It’s 2020 and you’re soon going to Mars! Good preparation is the key to the success of the mission, so today we’re continuing our devlog series with another important topic.
In previous devlogs we showed that establishing a self-sustaining Martian Colony plays a crucial role in colonizing Mars. But building a Martian Habitat is a difficult task due to uneven terrain of the planet. There are also some places where you can’t build anything so choosing a good building site is essential.
Today’s post focuses on the building process in Occupy Mars and is complementary to Devlog #17. After you've gathered resources and printed enough Building Materials - constructing actual buildings begins with the design mode. First, you have to select a building from the building menu and check if it can be placed in selected location. Remember that you can only place it there if the outline appears in green colour. When the building turns red, it means that you can’t build it there.
You can freely try different locations for the building. At this stage, you can adjust the foundation height of the building, which enables you to build on uneven terrain, but once you actually place it on the soil, its colour turns to white and you can no longer move it around the map. If you don’t like the outlined construction that you've already placed, you can still destroy it without losing resources by using a grinder.
You can connect different building sections or corridors by snapping them one by one or (in case of uneven terrain) by joining them with one of the types of the “slope corridor” - which is especially helpful when you want to connect constructions built on different levels.
Remember that if the foundations of your building are not high enough, you will have problems with adjusting other structures or objects. If the construction has high foundations, you’ll have to build ramps in order to get inside. Keep in mind that ramps can only be attached to airlocks. When it comes to airlocks - remember to build them in pairs, otherwise the inside pressure can push you away when opening the door.
Of course, placing an “outline” of your base is just the beginning, now you need to “get your hands dirty” and make use of your Crusher, 3D Printer, Blowtorch & Heavy Rover, and actually build the designed base.
In 2020, you’re going to colonise the Red Planet, and some of you are also going to become engineers there. Let’s occupy Mars and fix Mars Rovers!
If you have any questions or just want to know more about the game, feel free to join our Discord server!
When NASA announced that the Opportunity Rover mission officially ended on 13th Feb 2019, we were all very sad. This "little rover that could" along with his twin brother Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004.
Since that time he gave us amazing science and pictures. He was designed to operate for 90 days, but he worked tirelessly for 15 years! 🖤
We thought it's not fair that the Rover is to stay broken on Mars forever, so we decided that if there's anything we could do to bring him (and other Mars Rovers) back to life we would do it!
We decided to create a smaller Spin-off game in the "Occupy Mars" Universe, where you play as an engineer intending to fix Oppy, and other historic Rovers that ever explored the Red Planet.
As you know, Occupy Mars is an open world, sandbox, hard science-fiction game about Mars colonization. The goal here is to survive, build and maintain a growing martian colony. You wouldn't have time for fixing Mars Rovers.
Making a "Mechanic" game is an experiment for us. We also noticed that people who play "Mechanic" series games are usually not interested in sandbox or survival games. Thanks to a Spin-Off game, we hope to interest more people in Mars exploration and science.
Rover Mechanic Simulator will be released in Steam Early Access on February 6th!
We hope you will like this game as much as Occupy Mars. We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2020, where many of our games are going to come out! :) [previewyoutube="6UJMuR-ezXs;full"] We've also prepared something special for you, so check out our Facebook Page! Feel free to join our Discord server!
We're happy to announce that this weekend ( 8.11.2019 - 10.11.2019) we're going to present the demo version of Occupy Mars: The Game during Falkon 2019 - the annual fantasy convention in Lublin, Poland.
If you can't be there in person - remember you can follow posts and stories from the event on our Social Media:
How to succeed in colonizing Mars? The answer is getting enough sleep!
Building a prosperous Martian colony requires lots of energy. When you are tired, you need to go to sleep. It will increase your stamina to the maximum level, so you’ll be strong enough to overcome any difficulties and occupy Mars.
Red Planet has no mercy for people who don't take care of themselves. Good colonists know why sleep is so crucial. Apart from avoiding sleep deprivation and general tiredness, keeping regular bedtime is a great way to get through the Martian nights, when temperatures are critically low.
