Author Topic: The Tricorder (Read 16268 times)

Black Patriot · « **Reply #160 on:** July 30, 2010, 12:16:20 PM »

I've wondered why they always had such uncomforable grips, surely by the 24th centry they would have realized that having a lot of corners would be uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time. Also, in the second design I'd add a collapsing front grip and maybe move the sight back slightly, or make it a bit shorter, other than that it looks good.

Atlantisbase · « **Reply #161 on:** July 30, 2010, 01:11:49 PM »

Hmm, it's a little short in my opinion; though I'm partial to the Enhanced Compression Rifle from EF2. If you want to make it that short, it might be better to put the trigger/handle near the front of the weapon; think P90. This make the weapon more compact and easier to wield single handed because it puts most of the weight behind your hand. Granted weight might not be such an issue with phasers, but a rifle still must weight a good 5-10 lbs. (that's ~2-4 kg for the rest of the world). If most of that weight is in front of the hand it would be much harder to use one-handed.

MajorD · « **Reply #162 on:** July 30, 2010, 01:58:20 PM »

If I had to make an explanation, I would say the bad ergonomics are a combination of feeling like they don't need weapons, which was a big TNG theme, and technology allowing them to get away with bad ergonomics. I don't think the original Type III is so bad, the new Type III's actually seem worse thanks to the trigger placement relative the grip. You need to bend your finger upward to reach.
Not to worry, a fore grip is part of the plan. I'm also going to lower the trigger, or raise the grip, and recontour the grip some more. I don't know about the scope, in the pictures I've found, placement seems pretty random for red dot scopes. However, the tendency seems to be for rearward placement, with the them being forward only when forced to by structure. But, the reason I put the scope forward in the first place was for visual reasons and a bit of P90 aesthetic. I'll think about it. Maybe I'll make a cardboard mockup so I can get a sense of placement for everything.

Atlantis, I was about to post and the system stopped me to warn me about your post.

I didn't realize how far forward the P90's grip is. I'll make another version with it forward and that should also make it so the scope doesn't need moving. I also want to move the rear grip forward on the original Type III.

Here we go, quick and dirty. I'll try another one later with the main grip set only a little forward, kind of a compromise which I think will look good.

Atlantisbase · « **Reply #163 on:** July 30, 2010, 02:44:32 PM »

Keep in mind that as the grip moves foreward it needs to be less of a pistol grip and closer to a ring grip as on the P90. Keeping the mostly vertical pistol grip will put the hand in an uncomfortable position and make it harder to hold and forces you to hold the weapon farther away from the body. A more horizonal grip allows you to bring it closer to the body and puts the hand in a more natural position.

MajorD · « **Reply #164 on:** July 30, 2010, 03:57:22 PM »

Are you sure of that? The Super Kriss has pistol grips and is held very close. Holding the hands more horizontally at that same distance from the shoulder would force the elbow up and out, which is bad for close quarters. Shotguns, which use the traditional very horizontal grip are held further away from the shoulder than the Super Kriss, if I'm not mistaken.

[edit] Now I'm seeing something, I was holding the imaginary gun perpendicular to my body, when I should have turned my arms to the left--more parallel. Okay, the further away, the flatter the grip. I'm going to need that cardboard cutout, or something else.

locutusxx · « **Reply #165 on:** September 16, 2010, 07:29:41 PM »

Hey, not sure if this has been posted, but how but making the tricorder have a briefing mode in away missions. I was thinking of including a holo-projector on the front of it. It would be useful for situations in where away teams have to plot strategies. The tricorder itself can be scan the area, then make a holographic map of the area so the away teams can strategise (dunno if that's a word). Anyways, I don't know if it's too out of trek. Hope its in the game!!

MajorD · « **Reply #166 on:** September 17, 2010, 07:53:39 AM »

Holographic projection is completely in keeping with Trek tech. The tricorder in TNG has holographic diodes capable of holodeck quality projection, minus force fields. Throw a micro forcefield generator in and you have physical feedback for a fully holographic interface.

webxro · « **Reply #167 on:** September 17, 2010, 03:52:58 PM »

that sounds to much like Star Wars

MajorD · « **Reply #168 on:** September 17, 2010, 05:19:50 PM »

TOS movie tech is much more like Star Wars. Holographic interfaces for basic tools is much more like Mass Effect.

locutusxx · « **Reply #169 on:** September 17, 2010, 06:03:49 PM »

But would the actual tricorder itself be thicker to include the holo projector and forcefield projector? I just wouldn't want to carry a brick in away missions...

MajorD · « **Reply #170 on:** September 18, 2010, 12:14:59 PM »

Probably not, the basic TNG tricorder already had holoemitters, and as as we saw in "A Fist Full of Datas" a shield emitter capable of stopping bullets is about the size of two BIC lighters and a few large stacked coins. A weaker and purpose built shield emitter could probably be made smaller. Considering the small size of the Nemesis tricorder, at worst a holographic tricorder might be as large as the TNG tricorders.

