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Moon Tycoon Feature
Derek Dela Fuente
00/12/0000
U.S. publisher Legacy is promising to help define the next generation of PC simulation gaming with Moon Tycoon.
U.S. publisher Legacy is promising to help define the next generation of simulation gaming with Moon Tycoon. This highly detailed 3D title will please many sim strategy fans and Anarchy Enterprises (AE), the developer, detailed the game in-depth to Derek dela Fuente.
We have had sim games based on every conceivable idea but no one has come up with a Lunar game. Research, mining, tourism and production are the main lunar industries that drive any colony in Moon Tycoon. AE has created an in depth system of trade and sales, as well as colony expenses and taxes, that will keep even the die hard sim playersâ hands full as they try to manage their colony. The well-balanced colony has been designed like a living organism, with systems of checks and balance, and a lot of rounding of the edges. The economic system is easy to understand, and packed into a highly flexible interface. Almost every aspect of the game is âcross linkedâ with another. You can build nuclear power to handle your power needs, but if you go overboard with intimidating nuclear structures, you can ruin the ecology balance and scare away possible tourists. There is always some counter effect, just like in the real world. You canât do one thing without affecting something else. Handling the Moon Tycoon economy is very dynamic, and even the price of goods you produce for the market will change according to whatâs happening in your colony.
The all-important storyline to the game starts off in the not-too-distant future with the fuel crisis at critical levels. Alternate sources of energy are not enough to meet high demands, and reserves are almost exhausted. Politicians fear desperate measures and ensuing world panic could bring about World War III. To counter the crisis, the newly formed Space Agency, comprised of politicians, scientists and military from the Earth's leading nations, has coordinated a plan with the International Space Station to mine the Moon's abundant resources of Helium and Uranium. These materials will bring about a new revolution in world energy with Nuclear Fusion and Fission powered Reactors, and ensure peace and prosperity for people back on Earth. As the story continues to unfold, the fate of Earth is in your hands, so one wrong move could end the human race! Oh yeah, as a side note, there have been rumours of aliens in Moon Tycoon and this adds a clever twist in the game.
Getting a moon based sim game right must require plenty of researching so I put the first of a number of questions to the team â“ Is the game in any way fact driven? âWe have striven to keep Moon Tycoonâs timeline and events believable with respect to the current space programs, including NASA, the Russian Space Agency and the other countries taking part in the International Space Station. Weâve also done our homework with important issues in the game like Plasma Fusion and Nuclear Fission. Space is now open for private ventures. Mir and the ISS are in the news every day, and we're discovering what is needed to survive the harsh environment of Space. Moon Tycoon covers the critical moments of the first Moon Colony's infrastructure (just to support basic human life), all the way to building a Lunar Metropolis with thousands of colonists, workers and tourists. The player's ultimate goal is to build and maintain several vast and permanent cities on the Moon, while surviving a broad array of events and disasters to challenge their skills.â
Sounds like Sim City on the moon - well it is! Moon Tycoon offers hard facts and tasks but with the introduction of many other characters (both friend and foe) that are included in a very cinematic way a nice endearing quality soon comes across. Some characters might be mentioned earlier in the game, and you don't get to meet them or learn their story significance until many missions later. This helps to set up a few surprises, as players will get to learn of new emerging threats, and a few missions later, they're face to face with the enemy. Don't be surprised to see a few good friends get sucked away to a cold death in space, or have to deal with a fanatical cult leader who's obsession with comets has put you in the path of his suicide mission. Other characters in Moon Tycoon range from heroic space pilots, professional athletes, and a few surprise characters that are literally OUT OF THIS WORLD⦠By and large, you'll notice that the characters seem strangely familiar. This is not an accident as many of them are based on real heroes and morons from current world news.
Moon Tycoon is the first sim game to give you complete camera control in your city. You can rest the camera right on the lunar surface and look up at your city if you want. You can move it in between buildings and turn your head to look in any direction. You can elevate it high above the surface into the Moon's orbit and look down over your entire colony. There's even a special orbiting satellite from which you can watch your colony. The dev team has built in several different ways to control the camera, and also given the players full ability to customise it any way they want.
