Status update: end of September 2023 news - OpenE2140 mod for OpenRA

Hello everyone!

It's been three weeks since we've released our last preview video, so we thought we should give you another sneak peek at what we've done and what we're currently working on. Be sure to watch Preview 5 video too, if you haven't seen it yet! Either here on ModDB or on Dalek.zone (that's a PeerTube instance).

Why an article?

The reason we're publishing this article here on ModDB is that aside from the channel on Dalek.zone and the videos and images here, there is virtually no public information about OpenE2140 outside of our OpenE2140 Discord server to this date. There is our GitHub repository, but there's so many issues and tasks (a lot of them in the backlog, i.e. not currently worked on) and other stuff going on that regular person, who knows little about programming or game development, likely has difficulties following the development there.

Also creating video takes a lot of time: it took me about 3 weeks to create Preview 4 and Preview 5 videos just over 2 weeks. Writing this article? Only about 9 hours (over 3 days). The rest of the time we can spend working on the mod. This doesn't mean that there won't be any more videos. Actually the opposite: we're planning to release several over the next few weeks/months.

Recently implemented features

Research

The most important feature that has been fully implemented is researching technologies. We did change it though, it's not the same as in Earth 2140.

Fortunately, we've been able to recover unused icons for all technologies that exist in Earth 2140:

Although they weren't used, it seems that at some point in the Earth 2140 development, the developers were thinking about making research more than just a countdown in Research Center's popup.

Thanks to Dzierzan, we now have proper icons for all technologies with two variants for each faction:

The research in OpenE2140 has now been moved to separate tab in the sidebar. Technologies are now researched manually with each technology having time required to research and prerequisite technologies displayed in a tooltip:

And the opposite part of research are units and buildings, which require these technologies in order to be built. As with the technologies themselves, units and buildings have their prerequisites shown in their tooltip too:

The research feature has been fully implemented by IceReaper , so a huge thanks goes to him!

Building explosions

As the subtitle says, we have further progressed with building explosions. The only thing that remains to be implemented, is the fire after the building explodes.

Other stuff

We've also done other small(er) stuff such as:

• one new 1v1 map from Dzierzan
• gunfire sound for Tiger Hellmaker and HB Bike
• grenade throwing sound for Android A01
• support for installing game assets from game bought on Zoom platform
• other small fixes and tweaks

Currently work-in-progress

Right now, we're hard at work to implement more features. Currently we have several features in active development:

• building crew (including capturing enemy buildings)
• resource harvesting
• WTP unit (with working vehicle inside)
• importing maps from Earth 2140

And since both WTP unit and building crew are in an advanced stage of development, here's a sneak peek of them:

Future

So this was what we've worked on and are currently working on. But what the future holds? We're slowly reaching a point, when we're going to have all core game mechanics implemented. That means a first public playable release is on the horizon. Stay tuned! Follow us here on ModDB and come discuss with us and other fans to our Discord server. And if you're adventurous, you can take a look at the development of the mod in the GitHub repository!