And now, for something completely different...

For collaboration between the different artists creating music and sound for vegastrike.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

MC707 wrote:xD and don't forget: Unknown> Umm dunno really.
Homeland Security> Target threw illegal chicken cargo, fire at will!
Rlaan> Thats not funny. Wheres the joke?
Turbo wrote:>Uln: The chicken sought a better place to drink. By the way, I now hate you for interrupting my solitude. Eat tractor beam!
>Aera: The inferior poultry always attempts an escape.
>Aera #2: Silly chicken, making chicken sounds.
>Rlaan #2: Pardon me, I was told your kind would ask for honey-mustard sauce.
Hahaha nice follow-ups, guys :lol:
BTW you forgot:
Vulcan> To boldly jump where no chicken has jumped before.
Speaker> What are you doing here? this is no Vega Trek!
Vulcan> Really? Then please tell the Unadorned to stop mimicking us. Trade long and prosper.
Turbo wrote:I don't know that we can dynamically build audio news events, as the game does with text. I had envisioned generic news bites that are short in duration. It could represent a quick update between other audio programs, or something that fades in and out quickly like the pilot is flipping through audio channels. But, maybe that is not possible since the news bite would either have to avoid mentioning locations, or those locations would have to be obscured by static (which I think would be a cheap trick), or we would have to stick to non-dynamic-universe items like the "teenage hacker" story which, really, would not pass the "so what" test for the players.
Yeah, we'd have to stay generic I think, like the brawl happened at some commerce center that launched a special discount on tractor beams (attractive offer, ain't it?)
Maybe a funny chance could be a bit of news linked to and subsequent to a commercial ad...
Turbo wrote:You will be pleased to know that, while my own computer is in a crate crossing the Pacific ocean, I built a boot-to-Linux flash drive that includes an SVN version of VS. It's not very stable and crashes to the desktop a lot, but it means I can play on whatever computer I can borrow, until I see my own system again in mid-August or later.
Good! That also means that, meanwhile, you might have some time to post all the news, ads, talk radio and calls you can think of ;)
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

CLoneWolf wrote: meanwhile, you might have some time to post all the news, ads, talk radio and calls you can think of ;)
OK.

For news, I suggest the following.

There are a some existing new items that would make good news bites, unrelated to the dynamic nature of the game universe, and they are all listed in the file news.py, how easy is that?

We can do some work to help explain the VS universe, in which the locations are either irrelevant or not mentioned. For example:
The famous Aera architect, GwukkRahrrk, was publicly humilitated today when his design for the new Central Government Archives was unconditionally rejected by the High Council. He had recently gained fame for some creative designs for local planetary governments, but Minister of Public Works Khragkoohr described the proposed archive building as, "like the scribblings of a mad human, but then I repeat myself." The minister then put forth a motion that GwukkRahrrk be sterilized for the good of the species, at which point the Supreme Councilor reminded the others that the architect was, after all, mated to Lady Rglarakk, and thus there was little risk of offspring in any event. The disgraced architect departed the capitol immediately, announcing through an agent that he will retire early, and the Minister of Public Works has been charged to find a new designer.
Now, this example brings forth a couple of discussion points. First, the wiki only says that the Aera have a hierarchical meritocracy, but a "High Council" fits that concept. More importantly than that, though, are the names. I envision two possible approaches to alien names in a newscast, relating to the nature of the news anchor. Either the newscast is translated by computer, in which case the names would be rendered in the original language (remember that for the alien languages, we make a sound file without translator overlay to use for fixers, so we could use bits of that), or there is a human reading the news in which case the voice actor would attempt the names in his own voice.

I was also thinking of the "talk/interview/call-in" show. We would have to to design and execute the show (name, format, catch-phrase, host personality, and subject matter), and other people to do the voices of people calling in. If a player has a story to tell in the forums, maybe we can get that player to record it and then we can edit it into an item for the show.

Most importantly, we need a lot of these news/talk bits stocked up before putting them in the game, otherwise it will get repetitive very quickly.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

Turbo wrote:For news, I suggest the following.
There are a some existing new items that would make good news bites, unrelated to the dynamic nature of the game universe, and they are all listed in the file news.py, how easy is that?
Easy and canon-proof, nothing better than this :)
Besides, with the Aera architect news, you prove yourself very capable to expand and say new things without breaking canon, rather, bringing more canon (hence immersion) to the listening players.
"TurboNews - we always get there first." ;)
Turbo wrote:I was also thinking of the "talk/interview/call-in" show. We would have to to design and execute the show (name, format, catch-phrase, host personality, and subject matter), and other people to do the voices of people calling in. If a player has a story to tell in the forums, maybe we can get that player to record it and then we can edit it into an item for the show.
And, thinking of it, I bet that a good existing source for stories might be the "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Commerce Center" section.
Turbo wrote:Most importantly, we need a lot of these news/talk bits stocked up before putting them in the game, otherwise it will get repetitive very quickly.
Of course; but the advantage of this over, say, music contribution, is that the script alone proves itself worthy or not, without the need of a recording to realize how it'd fit in the game; so we can just keep collecting material before someone risks to waste some production effort in case the whole thing falls for lack of material; of course, anyone providing raw recordings for fun and examples at any time would be welcome, but the lack of it won't be a choke point.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

