I am just about to watch it!
There are so many things that I do not think can be topped from the originals. Such as the classical adagio of strings theme. The only thing that can probably be topped are the graphics and game mechanics. They might do ground in space (on asteroids and ships) combat or something like that. But my expectations are like everything these days, politics might take a front seat while the story is just rebooted. What remains could be very bland. Fingers crossed but I find it's best not to expect anything great. It's a sequel after all.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840080/Homeworld_3/
Q4 2022
I'll be right back........
Ive missed you fleet command. :smitten:
someone hand me some napkins.
Only a year away now. Don't want to get too hyped.
'In space no one can hear you fap, unless you're Star.'
(https://c.tenor.com/AUteKr8hSX0AAAAM/i-said-hey-he-man.gif)
Good innovative game when it came out, but why do people think hanging on to the coat-tails of an old title will work out well.
Its rather like watching a western with John Wayne's corpse in the lead role.
Do something new guys.
I agree on a general basis. But it's not like there have been 100 different clones or knockoffs of Homeworld.
A game like COD/Battlefield yes, you need to do something different to stand out and they don't.
If you can make a a Homeworld with modern graphics that the control scheme doesn't suck??? No one else is doing it and I'm there.
I'll be in my bunk.
Quote from: Phantom on December 10, 2021, 02:41:29 PM
Good innovative game when it came out, but why do people think hanging on to the coat-tails of an old title will work out well.
Its rather like watching a western with John Wayne's corpse in the lead role.
Do something new guys.
I have to ask how much you played this when the previous three versions came out?
did you try any of the many mods or play it against other people often?
in my experience there is simply no other game like it and this looks to expand in scope and size the original concept.
You are correct that the coat tails of old franchises are very dangerous places to pin ones hopes on. You are more than likely going to be disappointed by a newer style dev team that is less Technical and more about modern art direction. That usually means less toys and mechanics to play with and more modern art.
This dev team however has at it's core the original developers of Homeworld. Not all of them, but some of them. Blackbird Interactive did a good job with Deserts of Kharak I thought. I will be happy enough with a game like that. But I want more than that.
We loved this game for the ships, i'd like them to ensure their are NEW things to do with the fleet.
Less art and more game mechanics and detail. Ideally the devs should remember that the art needs less attention than the game mechanics. The art style has been done before. What is most important this time around is playing the actual game and what can be done with the ships.
I am not talking about bigger fleets by the way, because battles then just become blob fests that the player has no attachment to.
I would like mechanics and features like:
* Escape pods and collection of them to save vets and keep crew
* Crew training options and veterancy
* Setting up ships before the game so that when they come out of the mothership they form in specific areas.
* Ship formations that are meaningful
* Realistic space physics
* Player designed ship creator in game
* More detailed paint options
* New and better way of using the Z axis
* Crewing ships
* Having a captain that gains traits
* Concurrent multiplayer skirmish armies that gain experience
* Customising ships
* New ship classes
* New GPU tech that allows the people to be seen inside the ship and the marine fights to be directed in realtime inside a ship.
* Side armour (not a single health bar) and more physical components to break and target.
I hope they don't just do new ship shapes and rehash the same story thinking the art will pull the game through. I'd like to see a new upbeat story this time, something less sad. Because it's about time we got a pay off right? The last two games just involved running and being on the back foot. This time we should even perhaps have a strategic campaign and be able to capture planets and colonise them?
They should NOT go DOW3 with the art style, simplifying everything and prioritising some fancy art direction that cheapens and trivialises the serious atmosphere of the game. Make these ships have the best detail with the current generation of graphics GPU cards. Homeworld was cutting edge when it released not just arty and sad, it did something nobody else had done. That is why it is a classic. Move forward and move ahead. Don't be that sequel that is not as good as the original.
Im pretty sure HW2 had veterancy but I think it was limited to fighter size ships, maybe corvettes.
an update of sorts. :bd:
https://www.pcgamer.com/homeworld-3-trailer-ships-news/
4th quarter! GIGGITY
(https://scontent.fmia1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/279016646_5697984016882841_6497523641292145995_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=WsKaQNHlB38AX-UlhST&tn=L7TwarEgvYSN3rJv&_nc_ht=scontent.fmia1-2.fna&oh=00_AT8LTrfubAkSSx-4_zEX6sA-XKm8dysKijQ-F_lsr0gzaA&oe=6268F8B3)
Why have they taken the mothership and just turned it on it's side? Kind of an uninspired change. Otherwise, looking good.
