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Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

CHARACTER BOARDING & AFFILIATION TIMELINE/CHART

Hi there!

Well, I need help with this project, and since the poll says I should ask for help more, I am trying it, lol. :)

The the titular guide or timeline for those returning from stasis is really an affiliation guide, like an easy way to show new and old writers when characters came aboard the Theurgy, if they served together on the Harbinger/Resolve/Orcus/SB84 or not. This will be helpful when trying to figure out if two characters that meet someplace ought to know each other or not.

With all the new people coming aboard the Theurgy at different times during the past three months, it is becoming difficult to keep track of. I know it all in my head, but I can't help at all times, so please, anyone, please help me finding a method to solve this? :)

Best,

Auctor Lucan

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #1 –
It sounda like what we need is a Google sheet or sometime similar that can be shared that lists characters on one axis and ships of origin on the other?

Or are we needing more detail than that... Perhaps noted about when someone went into stasis or died and the like.

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #2 –
Well, for my own purposes, I've been documenting which threads Deacon appears in in his wiki page in case he follows his predecessors into the great hunting grounds in the sky.  I can see that being a touch challenging for people who aren't here anymore, etc., but it might be something to consider as a back-up.

But what might be more the issue, there could be a spreadsheet that says x met y ... but will it also detail the nature of their relation/connection?  What is the past stories have it as contentious and the first thing they do after stasis is begin making out?  Just trying to help understand the scale and scope.

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #3 –
The more I think of it, I am starting to think we're overcomplicating things here.

Being an artist, I am thinking graphics here. Wouldn't it be most easy to make a timeline, visually showing the different ships flying alongside each other along that timeline, and then adding the names and/or images of alive characters on top of or next to the ships. And, in the wake of the ships, one could mark when people aboard them died or went into stasis. The Harbinger and Resolve would only have flown as far as they existed along the timeline, showing them exploding at the time when the listed characters of theirs would transfer unto the Theurgy.

Same thing with the Black Opal and SB84. They would be sitting on the timeline, with character names and/or images next to them, showing the ones the Theurgy picked up along the way. At the farthest point on the timeline, on the far right side, Thea is shown at present stardate in the story, inside the Azure Nebula, and names of characters that return out of stasis is listed there, next to the ones of the original Theurgy crew.

This solution would show where all characters hail from, when they went into stasis and when they emerged, visually showing how much time has progressed, as well as the major events along the journey.

Hope this explanation makes sense, showing this image in my head.

Question remains if what software is best suited for making this...

Auctor Lucan

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #4 –
It sound fantastic. I do wish I knew of a good product that could be leveraged for creating it.

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #6 –
Well while the visual idea sounds cool, it sounds like a pain to have to update regularly.  Wouldn't it be easier to just add something like "Service Period" for the wiki pages?  So it would show that character X "began service on Theurgy on Stardate 2384.1.1 arriving from the Black Opal, went into stasis 2384.1.2 after tripping and bumping their prosthetic ridges off in a tragic holodeck incident".... or something like that?  I mean, yes, you are giving up a handy visual reference showing everyone they might have known, but at the same time, that prospective player could look at other character wikis to see if they were in service during overlapping periods.

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #7 –
Ah, I get how that would be useful... but it is a lot of character pages to update with stardates and keep updated as we go forward, so it would likely be less easy to maintain than a timeline.

A timeline is fixed in regards to past events in the voyage, only new character names added at the instances/bases/ships from which they came aboard the Theurgy, right?

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #8 –
Well as new characters come on, that the initial activation, but it's text and added along with everything else for their wiki.  When they are killed or go into storage, that's another quick text update to one or two wikis, just as when they reactivate... so beyond the initial effort of updating everyone now, I don't see maintenance as a particularly large issue, unless I'm missing something on the back end?

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #9 –
Yeah, I can see how that helps in an individual case of looking a specific person up, comparing the service record to another character's, and its not a back end issue either. :)

What we need, however, is for new members to see all the Harbinger crew at once, knowing that this group of people, right there, are people their character would know/not know. That could be done via the wiki category function, sure, but when it comes to the comings and goings of the Theurgy crew, stasis/dead/resurrected/etc., a simple category function doesn't quite cut it either.

So, for individual check-ups, awesome, but a lot of retroactive work, but for a new member to know which SCO was in command before their character went into stasis? That would require such an image I described, right? Otherwise, they would have to go look at all character pages to know which ones their character are supposed to know.

Another idea I had right now as I wrote this... What about our Crew Manifest? It is the up-to-date list of current characters aboard, gathered in one page. When clicking show/hide spoilers, the images of the characters are shown, plus the name of the writer. What if there could be additional information there? This information could also be shown when looking at the list of characters in stasis or dead characters.

Example: Clicking MCPO Billy Bob O'Connell would show how he is an original Theurgy crewmember, and how as Chief Engineer, his predecessors would be X,Y and Z, plus when they went into stasis/died. Then, the information would all be in one place in terms of crew rotations...

...but there would still be no timeline showing when major events occured. Again, my thoughts return to a timeline, with this info present.

Brainstoming here, so please, someone chime in here while I think some more on this? :)

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #10 –
Reading this it almost looks like there are two different ideas being bounced around.
One is more a collection of names beside each-other under the heading of whatever ship they served on, for the ease of a quick glance and that sort of thing. Which for finding out stasis and other details would require going to the character page (Not a huge deal really). Or perhaps on that list it could then be placed next to each name different details.

EG: Varder Ridun, Bajoran, USS Angelo, USS Theurgy original crew, Stasis Ep prior 01, Revived end Ep 04.

(Had no idea what to put for stasis, but you get the idea.)

That format also allows for certain hyper links to "necessary" wiki links and the like. Only issue with this all really is that it could take a while to initially set up, after initial set up however it should be fairly easy to keep up with.
The best way everyone could help out in this would be to get the links and information for their characters compiled and send that to Auctor.

The other is more an overall crew and position timeline, possibly done graphically. The only potential problem I can see here is that it could get cluttered in a big way if to many images are used, not only making it hard to fit consecutive events beside each-other but also events that happened on the same day.
So, unless our resident graphics talent has a way around that issue (He very well might) it might be a nice background and presentation, with primarily text off the timeline for important information. This does however mean people would then need to go and search for character or events themselves as one image can not really hold several hyperlinks.
Unless the timeline is down scaled, each episode might have one, perhaps each interim as well?

That or a little mix of both, meaning that yes, both would need to be done. More work ;-;.
Bonus is that it provides both a visual guide and a place of compiled links for each character around.

I am reasonably sure I made sense here, if I didn't manage that... oops.

(Theurgy link broke due to automatic Italics on the word)

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #11 –
Thanks for the input on this one! :) I appreciate the brainstorming a lot.

What I have done, as a step on the way towards something of a solution, is this:

Categorised Character Wiki Page

As you can see there, I have made Subcategories for all characters, and specified which ones originally entered the story from which ship/base. This is a step in the right direction, where new members can see which characters belong where in terms of story-entry.

The next step, I think, is to make that timeline, and post it on that wiki page. With the subcategory links below the timeline, there is no need to list every character by name in the timeline, but reference the starships or bases, since they can be found in the subcategories on that page, right?

Am I making sense? The relevant subcategories are named "Original X Crewmembers".

Best,

Auctor Lucan

Re: Character Boarding & Affiliation Timeline

Reply #12 –
With what you've done so far, i think you are correct.  If we make a timeline showing the bases or ships over the years, a person can quickly see where they are, check who was with them, and see the overlap for the base or ship they may have interacted with.
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