test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

will there be any new bridges?

warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
would very much like to see a STMP K'tinga bridge with rotating weapons stations abaft the captain's chair, and it's canon
WE SURVIVE!

aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
either to conquer or to die for the Empire
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
«1

Comments

  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    A few people want STO to be Bridge Commander (it's in the F.C.T. list) but that would be a new game not STO.

    I remember back in 2012 when you needed to go to your bridge and then go deck to deck to find Engineering, Medical, Science, etc. for the different doff missions. Players enjoyed doing that once or twice, but after that all of the walking around and map transitions felt like a waste of time just to play the doffing minigame.

    It's like sector space travel: enjoyable at first, but eventually you're getting up to get a drink or switching to something else while the minutes crawl by.

    I like the idea of bridges, and I like visiting them at first. Needing to visit them all of the time is much less fun.

    Cryptic is right to let us play the game without forced bridge visits, and as a consequence bridges are not important to the game.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    A few people want STO to be Bridge Commander (it's in the F.C.T. list) but that would be a new game not STO.
    Honestly what people seem to asking often would be even more work then Bridge Commander style piloting, what they're asking is essentially for the game to run 2 maps at once a fully usable interior with no limits as where you can go on the bridge while piloting the ship from the bridge and a standard space map or the sector space map (oh and due how the game is programmed 2 instances of your character at the same time that do different things).

    After all Bridge Commander that very limited interactions with the crew as it was flight sim with your bridge crew replacing the UI function of various dials and switches in a more traditional flight sim. In Bridge Commander your captain has their rear glued to the center chair 24/7 and can only turn around.
  • qultuqqultuq Member Posts: 988 Arc User
    > @spiritborn said:
    > Honestly what people seem to asking often would be even more work then Bridge Commander style piloting, what they're asking is essentially for the game to run 2 maps at once a fully usable interior with no limits as where you can go on the bridge while piloting the ship from the bridge and a standard space map or the sector space map (oh and due how the game is programmed 2 instances of your character at the same time that do different things).
    >

    It would be cool though. Expensive and impractical, but really immersive. Even if they could just fake it with timers for travel between systems, it would be cool.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    The only game I know of that does that very well is Star Citizen, which is on CryEngine3, an engine designed from the ground up for player character's to stay in one form and use vehicles instead of switching between ground characters and space ships as alternate forms.
  • raijinmeister#1931 raijinmeister Member Posts: 192 Arc User
    Not sure about new bridges but they should fix the old ones. At least the ones sold in packs. I paid for a bunch of those bridge packs and can't use any because they are so awfully scaled that completely ruins any immersion using them. I end up using the Origin one for Fed ships. And some BoP bridges for my KDF ships. Romulan ships have good ones. Not perfect but really nice. Even Discovery era ships got some nice ones.
    Also, can we get a TMP-era and a proper Sovereign bridge? One can wish.
  • dewolf13dewolf13 Member Posts: 67 Arc User
    There are any number of activities which could be hooked up to interactive elements in our ship interiors. Personally, I wouldn't mind them making ship interiors an alternative map to load into between missions instead of sector space. we can already transwarp to any relevant mission. So why not tell the hemsman where to go and once you click engage, a timer/distance indicator simulates trsavel time. And once arriving at the destination, the transporter room becomes the door to beam down to the ground map, or sitting in the captain's chair transitions to a space map. Depending on the distance, there could be randomly triggered events that present a decision we need to make.

    This would be orders of magnitude more fun and immersive than the current system of sector space travel. It is a role-playing game after all, so one would hope immersing the player in the role would be a priority. However, I agree it is not likely to ever happen, just due to resources.

    But aside from that, I don't really see a reason NOT to implement something like that hypothetically. I think sector space travel became meaningless when it became free to transwarp to a mission destination (at least, it's like that for me, I don't know if it's some reward or commendation bonus, but I remember back in the day I had to spend energy credits to transwarp - and even that was not really a steep price to pay given how EC-rich end-game players are). Now it's just a tabletop map of the galaxy, and not even a particularly good-looking or functional one at that. I mean, I'm glad it's there rather than the alternative of not having anything at all, and just teleporting from mission to mission. But something like you suggest would be so much more meaningful.

