Anyone for a trip to mars?

[kibblesticks]

terraforming... But I believe it shouldn't be *the* thread that overshadows all others. It will share the story with other threads like research, the military conflict etc.

 

Okay cool, your choice. I agree the military angle is very important. especially since we're going with the Chinese threat thread. My thoughts on "research" are detailed in my previous post when you get a moment to read it.

 

I think what this project really needs now is a scaffold narrative. This thread has been great for generating ideas but I think we've got enough raw material to work with to form a strong timeline with tentpole events that will define the rest of the mod. We've all clearly got very strong ideas about this mod and until our creative efforts are channelled down one path we're all just going to carry on pulling in different directions. In reality, there's nowhere this project can go now till we get the greenlight from yourself. I realise you've got a lot on, so maybe we should put this on hiatus for a short while? We'll keep throwing random ideas out and you can pick the best when you have some time and create a design document.

 

And just to end, here's two more pieces of fodder for the narrative cannon:

 

This is a rough idea for the most "civilised" location in the Crater. I recently began watching a 50s show called Thrilling Wonder Stories: Space Patrol. It's great, I highly recommend it. Anyway, it got me thinking, it would be great if there was some structured military/citizen force which had an actual Earth-like civilisation. Having a city with different classes, factions and resources opens up sooo many quest possibilities, not to mention great visuals and story-telling potential. This is just a WIP idea. I kind of picture them like the NCR. They're the second and third generations of the original Mars HQ team, forced to move into a prefab city dome.

 

City Dome:

The government's plan was to settle on Mars after instigating the Great War. They would ferry citizens from the vaults to the red planet and begin a new society. To this end they built a city within a large dome for the citizens to inhabit. This city was one of the first installations on Mars to be constructed. It lay abandoned, however, in preperation for the arrival of Earth's citizens. When the nuclear armageddon began on Earth, the commanders of the Mars project knew there would be no citizens arriving, and no to take them back to Earth. They kept news of Earth's destruction to themselves, fearing the news would cause rioting and mutiny amongst the general populace. There were those who suspected the truth however.

When the Mars HQ building came under attack by carriers of an unknown contagion, the facility was evactuated, leaving everything behind. Many contracted the plague, but some managed to escape on foot or via the monorail system. The evacuees sabotaged the monorail in an attempt to keep the plague carriers from pursuing them. They then retreated to the city dome.

 

That was over one hundred years ago. Now the city dome functions much the same as many other post-apocolyptic cities. Food is rationed, crime is high and Propaganda posters cling to every surface promising a brighter tomorrow. Citizens are encouraged to procreate in an attempt to bolster the workforce. Within this city live malcontents and terrorists, who believe, correctly, that they have been abandoned by Earth. These rebels seek to usurp their military masters for a variety of reasons. Some want an end to the strictly disiplined lifestyle of the city dome. Some believe their leaders are power-crazed and are preventing their return to Earth on purpose. Some simply want to take control of the streets for themselves.

 

 

Idea number 2 is about the controversial Alien Ruins. Again, this idea is a WIP, but I think it fits if we go for the mysterious "F.E.V attraction" approach. The problem with the abandoned ruins currently, is that there is no actual content for the player to engage with. There's F.E.V mutants but we've got a fair few of them scattered about already. I was thinking we could have the original research post, abandoned. You venture further into the ruins where you find the archeological team, dazed, surrounding a glowing orb (after what I said earlier about cheese, I know). As you get closer you hear a faint humming issuing from the artifact. Your vision begins to blur slightly. You activate the orb which then initiates a dialouge or message box to the effect of "the orb seems to contain an alien presence. You feel something make contact with your mind. Images of your past adventures flash before your eyes. The orb absorbs your memories in seconds. A final image of the rocketship you arrived in hangs in your mind for a moment, before you regain conciousness with a start. You sense the presence's is glee." A dialouge then initiates with the Orb-mind. It informs you it has assimilated your language, as was its task. It asks you about Earth and tells you it needs to travel to Earth. Scanning the archeologist's minds had revealed there was no way past the Mainframe's defences to get to the rockets. However, with your crashed ship now out in the open, it can gain access to the planet-faring technology it needs. It tells you its creators built it as a way of returning, and that humanity will be enslaved to build a pathway for its masters to return. It states that you will be its personal vessel in this task. You politely (or rudely) decline the Orb-mind's offer to hijack your brain and ride you around the solar system. It grows angry and orders its minions (the telepathically controlled archeology team) to attack. Oh yeah, the F.E.V mutants are being attracted because the telepathic artifact finds it easier to control lesser minds, like those of F.E.V addled mutants. and is trying to draw them into it's telepathic range to better control them and protect itself.