I love this sort of thing for my favourite games. But find that they are fun but useless and take up too much space many years later.
I threw out a whole bunch of this stuff last year to declutter. However I do still have a few useful things like game maps on my wall still.
The spotter deck kinda interests me, but I just know that it will probably be uninspired and useless. Because the game will focus on characters while defocussing the equipment and ships. It's the modern way for movie and game creation.
If I recall in HW1 there was an option to have the mothership vertical or horizontal. There was a scenario where you had to fly the mothership through a tight window and horizontal orientation made it a breeze. Vertical I almost rage quit multiple times.
^Heh I remember that too.
they were two different motherships depending on the faction you played as.
I honestly can't wait! I missed out on Homeworld 1, and then had some difficulties with the second part. I loved it but felt too stupid. Now I feel that I grown as a strategy player and I am ready to face Homeworld 3 and take what it has to offer! Meanwhile I still practice with Homeworld 2!
you can get Homeworld 1 remastered on Steam.
:o Oh wow.
scribbles on note: GET THAT 2nd MONITOR!
Delayed until sometime 1st half of 2023
Don't tell Star
>:(
I just want you to be happy.
Quote from: Gusington on June 10, 2022, 08:20:22 PM
I just want you to be happy.
Then make Homeworld 3 be out now.
We know you have the power.
I must use it...wisely.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on June 10, 2022, 07:08:50 PM
Delayed until sometime 1st half of 2023
Well I guess rushing to finish Deserts of Kharak was not neccessary
Wowzers - also is Q4 this year correct or is it still expected next year?
kind of annoyed that the video I posted isnt the video displayed.
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on August 24, 2022, 01:46:54 AM
<:-)
In retrospect it's kinda funny to see how they were ok with providing gameplay sequences with so much genuine stuttering/unstable FPS, probably in a hurry to provide some contents - and absolutely didn't get burned by it in the comments (well, rightly so, the last gameplay trailer is seamless & doesn't worry a bit). I wish my and some other communities out there were that forgiving. I have lost count of the number of times you come across a random guy who'll tell you your tech feature is laggy or whatever with absolutely zero concern for what is actually showed.
Surely hope to be worthy of that sort of audience down the road, if it can be helped ^^
Quote from: Gusington on August 24, 2022, 06:05:12 AM
Wowzers - also is Q4 this year correct or is it still expected next year?
Although that video still said 2022, saw a gameplay video posted in last day or so that said first half 2023 still.
Looking forward to this one but enjoying Nebulous Fleet Command in the meantime so don't really "miss" it. Not that I play it that much, I really enjoy just doing the tutorials really badly and watching the missiles I fire hit or miss according to all the waypoints, sensor setup and intel I have gathered to make it happen.
Thanks Grim, thought I was losing my mind.
Quote from: Gusington on August 25, 2022, 06:05:38 AM
Thanks Grim, thought I was losing my mind.
I don't think you're out of the woods yet.
:crazy2:
hope springs eternal
Here's a tease of the gameplay... :) Yeah I'm definitely getting a second monitor for this one.
I'm a little on the fence about the maps. They seem really busy and cluttered. I hope they are not all like that. It will be nice to be able to have some meaningful terrain to use in a tactical sense, but at some point, it gets to be too much and I think it could take away from the actual ships themselves and serve as an excuse to eliminate some of the differences in hulls and weapons making vessel choice and composition less meaningful.
Delayed again....now February 2024
https://www.pcgamer.com/homeworld-3-is-delayed-to-2024/?fbclid=IwAR2vdG4sPDIXwWWX30UeGL8tFZfJxLpURVTrtHng7Ncyr-AxkWUMYSgsqnU
Yep. Meanwhile they are working on 5 other games SINCE announcing HW3. I know, I know, but they are different teams.
Then there are the 4 day weeks...
