https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/
Hi Everyone!

We’re back with another dev diary for Green Planet. Today's topic is disasters, how to avoid them and how to cause them. We'll be discussing the new Special Projects in more detail, as well.

In Green Planet the climate gradually changes as you improve the atmosphere, temperature, and water levels of Mars. The raising global temperatures make the cold waves shorter and less likely to occur, the denser atmosphere burns more meteors before they hit the ground. Eventually, the once severe disasters become a thing of the past, but other ones arise.



In Green Planet your actions have global consequences, remember this the next time when you schedule a rocket to nuke the North Pole! As you pump greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and increase its temperature, you're creating the perfect conditions for ice to liquefy, evaporate, and then fall back to the ground as toxic rain.



Initially, toxic rains will pour for multiple sols, erode the soils, and potentially cause lichen and other wild plants to wither and die. Wide toxic pools form on the ground which will kill all vegetation and render the local soils unstable for construction of new buildings. Once the rains have ended you can send drones to clean the area. Making Mars' atmosphere, temperature, and water levels more Earth-like will result in less toxic rains and more normal rains. The clean water will improve the soils and it helps for the spreading of wild vegetation throughout the colony.

Occasional marsquakes will tremble the ground and destroy buildings near their epicenters. Marsquakes are direct consequence of the colony's efforts to create stronger magnetic field and they strike near Magnetic Field Generators. Endure the marsquake and then send your drones to fix the damaged buildings. Keep your Magnetic Field Generators away from vital infrastructure and remember that more MFGs equals more marsquakes.



Recurring toxic rains and marsquakes will happen as direct consequence of the on-going terraforming of Mars, but there're other ways to trigger them, like the Import Greenhouse Gases special project.



The Special Projects are new points of interest on various locations throughout the planet. They are visualized with special green or blue symbols on the Planetary View. The green ones are special terraforming projects and directly affect the overall progress of the terraforming initiative. There are 7 Terraforming Special Projects, listed below:

The Capture Ice Asteroids project dedicates one rocket to find and pull ice asteroids towards Mars. The melting ice increases the water levels of the planet.

As long as Mars can support liquid water and normal rains, the Cloud Seeding project triggers massive rainfalls, which improve the local soil quality and help plants to grow.



During the Import Greenhouse Gases mission, one rocket gets refurbished and sent back to Earth to collect greenhouse gases from its atmosphere. The compressed GHGs are then released on Mars, which can cause severe toxic rains.

The Launch Space Mirror project requires one rocket to be dismantled in orbit and turned into a highly reflective surface. The mirror focuses sunlight on the face of Mars and increases its temperature.

The Launch Magnetic Shield mission installs an artificial shield between the Sun and Mars, which counteracts the solar winds and decreases the loss of Atmosphere over time.

When Melting the Polar Caps, remember that this may cause prolonged Dust Storms. You can nuke the polar caps as many time as you wish, adding water vapors and greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. But each successive nuking of the shrinking polar caps will grant less terraforming progress. The release of heat during this special project will temporarily stop the cold waves.

Finally, when feeling ready to make Mars green, send Rockets full of Seeds to Seed Vegetation. They will carefully spread their cargo in the atmosphere and increase the vegetation coverage of the planet.



To enable the 7 Special Terraforming Projects on the Planetary View, research the related techs in the Terraforming field of the Research UI.



There are another 3 Special Projects, visualized with blue icons on the Planetary View, which do not require research and will be available when the first planetary anomalies are discovered on Mars. They are part of the free update and we will be talking about them in the next dev diary, which is dedicated to all the cool stuff we're giving away for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/

Hi Everyone!

We’re back with another dev diary for Green Planet, this time focusing on the greener aspects of the expansion – plant life. So far we talked about global vegetation and the need to import, produce and spread huge amounts of seeds to cover the planet in flora. We briefly mentioned the Forestation Plant as the main way to engage with local forestation and the Open Farm as a way to produce food and seeds by planting various crops on a larger scale. It’s time to dig deeper into vegetation!

