Earth 2160
Encyclopedia
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, and later from Good Old Games in 2009. The game continues the dystopic themes of the previous Earth games, and is set in numerous locales throughout the solar system
.
. 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.
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 robot
s and machines to accomplish any unpleasant tasks and jobs; however, whilst the ED and LC evacuation ships arrive safely at Mars and begin colonization, 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 modeled 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 unit 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. In-game cutscenes and several unit descriptions refer to them as a purpose-built biological army, created by a race nicknamed "The Builders", which are also responsible for the creation of a space gate network, as well as several advanced artifacts found in the game. The Morphidians appear to be von Neumann machines created exclusively for war, with their ground forms being made using extremely advanced synthetic biology
and genetic engineering, while their space fleet was made using nano-assembler technology (only because they couldn't evolve a proper, air-capable organism).
, lighting effects and detailed units are also present.
The game uses an AI
system which employs 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.
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.
hired law firm Schutt-Waetke to charge more than 18,000 German filesharer
s for copyright violation. Fines between 150 to 650 Euros were levied. 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 program was automatically generating serial numbers), leading him to start monitoring the filesharing networks for illegal shares. 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. 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. 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.
engine developed to make a highly detailed environment and AI
. It also has a hardware version which supports pyrotechnic and lighting effects. It was developed by Mariusz Szaflik.
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
(RTS) computer game, the third in the "Earth" series and developed by Reality Pump studios. It is a direct sequel to Earth 2150
Earth 2150
Earth 2150 also known as Earth 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet is a real-time strategy game, originally published in 2000 by SSI and the Polish developer Reality Pump and a sequel to the largely unknown Earth 2140...
. The release of the game was staggered, originally published in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
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, and later from Good Old Games in 2009. The game continues the dystopic themes of the previous Earth games, and is set in numerous locales throughout the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
.
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 MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. After a time of relative peace and recovery, the factions once again come to blows, with a fourth faction of
extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
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
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
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
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. The UCS was previously a huge makeup of hedonistic, advanced humans who used robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s and machines to accomplish any unpleasant tasks and jobs; however, whilst the ED and LC evacuation ships arrive safely at Mars and begin colonization, 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
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
'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 modeled on the Soviet Union, and before Earth's demise were based primarily in Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
. 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
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. 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
Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity is the idea of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift...
vehicles and orbital
Orbital spaceflight
An orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To do this around the Earth, it must be on a free trajectory which has an altitude at perigee above...
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 unit 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. In-game cutscenes and several unit descriptions refer to them as a purpose-built biological army, created by a race nicknamed "The Builders", which are also responsible for the creation of a space gate network, as well as several advanced artifacts found in the game. The Morphidians appear to be von Neumann machines created exclusively for war, with their ground forms being made using extremely advanced synthetic biology
Synthetic biology
Synthetic biology is a new area of biological research that combines science and engineering. It encompasses a variety of different approaches, methodologies, and disciplines with a variety of definitions...
and genetic engineering, while their space fleet was made using nano-assembler technology (only because they couldn't evolve a proper, air-capable organism).
Graphics and features
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 mappingBump mapping
Bump mapping is a technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calculations. The result is an apparently bumpy surface rather than a...
, lighting effects and detailed units are also present.
The game uses an AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
system which employs 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
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
, 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
ModdingModding
Modding is a slang expression that is derived from the verb "modify". Modding refers to the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software or anything else for that matter, to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer...
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
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
is present in the modding system.
Anti-piracy actions
In 2005 Zuxxez EntertainmentZuxxez Entertainment
Zuxxez Entertainment is a video game developer and publisher based in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was founded in 2000 by former TopWare Interactive employees...
hired law firm Schutt-Waetke to charge more than 18,000 German filesharer
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
s for copyright violation. Fines between 150 to 650 Euros were levied. 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 program was automatically generating serial numbers), leading him to start monitoring the filesharing networks for illegal shares. 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. 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. 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.
Earth-4
Earth-4 is the graphics engine used in Earth 2160. It is a 3D3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
engine developed to make a highly detailed environment and AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
. It also has a hardware version which supports pyrotechnic and lighting effects. It was developed by Mariusz Szaflik.