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Not necessarily. Propel summons a random object, and that object isn't necessarily the same for any given two players viewing it.
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Originally Posted by jackattack
Does everyone see the same thing on their screen?
Does everyone have to see the same thing on their screen? |
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
As a general concept, I have nothing against this idea. Hell, it's pretty cool, actually - rather than seeing statues and pictures of strangers, we could see such of ourselves, and in so doing feel like we're making an impact.
On a technical level, however, I feel there may be rather a few more hurdles than you suspect. I'm pretty sure local content is quite possible, as people have been doing it for years, but what do you envision these billboards displaying? Just a mugshot of your hero or villain? Them doing something? If so, doing what? Wouldn't that be kind of specific to the character? You see them, but wearing which costume? The one you're wearing now? That's kind of TOO convenient a coincidence, and what of people who regularly swap? A costume from a slot at random? What if you have slots that people aren't supposed to know about in-canon?
Do your hero show up with other heroes? If not, then why not? They're supposed to be working together. If so, then which heroes? Heroes on your account? Heroes belonging to other people? Maybe a Vigilante should show up with a Rogue?
I don't say this to shoot you down, merely to point out that there are a lot of questions about the practical implementation of such a system in an inclusive way even before you get down to the technical aspects of how to programme it. Again - I'd like to see "that," but I'm not sure precisely what it is that I'd like to see, practically speaking. "Pictures of my hero" isn't specific enough.
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That said, seeing my NAME around the city, that should be much easier. People already talk about our exploits, and I'd have no problem with extending this to news paper, the occasional radio talking about the exploits of heroes and so forth. That shouldn't raise too many questions.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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this system is somewhat already in fable 2, you let the sculpture make a statue of your character and the statue is there when you zone in and out.
the only way a statue could work is when there is some kind of sculpture to make the statue, this will address the problem where the costume is changed on your character.
the only problem is the MMO aspect of this, fable 2 is restricted to 2 players so it's easy to do, CoX is with thousands of players so the server database needs to keep track of all the statues.
it's not a question of possibility, it's more a question of resources and memory space.
Everything that happens in the game is done server-side and thus happens to everyone the same.
How everything looks, however, is client side (this includes Physics) and so can be different for each player (see: Custom icons/maps/etc as well as ragdoll effects on mobs).
So it would "just" be a case of having the client generate texture or object data for your character on login, for example, and then using that to texture your billboards and display your statues. Of course, the practicalities of actually doing so are well outside my sphere of knowledge about the game.
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I think it's possible to dynamically create an image in-game, as a system like that is used to generate the pictures for contacts, your own ID card, and your costume slots. That said, all of those exist only in the UI. I'm not sure if that's a problem, but it could very well be. The actual swap-out is much easier, thanks to the code used for in-game advertising.|
Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU
So it would "just" be a case of having the client generate texture or object data for your character on login, for example, and then using that to texture your billboards and display your statues. Of course, the practicalities of actually doing so are well outside my sphere of knowledge about the game.
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As for custom geometry, that technology is already available. AE contacts swap their appearance locally, and presumably Praetoria's phasing tech works similarly.
That said, I do find myself agreeing with Sam, especially once we start talking about statues. Most of the heroes you see statues of died in order to get that sort of memorial, and even then, it would still be sort of odd to see a statue of characters that aren't traditional heroes.
All that said, if it was possible to get my villains' faces on wanted posters as seen in various places in the Rogue Isles, that would be very, very cool to the point where that should be the first goal in implementing this.
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Statues are a bit iffy for me, as well, since there are too many variables that come with them, like material, pose, location, quantity and so forth.
On the other hand, mugshots of both heroes and villains are easy. The game is already rigged to snap those, as our ID card photos are generated dynamically. I could definitely see those spliced into newspaper articles, wanted posters, billboards and so forth.
Hell, the mute nodder from the screen on the TPN building would make for a good template for these things. Just have a basic foreground of a guy at a desk reading the news, a space for a mugshot, then a small text blurb saying "<character name> <accomplished task> earlier today."
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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If statues are a bridge too far, then forget the statues. Or leave them for Level 50s only.
But a wanted poster of a villain, or a handbill for "Your-Hero's-Name Day", or a billboard that says "Your-Supergroup-Name Says 'Stay Vigilant!'", or a shot of your character on the news would go a long way toward making each character the star of his own story rather than just another hero in others' shadows.
