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[inteuniso]

For those who don't know, NASA is funding Project Whitecard Studios to make a space exploration and extraterrestrial colonization game. The first part of the game will take place on the Arthur C. Clarke Academy, a giant space station orbiting Earth.

The game, however, will continue onto the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and possibly even further. You will build robots, start and maintain colonies, fly spaceships, run EVA missions, and more. Basically, it's Astronauts. IN SPACE!

EDIT: They do need funding, and the Government has pledged they will match all private funding, with an additional 500k investment. So basically, bumping it to a minor studio game. Donate on Kickstarter now!

[Comp112]

Oh, looking forward to this, sounds very fun.

[Tilla]

I've been digging the concept art, especially the workhorse of the trainee astronauts, the Bumblebee transport. I love that it's all so based on technology we could have in a few years easily enough.

[warhammer651]

Question: how accurate will the physics be?

Will there be combat with other players?


How long before players exploit physics to MAKE combat?

[inteuniso]

I don't know how accurate physics will be, but I DO know they are modeling movement on simulated conditions of mars, the moon, etc.

I also know that there will be zero-g ball, which should be fun.

[Aqizzar]

...where you will uncover the secrets about a threat to civilization as we know it.

Ah, so there is a goal, besides repairing solar panels and playing jumprope with power cables.  I'm a little surprised they felt the need to sexy up space travel with a sci-fi plot about a War of the Worlds, but it does make sense for the 99% of potential players who don't care about finding new kinds of rocks, let alone the school children it's more or less intended for.

[Fayrik]

So, this is what... NASA's 3rd or 5th game?

Will there be combat with other players?


How long before players exploit physics to MAKE combat?

...
Why does there need to be combat? Moonbase Alpha didn't have any combat, and it was pretty good. Infact, in the situation, I don't see combat working at all.

[Nistenf]

Orbiter doesn't have any combat and is amazing

[thobal]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Threat is asteroid/comet

[inteuniso]

...where you will uncover the secrets about a threat to civilization as we know it.

Ah, so there is a goal, besides repairing solar panels and playing jumprope with power cables.  I'm a little surprised they felt the need to sexy up space travel with a sci-fi plot about a War of the Worlds, but it does make sense for the 99% of potential players who don't care about finding new kinds of rocks, let alone the school children it's more or less intended for.

well, it might not be War of the Worlds, keep in mind, threat to civilization could be A) Giant Meteor on trajectory with Earth B ) Ancient Alien Technology set to call Alien race, wipe out Earth, C) Something that might cause a supernova on the sun. Here's a summary of the story:

Spoiler: Really Long Explanation of a possible story (click to show/hide)

Johanna Sparling, a Typical Player
Quote
In the prologue to the story we see:
•   a group of astronauts on a very dangerous mission; they are launching on a mission to the far side of the Asteroid Belt, a followup to a discovery during the NASA Dawn mission of 2015. A further discovery in 2019 has made this urgent.
•   several key figures, including one of the Professors: Thadeus.

"There has been an unexpected collision to the asteroid belt, and the static-filled messages of deep space tells the story - chaos!

We learn that a certain young professor, Thadeus, is about to lead a group of volunteer astronaut scientists. The Academy is an unfinished shell of what it will become, but holds one large untested ship a sort of plasma-nuclear hybrid - that needs 2 more years of testing!

During the mission, a fragment spills the craft while the Astronauts are laying charges calculated to protect earth and stop the swarm from creating a gravitic keyhole.

Thadeus must make a decision. He has valuable data on the keyhole "shape", but the earth communications systems are down. The energy on the ship is draining to the point he won't have enough to ignite the fission engines (yes a scary design) _AND_ save the Astronauts - out there in the belt far from the ship.

 So he ignites - leaving them there.. You can hear the screams and “No!s” as he pilots the craft into the night. Thadeus is expressionless.”

(As the character of Thadeus is revealed further throughout the game,  Edited Wink
.

Reveal: it is for this reason that the players  Edited
"

Orphan Cycle - ' A Heroine is Born'
Alone on Earth, an Intelligent Student, But Very Bored with Her Options

Johanna begins in her home town, which is “remote:” about 150 miles from the town the player has placed on their real-life profile(s).
•   She is raising herself with unseen guardians.
•   She is the best student in her class. She is about 14 years old.
•   She receives mysterious packages in the mail that act as the first missions for the player.
•   NB. Each player is able to generate an avatar of themselves to play in the game, using real photos of themselves.

“At the end of the school year, Johanna starts receiving packages in the mail.
Johanna's life is far from perfect. She is an orphan, and grown up in the family home with minimal supervision. She has been told that on her 18th birthday, she must move.

We see that Johanna's town is just a sleepy one, deserted and abandoned. She lives on a farm - bills have been taken care of for years but she starts receiving interesting mail and packages. They are simply signed "T." Now no one of her friends has an admirer (or cantankeror) like this; very soon the old farmhouse is 'filled with telescopes, rocket engines and all matter of experiments (Johanna's foster parent puts up with it).

One day a surprising "snail mail" arrives - she has been preselected to attend an orientation at the Arthur C. Clarke Academy. It's a test. Looking at the lines - she realizes she knows the answers – science and history from Gagarin to Armstrong to Cassini to Pathfinder, the science of the stars, the earth, propulsion basics, and engineering all  because of the junk in her yard!

