5 replies to this topic

[Asakara]

Peace of Blake be upon you brothers and sisters. I am Adept VII-Omega Asa and I wish to present for your review the ComStar Battle Analysis & Review Simulation (CBARS).

Please allow me to provide a bit of background. As you are well aware ComStar does so much more than facilitate communications throughout the galaxy which allows modern civilization to exist. We have countless operations monitoring and assisting the peoples of the InnerSphere to guide them to the light of Jerome Blake's teachings.

Some of these operations entail intercepting and archiving all communications and data feeds across the InnerSphere. We utilize some of this information when investigating issues reported to the Mercenary Review Board. We can not only hear recordings of the communications between pilots but also view a replay of the actual battle from satellite feeds and cameras on board the mechs of the combatants themselves.

After many years of working with the Phi branch we believe we have found a way to monetize these data recordings to increase ComStar profits greatly though the ComStar Battle Analysis & Review Simulation (CBARS).

The CBARS provides an interface to non-ComStar personnel to access recordings of previous battles. Once in the simulation our customer can access any camera on board a mech to see through the combatant's cockpit as though they were there themselves. In addition they can access a "free-camera" to view the battle from any angle or location utilizing data retrieved from satellite feeds and re-created in our simulator.

We can determine the best length of time to retain the CBARS battle recordings though our Sigma branch feels that our customers would respond well to providing a full week of potential access. In addition we can allow our customers to search any battle recording or only allow them access to battles they are vested in personally.

Our customers naturally would want to reimburse us for generously providing such a vast archive. We can help them with this by requiring them to have a special "Premium" status with ComStar. Those without such a status at any given time will be unable to access CBARS.

We believe that our customers would be pleased with a system where they could review battles and that they would readily purchase and maintain "Premium" status with ComStar to access CBARS.

I thank you for your time in reviewing my proposal. May the Word of our beloved Jerome Blake guide you.

-Asa
-Adept VII-Omega


TL:DR:

• Setup a system to record all battles.
  
• Retain the battle recordings for a week.
  
• Provide an interface where customers can access the recordings and watch the battles from free-cam or cockpit cam.
  
• Require Premium Time to access the interface.

Edited by Asakara, 24 October 2013 - 09:23 PM.

[Corralis]

I think it's a good idea but can you imagine the amount of storage space required to save each and every battle (in full HD no less as we are paying customers)? Not only that but someone would have to trawl through them all to categorize each match into sub folders for ease of viewing. Your idea is good and could be really useful for people who want to make video's of awesome battles but I'm afraid the logistics could be too much for anyone to do.

That being said if you allowed a record and replay function at the end of each match and could save the game to your own HDD that would be both easy to achieve and very viable. But that second option should be a function of all games of this type and I should not have to pay extra for it (certainly no more than my premium time anyway).

[Asakara]

Corralis, on 24 October 2013 - 11:36 AM, said:

I think it's a good idea but can you imagine the amount of storage space required to save each and every battle (in full HD no less as we are paying customers)? Not only that but someone would have to trawl through them all to categorize each match into sub folders for ease of viewing. Your idea is good and could be really useful for people who want to make video's of awesome battles but I'm afraid the logistics could be too much for anyone to do.

That being said if you allowed a record and replay function at the end of each match and could save the game to your own HDD that would be both easy to achieve and very viable. But that second option should be a function of all games of this type and I should not have to pay extra for it (certainly no more than my premium time anyway).

Saving a video of the battle in HD is not what I am proposing. If that was the case how would you utilize free camera or switch between cockpits?

Instead, the game at all times keeps track of where we are and what we are doing while we play. Inputs from your client are sent to the server, and the server sends data back on what others are doing in the game. Using this data the client software on our computer can render the video, just as it renders it in-game while we play. What I am proposing is saving this data for later and using the local client to render it again when it is played.

Also, why does a human need to manually categorize anything? You could use a program to save the battles and tag them for searching.. i.e. All battles played by Corralis get a Corralis tag. All battles on Frozen City get a Frozen City tag. All battles on October 24th 2013 at 1:09 PM get a time and date stamp with that information. Customers can then use search and browse functions to find what they are looking for.

Edited by Asakara, 24 October 2013 - 12:14 PM.

[Risen]

Interesting idea but with HSR it would look desynced wouldnt it?

Even now you see mechs miss while spectating.

Also I would like an option to save the game files for "eternity" on our own hard drives, maybe have a tuned down game version to watch then (like a replay viewer).

[Burktross]

It's a shame how often "premium time" is thrown into suggestions in an attempt to make PGI not glance over them.

[MarineTech]

As a Systems Admin, and long-time BOFH, just thinking about this gives me a case of the shudders.

This would take an OBSCENE amount of server space to accomplish. Server storage COSTS boys and girls.

Can we nuke Comstar for even suggesting it?

I would much rather see such money spent on performance improvements.

Edited by MarineTech, 07 October 2014 - 11:12 AM.