Request partners; MARS mod

[Smoking mirror]

MARS

Admitedly this is not the first time I've suggested this one, and there are quite a few different mods being worked on at the moment, But I've just started reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy for a second time, And I'm in the mood for Mars.

Anyhow, this is just the planning stage, I'm going to make some early units, mostly those which can be used for other mods and see if anyone shows any interest.

This weekend I'm going to make a start on the terrain for the mod, which should be one of the more difficult bits. I'm already aware of the different mars terrain mods at the moment, But I'm keen on making one from the beggining. Theres not much salvagable from my last atempt at a mars mod, But thats partly a good thing. There are a few options to decide from the begining, such as what the timescale would be, just how much water is there on the red planet and what exactly is ther mineral composition?
Also, what would be the likley political factors on earth and how would they shape the colonization of mars? All these things are available for discussion in this thread as are a small selection of starting units, and the terrain.

 

[Smoking mirror]

Reserved for news...

Also this is where you will find ingame screenshots and links to finished units.

As a placeholder here is a picture of a fully terraformed Mars I created back in 2002.

These ilustrate the central question I need to answer for this mod, Just how difficult would it be to settle on Mars?
In Robinsons books it is realy fairly easy, although the temperature is much colder than northern Russia, most if the raw material is there for keeping you alive. Once you have managed the feat of creating synthetic soil and engineered suitable lifeforms it takes only a few hundred years to create a world where it is possible to breath on the surface without respirators...

 

[Bluemofia]

What happened to the Space Armada threads?

 

[Mistfit]

I voted easy but it should have been easy with explaination>

Early habitation sould be difficult. Have it be a struggle to survive and thrive at first but have research create easier ways to live. I like many of your initial ideas and will follow this thread with interest. Good luck.

BTW you have inspired me to pull out my copies of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and give them a good re-read

 

[Smoking mirror]

What happened to the Space Armada threads?

Umm.. Its on hold for a bit. Still got everything I've made for it so far, but I can't make it on my own.
Successful development of a mod requires a great deal of suport from other people, partly just to keep me interested.
So please! Get involved.

Cities, buildings etc.. Once I've got some standard backgrounds and templates it should be easy for people to get in on the creation.

 

[Ozymandias]

I voted "hard" because IIRC Mars' gravity isn't sufficient to retain O2; a CO2 "compromise" atmosphere would probably be the easiest arrived at.

BTW there's a decent map of Mars here.

Best,

Oz

 

[sourboy]

What do you seek that's different from what SM: Alpha Centari had? Couldn't you theoretically steal ideas from there? You need enough change to get people interested, especially those who have played SMAC.

Also, if you admit you never finish projects because you lose interest, what makes potential team members confident their work will result in a finished project?

That aside, simple terrain colors could be modified towards the red end of the spectrum (it may have been done already - yep, here - though it needs to be updated if your project is for C3C).

Future units are needed, and plenty are available. The more realistic you make them the better response you'll get, unless you intend this to be more Sci-Fi than Futuristic. If you want accuracy, I would suggest following Misfit's idea of making things hard at the start, with many initial techs being dedicated to survival of the elements first. After that, I would keep combat units minimal, and continue upgrading city improvements. OF course, that means only maybe 2 Ages. Beyond that is Sci-Fi, most likely.

As for custom work, you'll need some single-era leaderheads or flags would work too. Also, you'll want new city graphics - maybe you can bite off another project there (not sure what's available here, I don't look at Sci-Fi graphics). I would suggest tubing instead of roads, line in Moo2 (if you played it). I could possibly do that part for you, should you need it. Beyond that, maybe just some creativity and a distinct direction you want the game to flow in.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

My Colony Wars project is about a future war between Earth and Mars..don't know if that counts though...

 

[nomo]

This sounds like a really cool Idea, I'll be following this thread, and i'll see if i can help out. Again, I really like the idea. I hope it turns into something.

 

[The Last Conformist]

A non-breathable atmosphere is a big problem, as bad or worse than lunar vacuum in many respects.

You might want to make much or all terrain cause desease early on to represent accidents.

 

[WildWeazel]

So please! Get involved.

"involved" apparently meaning more than dropping in for random theoretical physics lessons

This is a great idea. I remember seeing a map of mars a while back that wasn't very accurate, but no real mod. I'll be glad to do what I can to help out. My graphics skills are weak, but slowly improving. (still no luck with the palette concept ) I haven't read the Mars trilogy but I think I'll check it out. Sounds interesting.

The tube idea is good, and kulade has some decent (!) graphics that would work at least for placeholders. I also like the "disease" idea.

 

[Smoking mirror]

What do you seek that's different from what SM: Alpha Centari had? Couldn't you theoretically steal ideas from there? You need enough change to get people interested, especially those who have played SMAC.

