When I read the basic synopsis of this on Ars, M.U.L.E. immediately came to mind, and sure enough, later in the article the Ars Technica reporter asked about the parallel/similarities in concept.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/civ-iv-designer-takes-rts-in-a-new-direction-with-offworld-trading-company/

I've wasted many an hour on M.U.L.E.!!

preodered.

if it ends up working even half as good as it sounds, it'll easily be the best strategy game since stuff released 10+ years ago

and I'm not just taking that at face value.

the design of the game (more info here) really does have the potential to successfully avoid the problems which always plague traditional strategy games

I think the biggest challenge would be selling the game to (normal) people. a clash of Terran vs Zerg or France vs England is so much more appealing than corporations and trading, even if it happens to be on Mars

this game reminded me of Wonder Race in Age of Empires 2. no combat units. 4 different resources. ~12 different ways of getting them. it even has a slightly adversarial marketplace. customized random maps. even though it devolved to a build order, you kind of have to come up with it on the fly, so it had more legs than I expected

It is very addictive. The art right now is very programmer art level (why we don't have screenshots).

If you ever played MULE and liked it you'll love this.

It sounds boring since there's no fighting in it. Like those abstract WWII games I never played. Move icons around and things handle themselves....