Gearbox buys Homeworld

[MetalCraze]

I wouldn't want the Stardock of 2013 working on Homeworld, either. Lately I'm inclined to believe that Galactic Civilizations II was some sort of completely insane fluke.

Neither would I wanted Paradox of 2013 working on it too.

Whichever hands it would've landed in - the game would be fucked anyway.

With Paradox you would have had to buy 3/4 of your "optional" fleet back and if you wouldn't you would be fighting with only interceptors and one frigate type. Oh yeah and don't forget Adagio for Strings music DLC containing one "optional" track that Paradox didn't include in the main game. And of course multiple "optional" portrait DLCs for characters in subtitle windows so you won't have to see black squares. Later on they would release "optional" DLCs that let you play races like Beast and Vaygr already present in the game but not playable.

Fuck Paradox.

 

[SuicideBunny]

It's a pity neither Stardock (2nd highest bidder) nor Paradox (3rd) could afford that.

not really.

 

[Angthoron]

BORDERWORLD

 

[Cyberarmy]

Meh, they'll probably make a MOBA style game with that and outsource it to 7 different companies...
Waited so long for a similar game, seems like we won't able to seeing anything similar for a long time yet.

 

[DraQ]

BORDERWORLD

Gaben is a Nostradamus.

 

[trais]

I can't really give any fucks about this - Homeworld was already violently raped by Homeworld 2.

 

[circ]

LOL WUT? HW2 fixed the annoying interface and dropped about half the ships that were way too situational.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I liked Homeworld 2, i even enjoyed cataclysm. This dick being in charge of anything related to homeworld however...

leaves me incensed.

 

[DraQ]

LOL WUT? HW2 fixed the annoying interface and dropped about half the ships that were way too situational.

So fucking what?

The game also raped established lore and setting in every orrifice it could find, spliced it with fucking Silmarillion of all things and then shot its own plot so full of holes that it looked like fucking menger sponge.

 

[circ]

How does it rape established lore exactly?
Haven't read Silmarillion, but that itself is probably the biggest rip-off from folk tales, particularly the finnish mythology to the point where it's not even funny. So it's perfectly reasonable that HW2 did the same as in some cases in Silmarillion JRR didn't even bother hiding it even slightly.
How is it full of holes? The Kushan or whatever destroy the Taiidan in 1 and then in 2 there's a new foe - Vayggr or something, and they're after three galactic cores, which wasn't mentioned in 1 but so what.

 

[Lorica]

I don't know about the Tolkien stuff mentioned, but I like how the differences are put here:

Homeworld 2 feels less like the epic history of a refugee civilisation crossing the galaxy and more a straightforward militaristic RTS campaign. The Hiigarans get attacked, and fight off their attackers by seeking out some magic plot trinkets to secure victory before their enemies can do the same. The singleplayer campaign is disappointingly shallow compared to the original plotline, but the multiplayer is a definite step up, offering more strategy and depth. However, bear in mind that Homeworld 2's multiplayer is a lot faster and less forgiving than before, and there's a definite learning curve while you try and work out what each ship can and can't do.

But the losses to the new instalment do give some old Homeworlders pause. Salvaging and Support are struck from the game, and formations have been effectively restructured out of existence. While formations are used by the game engine, there is little human control over them. Certainly, you can't ask for those artistic Spheres or giant Walls anymore. A pity. Refueling is completely gone and Strikecraft can now fly forever without running out of juice. The lone "Harvester" Resource Collector has been split up into squads of (very groovy) worker Resource Collectors, whose character and function will be instantly recognisable to any old StarCraft player.

There are many compensations. Graphics and sounds have, naturally enough, made a great leap forward. The game interface and controls have been streamlined: at long last you can control everything from from the Sensors Manager and flick between build, research and launch screens without having to return to the main display all the time. The camera has scored some extra controls and is a lot more flexible than before. However, a great deal of screen real estate is now consumed by stylish interfaces with lots of useful heads up displays and messages. You can opt to turn these off completely for a pristine game screen - but you won't have as much time for sightseeing this time around. This is also a bit of a shame - because one of the biggest losses has been the ability to record and play back games - you can't anymore!

http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/rtsc_homeworld2.htm
Source.

