Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Homeworld 1 help

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
I don't have any major problems with Cataclysm because ships have some hp, sometimes I just forget to tone down the destruction when you're supposed to capture stuff.

But I forgot how hard HW1 was. Not sure how I ever finished it years ago. My fighters get murdered by the other guy in about a second. HW1 doesn't have the stupid HW2 difficulty does it, where every level depends on the amount of ships you have? I just have no RU's to build anything. Salvage corvettes get blown up before I can abuse that.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Capture capture capture. For instance: Make a speed comparable to your salvage corvettes formation that can bait them (a globular formation guarding a single salvage corvette at the center you move with hotkeys works well). They move in one direction, the prey takes the bait, gets damaged because the globular formation can shoot backwards when guarding a moving target with the front lasers(bug), thereby slowing them once enough damage has been done; the corvettes rape the enemy from behind (unless it's a missile launcher and even then, it's possible with multiple baits). Even works for carriers. Your salvage corvette fleet is your lifeblood. Don't waste them, but 'wasting' them to capture a missile launcher is often a good idea.

Another (wasteful) way: many small resistant corvettes on evade mode harassing a single isolated enemy will often allow the fleet of salvage corvertes to attach. A fleet of salvage corvettes 'guarded' by two repairs corvettes (they can also capture; it's their special ability; X or something)

Generally; coordinate multiple fleets, one or more serving as kill fleets for stuff you don' want; another (fast) as bait; and a salvage fleet; with backup if it's very hard to capture without taking drip drip damage (like carriers).
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,406
Location
Djibouti
But I forgot how hard HW1 was.

o___________________________________o

I quit the game after like 8 levels because it was so mind-numbingly easy.

Once again I become convinced that I'm some kind of a god of gaming.
 

Telengard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
1,621
Location
The end of every place
HW 1 does have scaling. It's the tradeoff for randomized but persistent fleets. There's not as much as in 2, but it's still possible to trap yourself at a bad fleet to enemy ratio point, if you have a large but weak fleet.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
I found Cataclysm to be a lot harder than Homeworld 1.

Not to say that HW1 was bad because of it. It was about right. Only a retard will admire a game for reloading all the time.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
I don't have any major problems with Cataclysm because ships have some hp, sometimes I just forget to tone down the destruction when you're supposed to capture stuff.

But I forgot how hard HW1 was. Not sure how I ever finished it years ago. My fighters get murdered by the other guy in about a second. HW1 doesn't have the stupid HW2 difficulty does it, where every level depends on the amount of ships you have? I just have no RU's to build anything. Salvage corvettes get blown up before I can abuse that.

Salvettes need some serious mess going on to approach a capship without getting blown away. Also watch the enemy firing arcs.

I once remember picking up a whole bunch of depleted swarmers. Made for some lulz during that ghost ship mission (swarmer is just as fast and manoeuvrable as missile).
:troll:

There is some mild scaling in HW1, I don't remember how much in regards to enemy forces, but you can find some extra resource deposits in latter missions if you're faring badly in terms of fleet/resources.

They move in one direction, the prey takes the bait, gets damaged because the globular formation can shoot backwards when guarding a moving target with the front railguns(spaace)
Fix'd.

I found Cataclysm to be a lot harder than Homeworld 1.

Not to say that HW1 was bad because of it. It was about right. Only a retard will admire a game for reloading all the time.
Cata is b0rked. SU mechanics means you can't afford to keep balanced strike force if you want to have heavy hitters. Energy cannons mean you don't need to.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
Cata is far easier than HW 1. Bar gimmick ships, Acolytes are so damn flexible that you barely need anything else bar capital ships.

So, hints. I never used corvettes in my playthroughs, but from some tests they seem to be effective (SCO was right about their use. Beauty of HW is using different ship combinations!)

My two cents.

Use Scouts (Light Interceptors!) as bait and quick strike force. Avoid Interceptors, they're not cost-effective. Small wings of bombers can be a knife for gutting tough foes.
Scouts cad do everything- harass, and in open formation and evade stance be vital to distract bigger ships until your salvettes (Salvage Corvettes) gang on them. 'Distraction' is vital for capturing.
Capture capture capture. Capture all the Turanic Ion frigates (they're slow as hell, but in Wall formation they are effective).

