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Dear Colonists!

Here we are: you can support us on Kickstarter,

We hope you’re as thrilled are we are! Thanks in advance for your support! Spread the word with your friends!

Cheers!

We need your help spreading the word about our upcoming Kickstarter campaign. We have great ambitions for Rokh, and the only way to reach them is to succeed on Kickstarter. We start our Kickstarter campaign May 5th and end it June 5th.

By supporting us on Thunderclap, you’ll help us make potential backers aware of our Kickstarter campaign.
You want to make Rokh a reality? Please click one of the three red buttons on the Thunderclap page! (Faceboook, Twitter and Tumblr)

 

Hello Colonists,

Discover here the tutorial video to play our first playable demo we’ve presented at PAX East 2016 at the Kickstarter Games Dungeon.

Remember it’s PRE ALPHA FOOTAGE: our demo was aiming to show you a bit of our habitat building system. It does not reflect the upcoming quality of our game.

Cheers!

Music: www.bensound.com

 

 

 

Hello Colonists,

Mars conditions are a strong, natural challenge for survival, and that’s why the Red Planet is the perfect setting for Rokh. As a new player, maintaining your basic life support will take up most of your time. Fulfilling your food, water and oxygen needs depends on two things: your exploration of Mars and resource harvesting.

To help you with these two tasks, you can craft various tools and devices. They ensure many different functions: locating items, guiding exploration, mining resources, extracting gases and refining raw materials.

On the rough concept design, you can see the tools we’re working on. From left to right, we have a radio tracker, a gas reclaimer, an ore/water analyzer and a mini drill.

In today’s article, we’ll explain the functions of these tools and how we’ve imagined their design.

The Radio Tracker

This tool is your best friend for finding food. Remember, you won’t have the food growth system for early access; it will be implemented in the first big update. For food on Mars, your only current solution is to find the food caches that the previous colonization wave has left on the planet.

When activated, the radio tracker locks onto the radio beacons emitted by food caches.
This displays on the screen as a list of radio signals found with their respective strengths (0 to 100%) without directional indications. This forces the player to navigate the map while frequently using the radio tracker to determine if they are getting closer to or further from a food cache.

The Gas Reclaimer

The Mars atmosphere has a really low pressure and density compared to Earth. That’s why a specific device is necessary to gather and stock gases reclaimed from the atmosphere. The gas reclaimer helps you gather atmospheric gas from the outside and stock it for analysis.

Here’s a specific application: Players can set up an atmospheric gas reclaimer outside their habitat to stock carbon dioxide from the Mars atmosphere. Given Mars’ low atmospheric pressure, this takes a while. Using the in-game programming system, players can set an extraction frequency and quantity before the tool automatically transfers the gas collected to the rest of the circuit. This, for example, allows players to provide specific quantities of carbon dioxide to a MOXIE which turns it into oxygen.

The Ore/Water Analyzer

When you harvest resources in Rokh, you find them in an unidentified state. The analyzer turns raw materials of specific types from their unidentified states to their identified states.

Identifying a resource is essential to start refining and smelting, the first step to crafting in-game items.

For the moment, as you can see in the concept art, we’ve started to develop two versions of the analyzer: a flat one on which you insert a raw material sample for analysis and another one that looks like a metal detector. Which one do you prefer?

The Mini Drill

Also, we have started design research on another device: the mini drill. It’s a multipurpose tool.  Depending on the end cap you’re using, it offers various functions: drill, soldering iron, ice extractor, ore collector…

What’s coming up next?

With PAX East starting next week in Boston, we’ll have some great news for you, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, why don’t you check out our new videos on Youtube? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ping us on Facebook, Twitter or Reddit!

Have a great day!

ROKH DEV TEAM

Hey Colonists,

We hope you enjoyed our Pre-Alpha Footage from GDC. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out! In the past few weeks, we took the time to present all the potential our building feature brings to Rokh’s sandbox dimension. We especially showcased the tile system and the freedom it allows, empowering the player to build a base on Mars the way he wants.

Developing your habitat into a fully equipped, autonomous base is the first step. But thanks to the in-game programming system, one of the craziest features we’ve integrated in Rokh, you can achieve the ultimate building experience by turning your habitat into an automated base. Without entering into too much detail about the in-game programming system, for which we’ll publish dedicated blog articles, here are the amazing possibilities it creates for your habitat.