She completes the quiz right there on the smart paper and immediately,  she is asked to attend an orientation on the Astronaut Academy's Space Station, if she can complete her last task. Using parts that arrive from the Academy, which are very special, - she must complete her first Edited
, and fly to her rendezvous at the Arthur C. Clarke Academy Space Station - big reveal, wondrous flight."

Wanderer Cycle - 'Who am I?'
The Mysterious Invitation to the Arthur C. Clarke Academy

Having left home, Johanna spends time on and off the station in a variety of adventures, sanctioned and unsanctioned.
•   It's the Hogwarts of space, but also based on the ISS!
•   She realizes she is missing a key from her past (2020), that of her parents' disappearance.
•   Johanna  [whose player is 14] chooses “Turing” or computer technology (of a choice of Goddard, Turing, or Hawking. Goddard, Turing, or Hawking clans represent the 3 technology trees, levels of difficulty, and main competing bodies in the game. There is one more clan, unknown to the player at the start, which is comprised of rogue Space Rangers (or Raiders!).
•   Johanna lives in one "ring" of the space station with her team (up to 32 players may visit one ring at one time in a Wi-Fi zone).
•   The space station is comprised of many, many rings, and  Johanna will visit many of them, and she becomes a sports star in the fabled "G-Ball" spherical arena.
•   The space station and the Mars flavor of the Academy have a wonderful library (of course) containing immense virtual depictions of the solar system.
•   As the game progresses, tasks on the Station could get boring (Sure it's fun the first time you fly in orbit, and remove debris with your personal "Orbital Bee" but not forever), so the game switches gears.
•   Johanna discovers the heretofore unseen Edited
quite by accident,
•   Johanna  decides they should "Hang out" near the Edited
, and through Edited
, she makes a decision to Race to Mars. This means assembling a ship by discovering, building and winning components from the Astronaut Academy.
•   Outposts are remote enough that Johanna's team feels they are first to arrive on Mars!
•   Visitors can drop in virtually through a holo-phone, as avatars of avatars of demo users of the game (important).
•   Thadeus is but one character. We also have Commander Blaine (a Edited
, real professors and NASA Subject Matter Experts (as avatars!); famous scientists of our age playing themselves populate the station, as do public visitors! (FUN)

 “Johanna is discouraged by Thadeus very curtly. As she does him a favor and gets a top ranking on several missions, such as a solar power satellite mission, she is then assigned to be a debris collector, because she can handle the space 'Orbital Bee' so well. Fixing the bots and achieving the science needed to ablate debris, she sees that she has been accepted to Debris Division for an indefinite term  (the mission roster closes up); she has no choice but to explore the station inside and outside (out of a bit of boredom).  Edited
. Johanna reprograms the space robots to do most of the tasks, but she picks  up new adventures at Edited
.

Here she may meet more  players who may  join her team.  Meeting new contacts and establishing a friends network and a new quarters, Johanna closes in on a Mars plan: assembly of a ship,  and planning an escape of sorts  from the Academy for a next set of missions around Edited
.

Warrior Cycle - 'Hard Competition'
The Wonderful Flight to Edited


•   A Race to Edited
by Players who have advanced to the Science Node and have enough chops to design a mission (and permissions through in-game “accreditation”).
•   Teams establish outposts and are first-generation solar system explorers.
•   Many exciting missions occur: caves, canyons, flight and terra-forming experiments abound.

“Johanna becomes an amazing Astronaut, one of the first to visit Mars (on the first team). She is still young, but brave, and well-informed, having completed most of the missions in the game, including rover exploration, robotics assembly, and traveling adventures. She has managed her own deep-space probe mission to look at Jupiter's moon, Europa for example. She faces challenges on the supply line (Edited
again!), An outpost is set up on  Edited
, and Johanna  completes more missions on her own, some with her outpost team . Suddenly, an important announcement comes over the  “comm.” channels. Edited

Martyr Cycle - 'For all Mankind'
Edited...

[Leonon]

Space? Space! SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!

But seriously, space is awesome.

[x2yzh9]

[/url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ivYd2NDRvc]Space? Space! SPAAAAAAAAAAACE![/url]

AstroNyan

[Jay]

C) Something that might cause a supernova on the sun. Here's a summary of the story:

That would be one incredible something, considering that the Sun is nowhere CLOSE to the pre-requisite sort of star for a supernova.

Am I the only one that is tired of that cliché?

[Fayrik]

Am I the only one that is tired of that cliché?

Certainly not. In fact, there are so many things I'm tired of, the only way I could really get interested in this is if it places realism above every thing else.

What's bugging me though, is...

The game, however, will continue onto the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and possibly even further. You will build robots, start and maintain colonies, fly spaceships, run EVA missions, and more. Basically, it's Astronauts. IN SPACE!

Are NASA really expecting their average player to be able to grasp things like Hohmann Transfer?
And, what about the 2(?) weeks it takes to get to the moon? Or even the 6 months it takes to get to Mars?
Will they speed up time for that transition or will they just skip it all together?
Interested to see how the EVA stuff works, but they've already made a game for that.

[kulik]

I want ss13 remake so badly.