Greetings everyone!
I am excited to announce that 2.0 will soon be a reality.
Between now and October 5th (the UA2009 final build deadline) - I will be working to fine tune everything that has been introduced in the 1.99 series - custom Whirlds, a completely new interface, and so much more. On that date, everything goes live!
2.0 is tremendously exciting to me in many different ways, one of which is monetization :)
Mars Explorer will always be free, but I am favorably considering the creation an "elite" group of members who get to pay around $15 for cooler looking "Sponsor" name badges and possible exclusive access to OS native Mars Explorer applications. What do you think of the idea? I have no plans to implement it in the near future, but a significant income would help Mars Explorer grow like nothing else.
All the best,
-Aubrey
All vehicle materials have been redesigned with the capability to adapt to any specified color. Vehicles are assigned a random color when entering a game, and players can customize this color to whatever they desire in their "Game Settings" panel! The quarry automatically fades to a highly visible green color, which is GREAT for hide-and-seek games where name tags are camouflaged and you previously didn't know who you should be watching out for. The random color generation algorithm has some mechanisms in place to prevent truly hideous colors from being assigned, but don't complain to me if the computer thinks you would look good in a hot pink buggy. Perhaps you would! :)
Colors are preserved when players switch vehicles, allowing you to associate a specific color with each of your friend's and enemy's play styles for a whole new level of dogfight fun! Tank treads even change their color - that was interesting to build...