News for version 2

[Hyper]

We will put you on the list. As the game develops we will need freshmeat
Thanks....

[SgtFox]

hey there hyper and everyone else ,you probably still remember me very well hyper when we were testing version 1 and i was reporting bugs and testing along the development of it, i finally made it back into these forums after a long long time and i was curious about some stuff.

 first question how do i take part in the new version testing? i just read about "new meat is needed" so im up for round 2 of a testing run and im curious about all the new stuff (player bases , economy etc sounds really cool)

 second question is about the "old" mars colony challenger , well i did buy the game here on the forums when it was released here before all the steam stuff happened as you might remember (gave it a greenlight vote on steam aswell) and then i saw the steam price which was around 10 € then i remembered paying almost triple amount of that (around 25 €) and felt a bit ripped off to be honest but then i saw your post in steam and you said everyone who bought it before it came to steam would get the new version free or something? i cant actually remember but it was something along those lines and i just wanted to know , since game went over to steam how i could actually get a steam key? because pretty much all games that went over to steam handed out keys for them. becuse i love to have the majority of my games in steam because all patching and stuff is easier and download and all that.

also will the new version be on steam aswell? if yes do i get a steam key once it reaches steam? of course it might take a while to get there , im just curious

i will also try and help testing the new version aswell whenever i find the time to do that (and of course only if you let me take part in testing) but for now im glad to be back and see a new and even better game making progress and being in a testable state

P.S.: what happened to the idea of having a game where the base is actually mobile on wheels? or will it be a part of the v2? old image just came up to my mind

[mahzel]

Hey there Hyper! Proud owner of MCC here, and I was wondering if you were still in need for fresh meat :p I would be happy to go bug hunt

[Hyper]

Always looking for cold testing. I will PM you with details

[rditto48801]

I saw the post with the link to the new Mars Colony Frontier page.

It looks interesting, except for one of the images.
The one of the RTOV.
Of stuff I have seen in the past for Mars mission concepts, such vehicles more closely resembled stuff like the Apollo, Orion or Dragon capsules/command modules.
The 'stubby space shuttle' look seems out of place.

If there is some purpose to needing wings, then maybe something more closely resembling a Russian Kliper would look better than the stubby Space Shuttle style.

I am also a little curious about the smaller rovers in the second to last image. (and of the big red 'cylinder with side door' in the background)

[Hyper]

We tried a variety of looks for the RTOV and just had to add a little more then just a capsule. At speed the wings would serve to steer some for orbit and rotation jets once in orbit other than that just needed something more than a funnel.
The rovers are not all that much smaller, we put them side by side and there is not alot of difference.
The cylinders are cargo pods dropped from orbit, we needed some metal for the textures at the main base and that seemed most likely to be laying around. The pods will serve as construction equipment containers. again mostly decoration to offer some visual deviance. I also put the original lander pods from the demo ala Mars Direct.

[rditto48801]

With an atmosphere something like 1/160th the pressure of Earth's atmosphere, would wings/fins of such small size/surface area even be of much use on Mars, even at high speeds?

Looking over some videos and photos of assorted concept craft for a Mars mission, the assorted landers/MAVs/RTOVs I saw generally lacked stuff like fins/wings.
In defense of the 'boring old capsules'. "If it isn't broke, don't fix it."
The stubby space shuttle simply makes me scratch my head.

The big  thick cylinder type landers/cargo pods are pretty close to those of the concept TROY Mars mission.

I was thinking about the rovers. Would their 'mud guards' (or whatever you would call it) over the front wheels be sufficient width wise to keep the front wheels from kicking up dust onto the sides of the rover? (if such potential realism were a factor, anyways...)

[Hyper]

A glider on Mars would have to travel 250 mph to get at stall speed. Small winglets at mach 3 or 4 would be enough to roll the craft into orbital alignment. Like I said we have to balance some cool factor with reality to stay above the boredom a bit.
I dont think the dust would be much issue since it is a dusty place but like you said minimal atmo density offsets any real issues there. If we are there long term or better if I was there I want to have a Hum V type of vehicles.

[rditto48801]

Fair enough.
I think something like the Russian Kliper would nail both being functional and cool looking for a shuttle themed ROTV.

There are two designs I love that were proposed for transportation on Mars.

First being the Manned Mars Vehicle/Manned Mars Exploration Vehicle. It's like an RV with monster truck tires.
And the front/cab resembles a combine harvester, which I found out is due to the fact the designers have designed agricultural vehicles (like combine harvesters) for 25 years.

Second being the Versatile Environment Explorer, which has an nifty wheel design. Not much info on it that I can find.

And there is of course a worthy mention of the Mars/Lunar rover designed by a NASA group called D-RATS. Nifty because of having been put through real world testing, and being intended to be built using some 3D printed parts.

It's to bad such designs wouldn't be well suited for the game, since they are basically self contained vehicles. No real survival challenge with a vehicle one could potentially camp out in for days or even weeks at a time. Maybe something similar at least worthy of being used as decoration for the main base if players can visit it, or in any in game images of the main base. To give a hint that the main base might be better equipped than what the players might have accessible.

[FlyingCheeseCake]

Those types of rovers could be used in the game, with some adjustments to the current iteration. If you placed a severe limit on the air/power of an EVA suit, then using one of these rovers as a temporary mobile base would make more sense. Drive to an interesting point, get out and do some work, get back in and recharge your suit. The rover would also have a limited amount of air/power, but enough for a couple of EVAs. When it starts to get low you drive back to base and use that to refill the supplies on the rover.

As for wings on the RTOV, while I imagine their ability to even effect a roll would be limited due to how fast the atmosphere would thin as you sped towards escape velocity. However, they could provide at least some added stability at lower altitudes for only a minor mass increase. That could lower the necessary complexity of wholly relying on gimbaled thrusters in an atmosphere.

Also, they look cool  .

[Hyper]

The rovers have a eva recharge ability now. I dont degrade the fuel / air of the rover much right now for testing purposes but they will drain faster. Users will have to upgrade the capability of the rover by building better controller / drive systems etc. The big rovers like nasa has now are great for first time exploration but I see the game a bit beyond that point and we would need small light fast vehicles I put in the game. Made of carbon fiber driven by light weight motors powered by fuel cells fast 4 wheel drive systems will be the way to go after the initial colonization IMHO.

[dewasha]

I am also interested in helping and test this new version, I already probe and assist in the old version and I would like to participate in this, thanks for all of your job

[dewasha]

hello?

[Hyper]

given this is your 2nd post we would need more information to help us decide to accept you into the testing group.
Thanks

[dewasha]

hello, if I said that information need to know happy to give it 'll be , I have over 12 years of experience in PC, a pc of 8 cores and graphics card r9 290x and 8GB of DDR3 RAM and SSD to prove what you need, and I have some basic knowledge on what type of programming language Basic and Java