 

That's about as far as I got with that one. Don't intend to reveal who the Orb-mind's masters were or what its real purpose was, that's up to the player to decide. Not great right now but it's another idea on the pile.

 

Aaanywho Devin, good luck with SSWWAP (god, even the abriviation is a mouthful)! I'm really looking forward to playing it :dance: did you mean it should be out this weekend? Or was that the other small project? Don't overdo it or you'll mod yourself out mate :thumbsup:

[kibblesticks]

 

At the moment, though, the explanation that "the government is evil and power-hungry" doesn't cover it for me. Where did they get their funding when there is a war going on? In a place of scarce resources and neccessity, why is a completely new branch of science required to control what will be a small population? Why won't traditional control methods like good old fashioned soilders work? Why are they going to the massive expense of experimenting on Mars when the resources are scarce and the best scientists in the field are all on Earth? I can't remember who said it but it was a lead game designer; "deciding what to leave out is just as important, if not more so, than deciding what stays in". Or something like that. It basically means a designer should cut out eveything that isn't a rock-solid concept.

 

I can see bioweapons being researched, in a sense, through the attempt at making a viable ecosystem. An ecosystem needs predators and here we have a massive amount of toys to play with. What are Yao-guai if not a "bioweapon"? But they were never created as such. And creatures that have to survive in a harsh habitat like Mars' surface would surely be tough-as-nails. After being asked to work on some rabbits for Beyond Boulder Dome, I realised I can't model creatures to save my life and so I'm devoting the next few weeks to "organic" modeling to try and improve. I'll attempt to come up with some concepts for creatures which could survive. I'm thinking; naturally occuring air-sacs, hard, bone-like extrustions, exoskeletons, infared vision, burrowing creatures, slow moving grazers built like tanks, etc..?

 

 

I feel I wasn't constructive enough with my previous post. I'm quoting myself here just so you know which post I'm refering to. I'd just like to add to this some ideas for unique projects that could occur that would fit well into the story. I've already mentioned the alternative to bioweapons, but I had a few thoughts about other alternatives for cool research projects you might be wanting to add.

 

Weapons research is an avenue that doesn't fit on Mars. They aren't planning on running into heavy resistance (except a few chinese maybe) and any funding for weapons research would go straight to the war effort on Earth, where the results could be immediately utilized by the military. This leads us to the logical conclusion that the weapons on Mars would be the same quality, if not worse. than those on Earth. However, this doesn't mean we can't have new weapons, we've just got to follow fallout's zany creativeness in our approach, rather than having a "weapons research dome". Construction and maintenance is a great place to draw ideas from. Explosives, acid guns for dissolving rocks, laser cutters, welding guns, a host of melee weapons and maybe even tools that generate a force-bubble effect for moving heavy objects (basically launches people backwards). Terraforming also offers possibilities such as fertilizer sprayers that can be customized to fire poisonous chems, UV projectors and grenades (could be effective against subterranean creatures), weaponized sap-extractors and yet more melee weapons. Then there's guns that could have been developed on Earth for use in mars' atmosphere (presumably normal balistic weapons won't function without oxygen), so that's where you get your typical 50s ray guns.

 

Armour, as already mentioned, could be geared towards spacesuits and mass-produced clothing like the vault-suit. The one thing the colony would need more of, if the plan to bring citizens from Earth had worked, would be uniforms. So having a suit and armour production line, and all the customization that entails, makes a fair amount of sense.

 

I can see water extraction and mining being engaged in as well, both offering opportunities for unique weapons, armour and gizmos.

 

However like I said above, adding a research centre without justification breaks immersion. It would be like suggesting the Mars team build a naval tatics research centre, millions of miles aways from Earth, just because of the war. This would be irrelevant to their mission and useless to Earth. Likewise, researching weapons biological, viral or ballistic, would be unneccessary expenditure on a mission to colonize a dead planet with a small amount of easily controlled settlers. The brightest minds of the age must have worked on the project, and power-mad as they were, a dome full of expensive, dangerous bioweapons that need feeding and looking after, with nowhere to go, on a delicate mission, in a volatile environment.. well it just doesn't seem like something someone in charge would greenlight.

