Homeworld 2 and the modding community. Thread

*greets forum*

Well, time is short here and I wonder how to start, but at least some of you here would have heard of the Homeworld franchise, if not own one or more of the titles in the series.

Unfortunately, although the original Homeworld was a novel concept in itself, Homeworld 2 doesn't keep up with its predecessor. It doesn't have the "immersion" the original game portrayed, of leading the last of a race exiled in space aboard their colony ship and her attendant fleet soon forced to go to war against overwhelming odds... to reclaim their Homeworld. Even the credits animation was excellent.

Nope - HW2 isn't worth keeping once finishing the SP campaign, which isn't very memorable either, nor is multiplay very popular.

HW2 didn't sell well - and because it isn't a "hot" topic for MP play, you can see the result here:

[Link to Relic boards]
Forums.relicnews.com

This spells the end of the franchise, and frankly, it holds very much potential than what most, and Sierra's decision, portray - but still, it is the "$$$" factor that dictates everything. If it isn't a profitable venture, cut it. We can presume that occured with HW2.

In spite of that, there is a fraction of the HW2 community who are undaunted by that, but choose to make use of Relic's generous approach to leave much of the game's configuration files openly moddable, once the .lua files are decoded, everything is possible.

Everything that requires a basis of fleet engagement in a 2+1 dimensional arena. As the diverse range of TCs in progress, and the inventory of scripting mods on show in these two sub-forums.

[HW2 Completed Mods and Mods in Progress respectively]
Forums.relicnews.com

Forums.relicnews.com

No, we don't have many projects in progress, no, we don't openly cooperate with one another except if directly involved in the respective modding projects.

But the majority of those projects showcased have frequently updated, active progressing, etc - that shows that the community isn't daunted by the prospect that the game itself is dying, if not already dead.

However, if the game dies - few are ever going to purchase the title anymore due to the reputation of support lacking if not the game itself in stock configuration being unsatisfactory given the expectations of Homeworld... which might mean these modding projects were done for no reason.

Projects like AFF require more exposure such that their team can get underway, others could benefit from more feedback that can be provided from a larger playerbase and if the game were selling better - but from the number of mod thread visitors compared to the total number of Relic board members, one can derive some interesting conclusions - that each of the larger mods were visited 10 or even 20 times from each Relic board member.

But the base point still stands - it might be the fact that these great projects, and those in progress, won't get the exposure they deserve, in light of the effort and bug-squashing dedication required to get a single product uploaded and developmental momentum maintained...

...as I can attest to from the project undertaken, here:
Forums.relicnews.com

And of the completed HW2 mods only EXv2 manages to get a spot in moddb.com...

i agree, homeworld2 seemed to lack the luster homeworld1 had.
there is a small modding community here for homeworld1/2 but most of the modifications for it are dead or suspended for the time being. im sorry to say, but the mods may never see the day of light. in the case of video games, unlike music, mainstream is the best alternative to maximum exposure. I suggest the halflife engine (also created by sierra) or Unreal, which seems to be able to handle quite a deal. I understand implementing a spaceship/resource like game into a fps shooter is much more difficult than just modding a previously created one. But you must understand that to go through this great undertaking it would also show how much hard work and dedication you put into transforming a dull shoot 'em up into a tactical space battle. I wish you best of luck with these modification and their further exposure.

I have been dying for a mod for Homeworld sicne I first played it. I was excited when HWII came out but beyond the EXCELLENT effects of location specific damage and ship groupings, the game was devoid of the passion int he first game. When you have an interface and gameplay system that works, don't screw with it for the new version. Hell, I would have been happy if they just redid the skins on HW and left it at that.

I wanted to mod for HW but even the battle/map/campaign editor was daunting at first. Now that I'm over that and am think in three dimensions again, I'd like to see someone get together and really do this. If it's done, we should stick with HW engine instead of HWII for ease of use and compatibility with older machines.

The weapon effects can be merged into other ships so in essencew, you could have a scout class vessel with the firepower of a bomber.
You could mix the capital class ships weaponry as well but I haven't seen aanybody get the effect and the visuals synchronized.

The resource aspect of the game was as simple as one could hope for. I mean, you are the last surviving members of a dead planet and should probably have packed a lunch. I don't like the idea that their is such a limitation on units. Even if you choose not to limit them, I find aftr about 200 total vessels, even a good PC crashes. I hate crashed. Crashes=BAD.

So, please, get this going. I know that there is a niche out there for this and the first successful group will reap major respect and get a community excited about doing difficult projects.

You'll see a lot of the mods that are being done are fairly straight-forward with new skins and models. That's all we need for HW except a little bit more effort.

I'm willing to learn whatever I need to to see this happen. If we get it right, then all we'll need are new models and we could run anything from star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5 etc with the same mods.

We'd just need to swap out the ship models and voila! instant fleet ready for battle. I'm excited but have short term memory. Please don't let this die on the vine. Make it happen and I'll donate a dollar to clown school!

Thanks for hearing my rant about this very sensitive subject. Ignore my typos and i shall ignore yours as well. Forgive me my tresspasess etc.
H

By the way, if you check out the work they've done (based on your links to relic) it's not really the direction they need to go. They're all essentially playing with HWII engine and ignoring the classic that worked. Have you worked with these personally before? From the few people I've talked with about this, HWII is almost as simple as C&C Generals but is not as satisfying as HW. It could be that I am biased but the second one never impressed me enough to modify it.

Also just wondering, are you promoting the relic board specifically or is it just that you have an interest? I was looking at the work, the comments and the views and it doesn't seem as active as moddb.

Oh well, nuff said. Sorry to bother you with my random meaningless chatter. Feel free to ignore me going forward.

Apple Strudel? What's that all about? GUNrunNER got banned for being a poop head. I think he went nuts. Call his mom and tell her to put the straight-jacket on him.