The unremitting efforts to explore space stem from the pursuit of the meaning of life by human beings, and the game is like a carrier of dreams, carrying our unfinished expectations and reverie to explore the infinite universe.
At the Paradox Insider 2021 launch, publisher Paradox Interactive (hereinafter referred to as P) announced that the development of Mars Survival will be handed over from Haemimont Games to Abstraction Games, and will be re-provided with free updates. In addition, the company also revealed that the number of players of Mars Survival on all platforms has exceeded 5 million.
Not all of these 5 million players were purchased, and it was the game that was released for free this week on the Epic Game Store. Although some players are attracted by free gifts, GameLook believes that the number of players can reach such a point, which also shows the players' love for this genre and the game.
In fact, when the first edition of "Survival on Mars" was released in 2018, the degree of completion was not particularly high. Some very reasonable settings such as "connecting the dome with channels" cannot be achieved. After being filled with multiple DLCs, the gameplay of the game is now quite complete. Steam's ratings have also reached particularly positive reviews.
Colonize Mars and explore the mysteries of Mars
Inspired by asimov and Clarke's classic sci-fi titles, Survival on Mars is in charge of a Mars colony in the game, using unique dome technology to establish a thriving, thriving colony on this barren Red Planet.
As an indie game masterpiece, the variety of settings determines how fun the game is. Shams Jorjani, vice president of business development at P,Corp., said that in his opinion, a successful game must provide players with at least 500 hours of experience, otherwise, it should not be released at all. This is also the core concept of the P Society's selection of games.
At this point, survival of Mars offers an absolutely large number of options, even without the support of a player mod, and the game offers nearly 90 different types of buildings and more than a dozen resource types. All aspects of the game's strategic elements such as base building, material management, development planning, disaster response, exploration missions, etc. have enough depth for players to learn.
The special setting of sponsor and commander biography makes the game's development path diversified, and before the opening, players need to rely on their own planning to choose different colony sponsors, which will provide players with a variety of resources and financial support, which allows you to use your own way to determine the shape and characteristics of the colony. The commander's resume is more focused on specific colonization, which can provide colonists with skills such as higher longevity.
In the process of Mars transformation, players need not only supplies and oxygen, but also face a lot of practical training and many crises, such as asteroid falls, sandstorms, cold currents, whirlwinds and many other natural disasters, but also to do their best to meet the physical and psychological needs of colonists.
Of course, a game element that always influences the game process globally is scientific research. Made up of 6 standard tech trees and a rare tech to help players build their colonies from all sides. The scientific research value itself will be completed automatically and slowly, and the scientific research process can be accelerated by recruiting scientists to immigrate and building scientific research laboratories.
As a simulation survival game, these rich settings are hardcore enough.
Although the scientific nature is insufficient, the imagination space of the game is worth affirming
In the game "Survival on Mars", drones are used to carry out infrastructure work in the early stages, completing the construction of water resources and oxygen collection devices and other facilities. It can be said that whether in the current science fiction context, or the realistic theoretical argument, or the survival experiment of simulating landing on Mars in the desert area of the earth, the process setting in "Mars Survival" is quite in line with the standard.
But games are games after all, providing experiences rather than facts, and there are still many things that do not conform to science. The first is the question of how to get to the moon. In the game, it is possible to reach Mars directly from The Earth with just one tap, while reaching Mars in reality can be described as difficult.
Mars exploration is far more complex than lunar exploration, because the distance between Mars and Earth is actually changing, the nearest time is only 55 million kilometers, and the farthest time is 400 million kilometers, every 26 months can usher in the best time for a launch, the so-called "Mars opposition", the duration of about a month. At this shortest distance, it will take the probe seven months to reach Mars. But once this window is missed, it will take another 26 months.
At the same time, if you want to achieve Mars exploration, it means that the probe must not only break through the second cosmic speed and completely get rid of the gravitational pull of the earth, but also further accelerate on this basis, and try to get rid of the gravitational pull of the sun and enter the orbit of Mars before reaching Mars. And this is only the first step to reach Mars, if you want to land on Mars, it is even more difficult to go to the sky.
