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Trains & Things [Official Site] has been announced as a multiplayer focused economic strategy game, it's built on Linux with open source tools and sounds pretty interesting.

It's built using the open source Godot game engine, after the developer tried Unity and Unreal Engine for previous projects but each had their own problems (according to the developer).

Here's a few screenshots to give you an idea of what they currently have:
image
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Hopefully they will get a decent video up soon, as their currents videos are very low quality and far too short.

It's a real time economics strategy game, so everyone will be building at the same time. No waiting around for turns and it will have full strategic zoom, which is a pretty standard feature for any strategy game now. It will allow you to build railways, airports and roads.

They're planning to make it extendible too, with full custom map and mod support.

It will have cross platform multiplayer for Windows and Linux, but no Mac. It will also feature LAN play, so it's not dependent on playing across the internet.

Developer bitshift said it will head to Kickstarter towards the end of this year. I'm interested, since I love a good strategy game, but we need to see it properly in action in a decent video to get a better idea of what exactly you're doing. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

Lefl Jul 20, 2017
I was looking at the screenshots before reading and thought: "That looks a lot like Godot"
It's a great Engine, but sadly it starts to have performance issues pretty soon when you have many meshes in a scene.


Last edited by Lefl on 22 July 2017 at 12:02 pm UTC
razing32 Jul 20, 2017
Hmm , a competitive economic strategy game . Honestly don't think I've played one of those. Sure I have played games thathad long supply chains before you got to churn out soldiers but never purely economical.
Purple Library Guy Jul 20, 2017
Quoting: LeflI was looking at the screenshots before reading and thought: "That looks a lot like Godot"
It's a great Engine, but sadly it starts to have performance pretty soon when you have many meshes in a scene.
(Insert obligatory "Waiting for Godot" joke here)
Purple Library Guy Jul 20, 2017
Quoting: razing32Hmm , a competitive economic strategy game . Honestly don't think I've played one of those. Sure I have played games thathad long supply chains before you got to churn out soldiers but never purely economical.
That's making me think of Stellaris, which I'm playing a lot of right now. Building the mining stations and the bases and building up the planets and developing the colonization technologies and enhancing my politics and influence and keeping the people happy and somewhere in mid game we come to the brute fact: It's all so I can make a big stack of warships without the economy falling apart. Not that I really have a problem with that, but there's something absurd there.
Philadelphus Jul 20, 2017
Any game with such a nice map of the island of Hawaiʻi where I live instantly has my attention, at least. :) (Though the absence of the largest city on the island is a bit puzzling… )

This kinda reminds me of OpenTTD in theme, except not grid-based. I play that with a friend from time to time, so I'll have to keep an eye on this.
beniwtv Jul 21, 2017
Quoting: LeflI was looking at the screenshots before reading and thought: "That looks a lot like Godot"
It's a great Engine, but sadly it starts to have performance pretty soon when you have many meshes in a scene.

I hope 3.0 will be better in that regard, Juan put a lot of good work into the new renderer :)
Sadly, I only did limited testing of 3D so I can't tell yet.
razing32 Jul 21, 2017
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: razing32Hmm , a competitive economic strategy game . Honestly don't think I've played one of those. Sure I have played games thathad long supply chains before you got to churn out soldiers but never purely economical.
That's making me think of Stellaris, which I'm playing a lot of right now. Building the mining stations and the bases and building up the planets and developing the colonization technologies and enhancing my politics and influence and keeping the people happy and somewhere in mid game we come to the brute fact: It's all so I can make a big stack of warships without the economy falling apart. Not that I really have a problem with that, but there's something absurd there.

I don't think it's absurd.
Think it's trying to emulate all social and political aspects that happen around wartime.
You still need to keep the resources flowing and keep the population content despite the fact you are at war.
Shished Jul 23, 2017
Reminds me of Sid Meier's Railroads.
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