I have been running version 2.7 since it was released (yay win2k!) and unfortunately need to shut it down, as it is my impression that Baldur's Gate 2 is going to need as much of my system as I can give it. However, I don't think I will learn anything more by leaving it running longer. Here are my comments:
1.) Great job in terms of stability! I just checked and this version was released on 9/8, and I have been running it continously since 9/8 or 9/9.
2.) Eventually, everything runs out of fuel, but the rovers keep on roving.
3.) Nobody eats the food, it never rots, and the bases seem to have infinite space to store it. My bases have between 12000 and 16000 food in storage.
4.) The vehicle mechanic skill seems to advance more quickly than driving, which advances more quickly than greenhouse farming. (An example from one of my people is 13:10:8, respectively.)
5.) The rovers seem to have an unlimited lifetime range (mine are all over 2 million km). However, they seem to break down more and more frequently as time goes on (which makes sense). Perhaps rovers could be replaced occasionally?
I would guess that these comments are not unexpected, and generally reflect things that are already under consideration, but they can't hurt.
Anyway, keep up the good work, you've got at least one loyal user! :-)
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hydranos, thanks for the comments and sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this.
I think you may have the record for running the simulation the longest. ;-) I usually only run it over night at most to test things when I'm working on it. The long term results seem to be about what I would expect.
1. Cool. Hopefully the rovers aren't getting stuck anymore, anyway.
2. Resource production/consumption is not fully implemented just yet. Fuel isn't currently generated at the settlements, so the rovers eventually just run out of fuel. They don't stop when they run out, though, so they should just keep going.
3. Food is produced, but not consumed by people so it just keeps adding up in settlement storage.
4. This skill ratio makes sense in light of issue #5. More older vehicle breakdowns mean more mechanic experience and higher skill levels.
5. Vehicle age (in terms of total km traveled) is a small factor in mechanical failure rate. It gets worse over long periods of time, of course.
I'm thinking of adding some kind of insitu resource processor at settlements that generates oxygen, water and fuel (methane) at a certain rate from the Martian atmosphere. This should help keep the rovers fueled.
We can also add the consumption of food, water and oxygen by people. Rovers could carry a certain amount of those resources in addition to fuel. However, I don't want people dying on me just yet so when people run out of food, water or oxygen, they'll just do without for now.
The resource units don't have exact amounts just yet. I want to see how things balance out before getting to that level of detail.
Did you get a chance to modify the configuration files yet? They're "people.conf", "rovers.conf" and "settlements.conf". You can change the names and numbers of units with it. We'll be doing more with the configuration files later.
You might want to join the mars-sim-developers@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list to keep up with the latest developments with the project. You can also read the archives at: http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/SourceForge/3389/0/
I have been running version 2.7 since it was released (yay win2k!) and unfortunately need to shut it down, as it is my impression that Baldur's Gate 2 is going to need as much of my system as I can give it. However, I don't think I will learn anything more by leaving it running longer. Here are my comments:
1.) Great job in terms of stability! I just checked and this version was released on 9/8, and I have been running it continously since 9/8 or 9/9.
2.) Eventually, everything runs out of fuel, but the rovers keep on roving.
3.) Nobody eats the food, it never rots, and the bases seem to have infinite space to store it. My bases have between 12000 and 16000 food in storage.
4.) The vehicle mechanic skill seems to advance more quickly than driving, which advances more quickly than greenhouse farming. (An example from one of my people is 13:10:8, respectively.)
5.) The rovers seem to have an unlimited lifetime range (mine are all over 2 million km). However, they seem to break down more and more frequently as time goes on (which makes sense). Perhaps rovers could be replaced occasionally?
I would guess that these comments are not unexpected, and generally reflect things that are already under consideration, but they can't hurt.
Anyway, keep up the good work, you've got at least one loyal user! :-)
hydranos, thanks for the comments and sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this.
I think you may have the record for running the simulation the longest. ;-) I usually only run it over night at most to test things when I'm working on it. The long term results seem to be about what I would expect.
1. Cool. Hopefully the rovers aren't getting stuck anymore, anyway.
2. Resource production/consumption is not fully implemented just yet. Fuel isn't currently generated at the settlements, so the rovers eventually just run out of fuel. They don't stop when they run out, though, so they should just keep going.
3. Food is produced, but not consumed by people so it just keeps adding up in settlement storage.
4. This skill ratio makes sense in light of issue #5. More older vehicle breakdowns mean more mechanic experience and higher skill levels.
5. Vehicle age (in terms of total km traveled) is a small factor in mechanical failure rate. It gets worse over long periods of time, of course.
I'm thinking of adding some kind of insitu resource processor at settlements that generates oxygen, water and fuel (methane) at a certain rate from the Martian atmosphere. This should help keep the rovers fueled.
We can also add the consumption of food, water and oxygen by people. Rovers could carry a certain amount of those resources in addition to fuel. However, I don't want people dying on me just yet so when people run out of food, water or oxygen, they'll just do without for now.
The resource units don't have exact amounts just yet. I want to see how things balance out before getting to that level of detail.
Did you get a chance to modify the configuration files yet? They're "people.conf", "rovers.conf" and "settlements.conf". You can change the names and numbers of units with it. We'll be doing more with the configuration files later.
You might want to join the mars-sim-developers@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list to keep up with the latest developments with the project. You can also read the archives at: http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/SourceForge/3389/0/
Scott Davis
Project Administrator
Mars Simulation Project
http://mars-sim.sourceforge.net
scud1@users.sourceforge.net