Dear community, it's been a hell of a ride!
As you may know, among many other total conversions, we have been hitting the VRAM limit of Homeworld Remastered for the past few years, forcing us to readjust our content repeatedly as we wanted our mods to ship in the best way possible.
Last year we announced May 14th as a release date for Mass Effect: Homeworlds, but needless to say, we couldn't hit the deadline. We couldn't hit it due to what we envisioned in the first part. Mass Effect: Homeworlds for the remaster had much more than its classic predecessor, with better environments, ships, sounds, and overall a far better fidelity.
This is where things started to get messy. For context, we packed the mod in a .BIG file (file format for mods) and realized although the unpacked version worked, the .BIG file was too heavy for the game, resulting in a crash.
We then started to remove content, one by one, and see how we could fix that. We did until we realized the AI system ceased to work. This is where it became more of a "fixing holes one by one" than a "doing it for passion" scheme. Our work slowly became less fruitful, resulting in minor additions over the year.
The future of our mods
With Homeworld 3 right around the corner, we want these modifications to go live as soon as possible before we move on to Homeworld 3, where modding possibilities will undoubtedly be more significant. To do so, we will launch Mass Effect: Homeworlds in its current state in a few weeks, calling it "Early Access."
Battlestar Galactica: Fleet Commander will follow, although some missions are still not working correctly, and random CTDs still occur. We will also release it in "Early Access" so you can enjoy this total conversion, even though it won't be finished.
What's different?
Essentially, we've always wanted to ship something finished. Something that meets our release standards and that feels complete on its own. With the many issues we've encountered, it will be impossible to do so. Because we want to deliver, you can enjoy these two mods before Homeworld 3 goes live, allowing us to move on to the sequel.
Stay tuned. These will go live really soon.
Join us now on our new Discord server: Discord.gg
Thanks for all the hard work and passion you guys have for the game, mods and community standing behind you! The support will continue and looking forward to playing what you guys have in store for us!
Your Discord invite is dead, might want to fix that, but looking forward to Fleet Commander finally dropping in some form!
Edited, thanks!
Thanks for the update and for all your hard work.
I have never nodded Homeworld bedore, so pardon my ignorance, but what is the reason for the end user to not simply run the mod unpacked as opposed to in a BIG file?
Appreciate! An unpacked version doesn't match the requirements enforced by Gearbox/BBI for a CO-OP or online game. Besides, it wouldn't be compatible with the Steam Workshop either, meaning we won't be able to deliver frequent updates and provide quick support.
Thank you for all the hard work!
I literally just commented on the FC page about how sad it was that the mod had died, this is great news
Very frustrating hitting the limits of what mods can do. Really reinforces to me and my company not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Bummer to hear the mod hit a wall. That's the worst feeling. Glad you're looking out for the future though. Lets hope HW3 still remembers modding is a passion for the deepest fans.
respectfully - any news?