Mars 2.0
by Tim.Holt · 04/19/2009 (5:00 pm) · 25 comments
First shot of the Mars 2.0 project. 1.0 was an older Multiverse based game I worked on a few years ago, which I'm now porting over to Torque now.
A somewhat lost Orc looks over an old First Wave Mars habitat, wondering if he can scavenge any parts.
Looking down one of the long Martian valleys, along the trail to lands open for settlement.
Textures are from various Mars lander photos and other reference. Terrain is also based on a real location called the "Margaritifer Basin", which is filled with craters and ancient water channels. It's currently on the list as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory
For gameplay, think "Oregon Trail Game on Mars" crossed with a lightweight MMO. Exploration, crafting, science and math themed skill tree, robotics, habitats, small domed cities, subterranean (submartian?) facilities and so forth.
A somewhat lost Orc looks over an old First Wave Mars habitat, wondering if he can scavenge any parts.
Looking down one of the long Martian valleys, along the trail to lands open for settlement.
Textures are from various Mars lander photos and other reference. Terrain is also based on a real location called the "Margaritifer Basin", which is filled with craters and ancient water channels. It's currently on the list as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory
For gameplay, think "Oregon Trail Game on Mars" crossed with a lightweight MMO. Exploration, crafting, science and math themed skill tree, robotics, habitats, small domed cities, subterranean (submartian?) facilities and so forth.
#2
04/19/2009 (5:11 pm)
Looks interesting. Nice that you're basing the terrain on actual areas, and that's a really good idea utilizing the photos taken by the landers for your textures.
#3
04/19/2009 (5:15 pm)
No Martians per se, but maybe smaller bacterial life forms or lichens? You need to have little tombstones here and there that say "Died of Martian Fever" so maybe Martian viruses :^) 
#4
And yes you have to have Martian viruses!
04/19/2009 (6:41 pm)
Cool idea, and nice job with the real textures and terrain there.And yes you have to have Martian viruses!
#6
Always had a thing for Mars based games, no idea why. Might have something to do with reading the Mars series of books (Red, Green and Blue), but looks good so far.
04/19/2009 (10:55 pm)
Cool, reminds me of something some had been doing a while back and one of my projects that's on the back burn from a while ago.Always had a thing for Mars based games, no idea why. Might have something to do with reading the Mars series of books (Red, Green and Blue), but looks good so far.
#7
04/20/2009 (2:02 am)
Neat! 
#8
I'll be your first customer.
Melv.
04/20/2009 (12:09 pm)
If it's on Mars, I'll purchase it period. My fascination with that planet knows no bounds.I'll be your first customer.
Melv.
#9
I'm looking at something that's 20-30 years past a successful Mars Direct or NASA Design Reference Mission type trip; where life is still rough, resources either recycled or found are gold, but there's a stream of colonists arriving to make Mars their new home.
I really draw parallels between this game idea and the old "Oregon Trail Game" in a lot of ways.
A couple of more shots. I know it's just scenery but it's a start...
04/20/2009 (12:44 pm)
I hear you Melv. I'm also really fascinated by the whole idea, as seem a lot more people. Groups like the Mars Society and Marsdrive have done an incredible amount of thinking about this.I'm looking at something that's 20-30 years past a successful Mars Direct or NASA Design Reference Mission type trip; where life is still rough, resources either recycled or found are gold, but there's a stream of colonists arriving to make Mars their new home.
I really draw parallels between this game idea and the old "Oregon Trail Game" in a lot of ways.
A couple of more shots. I know it's just scenery but it's a start...
#10
Hmm, given a nice budget I'd love to play a mars game that had: satellite/high-altitude views with chemical analysis plots then be able to send out scouting parties to survey them and having to deal with your existing resources to get that done e.g. human resources, oxygen-generation, mobile habitats, producing fuels, distributing power, growing food, maintaining comms with earth/orbiting satellites, maintaining morale, weathering storms, dealing with radiation alerts, building automated scouting/resource robots and oh so much more!
Oh boy do I love the idea of a Mars Oregon Trail game!
It may be "just" scenery but it's a great start to get the mind thinking about the possibilities.
You officially have your first fan.
04/21/2009 (12:56 am)
You know, if I didn't already have my hands full of dev work I'd love to work on a game like this. I so desperately want to go out prospecting on them there hills! :)Hmm, given a nice budget I'd love to play a mars game that had: satellite/high-altitude views with chemical analysis plots then be able to send out scouting parties to survey them and having to deal with your existing resources to get that done e.g. human resources, oxygen-generation, mobile habitats, producing fuels, distributing power, growing food, maintaining comms with earth/orbiting satellites, maintaining morale, weathering storms, dealing with radiation alerts, building automated scouting/resource robots and oh so much more!