Of course, you need a bed to get proper rest. Beds can be built in a hab and living capsules. But what if you are on an exploration trip, far away from your base? Don't worry, your Heavy Rover also has a fully functioning bed!
If you have any questions or just want to know more about the game, feel free to join our Discord channel!
Thank you for overwhelmingly positive feedback on our recently published Occupy Mars — Cinematic Trailer! We've put our hearts and minds into every scene to show you what the game is about in the most inspiring way we could. We are very happy that you like it! :)
As some of you know - we are a small team of people who dream about colonizing The Red Planet. While working on this game for the last 3 years we've learnt a lot, not only about game development but also about space exploration and Mars itself. Every day we find new important things which we'd like to add to the game.
Given your amazing feedback on the trailer and your active support on Discord, YouTube, Facebook and our other social media, we feel the responsibility to give you more information about current development status and our plans.
Together with our publisher we've made a decision that the game will be launched as an "Early Access" game first. This will allow us to expand the game after the initial release and adjust it to your suggestions.
The Early Access release will feature a detailed single-player campaign / story mode, which will already give you long hours of gameplay. Additional game modes will come to the game later in the form of updates. We've decided to focus on polishing core functionalities first, and adding some of the stuff we've already shown in DevLogs later, to make sure they are thoroughly tested. We also want to add a 3D model importer which will turn the game into real moddable sandbox which will grow based on your feedback.
After careful analysis we determined that our hopes to release in December had been too optimistic, but we are finally at the stage where we think we can set a release date! The game is currently planned to launch as an "Early Access" game on March 2020.
This date is our internal goal which we intend to keep. Please keep in mind however that it will be the first such big game released by our studio. Open world sandboxes require tremendous amounts of playtesting which are hard to estimate and may result in some delays. Our experience with releasing a smaller game Rover Mechanic Simulator taught us that the exact day of the release depends on many factors & variables which are hard to predict, so we want to be as clear as possible about the release date.
We aim for March 2020, but we will update the final date on steam after the final testing is finished. The development of Occupy Mars is a world where two of the most difficult fields of knowledge collide: game development and rocket science - both of which give best results when they are not rushed.
The Workbench will allow you to upgrade various devices that you will use a lot on Mars, such as the jackhammer, grinder, blowtorch and spectral detector. It is equipped with a robotic arm for modifying tools.
At the beginning of the game, all the devices at your disposal are at the basic level (lvl 1). If you want to upgrade your tools to higher levels (lvl 2 and lvl 3), you’ll have to meet specific requirements.
Upgraded devices:
Grinder - upgraded grinder will let you destroy buildings much faster and get more resources back.
Jackhammer - upgraded jackhammer will allow you to speed up the process of drilling through rocks.
Spectral detector - upgraded spectral detector will have an increased range and will make rock scanning quicker.
Blowtorch - upgraded blowtorch will let you build and repair constructions much faster.
Spectral detector: Lvl 1 - scan speed 0.5, detection range 250 units
Lvl 2 - scan speed 0.5, detection range 750 units
Lvl 3 - scan speed 2, detection range 1500 units
Additionally, the tools will have different colours depending on their level:
Lvl 1 - yellow
Lvl 2 - orange
Lvl 3 - red
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Stay tuned for more updates and keep following us on social media! If you have any questions or just want to know more about the game, feel free to join our Discord channel!
The spacesuit allows you to safely explore different regions of the Red Planet. It protects you against radiation and cold, and provides life support as well as mobility in difficult conditions. One of its main components is the helmet. It can get damaged and if that happens, you need to print a new one and replace it. The spacesuit is also equipped with a backpack and a tablet.
It is powered by a battery, so you’ll need to recharge it from time to time to make sure you are well protected. Even if the battery is fully charged, you may still get injured during the solar storms, which produce high radiation levels. Safety is sexy, so you will look fabulous in your Martian spacesuit!
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Stay tuned for more updates and keep following us on social media! If you have any questions or just want to know more about the game, feel free to join our Discord channel!
