire Mission on the Regular ESD without having to rebuild ESD-Using NPC's that are already present.)
- Have a Character Pilot a Ship other than their own. (Predesigned and Named Shuttle)
- Multiple Authors on a Story (Only one logged in at a time)
- Story Based Respawn Points on a Single Map. (Transport from ohttp://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/images/buttons/submit_save.gifne point to another within a story.)

lincolninspace · November 2013

paxfederatica wrote: »

Given the big deal Cryptic made of Legacy of Romulus, it seems to me that any new asset list should be heavy on LoR stuff. I'd go so far as to propose an even split between LoR-related assets and other assets in any shortlist.

Right now I think the only mission entry doors in Tau dewa for a Lvl 10 Republic player are the ones on the New Romulus ground map. That is it.

I think Pendra8080 is aimed in the right direction. We are not going to get all the maps we want so better assets are what we need.

I would add working Cardassian doors to the door list.

We already have mess hall assets so food related assets are covered.

I would love the Towers that are on the Hathon, Bajor map too. I think they could work for portraying other Federation worlds.

My list would look like this:

Maps:
Fed players shuttle interior
SF Academy
Player ship interior Fed (When it is released)
Player Ship interior Klingon
Player Ship interior Romulan
Blank map
water map (just water and sky)

U.S.S. Dewitt
The Vault
Virinat (before the attack)

Objects:

Opening wall doors for Romulan, Klingon, Cardassian and generic ships.
ditto on floor and ceiling textures.
TOS walls
More Transporter pads, The ones on New Romulus and the KDF ones too.
Bajoran uniform
Towers on the Hathon, Bajor map
Tholian consoles
Ground vehicles/ generic alien beasts
Water (In large cubes that can be placed)
Fed space ship windows (curved windows like we have in the current player ship mess hall and Capt's quarters)
salogen lab beds
salogen npcs
Morn npc (You know you want Morn)
Romulan furniture (the couches, desk etc like on the flotilla)
Romulan singularity core
Exocomps
new romulus (planet)
Earth (Planet)
Romulan shuttle prop
Fed runabout prop

My shortlist:

Fed shuttle interior
SF Academy
Blank map
Water map
opening wall doors kdf, tos, Rom, Cardassian generic etc
carpet floors
ceilings
more lights
Fed ship windows
singularity core
new romulus (planet)
Earth (Planet)
salogen beds
salogen npcs
Player ship interior Fed (When it is released)
Player Ship interior Klingon
Player Ship interior Romulan
Romulan shuttle prop
Fed runabout prop

bazag · November 2013

Doors

Opening, Open and Closed Varieties, KDF, Rommie and other. Perhaps 9 or 12 in total? Dyson sphere doors?

Maps:

Shuttle bay, Bridge and interior from Fed Tutorial
Empty
Captains Table

Romulan Consoles, walls and floors

lincolninspace · November 2013

That is a good practical list. Lets hope we get this at least.

nagorak · November 2013

I think the best thing would be to gather maybe 100 assets that we come up with and then have a poll where people select their top 10 or 20. Whatever comes out on top gets sent in.

paxfederatica · November 2013

Legacy of Romulus assets:
Ground: New Romulus ground map
Ground: New Romulus Command Center interior map
Ground: Romulan Republic walls, doors, etc.
Ground: Dewan arthropod mobs
Ground: Romulan Republic standard uniforms
Ground: Imperial Romulan/Tal Shiar standard uniforms
Ground: Romulan Republic ship interior
Space: New Romulus space map

Other assets:
Ground: Flat/empty ground map (for custom interiors)
Ground: Starfleet Academy
Ground: Animated Klingon-logo doors (as seen on Khitomer in Romulan mission "Turning Point")
Ground: Fed and KDF ship interiors (at least the medium-sized ones)
Space: Updated Jouret map (w/ Iconian gateway)
Space: Obelisk Carrier

markhawkman · November 2013

nagorak wrote: »

I think the best thing would be to gather maybe 100 assets that we come up with and then have a poll where people select their top 10 or 20. Whatever comes out on top gets sent in.

heh, I can't think of any other way to narrow it down.

lincolninspace · November 2013

I think when we ask for doors we should specify that we want walls with working doors in them. There are working fed doors that are a stand alone asset and they are basically useless.

wombat140 · November 2013

Poll sounds like a good idea. It'd be a lot of options for one poll, but you could break it down by category - maps, items and so on - if need be. (I don't know what the limits are on polls.)

To me, the most important thing in that line would be to be able to specify the player's OWN ship as the map - say, instead of having to choose some particular class of bridge to represent the player's bridge, you can select a generic bridge layout on which you place your NPCs and so on, and it then maps onto whatever the player's own bridge happens to be. Same for, say, sickbay, engineering and a generic deck with rooms and corridors. This is a much more obvious problem even than it used to be, now that Romulans with their dramatically different ships are able to play Foundry missions meant for Starfleet. But maybe this isn't really the kind of thing this thread is looking for.

Otherwise, I'd like a blank NPC graphic for those times when there doesn't seem to be anything suitable to show for a dialogue (like Bob in "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey", who is currently represented by a picture of a crate when he talks). And/or maybe a dark silhouette, like the mystery voice in "Standoff".

kirksplat · November 2013

I would invite you guys to consider some of my top 10 suggests in Primetime UGC. I tried to pick out things that a. exist in game, and b. would be universally useful.

lincolninspace · November 2013

wombat140 wrote: »

Poll sounds like a good idea. It'd be a lot of options for one poll, but you could break it down by category - maps, items and so on - if need be. (I don't know what the limits are on polls.)

