Another year is slowly coming to a close, and we all know what that entails: the FXmod's semiannual update. Jokes aside, there just is that small chance your initial answer had to do with the more festive inclined activities that accompany this time of the year instead. But as that is of little relevance to those who travel the stars, we will for this newsletter instead assume you are here for the former.
Unit Progress
The keyword for this newsletter is "progress". It is something that is not always as tangible or lends itself to clear expression or definition, but nevertheless is always there. One form of progress that I'd like to express through this newsletter is related to one of the mod's main goals: the remastering of each unit in the FXmod in HD (HWRM) texture quality.
As with everything in this life, texturing and remastering takes time. Although we have been able to show previews of units that are being worked on through our [Images] section and releases, I felt that something akin to a roadmap of the "bigger picture" was still missing. The contrast when you take any Kadeshi unit and then put a Turanic Scout or Progenitor Bee next to it can be quite severe. In all cases there are reasons for the differences in unit quality; models such as the Turanic strikecraft did not exist in HD quality prior to the remaster, and in other cases we made units based on the highest quality that was supported in the then-latest entry to the HW franchise, Homeworld2 (Classic).
Nevertheless things can be confusing, and to that end we have made a document sheet of our unit remastering progress for the FXmod. You can use this as a "roadmap" to see our progress both on the FXmod's races and their specific units (up to the upcoming build), but it also elaborates on the various texture qualities you'll encounter in the mod. It can be viewed here:
Google Docs - FX Unit Spreadsheet
The link will also be included in the main post, so you can also find it there later.
FX v1.35a
The main feat of this article is of course the news on the upcoming build, and while we have been able to get quite a number of things done for the next version, for now known as FX v1.35a, we are not anywhere close to having a finished version at this moment in time.
The good news however is that we will release what we have on v1.35 so far as a public beta, and that it will (probably) be up on the relevant Steam page somewhere next week (24~31 Dec). The Steam winter sales are coming, and with the Christmas holidays around the corner we wanted to give you a "present" of sorts and contribute something for you to chip your spare spare hours away with as well. As of such, we'll also be breaking our own upload policy for the occasion and make the beta for v1.35a also available on ModDB (will require manual installation).
Deploy the re-textured Demolisher and give your enemies something to keep themselves warm.
Road to the Stars
Although an alpha build of FX v1.35, we still wanted to release this version ahead of time due to the amount of balance changes and some crucial bug fixes it contains. Much of the content that comes with this build has been outlined in the previous newsletter. One of the biggest changes is related to Skirmish Mode - The Shimmering Path; the AI difficulty bug has been fixed, and we have also revised the entire mode. The progress now flows a lot closer to what we intended, with the initial stages both serving as a warm-up and introduction to the FXmod and its races (for new players), and the last ~13 stages being full-on challenges where you'll need to use your wits, tactical insight and skills to come out on top. We hope you will give the fixed Skirmish Mode a (re)try, and carve out your own path through the stars.
The previously revealed Artifact Retrieval mode will also be available in this build, albeit as an early alpha version. Over time, we'll be making further changes and improvements to this mode. If you have feedback and thoughts on what we could do to improve on this mode we'd love to hear them.
You can either download FX v1.35a when it gets here and explore it for yourself, or you can head over to the Forum tab and spoil yourself with the [patch notes] in advance. The introduction/race overview guide has also been updated for this release, and can be viewed here: Moddb.com
Whichever you choose: happy holidays in advance and we hope you'll enjoy v1.35a. See you in the new year!
-WildHeart
Thank you for your hard work and effort! Love this mod! Also pleasssse add the standard remastered Turanic Rancor carrier back in. Thanks!
Sweet looking forward to it and you work on it.
Love the mod and cant wait for more. I am having a issue with the 33 mission challenge tho. I'm almost done with it but I'm on a mission where my AI teammate is next to a enemy Taiidan AI and gets stuck because the Taiidan research ship gets destroyed but stays in game and is still targeted. so my AI partner fleet continues to attack the ghost research ship and gets picked off by the enemy. My ships will also target it unless I take them off of aggressive and move them away. Its really difficult to clear this stage as its 2v4.
That definitely sounds odd, what stage did you encounter this bug on? And was it in the latest build (1.35a)? We'll do a follow-up if the issue persists.
Until then, happy to hear you like the mod, and congratulations on having made it this far!
It was on the 1.30 version, I just tried it with the 1.35 and now the problems gone.. since the research ship isn't one piece anymore. I can tell a difference in the AI too, lol have to rethink my strategy. I believe it was mission 30, me and a expert AI using the raiders against 4 AIs
Thanks for the follow-up. I was wondering if you were using 1.35 since the latest build fixes a few issues related to the Taiidan Research Ship.
I believe the final ~5 stages are also due for a second look next update, as most of the overhauling work in 1.35a was centered around the first ~20 stages and the difficulty curve overall. That said, good luck with your endeavors!
Thanks, just got to mission 32 and crash once i select the mission. 'general failure".
But tried it on 1.30 and starts up fine.
Noted. We're keeping a list for bugs on the [forum] tab, if you run into any more of these issues please let us know there. Thanks for the ones you shared so far, they will be of great help.