Another new project from some industry heavyweights is here, and it’s called Terra Ex. This 4X game, which stands for Explore/Expand/Exploit/Exterminate (think Galactic Civilizations or Master of Orion), is being created by some of the same guys that brought us such indie smash hits as WoW, Starcraft, Mercenaries, and the underrated Nox. The story of Terra Ex begins in the distant future, when Mars and Earth collide with one another and humanity needs to hightail it out of town.
Gameplay in Terra Ex is split between a few primary play areas, the first of which is a high level strategic view that lets you take in the big picture. The system view is where you’ll manage your construction, resources, and all the other fine detail that makes 4X games fun and a little intimidating. Finally there’s the war room, which is where you’ll engage in a mix of real time and turn based combat against other players, as well as alien AI. Combat is of particular interest because all of the things leading up to it are in real-time, including the deployment of forces, which can take hours depending on the distances being traveled; once the fighting begins it converts to a sort of turn based combat system broken into rounds.
One of the most nerdtastic items of note in the game is the involvement of NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). In an effort give Terra Ex a strong basis in reality, they’re working with JPL on the creation of Ask O.D.I.N. (On Demand Information Network). Next to many of the technologies in Terra Ex you’ll be able to press the O.D.I.N button and get information on the current state of that technology, and what it may be like in the future. Pretty cool.
The Terra Ex Kickstarter campaign runs until November 15th and has a funding goal of $200,000. With any luck in the coming weeks we’ll see more of what they have planned for the game visually, and how they plan on not making it “pay to win.”
