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dram

Take On Mars discussion (continued from off-topic)

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Awesome, thanks for all the info and the quick response. :)

If the scripting functionality is a powerful as I suspect, I bet people are going to create some awesome stuff with it.

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Maybe i missed it...will TOM be a standalone-product or an Addon to TOH?

Standalone. It's a completely different engine, so making it an addon would not even be possible. :)

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Fantastic stuff my favourite company creating a game on one of big passions!

Quick one, what efforts have you gone to recreate mars, specifically the gravitational accuracy in relation to the rover itself?(i.e weight/movements etc)

Can we expect a weather system to effect instrumentation i.e Gps, making you maybe rely on visual adds or possibly weathering of rocks etc and slight composition of objects could give you a good idea of your position if you study before an on-board error.

As for the rovers missions itself getting to the ultimate mission of finding bacterial life which I imagine would be involved, are you going to make the player look for signs in the data the rover recovers and possibly help educate the user, rather than have a message display saying 'mission complete you found biological life on mars'' as the latter would be underwhelming. Can you give us a further idea of the types of missions planned yet other than scientific analysis? Lastly can we expect expeditions to the poles?

Thanks for your time! (sorry if some covered before)

Jeza

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Seems like allot of features we ask for can be modded/scripted too so that's a bonus :) I would like to see a hardcore science mod and also some fun things to exploit the physics and messing around.

Looks like on one level we have the focus of the game which is great, and on another level we really do have a sandbox to completely nerd about on with some great physics to mess with as well. This is definitely and nerds paradise .. I can see it already :)

But anyway, I guess focusing on the core game might also be good ... so as posted above I would like to know about the types of missions.

Also you mentioned in the suggestions post about the flying camera, how far above does it actually go? Is it a sky box limit (what is that?) with zoom like a Arma2 drone?

Edited by mrcash2009

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Fantastic stuff my favourite company creating a game on one of big passions!

Quick one, what efforts have you gone to recreate mars, specifically the gravitational accuracy in relation to the rover itself?(i.e weight/movements etc)

Well, as I am a Mars fanatic, I tried to recreate everything as close to reality as possible. That means the gravity matches reality (3.711m/s^2), air friction is close to accurate (games use damping, so not totally accurate but close enough), rover parts weigh relatively realistic values, however the differences between parts must not be too excessive or the forces can be too strong for the joints, again limitations of real time physics calculations. Movement speed of the rovers is 3x normal, that is so that gameplay is not too excessively long-winded. This modifier is campaign-side, so can be adjusted without issue.

Can we expect a weather system to effect instrumentation i.e Gps, making you maybe rely on visual adds or possibly weathering of rocks etc and slight composition of objects could give you a good idea of your position if you study before an on-board error.

Well the only weather you really get on mars is radiation from the sun, winds in the morning and evening (due to atmospheric heating/cooling), and dust storms during dust storm season. The real vehicles are made to handle these issues, except for the dust on solar panels, which was an issue for Spirit and Opportunity. This we do not simulate at this point, but I do hope to add it in either post release or before (if time permits).

As for the rovers missions itself getting to the ultimate mission of finding bacterial life which I imagine would be involved, are you going to make the player look for signs in the data the rover recovers and possibly help educate the user, rather than have a message display saying 'mission complete you found biological life on mars'' as the latter would be underwhelming. Can you give us a further idea of the types of missions planned yet other than scientific analysis? Lastly can we expect expeditions to the poles?

Chemical/spectral/etc analyses will return realistic data, so there is that educational factor there. Regarding life, that I don't want to go into too much detail, but you won't incrementally find signs of life, it will more be part of a mission. The missions themselves are aimed at scientific research, so expect to do that which Curiosity and Opportunity do on Mars. The scenarios will involve relatively realistic situations, such as running low on power, sun going down with you in shade and needing to get to a sunny area to recharge the panels at least a little. As for the poles, that is something that would be epic, but considering the impact it has with regards to gameplay (vehicles cannot survive there in winter) we chose to leave them out, also due to time restrictions. Remember, we will have 3 locations (4x4km) on release with a planned free dlc (Mars' moon Deimos) post-release.