    I feel like there are also these half-hearted attempts - perhaps by old devs/studios that died in new hands - to try to make content for ship interiors. I remember the first time I explored an interior and found the 'library computer' or whatever, and it said I'd have to use it for missions... I assumed it would be more than one or two missions.

    A few people want STO to be Bridge Commander (it's in the F.C.T. list) but that would be a new game not STO.

    Bridge Commander is about the entire gameplay being from the captain's chair, not just using the ship interior to trigger gameplay transitions. If someone said they wanted combat also from the ship interior, then yes that's just Bridge Commander. But I think using ship interiors to interact with the stories in the game makes perfect sense for a Star Trek RPG.

    Cryptic is right to let us play the game without forced bridge visits, and as a consequence bridges are not important to the game.

    I agree that such content shouldn't be forced, but it wouldn't have to be. Just like sector space is no longer forced and players can just transwarp everywhere, and just like DOff department heads in the ship interior are not forced as players can just use the DOff interface, I think there could always be shortcuts for players that just want to teleport from mission to mission. Nothing wrong with that.

    But to completely neglect ship interiors in a Star Trek game is a huge missed opportunity.
  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,196 Arc User
    I wish they would at east update the generic alien bridge, it looks so dated now.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    dewolf13 wrote: »
    I agree that such content shouldn't be forced, but it wouldn't have to be. Just like sector space is no longer forced and players can just transwarp everywhere, and just like DOff department heads in the ship interior are not forced as players can just use the DOff interface, I think there could always be shortcuts for players that just want to teleport from mission to mission. Nothing wrong with that.

    But to completely neglect ship interiors in a Star Trek game is a huge missed opportunity.

    I like ship interiors, I just can't think of anything I'd actually use them for more than once or twice.

    Yes, some people would want to sit in the captain's chair waiting for a timer to count down while you travel to a story episode, but most players will just transwarp. So Cryptic would be doing the work for almost no use.

    Most players seem to want to pew-pew-pew in space combat as their main activity, and to a much lesser extent to pew-pew-pew on ground maps.

    Unless Cryptic can come up with something fun to do on your ship that isn't just busywork, something that adds to the game instead of just forcing the player to go there to do something they used to do elsewhere, I don't see Cryptic putting effort into bridges.

    In older threads, people have suggested "patrols" on your ship, like repelling a boarding party, but ground combat is a distant second for most players so I don't know how popular that would be.
  • shadowkoshshadowkosh Member Posts: 1,688 Arc User
    Still would like a TWOK bridge or Excelsior bridge
  • starshine#7408 starshine Member Posts: 127 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    The bridges I love, are locked to specific ships so can't use them on other ships. It'd be great if once you got a ship it unlocked the bridge for all your ships. If the Connie insides can fit in anything so can the rest.

    It'd be great to have boarding/incursion patrols, even if it was one set for each bridge and the attackers always spawned in the same places, it'd still be something and they'd come up on endeavours so that'd incentivise trying out all the bridges to see how changes

    It'd be nice if all the bridges got used in campaigns/story too. They exist and don't get used so missions might as well.
    TOS>LDS>DSC>VOY>DS9>PRO>ENT>TNG>PIC

    Bring the Enterprise XCV-330 to STO
  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    so, no bridges :( . gonna have to keep using a b'rel type bridge, small
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,354 Arc User
    I regret to inform you that while the recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill does include quite a bit of money for maintenance or replacement of existing bridges, there doesn't appear to be specific funding for new bridges. Sorry.
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    They really wouldn't even have to put in a timer, just have a way to kick off the standard transwarp-to-mission-location thing while sitting in the chair when you are done doing whatever onboard ship things you want to do first.

    A plus would be if they put the questgiver's picture that is normally on the floater on the mainscreen during the quest-acceptance stage when you first start the mission, though just being able to hit the transwarp button from the bridge would be good enough if the rest is too much trouble to code.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    They really wouldn't even have to put in a timer, just have a way to kick off the standard transwarp-to-mission-location thing while sitting in the chair when you are done doing whatever onboard ship things you want to do first. A plus would be if they put the questgiver's picture that is normally on the floater on the mainscreen during the quest-acceptance stage when you first start the mission.