all of this sounds like its going nicely, but first things first. We need to know the potential of the new sound system that Loki was talking about, the one klauss did. I believe it is called the "Super Ultra Cool Sound System (TM)" 8). It appears it was implemented in Rev. 12556 of SVN. We need to know, for example, if we can have multiple 'holoradio stations', if we can have a 'user track player', if we can implement commercials in ALL stations including the user track player, and so on. Currently, I believe we only have one 'radio channel', playing music according to the situation (calm, hostiles incoming, battle, etc.).

Then, we can make a brainstorm of how many holoradio stations we will have (and the names), what content they'll have (ie. talk show, news broadcasting, rock music, aera music :lol: jk, etc.), creating commercials and phone calls, assign DJs to these stations, and others I can't seem to remember now :P

Last but not least (if the new sound system supports all of this,) we need to know how to use the new sound system to incorporate all radio stations, commercials, etc. I hope/don't think it should be too difficult, maybe just some xml editing or something like that.

I can just hope it has all these features :twisted: It would be just awesomeness :mrgreen:
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by loki1950 »

It has not been merged with the main trunk yet klauss only said that it finally works as intended not that it's ready for merging :wink: His main intention IIRC was to use streaming as apposed to loading the whole audio track into memory our current practise so it may just maybe a matter of picking the source for the current stream or mixing several together 8)

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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

MC707 wrote:all of this sounds like its going nicely, but first things first. We need to know the potential of the new sound system that Loki was talking about, the one klauss did. I believe it is called the "Super Ultra Cool Sound System (TM)" 8). It appears it was implemented in Rev. 12556 of SVN. We need to know, for example, if we can have multiple 'holoradio stations', if we can have a 'user track player', if we can implement commercials in ALL stations including the user track player, and so on. Currently, I believe we only have one 'radio channel', playing music according to the situation (calm, hostiles incoming, battle, etc.).
No, it's called Koolly Ludicrous Awesome Unique Sound System (K.L.A.U.S.S.) :mrgreen:
Yes I see your point about not working for something we don't know if doable or not but, all in all, I think that even the current system could support radios with little change: "situational music" and random picking inside the current situation set are already a feature, so maybe all that's needed is the support for a radio toggle command and, in case more stations get done, the channel switching commands. And then we'll need a 4200-keys keyboard :roll:
MC707 wrote:Then, we can make a brainstorm of how many holoradio stations we will have (and the names), what content they'll have (ie. talk show, news broadcasting, rock music, aera music :lol: jk, etc.), creating commercials and phone calls, assign DJs to these stations, and others I can't seem to remember now :P

Last but not least (if the new sound system supports all of this,) we need to know how to use the new sound system to incorporate all radio stations, commercials, etc. I hope/don't think it should be too difficult, maybe just some xml editing or something like that.

I can just hope it has all these features :twisted: It would be just awesomeness :mrgreen:
Oooohhh now that you make me think of it, mentioning xml, do you know what could be cool? Handling a radio via a faction-like xml, where audio snippets are classified as music, call, talk, whatever, and each one has a choice of exit points, be it categories or precise sound files (Suppose the DJ announces Vegatrance, you'd expect that exact music to sound; but if he just announces some music, any snippet from the music category can be randomly picked)
OK, OK, OK, *now* I'm thinking way too ahead... :roll:
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

OK, slow down a bit so we can take it in manageable bites (pun intended). The sound system we have already lets you fast-forward to the next song (or in the future, the next news item) on one channel. So I propose we fill up that channel and eventually when the tech supports it, split to different channels. Lookat it this way -- what we have now is a lotof music, but after a while you start to hear the same songs again. So if we add news or whatever we get more variety before things start to repeat.

it sounds like I am being volunteered to write news and that is fine with me, though no one noticed I stole that one from Babylon 5. I can write now and record later after peer review of each item.

