Scratch Project #3: Tank Assault Version 1.1.0

Scratch Project #2: Independent Project: Reaction Time Tester

Press the flag to start. Press the space bar as soon as the dot turns red. 90-120 is an average reaction time.

Scratch Project #1: First Program

SketchUp Fence

SketchUp Slide

SketchUp House and Pool

SketchUp Table

SketchUp House Interior

SketchUp Detailed House

SketchUp First House

Mother's Day Card

 Mother's Day Card

Mother's Day Envelope

Planetbase - Wrap-up and Opinion

Final Play-Through

I'm not one to be very "aggressive" in a game. I'm more strategic and defensive. Although...for this play-through, I will keep it on 4x speed the whole time. Let's see how it goes.

It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be...I want 10x speed...

Unique Screenshots

Close call.

I swear the meteors are aiming for me...

They missed that time.

Mostly the meteors affect the base more when it hits an energy part. If it hits the processing plant for example, it's easy enough to fix quickly. If it hits a power collector however, it takes a bit for the colonists to reach it, plus when it hits a collector you lose all stored power it may have had.

My opinion

In my opinion, this game is fairly well-made. There could be some changes (which I'll get to later), but all-in-all, it's a nice simple, yet challenging game. Since I'm not a very aggressive player I found that my strategic mindset fit in quite nicely. 

What I would change about the game...I think the player should have the ability to micro-manage colonists. In other words, I want to be able to tell a specific colonist to do a specific job, instead of waiting for them to decide to do it.

Planetbase - Gameplan

Second Play-through Gameplan

The Plan

So for my second base, I will be doing things a bit differently. First of all, my base was branching out too far last time, making it difficult for the colonists to navigate quickly. This time I will be building it more around a central 'hub', probably the canteen, biodome, oxygen generator, all three, or a combination of the three. Other than that, I'll just have to play and see how it goes.

The Game

A nice basic start. The usual oxygen generator, airlock, water extractor and solar panel.

Next added a large wind turbine, a power collector, canteen and a biodome.

In the dorm I put two bunks, which allows 4 colonists to sleep at a time. In the biodome I put 4 different plants. I recently found out that colonists can become malnourished if they eat too much of one thing. I also added another two wind turbines and another power collector.

I then added a mine and a processing plant to produce metal and bioplastic. Next is a factory, which I immediately set to make spares, and a sick bay. As you may notice, I only have one power collector. I had to cancel the building since I was low on resources.

Next, I made a landing platform. This is pretty much essential for population growth. I also made a storage for the little bit of resources I had left outside. Here's a picture of my base so far.

I had to add some more components to keep up with population growth and resource demand.

I had to build a water tower just in case the extractor doesn't produce enough in the future. I also built a command center so I could set it to yellow alert in the event of a sandstorm, and more plants in the biodome.

The Results

I did much better than last time, although I still ended up running out of power and resources. Building it around a central 'hub' seemed to help a lot.

Planetbase - Review

First Play-through

Goals:

1. Make a decent sized base

2. Get some milestones

3. make an observatory

First I started off with the two basic things: a large oxygen generator and an airlock.. Next was a small water extractor and a medium solar panel (you can't have everything big). The next 4 things I made was a wind turbine, canteen, biodome (with 3-5 plants) and a dorm. Once the essentials were complete I added a sickbay, another turbine, and a power collector. This the basic beginning setup that seems to work the best on Mars. I then added another water extractor, a mine, processing plant, factory and finally, a storage for all the resources from the lander. Along with a landing pad, I also started building another power collector.

As I was building another airlock and a command center, the landing pad finally paid off. I managed to attract some more colonists to the base, giving me the "expansion' milestone. Getting more colonists is a big part of the game. Without them your base can't expand very easily.

After a bit of playing I managed to finally get the observatory. Unfortunately, I was having problems with my power supply and I had to turn some buildings off to save power. I was also forced to make a second biodome due to a short food supply and new colonists.

I was doing so well on this base until the power started failing, resources ran low, and finally, a meteor hit the dorm and killed 4 colonists. I quit right after that.

So, what did I learn from this?

Well, one of my problems is that my base was too spread out. I should have built it around a central 'hub' instead of branching out so much. I was also having trouble with food, metal, and even bioplastic. I was trying to focus on one resources at a time rather than managing it all at once. Next time I will cycle through managing each one and give them all equal attention. Another problem I had was low power. My base kept having power shortages later on as my base got bigger. I didn't build more power sections as I needed them.

My opinion

Overall, I found the game to be quite fun. Sure it was frustrating at times, but that's to be expected from a beginning player.