 

[DraQ]

My memories of in game storyline are unfortunately sketchy, but I definitely remember problems with lore and backstory.

My main gripe was probably how ordinary reverse-engineered technology (hyperdrive in HW1) turned into awesome ancient artifact of power that was actually somehow transported intact by the exiles, prevented aging, caused Karan S'Jet to be shoehorned into HW2 and shit (there were three such cores of great power forged by the ancient Progenitors, hence Silmarillion).

It single handedly shifted genre of the entire game from moderately hard space opera to derpy space fantasy.

Then you had intact section of progenitor ship inside an asteroid far away from Karos Graveyard, T-Mat outtakes used as super weapons that turned out to be just launch platforms (do you really need a specialized platform to launch self contained, corvette sized missile?), various lapses in logic and generally piles of derp.

Other than auto-finish and aggressive difficulty scaling HW2 didn't have much mechanical problems (ok, loss of explicit formation mechanics but it didn't hurt the game that much, some weapons didn't fit into established tech/tone either), mechanically it was mostly sound, in many areas an actual improvement. In terms of art design it was also a very fine game. The problem was that the plot effectively crippled it even more than scaling ever could.

HW2 assets and mechanics could be used effectively verbatim (cutting out scaling and disabling auto-wrap up doesn't really count) to create an excellent homeworld game - be it a sequel or remake of HW1. The problem is that HW2 is definitely not this game.

 

[SCO]

LOL WUT? HW2 fixed the annoying interface and dropped about half the ships that were way too situational.

I also thought the ships on homeworld 1 were a bit 'situational' until i found out that most of them have 'special abilities'

I don't know about the Tolkien stuff mentioned, but I like how the differences are put here:
...
Source.

Sounds like shit. Rageworthy in fact, pure decline; glad i did not play.

 

[Severian Silk]

HW2 had prettier graphics and improved UI. Otherwise it sucked. And they fucked multiplayer so bad with all the desyncs and needed router configuring. I think less than 50% of multiplayer matches executed to completion without crashing or dropping players. The singleplayer campaign sucked ass too once you got passed the third level.

One of two games (other was ToEE) I ever pre-ordered. So much disappointment. I don't care what happens to the franchise now.

 

[Lorica]

For me, it really comes down to this. I haven't played either in 9 years. But it's HW1 that I still occasionally have dreams about and it's HW1 that I'd reinstall tomorrow.

 

[Destroid]

...

It was total derp compared to HW1 with regard to singleplayer, and especially the story which was retconned to hell and became nonsense. The multiplayer was solid though as were skirmish battles, which are the most important parts of an RTS for me.

Severian Silk I only ever played on LAN so I never had this issue, the multiplayer was good fun.


On the upside HW2 was very easily moddable, although not much of value came out of it in terms of gameplay. Only the complex mod was interesting to play that I remember, the rest were more just pretty.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[JarlFrank]

I wouldn't want the Stardock of 2013 working on Homeworld, either. Lately I'm inclined to believe that Galactic Civilizations II was some sort of completely insane fluke.

Well, GalCiv2 was an incredibly boring game so...

 

[Misconnected]

I never played Homeworld, should I?

Homeworld 1 is a storyfag & graphics whore's RTS. Unlike games before it, and most games since, it really did play out in a 3D space. And in multiplayer - but only in multiplayer - the full 360deg mobility actually did have an impact on gameplay. However, I strongly doubt anyone can say with a straight face that the primary benefit wasn't visual appeal. Homeworld 1 was awe-inspiring to look at when it came out, and its proper 3D movement had a lot to do with it.
Basically, it was an amazingly pretty game that told a genuinely good story and told it well. And it sounded almost as good as it looked.
However, a lot of the mission design was fucking awful, and the unit balance was a complete clusterfuck.