You can't hurry love apprently :P
I can feel the warmth of Star's rage from here.
and all those video links are down for me.... bullshit
Fixing links for Windy et al! :cool:
Star seems to have reposted that video later by accident (trying to post another video), so I won't double up there.
CJR's post fixed:
Quote from: CJReich46 on August 25, 2022, 09:59:46 AMHere's a tease of the gameplay... :) Yeah I'm definitely getting a second monitor for this one.
Release date announced: March 8, 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840080/Homeworld_3/
Paging Dr. Fury...Dr. Starfury...
Quote from: Gusington on December 01, 2023, 03:59:07 PMPaging Dr. Fury...Dr. Starfury...
He is having a love meet-up with Two-Ounces somewhere on the east coast
God help us all.
Yep. Watch for enemy spoilers (star wars: Watch for enemy fighters voice).
Given that Blackbird Interactive is a western studio, I am guessing that the new story will be a little bit of a mix, perhaps even so progressive as to be unrelatable to the core audience, sci-fi wargamers that like big starships with big effing guns. Like the movie Napoleon, I am not expecting much and imagine I will probably be disappointed. I like to be negative about these things so that I am not disappointed at the box office.
Hopefully the 4 day week has made them "more productive".
https://blackbirdinteractive.com/4dww/
After careful analysis of feedback, we made the decision to delay the global launch of Homeworld 3 until May 13, with advanced access set for May 10.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFw0z7FWsAAoXlT?format=png&name=small)
Not too surprising, guess will see if they make even that date...think been the 4th delay. Originally planned for 2022, then 2023, then Feb 2024, then March 8th and now may.
The demo went over as well as a lead fart in a windstorm so not too surprising.
They probably knew it was coming even before that though.
Smacks of a publisher pushing a product out early perhaps. But generally I get the feeling that the dev team has a lot of art degrees and not too much qualification in the more logical fields. Because the whole thing seemed chaotic and messy. The nod we got to rts mechanics were spam skill buttons rather than new game mechanics and ships that made sense. Classic features like ship modules and good turret placement disappear. My example of this is the suppression frigate which is supposed to be anti fighter but not only has horribly placed turrets, but they are fixed forward firing.
Another example is the laziness of turning harvester units into a unit you must buy as a resource controller with 3 harvesters. This unit gets built by the carrier and then huperspaces in, wth? This makes no sense and makes me think not that I am alone in space harvesting resources and using those resources inside my capital ships to construct things, but that I have supporting factories somewhere near.
I know it's homeworld not nebulous fleet command but a dose of common sense for the fleet would be great.
I really think the story and art is all that are important to the devs. The rts part is just context. They think this game is a movie that people watch rather than play.
I also suspect the control scheme is made with console hopes.
I don't think a few months delay will matter, like company of heroes 3, I thought homeworld3 was already delayed?
I wonder if the devs will now be ditching their 4 day work week?
Normally I am an all-in guy with anything HW.... buuuut, this is giving me pause.
Maybe a minor or petty thing but I found the camera controls in the demo to be really baffling. I kept wondering why they don't use the super-simple and functuonal system that Sins of a Solar Empire (for example) uses.
Quote from: CaptainKoloth on February 10, 2024, 06:28:49 PMMaybe a minor or petty thing but I found the camera controls in the demo to be really baffling. I kept wondering why they don't use the super-simple and functuonal system that Sins of a Solar Empire (for example) uses.
Judging by the response on Steam forums and YouTube reviews your complaint is pretty much universal.
Quote from: CaptainKoloth on February 10, 2024, 06:28:49 PMMaybe a minor or petty thing but I found the camera controls in the demo to be really baffling. I kept wondering why they don't use the super-simple and functuonal system that Sins of a Solar Empire (for example) uses.
Exactly! I was expecting a modernized control system but they seemed to go backward instead.
What's even more baffling is people are saying the pre-order bundle focuses on the demo modes wargame mode or whatever it was called. They seem to be focussed on those artifact board game random power up cards. It's a brave new world. I expected more immersion not less.
That is the strength of the HW experience, the crazy high level of immersion. You are all in to save those people from those murderous enemy bastards. You become a fanatic.
