Earth 2150 , thoughts?

I just noticed on Stardock that they put the 2150 trilogy on SDC, and was just wondering if anyone has played them and if they’re any good. I read about a sequel released a few months ago to average scores.

Yeah, I was wondering if it’s worth blowing one of my 10 tokens on it.

Generic RTS #10,0000

For the time it had amazing graphics and some pretty cool gameplay innovations. These days, probably not so much.

Depends how much it costs. The series is a good one, but can be inscrutable at times. All of them run great nowadays compared to their less than stellar performance on mid-range hardware of the time so that helps a lot.

If you’re an RTS fan, they’re worth $10 or $15 to try them out, but probably not a lot more than that anymore.

They all have playable demos through SDC, but I notice they’re not for sale with tokens. Is that the case for you guys too?

I’ve still got 10 SDC tokens to spend. I seem to have all the premium and Stardock titles in my “Purchased” section already. The only ones I don’t have that I’m interested in are Space Hack and BS Hacker. Does anyone know how BS Hacker compares to Uplink?

I toyed around a bit with BS Hacker on account of having tokens laying about and figuring, what the hell. It’s very much like a much less polished Uplink, with worse font, dodgy writing (translation effects, I suspect), and a painfully nigh-unreadable map for the build-bounced-connections thing. I do like how much of it is typed-command driven, rather than dragging little software boxes around, but that’s about the only part of it I like more compared to Uplink.

But it did make me want to play more Uplink, which was pretty effective of it.

I already have the painfully fashionable original UK indie release of Uplink that has the “black text on black card” code-sheet for creating a new character. It came in a jiffy bag envelope stamped with “This is a small package”.

I think I’ll pass and wait until SDC has something worth buying that isn’t by Stardock.

Tried Bs hacker as well, hated it. Reminded me of trying to use dos back in the day which I dreaded.

Heh, yeah. I remember when I first bought it it would barely run on my machine, like maybe one frame every two or three seconds. A while later I got a brand new computer and it was playable, but still had some slowdowns. I believe the stated minimum requirements were something like 500MHz, and my machine was a 1.5GHz. I can’t imagine the game sold well seeing as how it wouldn’t run well on any consumer PC in existence at the time.

I like the Earth 2150 series quite a bit. The Moon Project is the best variation, but they are all the same game essentially. Earth 2150 incorporated some RTS elements reminiscent of TA that most other RTS games still don’t, like queueable unit orders and build orders, radar and radar jamming, automatic group assignments, etc. While it didn’t really capture the feel of TA, especially not the resource model, it did have enough character of it’s own to differentiate it from other RTS games. Things like a Home base, tunnelling, unit design and a bizarre sense of dark humor are more than enough to make it stand out. I don’t understand the “generic” label at all, and wonder if those who claim that actually played e2150. 2140 on the other hand was extremely generic.

E2150 was actually the game that made me decide I don’t like customizable units in RTS games. In turn-based games like Space Empires IV, sure, I’ll spend 10 minutes putting together a kickass battleship. In an RTS I just want to pump out some tanks with no hassle.

I think caesarbear is right on. There’s nothing generic about Earth 2150. On the contrary, it’s going to be a turn-off to a lot of more casual RTS players (note shadarr’s complaint). As for the building stuff, it’s pretty straightforward once you grok it. It’s the paper/rock/scissors of the game, but instead of choosing which units to build, you choose which techs to research.

So, yeah, if you’re just looking for a way to use up your tokens and you want to see an interesting approach to an RTS, I would recommend Earth 2150.

-Tom

I’m still waiting for them to put Oasis on, I used 2 of my 10 already on desperate space, decent game, but a bit repetive

You say nothing is generic about it then list the unit production. So what if they changed what units to what tech. Its the same thing basically. Everything else in the games had been done before, sometimes years before in titles like TA.

So technically its a mostly a generic, dull, RTS with some useless fluff added in terms of units production.

Bull. It was the first RTS to have a meaningful day/night cycle, deformable 3D terrain, and a campaign that was more than just a bunch of missions strung together with cut-scenes. Put simply, it was the opposite of generic.

