Occupy Mars: The Game News

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]

The European Rover Challenge is an international space & robotics event combining competition of Martian rovers with scientific and technological shows. The main part of the project is an international robotics competition, where academic teams from around the world present their mobile robot designs, competing in competitions based on real ESA and NASA missions. The competition takes place on the world’s largest artificial Martian track, that is directly derived from the surface of the Red Planet.



As we are very passionate about space & science, we were helping to organize this event for the last 4 years. Previously we were co-organizing the digital version of the competition called "Rover Mechanic Challenge" in special tournament version of our game Rover Mechanic Simulator.

This year we are an Official Partner and one of the Reward Sponsors of the event! On this occasion we are doing a special 3 Day Stream on Steam, Twitch and Youtube where we will play Occupy Mars Beta, and show highlights from ERC and interesting videos from the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Watch the ERC Streams here: https://roverchallenge.eu/en/erc2022-livestream/
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

- Official ERC Stream Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68MYYI5Qi30
- Official ERC Stream Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY9Fi0Ng99g
- Official ERC Stream Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAtWppoPWUw
- ERC + Occupy Mars 3 DayStream Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/pyramid_games
- ERC + Occupy Mars 3 DayStream YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjEcOEXZLc

Occupy Mars Early Access is coming soon and over 2000 players are already playing the Beta helping us improve it before official release (more keys were sent today). If you didn't receive your beta yet but you are excited about Mars Rovers as much as we are then remember that you can play our previous game Rover Mechanic Simulator right now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/864680/Rover_Mechanic_Simulator/

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]

[h3]We’re back from Gamescom![/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Big thank you to the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development for their assistance and support and for providing us a chance to show Occupy Mars: The Game at this great gaming event!



Our booth had a lot of visitors, who gave us a lot of valuable feedback. Of course, we receive plenty of feedback on a daily basis from our Beta playtesters and we’re very grateful for that. However, during Gamescom, we could meet our players live and see all their reactions and feelings that accompanied them during their playthrough. What we learned will help us greatly to prepare the game for its Early Access release.

Gamescom was also – or above all – a meeting for hundreds of gamedev companies. We’ve met a lot of great people and established contact with companies from various countries. Who knows? Maybe some of these friendships will create opportunities for Occupy Mars: The Game to reach even more people in the near future!

Our team members made sure to bring everything they’ve experienced back to Poland. What is left to apply all this experience to practice!



Gamescom is not everything we have to tell you about, though!

[h3]We also bring Beta-related news![/h3]

Let us start with the information that more people who registered for Beta have received access to the playtest version of the game! If you’re one of those people, an email should arrive at the email address associated with your Steam account and you should be able to access the game through your Steam library.

There are various ways to send us your feedback:
A separate Sub-Forum on Steam called Beta Discussions was created for those who have access: LINK
After playing please also remember to fill out our Beta Survey: LINK
If you’d like to hang out with other players outside of Steam forums, we have dedicated channels on our Discord server as well: LINK



Secondly, Beta Patch v0.87.2 is now LIVE!
A lot of fixes come with this patch. You can find the full changelog below.

[h3]CHANGELOG Beta v0.87[/h3]

Features:
- Added Storage Case - now you can build it inside your base for additional storage space
- Added Radio - It's one part of a two-part feature. Now you are able to add music into OccupyMars_Data\StreamingAssets\Music and play it instead of default music. Later we will add a possibility to place the radio inside your base, and play music at some distance from it.
- Added additional loot inside Abandoned Bases
- Reworked panels in Hangar
- Added minable rocks in Olympus Caves
- Added new animations to sleeping.
- Added emergency lights while your base building has low durability
- Added the possibility to hold all items in hands.
- Improved plants models

