Mars scenario

[hooiberg]

My Mars scenario is now in it's first playable stage. It is based on a real height map of Mars, though the water level is arbitrary. Terraforming has been completed and cities are flowering almost anywhere away the windblasted plains. The major features of the landscape have been signed, so you may even pick up a thing or two about Martian topography. The major world powers have claimed pieces of the surface and have began colonizing them.

Size: 2048 x 1024
Setting: Sub Arctic
Location: http://www.sliepen.eu.org/~lukas/opentt ... pleted.scn


Any suggestions to improve the scenario would be appreciated, and possibly implemented. I hope many of you will enjoy playing this scenario.

Best regards
Lukas

[moki]

Didn't play yet, but it looks great Unfortunately, the Mars Landscape (Toyland2Mars) isn't really playable unless Mars actually consists of candy and toys... could be great fun with Mars-specific industries and maybe even a "found a city" patch. You could actually colonize a whole planet

I'm no astrologist (or astro-geologist or whoever knows about this stuff), but I don't think there'd be such big oceans on Mars, even after some colonization/terraforming. Also, ther could be some more raw material industries (mostly iron, I guess) in the big plains. I have no idea, how realistic this would be, as there shouldn't be any coal or oil at all and very few other industries far away from the colonies (cities) , but I think it would make the map more interesting.

[Mchl]

Just in time for Phoenix mission landing

[hooiberg]

Iron is a good idea! I will use that. I was considering of tilting the martian surface a bit, so to trade inaccuracy for game play, so that the water will be balanced out more, in stead of being concentrated on the northern hemishpere.

The amount of required water is difficult for me to estimate. To need human life, a lot of agriculture is required, which will require a lot of water. The currect waterlevel is based on looking on the map would would give an interesting coast line without giving too much land away

Mchi: you also give me the idea of marking the landing sites of spacecraft, even though a lot of them were on the place where the current ocean is located. They could even develop into tourist attractions, with glass casing around the tracks of the small wheels of that little explorer vehicle

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I have no experience at all with the newgrfs, though they look very interesting. I will have a close look at at them and see what I can do with them, but for now I have no clue how this works. It gives me something to do in June When I have come to grip with the tools I hope to implement more futuristic vehicles as well as setting a more realistic starting date somewhere in the future, but that is all very long term.

[Mchl]

Mchi: you also give me the idea of marking the landing sites of spacecraft, even though a lot of them were on the place where the current ocean is located. They could even develop into tourist attractions, with glass casing around the tracks of the small wheels of that little explorer vehicle

Nice idea!

In case you don't know. Mars Pathfinder's landing site has been named 'Sagan Memorial Station'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathf ... he_mission

[Olix]

Mchi: you also give me the idea of marking the landing sites of spacecraft, even though a lot of them were on the place where the current ocean is located. They could even develop into tourist attractions, with glass casing around the tracks of the small wheels of that little explorer vehicle

Nice idea!

In case you don't know. Mars Pathfinder's landing site has been named 'Sagan Memorial Station'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathf ... he_mission[/

"Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you."

Saddest quote ever.

[hooiberg]

A Sagan memorial station will surely be included. The first version had no rivers, and with so much snow on a planet size scale, there just had to be rivers, so I took a few days to make a detailed river system. I am about to redo the towns and just found out that I can do iron ore mines in subarctic, using pikka's newgrf. Building towns and industries will be done somewhere next week. I have made a screenshot of the most complicated river part:
http://www.sliepen.eu.org/~lukas/plaatj ... shot-2.png
As you can see, I have lowered the water level a bit. and lowered the snow barrier considerably. This gives a smaller region where towns and cities may thrive. but, on the other hand, Mars is far from the sun, so it will be cold.
(for the perceptive, the Pathfinder landing site is already marked and present on the screenshot)

The problem, if geological accuracy is involved, is the moons of Mars. Mars has only two very small moons, in stead of the one big moon of the Earth. Our moon damps the flows of the ocean by high and low tide. In the absence of a big moon, these flows and fluctuations will cause tidal waves and very extreme tides. The direct coast will not be a habitable place. I am thinking of ignoring this fact, and build towns close to shore, just as on earth. Game play should be fun, and I will not trade that in for anything. Would you like to have this effect included in the scenario? Or can you live with a Earth's moon rising above the Martian horizon?

I will keep you informed.

Best regards
Lukas

[hooiberg]

A new playable version is finished:
*url deleted*

I am in doubt how much different industries I should use. With a few newgrf I can use over 30 different types of industry, which might sounds kind of cool, but make the game totally unplayable. I think I will play this version for myself, and see how it turns out. The town names are still all in English default, in this version. This will be changed in the future, but, ofcourse, will not affect the scenario as such.

edit: sorry, it was broken

[hooiberg]

Oops, I just found the scenario and savegame thread. By the time the mars scenario is finished, I will post it there. Could a moderator please be so kind to lock this topic?