Ranked ladder season 2 starts today! Fight for your place in Kharak’s history.

Greetings Everyone!

Below you will find the comprehensive patch notes for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak Patch 1.3.0. Our goal with this patch is to address several issues that we know are important to the Deserts of Kharak community. These changes include several fixes for single player campaign bugs, updates to the multiplayer and skirmish AI, fixes for multiplayer maps, and the addition of “Tactical Pause” to the single player campaign and skirmish modes. The patch also includes a large number of multiplayer balance changes and will be accompanied by a ladder reset

Be sure to look for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak and the Soban and Khaaneph Fleet packs on sale online this upcoming holiday season.

Features

Tactical Pause

Tactical Pause is a feature that has become quite polarizing in the world of RTS games. Many people argue that tactical pause undermines the concept of “real time” strategy. However Tactical Pause has always been a part of the Homeworld franchise, and people expect it to feature in any Homeworld game. Its absence was a mistake which has now been rectified.

The player can now pause the game in the single player campaign and in skirmish games using the “P” key. During tactical pause players can issue combat, movement, and build commands to units which will be carried out once the game has become unpaused. There is audio feedback for any commands issued while paused, with visual feedback confirming the commands once the player unpauses the game.

Like all hotkeys, the Pause hotkey “P” is configurable by editing the custom.dokhotkeys file found in the backup and cloud files in the Deserts of Kharak Steam folder

(~Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deserts of Kharak\out\backup\custom.dokhotkeys).

Skirmish and Multiplayer AI

It was also important to us to improve the AI in Patch 1.3.0 to improve the single player skirmish and multiplayer experience. It was common for a skilled player to easily beat 2 or sometimes even 3 Hard AIs single-handedly. While the AI is skilled at applying early pressure and capturing artifacts, it would often run out of resources and stop building units in the middle of the game. The following two changes have been made to improve this issue.

Hard AI Resourcing – We have altered Hard AI resource harvesting to increase the rate at which they collect resources while slowing the rate at which they deplete resource nodes. This will improve how the AI scales into the late game in skirmishes and in multiplayer games, as they will no longer run out of resources and stop producing units halfway through the game. Easy and Normal AI remain unchanged in this respect.

AI Air Sorties – AI Air Sorties no longer prioritize targeting Salvagers, Carriers and Support units over combat units. This change will improve the effectiveness of AI air units both offensively and defensively.This change impacts Easy, Normal and Hard AIs.

Bug Fixes

General
DLC Bug – A softlock often experienced when player without one of the two DLC factions played a multiplayer game against an opponent utilizing that DLC faction. This issue has now been fixed.

Coalition and Soban Gunship Veterancy Bug – The multiplayer version of the Coalition and Soban gunship were utilizing the campaign veterancy table and experience values. They have been updated with new veterancy experience values and now utilize the correct veterancy table.

Gaalsien and Khaaneph Production Cruiser Tooltip Bug – Level 2 veterancy for the multiplayer versions of Gaalsien and Khaaneph Production Cruiser was incorrectly giving 5 armor. This is now fixed to properly give the 3 armor stated in the tooltip.

Campaign
*Warning possible campaign story spoilers below for those that have not finished the campaign.

Mission 03 – Cape Wrath – Campaign Bug – During the final cutscene of mission three it was possible for the player to see two versions of the Carrier Kapisi if they had positioned their carrier at the mouth of the canyon exit before the mission ended. This has been fixed.

Mission 04 – Kalash Site – Campaign Bug – A progression blocking bug caused by the creation of an invulnerable unit preventing the player from completing the mission objective of “Destroy all remaining Gaalsien forces”. This issue has been fixed.

Mission 12 – Torin Crater – Campaign Bug – There was a scripting error which was preventing the Siidim forces from properly pursuing and attacking Rachel S’jet and her escort at the start of the mission. The Siidim forces will now behave as intended.

Multiplayer and Skirmish Map Bugs
Taiidan Passage Map Bug – A map bug caused by an area of what was supposed to be impassible terrain at the edge of the map was allowing units to path through it. Units pathing in this area could get drawn in and then become permanently stuck. The path-blocking navmeshes on both the two and four player versions of this map have been updated to prevent this issue.

The Shallows Map Bug – There was a passage between the terrain that separated the primary resource locations and the artifact extraction zones that looked like it should be pathable visually, but when attempting to send a unit through the passage it was forced to travel around the terrain. This has been fixed to allow small and medium sized units through this passage on both the two and four player versions of this map.