Bugfixes:
- explosions on Spotty robot and Jetpack now work properly
- explosions now properly deal damage to abandoned buildings
- Small Solar Panels now should properly rotate towards the sun.
- fixed text information while refilling suit in well
- fixed bugs related to the panel in Hangar
- rover drill now should be properly unlocked using techtree
- add support for more animations (mainly doors, drawers, and Irises)
- fixed problem with main menu panels not showing after exiting tutorials
- fixed problem with sleeping hours showing more than 24 hours.
- fixed problem when sometimes tourist mode not having all items
- fixed problem when sometimes unplugging cable was blocked
- fixed problems with finishing electricity, greenhouse, and tools tutorials
- fixed problems with color selection in the main menu profile section
- a fixed problem that occurs while combining items with 0 durability
- fixed problem with spamming achievements
- fixed problem with opening crates and waste tank
- fixed problems with main menu navigation using the gamepad
- fixed problems with destroyed buildings without texture
- changed visibility of withering plants
- fixed problem with a spamming log while enabling
- fixed inability to pick up and move plants by hand
- fixed player movement speed while crouching
- You will no longer need to crouch to enter airlocks in some destroyed bases
- fixed problem with unnaturally head rotation while pressing the middle mouse button
- fixed stucking items in the air while taking them out from Hotbar
- changed spectral detector lvl2/lvl3 range
- fixed UI problems in UI save/load panel
- fixed tools upgrading
- fixed holes in Olympus Mount
- fixed low resolution icon textures on low settings
- fixed problem with rover driving normally on low battery


[h2]Stream[/h2]

We’re having a stream at 5 PM CEST today on our Twitch channel. If you haven’t received access to the Beta version yet and you’d like to see the current state of the game, feel invited to join us! Our team members Lukas and Conrad can’t wait to tell you all about their time at Gamescom, but of course, there will be plenty of time for Mars exploration as well!



[h2]About development progress[/h2]

As the end note, we’d like to show you what our team has been working on – aside from fixes prepared for Beta Patch v0.87 of course. :) New vehicles! These aren’t features present in the current Beta version, but they’re likely to appear at a later time.





Do you like them? It’s an interesting alternative to usual trips in a Heavy Rover, but you also have to keep in mind that neither Quad nor Truck are as well equipped for emergencies. No sleeping through a sudden sandstorm if it hits you on the way home. ;)

We hope you’ll be able to join us – be it on Beta forums or during our stream. We’re looking forward to our meeting!

We know it’s a long ride, but we truly believe that Occupy Mars: The Game is on a good way to its Early Access release and we can’t wait to arrive at the finish line.



Stay tuned for upcoming updates!

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

Today is the last day of the Survival Festival. Now that more players have tried out Occupy Mars: Beta and Prologue, let’s talk about development progress of the upcoming Early Access release! We’d like to show you a few things we’ve been working on.

[h2]Updated UI[/h2]
We mentioned a few times in the past that we were reworking the UI, adding new interfaces for many new features that weren’t in the game before and polishing the existing ones. In the previous devlog and during our streams, you could see the new Sleeping panel. This time, we’d like to show you:

[h3]New Messages Panel[/h3]


[h3]New Inventory[/h3]


And last but not least, menu of one of the more complex features in the game…
[h3]Tech Tree – work in progress[/h3]


[h2]More options and customization[/h2]
Now, you have even more options to adjust the game to your needs! To be more specific, there are many more options visible in the Graphics section right off the bat. Some of those could be accessed in the main Quality tab, but now they are split into more visible individual settings.

Here is what you’ll be able to set:



Let us tell you about the "Always render environment" option. Terrain rendering allows you to decide whether you’d like to have the terrain visible from inside your buildings or not. It mostly affects the buildings with windows – if the option is checked, you will see the view outside your window. If the option is not checked, scenery outside will be replaced with simulation – not necessarily accurate to your surroundings, but believable enough to not bother you much.

It’s a very useful feature optimization-wise as it allows you to reduce GPU’s usage and make the game run smoothly if you experience lag in the game. Losing that nice view from your window is a minor loss in comparison. :)

There were also some issues related to saving on specific devices – we have changed the way the game is saved and hopefully, that will solve those issues.

Time (and testing) will tell!

[h2]Mechanic improvements[/h2]
We continuously improve existing game mechanics. The controls of Seed Tool and the Air Pressure Tool have been slightly changed. After taking out the tool, you can now press Up and Down arrow keys to choose the magazine you want. Menu to the right gives you an overview of seeds you have.



We’ve been further improving mechanic of drilling and rock mining. Rock analysis with the upgraded Spectral Detector on 2nd and 3rd level has also been vastly improved.



We have also made changes to temperatures and adjusted damage player receives due to low temperature. In the past, player was receiving set amount of damage throughout time frame of 5 PM and 6 AM. Now, damage received is proportional to temperature. Time no longer matters. At -40 Celsius degree player starts receiving damage. The lower the temperature (usually at night but not necessarily), the higher the damage.

Another useful feature is a list that you can keep on your screen to help you keep track of materials you need for building. All you need to do is to go to Tablet menu, choose a building from a list of building and click on in with right mouse button. A list will appear to your left which will remain there even after leaving the tablet menu.