Sorry for any errors in my writing today, I did this on a palm device over wi-fi in the snack bar.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

Turbo wrote:OK, slow down a bit so we can take it in manageable bites (pun intended). The sound system we have already lets you fast-forward to the next song (or in the future, the next news item) on one channel. So I propose we fill up that channel and eventually when the tech supports it, split to different channels. Lookat it this way -- what we have now is a lotof music, but after a while you start to hear the same songs again. So if we add news or whatever we get more variety before things start to repeat.
Totally agreed; splitting stuff in too many channels would recreate this problem too soon, new channels can't be spawned until the existing one(s) get enough content not to be too repetitive. Besides, too strongly themed channels could become boring IMHO (talk only? meh!) so I'd rather listen to a channel that transmits a bit of everything.
Turbo wrote: it sounds like I am being volunteered to write news and that is fine with me, though no one noticed I stole that one from Babylon 5. I can write now and record later after peer review of each item.
Hehe I admit I'm inviting you to do that, but volunteering is up to you, no forcing :roll:
You know, that reminds me of a guy who vaguely suggested the usage of a voice filter in voice acting... and "got volunteered" :mrgreen:
Besides, I strongly hope that some good examples by the first contributors will attract others ( = anyone! ) just like I hope so about voice acting. But whereas some people are naturally too shy to voice act, writing even a single one-liner joke in a brainstorming topic is into anyone's reach, IMHO. Look at me, I've posted the terrible chicken joke and I haven't been banned yet! :D
As for Babylon 5, I gotta admit I never watched it :roll:
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

CLoneWolf wrote:Totally agreed; splitting stuff in too many channels would recreate this problem too soon, new channels can't be spawned until the existing one(s) get enough content not to be too repetitive. Besides, too strongly themed channels could become boring IMHO (talk only? meh!) so I'd rather listen to a channel that transmits a bit of everything.
Just remember, we still have to have themed channels and keep it realistic. Stations have to be differentiated, that's why they are different and separate stations. After all, specialization is much better than a more general radio. I agree, though, instead of a talk-only radio, every radio should have their own talk-show segments. And even more importantly, we need the user track feature. Apart from having a DJ and commercials, it has the music that people really like and never repeat. Heck, in GTA SA I could be all day long and I wouldn't hear the same song EVER, if I tuned the user track player. And how much did my user track folder weigh? About 1 MB full of music shortcuts leading to my 10 GB collection of music in my external HDD. VS is a really long game, and even if we jam pack it with audio content, they will reach a point of hearing it all.

I think (and hope), the UTP shouldn't be too difficult to implement. Just create a folder in the VS directory where you want to place the shortcuts to your music, place the shortcuts there, and the sound system would pick a random song out of the bucket. Then, play a commercial, and then repeat the cycle. Just my guess though, so ehem :P
CLoneWolf wrote:Oooohhh now that you make me think of it, mentioning xml, do you know what could be cool? Handling a radio via a faction-like xml, where audio snippets are classified as music, call, talk, whatever, and each one has a choice of exit points, be it categories or precise sound files (Suppose the DJ announces Vegatrance, you'd expect that exact music to sound; but if he just announces some music, any snippet from the music category can be randomly picked)
Yep, both could be done. However, I think the DJ announcing some music rather than a specific one would be better. Its dynamic nature would let us have, say, 30 recordings of the DJ announcing a song, that could apply for any random song picked. In this case, we could even have 60 songs and only 30 DJ recordings, whereas if we did it the static way, we would need 60 recordings for the different 60 songs. I know we'll probably never get to 60 of songs per channel, its just an example :lol:
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

MC707 wrote:Just remember, we still have to have themed channels and keep it realistic.[...]
You surely have a point there, but I'm just seconding Turbo's thought that we should reach full content for one station so that it reaches the "done" point; you know, now that I can hear some factions answering by voice, the missing ones sound just so silent, and I can't wait to hear them all. (*hint hint* :mrgreen: ) Once a station is done, a new one doesn't necessarily have only new and exclusive content; many radios play the most popular music for instance.
MC707 wrote:Yep, both could be done. However, I think the DJ announcing some music rather than a specific one would be better. Its dynamic nature would let us have, say, 30 recordings of the DJ announcing a song, that could apply for any random song picked. In this case, we could even have 60 songs and only 30 DJ recordings, whereas if we did it the static way, we would need 60 recordings for the different 60 songs. I know we'll probably never get to 60 of songs per channel, its just an example :lol:
Of course, exact announcement would be just for a few exceptions, for bloat control's sake; but think how rewarding it'd be to hear the DJ credit Psycodeine as he announces Vegatrance.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

There is no question we would like to be able to announce the song and credit the musician, but that is easy to do by editing the announcement into the music file. If we get a particularly prolific artist we can even interview him or her for the show.

I was thinking about the news last night and had some ideas:

Movie star or politician scandal

Fundraiser to pay for search for missing ship

New movie filming at some specific location

New ship design (tied to artwork vetting? If MOI approves a ship, we announce it?)