An interesting feature would be projecting an EMH through the tricorder. The tricorder wouldn't be able to hold or even run an EMH program, but given sufficient bandwidth a ship's network could handle all the hard work and only need to transmit the output to the tricorder.

locutusxx · « **Reply #171 on:** September 18, 2010, 04:52:06 PM »

Yes. And that way, away mission no longer need to include doctors. All the medical work can be done through a portable EMH. Also, if medical tricorders still exist, this feature can be included in them.

Black Patriot · « **Reply #172 on:** September 18, 2010, 09:17:12 PM »

Quote from: locutusxx on September 18, 2010, 04:52:06 PM

Yes. And that way, away mission no longer need to include doctors. All the medical work can be done through a portable EMH. Also, if medical tricorders still exist, this feature can be included in them.

That almost goes without saying, there wouldn't be much sense in having this ability in a standard tricorder and not in a medical one. Having said that there is the question of whether a medical tricorder would even be necessary, Nemesis showed us that a regular tricorder seems to be just as capable as the old medical tricorders, both Data and Dr. Crusher were able to use them for medical scans, so there probably isn't a need for a specialized tricorder.

MajorD · « **Reply #173 on:** September 19, 2010, 05:48:22 AM »

Perhaps the special function of a medical tricorder could be an autonomous Medic Hologram. It would be an extremely abbreviated version of an EMH, perhaps no personality, only enough medical knowledge to analyze injuries, determine priority for help, and have the ability to mitigate such injury until superior help can arrive. It could have the learning ability of the EMH, but it would take far longer to see any variation due to the smaller starting state, and the potential for growth would be far lower due to the storage limits of tricorders.

Due to any hologram being sizable storage wise, and requiring plenty of processing power, the types of scanning would be limited by having fewer scanning devices, and fewer preloaded scanning programs since most of them would not work without the associated sensors. Those devices and programs that are included would be specific to medical analysis in order to leave more room for memory/processing chips to run the MH. Medically, the medical tricorder (perhaps it should be medic tricorder) would nearly be the equal of the generic tricorder, but the generic tricorder would be a better analysis device in all other ways. As a result, the only people you would see carrying medic tricorders would be security personnel, soldiers, and perhaps civilians who expect themselves to be out of contact with civilization. Everyone else would use full function generic tricorders, especially when in contact with a network capable of running an EMH for the tricorder.

locutusxx · « **Reply #174 on:** September 19, 2010, 11:56:15 AM »

Is it possible to just leave the whole Medical tricorder idea behind and create a whole new tricorder design just for holograms? They don't have to be Medical holograms either.

MajorD · « **Reply #175 on:** September 19, 2010, 05:09:32 PM »

At that point I think it would be better to make a small anti-gravity robot.

locutusxx · « **Reply #176 on:** September 20, 2010, 02:07:32 PM »

Yeah I think we went too far.....

MajorD · « **Reply #177 on:** September 20, 2010, 02:50:49 PM »

Not that a robot with a holographic mind would be a bad thing. Data's body is easy, his brain is the tricky part, but holographic personalities are extremely stable. Not that there is much reason to make such a robot humanoid, except for ease of interaction, it could just as easily be a hovering drone like thing.

placebonation · « **Reply #178 on:** December 27, 2010, 07:16:50 AM »

I apologize if this has been touched upon. Also this is my first post. Be gentle. In response to the tricorder design by the OP. I feel that people are wanting it to look exactly like the tricorders on the show? I hope not. I've seen these horrid things. Most simply had lights blinking. For those so anti apple that it hurts the eyes to see an iphone remember that UI have changed since the 80s. This UI looks like iphone/ipad/android. Not simply apple centric. Also have to remember that UI and capabilities should not be handicapped because we are stuck in the mindset of TNG era. If this game is considered a few years after Nemesis I'm pretty sure someone in Starfleet spoke up and stated that tricorder UI needs a heavy rework and can someone please throw away these useless pads.

TL;DR I like the beta tricorder design. Leaves it open for a lot of useful additions in the following months.

Now the first thing that came to mind when I saw this design is that i can imagine using my android phone or iphone to integrate with the game. Can you imagine? Workable over wireless most likely. But I'm sure a 3/4g solution could be worked out. Allowing you to have the same UI on your phone doing the tricorder tasks in game. To the point that it syncs up perfectly. Everything from scans to medical. Comm. Etc. Have the ability to keep in touch with your friends in game. Just an idea. Most games are only just now incorporating this kind of idea into their games. Maybe this is something that could be considered.

smoki · « **Reply #179 on:** December 27, 2010, 08:24:57 AM »

Well, I got the impression that the design that garnered most votes from the community was matt.oracle's design from page 5 (deduced from votes for Luke's designs from page 7). But that’s just my impression, and doesn’t mean it will be used in the game. But it really is a good design, making the tricorder both look good and sensible in regard with modern technology, and still maintaining the traditional look for tricorders. But still, it’s not exactly what was used on the shows, but as you’ve said, it’s post Nemesis, so there was plenty of time for an upgrade.

The rest you've said, plus third party voice control software, could make one feel like he's really in the trek universe. But it's probably best left until after the first release of the game.