So disappointing to hear they are making choices to make it less immersive.
the ease of the spatial control was what let the game be so immersive. if they screwed that up.... how the fuck do you screw that up!? it was the same god damn thing for 3 space based games already. :hair:
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on February 24, 2024, 12:20:43 AMthe ease of the spatial control was what let the game be so immersive. if they screwed that up.... how the fuck do you screw that up!? it was the same god damn thing for 3 space based games already. :hair:
I have to admit though that 3D control has never been perfect in any game on a 2D screen. Any improvement over the original homeworld would have been amazing. Perhaps with more time than we had with the demo the new controls would have shown they had some merit. Will have to see when the game comes out.
What I can say is I was pretty much bored from the start with the demo. I was not wowed at all.
Can you explain your beef with the controls more? There were two options. A new version that has the camera based on your position in space so it's sort of like an "fpv" camera and then classic view, which has the camera exactly as it was in the original games.
I don't see the great calamity here.
Unfortunately, I did not get a real chance to fully explore the demo myself and I was only able to play briefly once or twice, so I'm curious as to your thoughts. Your opinion does not seem to be in the minority, which is certainly concerning.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on February 24, 2024, 07:45:25 AMCan you explain your beef with the controls more? There were two options. A new version that has the camera based on your position in space so it's sort of like an "fpv" camera and then classic view, which has the camera exactly as it was in the original games.
I don't see the great calamity here.
Unfortunately, I did not get a real chance to fully explore the demo myself and I was only able to play briefly once or twice, so I'm curious as to your thoughts. Your opinion does not seem to be in the minority, which is certainly concerning.
You're right. On the face of it there should not be a great calamity. I think the calamity was with the way the camera was implimented vs what we are used to and how intuitive the new camera is. This is compounded by the cluttered battlespace amongst other things.
I should be clear that as above I only had a quick look at the tutorial and then played a few games of the new game mode warfare or whatever it was.
I found selecting units hard a lot of the time
I seem to remember that right clicking on something especially at a distance was very innacurate to outright not working at all.
I remember having a group of fighters selected and then trying to right click on a unit I wanted to move them to at distance. The right click was successful but for some reason they would not move. When I looked more closely the right click icon seemed to change to some other context. I suspect that they
MAY have gotten the context the wrong way round. By this I mean that instead of movement or moving to attack being the default, that many special commands are the default right click and that a key may have to be held down to initiate the now alternative move command. Remember these were just my initial impressions which I did not investigate too much because I did not enjoy the game.
WASD did not seem to work off the bat for me and I only resorted to trying to use those keys because the camera was not moving for me properly. It was a strange sensation to feel like you were stuck in the middle of space unable to move your head so to speak. Claustrophobic even. Part of the problem here was the default camera movement speed both in terms of turn rate and forward and backwards motion. This made it feel like the game was moving 10 times faster than you could react.
Here is a shot of the tutorial. You can see how they would prefer you to hold down CTRL and left mouse then create a bounding box to then release and have units attack anything inside that box. The battlefield in the demo is far too cluttered to do this and the distances involved make you wonder how far units will range forwards to attack enemy targets. Great idea, very clumsy to impliment and counterintuitive as right click is usually attack rather than left mouse. However they needed left mouse because you need the right mouse button to rotate the camera.
I did not bother with this but I imagine that it's a real pain to try to hold CTRL and left mouse while rotating the camera with right mouse button.
The alternate is to select an attack unit.... use the camera to slide around finding a target and then hold down CTRL and left mouse button and bound a box around them.
This could be really cool if you could select say 10 ships of varying classes and bounding box attack multiple enemies and those classes each focussed on their most appropriate target.
The way it used to work is you would simply group your units and right click on enemy targets and once done they would automatically find another. This seemed to be a little bugged in the demo as sometimes units seemed to run out of code and sit there until they were specifically attacked.
(https://i.imgur.com/J8MbzpP.jpeg)
This is a screen from the camera movement in the tutorial. Looks simple but had the effect for me of just meaning I was constantly having to focus on ships and zoom around constantly adjusting until I was comformable observing my units working\fighting. Now I think they would have wanted a free camera because you need to move around a battlefield that is now full of terrain. With regard to terrain I think I remember spinning the camera and ending up with the camera INSIDE the terrain, which made perspective hard and kind of disconnected me from immersion. I can see why they did this because the alternative is having the camera bumped around by the terrain all the time.
