Alec was jolly pleased with the Homeworld Remastered Collection [official site], revisiting Relic’s spaceship real-time strategy classics after Gearbox spruced them up. Now they’ve even fancier, as the promised mega-patch has arrived with everything from improved fleet formations to proper ballistic weapons.
The Collection has also now arrived on GOG, for those who prefer their games DRM-free, with a hefty discount t’boot.
Gearbox has announced that the big Homeworld: Remastered patch we learned about last month, which will bring both games in the package to version 2.0, will be out on June 7. Patch notes haven't been released, but Gearbox programmer Dave E. said in a message posted on the Gearbox forums that the new systems and tools should enable mod makers to do some really exciting stuff.
I equally hope that Mod authors see value in taking time to refine their gameplay and design decisions with respect to what we've added/changed, he wrote. 'Old' choices run the very large risk of making no sense given the way systems in this patch interoperate. A major gameplay Mod that ends up in the public hands before... I dunno, August? Is probably rushed and an unbalanced mess; or just loaded with edge-cases and exploits. That, or many features have been gutted and systems neutered to reduce the complexity of their workload.
Fists of Heaven posted a good breakdown of what the patch will change, and as befits its 2.0 designation, the list is significant. Highlights include reworked formations that will more intelligently handle mixes of different ship types, an overhaul of projectile-based weaponry, improved targeting and tactics, and various bug fixes, tweaks, and balance changes. If and when Gearbox does release a full changelog, we'll toss it up here for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, here are a few screens to remind you that the majestic void of space is a beautiful and terrifying thing.
After a rather long drought, Homeworld: Remastered Collection [official site] will be getting a sizeable update that will introduce sweeping changes to fleet formations while also adding ballistics to projectile weapons. Oh, and bug fixes, lots of ‘em. According to a report by Fists of Heaven, the update has been in the works for more than six months and is the core focus of a small team within Gearbox Software. As of yet, no official release date has been announced.
We gave Homeworld Remastered a glowing 92 score in our review last year, which is as it should be. The original Homeworld was a brilliant piece of space opera, and so Homeworld, but prettier is about as close to a sure thing as you're going to get in this business. But it turns out that Gearbox isn't done with it yet: An in-depth Fists of Heaven report says a team at the studio has spent the past six months working on a major update, which is now close to completion.
The update will address one of the biggest player complaints by completely reworking formations to allow them to be more intelligent, especially in large groups. Different mixes of ships will form up in different ways based on a number of factors, including race: The ion cannons on Kushan destroyers require line-of-sight while the missiles fired by their Vaygr counterparts do not, and their formations will reflect that difference. Some existing formations are being changed to improve their firing arcs, and modders will be able to create their own unique formations for different ship classes, races, and tactics.
Projectile weapons are also being changed to use true ballistic behavior rather than relying on the vagaries of RNG. Weapons will sometimes (presumably very rarely) misfire, and missed shots will continue along their path and could even strike other ships, both enemy and friendly: One way or another, as the man said, if you pull the trigger, you are ruining someone's day. Targeting behavior is being overhauled and will better prioritize targets, and tactics settings will have a much more visible impact on combat.
Beyond that, there will be plenty of bug fixes and tweaks, major changes to gameplay balance, and even some graphical improvements. There's no indication of a release date, but the Fists of Heaven report says it appears to be just about there.
Thanks, PCGamesN.
Fists of Heaven has the scoop (and that lovely screenshot above) about an upcoming Homeworld Remastered patch, six months in the making. By the sounds of it, it's a pretty huge patch that overhauls ship formations and behaviour, implements a proper ballistics system, and that adds new features to Remastered's modding tools.
You should read the whole article to get the full picture, but I'll add a couple of choice quotes below.
On formations:
"Rather than simply fixing the formations that we re familiar with from the original games, the Homeworld team have taken things several steps further. First, ships are all being treated by the game engine as one unit, so, for instance, Hiigaran strike craft won t always be locked into the squadrons they re produced in and instead and can enter larger formations with the same class of ship (but will reform into their original squadrons if removed from the formation)."
On ship behaviour:
"Targeting behavior has been completely reworked, and ships now prioritize targets much more intelligently than before. Stationary ships will be more appealing targets, and ships that dramatically affect the battle (such as gravwell generators) will become high priority targets when activated, causing ships in the vicinity to break off of previous targets to face the new threat."
Developed with the help of Remastered's modding community, the new patch is the result of six months of full-time work by a group of developers at Gearbox. We can expect graphical updates, balance changes, and bug fixes in addition to the aforementioned stuff.
There's no date for the patch given, but the article mentions that it's in its "final stages", so hopefully it won't be too far off. (Cheers, Fists of Heaven!)