And it would be cool.
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A small medium (handbill or poster) would probably have the head shot from the ID screen -- villains' would say "Wanted" above and NAME below, while heroes' might say NAME above and "Day" below. A large medium (billboard) might show the full toon in one of the heroic poses -- villains' might say "Public Enemy Number One" and heroes' might say "Paragon City's Protector". But these are details that can be worked out later.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
What do you envision these billboards displaying? Just a mugshot of your hero or villain? Them doing something? If so, doing what? Wouldn't that be kind of specific to the character? You see them, but wearing which costume? The one you're wearing now? That's kind of TOO convenient a coincidence, and what of people who regularly swap? A costume from a slot at random?
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If this is something that needs to be as simple as possible, or uses the same base settings for every user, then it should probably default to Costume 1. If this is something that can accept lots of variables that we can set, there might be a "publicity agent" interface that allows each user to specify costume (by slot, or variable, or the one they logged out in) and pose and background and whatever else.
If motion is possible, you might even be able to specify which power animation you want to show in the clip, and who your hero is clobbering with it.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
What if you have slots that people aren't supposed to know about in-canon?
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If it defaults to the costume the hero logged out in, then the user can make sure he doesn't log out in a secret costume.
Maybe this should be optional, with a trial required to activate the publicity.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Do your hero show up with other heroes? If not, then why not? They're supposed to be working together.
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I would like to think that my character is the star of his own story, no matter how many teams or supergroups he is involved with. And who says we have to play a certain way? Some heroes work alone, some work with their supergroups, and some team with whoever is available. No style of play is less legitimate than any other.
As for supergroups, some of them are absolutely huge, and it would be silly to try to put all of their members on a single poster or billboard. If (big if) we can choose to add other heroes to our publicity, perhaps we will be able to specify which members appear with our hero. But it is probably much more practical to put the group's name and emblem up than a big group picture.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
There are a lot of questions about the practical implementation of such a system in an inclusive way even before you get down to the technical aspects of how to programme it.
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The AE contact changes depending on the mission you are doing, so no, visuals (including costumed people) are not locked based on the server.
A possible issue with a gigantic statue is collision detection.
I'll admit I'm not super crazy about "customized realities." I find it immersion breaking when two players can't agree on what that statue or poster actually is. I wish more MMOs would focus on the "shared world with repeatable content" element and stop trying to beat single player games at "storytelling." The games that have done this, IMO, have much more succesful RP communities because everyone can agree on what actually is happening. IMO of course.
One thing that I think might work almost as well, and even be the same for everyone playing, would be if images of the people currently in zone occasionally flashed up on the TV screens inside shops, using the preview image loaded from the /info box.
Seems a bit futuristic, but I found a solution to the statue issue, make them holographic!
If they're holographic then you could have a statue as big as 30ft tall and there would be no collision-detection issues, you'd just pass through it.
Could always have the statues rotate depending on who is in the zone, you don't always have to see your own character for it to work, it's kind of like the random praise from citizens, sometimes it's better to hear it every once in a while to make it seem like they care when you feel nobody does 
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I have to preface this with a technical question:
Does everyone see the same thing on their screen?
Does everyone have to see the same thing on their screen?
Can certain static items (statues, posters, billboards) be set up to show different things on different players' monitors, kind of like a greenscreen that layers an image set by each player's account/character?
If that is possible, then why not set it up so that each player sees his character's (and/or supergroup's) name and/or face around the city?
At lower levels, heroes might be on notices and villains might be on wanted posters. At middle levels, their names might be on billboards and/or faces might be on billboards. At high levels, they might even get a statue.
But each player would only see their own character's name/image. Two players whose characters were side by side looking at the same greenscreen billboard would see two different images. While that might seem confusing, it avoids issues like who "deserves" to have their name/image featured, or how long to leave any individual on the billboard, or a player missing his character because he missed it in a rotation, etc.
I would suggest one greenscreen in each zone that shows your current character, although there might not be a greenscreen in every zone. (Crey's Folly and Boomtown wouldn't have them, for example.)
This could be an optional feature, requiring purchase with Influence, or possibly a mission arc to activate.
Thoughts?