    Doing the intro hail on the bridge main screen then transwarp to location does sound like a reasonably easy way to add some immersion, but the ancient STO engine might not support it since I don't think we've had cutscene video on the screen before and it means changing your "outer" map location while inside the "inner" map. I like the idea though.

  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    jonsills wrote: »
    I regret to inform you that while the recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill does include quite a bit of money for maintenance or replacement of existing bridges, there doesn't appear to be specific funding for new bridges. Sorry.

    this surprises me not at all
    They really wouldn't even have to put in a timer, just have a way to kick off the standard transwarp-to-mission-location thing while sitting in the chair when you are done doing whatever onboard ship things you want to do first. A plus would be if they put the questgiver's picture that is normally on the floater on the mainscreen during the quest-acceptance stage when you first start the mission.

    Doing the intro hail on the bridge main screen then transwarp to location does sound like a reasonably easy way to add some immersion, but the ancient STO engine might not support it since I don't think we've had cutscene video on the screen before and it means changing your "outer" map location while inside the "inner" map. I like the idea though.

    I'd love to see this happen B)
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    Speaking of the TMP K'Tinga bridge, I've noticed the D4x one is pretty close and does have the rotating tactical stations (they don't rotate of course, but their shape implies they do in-universe).
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    They really wouldn't even have to put in a timer, just have a way to kick off the standard transwarp-to-mission-location thing while sitting in the chair when you are done doing whatever onboard ship things you want to do first. A plus would be if they put the questgiver's picture that is normally on the floater on the mainscreen during the quest-acceptance stage when you first start the mission.

    Doing the intro hail on the bridge main screen then transwarp to location does sound like a reasonably easy way to add some immersion, but the ancient STO engine might not support it since I don't think we've had cutscene video on the screen before and it means changing your "outer" map location while inside the "inner" map. I like the idea though.

    "Viewport" projection rendering *IS* ancient 3d tech. That goes back decades, far enough back that its uses was 'rediscovered' for 'portals' in games like Valve's Portal games or the original Prey. There was another game that made use of it (which game skips my mind now) that used a static ship model in complete isolation that the player could walk around in, while what was happening outside of the ship was 'projected' onto the ship's viewports, giving the illusion that it was all one contiguous space. But if the player could walk out of the interior of ship, they'd find nothing outside of it.

    It may be "old" tech, but it still has to be coded into the engine for it to work, and unless I am mistaken, it is NOT coded into STO's engine.

    What do you think happens when you open a dialog box? The NPC is being rendered in complete isolation you wherever you are, and the result is displayed in the dialog UI. That is viewport projection rendering -- taking the render result of one viewport and projecting it into another.

    Yes, and the STO engine already has code to do that in a dialog box. New code is probably needed to do that inside of a ship located roughly where the main screen is. Not impossible, maybe not even difficult, but not there now.
  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    Speaking of the TMP K'Tinga bridge, I've noticed the D4x one is pretty close and does have the rotating tactical stations (they don't rotate of course, but their shape implies they do in-universe).

    what's it called, or is it specific to that ship?
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    Speaking of the TMP K'Tinga bridge, I've noticed the D4x one is pretty close and does have the rotating tactical stations (they don't rotate of course, but their shape implies they do in-universe).

    what's it called, or is it specific to that ship?
    Only for the D4x, unfortunately.
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • warmonger360warmonger360 Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    Speaking of the TMP K'Tinga bridge, I've noticed the D4x one is pretty close and does have the rotating tactical stations (they don't rotate of course, but their shape implies they do in-universe).

    what's it called, or is it specific to that ship?
    Only for the D4x, unfortunately.

    figures
    WE SURVIVE!

    aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
    either to conquer or to die for the Empire
  • crioijoulscrioijouls Member Posts: 141 Arc User
    With the recent in-game reference to the ending events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture presented in the new mission "Red Shift", I admit I can't help but hope we may eventually get a TMP / TWoK bridge and/or interior.
    Lifetime Subscriber since 2010
  • lianthelialianthelia Member Posts: 7,820 Arc User
    Only if they find a reason to build them for use in story missions. Otherwise, no. Bridges are a lot of work to create, offer no gameplay value, and don't sell well.

    I don't even think that is the case, several missions that take place on Crossfield class ships and still only get the basic bridge
This discussion has been closed.