Masochism Incorporated

[Krabjuice]

After a rather painful injection of Silent Storm, I began to yearn for something classic. This is not to say that Silent Storm wasn't fun--which it was--but it also hurt. A lot.

 

And I like that kind of hurt.

 

So, I decided to dust off a few relics from my shelf and behold, the Homeworld series. I began to reminisce, remembering my failure to complete the original Homeworld and it's spectacular sequel. Cataclysm, however, I did finish--often. So, it was finally decided that I would revisit my favourite strategy series.

 

So far, the tour:

 

Cataclysm - On normal. Once through. Get back into the groove.

Completed (100%)

From previous takes at Homeworld 2, I've come to a conclusion that capital ships may be the way to go. It seems to be working.

So far, I've amassed 5 Somtaww Destroyers and 1 Taidanii Destroyer. Thats six in total, plus a dozen other frigates. I'll consider retiring a few destroyers or frigates when the 'naughts are available.

That was a great combination. Even though the 9 HC's and Naggarok, I really only lost 2-3 multibeam frigates. Speaking of which, I was rushed by 9 HC's during the final mission. Man, that freaked me out.

Homeworld -

Completed (100%)

I'm about to start, but I'll wait for tommorow. I'll begin the run at school.

I remember that Homeworld was very salvage happy. Namely, it doesn't have leeches like Cataclysm, so infinate money is hard to come by. We'll see what happens.

I just finished the fifth mission. To date, i've only lost a probe and two salvettes. What I gained was well worth it. I now have 8 captured ion array frigates, 3 captured ion frigates, 11 captured assault frigates, 1 captured support frigate, 4 other support frigates, 2 destroyers, 2 harvesters, and one carrier. I'm also racking in 9k resources. Diamond Shoals is going to be fun, however, as I refuse to sell my frigates or build bombers. Also, I've learned how effective strike craft can be. Unlike cataclysm, strike craft can be depended on to harass enemy capital ships while taking minimal losses. Those scouts, man, are fast.

I just entered the Garden of Kadesh. Money time.

Well, its been a while. Lets see: I captured 4 heavy cruisers, 14 destroyers, 20 support frigates, 4 carriers, 50-ish swarmers, over 115 ion frigates. Yea, I win.

Homeworld 2 -

Completed (0%)

Oof, I'm dreading this.

I've taken a few minutes to reflect on some crucial strategies of the game. Namely, those involving strike craft.

Lets see, strike craft in HW2 are signficantly better then their HW1 counterparts. No, they are not better armoured or armed, but they exist as a group. This means that when a single group is repaired, any and all craft within are replaced and repaired without any cost. Score. No more single ship replacement. Also, I believe that it would be wise to enlist pulsar gunships en masse. They're beautifully balenced between anti figther and anti capital roles. From what I remember from previous games, the capture-happy tactic doesn't really mesh well. The marine frigates are too slow, too stationary to be any real use. Only against single targets are they useful. At least they don't need to be hauled to a carrier, yet, they still take a while to complete a capture.

 

Now, considering the cost and use of the marine frigate, it would be far more useful if it could--say--release drop pods onto an enemy ship. Extend that to releasing drop pods on multiple ships. Thus, now we'd have an actually useful ship on our hands. Of course, no ship can be too powerful. Thus, each of these drop pods can either be targeted (as the marine frigate can) when latched to a ship, or the pods would need to be manually replaced.. for a cost. Hell, maybe the defenders can win sometimes.

[NKF]

Salvage happy? Oh yes, I concur. You do tend to overuse the salvage corvettes once you get the hang of them. Quite a lot of fun can be had in capturing and deploying the enemy's own ships against them.

 

I usually had a sensor probe or scout distract a frigate and have it retreat. It would then zip over a salvage corvette fleet that would wait and then swoop up from underneath as the frigate passes over them. You simply cannot do this in Homeworld II and its pathetic marine frigates (good concept - horrible implementation).

