Now that the dust has begun to settle, we’d like to share some details about Homeworld 3 and the journey ahead.
We’ve been collecting and prioritizing your feedback about Homeworld 3’s gameplay. As always, thank you! Here are a few things we’re taking immediate action on and we will continue to update you on their progress. Additional work is in the planning stages, expect new updates in the coming months.
Open maps & “claustrophobic” maps
Though terrain is a major feature in Homeworld 3, we’ve heard that many of you miss the vast, empty maps of earlier Homeworld games. Some of you also feel that Homeworld 3’s maps can be too small or “claustrophobic.” We have already started work on our first new Skirmish map without large terrain — just open space. We’ll also look at other maps to make sure you can pull the camera out far enough and, if necessary, make further adjustments.
Strategic pacing & directional damage
We have heard your thoughts on the overall pace of combat. Homeworld 3 is definitely a faster-paced game, and many of you feel like you aren’t able to maneuver properly or employ tactics like flanking. We’re increasing the health of units. This will allow you more time to maneuver in an engagement to make use of things like directional damage.
And, just to dispel any confusion, Homeworld 3 has directional damage!
There’s been some doubt about that, which we think is due to the pace of combat and that it wasn’t present in the War Games demo. We’re also increasing the efficacy of directional and flank damage. We think this will increase Homeworld 3’s strategic depth by incentivizing unit positioning and smart maneuvering.
Improving unit behaviors
Speaking of maneuvering: During the next several weeks you’re going to start seeing improvements to unit behaviors. For example, things like larger ships needing to engage from the same plane of combat and various other behaviors will be addressed over the coming weeks and months. We also have fixes for issues like units occasionally forgetting their orders and improvements for various units like Suppression and Torpedo Frigates.
Hyperspace Jumps & a new tech tree in Skirmish
Skirmish has long been a staple of Homeworld and RTSes, and there’s a couple of things we think we can do to improve this experience. Notably, we are exploring implementing Hyperspace Jumping in Skirmish, allowing you to teleport ships across the map for some audacious gambits. We’re also reworking the Skirmish tech tree to help make strategic player choices more meaningful and allow early game fleet compositions to be more nuanced.
Tactical Pause & Time Dilation for solo Skirmish & War Games
This will be coming up in our June 1.1 patch. For users who want to pause or slow down combat in solo games— now you can, just like in the campaign!
Above: Also coming in Patch 1.1 is a new War Games Artifact that'll unlock the ultra-powerful Heavy Suppression Frigate variant.
Mod tools incoming!
We’re continuing to work toward the launch of Homeworld 3’s official modding tools. If you’ve browsed the mod.io dashboard within Homeworld 3, you’ve already seen the cool things the community is creating. Our mod tools will only empower that effort. Officially, they can be used to create and share Skirmish maps, but for adventurous modders who aren’t afraid to go into uncharted territory, there’s a lot more that could theoretically be done — and we can’t wait to see what this community creates.
To be clear, all of this will be moving forward in parallel to our ongoing bug-fixing and improvement efforts. By the time Patch 1.1 drops in June, we’ll be on target to address over 150 issues and counting — including performance improvements, better support for AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards, and many, many other things.
With the help of this community, we will make Homeworld 3 the best it can be. To that end, we will strive to incorporate your gameplay feedback even more in the weeks and months ahead.
Thank you,
Blackbird Interactive and Gearbox Publishing