Gaalsien Territories Map Bug – Due to a combination of the dune placement around one of the artifact extraction zones and the isometric camera angle, it was possible for the player to be misled as to the actual perimeter of the artifact extraction zone, leading to mistakes when trying to extract an artifact with a Baserunner. The extraction zones have been moved to slightly flatter ground to help rectify this issue.

Balance Changes

The overarching goal of these balance changes are twofold: To improve parity between factions, and to improve the viability of several underutilized units. We hope these changes will create viable alternatives to the army compositions and tech choices prevalent in the current metagame. In particular we have made adjustments to the Cruiser class vehicles in the hope that they will play a larger role in the new metagame.

Coalition
The Coalition Faction came into this patch as a strong faction with a solid set of core units. They had strong early game aggression potential with Armored Assault Vehicles followed by the Mid and Late game strength of its Railguns, Strike fighters and Carrier. These core strengths often led to Coalition faction play being somewhat narrow, with several units seeing little or no play in most games.

The Assault Cruiser, Battle Cruiser, Coalition Bomber and Gunship have all seen significant buffs in the hopes that they will more often find roles within coalition players armies.

The Gunship in particular almost never saw competitive play, with the exception of an occasional gimmicky Gunship rush that could occasionally catch an opponent off guard. The Gunship was unable to fulfill its intended niche due to its inability to deal significant damage to armored units. To rectify this issue we have dropped the Gunship’s attack from 5 damage packets to 4, giving it a 20% improvement to its effectiveness against armor. We have also made the Gunship significantly cheaper while also increasing its build time, to make it a more appealing unit while preventing it from coming online too early.

The ability of the AAV to pressure an opponent’s economies in the early game was easy to execute and hard to stop. In order to rein in this overwhelming aggression the AAV has seen a nerf to its armor. While this does not completely stop the AAV’s effectiveness for economic harassment, it does enable greater degrees of counterplay and improves the effectiveness of opposing Carriers in defending their resourcing operations.

The Coalition Artillery Cruiser’s build time has also been significantly increased so it is more in line with that of the Gaalsien and Khaaneph Siege Cruisers.

Carrier

Carrier base Point Defense weapon Rate of Fire increased from 2 to 3

Carrier repair Beam range increased from 400 to 600

Bomber

Unit CU cost reduced from 600 to 550

Unit RU cost reduced from 290 to 250

Bomber targeting range increased to match Precision bomber

Bomber weapon area of effect increased by 20%

Support Cruiser

Support cruiser fleet cost reduced from 8 to 6

Assault Cruiser

Unit CU cost reduced from 550 to 500

Unit RU cost reduced from 300 to 250

Assault Cruiser tech research time decreased from 110 to 80

Assault Cruiser build time increased from 55 to 65

Artillery Cruiser

Artillery Cruiser build time increased from 55 to 70

Gunship
Damage Packets per Shot decreased from 5 to 4
Weapon AoE decreased from 160 to 150
Build Time increased from 32 to 55
Unit CU cost reduced from 680 to 380

Unit RU cost reduced from 280 to 250

Gunship Veterancy Experience requirements decreased

Level 1: From 5500xp to 1300xp

Level 2: From 8000xp to 2470xp

Level 3: From 12000xp to 4693xp

Level 4: From 18500xp to 8917xp

Level 5: From 27500xp to 16942xp

Armored Assault Vehicle

Base armor value decrease from 10 to 8


Battle Cruiser

Battle Cruiser tech research time decreased from 130 to 110

Battle Cruiser build time decreased from 80 to 75


Gaalsien
The Gaalsien faction was in a very strong place coming into this patch with a solid set of units, and an exceptionally strong Carrier. The largest issue for the Gaalsien was a Baserunner that was more often retired for resources than used to capture artifacts or to support a player’s army. To remedy this we have improved both the Gaalsien Baserunner’s Scanner and Healing abilities, greatly increasing its utility.

In Patch 1.3.0 the Gaalsien see a decrease in tech research times for the Honorguard Cruiser and increase in the tech research times for their Siege Cruiser. This is to help the Honorguard Cruiser to become a viable alternative as a mid-late game cruiser choice for the Gaalsien.

We have also decreased the base rate of fire for the Carrier Point Defense systems, and removed the discount on the cost of the Power Level 6 research to bring their Carrier more in line with other factions.

