Homeworld 3 Announced

[malletmann]

Gearbox Software has put up a Fig crowdfunding campaign for Homeworld 3:

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3

The crowdfunding does not appear to be strictly necessary, but enacted just as a way to involve fans. Unfortunately, at this time there appears to be some uncertainty about Epic Game Store exclusivity.

[Arioch]

The tentative target date isn't until 2022, but the trailer looks nice.

[boldilocks]

I wonder what the story's going to be? Are the smaller nations going to try to rebuild the bentusi trade routes without having hyperspace cores? Is this a rebellion against the age of S'Jet?

[Arioch]

It appears from the trailer and the concepts that the Eye of Arran, the large hyperspace gate mentioned in the closing of Homeworld 2, plays a role. The Eye is a node in a network of ancient gates that spans the galaxy.

[asaenvolk]

Woot (old memes!)
I love Homeworld

[Mithramuse]

I mean, there couldn't POSSIBLY be anything nasty hiding out there in the rest of the galaxy, right?

Or people back home looking to take advantage of all the (presumably) now-opened access?

Couldn't... possibly....

But should make for a grand ol' time.

[Razor One]

Too early to explore the universe.
Too late to explore the world.
Just in time to experience the joys of Homeworld 3!

As long as they don't go Epic Exclusive. I'd have happily thrown money at them if they had that as an ironclad promise, but the mere possibility of that stays my righteous expenditure.

[icekatze]

hi hi

If they go Epic exclusive, I can wait until the exclusive period ends. By then, I'll have a better idea about whether or not it captures the spirit of the original.

[Arioch]

The estimated release date isn't for three years... I'd be surprised if the Epic exclusive nonsense is still going on by then.

[malletmann]

They've released some concept art.

This one looks to be an ion frigate, based on some of the other art. Looks like a cross between Vagyr and Taidaan.


There seems to be some majorly huge ships, on the scale of Sajuuk if not bigger:


Potential environmental hazards?:

[malletmann]

There's a new update on the Fig campaign, with new information demonstrating dynamic hull damage, reminds me of Star Trek Bridge Commander:

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3/updates/991

______
Time for an art update! As we're going through pre-production, the art team is thinking about how to bring more visceral combat into Homeworld 3. In Homeworld Remastered, we got a glimpse of ship scarring - weapon hits against your mothership would leave behind charred details. So we wanted to enhance this experience and really make the destruction more delicious.

We started off with the design notion that ballistics from Homeworld 1 made the gameplay more compelling but from an art perspective we really wanted that initial impact to resonate and make the damage feel more tactile. As with every new idea we start brainstorming in concept, thinking about all the kinds of scenarios before committing to the work. Think of concept as your initial research - We talk through the idea, start thinking about what type of armour these ships have, how the interiors are constructed, all the different types of weapons, etc.



We didn't want to just generalize the damage but make something more meaningful based on the type of weapon hits. Wouldn't it be cool if your battlecruiser pulled into a berth after a long battle and being able to tell the laurels of its battle by looking at it's damaged hull? So the art team took the Battlecruiser from Homeworld 2 (slightly reskinned for fun) and started to work towards a previsualization.


Getting shelled by small weapons would leave behind pock marks of displaced metal.


Larger weapons or critical hits would buckle the hull and eventually break open revealing it's guts. You can just imagine the sound effects that would follow.

Going through this process of conceptual development and previsualization allows the rest of the team to think through the design and technical implementation. We're still very early in developing this idea, there are many more pieces we need to think through but we're excited to continue our exploration. We really thought this would be a cool feature for Homeworld 3 and just wanted to share our process and thank all of you for all the support. PEW PEW!

Karl Gryc, Art Director

[malletmann]

The Fig campaign has concluded, raising more than $1,500,000. Apparently that's the most that's ever been raised for an RTS, and Gearbox will be providing the majority of the funding.

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3/updates/995

[RedDwarfIV]

They've released some concept art.

This one looks to be an ion frigate, based on some of the other art. Looks like a cross between Vagyr and Taidaan.

Looks like the Karos Graveyard Office to me.

[Arioch]

I hadn't even heard about this until today: Blackbird Interactive has a new game in early access called Hardspace: Shipbreaker (loosely based on the concept of Hardware: Shipbreakers, the prototype which eventually became Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak), in which you are an orbital salvage engineer breaking up spacecraft.

[Arioch]

Animation for the "railgun frigate."



I think having the rails wiggle is a bit too cartoonish, but the damage effects are pretty cool.

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3/updates/1394

[asaenvolk]

the wiggle is a bit much

[icekatze]

hi hi

If I was the captain of a ship and I saw the barrel of my ship's main weapon experiencing visible resonant oscillation, you'd better believe I'd be hitting the emergency shutoff button as fast as possible.

Also, I'll miss the bright white circle, being an accurate depiction of an explosion in a vacuum, even though unrealistically atmospheric flames will probably sell.

Still, what will sell or not sell the game for me will be game balance. And for that, I'll have to wait for reviews.

[Arioch]

The ship designs thus far are not exactly making my socks roll up and down.

[Krulle]

That's a nice image for excitement. (never heard that one before)

The graphics are nice, indeed.
But eye candy is not important to me, my favourite game tend to have mediocre graphics... Even for their own time.


And explosions in vacuum do not need to be in a ball form. They will be rather dependent on whatever is in their path (structural elements of the ship, massive engineering elements, ...) A warhead detonating on the hull/close to the hull will have a ball-form explosion, yes, but an explosion originating from the ship's critical systems? Less so. (But will still be rather "circular" compared to an gravitated explosion in an atmosphere)

[Arioch]

In the mail today...

hwrpg.gif (183.28 KiB) Viewed 61520 times