Kadeshi frigates are a blast- focus on them for capture.
The first real enemy in HW 1 is the fleet that destroyed Kharak- be slow and metodical with them, avoid quick attacks and slowly erode their numbers. I've never succedeed in capturing the Transport, though.
After that, HW 1 is 'easy'. You will have enough ships to take head-on big assaults and capturing even more of 'em, a snowball effect.

Use scouts and multiple salvettes as bait. Repair corvettes as support.
About Frigates, after a while I stop using them... Capital ships are enough to eradicate enemy capital ships,frigates&corvettes, while swarms of Scouts engage/distract the rest. Be wary of Missile Cruisers, if you follow a fighter-heavy strategy.

Other stuff.... Kamikaze is a good way to get out from bad spots. Scouts or collectors can do a lot of damage to specific targets, if you're in dire need (like if you need to blast large rocks in a hurry).
If you realize you failed to build/preserve enough ships, start again. HW has some 'breather' missions, but a ineffective fleet will doom you in some later ones,
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Cata was balanced well enough until dreadnoughts which are jacks of all trades (and then devs decided to "balance" them by adding hugeass enemy forces vs. you). Before them missions were quite varied and you had to use new types of frigates (hive / ramming f.e.) for tasks made exclusively for them which were quite hard compared to HW1.

Because HW1 was a lot more straightforward "kill them all" most of the time.

Homeworld 2 has the best balance (e.g. ship type vs. ship type) in the series but the problem is - the campaign design is really retarded. The amount of enemy forces is so huge all the time you have to grind through them - instead of a more focused design seen previously in the series.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Yes, maneuvers are obviously a big thing; slightly less important than formations, don't neglect them according to your purpose atm.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
Cata was balanced well enough until dreadnoughts which are jacks of all trades (and then devs decided to "balance" them by adding hugeass enemy forces vs. you). Before them missions were quite varied and you had to use new types of frigates (hive / ramming f.e.) for tasks made exclusively for them which were quite hard compared to HW1.

I agree.

Homeworld 2 has the best balance (e.g. ship type vs. ship type) in the series but the problem is - the campaign design is really retarded. The amount of enemy forces is so huge all the time you have to grind through them - instead of a more focused design seen previously in the series.

HW 2 was the only game I almost dropped for this. The 'Rescue Soban' mission. I had a nice&huge fleet, and enough coordination to use it with efficiency. But the 'mission scaling'... I can easily blast 5-6 heavy cruisers with support, 14 I cannot. Solutions was to recycle everything bar Heavy cruisers before ending the previous mission, and use the insane amount of resources (auto-collect....AUTOCOLLECT!) to rebuild it from scratch abusing the level scaling. Horrible.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
The 'evade' stance (i think) gives out a bonus to speed / attack malus. Essential to make salvage corvettes catch up with some enemies, even on a intercept trajectory (because salvage corvettes have to maneuver to the right place on the hull).
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Cata is far easier than HW 1. Bar gimmick ships,
So, vast majority of them.
:troll:

HW 2 was the only game I almost dropped for this. The 'Rescue Soban' mission. I had a nice&huge fleet, and enough coordination to use it with efficiency. But the 'mission scaling'... I can easily blast 5-6 heavy cruisers with support, 14 I cannot.
Pff. I dropped it for the first time as early as mission 4. Having played flawlessly through previous missions I have amassed substantial (for this stage) fleet, then a huge wall of frigs just appeared and immediately facerolled my forces as soon as hyperspace exit animation finished at the beginning of mission 4.

On my second attempt I purposefuly played relatively poorly, and what do you know?, I beat the game BROUGHT SAJUUK TO BEAR with ease.
:balance:

HW2 had nice assets and mechanics. Unfortunately they all ended up in a shit game.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Pff. I dropped it for the first time as early as mission 4.
Bro it's a stealth mission where if you get detected you are getting raped by 10x your forces. Learn2Stealth bro.

