[alexanderson]

Hey friends. Thorium's developer here. Happy to answer any questions or give more insights.

Thorium Classic has been in development since 2016 and is primarily intended to be used in brick-and-mortar space centers out in Utah, like the Space Place[1] and CMSC[2]. As such, there isn't a lot of content and documentation to get newcomers up-and-running with it.

Thorium Nova is currently under development and is intended to be used by a broader audience. It will include much more content, pre-built missions, and more integrated tutorials.

The project is open-source, so anyone is welcome to contribute[3] and follow along with the progress of each alpha.

1: https://www.thespaceplace.org

2: https://spacecenter.alpineschools.org

3: https://thoriumsim.com/blog/contributing-to-thorium-nova

[myself248]

This looks like a lot of fun, I've played some Artemis but not explored the other offerings in the space.

One thing that's always struck me as weirdly difficult with the spaceship-bridge genre, but wholeheartedly embraced by generic flight-sims, is custom control surfaces! Everyone wants pedals and knobs and sliders and a big red button in the middle of the console. Kerbal players are notorious for hooking up the most bizarre junk they can find as in-game controls, and the game is richer for it. I saw mention of DMX lighting, but nothing about mapping random HID controls...

Another thing we did playing Artemis, was put the "engineering" station in another room, with walkie-talkies so you had to actually "call down to engineering" to ask them to do things. That should be Teamspeak or something now, I suppose, but having the various parts of the ship in physically separate places (perhaps across the internet?) really adds something, IMHO.

[alexanderson]

I've actually got WebGamepad support built into the pilot station. Start up the game, start a flight, and load up the pilot station. Then plug in your gamepad, wiggle it so the browser recognizes it, and a config icon will appear in the bottom right. From there you should be able to configure every control on that screen to work with the buttons and sticks on your gamepad.

DMX and other show-control features will come much later, after the main gameplay features are completed. But they're my favorite part, so I'll definitely get to them eventually.

[starkparker]

EmptyEpsilon has support for a bunch of DMX flavors as well as Hue lights and custom control surfaces, as well as an optional exposable API that can run Lua scripts on game state.

Odysseus LARP paired that functionality with a bunch of RPi Zero W-powered hardware puzzles to represent ship systems,[1] so Engineers had to physically tinker with things in order to get systems back up and running after they broke. That included things like going through crawlspaces and ladders to access certain components, digging through a printed manual when computer systems were "down".

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE7j1SgUpKs

[sgtnoodle]

I made a KSP controller about 7 years ago. Even made it to hackaday. http://www.sgtnoodle.com/projects/kerbal-control-panel/

One time we played Artemis in the two mission control rooms at SpaceX. It was nice having professional headsets. My team was winning, until someone on the other team used the IT system to shut down our computers!

[samplatt]

>playing Artemis, was put the "engineering" station in another room, with walkie-talkies so you had to actually "call down to engineering" to ask them to do things

I love this idea for realism (and, tbh, to minimise the 'talking-over-each-other' factor... but for me I'd prefer to be in the same room as my friends. I want to see the smiles and hear the laughter. Without that, engineering would just feel like a job well done.

[midoridensha]

The engineers need to be near the warp core and other engineering stuff, not on the bridge. How are they supposed to crawl through Jeffries tubes if they're hanging out with the captain?

[matthewfcarlson]

While I haven't played any bridge simulator, I am personally a huge fan of collaborative experiences that tech can enable. There are some many interesting things that can be done when you augment a human's storytelling capability with an environment that can change with their story, offering a way for the audience to interact in a meaningful way with each other and the story itself.

This seems like a wonderful project with a lot of love. Keep going :)

[alexanderson]

Thanks for the encouragement, and the reminder of what makes this project special.

[japhib]

Going to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center is hands-down the best field trip I went on in elementary/middle school. We even went back as high schoolers. This project seems incredible!

[alexanderson]

psst. If you're still living in the area, they do group missions for adults too. If you've got the time and willing friends, definitely opt for a 5-hour mission. It'll be just as much fun as you remember.

[ethangarofolo]

5-hour mission? Surely something so awesome can't actually exist...

[alexanderson]

Back in my day, we used to do 17-hour overnight missions, where the crew would have to sleep in ships, since the simulation would continue through the night.

We once did an away mission where the crew was stranded on a remote planet and running out of water. We split the crew, where one half we going to find a viable water source and the other needed to track down a local scientist who had the parts we needed to repair the ship.

After dressing them up in our weirdest costumes, we trekked them outside. The water group were sent to a local convenience store with a couple of dollar bills and told to "act natural" as they picked up some bottled water. I was happy to find that they absolutely did not act normal.

The other group went to a local staff member's house, which had been decorated to look like the scientists laboratory.

Needless to say, the whole experience was quite memorable, and highlights how the computer controls are only part of what makes the simulation fun.

[slm_HN]

Was the program was based on the classic book, https://www.amazon.com/Star-Ship-Simulation-games-no/dp/0918... ?

[alexanderson]

I actually only discovered that book a few years ago, but it aligns a lot with my vision. I wrote a short book review on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ralex1993/status/1259560390368694272

[Apocryphon]

Any details about each role’s responsibilities? Curious what’s involved for Tactical.

[alexanderson]

Very much up in the air at the moment, but it will likely be what you typically find in bridge simulators. For tactical, a beam weapon, a projectile weapon, some kind of point-defense, shields, and a targeting scheme for all of them.

If you want to help guide what's included and how they fit together, I'm happy to entertain proposals in the Github discussions or Discord.

I should add that Thorium Nova will include a lot more inter-ship controls. Things like security officers, system maintenance, medical teams, cargo transfer, power grid distribution - that kind of thing. Adding all of that will effectively double the max-crew size of the typical 6 you see in other bridge sims.

[Apocryphon]

Could the ship carry fighter wings? :p

[alexanderson]

I'm hoping for it! The engine supports multiple player ships, so if one of those player ships happened to spawn from another player ship, and if that ship happened to be smaller and have a single player station, the engine doesn't really care.

[bee_rider]

Dual seat fighters with a pilot and a weapons officer are also very cool.

[fknorangesite]

If we're not careful this comment section is going to scope creep itself into Star Citizen.

[drdec]

I've done these things in person, they are an absolute blast, so intense. Thanks!