Author Topic: Sandbox Mode  (Read 6404 times)

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burki12

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Sandbox Mode
« on: May 18, 2013, 07:56:31 PM »
Can you make a sandbox mission. where you maintain the base, or can you do that after you have been through all phases?

rditto48801

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2013, 09:11:14 PM »
It would be nice to have such a thing as a sanbox mode.

I still need to get to Phase 7 myself, but so far I got a lot of stuff stockpiled, and it would be nice to do something with it. I got a bit to involved with the farm and bio lab stuff...

I wonder how hard it would be to add in missions that request different things. Like X amount of items, or to repair certain items, provide fuel for a lost rover, etc.
The game can spawn a rover from what I saw with one mission, so de-spawning them should also be possible.
An NPC rover spawns with a request mission, put needed stuff in rover (or fill up its fuel, or fix it), after mission done, NPC rover de-spawns with whatever is in it.
Something to add a little variety, and put a dent into stockpiled materials.
Boldly going forward, 'cause I can't find reverse.

Doctor Watson; Proving that being wrong means being one step closer to being right.

Hyper

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2013, 09:56:47 AM »
Version 1.5 or 2.0 will address that issue. Challenger was a survival test for score. Thanks...

burki12

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2013, 12:42:31 PM »
1.05 will be when?

rditto48801

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2013, 01:03:39 PM »
1.05 is the latest patch version.
'1.5 or 2.0' likely means a sort of 'expansion' to what is already in place.
Like other games, MC:C is likely focused on final polish and bug fixing the release version before working to start putting more stuff in.

A stray idea for a sandbox/free play mode. The score for such a mode being set to 'sandbox', to indicate it is a sandbox game and not accepted for normal scoring.
Boldly going forward, 'cause I can't find reverse.

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Hyper

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2013, 08:31:19 AM »
Sandbox mode requires some sort of economy and I need to work out the details on that some. You sell extra food or resource for credits and can get a better rover or spare parts etc ... Game design is a boggle at best. I try to tell my students "you dont want to be a designer" ... 

rditto48801

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2013, 07:44:09 PM »
Currency is not really needed.
One game comes to mind. Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. There is no 'currency' as far as coin or anything like that, everything comes down to food and crafted goods. Who would have thought that an economy revolving around bread and vegetables would work.

Another thing would be World War II.
Different military units would have to deal with not just enemy blocking supply routes, but of red tape blocking supplies. Just about anything was swapped for just about anything else.
As a rough example.
One unit might have secured extra fuel, but be in bad need of spare parts, so they trades some of the fuel to another unit that needs fuel, a that has some extra cases of coffee. The first unit then takes some of those cases of coffee, and trades it to another group that is out of such 'luxuries', but that happens to have spare parts for vehicles they don't have, but which the first unit does have.
More often than not, no money exchanges hands, just goods, supplies and favors.

Instituting a money based economy on something like a Mars colony seems like like a bad idea, if only in concept of what kind of havoc that greed could reek on something like an 'isolated' Mars colony. Although, in a way, it also opens up other opportunities to undo such issues by taking a 'more time and effort intensive' act of charity/generosity to counter it.

There should also be a sense of teamwork going on.
Of the main base occasionally sending requests for items, materials and supplies intended for use in helping to establish further outposts, support surveying/prospecting missions, or even work on a much larger 'base' meant to be the first 'real' colony on Mars, meant to house not just some brave pioneers, but to be capable of handling full blown families, for 'living and thriving' on Mars, not just 'surviving'.
Something to give a sense of something beyond getting the best score, or the biggest trade value, or getting to the top of some leader board, but of accomplishing something great...
Although it also pains me to bring up the subject of another 'motivator and goal'. Challenges and Achievements, which a friend of mine will obsess over in games...

One other stray idea for a sandbox mode, perks. Have a few 'points' based on rank, to select for a base, or the group as whole, or just for themselves. Maybe belt mounted batteries to extend EVA power supplies, or something that makes Rovers more fuel efficient, possibly with a small loss of top speed, or something that allows the game host to have the base start with something like an extra case of MREs or medicine.
And ideas that will likely make you simply go 'um... no...'

My bug list is 'small' compared my list of things that might be neat or interesting to have in MC:C. That is, bugs take up 1/4 of the text file I made for MC:C stuff, the rest is 'ideas'... which I will probably 'wall of text carpet bomb' into a topic sooner or later... after I 'beat' the game... still in Phase 6...
If mining is Ahab, then Lithium bearing ore is Moby Dick... despite having work orders done... to heck with the score, I want repair kit materials, just in case... better to thrive than survive. Or something like that... but back closer to the topic of sandbox modes and such...

I've done basic modding for games like Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, and a little for ES IV Oblivion, and Fallout 3. Just looking at all the stuff in the files boggles my mind, even with the 'construction kits' they come with making it 'easier' to look through the files... I am surprised the people at Bethesda Softworks have not gone insane trying to keep track of so many variables and such with just making one of those games, and am not surprised such games often have tons of bugs in them... although I have to basically 'face palm' when the modding communities tend to crank out unofficial patches for bug fixing far faster and more effectively than the developers seem to do.

I guess what some people say is true. When you love your job, you will never work a day in your life.
Boldly going forward, 'cause I can't find reverse.

Doctor Watson; Proving that being wrong means being one step closer to being right.

rditto48801

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2013, 02:32:23 AM »
A few more stray ideas that might fit with a sandbox mode, or even to add onto the game as a whole.