Moon Tycoonâs in-depth system of trade and sales, as well as colony expenses and taxes, is complemented by six intelligent and charismatic advisors who will stay close by your side and give you some advice and forewarning on all issues from industry and commerce, to tourism and utilities. The random factor of events plus whereabouts of the resources are crucial, as was explained. âWe wanted to recreate the way natural deposits of resources really happen, like veins of gold and ore are trapped in layers of rock. When you play the game, you search for these deposits, and when you find a vein, you feel like youâre really on to something! Then you can follow the resource until you mine all of the available ore. When you use it all up, itâs time to do some more scouting! And the game is balanced really well, so by the time you consume all the natural resources, you can leverage your success into other types of industries to keep your colonies growing. When you turn Disasters On, they will occur randomly throughout your game, and sometimes as a result of bad management (like Unemployment Riots, among others). When you play through the Campaign story missions, disasters will occur as a function of the story.â
âThere are over a dozen disasters in the game that range from meteor showers and massive asteroid crashes, to biohazard disasters and moonquakes. Disasters donât always damage your colony - sometimes they effect things like your morale or warehouse storage. There are special buildings like Warning Systems and Military Bases that help prevent disasters, plus sometimes you get lucky when the giant asteroid smashes into an undeveloped section of your map, narrowly missing your colony, and exposing a new vein of ore! Not only does this add an extra element of challenge to the Moon Tycoon gameplay, but itâs always fun to use the disasters to blow up your city.â
The colonisation of the Moon, with an action packed plot stretches through three challenging campaigns. In all, there are dozens of missions, creating a very diverse playing experience. In the three Campaigns, the full plot will unfold, and players must deal with specific events in order to fulfil mission objectives.
Moon Tycoon offers so much it is hard to know where to start and end. And when you talk of structures and buildings a whole new element opens up. Players will be in control of all types of residential buildings, commercial or recreational structures and industrial complexes that will comprise their colonies. Utility requirements, like water, oxygen or electricity, are handled as well as directing research promotions and trade. There is a lot of control over the type of city you can architect, so the question is, can you build a colony that makes your colonists happy or attractive enough for tourists to want to visit? Itâs all up to you. If you build a strong mining industry, you can become very rich indeed, but your tourism industry will suffer unless you take steps to increase the attraction value of the colony. A Lunar Golf Course or an Amusement Center will help draw in the tourism dollars! Itâs all about balance, foresight, and skill.
I put the word ârealismâ to the team. âAs in any good sim game, realism is an important element, from devastating disasters and unhappy colonists, to aggressive neighbouring colonies and governmental officials, to the most deadly enemy of them all - your own human nature! Moon Tycoonâs challenges range from economic and diplomatic, to social and ethical. As the ruler of a lunar city, we wanted to present players with realistic and dramatic choices any real world leader would face including: bribery, corruption, assassinations, and situations that may require sacrificing the few for the greater good of the colony as a whole. Your style of leadership will be defined by your actions! Do you follow the ârightâ path using integrity and honesty? Do you succumb to temptations and the almighty dollar and sell out your fellow colonists? Or are you an outright tyrant who would sacrifice everyone for more power and money?â
The teams programming expertise also is worth a mention for they have created their own 3D engine and mentioned games like Sim City and Zeus - both safe 2D worlds -whereas theirs is true 3D and impressive.
Now if you still feel that a Moon game could be boring due to the nature of the moonâs surface, etc. then the world IS living and very vibrant. You will experience some weather-like disasters that can occur like Ion Storms and Meteor Showers. The team took over and spoke to add their own view. âIn terms of a boring Moon environmentâ”actually space offers some of the most breathtaking views imaginable! An Earth rise over your colony at night is really quite a sight in the game! We also take you to the Asteroid Field where you can see Saturn and her rings rotating against a sea of stars. Weâve also spent a lot of time building maps for the players that offer some incredible moon and asteroid landscapes complete with hills, valleys, mountains and canyons! Although the first few missions of the game are simple, pretty soon things will become more elaborate as plot twists are introduced and unique events begin to occur. Later missions will challenge the player with multiple objectives, project deadlines, disasters and other factors that really take some planning and skills to overcome. Missions like these may take several hours to complete. In Standard mode, the game can last as long as you want. Replay value is key, and there are enough surprises to make the game dynamic and challenging each time you start a new colony. As far as the gaming experience is concerned, you can really lose yourself in Moon Tycoon!
Moon Tycoon is a massive program and time, gravity, plus a wealth of other factors, have been taken into account. I let the team finish off on this point. âFirst, we recreated the natural day / night cycle of the moon, so when youâre playing, you are always watching the natural light shift, casting shadows as the sun moves around. Thatâs really cool by itself, but itâs a special moment in the game when the sun sets, and all the buildings light up for night-time. Then your colony is all lit up by the light inside the buildings, and you can really see some of the things come to life, like the Casino, Amusement parks, space traffic and more! The second thing we did was to venture into the Dark Side of the Moon itself. We take players into the far side of the moon and let them discover amazing landscapes and terrains that weâve only been able to imagine until now! Whatâs more, you also discover whoâs on the other side, waiting all this time for humans to discover! Maybe I shouldnât say too much, because I donât want to spoil the surprise for players, but game and movie fans will be pleased with the humour and the treats in store.â
Moon Tycoon looks a real treat; so letâs hope the team has done more than talk a good game!