(https://i.imgur.com/BX9mVrk.jpeg)
Another great idea they had was that they have a grid to allow players to get their bearings. However this grid was 2D and really just serves to show distance rather than height. This was a missed opportunity as I have seen grid used really well in other space games to show HEIGHT which is one of the main challenges of space games with 3D movement.
This just had the effect for me of making the whole battlefield look like a cluttered city, while also reminding me of being in the SENSOR mode. The feeling of space was gone.
So basically the GRID appeared IIRC whenever you had a unit selected, which for me was almost ALL the time because you know, I monitor stuff when playing an RTS. There is never a reason not to have a unit selected unles you are taking screenshots. I guess the art department wanted me to have a cinematic experience and just let everything do what it wanted while I tossed away control to see the glorious events unfolding in front of me?
(https://i.imgur.com/yw4GTkY.jpeg)
The game looks crude and seems very simple at a glance. But it does have a pop up CARD system. The card system really irked me. What is such a gamey mechanic doing in what seemed to be a game modelling physical space gameplay. Now we were back to mobile game random poker machine reward gameplay probably thought up by somebody who did a gaming degree and was taught that every game needed particular elements.
Here is an example of cards popping up mid game in your face while you are fighting. I cannot remember if they were related to completing objectives or some arbitrary thing like kills. But they certainly had nothing to do with physical in game artifacts being captured. They just seem to be parlour game style rule sets that add nothing to the game for me that could not have been added by the research tree.
(https://i.imgur.com/ceQ21Mq.jpeg)
Here are the research trees... oh wait they are simply upgrades that appear individually under each ship type. No more global upgrades? The upgrades seemed to be similar to the CARDS in that a fair few of them were simply buffs or spam skills. In other words you press a button every 30 seconds or something to keep having a buff with no autocast. Although autocast has been allowed for other things.
Just look at those wonderful distance models. Squint. LOD seems very total war like. Which means more camera movement to be able to see things.
(https://i.imgur.com/HjG6f4k.jpeg)
I of course tried to use the standard keys I knew. Presing H to get harvesters moving is now B I think. I am sure there is a reason for this.
Lastly I highly recommend this video. The gent is of the same mind about total war as me and now Homeworld3. However I do understand he probably has a negative outlook like me (which means a technical mindest in my experience rather than a marketing one). This video got posted something like 20 times in the HW3 discord appealing to the devs to listen.
What I am afraid of is that my initial impressions and lack of motivation thereafter to bother learning what was just a demo may have stopped me from learning what is actually an elegant system. Once learnt it may have been a glorious if overbearing system. I think they need to do a lot of work. Especially around the camera around terrain. Some smart camera controls are needed here especially.
We can unlock some nice starting fleets and avatars for the game though... no spoilers here at all...
I wonder if starting fleet bonuses stack with research bonuses. These things seem so arbitrary and out of story... not that I know the story.
(https://i.imgur.com/skI33Ri.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tZjm611.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JuL8scB.jpeg)
Lovely ship textures... at either default or higher.... look at that detail and compare it to older homeworlds. My main problem with the ships is that these days is that simple models are made and efficient GPU effects are used to flesh out the details. The ship designs I am sure will grow on my but mostly seem to be a derivation of a single multiuse hull with a flat top. Weapons being situated on top or at the front for the most part. No modules were able to be targetted.
(https://i.imgur.com/apUHZ46.jpeg)
I think its a new system that is going to take some effort to get used to...whether one finds that worth it, I guess is subjective. Seems to me they tried a lot of new things ,while still giving players the option to resort to the old.
I certainly agree with the notion that the maps are too cluttered. I've been concerned about this since the first screenshots were revealed years ago. It did distract and make it hard to locate and command your ships. In the middle of heated tactical engagement, this was a real problem.