Take control of your habitat

In Log 5, you’ve read how you can integrate your outdoor survival devices (resource extractor like the ice driller, gas reclaimer, solar panels…) into a closed circuit with the storage and refining devices inside, thanks to the wire and pipe combinations. You can also add a main console to this closed circuit, a computer.

With that console, you can control every device in your habitat as soon as it’s linked within the circuit. It creates a lot of possibilities: you can control your airlock (lock and unlock it), remotely launch your devices outside (e.g. launch the extraction of ice by the ice driller outside your habitat, control the pumps, transfer liquid and gas from one tank to another), start the refining/smelting of raw resources according to your criteria (duration, number of units…) or automate your defense system.

These are just a few examples. The possibilities for your base are huge, considering the number of connected devices you’ll be able to plug into your habitat and integrate in a circuit. Each one of them will have various control options you’ll play with using the main console.

We’d like to push this feature even further: introduce a remote control system of your habitat. Once you have crafted and installed a radio tower on your habitat, it will generate a network within a certain distance around your base, working like a Wi-Fi Hotspot. Using a remote or embedded console in your suit, you’ll have full control of your base. Imagine: you’re exploring Mars, you receive a notification that another colonist is trying to raid your base, and you can control in real time your defense system!

Program your devices

More than taking control of your devices for basic functions, the in-game programming system will allow you to make your devices execute more elaborate tasks. For example: a supply chain between an ice driller, a pump and a dirty water tank.

So what happens when the dirty water tank is full, but the pump is still running?

You have four potential outcomes here:

1. The lowest tensile strength link in the chain will explode
2. The player manually shuts off the pump and ice driller before something explodes
3. The player adds a release valve and spill pipe somewhere in the chain, but the excess resources are wasted
4. The player uses the programming system to automatically turn off the pump and ice driller when the tank reaches a certain percentage filled as a conditional

Enabling players to automatically prevent catastrophic base failure is one of the primary goals of the programming system. But also by programming your devices, it allows you to set a custom behavior (e.g. defense turrets power up if an alarm is tripped).

What’s coming up next?

Next week, we’ll start a new theme by showing you how the tools in Rokh will be strategic for exploration, harvesting and in general, survival.

In the meantime, check out our new videos on Youtube, and continue to post your questions on our social channels.

Cheers, Colonists!

ROKH DEV TEAM

Hello Colonists,

In this video we play Rokh’s prototype we’ve presented at GDC. It introduces the habitat building with its most basic features, the tile system and an elementary electric circuit.

Remember it’s PRE ALPHA FOOTAGE so a lot of elements are untextured and placeholders. It does not reflect the upcoming quality of our game, this is the result of our first 3 months of development.
Cheers!

Music: www.bensound.com

Hello Colonists!

Pursuing our theme about the Martian habitat, today we’ll present a more complex example of what your base could look like.

Last week, we described the tile system and how it will enhance the building experience in Rokh. We’ve seen especially that the tile system will turn your habitat structure — every wall, ceiling and floor — into a gigantic grid. This grid allows you to plug every device together with pipe combinations and electric circuits.

Thanks to that, you’ll be able to build a smart shelter, easing your survival on Mars. You’ll have to smartly place devices between the extraction of resources outside and the consumption of refined products inside of your Martian base.

Outside/Inside the habitat

First of all, let’s have a look from the outside:

We can see here three strategic aspects of the habitat on this concept art: an airlock for pressurization, armored walls for defense and an energy supply from the solar panels.

The first objective of your habitat is to provide you with a pressurized space. For huge structures which would require a lot of oxygen to be pressurized, you’ll be able to alternate between pressurized spaces for survivability and comfort and unpressurized spaces. This will allow you to conserve your oxygen, which is quite precious on Mars.

Armored walls will obviously provide better resistance to potential attacks from other players.

Finally, the solar panels here are directly linked to the inside of the habitat; they allow the player to stock energy or instantly supply it to devices inside, thanks to the wire circuit integrated into the tiles.

