Earth 2170

[Atazoth]

what would you like to see in E2170?
my list of things
All silver Models from E2140 and Android models ( the one in E2160 looked realy cheap and poor terminator rip off)
Weapons of mass destruction
Proper laser weapons and plasma weapons not the shity from e2160 but from
2150 or 2140 looks way more realistic
old school shield look from E2150
taking over enamy buildings
old huds like we had in E2150 each race got its own hud style

[Thaliur]

I'd like to add the "advanced" AI mode for custom units like we had in E2150. Lots more tactical choices were available that way.

Also, I liked the campaign style in E2150 much better than the new one in 2160.

Not exactly affecting gameplay, but the videos introducing new technology or informing about campaign process in 2150 were a great addition to the game's overall atmosphere.

[UCS]

A question!

Is earth 21** productors still making games ?

[Thaliur]

A question!

Is earth 21** productors still making games ?

Yes, currently, they are working on Two Worlds - The Temptation

[Preda]

Yes, but are they really going to make 2170?

[Thaliur]

Yes, but are they really going to make 2170?

I have no idea, but I really hope they are.
And I hope they bring back some of the features that were dropped between 2150 and 2160.

[vb]

Yeah, the campaign should regain the persistent main base feature from e2150 and maybe heroic units in addition (Not like WC3, but similar to your heroes in Rise of Legends or your squads in DoW2).
There need to be features that give you the feeling of getting stronger during the campaign, besides your own experience. Missions should feel like puzzles with multiple ways to solve them, with each mission combining more puzzles.
Maybe you should have multiple paths for a techtree where you can't research everything during a play-through of the campaign. The techs should affect your faction in substantial ways and you should really get the feeling of your faction evolving into the direction you want through your choice.
These techs should also affect the visuals of your army - Even if the difference is only small for every single tech you do, the end-result would differ a lot depending on how you choose when teching.

Also, Earth 2150 was the first RTS to use a way of storytelling that actually worked!
The briefings you get via Mails are unique in the RTS genre and don't suck. All RTS try the cinematics approach and fail with that, but e2150 found out how to design story progression for this genre.
The mails really give you a feeling of being a commander on a battlefield, with the story slowly unfolding. It's also unique in how you see the characters - Who didn't like the vastly different personalities of your superiors and of side characters like Fang and NEO?
It's really sad that nobody else ever tried to use this approach in their own RTS... It's probably because e2150 isn't known much outside of Europe.


As for the interface, I liked how e2160 worked with hotkeys. There was only the issue that you couldn't change in between build-mode and normal hotkeys fast, because that would be bugged, but it's still the best approach to hotkeys for such a game.
In addition, the screen-splitting feature of e2150 should come back. It was extremely useful if your monitor had a resolution high enough to sensibly support that feature. It allows for really heavy amounts of multitasking and would fit perfectly for E-Sport.
And btw, I think it's funny how e2160 did a better job at build queue management than Supreme Commander, even though the latter was built around its insane scale.

Another thing would be the online service - It should be better than Earthnet, at least in terms of connection issues. And it should be built for more players, as I can imagine the current Earthnet being really annoying if there were more than fifty players online at the same time. (Because of the lack of friend-lists and features like that)


In any other RTS I would be bothered if the devs decided to include additional races with every sequel, but I think it's e21X0's style to include another faction for e2170. Five factions wouldn't be easily balanced, but a huge amount of faction diversity, paired with a multitude of equal choices, could maybe make the game complex enough to not allow imbalanced strategies until the game was a few months old. And then, simple patching or community balancing (if there was modding) would help fix these issues easily.

Additionally, a look should be taken at other RTS that failed but had great ideas - Like Universe at War and Rise of Legends.
It would be interesting if one faction used giant walkers with upgradeable and destroyable hardpoints, while another one used the old build menu (Maybe this time a bit different... E2150 did overkill with almost all weapons being available for almost all units, while e2160 did too many specialized weapon systems and an useless armor system (Caused the game to be way too random because you couldn't scout an armor tech). I liked the armors and engines, but they should have been done in a different manner. (Maybe light armor for more speed or something) Also, you shouldn't be able to equip shields and repair bots at the same time... Or there should be a "energy" value, with different weapon/tool choices using up a different amount of energy. (The e2150 handbook often mentioned how strong a unit's generator was to explain which weapons it could use) - So an artillery unit would be unable to hold more than one repair bot and a weak engine or something, for example.)



