Event Preview PoC

[Acid]

Hey guys,

Something I've experienced being new to the server (and in Star Wars RP, generally) is that most of the events I've been able to participate in have been overly vague - and sometimes they continue that way as the event progresses.

What generally occurs, is that either something is happening on the ship (usually sounded by distant explosions) or it's a deployment and you're dropped right into things, hopefully early enough to catch Narrator text so you know what is going on. You generally move with the bulk of players doing the event and 1-2 hours later, we debrief.

But if we're debriefing so consistently - why are we not doing a similar mission briefing beforehand ? It'd be useful for new players unfamiliar with events and good practice for veterans to do forward planning on tactics. That said, I don't want to toss this out as an open problem, so with some time I've had between ARC training sessions, I've developed a way for us to do mission briefings for events and improve the "initial impressions" phase of events.

In my proof of concept for the idea, I used the approved event submission by Letsdothis41 (41st  EC SUP SGT Flax).  I adapted a fan-made concept for SW Battlefront loading screens for a more RP-centric setting; Meanwhile in Gmod, I used the space area outside of our lovely Venator as a backdrop, a planet from the prop pack (on a green screen), and the map for the event to make an easily viewable overview to answer some key questions :

 

1. "What happened"
2. "Who is getting deployed?"
3. "Where are we getting deployed?"
4. "What should we be doing?"

 

I've inserted the proof of concept below:

 

Mainly, I'm testing the waters on something like this and looking for feedback. It only took about an hour or two to assemble and could easily be done for any accepted events we get for the server by simply swapping out elements in the layout. But, if it doesn't seem useful to folks or there's something obvious oversight on my part - it'd be best to know about it sooner rather than later.

This is just a small improvement, a thorough solution to making events more organized/understandable would no doubt have multiple parts to it, so I'm just starting out with the "initial impression" segment of events for now (and I think Daytona211 gave a really helpful roadmap of productive guidelines in his post that reach into a broader range of improvements). My hope is that this sort of stuff is useful for the Game Masters and usable to help make events the best that they can be. I'm just one player and my perspective alone would be too narrow to cover everything, so feedback from other players is the best way to make sure it's done right, should it be considered worth using.

So, let me know what you think about it, what you might change, add/remove from the layout, etc!

- Thanks!

[Bolt]

Usually main server events are sudden and we are getting attacked, and rarely we attack, and for event server, usually we attack. Usually on event server, we have briefings, but nothing 100% hugely scaled, just the basis, and boom (usually though briefing is on event server, not main), usually on main server, we don't have time to brief when we are the ones attacked.

 

I like the picture there, idk if you made it or not, but a very good image of a briefing type of thing

Edited September 25, 2018 by Bolt

[Zim]

Can I just say that visual is so hot I want to make an event based on it, just because I like it so much.

[Sinister]

I almost always do a briefing for any event that I do, regardless if it’s a main or deployment. Only time I don’t is when it’s a surprise attack. 

 

I do agree, it seems to make the event go smoother. 

[Acid]

Yeah @Bolt , the main server has been a mixed bag for me so far with spontaneous things like the engines failing to things where a mission briefing would be fitting like boarding a derelict Republic ship. For the event server especially, I'd imagine an overview would be useful most of the time not just for informative reasons but also to advertise when the event for those not online right that moment. I see your point, though - and I wouldn't necessarily expect one for everything that happens ever, but it might be a nice touch.

 

Oh, and I did put the image together - and I'd have no issues doing the same thing for any event. It came out of messing around with green screen keying in Gmod, which turned out to be way easier to pull off than I initially expected, so now I'm experimenting with it. 😁

Edited September 26, 2018 by Acid Bunny
Fixing @

[Tristan]

Make this man a gamemaster NOW

He reminds me of the old days

The days where events had depth and creativity

*Gamemaster teams flashback*

#TEAMWHOREHOUSE @Medic @SquirtleKitty

 

[Esitt]

YEE YEE

[Hero]

If you could make this a template with other maps and shiz where you can just fill in the text boxes then i would be nutting 

[Acid]

@Bolt Since you were the first to reply, I figured I'd make one of your events into the mission briefing "preview" style. I originally wanted to just mess with how the hologram-esque effect looked, but I just kept editing haha

So I took your shoot em up oriented event "Youngling Kidnapping 2: bolt bolt boogaloo" from this post and made it into an RP event (because why not) with a location and a bit more story. It's made with the same methodology as the first one, I just captured more things, swapped things out, and then just minor tweaks.