First, which may or may not make sense (or possibly be as safe as it would be potentially unsafe), would be the idea of having a fake tree outside of the base... or maybe inside of the base.

The second idea dawned on me just a little bit ago.
Counter top aeroponics units. Shelves and shelves of them. Grow stuff like tomatoes, berries, herbs, etc. Not only would the extra greenery help liven up the base, it would help out a little with morale and as a simple luxury of sorts, and help make things more self sufficient, with a bit of effort to get things set up first. Have the occasional tomato or handful of berries with a meal for a little bit extra. All the greenery that could operate without direct sunlight would also help provide extra oxygen to the base. Also opens up the possibility for new type of breakdowns, because the Air Scrubber will need to maintain a bare minimal CO2 level for the plants if there are to few people to provide said CO2 themselves.

Hydroponics comes to mind also.
I have heard of people looking into combining hydroponics and aquaponics into the same thing. fish waste nourishes the plants, the plants help keep the water clean and oxygenated.

A bontanical recycler also comes to mind. I forget the actual name/term, but extracting water from biological waste, the water is filtered through a system of several small pools of water, each with different plants and organisms to help clean stuff more and more, the final step being fairly pure and only really needing a last run through a regular filter and UV light system to deal with leftover contaminates and micro-organisms. The other side of the process takes the bio-solids and bio-solids and 'bakes' them to get rid of microorganisms and to produce basic organic fertilizer (or something to dump into the composter)
The plants and some of the small fish/snails could double as a secondary source of basic nutrition on occasion, whenever 'surplus' plant growth, extra fish, etc, need to be 'removed' to keep things balanced.
The sound of moving water would also be something nice and relaxing.

Although, speaking of water, after playing a space themed game (Space Station Sim, to be exact), it occurred one vital piece of equipment is possibly missing from the Mars base.
A dehumidifier system.
Water from the soil (plants and worms) evaporating, water from the fish/algare tanks evaporating (shouldn't the fish tanks need to be topped off on occasion?), and of course  from exhaled air.
It would become a vital secondary source for water needed for plants and fish.

Another subject pops into mind, morale.
I wonder if a morale system might fit into the game or not.
High morale helps improve some things (perhaps a small increase in how fast things are fixed or installed), while low morale worsens some things (more likely to have adjust/redo pop up during repairs, be a little slower in moving or performing some actions a little slower).
Events could be added to affect it, such as 'letters from home' (or pre-recorded video message), or investigating reports of a 'missing person' (finding an intact rover out of fuel, and frozen remains). Regular stuff could affect it also, a good meal of plant and meat could improve it a little, to many MREs in a row might start to reduce it, or if the base is to cold (or to hot), of doing to much work at once, radiation going into the yellow, doing useful stuff, etc.


Oh, easter eggs... like something like finding part of a Spirit/Opportunity or Curiosity type mars rover sticking out of a part of a hill, or maybe some piece of debris that fall off of one of the landers that brought the first supplies to Mars (like a piece of aeroshell or something jettisoned after parachute deployment, to allow lander legs to be deployed during final landing approach)... or a piece of human garbage (I wonder how much a fine for littering would be on Mars... especially if it was a piece of equipment that could still be salvaged or otherwise repaired/rebuilt and reused.)
Boldly going forward, 'cause I can't find reverse.

Doctor Watson; Proving that being wrong means being one step closer to being right.

rditto48801

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Re: Sandbox Mode
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2013, 11:49:11 AM »
I got to thinking of something else to add for a sandbox mode.
A new rover to toy around with, based on existing concepts...
Or perhaps just a new rover for the game in general, even if just for decoration or for a mission or something.
(Assuming IP/Copyright stuff isn't an issue)

The Manned Mars Exploration Rover. This thing is... um... big... It's like an RV... with monster truck wheels... for Mars...
http://news.discovery.com/space/roving-mars-in-award-winning-style.htm

An unmanned rover that can carry an astronaut (strayed across this during the search for the above)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1383096/To-Andalusia--Mars-spacesuits-unmanned-rover-given-dry-run-Spanish-mining-desert.html

An interesting Mars Rover, of which I saw a similar concept for a Moon Rover. This one is to be potentially made via 3D printing, on Mars. I heard of concepts for 3D printing on the Moon (for base materials), but not Mars, but I guess it is not to much of a surprise if the right materials can be collected.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/umass-amherst_professor_christ.html
http://shapeways.tumblr.com/post/33660580871/mars-rover-runs-on-3d-printed-parts

And what I guess is saving the best for last, just because it looks cool/awesome.
The VEX (Versatile Environment eXplorer)
A concept originally created by someone named Syd Mead, for NASA, which apparently got rejected (took a while to find a good pic)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lpL870wV2A4/TJeRjytz0sI/AAAAAAAAFOU/VcARmcQDpF4/s1600/2252311858_fa35c4d30a_o.jpg

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) modders have put the VEX design to use, however... I cannot help but share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2TcfiwlnM0
DEMV = Duna Exploration Manned Vehicle, with Duna being a Mars analogue in KSP. KSP is done with the Unity engine, if you are wondering. The video shows them doing a test at the game's 'space center', hence why the video starts on a runway. The  modders also did a version the first concept vehicle I mentioned. The same person also has a video of the VEX analogue vehicle doing maneuvers on the game's Moon analogue. Disregard sightings of little green men...  ::)
Boldly going forward, 'cause I can't find reverse.

Doctor Watson; Proving that being wrong means being one step closer to being right.