How so? Instead of giving you a preset anti-air unit, you have to design your own. You can decide between a missle system or machine guns, and a light ground, heavy ground, airborne, or naval platform to put it on. It gives you the ability to produce what best suits your map, situation, and tactics rather than the more generic approach. Most RTS tech/unit trees are strictly linear, meaning whatever you research is a benefit. In earth 2150, you might waste money on a tech that does not help your situation.

Everything else in the games had been done before, sometimes years before in titles like TA.

Yes, the mechanics of building a base, mining resources, and producing and upgrading units is not different from other RTS games, but if that’s your sole determinate for what’s generic, then I’m hard pressed to think of any RTS that’s not generic. We usually called those “non-generics” something other than an RTS. If it’s TA that you want, earth 2150 has been the closest thing to a spiritual successor. Or are you calling it generic because it’s loosely reflective of TA?

So technically its a mostly a generic, dull, RTS with some useless fluff added in terms of units production.

A story line that’s not focused on dominating the world, but saving yourself
Deformable 3D terrain, letting you alter the map to your tactics
A day-night cycle with a direct effect on combat
Weather effects with a direct effect on combat and your visibility
Micromanagable supply lines
Resource and unit management that carries over to the next mission
3-way split screen to allow monitoring of remote areas
A highly configurable interface and highly configurable multiplayer options

It may not be the best RTS around, but for features, “technically”, it delivers when most don’t. You obviously have some personal beef with the game, and maybe a valid one, but you are not stating the truth by calling it generic.

The Earth 2150 trilogy finished downloading and installing during my nightly
post-WoW coma, and I had a look at the tutorial and first couple of missions.

Thoughts:
-Producing vehicles is slow. Lots of factories and power generators are
needed.

-The first few combat vehicles I created didn’t seem powerful in the
tutorial - they got splattered pretty darn quick. Not really all that many
options at first, so the design bit is wasted until you have more tech.

-You have one base you send resources back to (or borrow from), with a
resource mine with quite a bit of credits at first, and toggle between this
and the mission map. Slightly original concept. You can do research at the
main base without having to protect the facility (perhaps that changes
later on).

-Colours are LCD green and Quake brown so far. Eww.
(Playing Eurasian side)

-I really have to read the manual for once, as the chassis options don’t have
any information about what some details mean. 75% armour? 75% of what’s
normal since it’s a fast vehicle, or 75% absorption?

-If you transport your units back to HQ after finishing the goals of a mission,
they’re there to deploy in the next. Going from mission to mission feels like
a continous flow, because you just stop by the main base and pick up the
next one, barely any loading to speak of.

It feels original, but I haven’t had time to play thoroughly yet. At one token
(7 dollars! I get a pack and a half of CDs for that here!), it’s not at all a
bad purchase.

I need to get time to check out the Etrom demo, too. Looks a bit different.
Anyone happen to have bought it already elsewhere? The Italian version was
out a while ago, I think.

You are also limited by an annoying unit max in the SP campaign.

-The first few combat vehicles I created didn’t seem powerful in the
tutorial - they got splattered pretty darn quick. Not really all that many
options at first, so the design bit is wasted until you have more tech.

Yeah the tutorial likes to send your pathetic lvl1 units against enemies with energy weapons. I guess it’s the devs disturbed sense of humor. I think a mass of units with grenade launchers will do nicely in that tutorial if I remember correctly.

-You have one base you send resources back to (or borrow from), with a
resource mine with quite a bit of credits at first, and toggle between this
and the mission map. Slightly original concept. You can do research at the
main base without having to protect the facility (perhaps that changes
later on).

In fact don’t waste credits on building unneccessary structures like research facilities or construction factories on mission maps. Just build resources facilites, power, defenses, and unit factories as needed and ship in harvesters.

-Colours are LCD green and Quake brown so far. Eww.
(Playing Eurasian side)

I think you can get hideous white and difficult to read transparent as well. Check the advanced interface options.

-I really have to read the manual for once, as the chassis options don’t have
any information about what some details mean. 75% armour? 75% of what’s
normal since it’s a fast vehicle, or 75% absorption?

absorption of impact weapons. useless against energy weapons, for that you need shields.

Ohh whee I get to see the headlight effects on my tanks…

Please spare me about the campaign, there was nothing unique about it.