And another, really important thing:
Singleplayer and Multiplayer are different things. They can't use the same balancing and gameplay if you want them to be fun. So neither should you include fun SP mechanics (Like heroes and persistent elements) in MP, nor should sensible MP decisions (e.g. ultra weak defenses) be carried over for SP.
Also, modding is really important to help a game live long. If modding is possible and easier than e2150/2160, it would do a lot to keep the community alive and the game would sell a lot more copies even years after its release.
And don't forget:
Most new RTS absolutely suck horribly. Not because they are bad. It's because they aren't polished. The pathfinding in games like Red Alert 3, Universe at War and Dawn of War 2 can drive a person MAD with rage.
That's something that Earth 2170 should avoid.


Edit:
As for the ones in this thread asking about e2170:
http://www.insideearth.net/index.php...le_de&langid=3
e2170 will come, but not before 2010.

[arrghhhhhh]

Maybe a turn based super strategy with RTS battles like rise of nations or the Total War series. it would be cool to move warships around the solar system in a huge war.

[Surtur]

My name is Surtur and I am from the Netherlands, therefore I would like to warn you, my English is far from perfect.



Recently Earth 2170 was announced to release not before 2010. Also rumors spread about 2170 would become a more casual type of game. If this is true, I am asking you to reconsider. If this is not true, then feel free to ignore the text below and please tell then in what kind of RTS earth 2170 will become.



Starting out with Earth 2140, I was pretty young at the time and could not even get beyond mission 7 or so. Nonetheless I enjoyed my game playing ass the ED while all of my friends were playing Red Alert. Aside from the great game play and the cool units (Tiger Assault) I loved the graphics and the way all units moved around the map. Also, the game was rather advanced for it's time in my opinion. The ability to capture or paralyze units, the fact that damaged units moved slower and the original and strategic strong base building and resource management all added to the game's experience.



Earth 2140 always remained in my heart, for it was my first RTS game. But, living in the Netherlands and being to young to follow the game industry actively, I did not know there was an actual sequel, going by the name of Earth 2150. Some years after playing Earth 2140, I found Earth 2150 the moon project. I bought it straight away. But being about 12 years old, I hardly understood anything about that game. I quickly dismissed it and was slightly disappointed. However, a few years later I reinstalled the game and noticed it's potential. This really is one of the greatest real time tactical games I've ever played. All these changing factors on the map such as weather, temperature and wind changed the way your had to play. And all of this one maps of unseen scale. This combined with the great atmosphere, 3D visuals (hardly care about graphics in-game but the game being in 3D was brilliant!) and practical base building made this my favorite game for a long time. There is just to much to talk about here, cause I didn't even mention the unit designer and vast amount of researches.



After rediscovering Earth 2150, I was eager to hear of the news of an Earth 2160. The first screenshots were breathtaking and I expected a lot from this game. But I was disappointed. I did not like to see the Aliens. And the hero and agent units were not interesting. The most annoying part was that the ED suddenly had this immense American feeling. Also the maps were much smaller and the whole feeling of the game was less epic. I felt more like a Starcraft clone rather than a true Earth game. There were things I did like however. Making it important what kind of resource you harvested for armor types and such. Nonetheless, I am still playing Earth 2150. Also the love for Earth 2150 has made me buy WWII and WWIII, games which use the same engine.



My point is pretty much that I would not like you to make the game to casual, as Earth 2160 was a disappointment. Ideally, I would like to see a entire new engine, something close to the Earth 3 (That was the one 2150 used right?) one, but a much more advanced version. I am thinking freezing water here, fully destructible terrain and improved terrain advantages. And that with this engine, another trilogy can be made. Also, one without aliens. I do not mind the game playing on Mars or Eden at all, as long as the humans control the game. I would also like to the ED taking their Russian style back, I'm just a big fan of it. Also, add some men to the LC, they can't be all women can they?



Of course you are a business and you must make profitable games for your existence and sadly enough it is true that games with a greater learning curve and games which require patience are often in less demand. But, a lot has changed and you guys have noticed well. Digital distribution is the future and it allows you to sell your games to a greater public than ever before, without being dependent on retailers which only sell the most popular games. It is a cheap and easy to use alternative to shops. Using digital distribution, I do think that you can make a strategy game that, requires patience, strategic thinking and also offers a great deal of depth, while still making profits.



I hope you will be able to satisfy me with your answer. And if you ever need a beta tester, I got decent experience there.



Best of luck and regards to all



Sincerely



Surtur

[Ifitmovesnukeit]

Story-wise the best thing to do would be to pretend E2160 never happened.

And just FYI, E2140 used the earth/earth1 engine, 2150 + sequels used earth2, no earth game used earth3 (knightshift (?) did though), and e2160 used earth4. I don't even know if RP still uses the "earth" designation for its engines, but if so I'd guess Two Worlds is using earth5.

[Surtur]

Thank you for the clarification

Earth 2140 and 50 were great games inho. Earth 2160 just became more of a clickfest. I just like the vast maps of 2150 and I dislike the American ED of the 2160 version.

