Slipstream: The Price of Freedom mod for Homeworld 2

It’s been a long time, and I’ve been rather busy! At some point in ones journey, you tend to, or at least should, revisit your roots in some way and reflect on them with all the knowledge and experience you’ve gained since. Nostalgia is a pretty powerful and deceptive thing, but developing Slipstream: The Price of Freedom was an absolute blast and some serious fun. After the release of 3.0, I kept tinkering with the code in my spare time over the next decade(!) and eventually ported it to Homeworld: Remastered. I didn’t do much with it then because of the engine changes that Gearbox made.

With the announcement of Homeworld 3, I’ve been revisiting Homeworld in general, and was playing through some of the old versions of Slipstream while reminiscing with Aquemnun about those times. There were some ideas that were never fully executed, mostly because we were too busy moving onto the next cool feature we wanted our mod to have. I’ve been wanting to do a follow-up or remaster for a while, but only recently started writing out some new code following the Homeworld 3 hype train. I’ve finally made significant progress, so I’ve decided to make the announcement!

Requiem For Freedom

requiem (a mass or other ceremony to honor and remember a dead person)

When I first pitched remaking Slipstream to Aquemnun, he said:

it’d be a pretty great mod with just 3 things really 1. Increase fire speed, reduce damage 2. Step everything to fighter / corvette attack styles, > vaguely increase speed 3. More aggressive playstyles / weapon effects Maybe 4. Listen to s*** like carpenter brut while testing it, see if it fits

I think that is a great place to start! I also want to put some constraints on this mod to keep it a bit more focused than last time:

1. Keep it in the Homeworld universe with only simple lore additions. That way we can focus on gameplay.
2. Reuse much of the included and unused content from Homeworld: Remastered. Like in Slipstream, this makes it easier to build cool things quickly.
3. Keep it simple and compatible. Players might have other mods, like UI enhancements or campaigns, that they may want to use with this mod.
4. Focus on the fun!

Given that, this mod aims to be a spiritual successor to Slipstream. It will have similarities, but ultimately will be something new! I want to focus on making multiplayer games fast and fun, and maybe do the same for single player as well. I want to mix in a little bit more ship customization, weapon choices, and a more powerful upgrade system. Beyond this, there is no rigid plan in place! Just to have fun and try to spice up multiplayer a bit!

Development

Right now the mod is still “beta” quality, and will be for a while. Only the Hiigaran and Vaygr races have changes at the moment, but eventually the Taiidan and Kushan will get the same treatment. I plan to work on it “when I can”, and make releases “when they’re ready”. If you want to follow development more closely, have a look at the Github repository. Speaking of which, all the development will be coordinated on Github, so pull requests are welcome! If you discover a bug or have a suggestion, please submit an Issue on Github as well. I won’t be able to comb comments for bugs to fix like I used to, so please bring them to my attention there!

Initial Beta Release

You can grab the April 2023 (Beta) release right now! This version is terribly unbalanced, but is reasonably playable. Here are (most) of the changes in this release:

• Hyperspace Jumps are now free. Most ships can hyperspace when near a ship with a hyperspace module. Vaygr no longer have hyperspace gates.
• Scouts and Probes are consolidated.
• Platforms can now move multiple times.
• Hiigaran and Vaygr each have a new platform.
• Hiigarans have Defense Field Generators instead of cloaks.
• Ship speeds increased.
• More weapon variety
• Hiigaran Battlecruisers can now change primary weapons; This will be added to Vaygr battlecruisers later.
• New ship class: Dreadnaught. Each race starts with a Dreadnaught that can build other capital ships. If you lose this ship, you can no longer build capital ships. But it’s also your most powerful ship…
• Most research is done by default.
• Changes have only been done to the Hiigaran and Vaygr races; Taiidan and Kushan races will follow eventually.
• Attack styles have been updated for most ships, but some are noticeably broken.