 

Also, for those new to the game, capturing your first Carrier (this can be done quite early on, actually) can be very satisfying. Nothing like having a 'free' roaming resource drop-off point that can store, repair, refuel and manufacture fighters + corvettes and construct and convert frigates. It's simply an amazing ship to have despite the fact it's a flying brick and often acts better as a sponge in a firefight.

 

If you rely heavily on capture, by the time you're most of the way through the game, you'll find that if you started as the Taidaan, most of your bigger ships, like the cruisers will be of Kushan make. If you start as Kushan, most of your major ships will be of Taidaani make. In my case, by the end-game, I had a couple hundred of Kushan (or was it Taidaan?)'s finest Ion frigates blowing up their own mothership... Yes, I have no life.

 

---

 

In general, it's a good idea to have a mix of corvettes/fighters, some frigates (like the multi beam frigate and ion frigates), repair frigates and capital ships. They complement each other very nicely. Once you've got a missile cruiser or two, these can literally wipe out entire batallions of fighters and corvettes, thus can completely take over from your anti fighter/corvettes support for your cap ships.

 

However, the corvettes and fighters are still necessary for rapid interception in case an enemy fleet manages to slip a little too far under your sensors, so you may want to have a carrier in the mix, or just have a few fighter wings escort the obligatory trailing repair frigates.

 

- NKF

[The Veteran]

Homeworld 2 annihilated me I got a fair way into the game I think, not quite sure how far mind! If I remember correctly I was on a mission where I had to destroy some kind of enemy space station, just can't do it though!

 

While we're on this genre... I just raided the bargain bin and bought Haegemonia - Legions of Iron for £3 I love it, it's not exactly a difficult game but its really good fun,very similar to homeworld...

 

I don't have the original Homeworld, only Cataclysm and no.2, one of which I've never been able to play due to crappy windows conflicts

[Azrael Strife]

I was never able to get past Homeworld 2 second mission, I know I suck, but that game is hard! I think I should revisit it someday, was an interesting one.

[Krabjuice]

Today, I was a bit trigger happy with the siege cannon. Yes, I admit it. I fired the blast towards an oncomming beast heavy cruiser, only to have the shot impact a nearby beast corvette which happened to be very very unlucky. Regardless, the blast raped my commandship of each and every one of its many modules, as well as those on my carriers. I decided to quit for the day, it was the last mission anyways.

 

I did it again, except that it was my command ship that fired the shot and hit itself. It decided to turn after it fired... turn into the shot.

[Space Voyager]

I just raided the bargain bin and bought Haegemonia - Legions of Iron for £3 I love it, it's not exactly a difficult game but its really good fun,very similar to homeworld...

I must say I didn't find it very similar to Homeworld. It promised more but delivered much less. The AI in Hegemonia is awfull. I was able to keep small wormhole guard and the AI kept sending one or two ships at a time. Soon my gueard were utter vets.

[The Veteran]

Like I said, it isn't exactly the most difficult of games but I still enjoyed it! I'm at the beginning of the alien race missions now, the third set if you like when you're in their system.

 

I love space sims, any kind, must say Freelancer is always going to be my fave though.

 

Starlancer was good, also got Star Wolves, Cataclysm, the ancient Star Trek Armada, Tachyon the Fringe, X2 and of course Interceptor! If anyone fancies something a little different I highly recommend Aquanox2, it's an underwater Starlancer for want of a better description! Note starlancer not freelancer, it's mission based so not as unlimited at freelancer... Great game though, good missions and decent AI. Still not completed it yet!

[uriaheep]

I never played Homeworld as I had a naff pc at the time but after reading this thread I decided to purchase a copy.

 

Can't wait for it to arrive now.

[The Veteran]

But which did you get? Homeworld, Homeworld2 or Homeworld Cataclysm

[Krabjuice]

Yea, I finished off my programming ISU a few minutes ago. Its a cross between a Cave shooter and that surgeon game where you can't touch the walls. Details aside, its running off the Homeworld Cataclysm sound track, and even borrows the ion-cannon sound.

 

Oh, and I was too engrossed in my ISU to game. Thus, I will begin my quest to reclaim my homeworld tommorow, in class with some multi-player unit testing.