A Red Dwarf Holoship

kayajay · August 2021

Does everyone remember the episode of "Red Dwarf" with the Holoship? I really would love for there to be a hologram presence in STO.

Dr. Zimmerman, "Why is everyone so worried about holograms taking over the universe?"

We've got hologram BOFF's and of course, if they were bad guys, it would be terrific if they were formidable on the ground, able to spring back up and like the Doctor, flip about and their ships...holographic, with a complete new twist.

I'm not talking about wave after wave after wave, but a one-on-one space battle with something interesting and the same on the ground, like when you go up against a Changeling.

I'm sure The Picardo would come back and then there's the Hirogen's holograms, the Hirogen's rogue holograms and I don't know...just a bit more fun and interest than Disco is giving us, or ever has done.

I just really don't want to see anymore flying sanitary wear or something found in a baseball player's locker room.

leemwatson · August 2021

Yeah, but scientifically, the Red Dwarf Holoship made no sense and broke the laws of physics. The power output alone would probably exceed that which could be provided by 'normal means' as Red Dwarf could only sustain 1 hologram 'officially' (yes I know they repeatedly broke that law). The holoships Be'lanna created couldn't actually fire actual weapons and they could barely sustain 4 small holographic ships, and what we can do in-game is far-fetched as it is. An actual Star Trek Holoship wouldn't make sense, the power requirements are massive, and how do you prevent it from being so easily disrupted and destroyed. That warp core will be toast in seconds by radiation/pulse wave et al.

rattler2 · August 2021

Honestly the only kind of holoship we can get is either the holoship from Insurrection, or some version of the Incursion Holocloak from SFC3 and Away Team, which technically we have already with the GPL holoemitters.

qultuq · August 2021

"Oh and sir, you're wrong. We won't be apart, we just ... won't be together."
— Arnold J. Rimmer, B.S.C.

rattler2 · August 2021

westmetals wrote: »

And the science captain ability that generates holographic ships.... I forget what it's called.

Photonic Fleet.

fleetcaptain5 · August 2021

rattler2 wrote: »

Honestly the only kind of holoship we can get is either the holoship from Insurrection, or some version of the Incursion Holocloak from SFC3 and Away Team, which technically we have already with the GPL holoemitters.

The holoship from Insurrection wasn't really a holographic ship though. It was just a regular ship consisting of metal and stuff, equipped with either many or a few very powerful holo-emitters, capable of recreating the entire Ba'ku village (and maybe even the planet, if people like Artim wandered off too far?). It was basically a flying holodeck.

So we basically have that already, it's just that our ships aren't limited to being merely a holodeck.

fleetcaptain5 · August 2021

kayajay wrote: »

Does everyone remember the episode of "Red Dwarf" with the Holoship? I really would love for there to be a hologram presence in STO.

Dr. Zimmerman, "Why is everyone so worried about holograms taking over the universe?"

We've got hologram BOFF's and of course, if they were bad guys, it would be terrific if they were formidable on the ground, able to spring back up and like the Doctor, flip about and their ships...holographic, with a complete new twist.

I'm not talking about wave after wave after wave, but a one-on-one space battle with something interesting and the same on the ground, like when you go up against a Changeling.

I'm sure The Picardo would come back and then there's the Hirogen's holograms, the Hirogen's rogue holograms and I don't know...just a bit more fun and interest than Disco is giving us, or ever has done.

I just really don't want to see anymore flying sanitary wear or something found in a baseball player's locker room.

They could add this, but it would mostly be just regular ships blinking on and off as if they're phasing in and out of existence (like the ships from Photonic Fleet do).

The most severe limitation would likely be explaining how these ships suddenly got viable alternatives to real ships, as explained by leemwatson. And in terms of player experience, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. Just some special visual effects, basically.

Which means that they might as well add some new visuals that can be equipped on all ships. Call them holographic shielding or something like that, it could be a console with some shield boost stats that has the added benefit of displaying holographic blinking like the Photonic ships have.
Then it would basically be the same effect players got to see as having 'true' holographic ships, but also more interesting to all other players who are flying other ships.

fleetcaptain5 · August 2021

Now, it would suffer from the limitation that any new visual will be drawn out by the tons of visuals we already have.

But that would also be the case with 'real' holographic ships. Letting new visuals stand out is going to be difficult, regardless of whether they're added in the form of special holographic ships, or as an additional (for example, console- or shield-bound) effect that can be added to all ships.

The latter still has the other benefits mentioned above though.