In the future, humans will land on Mars, and using resources to build buildings after arriving is also a big problem. In the game Survival of Mars, a unique dome concept was designed, which became an energy barrier in the game, as a settlement of human immigrants, with different sizes and sizes, and the infrastructure could be built directly inside. For the reality of the Martian environment, because there is no atmospheric barrier, meteorites will fall directly to the surface of Mars, and the romantic dome is obviously unrealistic.
The difference in surface temperature of Mars is too large and natural disasters are frequent, which has led to the inability of humans to settle directly on the surface of Mars, and there is no technology and resources to support the dome. According to scientists, if humans go to Mars, the best way to do it is to adopt the method of underground cave habitation. First of all, the underground environment is easier to insulate, and the crypts formed by many lava pipes on Mars are more convenient to use.
In GameLook's view, although the design of the game has many places that cannot withstand scrutiny, it also provides people with reference exploration in subsequent reality. In particular, its concept of colonizing and building cities on Mars also coincides with Musk's Mars colonization plan in reality, which may be one of the important significance of the game's existence.
Conquering Mars is a human dream
Mars is Earth's neighbor, both of which are rocky planets with similar evolution and tectonics. With water, thin air, Earth-like elements, small molecule organics, and the solar system's most spectacular mountains and valleys, Mars is the perfect next stop for humanity to dream of becoming a "transplanetary living species." At the same time, Mars is the planet in the solar system that has the most likely signs of life besides Earth, which is the most important purpose of our exploration of Mars.
The theme of exploring Mars does not only exist in the game, but also in the field of film and television. Documentaries such as "Martian Times" and movies such as "The Martian Rescue" promote the development of the plot with the meticulous presentation of a large number of scientific content, so that the audience can enjoy a popular science feast while entertaining. After entering this century, with NASA's Mars landing program, SpaceX's Mars colonization program, and China's Tianwen series, traveling to Mars has become a kind of "absolutely correct" broad consensus among people, businesses, and governments in various countries.
So far, NASA has sent five Mars rovers to the surface of Mars to look for signs of extraterrestrial life and more information on Mars. Bret Drake, a researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center for lunar and Mars probes, said: "We still have a human landing survey of Mars as a future exploration target, and Mars is one of the main targets of long-term human exploration in the future. ”
In addition to NASA, private companies are also interested in Mars exploration. Musk, CEO of the U.S. Space Exploration Technology Company, previously made a speech entitled "Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species" at the International Astronautical Congress in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara, stating his future vision of sending manned aircraft to Mars within 10 years and building human colonies on Mars.
SpaceX, which now accounts for more than half of the global launch market, is steadily advancing the BFR (Super Rocket) program, which itself is a combination of rocket and spacecraft. SpaceX's expectations for BFR are to be able to take on various uses from satellite launches, space station replenishment, lunar base construction, and even Mars base construction, so it has designed three different payload modes: manned modules, cargo tanks, and space refueling ships.
The plan hopes to send supplies to Mars in 2022, the first people to Mars in 2024, and set up a simple base to start receiving successive groups of immigrants. Musk's plan looks good, but the time is too tight, the fault tolerance is too low, and the risk is not small. However, the delay in SpaceX progress is already the norm.
At the same time, after the successful lunar mission, China's exploration of Mars has also accelerated its journey. In July 2020, the Long March 5 Yao-4 carrier rocket held up China's first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe, and ignited and lifted off at the Wenchang Cosmodrome in China. In March this year, the China National Space Administration released three high-definition Mars image maps taken by China's first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe, marking China's rapid development in the field of Mars exploration.
Recently, China also opened the first "Mars Base" in Qinghai Province. The geological structure there is very similar to the surface of Mars, and the unique topography makes it "the most Mars-like place on Earth" due to its similarity to the characteristics of martian landforms. The construction style of the base also simulates the living environment after the future human migration to Mars, the base can accommodate up to 60 people, and there are "headquarters buildings" and "Mars modules" built to make the experiencers have a sense of immersion.
summary
The journey of the earthlings is the sea of stars, when will humans be able to collect samples of Mars and send them back to earth for study? When will a Mars base be established on Mars, either short or long?' GmaeLook believes that maybe this day is not far away. Perhaps Musk's long-cherished wish to die on Mars in the future can also be successfully realized.