 

As a final thought, look at DLCs for insperation. Point lookout was arguably the best, with a decent sized open world environment. It was drab and had little to no tech, so the little you did see intruged the player and made them want to find more. Similarlly, The Pitt had a very basic theme, which was construction and slavery. The slaves were building an army for Ashur's raiders. One theme, but the stories that could be told within that narrative were very engaging. Now look at Zeta, arguably the second most boring DLC after anchorage. Why? Because although superficially it had all the bells and whistles (cryo chambers, bioweapons, robotic production lines, giant power cores, explosions and death rays), there was no strong narrative. Bells and whistles get boring very fast and if you give the player too many they get spoilt and expect more. Give them barely anything, like in The Pitt or PL though, and their desire to gain more drives them to explore. They're also more satified with a more toned-down outcome.

 

Rambled on a bit there, but I've tried to make my point the best that I can. "Cool" goodies do not a good mod make. :happy:

 

 

On a completely different note! Here's the new dome in the wasteland:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/dome03.jpg

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/dome02.jpg

 

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/dome01.jpg

 

 

Not textured the bottom as I was just trying out normals, collision and animation. I'm having trouble finding an animation for an item in the game for 25% 50% and 75% rotation respectively. That's what I need to make the dome open and close correctly. If you can think of any, or if you can make an animation like this, please let me know.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

I've been working with GIMP a lot, is there any texture work that I could do?

I'm really getting into the horror vibe for the command dome; I'm thinking of an Infamous power-on-new areas route using that utility tunnel thing...

the ghouls/beasts would only (re)spawn in the power-off state, and the defenses/lights/turrets/bots would be deactivated... for plot/puzzle reasons, certain doors or passages might be inoperable, etc. There could definitely be some spacewalk/depressurized passageways, as well.

I think that Speedy's resource pack would be perfect; he has a ventilation kit for vaults, which would be fun to mess with.

I've got plenty of "small encounters" for horror/atmosphere, for instance, the player comes across those stealth/poison deathclaws in confinement. The little ones are literally beating themselves bloody trying to get out, and the doctor/captain would alternatively tell you to euthanize or free/"tame" them...

if they're freed, they eat the dead ones, look hauntingly at the player (they're intelligent enough to know you helped them) and then phase out invisible...

then a bit of radio dialogue:

Captain: good work, those beasts will thin out the intruders long before you get to them.

Doctor: they'll "thin out" us as well!

Captain: Idiot, they know who helped them. They won't hurt the kid.

Doctor: what about us?!!

Captain: They attack us and we kill them.

Doctor: it sounds so easy...

[devinpatterson]

I can see where a couple of them might have frozen themselves/put themselves into stasis (or frozen some of the out of control hybrids) which might wake up with somebody messing up the power system keeping them in stasis (perhaps that could be what is making the plants grow towards the ruins the energy signature of the damaged generator).

 

Sure I can see that for the abominations, but I'd be much more hesitant for hte aliens themselves. We need them for their tech as part of the storyline, but but much like Kibblesticks I find them too "campy" for a serious mod.

 

I'd vote for both terraforming and bioweapons research (only a matter of time before you have to deal with those dirty Reds or other enemies of the state in your new terraformed utopia) add to that that the FEV had some very unpredictable effects

 

Yeah I think the bioweapons will be fun too. I like the idea of deathclaws with venom, and camouflage ability. Adding new twists on old favorites will be interesting and surpising for the player.

 

hmmm definitely interesting, and nothing preventing them both in a way. The more intelligent solder ones being armed (like the supermutants even the "dumb-dumbs" were armed) and the tribals doing what little they can to fight against them, traps and their primitive weapons against the mostly primitive but occasionally firearm equipped morlocks, who are lead by an intelligent leader type (who could possibly try to sway you to aiding -them- as he is vastly more intelligent and knowledgeable than those "savages" topside.

 

I think if we go more with the "noble savages" than the gentle eloi (wandered to their cannibalistic death in a hypnotic trance) we can pull that off.

[VaultPi]

mars is the only other goldielocks planet in the solar system andvery close to a big asteriod field full of exploitable resources. The initial work would have to be done by robots, however as the chrisis with China and Europe deepened the project would have been put to the back burner. However there is no way that Rob-Co and Posiden would not look to getting the incredably rare materials available in space but not ery much so on earth. Like say fissionables or Irridium.