^ me, basically

 

Anyways, here it is:

 

[Bolt]

6 minutes ago, Acid Bunny said:

@Bolt Since you were the first to reply, I figured I'd make one of your events into the mission briefing "preview" style. I originally wanted to just mess with how the hologram-esque effect looked, but I just kept editing haha

So I took your shoot em up oriented event "Youngling Kidnapping 2: bolt bolt boogaloo" from this post and made it into an RP event (because why not) with a location and a bit more story. It's made with the same methodology as the first one, I just captured more things, swapped things out, and then just minor tweaks.

^ me, basically

 

Anyways, here it is:

 

Although the event was on some random foresty planet with no water (it'd be cool if you knew which planet it was), that is beautiful and I love it

[Acid]

@Hero I don't know if I could make it fully automated, but when I get a planet or battalion logo finished, it makes it quicker for the next time since I can just re-use the layer, everything is already set up as a template. Something like a Google Form with event detail sections is an option, though I know those can be kind of a hassle.

 

But so far, being that I can make them pretty quickly with decent quality, I'd say we're in nutting territory if you really like em. lol

[Acid]

@Bolt Thanks man!  Yeah, I couldn't guess the planet type from the story summary, so I shot for a Jedi Order world that's likely active in Clone Wars and has dangerous caves. The scenario I was thinking of was something like padawans going off into Ossus's adegan crystal caves and getting themselves stuck because they're padawans, haha.

At the very least, it helped get the 91st / DU logos made for the template and was good practice.  😃

[Sanchez]

Awesome but the back story is just one piece to the puzzle I always Include a lengthy back story to my events in the AAR and try to really hint at people whats going on through out the mission

Most of that would be covered in briefing 

But the problem is you have great ideas but are missing a big part of the amazing pie 
What are the players going to do? 
This is an essential part of all events is what is the player able to do and you must be ready for everything a player does cause well you cant control them. Its just people mention vague events for the most part thats true but I dont your logo event or the two events you put up are that much different than events that already happen its just reworded 

How am I going to do this?
See this is also a smaller piece of the pie but still a piece that needs to be answered always 
You need to be sure that you are able to do what you set out to do if not well cant do the event 
Map choice is a big factor in this on is it going to be RP or shoot em up or a mix  I say this because one not enough game helpers to watch the RP than its going to have to be a shoot em up sadly this is true for most events getting cucked by man power

Also punctuation fuck you whats that 

 

[OneNiner6719]

This person is a champion and appeals to my graphics designer brain

[Stern]

I love this idea. 

Gamemasters are very vague and their events get stale. We are always being attacked! 

If gamemasters can produce actual AARs of their events in this format it would show that they actually care about their events. 

And they dont take suggestions as much as I had hoped they would. I put up around 5 event ideas which people said they would do. Google docs created and all. No result. Just the same old ship being attacked.

There is no reason why a gmod venator cant deploy more than two or three battalions to attack a planet and then be called a normal event.

At the moment it is very rare and actually a special event where we would leave the venator. I have no idea why...

https://synergyroleplay.com/forums/topic/10065-event-ideas/

Edited September 26, 2018 by Stern

[Snadvich]

@Acid BunnyAs a GMO, that fucking visual makes me feel wonderful pants feelings. Hook me up or any of the other GMO’s if you wanna do this event 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Snadvich

[Life-]

5 hours ago, Snadvich said:

@Acid BunnyAs a GMO, that fucking visual makes me feel wonderful pants feelings. Hook me up or any of the other GMO’s if you wanna do this event 

I think most of these events are just taken from past AAR's.