If I was to summarize what we did to make Mars green, I would have to use the phrase “we went crazy!”

The original vision for the surface of Mars was a silent, barren place, where the only objects that dotted the landscape were old, eroded rocks with otherworldly appearance. We imagined that the rocket you land and the vehicles that scurry around it would be the only thing that moves – aside from the occasional dust devil. Later you would construct domes that vastly contrast with the reddish sands with their lush green and bright lights during the night, which would appear as if someone placed a piece of Earth on the planet.



Then the ideas behind Green Mars came forth. We envisioned a completely different planet at the end of the process, a place where the previously contrasting borders between the lush-green domes and the outside world are blurred or non-existing. Dense forests dominate the horizon and lush-green grass spreads everywhere, with only the largest of rocks still remaining as an effigy of an age past.



And we wanted you to do all of this without melting your GPU… Praises to great programmers and their magic!

We started with a bunch of statements like “each hex of the colony could be populated with wild plant life”, or “plants should grow and wither according to terraforming progress” and “soils are important”, and then we worked on them until, finally, we had a working forestation system.

In the beginning there were the soils… We were inspired by “The Martian” and the possibility to sustain Earth vegetation on the seemingly barren sand. We did our research and designed the system. The soil quality of the original Martian soil is set to 0%, and the most fertile soil you can create is denoted as 100%, a rich Earth-like soil. This calculation is made for each hex of the colony every hour and is displayed on the screen as a Soil Quality overlay - the greener the hex the better the soil.



Now that we had the concept of soil, we needed to add factors that change its quality. So, the idea of rains and toxic rains was born. Of course, we all want rains to spread nutrients and meliorate the soil, but unless the planet has stable atmosphere, the falling rains would be toxic. They reduce the soils quality and create toxic pools that harm the growth of nearby plants.



As you add more water to the atmosphere, the toxic rains gradually end and clear water rains begin. They increase the local soil quality via erosion, create subterranean waters and water the plants. Additionally, artificially constructed Lakes leak water into their surrounding ground, improving significantly the local soils.



So, what can you plant on Mars?

Initially the soil quality is so low that you can only grow lichen. Lichen are famous for being very resistant and able to survive almost anywhere on Earth. You’ll be able to plant lichen pretty much from the start of the game. They do not require terraforming progress or soil quality and they improve the local soil quality over time. However, they will easily die during toxic rains.



As the terraforming initiative progresses, you will unlock other types of vegetation: grass, bushes, pine trees and mixed trees. Grass grows quick and also improves the soil quality, but it’s not as efficient as lichen and trees. However, it’ll spread on its-own over time, so it does some of your work on its own. Bushes grow slower but can be harvested for seeds, while Trees grow the slowest, provide the most seeds, and stabilize the local soils a lot.

Grass, trees, and bushes will spread on their own over time. The speed with which they spread is directly affected by the amount of vegetation around the colony and the global Vegetation coverage. The spread is initially slow but speeds up over time.



Vegetation booms will occur at certain terraforming thresholds. During vegetation booms, a lot of seeds are carried away by the winds and wild plants get seeded around the colony.

You’ll also be able to plant various crops in the Open Farm. These require good terraforming conditions, a lot of water, and high soil quality, but yield huge amounts of Food. Most crops significantly decrease the local soil quality, while others increase it. These crops do not spread on their own and are harvested by Drones to free space for new plants.

As mentioned, planting of crops or wild plants require some seeds to be spread around. The Seeds are a new resource in the game, which is initially imported from Earth and later produced in farms on Mars. They’re measured in tons and used as base material for the creation of substantial plant life on Mars.

This pretty much summarizes the basic principles of the vegetation system in Green Planet. See you next week, when we’ll be discussing the new Special Projects and disasters in more details.

