Anyone for a trip to mars?

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Yep definitely re: water & mining=industrial weapons.

DEAD SPACE HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

 

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.

Real life scientific consensus doesn't really matter too much in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic alien carrying terraformed Mars... heck, the terraforming might have kick-started the whole thing accidentally or even deliberately; the massive scope of the project might have been too much for even top-tier GECK stuff, so why not use what's already there using seismic disturbances etc.?

In any event, Olympus mons is so immense that it literally can't be seen from the surface, as the distance required to get the whole picture is over the horizon...

putting a base on the top has several advantages:

1- it's above the weather.

2- it's flat. As in, no discernible difference/inclination.

3. it's easier to send stuff downhill than uphill.

4. if we go with the whole awakened volcano thing, then it could provide warmth and/or geothermal energy.

5. it's definitely big enough to have craters, volcanic or meteoric.

6. wouldn't it be the most defensible/best place for communications? From my limited understanding, the higher the better for line of sight...

7. thinner atmosphere and (negligibly?) weaker gravity might make it easier to launch rockets off.. add in the visibility/above the weather and, well...

 

There are three big mountains on that bulge, so the Chinese might have taken the other two?

[greenknightfury]

In regard to the general consensus being Mars is geologically dead, they aren't to good on telling when areas they are right on top of on Earth being geologically stable or dead, so whether it really is or not will be up for debate till someone is actually there for long stretches of time. Like our colonists!

 

 

Also on top of Mars' dust storms we should take into consideration that we have a warm and wet (by the standards of Mars anyway) area inside a valley, so we could get some wicked storms, particularly dry thunderstorms (if we can get some kind of lightning from the sky going anyway).

Edited February 24, 2012 by greenknightfury

[devinpatterson]

Real life scientific consensus doesn't really matter too much in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic alien carrying terraformed Mars... heck, the terraforming might have kick-started the whole thing accidentally or even deliberately;

 

in regard to reality vs fantasy I believe we should try to be as accurate as possible to what we know about the planet unless we need to change info for the plotline. We can put anything we want in the setting, but the closer we stick to what is there, teh more realistic it will seem.

 

Also there is a link to a paper by a 33 man team analyzing images from mars express and they believe that "calderas on five major Mars volcanoes were repeatedly active as little as 2 million years ago. The volcanoes, scientists speculated, may even be active today.", so it may be the case. Here is another one about quakes.

 

In any event, Olympus mons is so immense that it literally can't be seen from the surface, as the distance required to get the whole picture is over the horizon...

putting a base on the top has several advantages:

1- it's above the weather.......

There are three big mountains on that bulge, so the Chinese might have taken the other two?

 

Well the base location is determined by the ruins (the purpose of the project). But as far as the Chinese base or another US outpost(s), sure, it seems like a good location for the 7 reasons you mention.

On the other hand we could say the aliens built their base there. So it's a possibility

 

BTW what is your opinion of additional locations outside the crater/main base? I feel like we are limiting ourselves somewhat by not including them.

Edited February 24, 2012 by devinpatterson

[kibblesticks]

The alien-PVP link, the timeline, the meteor origin and the game effects all sound brilliant. :biggrin: Really, they're all very cool ideas.

 

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).

 

Just goes to show, one shouldn't open one's mouth if one doesn't know what one is talking about. I hadn't read anything about the space race or "postage and packaging" across space before now so I'll gladly defer to your knowledge on the subject. Good to know ordinary weapons would still function on Mars (with the exception of flamers), I wasn't relishing the thought of stopping the player using their hard earned guns in a hostile environment. Also, good call on the power armoured goons, adds some much needed variety to the old bag o' stuff-to-shoot-at. Already come up with a few concepts for hazmat suits that I'll post when I have time. One idea I really like (but can't take credit for since it came from a drinking buddy) is grappling hooks that come out from the heavy armour to hold the suit in place in a storm. Not sure if we could work that or not but it'd be a nice static detail to add nonetheless.

 

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.

 

No problem, could be a suit factory with a research and maintenance division or Xera (is that the name?) could have been brought ready-made from Earth for some other reason, following your story from your earlier post.

