Your future is a laughing matter

Your future is a laughing matter

"With his comedic dystopian future history populated by hapless reluctant heroes and lovesick artificial intelligences, Nick takes a big step toward becoming the American Douglas Adams"

Bill Prady, Co-Creator, The Big Bang Theory TV Show 

New National Space Plan Inspiring kids?

The new Administration's direction in space is not as inspiring as the last Administration. Any ideas on inspiring the next generation of space explorers?

MoonBaseOne Version 4 posted

I've uploaded the version of MoonBaseOne that we've been using for the past year within Galaxy Explorers here. This isn't in a .msi file, meaning that it's not as easy to install within Windows (sorry, I no longer have the computer set up to make those installers).

This has:
- Astronauts in new, cooler uniforms
- More missions and tasks to do
- Different story line options
- Better Terrain
- A lot of small tweaks

Notice that when you run it, it'll upload your score to an online server.

This hasn't been fully tested. Hopefully, we can hand it to a new vlunteer to fully test and build into an install file.

Source code to make your own "Lunar Academy"

I've released the source code for making your own quizes using Torque. This is Creative Commons, meaning that anyone can use it without required payment. I've posted a zip file with instructions on how to add it to your game here.

MoonBaseOne 3.0b Posted

A new version of MoonBaseOne has been posted that incorporates work from our summer interns as well as a few new missions and a new game type! Please help us debug it by downloading it and posting comments with feedback.

Current bugs:
- Conversations seem to be crashing
- The astronaut needs a new uniform, possibly all white

Wikipedia site created

We have a new Wikipedia page! Feel free to add to it, update trivia or details, or link to your profiles.

Our last step is to complete all Copyright transfer documents to give FOGE full rights to distribute.

Great job everyone! Excellent effort, and it was great working with you all.

Latest release

Added a few more updates:
- Derek's new voice files added
- Added a scoreboard that remembers the top 10 scores
- Two different games - one where you can play for double the points, but your clock doesn't stop when you're in the base
- Bots tell you info about how they are configured
- Removed the Chat HUD console, repositioned score
- Added more commands to Bots (Follow me, Mine here, go home)
- Added conversation file for Hammond, so he'll trade resources with you
- Added ammo boxes with advanced mining bits to increase mining yield

Updated video with Credits

Here is a slightly newer video with Dr J's and Derek's name in the credits. Thanks everyone for your hard work and excellent teamwork. It's so rewarding finally having a delivered product.

Updates to add pizzaz

We've already got a few updates ready to add into Release Candidate 2 (UPDATE: Just Posted).

These are:
- Added a scoring system!
- 30 lessons within the Lunar Academy (thank's Dr. J!)
- Increased sound volume for Derek's sound files (Thanks Derek!)
- New Lunar Academy Screen that looks much nicer
- Fixed some of the animation snaffus when mining
- Fixed a problem with the commander talking about the scientist
- Fixed some of the Supply comments

Anything else to get in before it's loaded on the terminals next week?

I'm going to try to add:
- Conversation files for Engineer Hammond in the Garage
- Stop the stutter-walking after mining
- Limit the number of upgrades you can give to any single bot (otherwise, one bot can drill 100s of minerals at once)
- Add a credits screen to give us all credit for the great work done

MoonBaseOne - Release Candidate 1 posted!

It's here and ready for serious user testing!

MoonBaseOne is ready to go!

All final systems have been added, so it's ready to play. I'll be doing testing, balancing, and tweaking over the next week, but it's ready to play now.

I'd love any feedback you all could send! What can be fixed or improved?

More things to tweak over the next few days. None of these are critical, but will add some oompf to the game:
- Add some more dialog from Dr. J's script
- Add some interaction for Hammond out in the Garage
- Add 15 more lessons
- Fix the sound files to play in the foreground audio

Great progress on Version 2.06

We're almost complete for Phase 1 of Moon Base One!

I'll post an updated version at the end of the day. So far, we've got every major system in, tested, and working. The only piece that's left to finish is the "Lunar Academy" computer teaching system for people to take lessons and get rewards from.