Seems like allot of features we ask for can be modded/scripted too so that's a bonus :) I would like to see a hardcore science mod and also some fun things to exploit the physics and messing around.

Looks like on one level we have the focus of the game which is great, and on another level we really do have a sandbox to completely nerd about on with some great physics to mess with as well. This is definitely and nerds paradise .. I can see it already :)

But anyway, I guess focusing on the core game might also be good ... so as posted above I would like to know about the types of missions.

Also you mentioned in the suggestions post about the flying camera, how far above does it actually go? Is it a sky box limit (what is that?) with zoom like a Arma2 drone?

We currently limit the free fly camera to about 2km high, with it not being able to go beyond the terrain bounds. In editor mode, there is not limitation (you might need to get a rock from below the terrain for example). Zoom is a part of the camera and is adjustable with the mouse wheel (default), and the camera's fly speed is also adjusted with the wheel. The camera movement itself is very fluid and smooth by default (changeable in the options menu) to allow for pleasant movement around the terrain and to allow for smooth camera shots.

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thanks!

So i imagine we can expect to see sample analysis and Chemistry and Mineralogy, so we can have a look around the clay minerals :D . All sounds very promising though!

Thanks for the reply Dram, I can see you have the scientific curiosity (nopun) we do and then some! :)

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The wallpapers are now available here :)

Oops, forgot to mention it, cheers for that.

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Loving the model details on the images :)

Im just wondering when "Take on Arma3 drones & bomb disposal" is coming.

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I also had yet another question ...

I own a Logitech joystick and also an Xbox 360 USB controller ... is the key mapping and controller support for this game on par with Arma with multiple key mapping/controllers? IE: would I be able to assign say movement control and button assignment to say the 360 controller and then camera movement to the joystick or visa versa? Kind of emulating physical hands on rover controls.

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I also had yet another question ...

I own a Logitech joystick and also an Xbox 360 USB controller ... is the key mapping and controller support for this game on par with Arma with multiple key mapping/controllers? IE: would I be able to assign say movement control and button assignment to say the 360 controller and then camera movement to the joystick or visa versa? Kind of emulating physical hands on rover controls.

At present a dual setup (joystick + gamepad) does not work correctly, that is, it prefers the gamepad. Hopefully this will change prior to release. As for mapping, you can map up to two keys per control using the key-bindings menu, but editing the config will allow you to do more if you need to.

Also, with regards to controlling movement with one control and then camera with another, it works slightly differently in TOM. Specifically, you have dual controls, that is the primary system and the secondary system. So in the menu you in fact assign controls for the primary system and the secondary system. This is done in this way because the rover (for example) has many interactive systems:

- 6-wheel-drive

- Mast

- Robotic arm - arm section

- Robotic arm - head section

...and considering you can give the rover several masts if you wish, then it is crucial to do it this way. The useful thing about it is that you can for example control the driving with the primary, and the mast with the secondary (you can also set which is controlled by the mouse as well), thus driving with WASD, and looking around with the mouse.

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So could I then have left stick of 360 controller for primary movement and then right stick od 360 controller for secondary, as in, Left stick for movement of rover right stick for cam movement... if I read your post correctly? That would feel good for control.

Sorry for this as I realise its a bit trivial :) Its just for some strange reason it seems as if using a joystick and or controller combination would feel more like a rover control unit in many ways.

Edited by mrcash2009

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So could I then have left stick of 360 controller for primary movement and then right stick of 360 controller for secondary, as in, Left stick for movement of rover right stick for cam movement... if I read your post correctly? That would feel good for control.

Yes, that is precisely how it works, with the triggers switching primary/secondary systems.

Sorry for this as I realise its a bit trivial :) Its just for some strange reason it seems as if using a joystick and or controller combination would feel more like a rover control unit in many ways.

No please, feel free to ask. I perfectly understand as controls are very important for the immersion as well.

