The Mars Project: Ideas

[Geography Dan]

Polaris, you should really try to get one of the recent National Geographic Mars maps, it would be close to what Hendrik is talking about.

[WarVoid]

The map looks good Polaris, I compared it to the NGS maps I have and it goes up against it good enough for a scenario.

You civs should probably be based around the names of the planet. Like Serentalians, Amazonas, etc..

Do you have a background storyline yet?

[PolarisGL]

Hendrick, on Mars the elevation of the land makes the land features. For example, lowlands tend to be colder-type land and have very little permafrost. The middle lands have a lot of permafrost, a ton of it. The higher lands have volcanic lands and mountains and what not.

But no, I'm not basing the map on elevation at all. In fact, if you look at the map compared to mine, I have added all kinds of new things.

WarVoid, this is a strictly realistic Mars scenario, and no unrealistic nations on the surface. You begin with one city, with a population of one. The civs are like the United States, Europe, Russia, etc. Should be fun.

I need some ideas for units, guys. I also need to know: should there be one playable civ, or everyone playable?

[Case]

quote: Originally posted by PolarisGL on 02-19-2001 03:49 PM I need some ideas for units, guys. I also need to know: should there be one playable civ, or everyone playable?

If you're doing an colonisation civ, then to get the AI to expand fast enough you'll need to give the AI civs some big advantages via events (eg randomly created settlers, etc). This implies that there should only be one playable civ.

The Mars scenario that came with FW contains a lot of good units.

Here are some units that I would consider vital:
-Colonist (settler)
-Robotic Builder (engineer)
-Rover (unarmed explorer)
-Zeplin (Mars's atmosphere probably can't support manned aircraft)
-Space Marines (paratroopers)



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If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error
-John Kenneth Galbraith

[PolarisGL]

Thank you, Case.

By the way, should there be actual flat-out attacking war units? Maybe this scenario should see who can build up the best Martian nation from Earth using Martian resources. Espionage could be allowed.

I need some opinions on this as well.

[Dienstag]

quote: By the way, should there be actual flat-out attacking war units?

Good question, PolarisGL. This goes right to the heart of what this scenario's all about. I'll offer a couple of the possibilities, as I see them...

With "War" units:
1.) Various Human civs fight amongst themselves for control of Mars, possibly with a Martian civ as well (essentially SMAC/X on Mars).
2.) One or more Human civs peacefully colonize an apparently deserted Mars. Then after X years a bunch of Martians return and want their planet back (essentially the Hodadian scenario on Mars).

Without "War" units:
3.) Various Human civs peacefully compete to explore and colonize Mars. "Explorer" units with low attack values earn bonuses for their civ when they "discover" (destroy) Martian geological or xenoarcheological features. (essentially the Jules Verne scenario on Mars but without the war aspect). I totally vote for this one since it would be übercool!!!
4.) Darn...can't think of a #4 right now.

Hope this helps. Looks like a very neat project so far.

[PolarisGL]

Dienstag: excellent!

I'll go with #3. I love that idea. And it is somewhat realistic. Nice.

http://members.nbci.com/civpolaris/personalciv.html
See my official site for more journal entries and details.

Will be updated later today as well.

[PolarisGL]

Some terrain I created for The Mars Project:




The official The Mars Project website:
http://members.nbci.com/civpolaris/personalciv.html

Go to "The Mars Project" section.

[This message has been edited by PolarisGL (edited February 20, 2001).]

[PolarisGL]

Journal: Units & Attacking

Units will include exploring units to explore the surface as well as settler-type units. There will also be attacking units that are like miners (the gold mining idea that I brought up a while ago), and they will explore and "capture" or "attack" artifacts and resources and other things. When those are destroyed, you will get money and other resources.

Some artifacts and resources are difficult to process, however. That is when you will need stronger-attacking miner or explorer units. When one dies, it will pop up saying, "Your explorer failed at his task and was disbanded," or something like that.

There will also be espionage units that will steal technologies and bribe units.

To give the AI an advantage, I may make them all democracies or republics, while the player is fundamentalist or communist. That way, you can't bribe their units, but they can bribe yours.

[techumseh]

Polaris, have you ever read the "John Carter of Mars" series by Edgar Rice Burroughs?

[PolarisGL]

No, can't say I have.

Where could I purchase it and what is it about?

[PolarisGL]

By the way, I apologize for the images not showing up. Geocities has been down for about two or so days now when it comes to uploaded files.

See this thread to see the terrain images. As for the civilization in-editor map, I'll try to get that one uploaded to the server I have the terrain images on as soon as possible.

Here is that thread:
http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum18/HTML/001406.html?2

[techumseh]

It's old 20's and 30's sci-fi by the author of Tarzan. There are about 10 books. It's been republished at various times, so you can find it in used bookstores.

Stock plots: Earth man mysteriously transported to Mars, finds beautiful princess, alien races at war with one another, strange beasts, navigable canals, exotic architecture. I know it's not what you're planning, but I've always thought it would make a really fun scenario.

[PolarisGL]

Not what I was planning for this scenario, but I can assure you that I could always make a series of scenarios based on Mars.

[Mercator]

If you're still interested, the National Geographic Mars map is actually available online (not as nice and handy as the large paper one, though), but it might do: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/?id=800