Questions

[Tungsten Whitmarsh Cadow]

Why isn't the ship location on the map in the shape of an arrow (like the compass)? In most games your location and direction on the map looks like the compass pip. Your controls correspond to the left/right/up/down of the map rectangle. I can't tell you how many times I drove into a wall or got totally disoriented because I thought that compass pip was my ship not the faint cross hairs.

How do you do a lost cargo on mars from inside the cockpit? Is it permitted to go to that open ball view? I don't see how you can spot anything through those tiny windows and I bet the real astronauts used to lean forward and stand on their tip toes peering through the windows if things were tense.

Have you considered doing a tutorial for the many calamities that can happen? I guess its best not to mess with the ships pitch and roll, but in the event you knick something while moving I still haven't figured out how best to stabilize the ship and I'm a captain for the second time.

Can I see the default layout for Xbox controls somewhere? I had to set up everything myself. I may not have done it right. For me it helped to disable pitch and roll because I found myself using those when I meant to do something else. It caused numerous disasters. In an emergency I'll use the keyboard pitch and roll.

[Tungsten Whitmarsh Cadow]

A few more things I've noticed and have questions about or suggestions.

I don't think you can dispose of an item once purchased unless you use it. If you have a repair and you want to switch with extra fuel you have to lift off a little, smash onto the pad and use the repair before you can buy the fuel. If the ship isn't damaged, you can't use the repair. That seems a little un-NASA.

I've noticed the skill bonus at the debriefing. I sometimes get 8, which is a joke. It says in the manual you get a bigger bonus if you have a ship with fewer upgrades. Anyone notice how big that experience bonus can be?

Is there a procedure for finding lost cargo while in cockpit? I succeed at two of these in a row once but only because I got lucky and drove straight into the lost cargo. If its off to the side I'll try to hunt around but its very dangerous at low altitude. I've blown up a dozen landers looking for lost cargo without benefit of the outside view. Seems like the transponder should be directable, you know, control it from inside the lander without turning the lander so that you know exactly where the lost cargo is. Then you can at least move in the one correct direction. You'll still have to be very careful not to smash into hills so probably get some altitude first. It might be easier to be able to drop a NAV beacon. That way you can mark where you first heard the transponder and then you can get altitude, back up and come back for a second run, this time knowing your in the right area. Backtracking is so hard on Mars. The wind is disorienting. If you have several NAVs to drop then you can try to guess the center. It would make for fun things to do and you could charge per NAV beacon and maybe even make them reusable so that you can try to pick them up to save pennies.

Another way to do this would be with a controlable camera with zoom on the bottom of the lander. Rise up, hover and search the area with the camera and zoom to direct navigation.

It would be nice to be able to put a Navigation mark on the map rather than use that frumpy compass pip. Put the mark on your map before lifting off on a Lost Cargo and then just aim for that spot like you would for Charlie or Delta. At the end of the mission the spot disappears.

It might also be nice to be able to mark off areas already searched, either on the map or the ground itself. I guess the map would be more realistic.

It would be nice if data surveys yielded actual data. Analyze it when you get back and what's this? This organic material looks like some kind of scat!

As you're flying over Mars in a dust storm it would be cool to see something shadowy scurry away in a diferent direction from the wind.

On the Moon data surveys could reveal heavy deposits from the solar wind, something that is not found on earth. It might be the key to creating fusion, clean nuclear that would solve earth's energy and pollution problems as well as create lots of high tech space jobs.