The Major fixes so far are:
- Fixed random crashes! (at least, all that I've been able to replicate)
- Supply purchasing system added
- All new conversation system added (it looks great!)
- Item upgrades can be purchased and applied to bots
- All new buildings fully added
- Missions give you the jetpack and mining gun... so you have to earn them
- You can no longer use jetpack inside base

Version 2.05 Posted

We're planning one more update this weekend to add the computer lessons and store purchasing GUI, as well as fix some moving AI and apply item upgrades to the robots. Newly converted sound files will be in that, as well.

There is a temporary upgrade (that hopefully fixes all crashes) posted now. It also has Andre's new amazing base layouts. Great stuff!

Version 2.04 posted

Large coding update!

The purchasing system has been completed. There are now 15 objects within the game that can either be purchased or earned by completing classes. Each object is found at a certain location (Supply, Garage, Computer).


There's a new way to purchase robots. Once you have enough materials, you go ask the supply officer. You can also by upgrades to your mining gun as well as to your carrying pack. The supply officer can also fix the broken robot out front if you have enough minerals.

We have audio cues being played to tell the players what to do... the volume is just really really low, so we'll increase that for the next update.

Video Mashup

Check out the new MBO Video!

Version 2.03 posted!

It's been a long time since we've posted an update... to summarize the reasons why 2.03 took awhile:
-Updated to Vista
-Reverted to XP
-Formatted wrong Harddrive (Doh!)
-Audio files not working
-Fixed it all again... better and stronger than the original..

LOTS of changes in this version:

• Forcefield around mission bounds
• Less minerals
  
• Better message popups to players
• More arcade like - 10 minutes to play
• Purchasing system finalized
• Mission eventing and timer system finalized
• Sound system entered (just need final sounds. :) )

MoonBaseOne Video

We've put together a short 2 minute video highlighting the game and some of the things you can do inside it. Check out the flash version (90mb), the full version (480mb), or watch it on YouTube below.

We're currently working on version 4.03, which will have a countdown timer to run through the game and get enough minerals in 10 minutes.

Version 2.0 posted

Version 2.0 of the game is up! This has NPCs with actions on them (they're still rudimentary), a new terrain, and Andre's new buildings. Lots more coming soon, so stay tuned!

Attack of the Bots!

A huge robot update has been posted in the latest release. Over 30 new features to really expand the robot system is in the new version 1.99. To really test out the changes, load the second "Empty Moon Testing" mission in the game loader.


New Robot features and Attributes:
- Hopper size - once the hopper is full of minerals, it tries to make a canister and drops them on the ground.
-- Once canisters have run out, it will run back to base to drop minerals off (if you buy a homing beacon)
-- You can add an attachment to the bot so that canisters it drops has lights to make them easier to find
-- You can give the bot more canisters by touching it, or drop all the minerals you are carrying by pressing 'L'
- Bots have different movement speed, size, color, and intelligence levels
- Bots can have better drilling bits, which dig faster and allow for more minerals to be recovered
- Bots can have have a microscopic imager to increase chances of finding minerals
- The more intelligent a bot, the better it is at finding new ground to mine on
- Bots can have an ad-hoc Network device, which lets them share bad mining spots with other bots
- Bots can have a Mineral Surveying Device which helps them always find good mineral spots

MBO Version 1.95

Version 1.95 posted to the link on the right!

Updates in this post:
- Robots have a number of statistics - intelligence, movement speed, carrying capacity, size
- Robots move around when there are no minerals available!
- Robots hold the minerals they find, you have to walk up to them to pick them up
- NPCs have proper animations, and react to players
- NPCs can have missions, and sell things to players
- New mining drill added

Still hoping to post Version 2 by Sunday.

MBO Version 1.9 is posted!

Version 1.9 is posted!

This version has:
- Andre's new Moon Base
- Enhanced Mining Bot functionality, sizes, and skins
- Testing mission for talking to NPCs
- Enhanced digging effects and sounds
- NPC characters within the base
- Sliding doors on the base

Please let me know any feedback, or suggestions for improvements!