Homeworld: Cataclysm looked exactly the same as Homeworld 1 (same engine, so no surprise there), and it tried and somewhat succeeded at addressing Homeworld 1's gameplay issues. Unfortunately it failed miserably to deliver on the one thing that ensured Homeworld 1's place in gaming history: storyfaggotry.

Homeworld 2, as others have noted, had the second worst story in the franchise. And while it really did improve a hell of a lot on many aspects of the original, it also managed to streamline the gameplay significance of 360deg mobility out of existence.

I would definitely recommend playing Homeworld 1 for the storyfaggotry. And if you like it, especially if you like it enough to play a match against a friend, I'd suggest playing Cataclysm too. Homeworld 2 I'd suggest if you like Chris Foss and think it'd be neat to see his style of stuff getting blown to bits (and who wouldn't?).

Well, GalCiv2 was an incredibly boring game so...

I'd love for someone to explain that opinion to me some day. GalCiv2 is in a lot of ways a streamlined version of Civ2, set among the stars in a very silly future. The AIs have unique dialogue and much more distinct personalities than any Civ have had to date. The game has a fair pile of random events and a karma system that despite being primitive affords genuine roleplaying opportunities. It has as good a difficulty curve as Civ - meaning just about as good as it gets in the genre - and some of the best AI in 4X-dom.

Sure, it also Tech MK.V, RPS'y space combat and even more primitive ground combat. But if that's why people call it soulless & boring, why don't the same people say that of Civ where combat is even more shallow and every damn city needs to spam the exact same string of units and buildings, except in a very few, rare circumstances?
I can totally understand hating GalCiv2 if you've only played with ToTA, or the genre just isn't your thing. But if you like Civ & -clones, then the boring & soulless comments that always get flung at it around here are... More than a little bit strange to me.

 

[JarlFrank]

GalCiv2 just never "clicked" for me. I find the gameplay to be extremely lacking, there are only few things to do, most planets are entirely useless and uncolonizable (and as far as I remember there is no late game tech that allows to make use of them either) which makes the world feel empty, it always felt too streamlined for me. I like to have stuff to to in my 4X games, in GalCiv2 I just found myself press "next turn" all the time.

 

[Blaine]

Although I recall enjoying the game, I used GalCiv2 more to build starships from scratch using digital Lego pieces than to actually play. I made some damned good ones, too, many of which received a lot of praise on various forums. I also wrote a mod to correct the piss-poor grammar present in much of the game's written dialog.

Stardock's forum software was incredibly shitty in 2006, and I can see that it's now only somewhat less shitty.

 

[DeepOcean]

Man, the third mission in Homeworld managed to emotionally engage me in a way that Bioware even with it's millions in custscenes and facial animations failed to do, without trying too hard or using melodrama. Everything is cold, dead, you watch everything that those people created and cared become ash and everything that was left was 500.000 people floating in the space. The subtle way you hear the narrator telling you that the enemy captain captured afterwards didn't survived interrogation. The Gardens of Kadesh, there is a eastern style music playing and the enemy behave like a huge swarm of bees, you are fighting a truly alien enemy, and feel fear and confusion as you should. All those things cannot be recreated by Randy's monkeys or cheap wage slave labor from an outsourced developer. I even have doubts if the today's Relic can recreate it, as alot of people involved in Homeworld don't work there anymore.

 

[Volrath]

GalCiv2 just never "clicked" for me. I find the gameplay to be extremely lacking, there are only few things to do, most planets are entirely useless and uncolonizable (and as far as I remember there is no late game tech that allows to make use of them either) which makes the world feel empty, it always felt too streamlined for me. I like to have stuff to to in my 4X games, in GalCiv2 I just found myself press "next turn" all the time.

Terraforming?

 

[DraQ]

I cried when Aeris died Kharak burned.

I know. Me too, bro, me too.

Also, the best VA ever. I'm speaking of Fleet Intelligence's voice in mission 3.

 

[Psquit]

But why homeworld?, I mean is not gearbox style to make games like Homeworld maybe if they buy descent it will make more sence since its a fps...