Homeworld 3 Patch 1.3 Update Notes

Important Disclaimer - Campaign Checkpoints

• Mid mission checkpoint saves (including autosaves) from Patch 1.22 and earlier will not be compatible with Patch 1.3. Old mid mission saves will be visible in the save/load menu, but you will be unable to load them, and will need to restart the mission to continue your Campaign progress.[list]
• Campaign progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated (e.g. if you had reached Mission 07 in a previous playthrough, you will still be able to continue from the start of Mission 07)
• Persistent fleet data is still compatible and is not invalidated
• War Games progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated
• Game settings & preferences is still compatible and is not invalidated

Game Patch Highlights

• All Game Modes:

  [list]
• Extensive combat balance tuning:
[list]
• Overhaul and tuning of armor and weapon classes
[list]
• Reworked weapon penetration
• Reworked directional damage bonus

• 45 new artifacts[list]
• Ultimate Artifacts!

• 3 Interstitials encounters
• 9 New challenges

• Hyperspace & Hyperspace Inhibitor abilities added to Skirmish mode
• Improved the pacing and flow between early game, midgame, and endgame play in Skirmish, with a focus on strategic decision making
• Tactical Missile abilities added to both the Hiigaran Mothership and the Incarnate Titanship
• New Skirmish Tech Tree
• New AI player “Personas”
• Heightened AI player difficulty

• Pacing changes[list]
• Added “player controlled mission end” to more missions

New Paid DLC Content Highlights*

• 2 New War Games factions each with two War Games fleets [list]
• Somtaaw faction for War Games
[list]
• 2 new fleets
• 2 brand new units
[list]
• The Acolyte, a versatile heavy fighter that packs a punch
• The Storm Frigate, a short range heavy frigate with disabling attacks

• Taiidan faction for War Games[list]
• 2 new fleets
• 11 new (to Homeworld 3) units
• 52 new artifacts
• 10 new challenges
• New emblem

Fixes, Changes and Additions

Gameplay

• New “Reinforce” ability added - More information in the Dev Update
• Bandbox attack orders have been reworked. Bandbox attacks now more intelligently divide their attacks amongst the available targets in response to community feedback. This will result in smaller formations upon initiation and completion of the Bandbox Attack command - More information in the Dev Update
• Further improvements to the moving while attacking units losing their move commands issue. In particular when the formation leader was destroyed
• Fixed units that were given move while attacking from overriding their secondary move destination when they re-engage enemies if their initial target was destroyed
• Retaliation Range pass on all factions: Fixed many units whose retaliation ranges (used for acquiring targets in Aggressive and Neutral Stances) were significantly lower than their Weapon Range (e.g. Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate). These units should now meet player expectations more frequently in terms of when and how they pick new targets and engage enemies
• Changed attack priorities on some units to prioritize attacks on Resource Controllers and Collectors more often
• Single Capture Corvettes can now capture enemy ships on their own without needing a second Capture Corvette to help out (though a second one will expedite the process)
• Newly-built ships now adopt the stance of the ship that produced them
• Incarnate RCs can now successfully salvage or retire to the Titanship (Incarnate Mothership)
• Rally no longer utilizes an offset parade formation for the rally destination. Units will now Rally directly to the rally location and group up tightly
• Reworked the burstfire ability (Swarm Fighters & Railgun Corvettes) to trigger more consistently at all ranges
• Increased targeted special weapon abilities reliability when targeting enemies behind terrain
• Fixed lifetime of mines from the Kalan Raider’s Minelayer Corvette
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause units to interrupt their firing cycle
• Fixed an issue where a group of ships set to “None” formation will change to “Mixed” after giving them a move order
• Fixed an issue where a small group of ships selected from a larger formation could lose their formation when given an attack order
• Fixed a rare issue causing ships to forget orders if part of a controlled group which was engaged in combat
• Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to sometimes turn backwards during and after attacking a target
• Fixed an issue causing Assault Frigates weapons to stop tracking opponents when a move order was given mid firing cycle
• Fixed an issue causing the Main Engine Maximum Speed stat value for all ships in the Compendium to be different than in the HUD
• Fixed an issue causing the queued research costs to not be counted on the projected resource counter in the HUD
• Fixed an issue causing the Heavy Suppression Frigate’s bottom weapon to sometimes shoot through the ship itself
• Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to continue to act aggressively and fail to guard ships after changing their stance from Neutral to Aggressive and then back to Neutral
• Fixed an issue causing capital ships to become unresponsive to move commands after finding a target using an Attack Move command
• Fixed an issue causing attack orders to be canceled when setting a ship’s formation to “None”
• Fixed an issue causing the Hiigaran Mothership to not move into range when using the Fusion Missile ability on an out of range enemy unit
• Fixed an issue causing the Incarnate Destroyer weapon charging VFX playing on a loop when its target was out of range
• Fixed an issue causing unit selection through tactical icons to stop functioning after deploying turrets
• Fixed several occurrences of ships being able to shoot through terrain
• Fixed an issue preventing research to be queued or canceled during tactical pause
• Fixed an issue causing the camera to sometimes get stuck inside terrain when the “Camera Collision” option was enabled
• Fixed an issue causing ships positioned directly underneath the Hiigaran Mothership to not receive any damage from its Point Defense Cannons
• Fixed an issue causing certain Strikecraft to not show height lines on the movement plane when NLIPS was disabled
• Fixed an issue causing the F1 shortcut (Select the Flagship) to focus on the mothership instead of just selecting it when a group including the mothership was selected

