Proposal: Infected and Cure Ribbons

[Morgan Shackelford]

Thanks to Mr. Blodvaerd for his initial ribbon designs for the Borg STF missions.

However, I propose the following changes to be more in line with Borg STF medal currently in use for completion of Khitomer Accord:

Infected:


The Cure:


Khitomer Accord - STF Medal of Bravery; already in use:


Fleet members would only wear one ribbon, and then upgrade/replace the ribbon on their namebar/uniform as they completed additional missions.

[AUGERSON U.S.M.C. (Ret)]

Yes Sir... Look Great

[Ezreq Blodvaerd]

This is not because I made the other ribbons, but I'm not in agreement with these.

1. They do not match the style of our previously made ribbons.

2. Who wants to explain what they mean? The original style are somewhat self explanitory.

3. If you want to combine up all to match the Borg Campaign Medal you created, make a ribbon version of the medal.

Just my 2-cents and in no way a criticism of the fine work that you do.

[Morgan Shackelford]

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

This is not because I made the other ribbons, but I'm not in agreement with these... Just my 2-cents and in no way a criticism of the fine work that you do.

Differences of opinion are always welcome, and, in my opinion, opposing views are often more valuable than routine agreement. That being said, I will address each of your concerns:

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

1. They do not match the style of our previously made ribbons.

This is only partially true. Indeed, they are not the 31x31 square format that most of the merits/awards are; however, the height is 31 pixels so they may be inserted easily onto the namebars.

None of the medals from http://www.fleet7.com/custom.php?page_id=47855&gid=84053&section=homepage would have a square ribbon. They are all more standard military style ribbons.

Many other namebar elements, such as TF, WGC, and other identifiers are not standard squares, either.

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

2. Who wants to explain what they mean? The original style are somewhat self explanitory.

what does this mean?



It certainly is not self explanatory. The only way to know what it represents is to look it up. Or, to pick on something more closely related to our more standard square ribbons, WTF does this mean?



It doesn't look like anything, until you've looked up what it means. No one who is previously unfamiliar with our fleet and merit system is going to look at that - even if they have played STO - and think, oh ya, that must be for the Big Dig. It is certainly not self explanatory.

My point is simply that if a requirement for a ribbon is that it need be self explanatory, then we have many ribbons which we need to go back and change.

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

3. If you want to combine up all to match the Borg Campaign Medal you created, make a ribbon version of the medal.

I did. There are two ribbon versions of the Borg STF medals that have been in the ribbon gallery since the redesign of the medal. The medal itself was Lang's idea; I simply polished it up to be in line with other high end medals - and the design included ribbonized versions.

As it stands now, the ribbon from the original post for Khitomer Accords is already in use. Once you finish all 3 STF's you are eligible for the STF Medal of Bravery. There is a ribbon version for namebars for this medal, and has been since the medal was redesigned.

[Morgan Shackelford]

Mr. Blodvaerd, I certainly meant no disrespect in my above post. I simply wish to convey my opposing viewpoint, and perhaps a bit of the thought process that led to me to make this proposal.

I am personally fond of the look of standard U.S. military ribbons. We currently only have 4 medals in 7th fleet that have this look; the UFP Flying Cross, The UFP Silver Star, the Federation Cross, and the Kirk MoH. However, these 4 medals are meant to be a rarity and the means by which they are obtained are somewhat intangible. That is to say, there is no set action by which you would be awarded any of these 4 medals - it is admiralty's discretion, and I would presume would need to be witnessed as well.

With the addition of Lang's STF Medal of Borg Annihilation/STF Medal of Bravery, fleet members now have an option to earn a true 'military' style ribbon that has a concrete in game goal tied to it. The addition of these medals also replaced the Khitomer Accord ribbon you had previously created, as it is awarded when a member completes the entire Borg STF line (no small task, and I feel Lang had an excellent idea in coming up with this medal). Lang posted the initial medal, I offered to redesign it and did so, with two ribbons included for each version of the medal.

I simply thought why not expand this to include the two mission before KA. Even just getting Infected done is no joke.

