When attempting to create a realistic moon like terrain we had a very difficult time hand creating a terrain that looked natural and could pass for the moon.  During a bit of downtime and after some significant frustration we started looking for alternatives.  The thought was that there was a lot of satellite data for the Earth, Moon, and Mars.  What if there was accurate heightfield data that had already been transformed into gray scale maps.

It felt like a long shot but we decided to give it a try.  After a lot of searching we came upon the Mars MOLA Digital Terrain Model Map by the USGS at map-a-planet.org.  This turned out to be just what we were looking for.  The map allows you to pan and drill down in the map.

We tried a lot of different terrains but drilling down too much made the maps too pixilated and terrain that was too uneven was hard to navigate.  In the end we settled on the map to the right.  The moonbase dome is in the black crater at the center.

This terrain had an excellent mix of just what we needed.  It had nice craters of a good size and the terrain wasn't too uneven.  The crater was also very circular which was important to us as we wanted a circular dome over the crater.

We eventually did find Earth and Moon heightfield maps but obviously the Earth models were not going to give us what we wanted.  The Moon maps had promise but the tended to be much more densely packed with craters which made navigating the terrain difficult and finding they type of crater we were looking for very difficult but we may revisit these maps for future areas of Moonbase.

In the map the dark areas are low and the light areas are elevated.

Anyone that wants to look at the Mars map and has a terrain they would like us to try either take a screen shot or just tell us the coordinates and why you think that terrain is worth exploring.  As Moonbase evolves you will be exploring actual terrain from Mars and the Moon which we think is very interesting.  We just hope you will all be patient with us as we get there.

Below are some test images and test maps we looked at although there were many others.

Please join us at the Moonbase in LEGO Universe.  This is completely user generated content and is accessable through Starbase 3001 whos entrance is off of Nimbus Station.  The level opened November 9th and is being visited frequently. 

This is an introductory level.  The hope is to expand it extensively but to do that it needs to become popular and LEGO and NetDevil need to know there is a demand.  The best way to do that is to discuss Moonbase on all your message boards including the message boards here.  Please spread the word and invite folks to join us here at Moonbase.lu the Moonbase's official off-line home.

The response so far has been fantastic but we need an overwhelming response so that LEGO and ND see the value.  If they do then we hope to offer other items to help support our efforts and the cost of this site.

-Eric Kingsley

A-Team Team Lead.

Welcome!  Coming soon to LEGO Universe are fan created intro zones.  The plan and hope is that these zones will grow and expand over time with all content generated by fans.  You may wonder how we are getting user zones into LEGO Universe so fast.  The answer is that four years ago LEGO started asking some fans to help and for those of us that stuck it out we now have zones of our own.  While there are others this site is setup to support the Moonbase user content zone.

A group of approximately 5 fans joined forces to create the Moonbase.  Because 2 of us were among the very first invitees to the program we called ourselves the A-Team.  Over those four years we have had many starts and stops and different ideas but in the end we have the Moonbase.  It may not appear to be much now but that is one reason we have decided to start this site. 

We believe the Moonbase has a nearly limitless capability for content and tangental story lines.  We are asking you to help with stories of your own.  Along with our intro zone we have ideas pretty ready for a couple more maps beyond that we are all ears.  If you wish to submit stories please think them out and don't post contradictions to estabilshed canon.  Look at our knowledge base for ideas and characters.

For those that would just like to submit models please follow these instructions for getting the unlimited pallet for LEGO Digital Designer or LDD.  All our models will be loaded into game from LDD format.  We are interested in all ideas just remember that not everything will make it into game as we have to keep our over arching story intact.

This is a soft release of this support site as our zone isn't available in game just yet.  It should be shortly and when it is we will make an attempt to draw folks to the site to help with contributions.

Eric Kingsley - A-Team Team Leader