In any event, I hope the devs do listen to some of the criticisms and make adjustments for the better. They've got a lot of pressure on them to live up to the legacy of the first two games. It can't be an easy position to be in.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on February 24, 2024, 08:16:59 PMI think its a new system that is going to take some effort to get used to...whether one finds that worth it, I guess is subjective. Seems to me they tried a lot of new things ,while still giving players the option to resort to the old.
I certainly agree with the notion that the maps are too cluttered. I've been concerned about this since the first screenshots were revealed years ago. It did distract and make it hard to locate and command your ships. In the middle of heated tactical engagement, this was a real problem.
In any event, I hope the devs do listen to some of the criticisms and make adjustments for the better. They've got a lot of pressure on them to live up to the legacy of the first two games. It can't be an easy position to be in.
Yeah I agree. Fingers crossed. I really want this one to be good. But I fear that a combination of less focus among game devs... it seems more to be "just another job" for most these days rather than a passion. The whole 4 day week thing and the focus on the internal teams life, art contests and raising the companies social media profiles rather than an absolute geeky hard core focus on the game just make me kinda sad. We love these games but I always get the feeling these days the developers are much MUCH less invested. That's the feeling these CARD systems and skill buttons give me. That somebody with no investment in the franchise worked on it like it was any other programming job. They got to eat ice cream at work and have every fifth day off. I dunno. I imagine Blackbird Interactive to be a stereotypical google style company with beanbags and such working from home 4 days and having the 5th day off. That's probably overly synical though.
I do recall people saying that early in the development blogs their was mention of the devs saying story and artwork were the priorities for the game.
Did you get a chance to watch the video?
I like where the changes are going.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/homeworld-3/changes-demo-feedback
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on March 29, 2024, 05:37:07 PMI like where the changes are going.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/homeworld-3/changes-demo-feedback
I'm still skeptical since they are basically silent on the terrible controls and camera (other than mentioning "minor tweaks"). Despite all the disclaimers demo inevitably have I have yet to encounter one that has ever really differed in any noticeable way from the final game, especially this close to release. I hope I'm wrong.
Well, fellas...not too much longer. Really hoping the devs took all the feedback to heart.
Homeworld Vast Reaches released on VR and it is receiving pretty disappointing reviews. I hope it is not a precursor.
Did you go in for the original FIG campaign Jarhead?
Quote from: Destraex on May 03, 2024, 09:18:22 AMDid you go in for the original FIG campaign Jarhead?
No. Somehow, I have not even pre-ordered yet.
Today people who bought certain versions get access to the game, guess we will hear if turns out to be good. Although past versions never stuck with me, considering jumping in just for a new shiny toy:)
I'm really enjoying the campaign so far. It has that Homeworld immersive feel and they have nailed the aesthetic and sounds of the original titles. Story is good and the combat is fun.
No regerts here yet.
Yep it's good so far. No spoilers though. 3.23 Star Citizen just dropped and am engaged with that!!!
Quote from: Destraex on May 10, 2024, 11:43:36 PMYep it's good so far. No spoilers though. 3.23 Star Citizen just dropped and am engaged with that!!!
Yup. I'm all patched and ready to play. Unfortunately, when I tried, I was number 8,467 in the line with an expected wait of an hour and sixteen minutes. No thanks.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on May 10, 2024, 08:58:01 PMI'm really enjoying the campaign so far. It has that Homeworld immersive feel and they have nailed the aesthetic and sounds of the original titles. Story is good and the combat is fun.
No regerts here yet.
I bought it yesterday as well, probably against my better judgement. Not because it is a good or bad game, just because I don't understand it well and a lot going on. Didn't get a ton of time with it yet, certainly going to have to start with the basics to figure it out.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on May 11, 2024, 03:10:38 AMQuote from: Jarhead0331 on May 10, 2024, 08:58:01 PMI'm really enjoying the campaign so far. It has that Homeworld immersive feel and they have nailed the aesthetic and sounds of the original titles. Story is good and the combat is fun.
No regerts here yet.
I bought it yesterday as well, probably against my better judgement. Not because it is a good or bad game, just because I don't understand it well and a lot going on. Didn't get a ton of time with it yet, certainly going to have to start with the basics to figure it out.
