Earth 2160 is a real time strategy (RTS) computer game, the third in the "Earth" series and developed by Reality Pump studios. It is a direct sequel to Earth 2150. The release of the game was staggered, originally published in Germany, Poland and Russia in June 2005, it was then released in the rest of Europe in September 2005 with North America receiving the latest release of the game November 2005. It was also released on Valve Software's Steam platform in April 2006. The game continues the dystopic themes of the previous Earth games, and is set in numerous locales throughout the solar system.
Plotline
Earth 2160 follows the progress of the factions, the United Civilized States,
the Eurasian Dynasty and the Lunar Corporation, who, after escaping the doomed
Earth, headed for Mars. After a time of relative peace and recovery, the
factions once again come to blows, with a fourth faction of extraterrestrial
nature, named the Morphidians, coming into play. Just a few thousand humans were
specifically chosen for the evacuation of Earth, and as such manpower and
resources are limited. Upon reaching Mars, the factions set about completing the
difficult and lengthy task of terraforming the planet independently of one
another. As the game begins the process appears to be far from completion.
Factions
There are a total of four playable factions in Earth 2160. Each faction has a
unique method of constructing bases, as will be explained below.
The United Civilized States (UCS) are the evolution of a former expansion of the
United States across the Americas. The UCS was previously a huge makeup of
hedonistic, advanced humans who used robots and machines to accomplish any
unpleasant tasks and jobs; however, whilst the ED and LC evacuation ships arrive
safely at Mars and begin colonisation, the UCS evacuation ship, the Phoenix,
inexplicably goes missing during the journey. Theories concerning its
disappearance range from destruction by a meteor swarm, to the human overlords
making the mistake of allocating too much power to the machines and, during the
journey to Mars, in a move much akin to HAL 9000's the few humans remaining were
exterminated by the machines they created. Major Michael Falkner of the ED
personally believes that the ship was sucked into a black hole "or something
like that, anyway". (It is revealed during the UCS campaign that the Captain of
the Phoenix, an AI, has kept the ship in orbit and the humans in stasis, waiting
for the wars in the Solar System between the ED and LC to end). The UCS's
backbone forces are its robot mechs and colossal airborne ships. During the
campaign, human forces under the rogue LC commander Heldin Ariah stumble across
the derelict UCS evacuation ship and are able to command the robots in their
fight against the Morphidian Aliens. The UCS structures initially serve almost
no function at first but may be upgraded with a series of add-on structures that
enhance unit production, armament, and resource collection. UCS mechs are
effective against most things except for ED tanks.
The Eurasian Dynasty (ED) represent the largest human faction in Earth 2160.
Upon successfully completing the evacuation vessels, the leaders and officers of
the faction were among the precious few human beings chosen to board the ships.
As the most primitive of all the factions, the ED have previously relied on
sheer strength and numbers to triumph over their enemies, using tanks and
helicopters in battle. Nevertheless, with only a few thousand humans remaining,
and strictly limited materials, their future remains tentative. The ED seem
modelled on the Soviet Union, and before Earth's demise were based primarily in
Eurasia. Typical ED bases are huge complexes of production, resource, research,
and defense structures connected together through tubes. Base defense can be
enhanced with a series of turrets built atop mag-lev walls; these turrets can be
moved along the wall sections to respond to threats in multiple directions.
The Lunar Corporation (LC) are by far the smallest of the factions. Unlike the
other factions, they are relatively peaceful, and prior to the destruction of
Earth lived unhindered on the Moon. However the fighting between the UCS and ED
prompted them to utilize Earth's resources to construct an escape craft
alongside the other two factions, and they too escape to Mars. The LC are the
most advanced of all the factions, with anti-gravity vehicles and orbital
construction technology. LC bases consist of a series of large towers with
modules built on top of one another in order to save space while defense is
supplied by a series of laser walls and defense towers.
The Morphidian Aliens are the most obscure of all the factions. Having been
imprisoned beneath the Martian surface aeons ago they were awoken by landing UCS
ships. Now, they are determined to escape their incarceration and establish
themselves across the solar system. Unlike the other factions, the Morphidian
Aliens' buildings and units are not manufactured, but are rather organic in
nature. All ground-based buildings and units originate from the Mantian family
of units, who have the capability of cloning themselves or morphing into another
building or units after sating themselves with a nearby water source. The Aliens
also rely on large starships called Replicatori, which can then replicate
themselves much like the Mantians (after absorbing enough crystal) or morph into
Morphoratori. These Morphoratori must then absorb enough metal before
transforming into warships.
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The game uses the Earth-4 engine, which uses a T&L rendering module supporting
pixel shading and bone calculation direct to ones graphics card. Bump mapping,
lighting effects and detailed units are also present.
The game uses a AI system which uses linear back framing algorithms to learn
from its mistakes and become increasingly competent in battle as the game
progresses.
An "agent" system allows factions to hire freelance persons each with their own
specific abilities. Some assist scientific research, others in reconnaissance,
resource harvesting and so forth. Each recalls his previous contracts, this
affects price. Further, they have an attitude towards their fellow agents,
ranging from love to resentment. Research plays a major part in Earth 2160, and
factions can choose numerous technologies to research, often at the same time.
Research centres are still prevalent, and the number constructed will have an
effect on the speed of research. Earth 2160 uses modular construction, in which
buildings and units can be constructed from a wide assortment of basic parts.
The game economy is based upon three material types: Water, Metal, and Crystals.
Multiplayer
A total of ten skirmish maps and four multiplayer modes exist. Players also have
the option to save their multiplayer games to finish at a later date. The
multiplayer servers are hosted from EarthNet, and a ladder and league is
included. A maximum of eight players may join a game. Spectator mode and Replays
are also included. There is also an option to join a running game, which many
real time strategy games don't have.
Development of EarthNet 2
Development of EarthNet 2, which was meant to replace the old EarthNet after
release, was stopped mid-2006. This caused enragement among the community as it
was perceived that ZuxxeZ blamed the community for the failure of its
development, as it was being developed with members of the community. In
addition ZuxxeZ considered the multiplayer feature of Earth 2160 unimportant, as
only 10% of all users of Earth 2160 ever went online with it.
Modding
Modding is another feature included with Earth 2160, the E2160 world editor is
included as an external program, enabling players to create their own maps to
battle on. Reality Pump has confirmed that Unicode is present in the modding
system.
Anti-piracy actions
In 2005 Zuxxez Entertainment hired law firm Schutt-Waetke to charge more than
18,000 German filesharers for copyright violation. Fines between 150 to 650
Euros were levied.[1] The producer Dirk Hassinger had noticed there were far
more players on the online game server than registered buyers (all the game's
copy protections systems had been hacked and a small programme was automatically
generating serial numbers), leading him to start monitoring the filesharing
networks for illegal shares.[1] The Swiss firm Logistep offered him a package
that would gather data valid for legal actions and automatically generate the
charges ready for digital submission to the court in Karlsruhe.[1] Two weeks
later Hassinger's lawyer submitted one CDROM containing 13,700 charges to the
court, each one also printed as a courtesy. By post each defendant received an
offer: pay 50 Euros now and the case is dropped. Most paid up. Hassinger's
lawyers also sent demands that each downloader sign an undertaking to never
again share copyrighted software, plus an invoice for 200 to 500 Euros.[1]
Earth-4
Earth-4 is the graphics engine used in Earth 2160. It is a 3D engine developed
to make a highly detailed environment and AI.[2] It also has a hardware version
which supports pyrotechnic and lighting effects.[2] It was developed by Mariusz
Szaflik.[3]