The thing that makes some of the better mods playable is a new gaming chalenge, changing some of the more fundamental aspects of the CIV III game system can send tried and tested tactics out of the window. Mars would be totaly different to SMAC. At the moment I'm thinking of having a campain tree, with three different mods charting the evolution of Mars. Depending on the result of each stage you would download a different scenario based on a set of standard Mod rules and graphics. It'd make you feel like you were having an influence on the way that mars develops.

Also, if you admit you never finish projects because you lose interest, what makes potential team members confident their work will result in a finished project?

The biggest reason I don't finish mods is because I take on ambitious projects that can't be completed by just one person. Usualy they need a change of every sort of graphics and often have an overall theme that discorages use of bitz and peices from other mods. Although plenty of people volounteer very few deliver any of the things they promise (something I too am guilty of) and eventualy everyone loses interest and I'm the only one posting.

Anyhow, Now I'm using Open FX instead of my old 3d program I actualy have a chance of finishing this one (or at least getting to beta) Its much faster and the skeleton and texture system allows a production line type unit creation. The plan would be to make the first step of the campaign tree, the early settling and exploration of mars and then if there is lots of interest I could start on the next parts.

 

[WildWeazel]

At least there are a lot of units already made that would work here, unlike Space Armada. The terrain will be harder though.

Besides mod planning, I can probably help with pedia icons, and of course text editing.

 

[MaisseArsouye]

Funny, I'm re-reading mars right now

This is a very cool idea for a mod. I'm just having some ideas :

New city graphics : messas, dome cities, covered valleys and caldeiras,..

You have to consider new types of governments such as bogdanovism, boonism, ...

Maybe actually, it should be possible to link culture and government because Hiroko doens't build the same cities as Bogdanov or Phyllis.

I think there's a Mars terrain graphic set... but I'm not sure.

Will somebody do a "coyote" unit ?

 

[Ozymandias]

Interesting set of maps showing Mars at different stages of terraforming (i.e., with liquid water abounding) --

http://www.intuitor.com/MarsNIF/MarsH2O.html

-Oz

 

[Smoking mirror]

Ha! Iwas working on a model to chart the rise of water on mars last night so as to chart the terraforming process through the different mods.
It all depends on the amount of water availiable (I actualy have a good map of sub surface water deposits for early developments and resource deployment).

I made a short animation showing water flooding the whole surface, it probably wouldn't get quite as wet as the end of the animation without importing water through asteroids, and realy whats the point? with no land where do you put your cities?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I finaly found out how to animate textures, so look out for some even better units (such as visibly changing battle damage during the death animation etc...)

 

[nomo]

Do we have any maps or units yet? We should probabbly make a list of stuff that we need so that people can choose wich ones thay can do. (as well as adding some creative suggestions) I just got Poser and am learning how to use it quickly. I might actually be able to help in this Project. I still have yet to read the books though. I have a lot of friends that arn't on this site that love to make maps and can do some other graphics. I think a To-Do list will defenetly be helpful.

 

[MaisseArsouye]

I agree to make the map when we know what we want.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

As you are probably aware Smoke, the Earth's water is blue because the sky is blue. If the sky were to be, say, pink, like on Mars, then you'd have Pepto-Bismal colored water( )

Would the color of Mar's sky change as the atmospheric composition changed to be more and more similiar to Earth's?

 

[Smoking mirror]

I agree to make the map when we know what we want.

Well, I've nearly finished the terraform simulator, I've factored in a vegetation limit and using a map of subsurface water detection I've made an object that shows where the earliest lakes and aquafiers would appear, though while the atmosphere is still thin it would remain as water ice rather than actual water.
Using the simulator you can get something that you can use BMP to BIC to make a map from, based on any potential terraforming age.

As you are probably aware Smoke, the Earth's water is blue because the sky is blue. If the sky were to be, say, pink, like on Mars, then you'd have Pepto-Bismal colored water( )

Would the color of Mar's sky change as the atmospheric composition changed to be more and more similiar to Earth's?

As the atmosphere thickened and became wetter it would bind much of the dust in to the soil, turning the red sky blue. I've included this in the simulator using a haze post-pro effect.

I may add a further effect, by using a animated texture on the mars object itself, perhaps showing how terraforming would soften the terrain features and give a more terran appearance by masking the craters.

Here are six stages in the animation;
#1 Virgin Mars.
#2 Mars with more water ice bought to the surface by rising temperatures.
#3 The growing atmosphere on mars would sink to the lowlands warming them and allowing the growth of vegetation. Upland areas would remain mostly barren until near the end of the terraforming process.
#4 if you imported water by aerobraking water asteroids in the upper atmophere you would begin to see oceans form. It would be questionable how much water you wanted, enogh to keep the atmophere good and wet, but not so much that the whole land mass was swallowed up.
#5 here would be a good ballance, but agian it's hard to know just how wet the atmosphere and soil would eb at this point.
#6 This is possibly too far, unless all of the remaining terrain was habitable or you were to build underwater cities....