Comments - TheRealJulien

I'm encountering a pretty big issue with unit AI.

Whenever I order them to attack something, they will move up to a certain range and then stop. Just stop.
You might think: "Oh, they just move close enough to use their long range attacks."
Nope. That is true for, say, the Acclamator (I'll stick with examples that are easy to check), who move barely close enough to use their torpedo launchers. Most of the time, it seems to be completely coincidental. Others, like the Corellian Corvette, floats around like debris. Even the Carrack Cruiser, that has a pretty long range, stays just outside of their firing range.
I know you guys put a lot of time and effort into this already, and by no means do I want to say that I don't appreciate it - what you've done so far is pretty incredible. But it is pretty annoying to know that my units just can't fulfill a very simple order, that is, moving into attack range and shooting like there's no tomorrow.

Another issue: Some of the special abilities seem to be broken. Say, the missile barrage of the Victory: It fires a stream of missiles (that lasts a second or two) every ten seconds or so. Clicking the ability button, however, does nothing. The ability is not automated.

I hope these bugs are not too hard to fix. At least for me, they spoil the fun immensely.

A final request: I'd love to see a Galactic Conquest campaign where you have to start from scratch. I've never been a big fan of campaigns where you're open on all sides and spread out across the galaxy, cause I tend to forget what's at my disposal, it's all in the wrong place... So, yeah, that would be greatly appreciated.

Addendum:

Apparently, when I DO manage to win a battle, say invading Foerost, the game crashes either in the middle of the fight or right after victory (last time, it happened just as I was saving, corrupting my savefile - don't know if that's connected, though), with an "exception". Can't really post it here because of the length restriction but here's the first few lines of the _Except file.

Exception in thread 404 - Main Thread
Exception code EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION
The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
Attempt to write to address 005DFFFF

Exception occurred at 00570FCE - Unknown code pointer

Stack walk:

Register dump:
Eip:00570FCE Esp:0028ED38 Ebp:00000002
Eax:00000002 Ebx:0028EEFC Ecx:00000002
Edx:00000016 Esi:1499CC38 Edi:005DFFFF
EFlags:00210202
CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:002b FS:0053 GS:002b

Bytes at CS:EIP (00570FCE): F3 A4 01 6B 44 8B 43 44 8B 4B 48 3B C8 5F 5E 7E 02 8B C1 89 43 48 8B C5 5D 5B C2 08 00 CC CC CC CC CC 81 EC 04 02 00 00 8B 84 24 08 02 00 00 53 55 56 57 33 FF 89 3D 50 7A BE 00 8B 28 8B 5D 00

Stack Dump:

0028ED38: 292D2760
0028ED3C: 0028EE7C
...

I know this is still very much work-in-progress, but I just can't get over the fact how broken the AI is - even more so than in the original game and expansion.

The unit AI will, in some cases, neither fire, nor move to attack an enemy, even though he is within attack range. Having them stand/float around and die wasn't really fun the first time and it didn't get any better the 10.000 times after that, cause it makes every battle an extreme pain, to the point where I dread letting battles happen at all.
On that same note, they will sometimes refuse a direct order. It doesn't matter how often I tell them to attack a certain unit or component, they will just keep doing what they're doing, which leads to even more frustration when the enemy keeps spawning in unit after unit, just because my own troops, regardless of whether it's a clone or droid, are just too dumb to follow orders. Guess they prefer standing around and dying.

Then there's the Galactic Campaign AI. It was the part of the mod I was really looking forward to but my enthusiasm has waned when I noticed just how blatantly the AI is cheating, at every difficulty level. No matter what tech level I choose, they always start with the highest, with more money, higher income, more units, more capital ships, more everything, on every level. Even on easy, they wait maybe 10 days and then attack me everywhere at once with loads of hightech troops and ships that are not there when I choose that side and are not available until some time later.

