MARS 2400

© Z-software 2005

Introduction

Mars 2400 is an open-ended, little space game in the spirit of Elite.
Game is being written in in C++, SDL is used for graphics output, FMOD(tm) is used for game audio and TinyXML is used for XML-parsing.

Download Mars2400 Alpha 3.0.2
Read ReadMe.txt file for instructions how to play.

Mars 2400 news

13.03.2009

Switched the compiler from VC++ 6.0 to VC++ 2005. Had to to "several" fixes in the process. VC++ 6.0 really let's you get away with a lot :-)

09.03.2009

Working on special missions. First special mission type will be "cleaner mission". Player must clean a trade route from "space junk".

04.03.2009

Mars2400 alpha 3.0.2 released. Changes:
- added particle effects to ship and missile exhausts
- added scanner upgrade to shipyard items
- basic news system (not fully functional yet)

Real Life (tm) has taken much time recently, so I haven't had much time to work on Mars 2400. Well, that is life :-)

12.02.2009
Particle effects now ready for ship and missile exhausts.Added a screenshot of them in action.

11.02.2009
Coded a little Particle System. It will be used at least for ship and missile exhaust effects. Made alredy a test with Particle System attached to ships. Looks quite nice, some tuning yet to be done.

03.02.2009
Alpha 3.0.1 now released. Changes:
- fixed a crash bug which happened occasionally when AI ship killed other ship

02.02.2009
Alpha 3.0 now released. Changes:
- added ship buying / selling feature
- added owned ships list in status display
- fixed a few bugs (bulletinboard bug, illegal firing checking bug, some sound bugs)
You can switch between ships you own with BACKSPACE key.

29.01.2009
Had a few days break from developing the game..anyway I have done now some bugfixing and after I finish the new feature, new release is expected...

23.01.2009
Working on ship buying system. Added a screenshot of ship factory screen to screenshots section.

22.01.2009
I decided to release smaller "fix" version 2.1.2 now, before I finish the ship buying feature. Changes:
- Missions are also now saved
- Ships can be controlled while in solarmap (when entered via hotkey)
- credits are displayed in the bottom of computer display
- title song changed to s3m -format
- some bugfixes

19.01.2009
Next thing that will be included in the game is ship buying. So player will be able to buy a new ships and own multiple ships at the same time. Work for this has just begun and its quite lot of work. Maybe by the next weekend something is ready depending on whether I have enough time available for this.Well see...

18.01.2009
Mars 2400 Alpha 2.1.1 released.
-fixed ship shadows
-fixed missile updating bug that appeared to previous version. It caused the game to crash

16.01.2009
Mars 2400 Alpha 2.1 now released. Changes:
- Separated ship and station computer systems => dynamic station computers. Now e.g. ship yard items availability depends on station tech level.
- Added title screen music, "Liima" by Sami "s13ge" Salminen. Thanks Sami!
- Added couple of new delivery mission types
- fixed NPC ship "jerking" bug when docking
- ship sprites are now sorted before drawing according to the ship altitude. No more ships flying under a ship that is docked :)

14.01.2009
s13ge kindly allowed me to use his song as title screen music. So, in the next version there will be music in the title screen,oh yes :)
Currently I am working on to make the station computer system more dynamic. Now there are same services available in every station, but this is about to change...

12.01.2009
Alpha 2.0.2 is now available for download. Fixes to previous version:
- keyboard handling corrected
- corrected mission completing bug

09.01.2009
Alpha 2.0.1 is now available for download. Fixes to previous version:
- removed mouser cursor
- fuel display added to main screen
- fixed ship docking bug when saved game is continued

update: Due to limited bandwidth of this site, I uploaded the game to file-pasta:
Mars 2400 alpha 2.0.1

08.01.2009
Alpha 2 is now available for download. See download link above!

06.01.2009
Work progressing slow but steady :-) I hope to release new alpha version by the end of this week.

17.12.2008
-updated map with new tileset(512x512 image).
- pirate stations can not be set as waypoints

09.12.2008
- Pirate NPCs work now. Pirates are given credits of their killed victims. Pirate AI also improved. They are now able to head back to home when their status requires so.
- scanner displays the ship threat (green,yellow or red for pirates)
- ship fire rate is configured in config.xml
- added own shiptype for pirates
- added ship repairing option in shipyard menu

About NPC types in the game:
There are 3 types of NPC in the game. "Friendly", "Neutral" and "Pirate". Friendlys are basicly traders that does not have any weapons and cannot attack or defend themselves. "Neutral" types have weapons and they can defend themselves if attacked. However they do not attack without provocation. "Pirates", well they are pirates and get their living by attacking other ships.

04.12.2008
Done:
- basic NPC ship combat
- Pirate ships work started. added pirate station to map
- added hidden stations support
TODO:
- ship repairing in stations
- finish pirate ship AI

28.11.2008
Implemented ships and missile explosion animations. Also added sounds (currently missile launch and explosions) to game.Im using FMOD(tm) for the game audio. You'll also get fined if you start shooting too near to stations now :)
Missile starting position must be tweaked according to the ship orientation, now they launch in wrong position, but thats just details... ;)

26.11.2008
Weapon system work continues. Now missiles work and you can blast other ships away :-) I also implemented the target ship "health" display into tracking system, which shows the ship's healt being targeted. Still to do is the missile exploding animation as well as ship exploding animation.
Also, I have started to plan the station police system. I practice these are special ships that patrol in the vicinity of stations. So if you start firing recklessly near stations you may get blown away :-)

21.11.2008
Working with ship weapon systems. First weapon will be a missile (radar guided). Existing tracking system will be used for target tracking for missiles...

13.11.2008
Pages online again. Next to do if I ever have the time:
- Weapon system for the ships
In the meantime, here is an alpha demo version of Mars 2400 for download. Make sure you read the readme.txt file!

Mars2400 Alpha 1

15.12.2007
Continued the project after a long break. Added Meteor ore mining to the game. Ore Scoop added to ship yard items, can be bought for the ship. When fitted, player ship can mine ore from meteors found from the solar system.
11.01.2006

Game is progressing steadily. Basic mission system is now ready. Player can select jobs from station bulletin board.
Today I also tackled a long term problem with AI-controlled docking sequence. Ships tend to get stuck when they were docking, but thats cured now, I think. Im running an extensive test with 10 AI ships as I type this. So far 30 minutes of ships flying between stations without problems. Looks promising indeed.
I also implemented a "game-time" which was needed for the mission system. Time in the game elapses more quickly while flying and returns to normal pace when docked. This way I try to simulate the travelling times. The starting date in the Mars2400 is January 1., 2400, obviously :)

05.01.2006

Working on NPC AI. Ships now fly between stations, refueling and selecting a suitable target station when docked. Trading AI is not completed yet.
Made a Debugging feature where I can switch viewport between ships and monitor the object internal variables on-the-fly.

Art-wise the game is very poor currently, there are very few tiles for the graphics ready. I think I finish the art last when everything else is in place. The graphics is not the main thing in this type of game anyway.

03.01.2006

NPC AI work continues. I have to code a whole lot 'boring' support functions for AI routines first to keep actual AI code clean.

29.12.2005,part 2

- Rudimentary autopilot made,works adequately.
- NPC character work started. Now they are docked to stations' dockingbays, no other activity yet. Game Initialisation code cleaned in the process.

About NPCs
NPC's are treated just as human player by the engine. I.e. they are 'permanent' objects which have the same functionality as the human player has, only the functionality is controlled by AI-player routine. In practice this means e.g. that a SpaceShip object does not know whether it is controlled by human or NPC. Also the exactly same game rules/logic apply to human player and NPCs.
In another words this means that there will be no randomly appearing and disappearing enemy ships in this game!

A Little about initialisation of the game data:
I'm using XML to describe stations, ships and NPC characters and their attributes. This is very flexible and TinyXML parser works just great for this particular purpose.

29.12.2005

Ships attributes now in use (fuel consumption, max. fuel, fuel capacity,speed,...).
Ships can be now refuelled and repaired in stations.

23.12.2005

worked on the map-editor's “world display”. It displays whole solar-system in miniature size for easier navigation between stations when editing.

Made 2 new stations, including the EA-5.

Next to do: AI-ship routines, more intelligent trading algorithm.

22.12.2005

I finally got around making a dedicated pages for Mars2400. I will add details of the game and related things as the development progresses. Background -page contains now an initial draft of game background “story”. Comments / suggestions are welcome.

CURRENT TODO NEXT LIST

STATIONS

- bulletin board

- more stations

GENERAL

- ship equipment / weapon system

- other ships controlled by computer “AI”