Balance tuning

• Re-designed Armor mitigation vs weapon families across the game
• Light Armor - 10% mitigation
• Medium Armor - 20% mitigation
• Heavy Armor - 30% mitigation
• Mothership Armor - 50% mitigation
• Updated UI on unit info panel (weapons and armor info) to show relationships
• Reworked armor penetration to work with the new armor system
• Strikecraft
[list]
• Tuned fighter vs frigate, capital, and turrets attack style - reducing the distance in which fighters run away and turn back to attack
• Tweaked Strikecraft vs Frigate attack style - added more vertical turning and decreased break time
• Hiigaran Interceptor
[list]
• Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
[list]
• Decreased research and production cost
• Decreased health
• Significant increase in weapon damage

• Retuned to reinforce its role as a low cost easily massable scouting and early game combat unit[list]
• Decreased production cost
• Decreased health
• Decreased weapon damage

• Overhauled to be much more effective against frigates and other larger slower moving targets, and less effective against smaller fast moving targets[list]
• Minor movement speed increase
• Reduce attack cooldown
• Increased weapon damage
• Increased health
• Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased research cost and time

• Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
• Significant health increase
• Increased weapon damage

• Increased movement speed of all Corvettes
• Hiigaran Railgun Corvette
[list]
• Overhauled to make it broadly more effective, without making it oppressive versus Strikecraft
[list]
• Increased range
• Increased weapon damage
• Change tech requirement, making it researchable at the start of skirmish matches
• Decreased research cost and time
• Decreased production cost
• Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes

• Reworked to be stronger versus frigates and at disrupting resource operations, but reducing its effectiveness against Strikecraft
• Increased weapon damage
• Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased research cost and time

• Increased Weapon Damage
• Decreased production cost
• Decreased research time

Significantly decreased population cap in Skirmish

• Accuracy pass on all Frigates tuning effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Hiigaran Assault Frigate
[list]
• Overhauled to increase effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes but be less effective in the late game vs more specialized frigates and capital ships, all while maintaining its effectiveness as a frontline combat unit and tank.
[list]
• Increased health
• Decreased research cost and time
• Increased Ballistic Cannon firing duration
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
• Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
• Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Increased PDC weapon cooldown
• Increased PDC shots per burst
• Increased PDC weapon damage

• Overhauled to greatly reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes[list]
• Increased health
• Decreased accuracy vs. Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased weapon AoE
• Decreased weapon detonation range
• Increased weapon damage
• Decreased weapon cooldown

• Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a high DPS brawler[list]
• Increased weapon damage
• Increased weapon wind-up time
• Decreased weapon cooldown
• Increased weapon firing duration
• Increased turning rate
• Decreased health
• Increased production cost

• Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a midgame high output, but fragile, damage dealer[list]
• Decreased production time and cost
• Greatly decreased health
• Decreased turning rate
• Increased weapon damage
• Increased weapon firing duration
• Decreased weapon cooldown
• Increased special weapon ability damage
• Decreased research cost and time
• Increased maximum firing angle of weapon

• Overhauled to reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes[list]
• Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased weapon AOE
• Increased weapon damage
• Increased detonation radius

• Overhauled to bring it more in line with the Hiigaran Assault Frigate[list]
• Updated attack style
• Increased health
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
• Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
• Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes

• Overhauled to better fulfill its role as an anti-Strikecraft Frigate and reduce its effectiveness against other Frigates.[list]
• Increased rotation speed and max rotation angle to be more effective against Strikecraft
• Increased weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased weapon damage
• Increased weapon AoE
• Increased weapon detonation range
• Increased missiles spawn per volley
• Decreased cluster spawn per missile
• Tuned Volley Fire ability to match the above

• Reinforced its anti fighter role by greatly improving its target tracking[list]
• Reworked weapon turrets to be much better able to track targets on multiple axes

• Accuracy pass on all Frigates and Capital class ships; tuning their effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Rebalanced Battlecruisers and Destroyers to improve their effectiveness against Frigate, Capital and Mothership class ships
• Carrier Research is now unlocked by Corvette tech in Skirmish
• Hiigaran Carrier
[list]
• Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases
[list]
• Fixed weapon discrepancy between individual turrets (damage increase)
• Decreased production time
• Decreased research cost and time
• Increased health

Significant weapon damage increase to bring it in line with other carriers

• Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases[list]
• Decreased weapon damage to bring it in line with other carriers
• Decreased production time
• Decreased research cost and time
• Increased health

• Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes[list]
• Overhauled attack style
• Decreased production cost and time
• Increased Health
• Significantly Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
• Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes

• Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes[list]
• Overhauled attack style
• Decreased production cost and time
• Increased Ion Cannon range
• Increased Ion Cannon firing duration
• Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
• Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes

• Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes[list]
• Overhauled attack style
• Decreased production time
• Increased health
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
• Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
• Increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
• Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
• Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
• Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon range
• Decreased High Yield Torpedo weapon AoE

• Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Decreased health
• Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
• Increased Ion Cannon weapon firing duration
• Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
• Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
• Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
• Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
• Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
• Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon cooldown

• Increased resource collector leashing distance on the Mothership in Skirmish
• Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage

Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage

• Decreased health of all turrets
• Incarnate Anti Capital Turret
[list]
• Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage

• Decreased Resource Controller population cap from 8 to 6 in Skirmish
• Significantly increased Resource Controller production cost in Skirmish and Campaign (both factions)
• Increased Resource Controller production time in Skirmish (both factions)

Multiplayer

• Unlocked 30 new emblems
• Hiigaran Mothership and Incarnate Titanship (Mothership) now both have access to the Fusion Missile Ability in Skirmish (unlocked through research) - More information in the Dev Update
• Hyperspace Research and Abilities added to all Frigate class and larger ships (including Resource Controllers) in Skirmish for both factions in response to community feedback
• Hyperspace Inhibitor Research and Abilities added to Hiigaran and Incarnate Carriers, the Hiigaran Support Frigate and the Incarnate Disruption Frigate in Skirmish mode
• Resource tuning in Skirmish and War Games in response to community feedback - More information in the Dev Update
[list]
• Default starting resources reduced significantly
• Resourcing rate reduced (10% reduction)
• Unit and research resource costs rebalanced

Full rework of tech trees for both Hiigaran and Incarnate Skirmish factions in response to community feedback

• More ship abilities now require research
• Restructured Platform Fleet tech tree
• Restructured Raider Fleet tech tree
• Restructured Remastered Fleet tech tree

Full stats will be shown to allied AI players, while stats stay hidden for enemy AI players

Campaign

• Added “player controlled mission end” to 5 additional missions - More information in the Dev Update[list]
• Mission 2 -Facility 315
• Mission 3 - Kesura Minor
• Mission 5 - Trinity Gate
• Mission 9 - Warsage Citadel
• Mission 12 - Noctua 27

Tech / Performance

• Performance improvement : Tactical Overlay amalgamations have been greatly optimized and should result in better performance.
• Performance improvement : Height lines when using the movement plane have been optimized
• Performance improvement : Beam weapons VFX have been optimized
• Added setting to allow constraining in game UI to 16:9 centered
[list]
• Affects base HUD panel, pause menu, campaign failed menu, and multiplayer end game menus
• Menu backgrounds continue to occupy the full screen width regardless of whether the option is enabled, only content is constrained

Art Updates

• Improvements to the damage system visuals[list]
• Healing support added for dynamic damage
• Add heat edge ring to Energy and Missile impacts for dynamic damage
• Changed impact composting system to avoid overdriven visuals on dynamic damage.
• Aligned visuals look between dynamic and procedural damage.

Settings Updates

• New Display selection reticle overlay option
• New Constrain HUD aspect ratio option
• New Input binding: “Hyperspace” unit ability hotkey (Default “J” in the Modern Experience Preset)
• New Input binding: “Hyperspace Inhibitor” unit ability hotkey (Default “Ctrl+i” in the Modern Experience Preset)
• New Input binding: “Reinforce” unit ability hotkey (Default “X” in the Modern Experience Preset)
• Fixed an issue causing the 5120x1440 resolution to not be selectable

Audio Updates

• Added audio feedback when clearing a control group
• Fixed audio not being properly distorted while in Sensors Manager and in Occlusion view
• Corrected Main Menu UI interaction SFX
• Fixed mothership weapons fire persisting through the pause menu in multiplayer modes
• Fixed the wrong VO playing when Swarm Fighters are built
• Updated the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Pursuit Fighters
• Fixed the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Smart Missile Frigates not playing correctly in War Games
• Fixed the unit response VOs being attached to the Sound Effects volume slider rather than the Speech volume slider
• Fixed an issue causing the VO for detecting enemy Strikecraft to play too frequently in Skirmish
• Fixed an issue causing “Ship Captured” VO to be played when an enemy was salvaging debris from a player’s destroyed ship in Skirmish

Misc Updates

• Moved ‘Enable Sensors Manager zoom-in/out collision’ settings into Camera Tuning / Modern setting category to clarify that they do not have any effect on classic camera controls by design
• Using Backspace to hide the HUD/UI now also properly hides the “Contested”, “Capturing” and “Decapturing” UI elements
• Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after a cinematic
• Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after closing the Artifact selector in War Games
• Fixed an issue causing the Sensors Manager to incorrectly function while viewing a replay in Free Camera mode
• Fixed the Grand Armada achievement not progressing on EGS

Mod Tools & Editor

• A new version of the Editor has been deployed on EGS[list]
• In order to avoid any compatibility issues, we highly recommend fully uninstalling the previous version of the editor before installing the new one

Correctly detects map mods, "other mods" and even side loaded mods