We're also presenting Part 2 of our Feature Breakdown video, where you'll be able to hear from Haemimont and Paradox employees about the upcoming expansion: Green Planet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bkzCLJb8yQ

Mark your calendars for the release of Green Planet on...
Terraforming, new buildings, vegetation, and more are coming to Mars. Transform the planet into a new home for humankind, a Green Planet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/952890/Surviving_Mars_Green_Planet/

PDXCON2019 is coming and we couldn’t be more excited to meet our community at the event - which takes place on October 18th - 20th, 2019. Tickets go on sale on May 7th, but we’ve got a secret to tell you…

If you head over to the PDXCON 2019 website at https://pdxcon.paradoxplaza.com/ you can sign up to the mailing list. Anyone that signs up will be given 8 HOURS early access before the public availability of the tickets to buy before everyone else! Sign up now and keep your eyes on the news we’ll be sending out because tickets will sell out.

Hi everyone!

Last time we talked about the terraforming process and what it means to turn the Red Planet Green, today we’ll take a look at two new tools to achieve this tremendous goal:


In Green Planet we’ve added 7 new buildings, which are dedicated to the terraforming efforts. Some of these buildings require specific planetary conditions to function properly. Three of these buildings appear much later in game and require significant research progress to even become available! They have the spatial dimensions and the construction costs of wonders but may be constructed more than once. There’s this rewarding feeling when you cover an area with huge smoking chimneys, knowing that you’re changing the planet on a large scale.



The terraforming buildings will be added to a new category of the build menu – Terraforming. Players are in complete control of when they choose to start the terraforming progress by deciding when to research the first tech in the chain. Every step in the chain unlocks new buildings and improvements which will help in your mission to terraform Mars.


Here’s the list of the buildings you will find inside:

The Forestation Plant (or the Sprinkler, as I love to call it) spreads seeds imported from Earth, or produced on Mars, to plant wild vegetation in its range. Initially, it plants only lichen, but later grass, bushes, and trees become available as the terraforming project progresses. As some of the seeds get carried away from the colony by the winds, each Forestation Plant helps for the increase of the global vegetation.



The GHG Factory (short for Greenhouse Gas) burns a mixture of fuel and locally extracted carbon to produce greenhouse gases, which are released into the atmosphere. Thus increasing the average temperature of the planet.



Similar to the GHG Factory, the Carbonate Processor converts waste rock into carbon dioxide. The release of CO2 in the atmosphere improves its density and creates the necessary circumstances for oxygen-producing bacteria to thrive and for rains to occur.

The Core Heat Convector is a system of pipes that go deep into the Martian crust. It uses water to transport heat from the planetary core and improves the atmospheric temperature, while heating its immediate surroundings.



The Magnetic Field Generator improves the magnetic field of the planet, decreasing the loss of atmospheric gasses. It has a secondary function as a science facility and generates research according to the current state of the atmosphere. As a side effect of the strong magnetic field, the MFG may trigger “marsquakes” in its immediate vicinity. So take care to place these far away from the heart of your colony.

There are several different sizes of lakes, each having different forms. Lake beds are dug up by drones and then gradually filled with water. If liquid water is not yet possible on Mars, the lake remains frozen. When the conditions allow for it, the water liquefies and the lakes start to gradually improve the global water levels through evaporation.



The Open Farm is a huge unmanned facility which grows various edible plants away from your domes. This open-air farm spreads a mixture of water and seeds, which grow or wither according to the local soil quality and the overall terraforming progress. Once fully-grown, plants are individually harvested by drones for food.



All terraforming buildings are unmanned and can be built as soon as you research their corresponding tech in the Terraforming field of the research UI. For those of you who intend to terraform Mars before sending the founders of the colony, we added one additional building, the Capital City.

The Capital City requires the atmosphere of Mars to be breathable and warm. It’s the most spacious dome design and it doesn’t have a cupola, or metallic frame. Instead, it’s surrounded by trees, doesn’t consume Oxygen and can be placed on rough terrain.




I’ll be looking forward to your screenshots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ieYJrZuISk
Haemimont and Paradox Interactive present a feature breakdown about some of the new features, mechanics, and missions within Surviving Mars' upcoming expansion: Green Planet!

