Controlling satellites

[Daisai 10]

Is it possible within the engine to be able to control a satellite which is orbitting mars to check for possible places to investigate and/or check for incoming storms ?

There is already a view from above in a menu, but a bit more control with this could be intresting.

I know that the current map is of course limited in size ( although its still rather big ) so you probably won't be able to view everything.

This satellite can perhapse also progress through time, upgraded with different sights which allows you to detect places where you can send your rover or lander to.

This also to give the players the option to assign missions to themselfs.

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Example : You fly over a crater and use a sight which gives you a vague signature that you might want to investigate.

One of your rovers is close by and moves over there to scan, gets results ( through the scan result window which is w.i.p.) and this awards you money for new research.

[Daisai 10]

Going by the lack of reply on this suggestion i can safely make a conclusion with regards to the development of this game.

[dram 14]

Hi Daisai, actually what you can conclude is that we are incredibly busy :) There is a lot going on at the moment, so please forgive us if we do not catch specific suggestions that quickly.

With regards to the suggestion, what you mention is possible, though the limits are the sizes of individual terrains. We do not have the entire planet simulated, but it would be possible to construct high resolution data for the entire planet (not terrain itself) and then "unlock" locations by scanning over them, for example.

Of course this would be quite extensive and is not possible to complete within our timeline. A mod would be able to add this of course.

[Daisai 10]

Yes like i thought it would indeed take up alot of time to make a detailed map of a complete planet, thats why it could be a idea to put the sattelite in a geosynch orbit and give it a smaller scan range for gameplay purpose.

So you end up with a sattelite each sector which uses a scanner that has a range of something like 10m2 or less depending on which scanner or camera you use, with this you then scan different rocks or area's.

I am not sure but don't rovers need a geo synch sattelite anyway for communication with earth ?

[dram 14]

That does sound more doable. We actually have a satellite in game, that is, when controlling a vehicle you can open the NAV tab and access the areostationary satellite, which you can pan/zoom/center on the vehicle. Have you tried it out?

The rovers have several types of antennas:

Ultra High Frequency - Communicates with satellites in orbit around Mars, not necessarily areostationary. This is the highest data rate.

High-Gain - Communicates directly with Earth but must be rotated to face Earth, and hence can also only communicate with Earth when it is within view.

Low-Gain - Also communicates with Earth directly but has a very low data rate.

[Daisai 10]

Yes i have tried out that satellite and the idea is that you control something like that however from the control room.

I am not really that great in making a drawing of the idea that i have but so i hope you can picture it a little, the idea is that you use a camera just like that however with a larger screen and more options.

For example, to scan for water or heat or to see incoming storms and take pictures of intresting objects, like for example this where you can see traces of where there might have been water.

With the expanded result menu from the analyze probe this would be a great addition.

The main idea is to give the player more influence of where to land the rover and which to scan first and to assign missions to him/herself and not just go to a random rock because that rock is special.