Minor government official discovered to be a spy

Shaper's Genetic Interstellar University graduation threatened by Luddites

Unemployment up and markets down due to uncertainty about war

Sports news: spacecraft race results in dispute due to discovery of illegal equipment on winner's ship

Public service announcement for organ and tissue donations to support the war effort

Anti-drug commercial (pick one from the contraband cargo list)

Contraband smuggling ring discovered (pick one from the contraband cargo list) inadvertently by union dispute

Sports star making a comeback in repulser-beam ball after injury

Famous hunter killed in battle

More to follow...if I am going the right way let me know and I can write these up.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

CLoneWolf wrote:
MC707 wrote:Just remember, we still have to have themed channels and keep it realistic.[...]
You surely have a point there, but I'm just seconding Turbo's thought that we should reach full content for one station so that it reaches the "done" point
Yeh yeh I guess I agree with that. I just wanted to know if we had the possibility of multiple stations in the first place.
CLoneWolf wrote:Once a station is done, a new one doesn't necessarily have only new and exclusive content; many radios play the most popular music for instance.
yeah, but for diversification purposes we might want to keep them a little heterogeneous. :wink:
CLoneWolf wrote:
MC707 wrote:Yep, both could be done. However, I think the DJ announcing some music rather than a specific one would be better. Its dynamic nature would let us have, say, 30 recordings of the DJ announcing a song, that could apply for any random song picked. In this case, we could even have 60 songs and only 30 DJ recordings, whereas if we did it the static way, we would need 60 recordings for the different 60 songs. I know we'll probably never get to 60 of songs per channel, its just an example :lol:
Of course, exact announcement would be just for a few exceptions, for bloat control's sake; but think how rewarding it'd be to hear the DJ credit Psycodeine as he announces Vegatrance.
Yep, we can definitely make exceptions, especially for songs like vegatrance or the tracks that VS currently has, which are already legendary and historical.
CLoneWolf wrote:you know, now that I can hear some factions answering by voice, the missing ones sound just so silent, and I can't wait to hear them all. (*hint hint* :mrgreen: )
Hahaha I know what you mean. Sorry for that, I forgot to tell ya I bought a better mic, like those for karaoke. The desktop one just plain sucked (maybe I punished it too badly? :oops: )
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

Turbo wrote:There is no question we would like to be able to announce the song and credit the musician, but that is easy to do by editing the announcement into the music file. If we get a particularly prolific artist we can even interview him or her for the show.
True, but on the other hand, the music with announcement incorporated wouldn't be recyclable by other stations.
I guess the safest path is to stay general and add specific stuff only if we're still below unacceptable bloat threshold.
I like the interview idea!
Turbo wrote:I was thinking about the news last night and had some ideas:
[...]
More to follow...if I am going the right way let me know and I can write these up.
Great! In short, I see realism, consistency and continuity with previous content.
MC707 wrote:Hahaha I know what you mean. Sorry for that, I forgot to tell ya I bought a better mic, like those for karaoke. The desktop one just plain sucked (maybe I punished it too badly? :oops: )
Well, I wasn't pushing you, but that new microphone looks eager to prove you what a good bargain it was! ;)
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

CLoneWolf wrote:
Turbo wrote:There is no question we would like to be able to announce the song and credit the musician, but that is easy to do by editing the announcement into the music file. If we get a particularly prolific artist we can even interview him or her for the show.
True, but on the other hand, the music with announcement incorporated wouldn't be recyclable by other stations.
I guess the safest path is to stay general and add specific stuff only if we're still below unacceptable bloat threshold.
I like the interview idea!
Or simply put them in the credits :wink:
CLoneWolf wrote:
MC707 wrote:Hahaha I know what you mean. Sorry for that, I forgot to tell ya I bought a better mic, like those for karaoke. The desktop one just plain sucked (maybe I punished it too badly? :oops: )
Well, I wasn't pushing you, but that new microphone looks eager to prove you what a good bargain it was! ;)
yeah it surely does :lol:
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