Oh boy do I love the idea of a Mars Oregon Trail game!
It may be "just" scenery but it's a great start to get the mind thinking about the possibilities.
You officially have your first fan.
#11
The MOLP mission has data for generating very high rez. hight maps, based on the MOLP sat. orbit. I think there was only a very small % of Mars not mapped by the MOLP mission. But be warned these high rez images aren't small.
Here's a map made from the image data.
full image
18mb map image!
The image date was done in lots , Lat: 10° by Lon: 20°, and each is a big file I think for the very high rez it was @ 500mb per.
I'll see if I can find the link for you if your interested.
04/21/2009 (2:58 am)
Tim if you want a good source of map information, I'd point you to the MOLP project that was done in the late 70's (if I remember correctly) and the mapping mission done in the last two years.The MOLP mission has data for generating very high rez. hight maps, based on the MOLP sat. orbit. I think there was only a very small % of Mars not mapped by the MOLP mission. But be warned these high rez images aren't small.
Here's a map made from the image data.
full image
18mb map image!
The image date was done in lots , Lat: 10° by Lon: 20°, and each is a big file I think for the very high rez it was @ 500mb per.
I'll see if I can find the link for you if your interested.
#12
I'll be announcing a space strategy/exploration game soon you might be interested in too :)
04/21/2009 (3:48 am)
@MelvI'll be announcing a space strategy/exploration game soon you might be interested in too :)
#14
04/21/2009 (6:45 am)
I dig this idea too, back in 2002 I was messing around with MOLA data and TGE. It is pretty neat. Over the past year I've been using L3DT to render the same data then import to TGEA as atlas terrain. Hopefully Torque 3D will have some nice heightmap import abilities. My whole idea was to make an rpg on mars that went back to when it was a greener planet.(same terrain, but grassy, trees ect..)
#15
The USGS PIGWAD site also has some pretty extensive data, including geological maps.
Jason you mentioned a greener Mars idea. As a thought experiment, I was imagining a large persistent Mars MMO where players could actually do things to terraform the planet, but didn't have to. Would factions (for and against terraforming) arise ala the Kim Stanley Robinson books? Not that there would HAVE to be conflict, but it would be interesting to see if people got into the role playing.
PS
If any of you Instant Action Lore fans are experiencing a little terrain texture deja vu, I did some work for them a while back :^)
04/21/2009 (9:43 am)
Pierre and Jason - right now I'm working with data from the USGS Geomantics group. There's some amazing data to be had out there.The USGS PIGWAD site also has some pretty extensive data, including geological maps.
Jason you mentioned a greener Mars idea. As a thought experiment, I was imagining a large persistent Mars MMO where players could actually do things to terraform the planet, but didn't have to. Would factions (for and against terraforming) arise ala the Kim Stanley Robinson books? Not that there would HAVE to be conflict, but it would be interesting to see if people got into the role playing.
PS
If any of you Instant Action Lore fans are experiencing a little terrain texture deja vu, I did some work for them a while back :^)
#16
If your interested in following on on the Green Mars terraforming read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.
As you may or may-not know, Kim Stanley used 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his fascination with Mars, become a member of the Mars Society. So these novels are very detailed. Worth reading if you are thinking of going farther with you game idea.
Here a quick run down on all three;
Red Mars - Colonization
Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever, the Ares, with a crew of the "First Hundred" colonists, composed for the most part of Russians and Americans. The book details the construction of the first settlement on Mars, called "Underhill". A debate among the colonists breaks out about the advisability of terraforming the planet, focusing on the two extreme views personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and it should be continued, a viewpoint held by "the Greens." Ann Clayborne represents "the Reds" viewpoint that mankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will and Mars should be left in its original state. Hiroko Ai represents a middle ground, believing that a new way of living could evolve on Mars, a philosophy referred to as "Areophany".
The Greens eventually win out, through direct intervention in some cases, and the first steps to terraforming Mars start during the book. At the same time, new towns are developed across the planet, increasingly "open" as new technologies and materials allow pressure to be contained in new ways. However, due to the greed of the transnational corporations which come to dominate and control the nation states of Earth, the new Martian towns become overcrowded and undermaintained. Several cases of sabotage of terraformation infrastructure occur, blamed on anti-terraforming forces. The situation results in a violent revolution in 2061, in which many of the First Hundred are killed, and much of Mars' infrastructure, notably the space elevator, and Phobos, are destroyed. Most of the surviving members of the First Hundred are forced into hiding in the "underground", in this case a literal underground shelter created by Hiroko Ai under the Martian south pole.