[Mokka]

The fact that units STILL moved along a square-raster, and ended up blocking each other, is unforgivable. Especially considering other games (like WC3) had solved the problem 3 years earlier.

This issue, amongst others, is a total deal-breaker for any modern RTS. They thought it was not important enough, and voila the game flopped. Perhaps they sold a lot of copies, but it will always be remembered as a "could-have-been-good" game.

[Surtur]

I agree with you there. Yet I do noy think the lack of modern technicall stuff with 2160 was the main problem. The whole idea of a smaller scaled game and a simplified 2150 just was a bad one. Combine this with a lame story and weak characters and you will get a dissapointment.

[Mokka]

That is not some technical stuff, it is a gameplay issue that could have been prevented more or less easily. Story was lame, I give you that. And the cutscenes looked horrible.

On the topic to Earth 2170: if they are going to make Earth 2170 (which I doubt), they'd better pull a trick out of their sleeves and/or be harder with their quality management. It is a shame that many publishers force their developers to hurry a game and ship an unfinished product. But did they really save that much money? Was it worth it?

Earth 2170 will not have the advage of having a cool predecessor, as 2160 had. So now, people are only going to buy it if it actually IS a good game.

[Surtur]

Earth 2170 has been announced and they are working on it.
I also have read somewere that it was going to be more casual to reach a wider audience. I sure do hope that this will not be the case, and I cannot conform wether or not it is true.

[Mokka]

Really? I didn't pay attention for some time, so I totally missed that.

I hope they have lots of good ideas, because they sure as hell don't listen to us

[Surtur]

A well, I just hope they will create something new and that they will break the status quo just as the did with 2150

[Earth Fan]

i started playing e2160 and the screenshots from 2140-50 look way better than 2160 so i hope 2170 is a combination of al the games and i hope they have the alien fleets replicatorus

[Surtur]

Personally I thought the alians were a dissapointment. I always liked the more subtle influnce that the Earth series had in it's predecessors. For example finding an U.F.O. that gave you new technolagies. I am pretty much hoping for a Earth game that acts as if 2160 never happened and so we can finnally have a worthy sequel to the 2150 trilogy. I do not think this is likely to happen though. If this game is really getting more casual than the other games in the series (even more than 2160), I will be likely to abandon the Earth series.

[Violet]

what would you like to see in E2170?
my list of things
All silver Models from E2140 and Android models ( the one in E2160 looked realy cheap and poor terminator rip off)
Weapons of mass destruction
Proper laser weapons and plasma weapons not the shity from e2160 but from
2150 or 2140 looks way more realistic
old school shield look from E2150
taking over enamy buildings
old huds like we had in E2150 each race got its own hud style

Do I even want to ask?

[Surtur]

What's wrong with that?

[Mokka]

I for one would definitely like some WMD in my computer

[Mclaren]

I wish they would put the old supply style back in, UCS reloader really sucked, ED ammo supply was above their tech level, and I couldn't exploit the fact that my enemy would have to send through supply units, that I could easily destroy. I also liked the way I could layer my defenses in Earth 2150, I could have an awesome defense and not have to worry about it being overrun. It would be nice if they toned down the AA weapons so they cannot clear a fleet a fighters in two seconds. Finally, I liked having general all purpose rocket launchers like in Earth 2150.

[Quinlann]

I must admit the one thing I did like about E2160 was the ED wall defenses, was intresting to finally see some "On rails" turrets that you could move around your walls so you could defend from multiple angles.

However as it stands thats the only thing I like, was sick of failing missions because by the time I brought out a unit that had certain weapons the enemy had already brought out a specifically suitable armoured unit, almost like it knew I was building them before they exited the Yards. Maybe a slight delay in CPU adaption time for things like that ?

But as it stands 2150 was supirior and I must admit I loved it, especially deforming the terrain and the ability to burrow under base defenses was awesome. It always had a more realistic "Gritty" veiwpoint to it rather than the "Sparkily" future version. Was alittle odd to see that everyone had finally reached mars and suddenly everyones tech level had increased tenfold.. Maybe the removal of infantry would help? I don't recall 2150 using them (Probebly because of the earths climate)

As for FMV movies I loved them in Earth and C&C, if I want to see in-game graphics in a cut scene .. I'll play the bloody game! I wanna see what my units would look like if they were really real, like in the new tech vids or possably the intro movies!

[Surtur]

I read somewhere that they were planning to release 2170 for consoles as well. That would be a huge disapointment. Since it would loose its depth in order to adapt tp the consoles.

In Earth 2150 they tried t be original and offered great new things. In 2160, they tried to be the new Starcraft and now it could be made even more simplistic. It is a shame