To me, the most important thing in that line would be to be able to specify the player's OWN ship as the map - say, instead of having to choose some particular class of bridge to represent the player's bridge, you can select a generic bridge layout on which you place your NPCs and so on, and it then maps onto whatever the player's own bridge happens to be. Same for, say, sickbay, engineering and a generic deck with rooms and corridors. This is a much more obvious problem even than it used to be, now that Romulans with their dramatically different ships are able to play Foundry missions meant for Starfleet. But maybe this isn't really the kind of thing this thread is looking for.

Otherwise, I'd like a blank NPC graphic for those times when there doesn't seem to be anything suitable to show for a dialogue (like Bob in "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey", who is currently represented by a picture of a crate when he talks). And/or maybe a dark silhouette, like the mystery voice in "Standoff".

What you are describing in the first paragraph is new tech which would not be the job of the art department I don't think.

As for blank npc's you could create them with the costume import feature, which many authors sorely miss. I have a blank costume saved as part of a template mission. It comes in handy.

adverbero · November 2013

lincolninspace wrote: »

I think when we ask for doors we should specify that we want walls with working doors in them. There are working fed doors that are a stand alone asset and they are basically useless.

very good point, we'd need accompanying surroundings for our doors

primar13 · November 2013

Hey All

I am working on Compiling a list from all the previous posts in the thread. (Currently 4 Pages in Categories)

If I was to create a Google Form with the Option to pick only a certain amount of options from the list (probably 10 or 15) do you think we could get it posted to maybe the hope page of Facebook page by Branflakes?

Let me know I planned on releasing the Form here Monday.

primar13 · November 2013

Here is the Compiled List I Suggest Sending this on to Rivera

I compiled this from all the posts in this Thread.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2DdDHvQiKSgT1J4QV85cThoTVU/edit?usp=sharing

starswordc · November 2013

That's a good list. Something I would like to add: horizontal invisible walls for space maps (in other words, invisible floor pieces).

adverbero · November 2013

primar13 wrote: »

Here is the Compiled List I Suggest Sending this on to Rivera

I compiled this from all the posts in this Thread.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2DdDHvQiKSgT1J4QV85cThoTVU/edit?usp=sharing

i didn't see the generic doors listed there, The ones from nimbus? those could be useful for placing on the generic ship interiors

drogyn1701 · November 2013

I'm comfortable with that list. Thanks for compiling it. Once folks sign off on it we can tweet it to Geko, unless someone knows of a better way.

thegreendragoon1 · November 2013

primar13 wrote: »

Here is the Compiled List I Suggest Sending this on to Rivera

I compiled this from all the posts in this Thread.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2DdDHvQiKSgT1J4QV85cThoTVU/edit?usp=sharing

So, I'm concerned that it's too long. There are almost 100 assets and 30 maps which according to Al in the interview is very unlikely to happen. We can ask for things until we're blue in the face (and have been for years) but unless we can actually ask for something they're willing to give us, we're just back where we started.

That said, this may be a good list to put up for a vote. Btw, does anyone know a poll creator that can deal with a hundred entries?

primar13 · November 2013

thegreendragoon1 wrote: »

So, I'm concerned that it's too long. There are almost 100 assets and 30 maps which according to Al in the interview is very unlikely to happen. We can ask for things until we're blue in the face (and have been for years) but unless we can actually ask for something they're willing to give us, we're just back where we started.

That said, this may be a good list to put up for a vote. Btw, does anyone know a poll creator that can deal with a hundred entries?

_____________________

I started a Google Form...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19NFaClTSsBItwe_p4Th4ATkAVigyrYhhD05RJpxMmmY/viewform

We can limit per "Question"

I Put them All in One "Question" and Limited to 25? Go through and see if you believe this number should be increased.

We can use any of these Limitations:

We can say check a Minimum of ___ Items
We can say you have to check ____ Items
We can say you can only check a maximum of ___ Items

___________

The results show a Percentage for Each Item

So I would Choose the 25 items with the highest Percentage.

lincolninspace · November 2013

starswordc wrote: »

That's a good list. Something I would like to add: horizontal invisible walls for space maps (in other words, invisible floor pieces).

Ooh I really want those.

Edit: I did the forum survey and it was a great idea. I hope 25 items is not too much.

thegreendragoon1 · November 2013

primar13 wrote: »

_____________________

I started a Google Form...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19NFaClTSsBItwe_p4Th4ATkAVigyrYhhD05RJpxMmmY/viewform

We can limit per "Question"

I Put them All in One "Question" and Limited to 25? Go through and see if you believe this number should be increased.

We can use any of these Limitations:

We can say check a Minimum of ___ Items
We can say you have to check ____ Items
We can say you can only check a maximum of ___ Items

___________

The results show a Percentage for Each Item

So I would Choose the 25 items with the highest Percentage.

This is excellent. No, I think 25 is a good number, I wouldn't go any higher. This will allow for us to hopefully prioritize the list.

One recommendation I would make is to separate maps, objects, ships and costumes into separate polls. Each of these have different workflows for getting these into the Foundry, so they may end up being transferred by different people.

How to Assemble the Asset Shortlist

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