And now, for some news. All locations are gleaned from SVN system files, which is to say that any dynamically-created instance of VS should have these planets. After each news quote, I make some comments about it.
A labor dispute at the Jacobs docks in Bernard's Star erupted in violence yesterday, leading authorities to discover a large smuggling operation. The local dockworkers saw a Mule cargo ship unloading without the use of union labor, and when they confronted the ship's crew were fired upon by the ship's private guards. The union members returned fire and called homeland security forces, who arrived to restore order. The subsequent investigation discovered the Mule to be carrying over 100 tons of nerve stimulators, black market organs, and other medical contraband, and homeland security impounded the ship and imprisoned its crew. The dockworkers were determined to have acted in self-defense and were released at the scene. Local union leader Joey Piccolo had this to say, "Ya don't mess wit da union."
This concept, while borrowed from a 1996 movie, is a fun story. I made it fit the VS campaign by placing the smuggling activity at the same planet to which a certain merchant, pawn of sinister forces, asks the player to make a delivery.
The secretary of education for Mummu in the Regallis system, Ann Bates, was arrested today on suspicion of spying for an unknown alien government. Authorities started watching her after a coworker reported her frequent trips to outlying systems, strangely worded netcasts in educational forums, and a change in her financial habits. When further investigation revealed that she had gained access to information above her clearance level, the local counterintelligence branch put Bates under surveillance and observed her leaving a data chip containing some of the information at a suspected drop site on one of her trips. Bates' attorney has stated that the evidence against her is circumstantial, and that she is the victim of a witch hunt fueled by a war-worried public. Her netcast postings, if they are coded messages, remain thus far unbroken.
Historically, Ann Bates was a school teacher who spied for the British in the American Revolution. At the time, women were not considered intelligent enough to understand military matters, so she was able to gather extensive data on American troop strength, equipment, and movements in her disguise as a peddler. The methods mentioned in this news story are all things I learned about in the International Spy Museum, while visiting Washington DC last month. If you are ever in DC, that particular museum is just down the street from the Chinatown subway station.
Famed hunter Gregor Griez was killed in action today, after a bounty on a wing of Nicanders turned out to be a vicious trap laid by the Aeran Merchant Marine. Apparently, Griez had amassed enough kills to gain the attention of the Aeran guild, who set up the bounty to lure his Vendetta fighter into the Heaven's Gate system, where a fleet of dozens of Aerus waited in ambush in a nearby asteroid belt. The Hunter's Guild Memorial Fund then posted an unprecedented 1-million-credit bounty on the Aeran fleet, to be split among guild members according to kill count. A large force of Hunters Guild members responded, destroyed the Aeran fleet, and retreated to friendly space. The Rlaan Hunters' guild has protested, saying that keeping a bounty internal to one's own guild is unprofessional and disrespectful to the principles of hunters everywhere.
I can't guarantee that any particular iteration of VS will make Heaven's Gate a system in or near Aera space, but it sounds good as the site for a Hunter's last battle. If anyone who understands how VS sectors and systems are generated can suggest a better system, please do.
Graduation ceremonies at EUGENIC, the Enigma University of Genetics In Creiddylad, were marked by increased security today after University officials received a bomb threat from suspected to have come from the Interstallar Church of Man's True Form. After receiving the threat, University Chancellor Ramon Lafayette announced plans to continue with the ceremonies, saying, "Zeese terrorists, zey take ze concept of 'art critic' entirely too far, and we will not be held hostage by zer criminal threats." Authorities conduced extensive sweeps of the campus, but have declined to comment whether any explosives, Luddite or otherwise, were discovered. Aside from the heightened security, the graduation ceremonies concluded without incident.
Don't think it was easy to find a system/sector/planet whose names allowed me to use EUGENIC as an acronym (which was how my idea for this story started) for the name for a university of genetics. Creiddylad [I think it sounds like "Crie-thi-lad" but will check with some friends who know a little Gaelic] is not specificall a university planet, it just has a university there in this news story. Even if the system in question does not end up being in Shaper space, the chancellor could still be a Shaper with appropriate (French) accent.

Comments, questions, ideas?
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by CLoneWolf »

Great job, Turbo!
The transposition of real historical events into VS is very cool, and tying the movie reference to the mini campaign might serve as a further teaser to induce players to play it. I can't but confirm that... "TurboNews - We always get there first." :mrgreen:

Do you think a wiki section might help collecting the brainstorm-collected material, separating it by categories? music, jokes, calls... It might be easier to judge how much stuff we have.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

VS is crashing every time I launch it today, so I may as well write more news.

