The General Discussion Thread - Path To Victory mod for Homeworld 2

For now this is the main forum for asking questions, showing images (after the release) or anything else you want to say about Path To Victroy.

Post away!

About the "Spore Frigate". I see... total design change. In a general sense, it needs to be made more aggressive. If you compare your concept to the alpha, you'll see that you slanted most of the key lines more in concept. The more blocky lines of the fuelpod work because it isn't a primarily attack unit. This "Spore Frigate" however is like an artillery frigate that can lay traps right? So, definitely need a more aggressive appearence. And as a whole, it needs more flair and black line dissections

Just to be sure, the only think it does is lay mines/missiles right? And maybe theres a way to select what kind of munition too, but doesn't have any other weapons? For discussion below, I will assume that this statement is true.

The giant thing under the engines makes no sense, visually or conceptually. There's plenty of weird things you can do to add flair to the frigate that aren't nearly as prominent.

It is also worth considering using the multibeam frigate base instead of the fuel pod base, but I do see the logic behind the fuel pod as its base.

I couldn't believe it, but there are almost no images of the fuel pod on the internet... and I recently reinstalled HW1 so I can't just go back to that mission. So, I need to reach those missions again, and take some screenshots, and if I have time, I may throw together some photoshop concepts that explore different design potentials.

I've been giving kadesh frigates some thought actually. I'm working hard atm in RL so I can't post them but I'll bring my ideas up when I'm home. I see the kadeshi frigate concept as needing a massive rework. Stay tuned.

Okay, so to my idea of kadeshi frigates.

I was thinking they should really only have two frigates to bring their strike craft superiority into the game better. I was thinking of scrapping everything but the podship and the multibeam frigate.

The podship would be like a mini-carrier, capable of building one module (frighter production, corvette production, shield module or hyperspace inhibitor/gravwell) plus can dock fighters and corvettes and can capture enemy ships but it's otherwise unarmed.

The multibeam frigate would work somewhat like the somtaaw multibeam but with all its weapons focused forward. it would have somewhere between 4 and 8 turrets that start out as pulsar beams but can be upgraded to ion cannons. It would be the offensive ship and again - multipurpose.

The spore frigate's role of minelayer + fire support would be moved to a new pod (spore pod or missile pod). So, what do you think?

Podship: I think you shoule make this ship compleatly given over to enhancing the kadashi strikecfaft, lets say, fire control tower, docking, and thats it. I would think of what you said as a mini carrier classified as a capship, not really a frigate.

EDIT: I have come to think that you are thinking of turning firs in to a sort of capital/frigate, I like it. I think you Idea for the podship it great if this is what you want to do. gest be shore to make the podship big enough to be realistic (not jest a ship that builds a squadron of 5-9 swarmers in a tiny holed).

Edited by: HornetS

It shall be done

I'll be posting the updated podship sometime today I hope.

FYI, here is another Kadeshi MBF original concept art that you may not have seen Mololu. It is one of the lesser viewed pieces for the Kadesh.
Gamesurge.com

Also, a Taiidan Resource Controller concept that looks more like it's Kadeshi in origin:
Images4.wikia.nocookie.net

Edited by: Hell_Diguner

The MBF one I've seen before, the collector I hadn't.

I'm still not sure what needs improvement exactly. I think I'll probably notice after playing around with my models a little. I'm also thinking of building up tech trees with IPS's help sometime in future as well as some matrix of planned additions and features.

I forget who exactly wanted the images but here you go, the MBF up close and hopefully at the right angle?

Img210.imageshack.us

Had the image in directly but it warped oddly. Clickly linky for image.

Edited by: mololu

So there are two ball turrets like the podships, and two semi-normal turrets. Interesting, can't wait to try it out then. The lower picture shows a Taiidan Resource Collector docked to a scrapped concept for a Resource Controller (HW1 Refinery for you nimwits that haven't played the first game). I think the controller could at least be inspiration for a Kadeshi unit, so that's why I posted it.

I agree, just don't quite know what it would be used for. My next task is updating templar and needleship graphics, then I'll have a go at the destroyer... then, dunno quite yet.

These will get a proper presentaton sometime in the future but a little preview of what some of you have already figured out is one of the kadeshi faction options.

I will say this again to avoid confusion: The Kadeshi are NOT equipped with progenitor or keeper technology! You have to make a pretty big sacrifice if you want to give up the Great Kadesh in favor of Sajuuk and thus the progenitor tech.

O.o

It's amazing how well that works. I wonder if other Kad-Prog shapes fit together this well.

Edited by: Hell_Diguner

There aren't very many others planned so I can't really say.

I don't want to make the kadeshi a progenitor hybrid race. But maybe some more will come after the first kadeshi release...

My only problem with a Kad subfaction with some Prog stuff is balancing. What approach will you take?

Build time will be multiplied by a factor of 10 meaning you really can't build any more ships after you select that faction. More than that, I have to work over balance on a great scale. That will be in the 0.0.6 release - at least that's the plan.

Another small preview:

On the off chance that someon ever even reads this:

something very sinister is brewing here... but the poor hiigaran scout didn't live to find out what it was.

Kind of odd that I seem to be the only one who read that. [shrug]

Given the factions have changed a lot over the last few releases, I think it's about time i presented the new system. I'll make something more official in future but this is the rundown:

Hiigarans: No factions. You select on a ship-by-ship basis what you want to use. This allows for a lot of customization but you don't get any real bonuses. You have to piece your fleet together.

Vaygr: You get to choose between raiders and overlord doctrine. Raiders focus on capture tech, EMP damage and general disabling tactics. Fighting them is a pain because 50% of the time your ships are EMPd. Overlord focuses on cheap ships that can be spammed with indifference. They focus on brute firepower, numbers and speed to steamroll anything in your way.

Keepers: The keepers have a very simple choice: Extermination or Pacifier. Extermination gives you an incredibly high damage boost and very fast shield regen but you're stuck doing hit and run attacks because your ships are horribly vulvenrable to EMP and physical attacks. Sticking around gets you slaughtered. Pacifier is a very slow moving faction. You don't do much damage but your ships regenrate very quickly and can withstand a pounding. Additionally, any capships that goes below 10% health has a chance to regen to 30% ever second. Very annoying to fight

Kadeshi: You choose two classes (fighter or capships, corvettes or frigates) as your classes. You can build general ships from all classes but your 'factions' get some additional ship and research unlocks. Additionally you get to choose between 'Marked of Sajuuk' and 'Perish the Thought'. The first gives you the hybrid fleet. Great offensive ability but no staying power. The second gives you holy swarmers and allows you to expand the Swarm. Great staying power but it will take a while to whittle your opponent down.

Overall the Races are balaces thus:
Hiigaran > Kadeshi, Vaygr
Vaygr > Kadeshi
Kadeshi > Keeper
Keeper > Hiigaran, Vaygr

But it really depends on your faction and the enemies faction - and my ability to balance them all out against each other.

can you implant a new game mode where instead of building a fleet you request ships like you start out with collectors and when you get enough ru's you can order a group of ships from several catagorys and they appear instanly

Do you mean like Small/Medium/Large:
resource groups (collectors, refineries)
anti-fighter strike groups
anti-frigate strike groups
balanced support fleets (collectors, marine frigates, command ships)
balanced attack fleets
attack fleets skewed in size direction (more towards strikecraft, or more towards capships)
battlefield awareness groups (probes, scouts)

Or are you just talking about instant build speed, and the units HS in?

I didn't quite get that either,

Anyways me hearties, drink up (or don't if you're driving...)

A little preview of the turanic raiders to come, the bandit interceptor which is not yet ingame at the moment but will be as soon as 005 is release - meaning, tomorrow or friday.

Something like either of the two you mentioned. I haven't given it a try yet but I will sooner or later.

Preview of one of the new Keeper gameplay aspects:

Edited by: mololu

Since mololu and IPS haven't commented yet, I thought I'd post this so everyone knows:

This mod is not dead! It has simply been put on hold for the time being, as mololu requires a break from modding, so keep a whether eye on the horizon! Further information can be found here: Forums.relicnews.com.

By the way, yes, I am a member of the development team, and not just some random member!

Yay! I'm commenting on this

Yeah, break is what's up right now.

Hopefully not a permanant one. I really want to finish this thing

Back to work, we are. So we're back in buisness (if you somehow missed that).

What additions/changes are planned for 007?

None. There will be no 007, just the beta, then the final.

As for what will be in the beta, I cannot say with 100% certainty quite yet.

Hey mololu, I`m kind of confused with the Keepers` research. Here`s the deal, I`m researching 3-4 things then there`s nothing available to research. Then suddenly a new tech appears in the research menu... What causes new techs to show up and why sometimes I have nothing available for research although I`m at the beginning of the game? And a 3rd question related to the previous ones, how can I summon the Devourer ship? It says it requires Hyper gates researched. How do I do that?