Forums » Suggestions
Loading screen changes
I must admit that there is little role playing per say being done in-game.
Most are just being themselves with the added twist of some character traits. Just listening to channel 100 is enough to pull you right out of the game and back into dudes-and-dudettes-in-front-of-colorful-boxes reality.
I've noticed recently that the game (aka, software) is partly responsible for this. Although subtle, there's often a reminder that's you're just driving a software.
One more flagrant example is the wormhole jump "loading" screen.
When I warp somewhere else, I dont want to be reminded that a software on my computer needs to update schematics, position and specifics of a virtual subworld's region.
That blue "progress bar at the bottom", just a small change would make it way more entertaining: draw the current ship in front of it, vibrating slightly as it surges forward, with some dang-fast-looking passing stars in the background as if looking at yourself from a distance as if in a movie. Removing the static splash screen on top (with the word "Loading") in favor of (at the simplest) the chat window or (better still) some sort of animated sequence depicting one's travel within the VO universe (one specific for every WH direction I suppose). Disguise the "hints/tips" messages in the loading screen as some kind of "fake" broadcast announcements from the nations.
Just removing hints of "it" being a software ratter than a story line, play or movie being interacted upon, would make VO more immersion-able.
Same thing for the "options" screens. A slight change of wording might convey the illusion that one is configuring his ship ratter than his "joystick", "mouse", "keyboard", "graphics" resolution.
I just dont like being constantly reminded I'm playing a game. Perhaps this would help in-game role-playing a bit.
Most are just being themselves with the added twist of some character traits. Just listening to channel 100 is enough to pull you right out of the game and back into dudes-and-dudettes-in-front-of-colorful-boxes reality.
I've noticed recently that the game (aka, software) is partly responsible for this. Although subtle, there's often a reminder that's you're just driving a software.
One more flagrant example is the wormhole jump "loading" screen.
When I warp somewhere else, I dont want to be reminded that a software on my computer needs to update schematics, position and specifics of a virtual subworld's region.
That blue "progress bar at the bottom", just a small change would make it way more entertaining: draw the current ship in front of it, vibrating slightly as it surges forward, with some dang-fast-looking passing stars in the background as if looking at yourself from a distance as if in a movie. Removing the static splash screen on top (with the word "Loading") in favor of (at the simplest) the chat window or (better still) some sort of animated sequence depicting one's travel within the VO universe (one specific for every WH direction I suppose). Disguise the "hints/tips" messages in the loading screen as some kind of "fake" broadcast announcements from the nations.
Just removing hints of "it" being a software ratter than a story line, play or movie being interacted upon, would make VO more immersion-able.
Same thing for the "options" screens. A slight change of wording might convey the illusion that one is configuring his ship ratter than his "joystick", "mouse", "keyboard", "graphics" resolution.
I just dont like being constantly reminded I'm playing a game. Perhaps this would help in-game role-playing a bit.
Yay! mgl_mouser: you have a fan!
I dont' think blaming the software is the problem for lack of roleplay. How many years did people roleplay with pencils and paper. Its the individuals that need to make it a point to speak in character, act in character, in essence be their character. Now /100 does not help that but then if that's a problem for you, turn that channel off and only stick with the official RP channel (check channel list for specific #) Try leading by example instead of placing the problem on the software. If you need to say something out of character try prefecing it with OOC (out of character) or simply using a /msg.
Having said that, I agree that the load screens suck and should be changed to a more fluid transitions. Perhaps an animated flight though the WH like in SG-1 or FTL travel like ST or something new that is specific to VO. And as for the options pannel, I don't really feel that needs changing. When your changing the game to work with your physical hardware, who cares if your "in-character" or "out of character".
Having said that, I agree that the load screens suck and should be changed to a more fluid transitions. Perhaps an animated flight though the WH like in SG-1 or FTL travel like ST or something new that is specific to VO. And as for the options pannel, I don't really feel that needs changing. When your changing the game to work with your physical hardware, who cares if your "in-character" or "out of character".
Fact is, I'm a heavy (A)D&D role player. Been playing for 20+ years actually (all editions thus far). Although we've had papers, dices and pens to deal with, we always somehow were able to stay in-game (well, pretty much all the time). That's partly due to the fact that the Dungeon Master (whoever's turn it was) never purposely reminded you that we were all cramped in the kitchen/living room and thus the castle walls were "about the color of your stove". To keep the analogy, in this case, the software IS the DM.
I'm not blaming the software. But ratter, stating that the software often pulls you back with subtleties. And that with simple tweaks, the "game" would disappear in favor of the "universe".
From my observations, the Loading screen (as you concur) is the most annoying/visible one.
I'm not blaming the software. But ratter, stating that the software often pulls you back with subtleties. And that with simple tweaks, the "game" would disappear in favor of the "universe".
From my observations, the Loading screen (as you concur) is the most annoying/visible one.
I have to agree with mouser here. Once the jump is initiated, we have a screen showing a somewhat technical drawing of a planet, and the aforementioned blue bar.
I remember reading somewhere from one of the devs that the load screen is just a static place-holder or some-such, where they can't or don't want to spend the time making it dynamic.