I am not so much referencing history as using it, but the result is the same. I envision the news items playing with the "news" music in the background, but not the PSAs. As I write these I am keeping a copy and noting when each item is posted for later reference, but the wiki might be a good place to collect these inputs after they pass peer review here.
And now for a public service annoucement. "Hello, I'm ______. You may remember me from such movies as 'Perilous Frontier' and 'Ernest Goes to the Vega Sector.' But today I want to talk to you about the dangers of biomimetic gel. Except for authorized medical uses, biomimetic gel is dangerous with prolonged use and can develop into a psychological addiction. The entertainment industry, formerly the largest user of this product, is curtailing its use as the medical and psychological dangers become apparent. Even I, _______, was briefly addicted to this dangerous material. So, don't be tempted by illegal offers to improve this or that part of yourself -- just say 'NO' to biomimetic gel. Thank you."
The PSA intro I envision as a soft dry NPR-announcer-type voice, then a different voice for the famous person doing the PSA itself. The product referenced is a type of contraband, and one of the movies mentioned is a VS splash screen, so depending on the gender of the actor who will record this spot we would pick one of the 3 names from the splash screen. In memory of Phil Hartman and his character Troy McClure's public service announcements on 'The Simpsons' TV show, the two movies mentioned contrast greatly -- an action/drama and a comedy, and the person voicing this spot would say the movie names in a tone appropriate to each. The actor admits being a victim of the product, which implies that recording the PSA may be a form of community service awarded by a judge after conviction for possession or use of the contraband.
And now for a public service annoucement. "This is _____, on behalf of the Confederation Medical Consortium. I want to urge all of you to give the gift of life in these war-torn times. Your organ or tissue donation could save someone else's life -- an innocent child injured in an Aeran attack, or a brave pilot mortally wounded while defending a critical supply convoy from vicious pirates. Last year, thousands of people died in accidents and attacks without leaving their donation consent, depriving hundreds of other victims of a second chance at life. Won't you please help? Just log your donation consent at any public BBS terminal before taking your next trip, and if the worst should happen to you, you can still be a hero and save others. Thank you so much, and stay safe."
My intent for this one is similar to the PSAs that featured actress Sally Struthers crying her eyes out in the early 1990s for the Christian Children's Fund or, later, the Save the Children charity. A female voice actor would be best, since women tend to have a broader vocal and emotional range than men. But, a less emotional approach would also work. The ad implicitly reminds the player that space travel is dangerous.
And now for the latest in sports. Buzz Donaldson is returning to the repulser-beam ball field this season to resume playing for the Vega sector franchise, the Fire. Buzz spent the last year recovering from cranial injuries sustained in the first half of last season's championship game against the Centauri Alphas. Buzz is reportedly performing well in preseason practice and his accuracy is said to be as good as ever. Stay tuned for more pre-season repulser-beam ball news and exciting coverage of all your favorite sports.
The repulser beam is a ship upgrade, so maybe a smaller version could be used to throw a ball (or an opposing ball player) around a sports field. As I write this, I am reminded of the Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun, one of the coolest video game weapons ever. I have yet to try the repluser beam in ship combat, as I prefer to out-range my targets. But once I get my computer back in late August, I might build a close-range fighter (a Vendetta perhaps) so I can try it.
In sports today, pilot Edward "Fast Eddie" Wilson won the Regallis 4000 but was immediately disqualified after it was discovered that his customized Schroedinger had been illegally modified for increased fuel capacity. Fuel management is always a concern for pilots in the racing circuit, requiring careful use of the ship's overdrive to prevent premature flame-out in a tight race. Race fans will recall pilot "Turbo Ted" Baker's embarrassment three years ago, when his fuel ran out just after he gained the lead position, leaving him stranded at the final nav point. In addition to being prohibited from racing for the rest of the year, Wilson will be fined 1 million credits, which is approximately half his winnings and sponsorship income from the season. Wilson is expected to issue a public apology later this week, and his sponsors are doubtless deciding whether to terminate their contracts.
Here we have embedded some flying advice for the player into a sports scandal story. By the way, it would be really cool if VS could include competition racing as a mission type, like a long patrol mission that you have to finish before other AIs who spawn from the same starting point as soon as you launch. Can the mission engine do that?
Turbo

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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

CLoneWolf wrote:Do you think a wiki section might help collecting the brainstorm-collected material, separating it by categories? music, jokes, calls... It might be easier to judge how much stuff we have.
Good Idea, CLone!
Turbo wrote:I am not so much referencing history as using it, but the result is the same. I envision the news items playing with the "news" music in the background, but not the PSAs. As I write these I am keeping a copy and noting when each item is posted for later reference, but the wiki might be a good place to collect these inputs after they pass peer review here.
Sounds reasonable. BTW nice news items!

I will develop my comedy these days, and post any commercials/calls to DJs/etc that I can think of in the meantime :)
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Turbo »

I started working on the wiki page:
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/media ... ical_Audio

I haven't collected all the ideas onto it yet, because my battery is about to die and it's almost 23:00, but will finish it over the weekend. It is currently not very organized, as I was just dumping the content from this thread onto it, so feel free to make edits.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

Turbo wrote:I started working on the wiki page:
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/media ... ical_Audio

I haven't collected all the ideas onto it yet, because my battery is about to die and it's almost 23:00, but will finish it over the weekend. It is currently not very organized, as I was just dumping the content from this thread onto it, so feel free to make edits.
Good job, thanks for that. We will organize it in time as we progress in ideas, given the wiki nature.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Psycodeine »

Great... just finished reading this thread, I'll consider making some more music for a dance/trance radio station, or even possibly some alien sounding House music. Since You guys seem to want a lot of variation, I'll see if I can come up with at least maybe 5 more ideas for songs, and then submit them GPL'd.
So far I've liked most if not all of the ideas here. Though I'm feeling a little dehydrated, I think I got this all down. You got:

1. Radio stations, DJ's, preprogrammed messages which can be triggered using XML, etc, generic and song based.
2. Music.
3. Voice acting, goes with one and two.

