Holodeck Revamp

[Stickymayhem]

This was originally intended for the Spring Thing but some people who actually won asked about it so I figured it would be worth typing up the general idea in case they wanted to bring it up with cheridan.

First off: There is still a bug where mobs coords are copied along with everything else on a holodeck map before being sent over, meaning all mobs are duplicated perfectly, but are not sent to the holodeck. Should be a simple fix.

Once that is fixed it opens up a lot of opportunities for holomobs. This could be a variable confining them to an area (the holodeck obviously) and applicable to all mobs and of course humans. Additional maps would be helpful, including blank slate asteroid, wood floor and space debris turfs that can be ordered.

Some way to edit the console itself would be marvellous but not entirely necessary.

Ideally the end result of this would enable admins to run events with the holodeck more easily, give people more rooms to select from, and even bring people back into the round.

A prompt, similar to pai, would come up for ghosts to create a hologram, containing them same information boxes, as well as a selection of holosprites and their name/colour. They would be translucent as with any hologram, and cannot leave the area, perhaps using similar code as that containing the AI to a radius around the holopad. This allows people to rejoin the round and play in the holodeck with actual bored crewmembers.

This isn't fully fleshed out but it's more the general overview of what I'd love to see happen. This was mainly to get my thoughts down and send a link to those interested.

[Cheimon]

I'd still love to see hard light holograms for people around the station, so ghosts could enter anonymously and help out with things like surgery or atmospherics.

Having ghosts in the holodeck, though, to play basketball or whatever sounds fun too, and probably a lot more achievable.

[NikNakFlak]

This has been an idea for awhile now except it falls into the "Probably hard as fuck to code" category.

[Scones]

Holochess Y/Y

[peoplearestrange]

There already seems to be an issue where holomobs can leave the area (not sure if thats what you were talking about Sticky?).
I've been killed (pretty damn quickly) by holocarps in space, who've made it all the way over to the Solar array. This seems kinda ridiculous and counter to the idea of a holodeck. Though Im sure its just a bug.

[Saegrimr]

No, that's what happens if you emag it. They turn real.

[qwert]

What about holograms yelling out AI ROUGE/ GEORGE MELONZ IZ TATTORR?May be they should not be able to talk with people l?

[MisterPerson]

This has been an idea for awhile now except it falls into the "Probably hard as fuck to code" category.

Everything but the mobs is trivial. The mob stuff isn't hard either but mobs, as usual, make everything more complex. Making people come back into the round is probably the toughest part, and that's not too hard.

[Wyzack]

Oh hey what about using those shitty npc crew mobs if no ghosts are available

[Stickymayhem]

What about holograms yelling out AI ROUGE/ GEORGE MELONZ IZ TATTORR?May be they should not be able to talk with people l?

Players are brought back into the round without doing this all the time.

[Cheridan]

Honestly the best thing to do with the holodeck would be to scrap it entirely and instead have some sort of VR similar to Goon's where the user would technically get teleported off-level, instead of our implementation where the off-z-level gets teleported to the station.

There's just too many bugs and edge cases with the current implementation, allowing players to take holodeck eswords out of the area, wizards animating them like proper items, etc. It also forces additional bad coding if you want to expand onto it. For example, the tables in the holodeck are special HOLOTABLES because if they just used normal table code, then you could deconstruct them all for metal and then reset it to get easy unlimited metal.

[Remie Richards]

I think it was LLA Station, they have an open source version of VR I've been eyeing for a while.

[oranges]

Honestly the best thing to do with the holodeck would be to scrap it entirely and instead have some sort of VR similar to Goon's where the user would technically get teleported off-level, instead of our implementation where the off-z-level gets teleported to the station.

There's just too many bugs and edge cases with the current implementation, allowing players to take holodeck eswords out of the area, wizards animating them like proper items, etc. It also forces additional bad coding if you want to expand onto it. For example, the tables in the holodeck are special HOLOTABLES because if they just used normal table code, then you could deconstruct them all for metal and then reset it to get easy unlimited metal.

+1

[DemonFiren]

But this would prevent MUH HOLOPLASMA.

[Remie Richards]

But this would prevent MUH HOLOPLASMA.

But we can replace that with a "If you die in the game (VR) you die in real life!"

[Steelpoint]

I like the idea off using the off z-level holodeck design akin to other servers (goon springs to mind).

Leaves more room for creativity.

[DemonFiren]

But this would prevent MUH HOLOPLASMA.

But we can replace that with a "If you die in the game (VR) you die in real life!"

Except holoplasma and holocarp can spread.

RIP EFFICIENCY WE MISS YOUR HOLODECK PLACEMENT.

[qwert]

May be one day teegee will have vr level with guns, wizard spell books, uplinks and le other antag stuff, like goons used to have, or even switchable simulations like deathsquad vs syndicate strike force, romans and space pirates, etc.
Or that is too much fun and atmos simulation.

[Superneji]

May be one day teegee will have vr level with guns, wizard spell books, uplinks and le other antag stuff

Probably a little too fun. I think the appeal of those things, for me anyway, is in part due to their rarity