Mars Colony Frontier > Have your say on the new version

Suggestion for Improvement

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crazyivan532:
Im enjoying the game so far, one slight improvement came to mind after doing some geology and gathering some minerals, please could you implement a sell all for different minerals and allow it to take them from the tote boxes too please.

rditto48801:
I second that.
Not just for Minerals, but also for food items, fertilizer, algae, etc.

It might also be nice for an interaction to directly transfer a user selected amount of something directly from a storage unit to a tote held by the player.
Selling 40+ iron... that takes a lot of clicking and dragging...

Hyper:
Will look into doing that soon as some of the major issues get addressed. Last couple weeks were set aside for that and the story mode downloads but 100 issues have hammered me all at once.
Thanks for the input and I promise to make things work better.....

Hyper:
Move here from private message

Understand your strategy. think u hav done good job with balance. like the game a lot!  hav played 20 hours or so on one AI competition game.  no crashes so far.  no game threatening bugs.

Some Shorter-Term Thoughts:

1. It's a struggle though sometimes to figure out how to do things -- e.g. buying mining equip.  perhaps this is by intent -- otherwise, an expanded (and more consistent) f1 help section would be useful.  Am willing to help write it  -- when I get little more experience -- if you like.
I can add this to help file

2. Some of hubs get a little congested to navigate, given the large and multiple units that are in the center of them, and the open doors -- again perhaps by intent.
Was supposed to be arranged different, you can delete the doors

3. Don't like the large status panel that sits in bottom center of screen -- obscures vision etc -- perhaps I have just not figured out how to move or remove it or make it smaller. 
Toggle can do
On the other hand, it would be nice to have toggle-able option of another (purchasable) panel that would give detailed summary status (in one panel or scrollable list) of all the units:  Power; Life support; water & fertilizer & growth status of all the farm 'fields', fish, algae, mushroom, worms tanks, etc.  This would save a lot of unnecessary running and checking.
Running and checking was left in to give the player something to do. Easy buttons made the game too slow.
4. Would be nice to have some sort of a temporary Pause button (my grandkids are always interrupting me).  Hard to pause a real time engine. If other players are in game they get paused as well. We considered an "Away" button that would bypass most of the systems for the player, may implement that. Issue there was player logs in fires up bio, farm etc set pause, go watch tv come back and harvest, dont have to play the game at all to get rich.

Also would be good to be able to save a started game, go on to another game, then come back to earlier one(s). Massive database issue, it has been considered but the Steam version once the install is done I can't mod the data directory so I have to have 10 blank databases pre loaded and If I do that they will want 12

5. In real world Mars, solar panels would need to be dusted off periodically.  Do current panels have any activation process, and any output monitor?
Not yet but good point, that can be added.

6. Well within the "balance" consideration you mentioned, but doubt that wind would howl on Mars and not too sure about lightning.  Dust storms and dust devils are of course very real.
As I understand there can be lightning discharges, the howling wind was added for effect. Sound does not travel well on Mars.

7. How you treat radiation is of more concern (in giving people the wrong idea).  There are two kinds of radiation:  a) Solar storms (i.e. from our sun) and b) the very high energy (but lower intensity and not variable) cosmic radiation that comes from elsewhere in our galaxy.  In transit to Mars or in Mars orbit, periodic solar storms are very real danger, but the (albeit thin) Mars atmosphere is enuf to protect settlers on the surface!  As far as the more steady, lower intensity but high energy (that is harder to shield from) cosmic radiation, earth's atmosphere is thick enuf to give protection from it, but Mar's is not -- although the planet itself cuts out half the cosmic radiation that settlers would see while in transit or orbit.  From a game standpoint, I suppose bases could be built (a possible game variable) to shield most of cosmic radiation, while rovers would provide less protection, etc.  Lava tubes would probably provide the best.