Would it be possibly to have a fade in and fade out for the DJ or MC to make the station sound more realistic. Like for example, if there's a long break in one of the songs like just a beat, could there be a script so that the music fades slightly and the MC comes in and says a few words in his/her native alien language?? IDK, but y'know just to make this realistic if for example the station was playing long club music? That would improve the realism of the game, plus a translator so we know what he is saying (in English, or just have the MC or DJ talk in English with some kinda accent reflecting the alien culture from where they came...vocoded perhaps). This might be too much but guranteed it would add more variation to the game. I've read the comment about interruptions in a radio station to play propaganda, etc. and I thought that was a good idea too, but this is actually less specialized than that, just a quick 3 seconds off talking in the middle of the song while its not really gotten off yet, like the DJs on XM or Sirius.

Also, it might be good to have a sort of tuner program, like GTA (I think this might have already been suggested). I would suggest having a few different frequencies that the tuner on a spacership dashboard shifts to when you choose a different station. This might require improvement of the in game dashboard to make it more that just a .jpg. How about an actual console that you could control with a mouse. I guess that's lightyears ahead of where this game is now (though it has come a long way). Just a thought.

BTW: I like the idea of the DJ giving actual song names. ogg files are pretty small and we don't need a lot of space to convey in game sound clips, should be good for uniqueness in every song. Also, since I am Psycodeine, heck yes I'd like that to show up in the game (that would be VERY rewarding in my opinion).
OK, guess I got my work cut out for me. Sweet!

Actually, I guess I have a final question: How many stations? and What genres will those stations have?
I can't see how this would be based purely on which alien race you occupied since this is IGR (Intergalactic Radio), its pretty open eared (or aired, IDK which one).
I could at least make one track for each station so we can have the fill. I think if everyone did than there would be a good amount of tracks per each station, stored in 128kbit ogg, we should have enough room to incorporate each idea, along with all of the in-game music which we will probably have to keep since there seems to be nothing new coming there (because its pretty dated, but useful).

OK. That's it. I've said enough, take it away. I think I'll get some water now...
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

jnfstnet565 wrote:Great... just finished reading this thread, I'll consider making some more music for a dance/trance radio station, or even possibly some alien sounding House music. Since You guys seem to want a lot of variation, I'll see if I can come up with at least maybe 5 more ideas for songs, and then submit them GPL'd.
So far I've liked most if not all of the ideas here. Though I'm feeling a little dehydrated, I think I got this all down. You got:

1. Radio stations, DJ's, preprogrammed messages which can be triggered using XML, etc, generic and song based.
2. Music.
3. Voice acting, goes with one and two.
Yep. And commercials. Though that would fall under generic, so yes.
jnfstnet565 wrote:Would it be possibly to have a fade in and fade out for the DJ or MC to make the station sound more realistic. Like for example, if there's a long break in one of the songs like just a beat, could there be a script so that the music fades slightly and the MC comes in and says a few words in his/her native alien language?? IDK, but y'know just to make this realistic if for example the station was playing long club music? That would improve the realism of the game, plus a translator so we know what he is saying (in English, or just have the MC or DJ talk in English with some kinda accent reflecting the alien culture from where they came...vocoded perhaps). This might be too much but guranteed it would add more variation to the game. I've read the comment about interruptions in a radio station to play propaganda, etc. and I thought that was a good idea too, but this is actually less specialized than that, just a quick 3 seconds off talking in the middle of the song while its not really gotten off yet, like the DJs on XM or Sirius.
Ok the fade in of the DJ while the song is beggining and ending are both nice ideas. Alien DJs? Sounds nice, too... though I wonder how we will do that. I don't think doing a translator (like the on-board ship translator), cuz we need a little variety of voices. Talking in english with alien accent sounds like a better idea, IMO.The interruptions don't sound so well, though, at least how you say them. I had more of an idea like interrupting while the DJ is talking, or while the DJ is getting a call, or something like that. Interruptions in mid-song sound better for, say, a little easter egg here and there :twisted:
jnfstnet565 wrote:Also, it might be good to have a sort of tuner program, like GTA (I think this might have already been suggested). I would suggest having a few different frequencies that the tuner on a spacership dashboard shifts to when you choose a different station. This might require improvement of the in game dashboard to make it more that just a .jpg. How about an actual console that you could control with a mouse. I guess that's lightyears ahead of where this game is now (though it has come a long way). Just a thought.
Well, yeah. At the beggining we have the idea of doing the same as GTA SA does currently, like showing the station name and frequency on top, and to change stations with the mouse wheel or something like that (like GTA SA :P). Then, a HUD implementation of it, that would be homogeneous with the rest of the HUD. Using the mouse would sound like a second option, since I think it might be more difficult to accomplish. I am not sure about that, though, maybe someone that knows better can answer that.
jnfstnet565 wrote:BTW: I like the idea of the DJ giving actual song names. ogg files are pretty small and we don't need a lot of space to convey in game sound clips, should be good for uniqueness in every song. Also, since I am Psycodeine, heck yes I'd like that to show up in the game (that would be VERY rewarding in my opinion).
OK, guess I got my work cut out for me. Sweet!
We were discussing that and thought it might be better to have generic DJ introductions to songs, or at least generic endings, since it would get a little repetitive (like in GTA VC), the DJ always saying "and this is X song", whereas generic intros and endings could say to any song "oh and I met my seventh wife with this song in the background!", or "Oh now this is a record I love hear while getting dirty with my ex... oops just go with teh song!", and use those same intros for many other songs, maybe you know what I mean. Special fixed intros could be given to give credit or for special cases, or so. Those are my ideas, anyway...

