Expedition One - new info, artwork and screenshots

[Cvrnda 11]

Today, I visited Bohemia Interactive office in Prague, I met project lead Martin "Dram" Melichárek and saw work-in-progress Expedition One update. Later, I wrote preview article for Czech gaming magazine Zing.cz. There it is:

http://www.zing.cz/preview/1119/take-on-mars-expedition-one-dojmy-z-expedice-do-kancelari-bohemia-interactive

You can see new screenshots and two pieces of artwork. The text contains lot of new info, but it is only available in czech language and I am not sure if Google translator can be trusted, so I decided to write little summary:

• You can build little structures as well as bigger instalations. I saw even pool and greenhouse
  
• Yeah, greenhouse. You can grow plants and thanks to them, you can get more oxygen and food
  
• Manipulation with objects, indicated by pair of gloves on the screen, is similar to the object manipulation in Half-Life 2 (or any similar Source engine title, especially Gmod) or The Dark Mod. You have to keep an eye for weight of the object; some heavy objects have limited options of manipulation (fridge, for example)
  
• Suit of the player is divided into 5 parts - Helmet, Life support, Torso, Arms and Legs. Damage of arms or legs is quite OK. Damage of Life Support is serious problem and damaged helmet is fatal problem (I believe there should be some "You don't say" meme)
  
• The suit has many added functions: Flashlight, NVG/thermal vission, inventory, camera working as binocularis, camera for taking photos, PDA for viewing photos and maybe even for remote controlling of rovers. There will be some hand tools, as well.
  
• There will be two new vehicles: Buggy, used primarily for transport, and bigger truck with 6 wheels, which includes living space with beds, air lock and pressure chamber. It may have addons such as a little crane. Both vehicles can be seen on those pieces of artwork on the page of the article
  
• Cydonia map looks huge and great. There is no need to say something else
  
• You can find caves with water. Water looks also great, thanks to the effect following contact of water and free-fly camera
  
• You can use water in editor, as well. There is possibility to change parameters such as density
  
• Many objects visible in Control Room and Mars Yard are now available in editor. Including trees and bush. Yeah, you can create a whole forrest on the surface of Mars
  
• Dram is working on interesting total conversion of Take On Mars. Development is in early stage, but you can expect enviroment similar to Carrier Command and possibility to control steampunk-like airship
  
• Expedition One will include new music and achievements
  
• Final version of Expedition One could be released about 3 months from now. This also means the release date of the whole Take On Mars and ending of Early Access period
  
• Dram has little model of Half-Life 2 Headcrab on his desk. Thanks to this little fact, he deserves my respect :cool:
  

That's all, ladies and gentlemen. And thanks again to Dram for the chance to visit their office.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Cvrnda

[Maio 293]

Thank you for posting this :)

[felthat 1]

oh snap, another buggy racer

[the-bean 10]

Thanks, looks/sounds amazing!

[manwithagun 10]

heh, as i see - ToM getting to be my second best sandbox-game this year(after KSP, for now - best sandbox-gameplay game for all times)

[Mlstwalker 10]

Thanks for the info, Cvrnda. Loads of really exciting stuff to look forward to. I'm itching to get started on all that lovely sandboxyness :)

[EleSigma 10]

This is a pleasant surprise, I had to stop playing around October and I just started playing again this last week and I'm amazed by all the progress made and then I see this to top it off. :)

I wonder how the manned mission will start? Will it be a Mars Direct style mission where a temporary base is made and after two or three more launches from Earth it's built up into a permanent colony?

Anyways I can see great things for this branch of the Take On series, Take On Luna and Take On Space Station anyone? :D (I was going to say Take on Jupiter but covering Jupiter and its moons would be a task about as big as an Arma game)

[Pipalf 10]

I am new to this having waited for what seemed like a long time for something like this to come along. Those vehicles look amazing cannot wait to try these out on the Martian surface.

Ian

[jananton 10]

Well, that sounds and looks (images with linked article) very promising, I wonder how much influence the user will get on the layout of the building of structures and installations.

Greets,

Jan

[dram 14]

Well, that sounds and looks (images with linked article) very promising, I wonder how much influence the user will get on the layout of the building of structures and installations.

Greets,

Jan

You actually construct it all yourself from individual panels, so you have a very large influence on the construction. this is actually already in game now, in the development build.

You can see it here in this screenshot:

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/3300318630087873955/0A6FEEBF0B8238F35F228DED8F7DFA7444537307/

[jananton 10]

Very interesting. Maybe I should enable the beta option on Steam to see that, but there's probably not enough cash in the till yet to use it at the moment. I'm still muddling with small rovers through the sand. ;-)

Greets,

Jan (was bijster on Steam, but suddenly found how to change that to Jananton too<g>)

Edited April 9, 2014 by Jananton
typo

[cowboy124aa 10]

Very interesting. Maybe I should enable the beta option on Steam to see that, but there's probably not enough cash in the till yet to use it at the moment. I'm still muddling with small rovers through the sand. ;-)

Greets,

Jan (was bijster on Steam, but suddenly found how to change that to Jananton too<g>)

You don't need cash to do the explorer mission all u have to do is open a scenario and play one of habitat building missions. Just a word or warning some of the items that you can build with the 3D printer are not what is seen in the menu picture u have to actually look at the 3D display model to know what your actually gonna get, most of them are what u see and some are not! Most every thing u need to build is there, with the exception of the large corner window. it shows the picture in the printer menu but is not available to build it!

[jananton 10]

Ah, right, thanks for the info.

Until now I actually haven't done any scenario's, so I was under the impression one needed to build up your resources first before one could even think about a manned presence. ;-)

Greets,

Jan

[MouldyK 10]

Important Mars Research Can Now Take Place!

[dram 14]

Important Mars Research Can Now Take Place!

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/616174158572131492/864A47DB874BD94465400E2B7E1AED315DE2A519/

LOL, yes, it is very important to ascertain the surface performance of vehicles in the lower gravity environment. "Doughnuts" as they are known, are a purely scientific method for achieving the best possible results... Yes, that sounds about right.

[EleSigma 10]

So how has progress been in the last few weeks?