Let’s have a view inside now:

This is great concept art showing how much your habitat can be fully autonomous with the tile system. There are pipe combinations allowing gases and liquids to be hooked up directly into tanks or to supply water. For example, some oxygen concentrated from outside thanks to an atmospheric gas reclaimer can be brought directly into the tanks inside the habitat. The tanks are linked to a control console which allows you to stabilize your habitat pressurization.

Another example is the water extracted outside with a driller from the underground ice, which is brought first into a dirty water tank. A pumps allows liquids to be brought in from the outside, even from a lower level. It finishes the job by bringing this dirty water to a water purifier. This autonomous circuit quenches the player’s thirst far more easily than scavenging water around the map in food caches or by fighting other players.

But before being able to create such an elaborate system, you’ll of course have to craft all of that!

What’s coming up next?

Next week, we’ll present you another key subject so stay tuned!

In the meantime, don’t forget to watch our last community questions episode, and don’t hesitate to post your questions directly here.

See you soon!

ROKH DEV TEAM

Hey Colonists,

LIVE FROM GDC!! Please enjoy our 3rd Community Questions Episode.

And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel!

Cheers !

Hi Colonists!

Today we are starting a new theme: the habitat, one of Rokh’s main feature. Building a strong habitat to survive the fierce conditions of Mars will be a key activity in your experience, along with harvesting, crafting, cooperating or fighting.

Most survival games start with a good old deforestation followed by a wood cabin construction. In Rokh, your place will not be made from any organic material obviously. It has been a first great game design challenge for us to find out of what your base will be made.  Some research on Mars geology have actually proven that you’ll be able to craft the element for your base with Martian mineral resources.

Keep your character alive in Rokh will be a difficult challenge, and having a great base will ease this task. First thing is to have an enclosed space to generate a pressurized living system with oxygen, and livable temperature. But also to defend yourself.

Because of this constraint and also because we wanted an easy to use construction system, let us introduce you… THE PANEL TILE!

The Panel Tile

The Panel Tile is the atomic unit of the habitat building. You can use it for everything: floor, ceiling and wall. Being the elemental parts of every habitat, you will quickly use it to create an enclosed space, first step for survival!

But the tile is not only a protection barrier from Mars deadly environment, it’s also quite versa…tile! Each tile will be a hub for all survival devices related to your habitat. Each tile’s side contains a central socket and 4 directional slots for pipes and wires.

The Tile System

You will able to plug your devices in the main socket (lights, power generator, solar panels, pump, atmospheric water reclaimer, water driller, water tank, oxygen tank, batteries, armor… and many more), and link them with electronic circuit to carry energy they require to work, but also pipes combinations to carry liquid or gases if need be.

Of course, because each tile has two sides, some socketed items will interact with the socketed item on the other side of the panel (e.g. an electrical outlet connects exterior of the base to interior, input and output pipe flows).

To summarize, in addition to being your basic unit to build your habitat structure, the tile system will help you create complex electronic circuit or liquid & gases flows throughout your habitat connected to your survival devices.

You’ll be able to hide pipes combinations & wires circuits, connect outside and inside devices, redirect electricity from solar panels to batteries, or stock in tanks water & gases extracted from the environment. Better than a wood cabin, right?

Designing the tile

In the screenshots above, you can see the tile in its prototype state. Even if it allows players to clearly see the wires and the pipes, making it easier to build circuit and pipes combinations, we think it has a too much metallic/gothic aspect. Kind of reminds us of Blade Runner buildings. As Rokh is supposed to occur in a pretty near future, we want something more high tech and lighter, with a composite material aspect. You can see here our first draft of new style of tiles, with socket in the center and inputs & outputs for wires and pipes.

 

We’ve prefered the one on the right, with the round handle to open the socket. This design allows a better visualization of the component it will contain. Here are some more polished concept designs:

 

Stay tuned for the final, 3D and textured version!

What’s coming up next?

Our next article will pursue the habitat theme: we’ll present you some complex interactions possible when you have a more advanced habitat. All survival devices can be connected together to help you survive on the Red Planet.

Follow us on our social channels to have our latest news, and if you have any questions, post them in comments, it will be a pleasure for us to answer them in our next Community Questions video.

Have a great day Colonists!

ROKH DEV TEAM