[devinpatterson]

I know the idea of the ruins attracting the mutants makes them a great place for groups of them to nest as well, making an exploration of it (which I admit would be something I'd have to do) a very dangerous and interesting adventure.

 

We can use the FEV horrors as the current inhabitants of the ruins (and the majority of the encounters) with a very small sprinkling of alien tech (small to prevent little green men overload).

 

On a related note, It would be interesting if Pan-Immunity Virion Project (PVP) (the predecessor of FEV) had an alien origin. They (aliens) have genetic manipulation but I didn't find any hard link between west tek's PVP and recovered alien tech, just musings on teh talk forums. But if there was, it could tie things together pretty well for our story.

 

If for example the Gov recoverd alien genotech (possibly from the mars project prior to 2075) some of that info could have been given to West Tek (they're a Gov sub contractor and have worked with alien tech before, specifically energy weapons), to research and develop.

Then the timeline wold follow lore; West Tek produces PVP, which the military takes control of and renames FEV. That part happens from 2075 until just a few days before the war in oct 2077 (where the testing had been moved to Mariposa and had began in Jan of 2077). If we introduce the mars project before 2075 then it's possible the genetic info (or even samples) may have been recovered from the mars projects ruins.

 

I think this story line is convenient for us because it addresses some problems;

 

FEV really wasn't released or used by anyone (at least according to lore) before the war, it was still in it's research phase and under heavy security. I checked some of the biocritters like deathclaws, cazadores, and night stalkers and none of them appear to be products of FEV. Deathclaws just say genetically engineered. Cazadores are listed as created by Dr. Borous (no deails on how) and "Nightstalkers are the creations of Dr. Borous at Big MT, genetic hybrids of rattlesnake and coyote DNA". So if we go strictly by lore, FEV isn't a option. But if we have the source of PVP/FEV as alien genotech found on mars, than tthe mars project can be researching it and it would be prevalent through our mod.

 

The story line strongly reinforces the rationale behind expending the resources for the martian project. Even with plasma rockets cutting the cost of transport by a order of magnitude it's still a massive undertaking.

 

It also explains the jump from a dual strand to quad strand DNA. That is in itself completely crazy. A allegory of going from genetic engineering to a quad structure DNA (which is what PVP/FEV does) would be developing the wright brothers plane and then manufacturing a jet fighter two years later. But if the aliens had (naturally evolved) quad strand DNA and were trying to create alien/human hybrids, recovering that tech would hold all the answers.

 

To make a long story short I was pretty surprised when I stumbled on this info. I was under the impression FEV was in actual use before the war and of course that challenges a lot of what we want to do with the mod since it wasn't :(

But I think the pitch I detailed above will patch things together well enough. Otherwise our story line/timeline is somewhat Fubar'd and we'll have to figure out another reason to either have a substance like FEV, ignore lore, or some other another angle to let us keep going in teh direction we want.

 

Misc junk;

 

For the base timeline I was thinking a meteor could have impacted on the pole and vaporized a massive amount of dry ice and soil. This could have exposed a part of the ruins and allowed the rovers to confirm the existence of something unusual. I was thinking that in consideration of FEV's nature the meteor could be name pandora. It somewhat follows the tale of pandora, releasing the various evils and only hope remaining. Since it mirrors the horrors FEV released, but also the lone hope (it was originally seen, in the PVP virus as a defense against biological warefare, specifically viral). There is already one named "55 pandora", but it's a much larger meteor than I liked. So maybe a 172 pandora that's small enough to make the crater we want. They also name the craters after the meteors as well, so the base & crater can be called pandora if we wish.

 

I'd like to throw in some rocket planes. I think NASA had some info on rocket planes being used on mars. There are some cool nif's of fighter jets and rockets I could do a mashup of. We'd have them laying around the space port, maybe one or two destoryed in the wild. But perhaps we can adapt the jetpack or veribird mod so the player could fly one for a short while. That would be a kick.

 

I thought I'd make a holograph of a little girl for the (biggie) mainframe at central command/space port. I thought a shortie would be a good contrast to the mainframes power/purpose. This way we can have her pop up all over the base when she wants to communicate with the player.