Carrier

Carrier base Point Defense weapon Rate of Fire decreased from 10 to 8

Carrier Power Level 6 tech research cost increase from 1100 CU and 600 RU to 1300 CU and 700 RU

Baserunner

Baserunner Deploy Scanner ability cooldown decreased from 300 to 200

Baserunner Repair ability cost decreased from 250 to 0

Heavy Railgun

Heavy Railgun unit cost increase from 85 RU to 90 RU

Salvager

Salvager armor increased from 0 to 2

Honorguard Cruiser

Honorguard Cruiser tech research time decreased from 100 to 85

Honorguard Cruiser hit points decreased from 3800 to 3600

Siege Cruiser

Siege Cruiser tech research time increased from 75 to 90

Soban
In version 1.2.1 the Soban were in a tough spot. They suffered the same weak spots as the Coalition faction, with the additional drawbacks of a carrier that struggled to fend off early aggression and was ineffective against enemy Carriers in lategame Carrier battles. Compounding this issue was the Soban Battle Cruiser that lacked the damage output of its Coalition counterpart while also suffering from poor accuracy.

In patch 1.3.0 we have taken several steps to remedy this issue. Significantly increasing the damage potential of the Soban Carrier’s Railgun Point Defense systems, and improving both the accuracy and damage of the Soban Battle Cruiser.

In addition to these changes, the Soban will benefit from the same improvements to the Assault Cruiser, Bomber and Gunship as their Coalition counterparts. Likewise the Soban are seeing the same reduction in AAV armor, and increase in Artillery Cruiser build times.

Carrier

Carrier base Point Defense weapon damage increased from 100 to 160

Soban Carrier weapon power lvl 4 turret cooldown time decreased from 1600 to 1500
Soban Carrier weapon power lvl 5 turret cooldown time decreased from 1600 to 1000

Armed Logistic Module base deployment range decreased from 1650 to 1200

ALM Deployment Cooldown increased from 0 to 5

ALM Power Level deployment range bonus rescaled:

Level 1: Remains at 500

Level 2: Remains at 1000

Level 3: Remains at 1500

Level 4: From 2000 to 1800

Level 5: From 4000 to 2000

Bomber

Unit CU cost reduced from 600 to 550

Unit RU cost reduced from 290 to 250

Bomber targeting range increased from 300 to 400

Bomber weapon area of effect increased by 20%

Support Cruiser

Support cruiser fleet cost reduced from 8 to 6

Assault Cruiser

Unit CU cost reduced from 550 to 500

Unit RU cost reduced from 300 to 250

Assault Cruiser tech research time decreased from 110 to 80

Assault Cruiser build time increased from 55 to 65

Armored Assault Vehicle

Base armor value decreased from 10 to 8

Gunship
Damage Packets per Shot decreased from 5 to 4
Weapon AoE decreased from 160 to 150
Build Time increased from 32 to 55
Unit CU cost reduced from 680 to 380

Unit RU cost reduced from 280 to 250

Gunship Veterancy Experience requirements decreased

Level 1: From 5500xp to 1300xp

Level 2: From 8000xp to 2470xp

Level 3: From 12000xp to 4693xp

Level 4: From 18500xp to 8917xp

Level 5: From 27500xp to 16942xp

Artillery Cruiser

Artillery Cruiser build time increased from 55 to 70

Battle Cruiser

Battle Cruiser tech research time decreased from 130 to 110

Battle Cruiser build time decreased from 80 to 75

Battle Cruiser damage increased from 270 to 320

Battle Cruiser short-range accuracy penalty removed

Khaaneph
Like the Gaalsien, the Khaaneph were in a very strong position in version 1.2.1. The midgame power of their Carrier and Siege Cruiser were hard to match.

The Khaaneph see a decrease in tech research times for the Honorguard Cruiser and increase in the tech research times for their Siege Cruiser. They also see minor nerfs to the survivability of their Siege Cruiser to bring it more in line with the Siege and Artillery Cruisers from the other factions. This should also make the Honorguard Cruiser more appealing as an alternative as a mid-late game cruiser choice.

The Khaaneph also see a minor nerf to the Shadowrunner Blast Drone build time. This is to slightly slow down the time it takes to get two blast drones into an opponent’s resource line, which could often cause the game to end before it had even started. While the change is minor it should enable a little extra room for defensive scouting and appropriate counterplay to occur.

Shadowrunner

Shadowrunner Blast Drone build time increased from 14 to 20

Heavy Railgun

Heavy Railgun unit cost increase from 85 RU to 90 RU

Salvager

Salvager armor increased from 0 to 2

Honorguard Cruiser

Honorguard Cruiser tech research time decreased from 100 to 85

Honorguard Cruiser hit points decreased from 3800 to 3600

Siege Cruiser

Siege Cruiser tech research time increased from 75 to 90

Siege Cruiser hit points decreased from 3500 to 3350

Siege Cruiser armor decreased from 18 to 16

Removed damage penalty versus Carriers (formerly dealt 50% damage to enemy Carriers)