What they could do (more of a quick fix) is to make a black screen with the *progress bar* a wormhole like image that starts in the center of your screen and slowly (or quickly, depending on your connection speed) fills the screen with a wh like look. (thinking of the movie Contact with Jodie Foster)
I remember reading somewhere from one of the devs that the load screen is just a static place-holder or some-such, where they can't or don't want to spend the time making it dynamic.
What they could do (more of a quick fix) is to make a black screen with the *progress bar* a wormhole like image that starts in the center of your screen and slowly (or quickly, depending on your connection speed) fills the screen with a wh like look. (thinking of the movie Contact with Jodie Foster)
The reason they don't draw something cool while you're loading the next sector is because that takes processing power, which makes the game itself load less quickly. It's pretty, sure, but it keeps you waiting longer. However, I wouldn't mind a static graphic showing information on the system you're travelling to. Let's say, a background with a particularly beautiful shot of something in the system, with information on factions, primary control, hive activity, etc. overlaid on one corner.
Nah, that's a bogus excuse. A small animation wouldn't slow network traffic. Trust me. I work for Oracle and I have a pretty good idea of what it means to poll data through a wide area network.
I doubt most of the loading time is spent waiting on network traffic, my guess is most of it is loading data off the local disk. Having to load an animation and play it, along with the data that would normally be loaded would add to the loading time - whether or not the pretty animation or whatever is worth the additional loading time is a matter of opinion. Personally I've never cared much for eye-candy for the sake of eye-candy, and would rather keep the loading time as low as possible, even though there wouldn't be a big difference in the time, either way.
As far as the suspension of disbelief issue goes, I don't think that argument holds very well. Suspension of disbelief is at least 95% the responsibility of the player, not the game. The game is a game, there's no way it can trick the player into thinking it's not a game - unless the player willing participates in suspending their disbelief. And if the player is willing to suspend their disbelief, I can't see how a loading screen animation is going to change that at all.
As far as the suspension of disbelief issue goes, I don't think that argument holds very well. Suspension of disbelief is at least 95% the responsibility of the player, not the game. The game is a game, there's no way it can trick the player into thinking it's not a game - unless the player willing participates in suspending their disbelief. And if the player is willing to suspend their disbelief, I can't see how a loading screen animation is going to change that at all.
Beolach, actually, a good amount of the loading time is loading all of the objects in the sector over the network. I know 100% that the locations of the objects are loaded.... most of the textures are either preloaded in memory, or loaded off the HD when a new texture comes into play... as for the wireframes, I'm pretty sure those are in the media pool on your hard drive as well.
But it takes time to get those hundreds of asteroid locations over the network, sync up other players in the sector, sync up NPC locations, sync up the asteroid rotation, etc. The majority of that is happening over the network.
Technically speaking, from an application developer point of view, one could pre-cache a nice 3D jump sequence and have it run in an asynchronous thread. Assuming it doesn't do any disk loading (hence pre-cached), It wouldn't cause and IO blocking, and it would put little load on the CPU, unless you're running in Software OpenGL mode, and if you are, I pity you :P
Edit:
And about the "Suspension of Disbelief", I think the idea is actually about "Immersion", in which case, anything that takes you out of the cockpit (eg. jump animation, loading screen), reduces the immersion of the player in the game. And, while I agree that it's just a game, and half of the player base could not really give a damn, I'd like to think increasing the immersion of the player in the game shouldn't be something you bicker about. And none of that "It's a waste of the dev's time" or "they have better things to do", that's up to the dev's, not the players, let them make the call.
But it takes time to get those hundreds of asteroid locations over the network, sync up other players in the sector, sync up NPC locations, sync up the asteroid rotation, etc. The majority of that is happening over the network.
Technically speaking, from an application developer point of view, one could pre-cache a nice 3D jump sequence and have it run in an asynchronous thread. Assuming it doesn't do any disk loading (hence pre-cached), It wouldn't cause and IO blocking, and it would put little load on the CPU, unless you're running in Software OpenGL mode, and if you are, I pity you :P
Edit:
And about the "Suspension of Disbelief", I think the idea is actually about "Immersion", in which case, anything that takes you out of the cockpit (eg. jump animation, loading screen), reduces the immersion of the player in the game. And, while I agree that it's just a game, and half of the player base could not really give a damn, I'd like to think increasing the immersion of the player in the game shouldn't be something you bicker about. And none of that "It's a waste of the dev's time" or "they have better things to do", that's up to the dev's, not the players, let them make the call.
1) Take 100 screenshots without any of the interface showing
2) Make randomizer that picks a random one
3) Exchange the half-wireframe load picture with said random screenshot
Adds .002 seconds load time, 5-6MB download (depending on the size/quality of the shots) and adds immersion.
That's atleast a great, fast and easy way to do it for now.
Should take half a dev half a day, unless the load screen is hardcoded somewhere messy, except for the "take 100 screenshots" part, but those could be player-submitted.
2) Make randomizer that picks a random one
3) Exchange the half-wireframe load picture with said random screenshot
Adds .002 seconds load time, 5-6MB download (depending on the size/quality of the shots) and adds immersion.
That's atleast a great, fast and easy way to do it for now.
Should take half a dev half a day, unless the load screen is hardcoded somewhere messy, except for the "take 100 screenshots" part, but those could be player-submitted.