Next Generation Combat Systems mod for Homeworld 2

Background:

NGCS represents a "TC out of a TC" effort stemming from the PDS mod, which I find to be rather hard to update nowadays due to its huge size and limited scope of in-HW2 gameplay options.

NGCS (or Next Generation Combat Systems) brings to HW2 a fully dynamic and lifelike truescale Newtonian battlespace that allows for an authentic simulation of space warfare in a more believable scale and speed than of HW2 and PDS.

Applications:

To date, three applications for NGCS have been identified.

NGCS is designed to be a generic system of programming for actors (ie, warships) in the Homeworld 2 game engine and can be ported over to all existing HW2 TCs with a minimal level of fuss.

NGCS will be used for a PDSverse singleplayer mini-campaign based around a Praetor class supercarrier, and this campaign will mirror the flow of modern-day naval-air operations. This first version of NGCS will experiment with singleplayer scripting for HW2.

Besides this, the NGCS concept gets its first inspiration from the highly mobile combat action featured in the Gundam TV shows, and will be used for experimentation with the Gundam Mod for HW2. No public releases will be made without permission from the Gundam Mod Team.

Thirdly, from conference with a member of the HW2 community, NGCS will be used to construct an authentic "Rhapsody of the Stars" TC based on a work of fiction by Daniel Hawking.

Thus, in a nutshell, NGCS in testing today has achieved the following:

- a workable "Dynamic Battlespace" system covering fighter, frigate, and cruiser operations, with lifelike ship piloting, where crew quality, ship design, ship reliability and weapon systems performance along with the effects of evasive and offensive maneuvering, play a part in determining the outcome of an engagement

Nothing beats the sight of a cruiser engaging the enemy at standoff range with its main railguns and zigzagging to evade gun and missile fire. The same can be said of frigate dogfights at 5km/s, pulling 20 to 30 Gs with all weapon systems fully automated.

- the simulation of crew quality for warships, from novices to special operators. AI scripts and weapon loadouts are also customised to reflect the various specialisations of combat units and crew capability

Novice attack frigate crews rely mainly on standoff missile attacks and will break under fire, while veteran frigate squadrons prefer energy weapon loadouts to decisively engage the enemy at close range to force a rapid combat resolution

- a realistic scientific base for all weapon systems, based off work done on PDS and now unleashed to operate in a near-truescale space combat environment

- extremely detailed combat resolution and engagement routines optimised for squadron level combat, with minimal necessity of player management besides that of mission planning and reassignment.

Battles now rage over a 200km squared area of space with individual combatants demonstrating true-to-life piloting and weapons performance, and ship design and crew performance plays an important, if not crucial role in the NGCS battlespace.

After all it is a moot point to deploy an advanced warship when the crew doesn't even know how to employ it...

Mod Status:

NGCS beta 1 will be released next Monday, the 28th of November, with the following features:

- Fully operational Newtonian battlespace
- Realistic weapon systems modelling
- Lifelike crew performance rendering and fully dynamic tactical engagement routines
- Operational strike frigate (missile-centric, regular, and beam-centric AIs and specialist loadouts), escort frigate (novice and regular AIs with drastic differences in team performance under fire), and never-seen before modelling of cruiser combat (automatic evasive action, 360 degree employment of weapons aganst multiple targets, detailed fire control routines with separate roles for primary, secondary and two types of missiles)

NGCS will use the PDS website for development and universe related roleplay and discussion. It is located here:

Pds.hwaccess.net

NGCS is a totally separate TC effort while PDS (see link above or browse Homeworld 2 Mod Listing here on moddb) will most likely remain frozen at version 7.0.