Homeworld 2

[slaus]

Anyone awaiting the release of homeworld 2? Supposedly it'll be out in two weeks. The screenshots look good and the story should be entertaining.

[Kevster]

I have played both Homeworld games extensively and really liked the storyline they built into the game. I am really looking forward to HW2. I already have it pre-ordered on Amazon :).

I liked Homeworld so much a lot of my characters on Earth and Beyond are named for planets and places in Homeworld. My main character is Kharak and my wife's character is Hiigara. I even belong the guild "Elite Kith".

[LPMiller]

How is Earth and beyond? I was thinking of trying it.

[slaus]

Theres a lot of diverging opinions on Earth and Beyond. I quit after 3-4 months but some people I know still find a lot of enjoyment.

[Kevster]

I have been playing Earth and Beyond since October. There are currently 4 servers and they are all different (in attitudes, players, etc). There is a pretty major storyline going on in the game, so things can change from month to month as the storyline changes.

EA did some messed up things early in EnB like move the entire development and support staff from Irvine up to Redwood City after being live for only 3 months. That messed up the patch and game developments for at least 2 months as everything got settled down again. They also just had to change monthly pricing due to VAT changes in the EU and that ticked a lot of European players off (monthly costs went up about $1.50). There have been some major improvements lately and there's more on the close horizon.

If you're interested in EnB, I would suggest trying out the 5-day demo first to see if you like it. You can have up to 5 different avatars in one accoutn and I'm usually my main character, Kharak, on the Galileo server.

[slaus]

Homeworld 2 demo is out now.

[slaus]

The demo seems to be buggy because I've had a few crashes to desktop while playing player vs cpu.

[Kevster]

I'm in England right now - I'll have to d/l it when I get home next week :)

What are you running on your system? processor/vidcard/os/mem?

[slaus]

p4 2.26/Geforce 4 Ti4600/WinXP/256mb RDRAM

[Realrammstein]

Demo was kinda buggy (1 crash). I love HW1. and HW Cataclysm was even better. HW2 comes out on same day as Jedi Academy. And still playing HW2, first.:bandit:

[Kevster]

I'm going to download it today while I still have a high-speed connection here in England (going to Ireland next week).

[Kevster]

I have been playing HW:2's demo a few times in the last few days and I have to admit I'm hooked! I haven't had a single crash so far on my laptop, so maybe the problems are more hardware specific. I am very impressed with the graphics engine and details. The gameplay is very intuitive and pretty easy to understand. I can't wait for the game to come out. Damn it I want to play it now (well, after I get back into the U.S. :) )

[Cantacuzene]

I'm getting HW2 as we speak. The graphics look amazing. I haven't played teh 1st one or the demo, but I do like RTS genre and a cool space rts sounds awesome. Plus the reviews are saying good things. I'll post some screenies when I get it going...

[slaus]

Mixing units is really by far the best strategy because I'm getting killed on one of the missions because the enemy is coming with a mix of bomber/frigates.

[Cantacuzene]

Good lord, I've played to mission 3 so far and let me say this game is awesome. But as awesome as it is, it crashes to desktop every 15 minutes. When the average mission takes an hour you can see how annoying that is. PLEASE PLEASE give us a patch that makes it stable.

[Realrammstein]

I feel awful. No crashes! However, I can't win mission #3!?! I whomped on HW And HWC. Now, I am getting my butt royally handed to me. Maybe, Blizzard RTS's has dulled my skillz.:hmm:

[coleslaw]

My system just doesn't like this game. I'm trying to run it on a 1.4ghz Athlon with a Geforce 2 card, but it seems to stall for 10-30 seconds at a time. I have no idea what's going on. I'm only trying to run it at 1024x768, so it can't be stressing my system... :confused:

I'll just have to wait until I get my 2.8Ghz P4 + Radeon 9800 Pro system together to play this game! ;)

[Cantacuzene]

One trip to the Homeworld forums has shown me this is the buggiest game ever. It is going to take a hefty patch to save this one. Sad, because the game when it works is amazing.

[Kevster]

I haven't had any crashes so far - seriously. That is on both my laptop and main desktop systems. HW2 is looking like a royal terror when it comes to the AI. I have playing the AI one-on-one and it is seriously giving me a work-out. I never had a problem before with HW1 or HW:Cataclysm - I could take the AI pretty easily one-on-one.

Also one thing to remember - don't think two-dimensionally with this game or you will have your ass handed to you every time! 3-D RTS makes you have to seriously re-think your tactics (especially when the enemy hyperspaces in all around you - from above and below).

[slaus]

Mission 4 is a pure nightmare. I cant seem to even destory one of the hypergate inhibitors. This is after maxing out my population with a mix of units and I still get overwhelmed. The last game I got beat back by what looked like 30 frigates. I guess the computer doesnt have the same unit population restrictions.

