Author Topic: Intro  (Read 8850 times)

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Hyper

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Intro
« on: September 27, 2015, 08:46:18 PM »
This area will be used to explain issues concerns and perspectives for the game. I will add things as the subjects come up. There have been some issues with the game since release and we are working on fixing things. We want to add new zones and challenges to the game soon as the current bugs get worked out. As it always happens the game on the development machine does not always work like the release version so bear with us as we work on making the game more reliable and fun.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2015, 09:04:59 PM by Hyper »

Hyper

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Re: Intro
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2015, 08:54:05 PM »
Timeline :
As most of you know I released a demo MC alpha 2.37 as a freebie and I will be glad to post a link if anyone still wants it.

Mars Colony : Explorer ( demo 2.37 ) Was intended as the first man on Mars mission where you landed and had to find a source for water, set up a survival support station for future missions. The demo was run over 100,000 times and many enjoyed the adventure.

Mars Colony : Surveyor ( not released ) This version allowed the adventure of traveling across the planet and exploring for sites to make a permanent base.

Mars Colony : Challenger ( released 2014 ) The player was given the task of setting up a permanent base on Mars, install all the equipment and expand the base. This would be the site for the next version of the game.

Mars Colony : Frontier ( released 2015 ) This version of the game continues the development process from Challenger. The main base has been set up and you are tasked with expanding the presence of man on Mars. This version added in more story line ( will be added in over the next few months ) Where the mega corporations from Earth go into an economic collapse and the players are limited on resources. The players must face the new Frontier and build bases across the planet connecting the 12 main colonies.

« Last Edit: September 27, 2015, 09:00:25 PM by Hyper »

Hyper

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Re: Intro
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2015, 09:12:45 PM »
Equipment changes :
I have seen comments about altering the equipment in the machinery. I did dumb it down from one perspective but enhanced it in a different way. As you build your base the equipment comes already installed and I changed from 4 objects in each unit to 2.
As you buy a module the sub units come installed. I changed this from Challenger because many felt that it was a bit too tedious and yet others loved the fact that you have to install the gear and fire up the machines.
The balance was to make each machine only use 2 sub components, one PLC control unit and one mechanical unit. In the new version of the game players should build new replacement units to upgrade the equipment. This serves 2 purposes. For one the player build equipment runs better than stock units and two it drives the player to get engineering skills up.

Example, The generator will produce about 600 units of power with the slider set to 60. If you upgrade the Controller ( get the raw materials and build one ) The generator will produce 650 units of power. Upgrade the generator part and it will produce 700 units. So I kept true to the simulator by letting the users skill upgrade parts to make them more reliable and produce more. In turn your skills go up and you become better and fixing and building parts for the equipment.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2015, 09:16:46 PM by Hyper »

Hyper

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Re: Intro
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2015, 09:26:35 PM »
Play Modes :

The various play modes will be switched on over the next month or so. We were not sure how Steam handled player data and with the cloud saves we had to wait to see what issues would come up.

Competition Mode - This is like Monopoly. Earn skills and get promotions to rise to power and become  the first to be President of that colony. Once the game is won you can keep playing but the core of this mode was you and your friends could battle to the top.
There is an addition to this mode where you can turn on NPC Competition. The NPC is named Marco for now and he will build his base, gather resources and battle you and or your friends for promotions.

Story Mode - Is a sandbox alternative to introduce a bit of mystery and intrigue to the game. You may find a dead body, a cave or a radical group might want you to join a Free Mars movment to break away from Earth and form and independent planet.

SandBox mode was added because it was asked for and was easy enough to implement. Run the game as long as you want, do what ever you want with no challenge or restriction.

Hyper

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Re: Intro
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2015, 03:14:22 PM »
Port Forwarding for multiplayer

This seems to be a big issue to others so lets gather the information in this thread to help people that dont understand it.

We have to work out the details with Steam to run a dedicated server

What WILL work with Steam is run the game, Start a mission and check the box Multiplayer. Now you can pass the IP address and you should be able to run as a server player.


In a typical home networking setup, internet access is through a DSL or cable modem. The modem may be connected to a router, which is then connected to the networked computers by Ethernet or WiFi. The router is the device that the Internet sees; it holds the public IP address. The computers behind the router, on the other hand, are invisible to the Internet as they hold a local IP address each. Port forwarding is necessary in the router because computers will send information directed to the public IP address and the router needs to know where to send that information.[4]

Port forwarding is commonly done on Unix computers where port numbers numbered below 1024 can only be accessed by software running as the root user. Running as root can be a security risk, so some people use port forwarding to redirect incoming traffic from a low numbered port to software listening on a higher port. For example, a web server may be listening on a port such as 8080 for traffic redirected from the restricted port 80. A port may be forwarded for use by either the TCP protocol, the UDP protocol, or both.

Here is how a Linksys works (picture below):
Open a browser and go to 192.168.1.1 this will be your router if you have one. Type in the login and password (usually admin admin till you change it) and you should see the screen below:
Your computer on the internet may have some address like 255.122.34.212 but behind the router or firewall that IP address gets changed to something like 192.168.1.100 so this internal IP address needs to have one of it's ports "forwarded" or exposed to the outside world so you can receive game data from other computers wanting to talk to that port (28000).
This game uses ports 28000 to 28002 both tcp and udp. Once you set the ports and start the game it "listens" to this port for any incomming network data. People who "join" will join the servers IP address and send information to port 28000 on the server. Game messages or network data is sent and received from this port so you can play as a client on the given server.



Here is a link to the port forwarding wizzard. I have not tried this but I hear it works.
http://download.cnet.com/Port-Forwarding-Wizard/3000-2085_4-10827828.html

Other links:
http://www.simpleportforwarding.com/
http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/port-forwarding.html
http://portforward.com/

« Last Edit: September 29, 2015, 09:25:53 PM by Hyper »

Hyper

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Re: Intro
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2015, 08:44:19 AM »
Warnings:
In the Options window set the Texture Quality to LOW to prevent Map Crash
Do not close the game using the windows X close gadget. The game will not save.
For now run in Window mode till the Map crash bug gets fixed.

Read the next section "How to Win" to get a good idea on how to play
« Last Edit: September 29, 2015, 09:06:24 AM by Hyper »