[h2]Quality of life improvements[/h2]
Alongside all of this, we have made some quality of life improvements – not as spectacular, minor additions and some readjustments, but with everything else, they should improve the gameplay experience. Mouse sensitivity has been corrected, as well as camera movement during sleeping animation. Full controller support has been included in the Main Menu. Moreover, during tutorial missions, you can view the gamepad controls. When choosing your landing location on Mars globe, you can manually rotate the globe.



[h2]Some music to soothe the soul[/h2]
We’re working on a certain feature which will allow you to listen to your own music in-game – a radio! It’s still a work in progress and a subject to change, but here is overview of how it works for now:

Before launching the game, just add your favourite songs to an appropriate folder. They will all appear in a menu on the Tablet, from where you can arrange them into playlists.



Once you’re done, all that’s left is to build a radio and place it in your preferred place. Music will play automatically whenever you’re in the radio’s range and if you’d like to stop the music, just click on the radio. You can destroy it and thus move it to your Inventory if you’d like to change its location later. All your playlists are saved, so you can come back to them anytime.



All these improvements are developed alongside fixes for the Beta version. Even more content is coming as a lot of these new features are work in progress. We have yet to tell you about the rocket launcher, but that’s a story for another devlog as we’re still working on it. :)

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]



[h3]Steam Survival Festival is just around the corner![/h3]
Occupy Mars: The Game will be featured among many other wonderful survival games. If you’re a fan of survival games, this is not an event to miss!

[h3]About the game[/h3]
Occupy Mars: The Game is a highly technical, open-world sandbox game set on Mars. Your task is to build and upgrade your base, discover new regions, conduct mining operations, retrieve water, generate oxygen, grow crops, and fix broken parts – all in order to survive.

A free Prologue version – Occupy Mars: Prologue (2020) – is currently available on Steam, while the full Occupy Mars: The Game is currently undergoing Beta Playtests while we're preparing the game for its Early Access release.

[h3]Note for all players who signed up for Beta playtests[/h3]

Next batch of Beta keys will be sent out to players in the next couple of hours! Make sure to take a look at your email inbox if you signed up for the Beta! :)

Moreover, we’re working on a new devlog which will give you a fresh insight into the current state of the game. We hope to have it ready for you in the next few days!

Stay tuned and see you soon!
Occupy Mars Team

[h2]Hello, Martians![/h2]

We have a bunch of good news for You. After releasing more than a thousand of keys almost two weeks ago and collecting feedback from hundreds of players we are moving to the next stage of beta tests.

[h3]New Beta Update released - version 0.83.3 is live.[/h3]

We have fixed most urgent bugs and added several features players wanted to the beta version.
There are changes that made it to this version.

New features:
- Added possibility of resetting rover. The base keybind is “R”, you can change it in the controls settings.
- Added possibility to pin on UI resources needed for building, all you need to do is right-click on the building in the Building menu. And required resources should show on the right of the screen.
- Added possibility to unlock Sabatier Reactor using techtree.
- Added new screens after finishing tutorials, so the player is able to choose next tutorial without going back to the main menu.
- Added the possibility of drinking alcohol (since you can't create it on your own in beta we left some for you in the rover while starting new game).

Bug Fixes:
- fixed some problems that were blocking the possibility of saving the game
- rover now should properly take damage
- fixed problem with unlocking new rover crane ending
- fixed problem with disappearing transformer upgrade sockets
- fixed problem (at least most of it) of rover losing power
- fixed problem with invisible pickable items in player hands.
- fixed problems with some building sounds playing regardless of distance to the player
- flashlight now won’t turn off while managing building fuses
- boxes in destroyed bases should now properly open
- fixed problems with loading bigger rocks
- fixed problem with bug reporting tool (but it needs also web configuration update so it may take several extra hours)
- fixed possible problem with crashes on some setups.

[h3]More beta invites[/h3]

With new features and many bugs fixed - we're releasing game to more beta testers. A few hundreds more keys has just been sent to randomly chosen players who had signed to beta tests before. We hope you you'll enyoy the game and we're waiting for your feedback.

[h3]Sharing your feedback[/h3]

A separate Sub-Forum on Steam called Beta Discussions was created for those who have access: LINK.
After playing please also remember to fill our Beta Survey: LINK after playing the Beta.

If you’d like to hang out with other players outside of Steam forums, we have dedicated channels on our Discord server!



Stay tuned for upcoming updates!

Best Regards,
Occupy Mars Team