ORIGINAL GAME CONCEPT AND ART (UE4)
It’s the 23rd century, humanity has been colonizing the solar system for well over a century. Mars has been undergoing terraforming since the beginning of this new era. Mars 2.0 is strictly off-limits .. a perfect place to conduct illegal racing the old fashioned way, with humans behind the wheel.
The “Rides” were industrial vehicles heavily modified for racing, they each have their “Unplugged” AI (severed from any grid – they have evolved in isolation, they are untraceable and undetectable) they are tough, bloody fast and dangerous ….. wild.
The Race is broadcasted solar system wide. The pirate signal is bounced from station to station, settlement to settlement , cargo ship and ports right across the colonies.
People bet BIG, fortunes are made and lost on a single whim, it seems the races remind us of a more primal time.
Heavily modified industrial vehicles abandoned and reclaimed as “legal salvage”.
No one really know how the Race began, rumours of a couple of daring illegal tourists found the disabled vehicles after the great solar storm of 2157 that cripple much of the infrastructure on the surface of Mars and its many habitats in orbit.
Many new vehicles have been recruited to the Race, heavily modified and driven by dare devils who remain incognito.
HIPPO – Its a tough race, your ride will get damaged. You will need to attend to it if you want to finish the race at all. The Hippo will run full repairs on the run …. it will slows down to a manageable 220kph to give you access and have your ride fixed, charged and even cleaned up. With you car all fixed up and charged you will easily make up the time in no time and you car will love you for it.
RHINO – Mobile spare parts 3D printer auxiliary vehicle. Rhino knows what parts you need and when they are about to fail, it gets to work and has your new parts ready, they are delivered and installed by its own drones.
This is autonomous vehicle has an exploration mode so you can take the long way around, discover new sights, relics and who knows whats else might be out there. Even after a couple of centuries much of Mars 2.0 remains mostly unexplored by humans.
MAMMOTH – The Mammoth’s many drones film the race from every angle, it encodes and send its pirate signal solar system-wide to the colonies via quantum laser – always on the move, leaving no record, its never seen before AI algorithms hunt down and destroy any signal or related image in mil-seconds ….
… so the best show in the solar system is Absolutely LIVE! and LIVE ONLY!
The Drop-Pods: – Each car has its very own pod, a standard drop ship -container Type 3F (one of the most common) Easy to hide… Its a home, garage and delivery vehicle right into the Race.
Hydro/Solar Power Plant Installation – South polar region – summer.
This solar/hydro power installation has been running uninterrupted for 124 years. It uses its vast array of solar panels (great to drive on) to heat up ice into water and and into hydro power.
It produces vast amounts of energy that is beamed via quantum laser to other installation and to energy catcher space station in orbit.
The Tropics Belt – Coastline – Equatorial Mars specially has developed a warmer and wetter weather than it can be explained. One minute can look like a tropical paradise but in a matter of minutes savage storms appear from no-where. They render the coast line unrecognizable each time they hit.
Lava Caves – There are lava caves everywhere in Mars. Used by the first Mars scientific posts and then settlers, these vast network of facilities, energy extraction machines, tunnels and mining zones were the crucial Mars foothold. These massive network infrastructure are now ghost towns, they were all abandoned in 2146, there has been much speculation why such a massive investment would be abandon so suddenly. Maybe something was nexpectedly discovered?
Shallow Waters – Racing on frozen lakes seems like fun, but not when they thaw unexpectedly helped by a meteors shower!
Quick change of course may save you from being buried alive on ice, keep your never and keep improvising….
a real test for your ride’s resilience.
Hidden Treasures – There are countless hidden “treasures” to be found across Mars 2.0. Explore the wild zones to find artifacts, abandoned settlements, experimental mega machines installations and obsolete hardware which are mostly still fully functional.