I don't know if you guys were more focused on the multiplayer end of things or if the unit AI and difficulty balancing just bugged out but I really hope you can fix this quickly. It may be playable, but I certainly don't feel that it's enjoyable, and that's a real kick in the teeth for me, considering that I've been looking forward to this mod for a long time.

Still nothing.

Re- and doublechecked all the shortcuts at least five times, and it looks like this:

C:\Programme\Sierra\Homeworld2\Bin\Release\Homeworld2.exe -luatrace -mod hw2bsg.0.3.1c-win.big

Rewrote them/copied the original names from the folders in, and still it won't start. And no, I'm not using Vista. It's more likely for hell to freeze down than me putting this crap on my harddisk.
I'm using XP, Service Pack 2, patched Homeworld 2 to Version 1.1
And my computer is far beyond the minimum requirements of the games, just if somebody may think that there's the problem.

Really a cool mod, but it doesn't work. It doesn't even start, though I'm klicking the hell out of the shortcuts. And yes, I've patched Homeworld 2 before installing it.

Wow, this is... Wow. I can't believe that there should be people who find the game too hard the way it is. I mean, hello? It's not even funny if you play it and somehow the enemy hasn't the slightest chance to kill even a single soldier, not even with Tigers. Sorry, but this is worse than cheating. I hope it's not usable for Multiplayer, is it?

Just to ask: Where is the fun in it, if you don't have to build armies but only a small amout of units with whom you can overrun every enemy, even tanks, just having to arm one or two of them with an AT-rifle? For god's sake, if somebody cannot win against one AI alone, give him an ally and even the greatest noob can beat the old, mean Axis. Or do it the other way around and just try to play as Axis, because they make gameplay for me much more funny. And, yeah, I think they are much more powerful than the allied. That's only my oppionion.

Well, in fact, the German forces were powerful. The Panther and Tiger were the most powerful tanks during the whole war. The Königstiger would have been, if I wouldn't have been too heavy for bridges and had stronger motors. Also, the German SS-divisions and the Fallschirmjäger were world's elite at the beginning of the war. They were the best of the best, even better than the 82. and 101. Airbourne at that time. And the weapons of the Germans also were better. Take the example of the MG 42: It could get wet, even get dipped into mud and still would work perfectly, while most of the weapons of the allies weren't that good and would go to waste at same terms. Actually, Germany was supreme in the beginning of the war and even could have defeated Russia and America. The reason Germany lost was Hitler, the "Greatest Strategist of all time". Instead of conquering Britain and eliminating this threat (And it would have been next to impossible for America to attack Europe from the Atlantic with more than a big bunch of soldiers with the worst nausea you can imagine), Hitler told them to attack Russia. When they were close to Moscow, almost in the city, Hitler ordered them to wait and gave them enough time to strike back. Also on the run, he ordered them to hold positions they could never hold instead of getting back home to prepare themselves to defend their country, while the politicians could offer the allies a diplomatic way. The main reason for Germany's loss, as well as the reason for the whole war, was Hitler.

I don't say that Hitler was a good man. Coming from Palestine, my father says that Hitler treated the jews just right, but I don't think that way. I'm want peace in the Middle East. I want that Palestinian people and Israelis can live together in peace, even though they caused us all the trouble, together with the 'allies', with America and the United Kingdom. I think, Hitler was a maniac who plunged Germany into a war and caused it to lose it. So, what I wrote up there is only about the strategy and military power of the Third Reich.

Oh, and to the 'most powerful country in the world': Well, America today 'has' the most powerful army in the world, most of the military technology development goes on in your country and also America has a strong economy... But that's everything. CIA and NSA, Guantanamo, the War on Iraq, George W. Bush, the biggest CO2-output of all countrys in the whole world, more serial killers than any other country, the whole bunch of crap that was done during the Cold War (I mean in Congo, in Nicaragua, in Chile, in Vietnam etc.) and much more. You got that too, and if I were an American, I wouldn't be proud of my country. I would be ashamed. So, patriotism is obviously misplaced, as long as you don't try to change at least one of those things above that you can change. And there are several.

Yes, the AI is to hard in the beginning. But I thought that it would be also balanced that way that it's at least in the same degrees like in the original game, starting with easy and going to expert. But in the mod, it was cut off around normal, changing the other difficulties to hard, expert and impossible. Nothing against huge battles, but if they start to soon and you don't have a glimpse of a chance to build even five squads until they attack with ten of them, than it's not really funny but it only gives me the creeps.
But they seem to be pretty stupid with the usage of tanks. While they get AT-Guns STP (sooner than possible), they seem to only use two or at max three tanks at a time, while an allied CPU simply overruns them with up to ten tanks, beginning with StuGs and ending it with Tigers. So, like I said, the enemy is too hard in the beginning, but then he soon get's kicked ***. Then the game lasts less than a quarter of an hour. If I'm alone, it's up to half an hour, because I want to end it soon because the enemy simply get's on my nerves, attacking all the time with infantry while never using anything worse than AT-Guns or a single tank, so I can eliminate him with a small, more or less fast built group of up to six Panzer IVs, Panthers and Tigers. To defend myself at critical and strategical points like bridges is much less fun than in the original game. I hope, you get the Vierlingsflak fixed because I was really looking forward to the usage of this baby against the enemy. Not that I really know much about modding, but maybe it's a little mistake in the script of the crew or of the gun, because it's unoccupied and can't be used by anyone.

Apart from that, I have to change what I said before. I said, that the AI is good as it is. Well... It isn't at all. After further gaming, I have to say: There isn't a real AI-balance.

In the very beginning, the Allies (I almost only play Axis, because they fit me better and are stronger) attack with forces they simply can't have and with an impossible speed. Not only do they conquer all the points near their base and on their half of the map, the even proceed conquering my points with so many infantry that I couldn't even build them in the double of the time given before they attack. Also, they seem to have a magical way to demoralise my units with few shots, killing half of them in few seconds, even shooting straight through houses, while mine never hit them that often and never demoralise them that fast.
But once I kicked them out of my area, they seem to weaken within minutes and become that easy to erase that the game ends in less than a quarter of an hour. The balance is that bad that it's almost impossible to succeed on a hard enemy, never mind an expert.
If I have fellow CPU's, they are the opposite. At first they have as few troopers as I have, but once they begin to expand, the enemy is faster destroyed than you can say "Goddamn AI".

In the original, there was something of a balance between the enemys, so that two light enemys fit the power of an normal enemy and me, as long as I don't do anything than defend myself. This balance is completely gone and with it most of the fun of defending me and my comrade while he disturbes the enemys sometimes.

I would appreciate it if there would be any balance in the next release.

Btw: Still haven't found the fix on the site.

Searched for the fix everywhere. Didn't found it, though.

Well, in general the mod is good. Highers the difficulty a bit, but OK. I was just a bit surprised that the enemy attacked sooner and more aggressive than before. BUT there are two things, that I just have to point out negatively:
First, this 'Resource Point Depleted'-idea... wasn't really good, to say it carefully. I would appreciate it, if it would be cut out of the next release, if there will be another one and let people who want it download a fix with this 'feature', not the other way around. If somebody get's resources, it's because he's earned it, and also for players who may be less good it would be quite unfair, if they wouldn't even able to defend themselves until they have a new strategy and a new forces.
Second, the Vierlingsflak has to be fixed. Build it four times on two different maps as Axis, and everytime the stupid idiots weren't able to get on it an simply shoot at the enemy. They just stood their near the Flakgun and shot with ther Lugers. Also, the prices aren't correct. It's said that it costs 450, but in reality it's price ist about 645.

Are the descriptions missing in the whole version or is something wrong with the download I had? Every unit and almost every planet is named *Missing*. So are the unit descriptions themselves...

Sorry, but... WTF? Somehow it seems to hate me. I looked everywhere, if it is my fault and you need to patch the game on higher version, but I didn't found out about it, so... Help?

Thats an Awesome game. I need it!