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| Erwin's Pages Central > Articles > Games Reviews > Homeworld Mods | |||
   
  
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Homeworld was the debut title of Relic, and the game was published by Sierra in 1999. Many of us frowned: an RTS from Sierra? But since Sierra also released Half-Life we could quite surely say that the old Sierra (whose software base mostly were graphic adventures) died and that we could expect almost anything from that company. Homeworld turned out to be an incredibly original 3D space RTS with an immense amount of atmosphere and flair. While perhaps a bit stubborn, the game feels natural and innovative at the same time. You could call modders anything you want. You might call them incredibly talented aspiring programmers with an unlimited resource of imagination and creativity, or you could call them geeks first class wearing Coke-bottle lenses and people who've got way too much time on their hands and who continuously commit plagiourism. Fact is though that mods greatly increase the lifespan of a game (something developers have clearly understood) and that some of them are real vats of great design and gameplay. Counter-Strike (HL Mod) is of course the most infamous example of this phenomenon. To my surprise, I found out that Homeworld had a very lively mod community. Of course, this game is an ideal platform for modifications. First of, Relic themselves have provided editing material (MissionMan), but enthusiasts (supernerds) have expanded the mod utilities and have dug quite deep into the original game. With the base idea of space combat, Homeworld has the potential to host various universes from sci-fi series and films: Babylon 5, Space and Beyond, Star Wars and Star Trek… Cross-overs from franchises of other computergames like Wing Commander, Independance War and Freespace can also be implemented in a Homeworld environment. The game structure, gameplay, large-scaleness and full 3D space environment are really features of Homeworld to make any sci-fi fan go wild, if implemented in his/her favorite universe. Almost all the universes I mentioned above have Homeworld mods. The Wing Commander mod (name here) for example is set in the Kilrathi War and really is worth a look. The most striking mods (at least to me) though are the Star Wars and Star Trek mods, namely heavyweights Star Wars Fleet Academy (SW) and Sacrifice of Angels (ST). Let's take these two mods under the loop. Star Wars Fleet Academy is the best Star Wars mod for Homeworld to date. These guys have already reached Beta stage 6.5 and are proceeding to v.7. In SWFA, every ship from the original Homeworld is replaced by a Star Wars vessel. Forget the Kushans and the Taiidans: its now Rebellion vs. Empire. Every single ship is modeled beautifully: from X-Wings and TIE Fighters to Mon Calamari cruisers and Imperial Star Destroyers. The Super Star Destroyer has been deliberately left out for it's over-the-top specifications: this vessel would seriously impair the fragile balance between the two sides: but even without the SSD, the Empire seems a bit stronger. Of course you can play singleplayer skirmishes, but you can also play the campaign, where scripts have greatly altered Homeworld's campaign, but not its storyline. That's to say: you will still have a Mothership, you still have to flee, etc. So an entire new campaign is still to be expected. Perhaps this will change with beta version 7. I couldn't get the music pack working, and the fighters have become very small (virtually invisible if you focus on a group of 5 or more) but in total, SWFA provides great Homeworld gameplay in the Star Wars universe: ordering your fleet of X-Wings, Y-Wings, Mon Calamari cruisers and Nebula Frigates to move to the enemy, who's got ISD class I and II, hordes of Lambdas and Missile Boats and TIEs… and I almost forgot: the sound sample of gunfire (this works) has been modded too…This is pure bliss. Trust me. Sacrifice of Angels is a Star Trek mod set in the Deep Space Nine spin-off: the battle thus rages between the Federation and its allies (Romulans and Klingons) and the Dominion. Whereas space combat in Star Wars focused mainly on nimble yet incredibly capable and powerful fighters, and capships as either resistance carriers (Mon Calamari) or impenetrable fortresses (ISD), Star Trek hosts a wide range of capital ships, with all crews going into the hundreds. Sacrifice of Angels brilliantly translates the DS9 universe to Homeworld: result is a continuous dance of capships and fasers and photon torpedos. It is a real thrill to send in Excelsior class destroyers and Galaxy class warships, backed up by Romulan dreadnoughts, Miranda vessels etc. Sacrifice of Angels (v 0.9) currently lacks a singleplayer campaign, but it seems that this is in the works. While I'm more a Star Wars fan, I found Sacrifice of Angels a bit more enthralling than SWFA, feeling being more "complete" (SoA has modified menu screens) although SWFA of course has the benefit of being based on a much more epic universe. EP sez: Homeworld was a brilliant game when
it was released. It's virtually perfect 3D space RTS gameplay is now
been implemented in various mods, which all make their respective universes
come to life. Many of them are very good, with the best being SWFA,
SoA and (WC). But this is of course personal flavour. All I can say
is I hope the modders will continue to be so vigourous and by doing
so, realise the most intimite dreams of any sci-fi fan… >
Homeworld Universe |
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