Devlog #16 - The dangers of overexpansion

Before we get to the main topic, I have a little announcement: Due to a mix-up in the Steam page review process, which is needed for the demo page, we won't be able to launch the demo tomorrow as planned. Meanwhile, we've released the Demo on Itch as well for anyone who would really like to try it out as soon as possible. This is available right now. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link it here but the simplest web search will get you there.

As for the Steam release, because of some upcoming gaming events, we'll have to delay for another 3 weeks or so. On the bright side, this will give us some more time to work on the next update. I'll post more about this in the next devlog so watch out for that one too.

Now, onwards to the main topic.

The machine must grow

You've landed on the red planet, set up your living quarters, got a modest amount of planting going on and you've started mining and refining resources. The number of plants you're harvesting only stretches the rations you landed with a little further and all of the machinery that you need to place inside is really starting to make everything feel cramped.

The parts you landed with can only allow you to expand so much but there's an easily available solution: Concrete production! Using the abundantly available regolith to expand quickly is textbook Mars colonization so you lay out the supply chain and get cracking.

The atmosphere flows through the base

As you expand your base, there's a hidden danger growing with every new tile of precious interior space. You see, every tile holds a given amount of oxygen. Initially, this is sitting comfortably at around 600 liters. Double the volume of the base by expanding and this drops to 300 liters per tile. Not ideal but nobody really bats an eye. Double your base volume again though and the effects will start to get noticed.

Steam post imageAll 3 sections above contain the same amount of oxygen. Smallest is perfectly breathable while the largest one is barely breathable.

Colonists tend to breathe better when there's more oxygen in the room and if the level goes under a certain threshold, they'll start to struggle. The life support machine that ships with the standard lander does generate enough oxygen to account for 3 colonists, and even more, but it can only work so fast. Between how much colonists consume and how much it generates, there's only enough to maybe fill 2 extra tiles per day which all spreads out across the entire base.

Now, imagine that the air is already running pretty thin and the life support breaks down. Your base is spread out and while there's plenty of oxygen in total, the amount that's available for each colonist is low and going down. That's not a good position to be in.

Solution

Fortunately, using water and electricity we can get oxygen by separating it from the hydrogen and that's exactly what the Oxygen Diffuser does. It's an extra machine to keep supplied and powered but it allows for a quicker expansion without risk.

The more of these you have, the less of a problem expansion becomes, especially as new colonists join and certain oxygen-consuming technologies become available.

This is all for today, tune in next time to hear about our progress on the next update, covering the medical side of the simulation.