Would optional mission related video footage add anything to the game?

bitstorm

bitstorm
Sorry I don't mean "cut scene" despite the title! It was a bad choice of phrase, think optional video footage, not full screen shinannegans you have to skip every single time forever, nobody would want that.


Just wondering what folk think.

So the proposal is that some missions have *video footage*, these could probably be easily procedurally generated with in game models using the game engine.

So an assassination mission might show shaky-cam footage of your target totalling some T7, perhaps with a bit of threatening comms chatter.

And perhaps once avatar creation comes in some footage of your actual target,or even the victim? Add in some cinematic shots with nice camera angle and show off the engine a bit.

I mean ultimately the mission would be just the same, so it doesn't add any gameplay, but would it add character or make things more interesting in any way?

Or perhaps the procedural nature of the missions system would just mean once you've seen one the novelty wears off?


Sometimes stuff like this offers benefits going forward, in this case I'm struggling to think what..

I suppose ultimately you'd just be presenting the mission information in a slightly more dynamic and optional form. I'd worry it'd be ultimately pointless if there's no actual potential benefit to watching them.

Perhaps if such a mechanism is in, it could be expanded on later in ways not possible with a purely text based mission format. SO a contrived example might be the mysterious SAP8 missions, these could show footage hinting at something. Maybe some visual clue implying some wider story, or audible morse in the background which could link to something, or perhaps some location could be inferred from the star backdrop which would lead the CMDR somewhere.

To extend the idea a bit further, perhaps it could be used for player bounties, when you hop into a system and see those top 5 most wanted. I mean seeing another CMDR in an FdL taking out a player Sidewinder offers a bit more impetus than seeing a CMDR in a Cobra getting scanned and fined for a huge slave haul.

Dunno just throwing ideas around, it may be a terrible one.
 
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Vasious

Vasious
I would say yes, then no as people would ask to skip them and just be presented the information and a quick digestible fashion, rather than a cut scene.

"I suppose ultimately you'd just be presenting the mission information in a slightly more dynamic and optional form. I'd worry they're ultimately pointless if there's no actual potential benefit to watching them."

Perhaps if there was some advantage it, so you could choose to watch the Black box recordings of the last victim, and you could gain an idea of the targets ship class and weapons from the visuals.

Just as the addition of portraits/characters to the text only missions would be a set up, cut scenes would be one to, but I think they would need to be options, and presented in a way that is in character, and not a cut scene per se.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Great idea, but it has that "Huge dev effort for small effect" flavour that prevent such things from happening in sub AAA games.
Shame, really.
 
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Khelder

Khelder
We're supposed to be heading a little in that direction with being able to talk to different, generated, NPC models for missions. At least, that's what I thought. Adding other video elements could work well if done right, I think.
 

lysan

lysan
It really depends, if you have a mission system that could act like a story driven game it could work. However designing this kind of mission would be tricky as you will need to design it so it could be played by thousands of people. Maybe even at the same time.

I would guess that only huge military missions or CG kind of missions would be under that hat.

Enlistment in the navy kind of story could probably be made, even variations so that it could be played by many at the same time.
 

X-Terminator

Banned
X-Terminator
It has possibilities in Mission Givers if they use some random generated methods to provide total uniqueness to each, i.e. using lip sync and varied mixed speech formants that rarely get repeated. Just add walkabout and have us meet characters to acquire these. ED is now long overdue adding Passenger Missions and Walkabout. I do firmly expect much more input like cut scenes for Military Roles...much much more depth.
 

Ziljan

Ziljan
mossfoot said:
Cut scenes would be cool if they were set up as a mission briefing and not as a cinematic.
Click to expand...


+1

This kind of briefing should take place in the cockpit, and not a fullscreen separate window. Things in ED happen in real time. There is no pause. Every silly separate screen like the galmap, system map, power play, etc these should all be happening on a cockpit holoscreen. And we should be able to close the screen at will immediately should the need arise.
 

Spacecat

Spacecat
About the 200th time I had to watch some doof say "I forgot to write my wedding vows" or some corny pirate say "I see all!", I would probably rage punch my screen.

I think in game character and ship naming and customization (self made and sharable paint & decals-not canned schemes for $5 - seriously?) would add more.
 

tawittle

tawittle
one of the things that makes the BGS so confusing and unappealing is the fact that its all walls of text hidden behind menus. If there were cutscenes it could really add some flavor to the bgs. imagine docking at a new station and opening the bulletin board, and a generic video pops up showing one of the special states of the system. This would be great for learning about new systems and also rewarding for grinding the BGS (you get to see something else than just a %influence).
 

Maro-Val

Maro-Val
Ziljan said:
+1

This kind of briefing should take place in the cockpit, and not a fullscreen separate window. Things in ED happen in real time. There is no pause. Every silly separate screen like the galmap, system map, power play, etc these should all be happening on a cockpit holoscreen. And we should be able to close the screen at will immediately should the need arise.
Click to expand...

This sounds really good.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
Yaffle
Really, no.

In every game with them I try to skip them as they are either badly acted, badly scripted, or badly scripted and badly acted, also repetitive, slow, and really annoying.
 
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