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Hello.

I am curious about inclusion of Deimos.

Just how it will look like? It has such tiny diameter. How do you handle the terrain? I suppose engine supports only usual 'flat' terrain meshes. Won't there be problems with curvature and direction of gravity?

Also, what about skybox on this thing? You can't just make static starscape. Will Deimos be eclipsed by Mars?

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Hello.

I am curious about inclusion of Deimos.

Just how it will look like? It has such tiny diameter. How do you handle the terrain? I suppose engine supports only usual 'flat' terrain meshes. Won't there be problems with curvature and direction of gravity?

Also, what about skybox on this thing? You can't just make static starscape. Will Deimos be eclipsed by Mars?

Hi,

Just to re-iterate, Deimos will be a free DLC post release, so I won't go into too many details about its specifics.

As for size, Deimos is small, but not small enough to be unable to use 4x4km from it. Specifically, its average radius is 6.2km. The curvature is actually not a problem, and we've also chosen a location that has a large part of Deimos' mass 'downward', thus there is no need to worry about gravity direction. In the case that we did want to do gravity direction around, say, a spherical object or whatnot, then that could also be achieved quite easily by taking the position of the object and the gravity "source" and adding velocity in that direction.

As for the skybox, yes Mars casts a shadow over Deimos, so again this is being kept realistic as well (or as close as possible).

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Hello there

Just a quick one, I'm incredibly excited for this release. I do hope at some stage we can set up our own short term mini colony/manned landing.

Depending on the sales figures is that something that the team is thinking about? or are your minds set on rovers only?

Regardless, I'll snap this one up asap.

Good stuff.

Rgds

LoK

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Thanks for answers, Dram.

Looks like the engine is really flexible.

Can't wait for some drilling action.

Good luck with the project, I hope it will be successful.

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Hello there

Just a quick one, I'm incredibly excited for this release. I do hope at some stage we can set up our own short term mini colony/manned landing.

Depending on the sales figures is that something that the team is thinking about? or are your minds set on rovers only?

Regardless, I'll snap this one up asap.

Good stuff.

Rgds

LoK

Regardless of sales it is something I personally would love. We'll see how things pan out, and I certainly don't want to promise.

Thanks for answers, Dram.

Looks like the engine is really flexible.

Can't wait for some drilling action.

Good luck with the project, I hope it will be successful.

Very glad so many people are enjoying the concept, I certainly hope the game meets your expectations!

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I cant want for this game to come out...this game will rock..i cant wait it to come out....hell yea... Bohemia you are the best!!!

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Regardless of sales it is something I personally would love. We'll see how things pan out, and I certainly don't want to promise.

Very glad so many people are enjoying the concept, I certainly hope the game meets your expectations!

Hello there,

That is interesting to hear! Although as you say, lets see how things pan out. Fingers crossed here...

Is there any way to get any advanced knowledge or info on the modding front? As it's a different engine to the Arma series many of us will be starting from scratch with regard to modding/documentation etc

I'm assuming there will be no "true" orbital operations?

Rgds

LoK

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Hello there,

That is interesting to hear! Although as you say, lets see how things pan out. Fingers crossed here...

Is there any way to get any advanced knowledge or info on the modding front? As it's a different engine to the Arma series many of us will be starting from scratch with regard to modding/documentation etc

Feel free to ask question, I'll try to answer as many as possible, but we are planning on making videos post-launch on how to create mods for the game. Also documentation will also be necessary. I'll also be around to help, though obviously my time is limited.

I'm assuming there will be no "true" orbital operations?

Rgds

LoK

Not in the base game no, though a zero-g environment is trivial to make.

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Hello there

Excellent info, thanks for taking the time out to answer all our questions/suggestions.

Rgds

LoK

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I find it a little bit sad that this game was considered one of the "big PC exclusives" announced at E3 along with Total War: Rome II and some indie games. Reminds me of how low the PC has fallen in terms of exclusives. Don't get me wrong, I do like simulators but for one to be one of the best PC games of E3 is just..odd.

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