Green Mars - Terraforming
Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing plants to grow. It picks up the story from Red Mars, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred (and their children and grandchildren). Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole is attacked by UN forces and the survivors are forced to escape into a less literal underground known as the "demimonde". Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the nisei, a number of whom live in Ai's second secret base, Zygote.
As unrest in the multinational control over Mars' affairs grow, various groups start to form with different aims and methods. Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of Praxis Corporation sends his representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part. Preparations are made for a second revolution beginning in the 2120s.
The book follows the characters across the martian landscape, which is explained in detail. As Sax Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, the newly evolving martian biosphere is described at great length. A mainstay of the novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, economical, and geological experiences of the characters. The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them.
One major event is a sudden, catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels, caused not by any greenhouse effect, but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of west Antarctica, disintegrating the ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean.
Blue Mars - Long-Term results
Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows on from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution and showing the spread of human settlements across the solar system — a process Robinson terms the Accelerando.
04/21/2009 (12:16 pm)
@TimIf your interested in following on on the Green Mars terraforming read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.
As you may or may-not know, Kim Stanley used 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his fascination with Mars, become a member of the Mars Society. So these novels are very detailed. Worth reading if you are thinking of going farther with you game idea.
Here a quick run down on all three;
Red Mars - Colonization
Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever, the Ares, with a crew of the "First Hundred" colonists, composed for the most part of Russians and Americans. The book details the construction of the first settlement on Mars, called "Underhill". A debate among the colonists breaks out about the advisability of terraforming the planet, focusing on the two extreme views personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and it should be continued, a viewpoint held by "the Greens." Ann Clayborne represents "the Reds" viewpoint that mankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will and Mars should be left in its original state. Hiroko Ai represents a middle ground, believing that a new way of living could evolve on Mars, a philosophy referred to as "Areophany".
The Greens eventually win out, through direct intervention in some cases, and the first steps to terraforming Mars start during the book. At the same time, new towns are developed across the planet, increasingly "open" as new technologies and materials allow pressure to be contained in new ways. However, due to the greed of the transnational corporations which come to dominate and control the nation states of Earth, the new Martian towns become overcrowded and undermaintained. Several cases of sabotage of terraformation infrastructure occur, blamed on anti-terraforming forces. The situation results in a violent revolution in 2061, in which many of the First Hundred are killed, and much of Mars' infrastructure, notably the space elevator, and Phobos, are destroyed. Most of the surviving members of the First Hundred are forced into hiding in the "underground", in this case a literal underground shelter created by Hiroko Ai under the Martian south pole.
Green Mars - Terraforming
Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing plants to grow. It picks up the story from Red Mars, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred (and their children and grandchildren). Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole is attacked by UN forces and the survivors are forced to escape into a less literal underground known as the "demimonde". Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the nisei, a number of whom live in Ai's second secret base, Zygote.
As unrest in the multinational control over Mars' affairs grow, various groups start to form with different aims and methods. Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of Praxis Corporation sends his representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements. This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part. Preparations are made for a second revolution beginning in the 2120s.
The book follows the characters across the martian landscape, which is explained in detail. As Sax Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, the newly evolving martian biosphere is described at great length. A mainstay of the novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, economical, and geological experiences of the characters. The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them.
One major event is a sudden, catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels, caused not by any greenhouse effect, but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of west Antarctica, disintegrating the ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean.
Blue Mars - Long-Term results
Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has taken place allowing atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas. It follows on from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution and showing the spread of human settlements across the solar system — a process Robinson terms the Accelerando.
#18
Eg.. slight increase in atmosphere pressure, would mean new spacesuit design and construction, as well as vehicles and habitats. UFO: afterlight used I'm sure of it some of the ideas from Kim's books. Starting with basic spacesuits and hardsuits, then as pressures increase to near jumpsuits with oxgyen tanks and helmets.
Just let you thoughts go and you'll find heaps of possible plots and changes you can add.
I would say also watch the Mars movies, theres only about four of them I think. Ghost of Mars, Red Planet, etc... and get a few plot concepts from them.
04/21/2009 (10:51 pm)
Yip, my game plan had included the terraforming idea, and the bonus is with the length of time required for to terraform a complete planet means you could apply changes to maps in stages, this could be done every now and then.Eg.. slight increase in atmosphere pressure, would mean new spacesuit design and construction, as well as vehicles and habitats. UFO: afterlight used I'm sure of it some of the ideas from Kim's books. Starting with basic spacesuits and hardsuits, then as pressures increase to near jumpsuits with oxgyen tanks and helmets.
Just let you thoughts go and you'll find heaps of possible plots and changes you can add.
I would say also watch the Mars movies, theres only about four of them I think. Ghost of Mars, Red Planet, etc... and get a few plot concepts from them.
Torque Owner Chris Ervin