Don't forget it has active pause! If things get to hectic, stop the action and plan with all the time you need.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on May 11, 2024, 06:55:06 AMQuote from: Grim.Reaper on May 11, 2024, 03:10:38 AMQuote from: Jarhead0331 on May 10, 2024, 08:58:01 PMI'm really enjoying the campaign so far. It has that Homeworld immersive feel and they have nailed the aesthetic and sounds of the original titles. Story is good and the combat is fun.
No regerts here yet.
I bought it yesterday as well, probably against my better judgement. Not because it is a good or bad game, just because I don't understand it well and a lot going on. Didn't get a ton of time with it yet, certainly going to have to start with the basics to figure it out.
Don't forget it has active pause! If things get to hectic, stop the action and plan with all the time you need.
Did the tutorial this morning so a more makes sense.
We lost a lot of features. Pretty dumbed down. Potential spoilers below... so read at your own peril.
I just finished the campaign (but have not played a skirmish game yet) and I am really not sure why the devs would leave so much out of HW3. I mean I know we lost refuelling from HW1 to HW2 but now we have lost so much more with HW3. The original HWs charms were because they felt very star wars or other sci fi space combat with some neat role play that made you feel like a fleet commander. Now for vets of the series I imagine that we all feel a little disappointed that instead of improving this feeling by giving us some more complex features or at least keeping the older features. We have instead gone backwards again. Each time we have a new homeworld we seem to be getting a simpler product with less to think about and enjoy.
* Resource controllers are your only option and come with 3 harvesters each. This means supply Lines not a thing anymore, harvesters never have to make it back to your capital or later resources controllers when you can afford them. Your resourcing operations are now little self contained and easy to hide. Their impact is limited to them being late game powerhouses in their peak form right off the bat. Everybody is on a level playing field here, no need to manage your operations in any capacity except keeping them alive. There are no supply lines to worry about.
* No "physical" modules to destroy, which means no pinpoint surgical strike raids. Your either grinding the full health bar or don't bother coming.
This means we miss disabling engines, destroying particular fabrication modules to stop the enemy building particular units, destroying missile modules or bothersome turrets and so forth. Capital ships are simply health bar tanks now. You no longer get the feeling that a large ship can take hits and damage without being out of the fight. Limping along fighting bravely and then retreating to repair the modules or rebuild them. That gameplay arc is not part of the game anymore.
* No shipyard. So the slow moving mega capital yard that even a mothership could no build and was so vulnerable because once you found it short of hyperspace it could barely move to escape. Because it needed to be larger than a standard ship. That arc is gone. Which means faster more mobile players that did not bother with a shipyards arc is also gone. Everybody can just build everything from the mothership including battlecruisers.
Perhaps their is a shipyard in skirmish which I have not played yet?
* I have not found a way yet to keep the fleet together come hell or high water apart from leaving passive or neutral orders on, but then I issue a move order and it seems to go to crap as they all race off. I think this is a me problem and I still have to learn in this area and it's possibly my formations or ctrl groupings. But It seems without individual orders carriers hand back and fighters rush in etc. I guess it just seems to be a giant mess as every time you issue an order the units either ignore you or cancel any previous orders and throw away all caution. As I said I think this is a me problem.
* There seems to be no option to close to guns range and so battlecruisers seem to always stand off at missile range. Could it be I am just not seeing the guns fire?
* Special Ability[/b[ spam buttons or "excel spreadsheet stats buttons" seem to have replaced physical mechanics now. I consider this to be more board game abstraction rather than legitimate ways of making an RTS interesting to physically play and watch things happen. I don't mind cloaking abilties because they manifest physically in game and work physically. Over charge and things like that are just fiddley extra buttons to press that may as well be on auto cast.
I will be playing some skirmishes to see if it grows on me, but this shiney new Homeworld toy may only be good for the campaign in the end. This may be another Dawn of War 3.
That's all for now. Trying to gather my thoughts to eventually post as a steam review.
So far I don't mind the game but it's average and compared to the originals underwhelming. A little like Deserts of Kharak, made for the story and little else. I am wondering at the moment how many skirmish maps I will find and have zero interest in "wargames" mode which just seems like a way to get you to press the fancy ability buttons all the time to win rather than to be tactical or strategic.
