New Mars Forums

Rxke,

The '"Mars Direct" settlement template is quite similar to the Mars Analog stations, and I'm sure we could learn a lot from the data from those stations.

Right.  We don't have dimensions or relative position for buildings in a settlement yet.  I'm a bit worried that it might add a lot of complexity to the configuration files, but we may try to add it later and see.

You can definately add more buildings in the "buildings.xml" config file.  Buildings are defined by what functions they provide and there are a set list of possible building functions.  These functions are hard-coded but may have parameters that can be set.  The functions were designed around the Mars Direct reference mission, and we may want to add more of them later.

Check out the simulation configuration guide on the website (under the "user guide" link).  It's a bit rough as I'm not all that good at documentation, but it might help.

Scott Davis

Kenshin,

The source code is provided in the project download file.  There should be build scripts in the scripts directory, including a nice ant build file.

Scott Davis

Heh, I did exactly the same thing a couple of days ago.  There were only two people in a small settlement and one of them had a laceration that was degrading.  The other person was a botanist and spent all his time tending crops in the greenhouse and ignoring his injured friend.  I felt sorry for the poor, injured guy and finally changed the botanist's job to a doctor and he immediately bandaged his friend's injury.  I then changed him back to a botanist and all was well. 

That is until the injury-prone settler came down with meningitis. 

We're planning on making a rover mission creator/editor tool.  The user will be able to create a new mission by choosing mission targets on a map and assign settlers and a rover to the mission.  They can also modify existing missions.  This will be the main goal of the next version development.

As for future development, we have a lot of ideas we're still brainstorming.  Here are some ideas:

* Social relationships between settlers and possibly command structures within a settlement. 

* Communication between settlements, rovers and Earth.

* Flesh out science research a bit more, possibly adding breakthroughs and affects of the research on other aspects of the simulation.

* More detailed EVA operations.

* More types of vehicles and equipment.

* Construction of new buildings in a settlement using local resources.

* Manufacturing vehicles and equipment.

* Mining

* Trade economy between settlements.

* Better visualization of settlements in the user interface.

* A more complex weather model for Mars.

* Additional configuration options for the user including mission/activity properties.

Anyway, those are just some of the ideas we have for future development.  Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Scott Davis

Hmmm...Should be able to click on the executable JAR file (MarsProject.jar) in the main directory to run it on an OSX computer.  I haven't had a chance to test it out on an OSX computer for that last couple of versions.  We were able to test it at last year's Mars Society convention on a few iBooks.

It requires a 1.4x or newer version of the Java Runtime Environment to run it, but I was under the impression that OSX computers came with that standard.

Let me know if you are able to get it to work.  I'll see if any of the other developers can test it on an OSX computer.

Scott Davis