 

Another thing that will come in handy is research. GreenKnightFury has found a lot of interesting articles, and the more we find the better. I'm interested in the effects of mars and space travel so we can add some realism (and not so real "realism") to the mod. For instance I found out in zero G, astronautics loose their sense of smell. Part of it might be that vapors/ordors don't rise up, but mostly it's thte fact that humans begin to accumulate fluid in their head (makes you congested, always feel like a cold). So I thought we could have pills named smellos, or odormins, something like that that enhance your sense of smell. Possibly giving hte player +1 perception for a time. They'd have been used for the faculty/personal before a meal so they cold enjoy it's flavor.

 

Another aspect is bone and muscle loss, so we could have a lot of buffout, or a "industrial strength" version available on base.

 

We also need Mars specific paraphernalia, like custom jumpsuits, rocket models and other little things that are good for atmosphere.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Google earth can view Mars and the Moon.

Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons. Measuring 24 Kilometers high and 550! across, it's a shield volcano like Mauna Loa, only the big Isle is about half as high measured from the seafloor...

before you ask, no it isn't active (that we know of) BUT its lava is quite recent (2 million YA according to wiki) so it could still be dormant.

Olympus Mons is in the western hemisphere among a volcanic bulge called the Tharsis Plateau, about 25% of the surface and is so huge that it literally cracked the martian surface, possibly even realigning the climate and orbit. that area is very high up (avoiding the dust storms) and though no eruption has been recorded it's feasible that there are still eruptions or lava flows going on today.

 

In fact, the Mariner 9 Probe arrived at a near planet wide dust storm that lasted for a month; only Olympus Mons stood above it.

Edited February 24, 2012 by TrooperScooperMKII

[devinpatterson]

I feel I wasn't constructive enough with my previous post. I'm quoting myself here just so you know which post I'm refering to.

 

OK no problem I'll direct my comments to your curren tpost and address your previous qoute in my next msg (building a bed at the moment, and it's actually turning out pretty damn good)

 

Weapons research is an avenue that doesn't fit on Mars. They aren't planning on running into heavy resistance (except a few chinese maybe) and any funding for weapons research would go straight to the war effort on Earth, where the results could be immediately utilized by the military. This leads us to the logical conclusion that the weapons on Mars would be the same quality, if not worse. than those on Earth.

 

I'd be inclined to disagree based on historic precedent. The tech that went into the moon project was the most advanced possible for it's time. You'v probably heard references to the technology that came out of the space race. Small things like the fisher space pen to the biggest advances of the time in computers, propulsion etc. Most of the technological advances we take for granted today are often cited as benefits of the space program (although I'm skeptical of many).

 

In addition I think the logic supports the best equipment available as well. You often hear quotes of $10,000 per pound of payload. That varies quite a bit depending on whether your talking low earth orbit, but regardless it's very expensive. The plasma rockets can probably reduce that by a whole order of magnitude or more, but it's also a much longer trip that a orbital jaunt. So let just say it's very expensive. If your going to fly a 8lb rifle to mars for $8000 bucks, $16, 000 or whatever the economics work out to be, actual item cost isn't whats gonna cripple your wallet, it's the postage and handling.

 

Plus your in a hostile environment so your going to want the very best (most durable, dependable) equipment available, since your life will depend on it.

 

I do strongly agree with you though, that conventional weapons research would be carried out via sub-contractors on earth. But unconventional weapons are a different story. Weapons research based on alien tech will probably be on site. Specialized weapons for space and mars may or may not be on site (probably depends on how exotic the environment is you need to test it in is).

 

 

However, this doesn't mean we can't have new weapons, we've just got to follow fallout's zany creativeness in our approach, rather than having a "weapons research dome". Construction and maintenance is a great place to draw ideas from. Explosives, acid guns for dissolving rocks, laser cutters, welding guns, a host of melee weapons and maybe even tools that generate a force-bubble effect for moving heavy objects (basically launches people backwards). Terraforming also offers possibilities such as fertilizer sprayers that can be customized to fire poisonous chems, UV projectors and grenades (could be effective against subterranean creatures), weaponized sap-extractors and yet more melee weapons. Then there's guns that could have been developed on Earth for use in mars' atmosphere (presumably normal balistic weapons won't function without oxygen), so that's where you get your typical 50s ray guns.