SPOIILERS
[spoiler]The graphics are great and the story sequences were pretty good quality but I felt like the story was not aimed at me the hiigaran fleet commander and hiigaran civilisation but more some kind of superhero story with far too much emotion and not enough lore. But I liked it over all. It just felt less like homeworld and more like a family drama now. Most of the characters just seemed plain silly. I never felt the competence or responsibility of leadership from them, I did feel the recklessness and emotion though[/spoiler]
I'm very much enjoying the campaign. Maybe you're a HW purist or something, but I think the game is great. My hands are full managing fleets of interceptors, bombers and frigates, so I'm not sure if my brain could handle any additional complexity. I think it feels right as is.
The one complaint I agree with is fleet management. I'm yet to figure out a good way to do it. Although I organize classes of ships into groups, once they've taken losses and get mixed up in the heat of battle, I've found it to be nearly impossible to keep them organized and ordered. There must be a way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet.
As far as your criticism of resource collection, I disagree. Those controllers need to be protected. They do get attacked. And since they are off gathering resources, they are often times deployed away from the mothership or the bulk of your combat forces. Since resources are life in this game (as they were in the originals) I find this to be strategic in and of itself.
As far as the comparison to DOW3...I don't get that...like at all. This isn't a MOBA. Not even close.
The DOW3 comparison was more in the vein of a game that simply did not bring a lot of it's predescessors features with it and departed from the original formula, instead introducing things like power up skills as replacements.
Thinking about HW3 more. It's more like HW1 in terms of features minus the fuel mechanic. I don't think HW1 had module targetting or shipyards for example. That alone made me realise that HW2 my favourite, is the superior HW game.
I will give you a few examples of why I miss some of the mechanics from HW2.
When I used to play with friends I remember distinctly following harvesters back to carriers or other capital ships and locating fleets that way. A lot of people could not afford until late game or did not use resource controllers at all you see. The individual harvesters really were a supply line that would lead you to the "army" so to speak.
Now you can send resource controllers into the void and every unit is a self contrained operation that you never have to manage or worry about revealing bread crumbs back to the fleet. From the beginning you can be assured that they will never travel more than an insanely short distance to a drop off point. Additionally it means the old resource drop off modules could not have been destroyed even if they were in game. Which used to be a big deal and I have done many times.
Another event I remember is working out what the enemy was building and then raiding their capital ships to destroy the production module that was building them. You can't do that anymore. You have to kill the whole ship, which because the mothership can build anything now, means you have to kill the mothership entirely. Which is game over anyway. If not strategy the immersion of doing a star wars style surgical strike with snub fighters is kinda gone.
Yet another example is when we used to destroy battlecruiser turrets on one side, usually the top and then rain hell on them from the top while they could do nothing. To stop this you needed to escort your battlecruisers. Which they have hangars for. In HW3 their is really nothing you can do but run the basic numbers of hitpoints you might be able to take out before you are destroyed. Making the game much more linear in nature. Which is my basic complaint about games like stellaris, they become simple math equations. Rather than battle stories of great deeds and smart play.
Research like a lot of things just reminds me of Deserts of Kharak. In short it reminds me of deserts of kharak. A short campaign that I enjoyed with skirmish which was "ok", only had a few maps and was full of power up abilities. An average entry into the series that is not a failure but neither is it outstanding.
The devs always said they were concentrating on the story side of things and I read into that statement that gameplay would be less than homeworld2. It is. But it's still a solid entry into the series despite those facts.
^all certainly fair points. It's just that I'm reminded about how people reacted when HW2 was released. I think many felt the same way. It was different, so they didn't like it. Eventually, players adapted to the new system and it became the standard. Not saying that will happen with HW3, but it will take time for players to explore it and develop new strategies based on what this new game offers, not on what it could have been or what some hoped it would be.
I know that multiplayer focused guys may be more disappointed than guys like me who are just looking forward to a solid single player experience, so that ain't lost in me. Regardless, I look forward to your official review for grogheads. :ThumbsUp:
Somewhere along the line I picked up Homeworld 2 on epic store for free. Never played it. Yet I'm somehow tempted to add homeworld 3 to my collection of un-played games