The STF Medal of Bravery is simple, but symbolic. The green background is representative of the Borg, and the 3 white stripes are symbolic of the 3 missions of the STF line. White is used to symbolize purity here; that each system corresponding to the individual STF missions has been 'purified' of Borg incursion.

It wasn't much of a stretch for me to arrive at the idea of having a ribbon with one white strip for completing Infected, and one with two white stripes for completing the Cure. I mean hell, even the in game accolade system uses military style ribbons; and I'd like to see a bit more of that with our own internal merit system.

Now, I do not want anyone to take this to mean that I do not like our current ribbons. The set of ribbons that were here when I joined are a part of what drew me to the 7th.

I simply like the idea of having some more attainable military style ribbons available to fleet members.

[Captain Talbot]

Mr Shackelford, The metals and ribbons are fine, I myself have already added the Infected ribbon, as you can see, and plan on using the others as soon as I complete those missions. We are a RP military style Fleet and I know that most of the members like showing off the missions and fleet actions they have completed.

Keep up the good work sir, and don't stop making ribbons, the torch has been passed to you sir.

[Ezreq Blodvaerd]

Mr. Shakelford, please be assured I took no offense.

I will implement the change as needed in my ribbon bar. I do still have a concern for the length of the ribbon, because once we add several of these it will stretch the post window out pretty far.

[Morgan Shackelford]

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

Mr. Shakelford, please be assured I took no offense. I will implement the change as needed in my ribbon bar. I do still have a concern for the length of the ribbon, because once we add several of these it will stretch the post window out pretty far.

No worries, sir. Once we have the 7MD namebar format selected, I will be happy to setup all the ribbons for you guys as well, so you don't have to worry about making them yourselves. I've edited a few marines posts to fix a couple of namebar issues that cropped up when I moved some of my photobucket files around and broke their hotlinks - and honestly, good god. There is no reason you guys should have to compile 18 img links to get your namebars to show up with the ribbons attached. I will make them into one file for you guys, then when you need updates, just let me know and I can pop them out with haste.

But, what I'm trying to get to is that the ribbons shouldn't go past the end of the namebars; so when I'm doing them the widest they will ever be is the 640 pixels that namebars are. If you have more ribbons than would show up on one 'line', then we'll just add a another 'line' to get everything to show up right

[Morgan Shackelford]

Charles Talbot wrote:

the torch has been passed to you sir.

I think I'm starting to realize that. I was looking over Mr. Turners patch request thread the other night, and there's really nothing there - the only stuff on his list is from folks who I don't believe are even on the roster anymore.

I may have to take the 'Secondary Protocol' tag off my own patch request thread. It doesn't seem so secondary anymore. I also may expand my namebar responsibilities to include regular fleet personnel.

Nothing against Mr. Turner; his contributions have been outstanding to say the least; and it's my understanding he's a bit tied up with real life atm.

[Captain Talbot]

Ezreq Blodvaerd wrote:

Mr. Shakelford, please be assured I took no offense. I will implement the change as needed in my ribbon bar. I do still have a concern for the length of the ribbon, because once we add several of these it will stretch the post window out pretty far.

Ezreq, as you can see, mine does not stretch past my bar, it drops to the next lvl just like the ribbons you wear on your dress uniform, so there wont be any issue of it stretching the windows out to far.

[Morgan Shackelford]

I've posted these up in the ribbon gallery; folks can use whichever tickles their fancy.

[Anton Mercer]

I think what Mr. Shackleford is trying to say that this is just for infected and cure... u can have both on ur bar and not have completed KA but once you do the stf medal REPLACES both long boxes and now u only have the one box with the one medal showing that u did all three therefore space isnt wasted or streched out... that can be even true with the second ribbon replacing the first meaning u only have one box at all times. u did infected? awesome first box. Cure too? GREAT u put the second box in place of the first therefore only one box is used at a time

[Morgan Shackelford]

Well, that is correct. But if you prefer Mr. Blodvaerds ribbons; by all means use them.

But as far as mine go, that is pretty much what I was saying. You only need be wearing one of them at any given time:



Would be my updated namebar. By displaying the Cure ribbon, it should be blatantly obvious that I've also earned the Infected ribbon. No need to display them both.