• Thursday: Dev Diary #2 - New Buildings and Wonders
  
• Friday: Tutorial Video by FeedbackGaming

Which feature are you most excited for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtijP5PltXQ

My name is Ivan Grozev and I've been working as a game designer at Haemimont Games for more than six years now. I've been fan of Paradox Interactive's games for decades. I've enjoyed thousands of hours of Europa Universalis and Crusaders Kings, always striving to achieve the next world conquest, and I've always loved large scale, long-term games. There's a saying in the design team that we've made a game especially for me. Frankly, I've loved working on Surviving Mars since the start and I'm excited with my current position as the Lead Game Designer for this project.



Today, I have the honor to briefly introduce to you the second expansion of Surviving Mars, Green Planet.

So, how did it all start? The inevitable truth that surviving Mars' barren deserts would eventually lead to humanity changing the Red Planet has stuck with us since we started working on Surviving Mars over 2 years ago. Back then, we didn't know what the future of Mars would look like, but we did envision that one day we would add terraforming. The growing desire for more late game content among our fans made this vision more and more appealing, as terraforming an entire planet would be a gradual and painstaking process. Believe me, we strived to make it challenging but worthwhile!

In Green Planet, you'll be able to fully transform the Martian surface. Starting with endless, barren deserts and leading to frozen ice caps and fields of lichen, and finally ending with a planet covered with lush green forests and oceans. You'll be able to plant different types of vegetation all across your colony, dig artificial lakes and fill them with water that freezes or evaporates according to the average global temperature, decrease the severity of dust storms as atmosphere improves and watch Moisture Vaporators produce more because of oceans evaporating water into the atmosphere.

In order to do so, you need to achieve progress on four major terraforming parameters: Atmosphere, Temperature, Water, and Vegetation.



The Atmosphere parameter symbolizes the density and the content of the Martian atmosphere. At 100% Atmosphere terraforming progress, Mars has an Earth-like atmosphere and deep blue skies, capable of sustaining human breathing without artificial aid. There are several ways to improve this parameter, varying from mass production of greenhouse gases to melting the polar ice caps. Initially, it's easy to improve the atmosphere; however, its raising density means that more and more gases are lost due to Mars’ lack of a strong magnetic field. To continue the process, the need for magnetic shields in orbit and massive magnetic generators arises.

The Temperature parameter symbolizes the average planetary temperature. It's necessary for liquid water to exist on the surface of Mars and for more advanced plant life to survive the extreme Martian conditions. The increasing temperature creates conditions for the polar ice caps to melt and changes the existing ice fields into blue lakes, seas, and oceans. Higher average temperature also means that cold waves are shorter and less likely to occur.

The Water parameter symbolizes the amount of water accumulated in the atmosphere and in water bodies on the surface of the planet. Water is a major ingredient in the making of acidic and pure-water rains. It directly affects the output of Moisture Vaporators and is required for more advanced plant life to grow and spread.

The Vegetation parameter symbolizes the sustainability of plant life on the planet. Initially, plant life consists of adapted cyanobacteria and lichen but it will eventually form huge, continent-wide forests. This parameter directly affects the spreading of plants around your colony. On one side, it increases the likelihood that locally seeded plants will spread on their own. On the other side, it guarantees that, over time, seeds carried by the wind will grow in various locations on the map.



You're probably asking yourselves "How could I achieve all that?". You'll notice that Green Planet has added a new technology field, Terraforming, in your Research UI. The 20 new techs there are harder to research but will allow you to start terraforming whenever you feel ready for the challenge. To begin, just unlock the first building in the tech tree. You achieve terraforming progress by constructing and maintaining terraforming-related buildings, or by completing dedicated terraforming projects such as sending rockets to capture ice asteroids. We're going to talk more about these in the following dev diaries.

Speaking of which, next week on Thursday we’ll have another dev diary all about the new buildings and wonders coming in Green Planet.

Ivan Grozev
Lead Designer of Green Planet
Haemimont Games

You can cast your votes on Facebook, Twitter, or our Forum

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You heard right! Animals are coming to Mars. Not just farm animals, which will serve useful functions in your Mars colony, but also cute and fuzzy pets to keep your space-faring colonists company!

But what to name such a pack?