 

That's some very creative ideas for makeshift weapons, I think they will see a lot of use since it's a closed eco system for two centuries and everything has to be re-used, repaired, jury rigged etc. I see most of the weapons falling to that category. But there will be some exceptions;

unique alien weapons, one of a kind, recovered from the ruin (perhaps in a research lab).

The armory in central command.

The surviving military. They will have power armor, anti-material rifles, gauss rifles etc. Heavy weapons that pose a significant threat.

 

But overall those 3 exceptions will be rare. I'd like to use mostly critters and bots to keep the loot down to a reasonable level.

 

 

But in re: to balistic weapons, there's no worries there. All modern firearm ammo I'm aware of, contains it's own oxidizer (the powder burns way to fast to just depend on the oxygen in teh atmosphere). And the same goes for space (if we get around to developing those locals).

 

I can see water extraction and mining being engaged in as well, both offering opportunities for unique weapons, armour and gizmos.

 

Yep definitely re: water & mining=industrial weapons.

 

However like I said above, adding a research centre without justification breaks immersion. It would be like suggesting the Mars team build a naval tatics research centre, millions of miles aways from Earth, just because of the war.

 

Yeah I agree with you in regard to conventional weapons. There might be a small multi purpose lab or something, where they may work on mundane aspects of conventional weapons like "weatherizing" them from the martian cold, or the fine talcom like grit etc. But no, nothing of any real scale.

 

With one exception being the advanced combat suit AG and I are working on. We need a setting to release it in, as both of us are way to pressed for time to take on another project. So it's a matter of convenience. But I'm confident we can tweak it a little, to better fit a martian theme and I don't believe it will break immersion.

 

Likewise, researching weapons biological, viral or ballistic, would be unneccessary expenditure on a mission to colonize a dead planet with a small amount of easily controlled settlers. The brightest minds of the age must have worked on the project, and power-mad as they were, a dome full of expensive, dangerous bioweapons that need feeding and looking after, with nowhere to go, on a delicate mission, in a volatile environment.. well it just doesn't seem like something someone in charge would greenlight.

 

I would disagree with you on this point (minus the balistic mentioned above) though because it actually supports/reinforces the alien tech & genotech story line (if we go that way) and FEV research in general. It would be one of the primary purposes of the martian project. As the origin of this tech it's where the research is happening, plus it has the (minor) bonuses of being isolated so it's easily quarantined from earth if things go wrong, and hopefully difficult to spy on or destroy. But yes if there was no alien presence on mars I think I would be in complete agreement with you except for the terraforming aspect. It implies lab created critters unless your only interested in changing mars to support flora.

 

And of course it also applies to non geno-tech/FEV, like beam weapons...possibly dare I say alien inertia fields (that would be the ultimate armor, we'll see). The research would be going on here, because this is were they were recovered, have clues to their operation etc.

 

All of this is a positive not a negative. It gives us ample potential for locations/story lines that we can choose to develop.

 

Bells and whistles get boring very fast and if you give the player too many they get spoilt and expect more. Give them barely anything,

 

I agree, it's kind of why I was aiming for martian wasteland as being so stark and desolate.

 

Rambled on a bit there, but I've tried to make my point the best that I can. "Cool" goodies do not a good mod make. :happy:

 

No worries, always interested in your opinion on the mod. But I don't think we have to worry in re: to bells and whistles. Part of the reason this mod has been in "pre-developement" so long is because we are hammering out some really interesting and attention grabbing story lines.

[devinpatterson]

The initial work would have to be done by robots, however as the chrisis with China and Europe deepened the project would have been put to the back burner.

 

Yeah that's somehting along the lines I'm thinking too. I figure that once anchorage kicked in, the situation on Mars began to become increasingly more dire as resources were diverted from the project.

[devinpatterson]

Google earth can view Mars and the Moon.

Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons. Measuring 24 Kilometers high and 550! across, it's a shield volcano like Mauna Loa, only the big Isle is about half as high measured from the seafloor...

 

I think Kibblesticks wants to focus on the crater. I hate to exclude the other environments (especially Phobos moon base and the nuked Chinese base), but I understand his POV since we have a lot on our plate at the moment.

 

before you ask, no it isn't active (that we know of)

In fact, the Mariner 9 Probe arrived at a near planet wide dust storm that lasted for a month; only Olympus Mons stood above it.

 

Yeah I think the consensus is that it is a geologically dead planet so we won't be seeing any lava flows. But as you mention we'll have fun with the weather.