I was wandering the con between scheduled games. I had come out of the games library perusing the impressive assortment of board games when i saw a sign on an easel in front of darkened room. It read Artemis Computer Lab. Being nosy I stuck my head in the open door. Two young fellas greeted me and asked if I wanted to play. I said sure and i was sat down in front of a laptop. I was at the Comms station. Now for those of you that passed this by and didnt go in you missed a treat. Artemis is a Bridge crew simulator for a starship just like Star trek or galaxy quest Never give up, never surrender! So each station is assigned a department. Comms, Helm, weapons, Science, and Engineering. The two young men took turns being captain and training us noobs how to play. It was an amazing time and I spent the rest of my open time of the Con playing as many stations as I could. I only got to helm, weapons, and comms. I loved it and hope to see it again next year. Working my way to the captain chair ;-) So the surprise of the con for me was Artemis. I loved it and rumors of 2 crews and a tournament schedule for next year were whispered.
What are the screens like? Would someone who tends to get motion sick on modern video games (not me) have issues, or is it more like an informational display as you might expect to see on Star Trek?
A good comparison is Eve Online. Visuals are pretty similar. Here's a sample (Eve's scale is dramatically different, so you're just looking at the interface, here, not all the majestic ships):
Each "station" has its own monitor with specialized info that has to be shared or communicated with the rest of the crew. No motion sickness inducing. There is a main screen that projects the ship moving through space and enemies it encounters. but usually you are so busy with your screen and relaying info that you usually don't watch it much.
Here you see 2 station left of main screen and 2 to the right. the 5th station was a laptop setup on the table on the far right.
You never know, but I would guess not. It's fairly tame, graphically. The fun & challenge is in the teamwork, communication, and coordination.
Yea that video is what would be on the main screen. Players dont really look at that too much. Thier screens are more informational. I think the most movement is science, but the graphics are more like original asteroids so the motion sick person should be okay, also they control the movement of the screen so that should help as well.
I went there a couple times to try it when I had a few dead hours between games on Friday and Saturday. Both times the two people in there were just sleeping on the floor and nothing was running.
Artemis needed to have some more publicity in order to fill the seats during all of its sessions. I wanted to have a cool walk-in event available for everyone, but it suffered from a lack of proper promotion. We will fix that for next year and maybe offer a few slots a day for pre-reg too.