Some Longer-Term Thoughts:

1. Real Mars has (or is thought to have) features that would make spectacular expansion locations:  Polar caps with water ice in summer and thick additional layers of dry ice (CO2) in winter that builds up then sublimes away in spring;  do I need to mention Valles Marineris?;  Also the outflow plains region east of Valles Marineris -- which by the way should be rich in minerals and salts;  Lava Tubes!;  multiple volcanic mountains including Mnt Olympus (where most of the lava tubes are probably located), and lastly, some of the larger meteor crators.

2. I get awfully lonesome in my sleeping quarters just listening to the jukebox all by myself.  It would be awfully nice to have someone else to share the base with -- and to share the work with! This could take the form of a spouse/companion (some kind of partnership?) or perhaps just hired help that one would need to pay a salary, and of course would need to train to do specific and/or multiple jobs

3. Related to above (purchase, train, do work, companionship<?>), would be some type of upgradable AI robot.

4. Windmills and possibly geothermal could be energy sources on Mars.
Air pressure is so low on Mars that wind power would be almost impossible

5. Start to terraform Mars to make it more earthlike????
This is always a subject of interest to many. Mars core / magnetic field is so low the solar winds would blow the atmosphere away before it could form. Life that could survive in Antarctica may have a chance to survive but I wouldn't count on any atmosphere that would contain enough oxygen to sustain it.
OK, that's (more than) enuf for now.  I have a son who is into such programming and he rolls his eyes at some of my suggestions : >)

cheers,  Andy

Mars_In_Ten:
Thanks Hyper for posting my private mssg -- & for reply. 
(2) being able to delete doors solves congestion problem in hubs.
(5) re dust on solar panels, on several occasions, the dust devils blew accumulated dust off of Spirit and Opportunity, one of the main reasons they functioned so long.  Dust devils randomly cleaning solar panels would be a neat game addition.
(7) I should have said that the planet Mars would shield settlers on the surface from half the high energy radiation that they would experience in transit to Mars and in other deep space environments.  Even in Mars orbit, the bulk of the planet would provide some reduction.
(7) Higher radiation levels seem to be tied to the dust storms (?). If so, separating them would be closer to reality.
Mars is bombarded with radiation all the time. The dust particles would carry that radiation around making it higher in the dust. Engineering assumption

General Comment:  5000 credits to start game (allowing rover and 9 base modules to start) makes it too easy -- and too unrealistic.  May want to have option of starting with less, thus having to work your way up more slowly.  Some anyway will prefer this approach.
And some say 5000 was not enough. Tried to strike a balance but could be an option.

Comment/Question: In the competitive AI mode, apparently when you goof up (or the software goofs up for you) and you presumedly die, I was surprised to see you were "revived" back on main base. Was this an intended game feature?  Does such a revival have any effect on player's status?  After one such revival, I took the taxi back to my base, but was dropped off inside the enclosed square of my base modules, with no means of escape -- as my O2 slowly depleted: Either a bug or a programmer trying to add a bit of ironic humor.  After this I will be dropped off by my Rover.
I will change this, good point

A few possible bugs:  a) Parked rover with Porta Light and other stuff on board.  When drove away later, ' Light was left hanging in mid air still in garage.  Seems it occurred  elsewhere as well.
b) Little pressure/temp panel read 0/0 when returned from EVA, despite properly functioning LifeSupport and Power modules which indicated normal environ levels.  Had to leave suit on, and could not plant new crop etc.  Quitting and restarting fixed issue.
c) Would not allow suit storage when returning from another EVA -- & various other commands then unresponsive as well.  Once I found one that was responsive (e.g. taking food from refrig), <or perhaps it was just after a time delay> all commands worked again.
d) Just in general, after playing game for a while -- or perhaps it is just in later stages of game -- the movement keys tend to repeatedly temporarily lock up.  Sometimes quitting and restarting helps. Sometimes going on EVA helps.  Perhaps it is just a quirk of my system or how I have memory allotments etc set.

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