 

As for the bio-research, I can see where you're coming from now. I'd been thinking of the Mars mission purely post-war, with the ruins being recently uncovered. If the alien data had originated from the Mars project in the first place though, then I agree it would definately make sense to study the stuff on Mars before shipping it to Earth, if for no other reason than to test in an environment where new samples are readily available and any dangers won't effect Earth. Nice way to make it a solid part of the story!

 

Sorry if I seemed a bit negative before. I had this intense fear that we were going to find ourselves re-making Mothership Zeta. You have set my mind at ease. Thank you, I should have had more faith. :blush:

 

 

ooo I'm all excited about this thing now..

 

Edit: Bit of a U turn for me as far as additional locations are concerned. I'm 100% fine including them, especially if they fit the story. The reason craters make such an ideal location is they have naturally occuring limits (like bloody great stone walls). If we make other locations we'll just have to make sure it's not impractical in terms of work generation. The more locations we can fit into the main crater (size as yet undefined) the better, since it means one worldspace, one LOD pass, no requirement for transport, etc.. If a great location fits well somewhere else on the planet we shouldn't let the crater's boundaries prevent its creation. Just try to be as conservative as possible and focus on building locations essential to the main storyline initially. We can always add more later.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Google earth Mars is amazing...

there are three good craters (one is a HUGE multi-crater with planty of nifty ridges/depressions and even a side-shelf)

 

 

 

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/2734/marscratermeasure.png

The main crater could fit pretty much everything we could imagine with a good city-state to spare...

 

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/4801/marscrater2measure.png

 

Alternatively, there's a smaller crater just south? of the big one, and a third is off to the east.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6727/olympusmons.png

 

 

Just.... looking at this thing....

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2248/ishuge.png

 

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8219/huuuggeee.png

Dang... it's like a giant pimple.

 

 

The more I think about volcanoes, the more I feel that an Active Mars would be fun to have. First, lava tubes could be a plot-related travel system i.e. subway or caves... lava also provides yet another peril for the player.

Also, the alien civilization could have been down there... maybe they were a lava-proof burrowing society? Assuming that you can work around/with the lava, the warmth and protection from space/the elements could be great for life forms. There could be water deposits, even; perhaps the aliens drained all the water away? Perhaps the "brood mother" thing that's controlling the grunts is an Old One style hibernator, and it awakens with the volcanoes?

So when the mining/terraforming primed the volcanoes (or if the volcanoes fired up by themselves) the beast awoke, started laying eggs/spawning the grunts and all hell broke loose.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Assuming we go with OM, the crater isn't going to have any sandstorms, even if some of it isn't terraformed yet...

if we have a "summit" location, then it could be going through one of those whole-planet, monthlong dust storms...

in short, we'd have "excursions to

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVsORQNE7e8

 

this in sandstorm form.

[VaultPi]

some random geek/geck idea? The Canals of Mars being an actual functional place with thin atmosphere by use of Geck Terraforming. Also can we have some heat resistant armour alloys from the Asteroid mining by Rob Co.? (hey there's lots of Irridium in those Nickle Iron rocks)

[OldWorldRanger]

Dude thats gold, and heres a suggestion. You know how the REPCONN Ghouls talk about that paradise place? And they use a ROCKET to get there? Gee, I wonder where it could possibly be! Since its most likely in space, I always thought it was the moon, irradiated from a stray nuke. But Mars is just as cool. I would love to see a colony of Ghouls in retro space-gear. :hurr:

[OldWorldRanger]

Dude thats gold, and heres a suggestion. You know how the REPCONN Ghouls talk about that paradise place? And they use a ROCKET to get there? Gee, I wonder where it could possibly be! Since its most likely in space, I always thought it was the moon, irradiated from a stray nuke. But Mars is just as cool. I would love to see a colony of Ghouls in retro space-gear. :hurr:

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Life on Mars...

Olympus mons is a potential source of life- as in, bacterial growth- because of possible moisture trapped deep beneath the mountain, possibly heated by residual heat, etc...

 

also, Arsia Mons (another big volcano) has several caves, and past (or even present) glaciers and a really nifty weather phenomenon every winter; heat from the sun causes dust from the slopes to rise, converging at the caldera and spiraling up in a yearly 15 to 30 KM high dust cloud...