Path To Victory, what does it do? What makes this special? What are the goals of this mod? If you're asking yourself any of those questions, this article may clear things up a little.
About Path To Victory
This Mod started a while ago as a little project I never expected to really release or even get anywhere with. My original goal was to make HW2 a little more realistic but I quickly realized realism costs gameplay and fun so my objective changed.
I want to create a fun game. A game that's exciting to play and a game that keeps you on your toes.
One thing that always bothered me about HW2 was the relatively long time you spent building or upgrading your fleet. Path To Victory aims to change that. Entire fleets can be built up in a matter of minutes.
Combat is fast and furious. Facing the wrong units, your ships can be slaughtered in seconds, requiring them to be replaced rapidly. Another aspect of HW2 I decided needed changing was the horrid survival rate of Frigates. By keeping these ships mobile at all times, frigates have changed from cannon fodder to a central part of any fleet, lending their firepower to larger and smaller ships alike.
Furthermore, Path To Victory introduces the Keepers as a playable race. While generally posessing powerful ships, the Keepers are easily overwhelmed by numbers. All the same, they are a foe to reckon with.
Faction Gameplay
Following an Example you may know from games like C&C Generals: Zero Hour, Path To Victory introduces two factions per playable race. Each faction has two combat styles that can be chosen ingame by researching the corresponding upgrade.
Depending on what Faction and Subfaction you choose, your combat style will change. For example, the Hiigaran Defense Fleet focuses heavily on outlasting their enemies, their heavy armor and defense fields absorbing incoming fire.
On the other hand, the Vaygr Task Force Overlord overwhelms their enemies, using numbers and firepower to crush an steamroll anything in their way.
The Movement Complex
Space Ships moving in space can theoretically all move at the same speed. But say a fighter is maneuvering back and forth, weaving to avoid incoming fire. In order to avoid tearing the ship's frame apart, it has to limit it's speed.
For this reason, movement rules for ships are reversed. Fighters are the slowest ships, capital ships the fastest. Defining is however the acceleration time for a given ship. While a Fighter or Corvette can quickly react to a changing combat situation, capital ships can not. It takes them a while to get moving.
New Ships
Adding ships to the existing races only makes sense when there is not another ship that fulfills the same role. The addiiton of two factions per race means that some ships differ between the factions. For example, Vaygr Task Force Venom employs Missile Corvettes which can be upgraded with EMP missiles, allowing them to more easily disable enemy ships for their infiltrator frigates to take over.
Task Force Overlord however uses the Assault Corvette, a fast and maneuverable gunship capable of slicing through Fighters and Corvettes alike.
I hope this article gives some insight into the way Path To Victory is built. Future articles will describe certain aspects of this Mod in more detail.
Tracking