Oh, and I didn't understand that Psycodeine thing (is that your DJ name?) :oops:
jnfstnet565 wrote:Actually, I guess I have a final question: How many stations? and What genres will those stations have?
Well, we can brainstorm ideas for station themes/genres, and from that decide more or less how many stations.
jnfstnet565 wrote:I can't see how this would be based purely on which alien race you occupied since this is IGR (Intergalactic Radio), its pretty open eared (or aired, IDK which one).
I call it the Galactic Radionet :P its like starwars' Galactic holonet, but it is our invention :twisted:. The technology would be similar though, as it is a very intuitive way of explaining information traveling at FTL.
jnfstnet565 wrote:I could at least make one track for each station so we can have the fill. I think if everyone did than there would be a good amount of tracks per each station, stored in 128kbit ogg, we should have enough room to incorporate each idea, along with all of the in-game music which we will probably have to keep since there seems to be nothing new coming there (because its pretty dated, but useful).
Well, that should be pretty open. People might want to do music for one sole station, for all stations, or select ones. We just fill the stations up. And as you said, we could store quite a bunch of music in 128 bit ogg.
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by MC707 »

Ok, I finally did some serious and heavy modifiying and a little sorting to the non-music section (what we are doing right now) of the wiki. Suggestions? Comments? Visit the page and scroll down to In-Flight Non-Musical Audio
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Psycodeine »

MC707 wrote:Oh, and I didn't understand that Psycodeine thing (is that your DJ name?)
I guess it is. You can say that it is. I have no DJ name. Psycodeine was just my artist name, but now you can append DJ. Nothing to be embarassed about. You can just say by Psycodeine, not DJ Psycodeine. But append DJ if you wish...
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Re: And now, for something completely different...

Post by Psycodeine »

OK. I think we could go far enough now to start defining the stations and stuff. I'm thinking about several major genres since this is a spacey universe, most if not all of the music will be electronic. This covers these genres:

1. Pop: We need this, and especially vocal artists for this, does anyone sing well here? This has to be the hits that everyone will enjoy. We could just write instrumentals for these and append vocals later. I think what most of us should do for this is to study the popular music coming out now (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, etc.) and figure out if we can produce a more alien version of these tracks, that would resemble some kind of alien popular culture. I don't want exact replicas, but if we could get something close that might resemble these artists (just instrumental wise), we can add vocals if anyone is talented here...
2. Trance: Most important since it is all electronic and was once the alien genre. I think this is pretty important because it would be the future dance music, and would give some aura to the game that would be alien like.
3. Techno: Self explanatory.
4. House: Aliens have to have soul too. This stuff shouldn't be too electronic. I think we could try to make this funky, but still sounding alien at the same time. I'll come out with ideas for this too.
5. Breakbeat: If anybody can rap or do some kinda alien hiphop thing, we should try this out.
6. Ambient: Just like the in game music, except on the radio. When a battle isn't happening, this could be the calm down music for the weary space traveller.

That's just a brain drain for now. It's late and I'm kinda tired, but I think this should get us on the right track. IDK, maybe we already are...

UPDATE: Techno, Trance and House could be merged into a club station... Breakbeat & Pop could be one station. Ambient just stays where its at.
Last edited by Psycodeine on Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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