[Kevster]

I guess I'll be buying the strategy guide and sharing their solutions here then :P

[Cantacuzene]

I hate to say, but I've already given up. I uninstalled last night. The game was gorgeous, the game play was potentially great but in the end it was too hard for me to have fun with.

I installed Medal of Honor: Breakthrough to give me something to do...

[coleslaw]

I just started playing the game last night. You guys aren't giving me much hope... :(

[Kevster]

I just at Fry's and bought HW2 and Prima's guide for it (it was incredibly useful in the first game) so I'll be posting solutions for everyone in a little bit - I have to rush off to a 3 hour :toxic: engineering meeting in a few minutes.

[gear02]

Originally posted by coleslaw
I just started playing the game last night. You guys aren't giving me much hope... :(

I haven't touched the campaign, nor will I ever will. I've been playing just a single mission against the computer. It find it really fun to sit there and make ships and fly them around. It's so unique that the act is fun. That's rare these days.

I do attack the enemy on occassion...with my 10 ion cannon frigates...mwhahahahahaha

[Kevster]

When I played HW1 a lot I took tons of screenshots of the massive fleets I used to be able to assemble - nothing like sending 40 or 50 destroyers and 10 or so cruisers at your enemies' mothership at watch it go up in a big ball of light :D

[Kevster]

For the 4th mission, the HW2 guide recommends the following strategy:

1) get your resource collectors out and busy on the resourcelocations at the mothership's 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions. Send a platform collector out to each site so that your collectors aren;t making long trips

2) start producing torpedo frigates and gunships en masse

First goal is to capture one of the Hyperspace Gates. Reserve 2 or 3 flack frigates and 2-3 interceptor squadrons to providea screen for the mothership. Send your main force toward the inhibitor at your mothership's 10 o'clock, designated "zone Alpha". Include your carrier and marine frigates, but hold back your marines in the rear of the force. Vaygr units treat marine frigates as a high-priority target, so you will need to clear a path for them.

Have your forces take out the minelayer corvette quickly. At each side of the inhibitor is a Hyperspace gate in which reinforcements will appear. you need to target one of these - soon (take out the local vaygr forces forst though). The vagyr forces will come at you with a mixed bag of forces - bombers, lance fighters and missle corvettes all backed up by heavy missle frigates. perform group attacks on these being careful to dock or repair your units as they become weakened. Keep your forces on a short leash - you don't want them to accidentally destroy the first hyperspace gate. To do this, set your groups to passive - that prevents them from going out and selecting targets on their own.

The vaygr will start trying to harass your mothership at this time - don't let that distract you. They won't become a significant threat so keep your attention on your main force (only check your mothership defenses occasionally).

When the area is relatively clear, send in your marine frigates to capture the first hyperspace gate. Send a couple of bomber squadrons in to take out the inhibitor there. Make sure to repair any ships during this time. After that is all done, you need to search for and destroy the carrier near the middle hyperspace inhibitor. This will prevent the vaygr from sending in spoiling raids against you.

You should do the optional part of the mission since you can capture a vaygr destroyer and carrier (which makes it definitely worth it!). Holding your marines in reserve for the moment, send the rest of your main force through a hyperspace gate (they all lead to the same place). You end up in the middle-left of the tactical map alongside 3 carriers, a destroyer and assorted screening vessels. Take out the screen ASAP then target one of the carriers for destruction. With the path clear, bring through your marine frigates. Point them at the destroyer (if you have any additional ones, taget a carrier as well). Capture or annihilate the rest of the forces in the area then dispatch a few interceptor squadrons to take out the heavy missle platforms in the nearby asteroid belt. You will find a sizable resourcing operation going on here - take them out as well. Capture on of the hyperspace gates on this side so that your force can jump back through.

Now you have to destroy all the hyperspace inhibitors that remain. Set all your units to "passive" rules of engagement and have a ready force of at least 8 bomber squadrons. Do a research upgrade for your bombers to increase their speed if you haven't already. When the last inhibitor is destroyed, your entire fleet does a tactical hyperspace jump forward, bringing you within range of the vaygr command station.

The Vaygr won't let the command station go down without a fight and they have a lot of various frigates waiting - infiltration, assault and heavy missle variants. Fortunately, they are all slow. Let your main force hang back and quickly send your speedy bombers to the left of the command station. Here they find a carrier busily performing repairs to the station. Take the carrier down with your bombers then target them on the communications array at the very bottom of the command station.

The vaygr frigate force will move forward to engage your fleet. Don't fall for it. There is nothing left to gain from this battle. As soon as the bombers take out the command station, the vaygr units here are completely isolated. You will be long gone taking the fight to the vaygr much much closer to home.

I hope this helps out those that were stuck on this mission!

[Kevster]

If anyone needs me to add any help for the other missions, just PM me - I'll forward you what the guide has.

[Realrammstein]

Thanks! I am up to mission 9, now. hopefully won't need help for it...but man is it tough!