Travelers of the stars have been able to enjoy a peaceful past few months, but the unwritten rule of the Homeworld universe is that the galaxy remains a dangerous place. New frontiers have opened up and bring along new opportunities, but also dangers. Join the push for the end of the Shimmering Path and be among the first unearth its secret, or accompany the Turanic Raiders into a yet unexplored area in Karos' Outskirts in a brand new mini-campaign - coming soon.
In this newsletter: An ETA for the upcoming build, a recap of our 2018 releases for returning users, and a strange, intercepted transmission that seems to have come from the future itself.
Mod Progress
Hello, everyone. A good few months have passed since our previous newsletter, and while we wanted to address what is probably our most frequently asked question ("Is this still alive?") sooner, we also wanted to wait until we had something to show you for it. To our long-term followers the past few months may instead have been just another example of what has come to be known the FXmod's trademark style over the years: long periods of silence that make you think we finally kicked the bucket (for real this time!), followed by a sudden update or some other big news when you least expect it. Bottom line is we're still here and there is plenty to talk about, so let's jump right on in.
Release Date: FX v1.35 (Full)
In our previous newsletter we talked about what has been in the works since the release of our BETA version of build v1.35a. Since then we have decided to try and finalize the concept for the Turanic Raider mini-campaign in time for the next release, even if it means incurring a small delay. Thanks to the hard work of HW_Lover and a lot of coffee that is now a reality, so we will be able to bring the "full" version of FX v1.35 to you with the first new mini-campaign since we brought the mod to the Remastered edition. This comes with the aforementioned finale for the Shimmering Path, so there will be plenty to keep you busy for some time.
Finalize your preparations and hone your build queues: the expeditions headed for Karos' Outskirts and the newly opened up final zone of the Shimmering Path will dispatch with the full release of FX v1.35 - Crossroads in about 2-3 weeks from now (mid to late-August).
Stills from the new mini-campaign (Work in progress)
Thank you to the Fans
The main reason why we have made it this far since the day we embarked on this journey back in 2006 has been the one thing that we share in common with all fans of the FXmod and Homeworld itself: the passion and admiration for the franchise. Through the FXmod we have tried to gradually restore that feeling of raw excitement many of us felt when we first saw space through the eyes of Relic's award-winning 1999 title. Over time the project has evolved, people have come and gone, but the one thing that has remained the same is the consistent admiration for the franchise.
The other day we quite noticeably felt that our own project has received its share of admiration as well, as our Steam workshop page reached a new milestone with over 13.000 subscribers and nearly 40.000 views. Because the upcoming build will be the first release many of those subscribers will experience since FX v1.30 came out over a year ago, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide a small "recap" of the past year, so that everyone is up to up to date on what transpired before we head into FX v1.35. (Which, of course, you already know if you played v1.30 and v1.35a - in which case you can skip to the bottom of this newsletter.)
2018 Recap
After we finished porting over the mod from HW2:C, and then spending another 2 years on making it compatible with HWRM v2.0+, one of the goals we had set for the FX v1.3X series was to bring new content to the table.
Things kicked off with the release of build v1.30, which introduced one of the key features of the 1.3X series, a new challenge mode that we named Skirmish Campaign - The Shimmering Path. The idea behind this mode was to provide series of challenges for players to tackle, a spin on the traditional Player vs. CPU model that keeps itself fresh and gives players a means to practice and hone their skills in the FXmod.
Since its introduction we have further polished this mode, which is now at last accumulating in the Grand Finale + some extras are included with the upcoming build. With it we hope to give a fitting end that lives up to the players' enthusiasm for this mode, which has (among others) been expressed via things such as user "Captain Soban" doing a full playthrough of the Shimmering Path on Youtube:
(Source: Playlist)
The second goal for the 1.3X series was to polish the overall framework of the mod. To this end over 40 bug fixes and more than 150 balance adjustments were made, in addition to further improvements to AI behavior. We also introduced several QoL (Quality of Life) changes, such as added support for custom maps, a gameplay speed compression feature akin to what was used in HW: Cataclysm, a streamlined hotkey for most unit abilities (Ctrl+Z), and so on.
As ever before, the full extent of the changes can be found in the Patch Notes on our ModDB "Forum" tab. Of course, you can also just uncover all the changes by yourself. Either way, now you have an idea of the changes we made over 2018 and are caught-up. We hope to see you in the upcoming FX v1.35!
Preview: A Strange Transmission...
One of the things that we do as developers is to look to the future. Even as we are polishing and finalizing the upcoming build as we speak we are already looking ahead - looking, staring into the further voids of space. Now, this may not strike you as anything new by itself - but what I told you that we have been looking to the future since about the start of this decade..?
In the previous newsletter I mentioned that there are two "big" things in the works, of which the smaller of the two 'bigs' was the new Turanic mini-campaign. Today we would like to share with you a rather peculiar image, a transmission that appeared on our thread on Gearbox' forums some time ago but has now found its way here. This image is related to the other or bigger "big" (the big-big), and although the transmission has taken its toll on the image quality keen eyes will be able to make out a few oddities.
Some among you may be able to link this rather blurry image to a certain something that has been written somewhere on our mod's front page for years. If you still can't make the link, worry not - rumor also has it that those who reach the end of Skirmish Mode in the upcoming FX v1.35 will receive a more direct hint...
Until the next time,
-WH
If only the beast.