There are many other missions HW2 should be blamed for and they are of a "kill them all" type.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Pff. I dropped it for the first time as early as mission 4.
Bro it's a stealth mission where if you get detected you are getting raped by 10x your forces. Learn2Stealth bro.

There are many other missions HW2 should be blamed for and they are of a "kill them all" type.
Yeah, I failed my stealth by emerging from hyperspace in a cutscene.
:hearnoevil:
 

Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
10,266
Location
Poland
I dont remember having any real problems with HW2 but perhaps I was playing poorly and enemy fleet didnt scale so much - but I think I had a full fleet most of the time.

I also didnt have problems with HW:Cata up until that mission where you had to disable a ship with special gun firing from a certain distance. Killed all other enemies but just couldnt hit the enemy from the specified range. Dropped it there.
 
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
2,951
I actually liked Cataclysm - it did have some nice improvements of the original Homeworld - like the ability to actually give orders while the game is paused and units gaining experience. I also liked some of the units - in particular that corvette with EMP made from 2 acolytes and the hive frigate. And I loved abusing the siege cannon - it could be a bit tricky to line up a shot because it takes so long to position the mothership and charge the cannon, but fuck - it can completely destroy an entire fleet and even one-shot a heavy cruiser with a direct hit. But yeah, the game was easier then the original - there were just too many resources available.

As for scaling in Homeworld 2 - yeah it was very bad. The worst I can think of is the mission where you have to stop the enemy from destroying a hypergate. If you start this one with a full fleet there will be a dozen cruisers waiting for you (where you can only have two) with the fucking huge walls of frigates pounding on the gate. Add to that the derpification of the story, the way strike craft worked (as long as a single craft from a formation returned you could "repair" even those that have been destroyed at no cost) and the nerfing of the formation options and you can see why it's just inferior to the original. What a shame.
 

sser

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,866,662
Salvage corvettes should really be sent in threes, usually from multiple angles. As long as one gets latched on, it will spin a ship in circles, more or less incapacitating it.

Homeworld is a pretty challenging single-player experience -- a rarity in the genre, at least in my experience. Capturing a few of the multi-shot beam frigates will make it a lot easier, though.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
There was also a really derpy early mission in HW2 where you had to "protect" some ships from being boarded. Unfortunately this was impossible, as the enemies would keep coming until they got the job done. Thus the mission was completed way faster and with less expense by simply letting them capture them, let the scripted events run, then carrying on.
 

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Okie dokie, my memory of HW2 was kinda eecht. It looks great except it lags like crazy even on modern hardware - with every glitz turned on. I forgot there was such a thing as auto jumping. And the scripting. I thought modern gaames were QTE -> cutscene heavy but holy shit. Literally everything is scripted to hell. I couldn't take more than 2 missions.

Nice interface improvements though.

Meanwhile in HW1 I'm semi stuck in Supernova Station mission. I know you're supposed to use the dust clouds, but that's the problem with the game. Usually just one correct way to do things or you get totally raped. I'm not really having fun, it feels like the developers were thinking - ok how can we dick this mission up lol?
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
That's the mission where you get constant damage outside of the dust clouds and there were some mines on the main path yeah?

There are two ways IIRC... you could just follow the front (detonate the mines and mine layers, using that radar ship) or back paths on the clouds (i did both like a OCD monkey and captured both fucking enemy carriers - one tries to run away). Or Maybe it's possible to use a earlier captured carrier to say 'fuck it' and move your smaller fleet that way (leaving the frigates) much nearer at the cost of major damage to the carrier before deployment / engagement. Doing it like i did, moving the frigates through both dust paths, takes a lot of time (much micro), so maybe it's possible with 2+ carriers and a huge salvage fleet + fighters to do it 'quickly'.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
I remember setting up remote resourcing operation in this mission after completeing the objective, but can't recall the details. I think it was carrier, one or two resourcers, docking with it while it travelled, and I think two support frigs, one repairing the carrier, the other repairing the first, switching periodically.
There are two isolated clusters of asteroids in this map.

Also, I think you can steal a cruiser there.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom