Homeworld Remastered Options

[Svea Rike]

It appears the classic RTS games in the Homeworld franchise are getting a high-defenition remaster. I'd say finally I can get into this beloved strategy game series with fancy new graphics. What is your opinion, mates?

Trailer

[Neo3602]

I think that I'm going to have to look more into the Homeworld games.

[The_Hunter]

What is your opinion, mates?

Here's what i think:
I consider the First Homeworld (so not the sequel which was imo sub par compared to it) to be the best PC Game of all time.

The plot is very interesting and the gameplay is second to none and i have yet to see an other space based RTS game that suprpasses it in inovation and fun.

[piratep2r]

So, I have sort of weird mixed feelings about this. My brother alerted me to a 15% off steam sale the other day (or pre-sale, I guess) and asked if I wanted to buy it.

The problem/weirdness is as follows: the graphics for HW1 were fine. I am not sure I'd call it the best game I've ever played, but it is certainly one of the best ever, and hit so many notes so well. It was incredibly beautiful (for its time), and incredibly fun, with a moving, well thought out, and surprising story. While I am sure that I will purchase the remake at some point, I sort of don't need it. I've got the original, and I still love it! Better graphics would make it better looking, but are they worth (almost) the price of a new game? Are they really going to add to my enjoyment of one of my favorite games?

So that is weirdness #1. The other weird feeling is related to the fact HW2 was deeply disappointing for me from a story sense (it is hilariously bad), and from a "retcon-the-mythology" sense. It also just wasn't a lot of fun to play for me, with some really bad design decisions that punished common sense play. So I ask myself... is it really likely that the team involved with HW2 won't "tinker a bit" with HW1 during the remake? I mean, they have the power to change whatever they want in the remake... and as far as I am concerned they are likely to F it up if they do more than change the visuals. Remember the whole Lucas-greedo-shot-first "fiasco" in the star wars remake? Just a little tinkering can go a long way toward irritating people.

That all - I hope its awesome, and hope it leads to better success for HW3 or shipbreakers, whichever comes first.

[The_Hunter]

I am not sure I'd call it the best game I've ever played, but it is certainly one of the best ever, and hit so many notes so well.

When i said the i thought it was the best i meant that for me personally which usually differs from person to person and likely nostalgia also plays a role

So that is weirdness #1. The other weird feeling is related to the fact HW2 was deeply disappointing for me from a story sense (it is hilariously bad), and from a "retcon-the-mythology" sense. It also just wasn't a lot of fun to play for me, with some really bad design decisions that punished common sense play. So I ask myself... is it really likely that the team involved with HW2 won't "tinker a bit" with HW1 during the remake? I mean, they have the power to change whatever they want in the remake... and as far as I am concerned they are likely to F it up if they do more than change the visuals. Remember the whole Lucas-greedo-shot-first "fiasco" in the star wars remake? Just a little tinkering can go a long way toward irritating people.

Your thoughts on HW2 sum up mine on that game perfectly.
Also as for the HW2 team working on this HD remake that's not the case since i believe its all Gearbox software which purchased the license after THQ went down.

That all - I hope its awesome, and hope it leads to better success for HW3 or shipbreakers, whichever comes first.

Evan was so kind and gifted me the game after hearing me out on it so i'll be able to report back on that here on the forums when is release in February

[piratep2r]

Also as for the HW2 team working on this HD remake that's not the case since i believe its all Gearbox software which purchased the license after THQ went down.

Oh! Good to know, and thanks for the correction.

Evan was so kind and gifted me the game after hearing me out on it so i'll be able to report back on that here on the forums when is release in February

That was really nice of him. Please do post your impressions after you've checked it out. I'd be really interested to learn what you think about it, especially since I expect your standards of excellence will start out very high due to your opinion on the original.

[The_Hunter]

Please do post your impressions after you've checked it out. I'd be really interested to learn what you think about it, especially since I expect your standards of excellence will start out very high due to your opinion on the original.

Will do, might even make a video impression

Edit:
they have posted some footage of the remasterd version of the game here:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/25/pax...-looks-gorgeous

i'm quite pleased with the visual improvements they made to all the ship designs and specially the ones from the original Homeworld.

[DELETED MEMBER]

So I ask myself... is it really likely that the team involved with HW2 won't "tinker a bit" with HW1 during the remake?

Gearbox said they wanted to leave everything untouched and even asked some of the original people to give them the original stuff (i think the music was a example they used about using the real recorded one instead of the compresed audio, i could be wrong though)

And i have to say it looks MINDBLOWING and can't wait to get paid to get it, specially since they mentioned better mod support and being able to crush vagyr and Hiigara scum with glorious Taiidan master race with the vainilla game
I am kinda sad Cataclysm isn't included though, but i hear the original code was lost and maybe in some sort of rights clusterfuck

[The_Hunter]

I am kinda sad Cataclysm isn't included though, but i hear the original code was lost and maybe in some sort of rights clusterfuck

Same here alto for every useful innovation that was introduced with Cataclysm they also broke something else.
Prime example was the homing projectiles that basically all capital class ships could eventually get and made using fighters completely pointless.

[The_Hunter]

[Anubis]

Dat video ... i cried manly tears! I am seriously thinking of making a paypal account just to buy this.

[The_Hunter]

Total Bicuit's impression of HW Remastered:



The game should unlock tommorow and i'll post my impression on the game when i'm done

[The_Hunter]

So i'v played the first few missions of Homeworld Remastered.

Very familiar and pleasant sights alto some things have been changed around a little in terms of balance and stats on the ships altho i don't think this will effect anyone negatively unless you're a veteran like me and expect everything to be exactly the same as you knew
Notable changes were that larger ships now have some basic sub systems like engines or resource ports that can be targeted individually and destroyed without killing the actual ship.

I did record my impressions while playing the game with some commentary i will be uploading these videos sometime later this week

[piratep2r]

So i'v played the first few missions of Homeworld Remastered.

Very familiar and pleasant sights alto some things have been changed around a little in terms of balance and stats on the ships altho i don't think this will effect anyone negatively unless you're a veteran like me and expect everything to be exactly the same as you knew
Notable changes were that larger ships now have some basic sub systems like engines or resource ports that can be targeted individually and destroyed without killing the actual ship.

Definitely interested on your take on some of the possibly more subtle changes. I have not played it yet, btw, but my brother has, and he mentioned that because it is a HW1 port into HW2, there is some weird ship behavior. Specifically changes in the way combat is simulated: simulated firing (HW1 - a shot hit based on whether it intersected with the target) is now % hit scan (HW2 - corvette shot hit chance vs fighter is X%), which he said felt somewhat off, and I've read (secondhand obviously) about HW remastered "bullets" missing yet still causing damage, etc. Another change he thought was odd was the behavior of fighters in formations has changed radically; since HW2 didn't support HW- style formations... apparently in remastered your formations fall apart into a dogfight even when they really shouldn't (Sphere formation for bombardment, for example).

I did record my impressions while playing the game with some commentary i will be uploading these videos sometime later this week

Hope you do!

Anyway, I've said far too much given I haven't played the remastered version. Hope to hear feedback (on HW1 remastered) from you, Anubis, and others.

-P

PS: The link to TB review was really good, but also a little worrying in that several clear bugs crop up (fighters get stuck, Kamikaze doesn't work). Perhaps it wasn't final release, but I was surprised.

This post has been edited by piratep2r: 26 Feb 2015, 3:24

[XAttus]

I'm also a great fan of homeworld as well but I only played HW2 and as someone who has no experience with HW1 I found it decent, though it lacked content and variety.

However as much as I liked the trailers and reviews I did not buy it yet, the price was still a bit high compared to what I'm willing to spend on gaming. I'll just wait till a bigger sale period kicks in and also by then they will hopefully fix a few bugs and issues that are present in the first release.

[The_Hunter]

Definitely interested on your take on some of the possibly more subtle changes. I have not played it yet, btw, but my brother has, and he mentioned that because it is a HW1 port into HW2, there is some weird ship behavior. Specifically changes in the way combat is simulated: simulated firing (HW1 - a shot hit based on whether it intersected with the target) is now % hit scan (HW2 - corvette shot hit chance vs fighter is X%), which he said felt somewhat off, and I've read (secondhand obviously) about HW remastered "bullets" missing yet still causing damage, etc. Another change he thought was odd was the behavior of fighters in formations has changed radically; since HW2 didn't support HW- style formations... apparently in remastered your formations fall apart into a dogfight even when they really shouldn't (Sphere formation for bombardment, for example).


Hope you do!

Anyway, I've said far too much given I haven't played the remastered version. Hope to hear feedback (on HW1 remastered) from you, Anubis, and others.

-P

PS: The link to TB review was really good, but also a little worrying in that several clear bugs crop up (fighters get stuck, Kamikaze doesn't work). Perhaps it wasn't final release, but I was surprised.

You are right about the formations not working as they did and seem to be completely cosmetic in the current form rather than providing neat tactical advantages
They basically break apart the moment they enter combat and the most notable one is that sphere formation no longer provides the constant bombardment like it used to.

Fighters are also allot more vulnerable to capital ships (notable assault frigates) as i literately lost all my fighters to the carrier in the second missions of the HW1 campaign and that's not quite how i remember it.
this is one of those things that presumable was done to balance the HW1 armies with the HW2 armies.

At this point i cannot say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing (alto i'm leaning towards bad because i liked how fighters could take down capital ships effectively without getting hit) also the various different tactics ships can be set to don't seem to have any sort of effect at first glance but I'd need to play more to verify of that is realy the case or not.

[The_Hunter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wGetY5Iwcs...gruAk4BdQPlEaki

here is the play list of my play through (with commentary) on the HW Remastered campeign.

I uploaded the first 3 missions (altho only the first episode is up sofar)


Edit:

First 4 episodes are up now

[piratep2r]

Oh man, I know it's not nice, but I kept giggling when you were playing the asteroid mission (06, I think).

Killer asteroids + killer unit ai = total win.

"you can fly into this one as well if you want to." - Hunter, advising his suicidal frigate captains during the asteroid storm.

To think that this was the "good" unit ai also - you suggest early on that the fighter ai on this mission/target set was so bad you didn't even let them out of the mothership!

Did they... not playtest that mission? I am baffled.

Having fun watching, and I appreciate the upload.

GL!

[The_Hunter]

I figured alot of people would appriciate my rage in mission 6 alot

I should be able to finnish my playthrough sometime next week


Edit:

also here is a video to demonstrate that amazing fighter AI: