Homeworld
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=-= HOMEWORLD =-=
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a gameplay guide
by The_Assimilator
version 1.0.4
23 January 2004
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========================================
-> LEGAL NOTICE / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
========================================
This guide is the sole property of its author, Ian "The_Assimilator" Kemp.
It may be used ONLY for your personal enjoyment, it is ILLEGAL to sell this
document without the author's permission. It is also ILLEGAL to claim all or
part of this guide as your own. You may not sell and/or distribute this guide
without the author's prior consent.
This guide may (currently) only be featured on MY website (if it ever gets put
up...), and the below website(s):
Cheats.de http://www.cheats.de/
DLH.net http://dlh.net/
GameFAQs http://www.gamefaqs.com/
IGN FAQs http://faqs.ign.com/
If you would like to host this guide on your website, or use portions of it for
your own guide, please ask me first (see the "Contacting the author" section).
If you do not abide by the above conditions, expect to have legal action taken
against you!
Ian Kemp is not affiliated with Relic Entertainment, Sierra Studios, nor Vivendi
Universal in any way. All trademarks used here are the properties of their
respective owners.
Use this document at your own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for
ANY damages you might sustain from using this guide!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
==================
-> LEGAL NOTICE / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION <--- read this NOW!
A. Introduction
B. About the author
C. Contacting the author
D. Version history
E. ***For Windows XP users
F. Updating Homeworld (Patches)
G. Cheats and Command-line switches
H. Abbreviations/Shorthands
I. Ships and Civilisations
1. Kushan
2. Taiidan
3. Turanic Raiders
4. Bentusi
5. Kadeshi
6. Miscellaneous
J. Tactics
K. Formations
L. Damage Ratios
M. Single-player walkthrough
1. Kharak System
2. Outskirts of Kharak System
3. Return to Kharak
4. Great Wastelands (Part 1)
5. Great Wastelands (Part 2)
6. Diamond Shoals
7. The Gardens of Kadesh
8. The Cathedral of Kadesh
9. Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls
10. Super Nova Research Station
11. Tenhauser Gate
12. Galactic Core
13. The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands
14. Bridge of Sighs
15. Chapel Perilous
16. Hiigara
N. Multi-player guide
1. General Strategy
2. Resources
3. Useful Tactics
O. Credits and Links
P. The End
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=================
A. Introduction
=================
Homeworld was released in 1999 and completely revolutionised the RTS (Real-Time
Strategy) game genre. Homeworld (or HW, as it is known amongst its fans) was
the first RTS to combine stunning 3D graphics with great gameplay. (Don't know
what a RTS is? Think Command & Conquer. Don't know what *that* is? Then
you're a little young to be reading this guide.) Homeworld subsequently went on
to win at least 5 Game of the Year awards from various gaming websites
(GameSpot, IGN, ...). This prompted a later release of the special "Game of the
Year" (GOTY) edition of the game, which featured different box art and manual
design from the original.
But it was not just Homeworld's aesthetics that gained it such praise. The
game's storyline was (and still is) one of the best ever. I'm not gunna tell it
here - because if you're a real Homeworld fanatic, you'll already know it - and
besides, it's in the manual that came with the game. (You *did* buy it from a
reputable source, hmmm?)
Where do I come into this? Well, I was given Homeworld for Christmas 2000 (OK,
so I'm slow), and I was immediately addicted. For a month I played nothing else
but the game. Later I got my hands on the "sequel" to Homeworld, Homeworld:
Cataclysm, which is also an excellent game (but not *quite* as good as the
original).
I had been meaning to write this guide ever since the day I got Homeworld, but
for various reasons I never got around to it. But now Homeworld2 is here! So,
I decided to finally get my Homeworld walkthrough done.
Here is the result; I hope you enjoy it.
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=====================
B. About the author
=====================
I'm an 18-year-old living in South Africa. In RealLife(tm) I'm a student
getting ready for my fierst year of university, studying Computer Science.
If anyone reading this needs a Java or PHP/MySQL programmer with 2+ years
experience, or a web designer (HTML/JavaScript/DHTML/CSS) with 4+ years
experience, please see the "Contacting the author" section below for my email
address. I need a job!
-----------------
My hobbies/likes
-----------------
- writing game guides (that never get released)
- writing programs (that never get finished)
- designing web sites (that never get published)
- reading
- reading
- Dragonball Z (o how amusing mindless violence can be)
- cats
- sleep (which I don't get enough of)
- caffeine (which I get too much of)
- playing games!
---------
My games
---------
I play Gameboy, Nintendo64, PlayStation and PC games, so my interests are
varied.
Genres I like:
- platformers (Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games, Ape Escape, Klonoa, Mario64)
- arcade racing games (Mario Kart 64, Crash Team Racing, wipEout series)
- RPGs (Azure Dreams, Pokemon, Final Fantasy series, Zelda series, NeverWinter)
- RTSs (Homeworld/Age of Empires series)
- FPSs (Quake series, Unreal series)
- any genre that's a TLA
Genres I hate:
- super-realistic-handling-is-so-sensitive racing games (too irritating to play,
go and drive a real car!)
- "super realistic" fighting games (why does *everyone* buy them?)
- games that are just CRAP (too many to list)
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==========================
C. Contacting the author
==========================
If you want to send me e-mail, my address is currently
assimilator64@webmail.co.za
Use the subject header "Homeworld Walkthrough", or your message may be ignored!
Please note, that any spam, flames or hate mail will be deleted without being
read. The same applies for any mails containing stupid questions, or questions
that are answered in this guide.
In addition, I can (probably) be found on the Relic Forums
(http://forums.relicnews.com) from Monday to Friday every week. Send me a
Private Message, if you wish, and I will respond just as I would respond to
emails.
________________________________________________________________________________
====================
D. Version history
====================
1.0.4 + Added more information for Assault Frigates.
23 January 2004 + Changed some info for Heavy Cruisers and Carriers.
+ Replayed Homeworld single-player again and
corrected the walkthrough in many places.
+ Fixed a few typos (hopefully the last...).
1.0.3 + Noted that Missile Destroyers can only use the
01 December 2003 Missile Volley special action if they have 1 or
more missiles in stock (again, thanks to Koki for
pointing that out).
+ Minor formatting/layout changes.
1.0.2 + Allowed Cheats.de (http://www.cheats.de/)
27 October 2003 and DLH.net (http://dlh.net/)
to host this guide.
+ Some minor changes to "Abbreviations/Shorthands"
section.
1.0.1 + Added permission to allow IGN FAQs
20 October 2003 (http://faqs.ign.com/) to host this guide.
+ Made many changes after receiving some feedback
(*BIG* thanks to Koki from the Relic Forums!).
+ Added "Abbreviations/Shorthands" section.
+ Minor adjustments and corrections.
1.0.0 + *** First release to the public!
12 October 2003 + Rewrote some of the single-player guides to clear
up some points.
+ Changed the format of the multi-player section.
+ Reorganised layout of the file, as well as the
Table of Contents.
+ Finished "Ships and Civilisations" section.
+ Added "***For Windows XP Users" section.
+ Added "Cheats/Command-Line Switches" section.
+ Added "Updating Homeworld (Patches)" section.
0.9.9 + Miscellaneous corrections.
09 October 2003 + Added more multi-player strategies.
0.9.8 + Single-player walkthrough completed.
01 September 2003 + Ships list for Kushan/Taiidan completed.
0.9.7 + Added mission 10 and 11.
24 August 2003
0.9.6 + The very first release. Missions 1 - 9 of the
16 August 2003 single-player game covered, as well as intros and
credits of this guide.
+ Began ships list.
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============================
E. ***For Windows XP users
============================
By default, Homeworld *WILL NOT RUN* in OpenGL hardware acceleration on
Microsoft Windows XP. If you have been wondering how to get around this
problem, here is the solution:
1. Right-click the shortcut you use to play Homeworld and choose "Properties".
2. Click the "Compatibility" tab.
3. Check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" box, then from the
list below, select "Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5)".
4. Click OK.
Homeworld will now allow you to use OpenGL to run the game.
This hint may apply to other games as well, so feel free to try it.
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=================================
F. Updating Homeworld (Patches)
=================================
No game is ever released perfect, and Homeworld is not an exception. Relic have
released 3 updates to the game, or "patches", that alter some aspects of the
game (mostly to fix bugs).
The default Homeworld version (and the only one that you can buy) is 1.00. The
3 patches will update your game to version 1.03, 1.04 or 1.05, respectively.
Each later patch also includes all the enhancements of the previous one(s), so
for example, the 1.05 patch also includes the 1.03 and 1.04 updates.
(Side note: No-one knows what happened to the 1.01 and 1.02 patches, and as
usual, Relic won't say...)
You can tell what version of Homeworld you have by starting the game, and
looking at the top-left corner of the screen. In small writing you should see
text saying "Version HomeworldV1.n0x", where x is the patch you have installed
(0 if no patching has been done), and n is the letter B if a patch is present.
***VERY IMPORTANT! If you are intending to play Homeworld over the Internet,
i.e. via WON.net, you MUST have the latest patch (1.05 at
this time) installed. Otherwise, you will be asked to
download and install it when you try and connect to a game.
You CANNOT play Homeworld with other people, if your version
of the game is different to theirs!
To get the patches, go to RelicNews (http://www.relicnews.com) and click the
"Downloads" link under the Homeworld section of the left menu. Download the
patch of your choice (it will come as an executable) and run it to update your
Homeworld installation. The next time you run the game, you should see that
the version has been changed to reflect the patch you installed.
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=====================================
G. Cheats and Command-line switches
=====================================
First of all - THERE ARE NO CHEATS IN THIS GAME. Homeworld was designed for
people who are actually able to *play* a RTS game, not pathetic newbies who get
a game, die on the first mission then get onto the Internet and download every
cheat they can find. If you're that kind of person, please stop reading this
guide RIGHT NOW. I don't have time for lamers like you, and neither does Relic
nor the Homeworld community. There *are* trainers (aka hacks) for the game that
give you extra RUs, more ships etc., but the same comments apply to them.
Homeworld does, however, feature a comprehensive list of command-line switches
or parameters, that can be used to tweak your game to perform at its best. It's
a pretty long list, but I like to be thorough.
To use these switches
----------------------
1. Right-click the shortcut you use to play Homeworld and choose "Properties".
2. Click the "Shortcut" tab, and click to place the cursor inside the "Target:"
box (which will point to homeworld.exe).
3. To add one of these switches, put a space at the end of the text, then type
in the slash character ( / ), and then the switch.
For example (using the dsound switch), if your Target field reads
"C:gameshomeworldhomeworld.exe", you would do this:
"C:gameshomeworldhomeworld.exe" /dsound
To add more switches, you just add another space, a slash, and the next
switch. E.g.:
"C:gameshomeworldhomeworld.exe" /dsound /enableSSE /pilotview
You can have an infinite amount of switches present. Note however, that
some switches are mutually exclusive. If you type in an invalid switch,
Homeworld will warn you of this on startup and refuse to start until you
replace or change the invalid switch(es).
*** CURRENT COMMAND-LINE SWITCHES ***
System options
---------------
heap [n] - sets the amount of memory available to Homeworld to
[n] megabytes
prepath [path] - sets the location for the game to look for its files
(where [path] is this location)
CDpath [drive] - where [drive] is the drive letter of the CD-ROM
containing the Homeworld game CD
Processor options
------------------
enableSSE - enable the use of Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) for
improved game performance (Pentium III and up, AMD
Athlon and up)
forceSSE - force the game to use SSE, even if found to be
unavailable. Not recommended, as severe slowdown may
occur on non-SSE capable processors
enable3dNow - enable the use of AMD's 3DNow! instruction set to
improve performance
Video options
--------------
safeGL - do not use optimized, but possibly buggy, special
features of the selected OpenGL renderer (your video
card). If you are experiencing strange graphical
glitches in OpenGL, using this option can help, but it
may also decrease performance somewhat
triple - if the game's menus are flickering madly, this will
triple-buffer them to prevent this. Does not affect
in-game performance
nodrawpixels - use when background images are not shown when starting
and/or loading games
noswddraw - do not use DirectDraw for the software renderer.
Makes software mode a lot slower, and is only
recommended if your video card has a really bad
DirectDraw implementation
noglddraw - do not use DirectDraw to setup the OpenGL renderer.
Can be slower or faster, depending on your video card,
so try this and see
sw - use the software renderer ONLY for drawing the game's
graphics; with this switch present, you can't change
the rendering system from within the game (it is
locked into software mode). This is not recommended
unless you have a really crappy video card (e.g. SiS
or S3 chip), which is unable to handle Direct3D and
OpenGL hardware acceleration well. In this case,
software mode will probably be faster (depending on
your PC as a whole) than either Direct3D or OpenGL
noFastFE - disables fast front-end menu rendering. Use this if
menus are slow to appear, or are rendered incorrectly
(e.g. strange colours). This has also been known to
fix problems where the game starts up, then instantly
crashes
fullscreen - runs the game in software mode, in a full-screen
window, and at 640x480 resolution (default mode)
window - displays the game in a window
noBorder - if /window is present, this disables the border on the
window
640 - runs in 640x480 resolution (default)
800 - 800x600 resolution
1024 - 1024x768 resolution
1280 - 1280x1024 resolution
1600 - 1600x1200 resolution
device [dev] - selects the rendering mode to use, where [dev] is that
mode. Valid values for [dev] are sw (software), d3d
(Direct3D), gl (OpenGL), fx (3dfx mode - Voodoo cards
ONLY). If using this option, you will be unable to
change the renderer from within the game
nohint - disable usage of OpenGL perspective correction hints.
No-one except Relic seems to know what this option
actually does, and Relic ain't telling...
nopal - disable palettised texture support. Usually makes the
game slower, since the aim of palettising is to speed
up texture generation. If you have an older card that
has a dodgy palettised texture engine, using this
switch might help to fix graphical glitches
Sound options
--------------
dsound - forces game to use the Microsoft DirectSound mixer,
even if the sound driver is not certified
dsoundCoop - if DirectSound mixer supports co-operative mode, this
will allow other applications to use DirectSound even
while Homeworld is using it
waveout - forces game to use Waveout mixer (slower, lower
quality) even if DirectSound is available
reverseStereo - swap left/right audio channels
Detail options
---------------
rasterSkip - enable interlacing with software renderer. This
allows for much-improved performance in software mode,
but creates a "motion blur" effect that may be too
visually distracting to use (faster)
noBG - disable display of galaxy backgrounds (so you will see
only black backgrounds with stars) (faster)
noFilter - disables bilinear texture filtering (decreases graphic
quality but increases performance). All modern video
cards can filter with no performance penalty, so you
should never need to use this option
noSmooth - do not use polygon smoothing. Same as noFilter, you
should not need to use this option
stipple - enables stipple alpha belending to emulate
transparency effects. Very ugly and can only be used
in software mode; makes game run faster
noShowDamage - do not show ship damage effects (drive plasma leaking,
fires). Can drastically improve performance, BUT you
won't be able to easily see if your ships are damaged,
so it's not recommended to use this
Other options
--------------
diableavi - skips opening Sierra and Relic movies
pilotview - allows you to see the game from the "pilot's eye view"
of your ships. This option is only available from the
v1.04 patch and up. If enabled, select a ship and
hit the Q key to switch to pilot view; press Q gain to
return to external view.
(NOTE: some ships have very strange pilot views...)
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=============================
H. Abbreviations/Shorthands
=============================
Many of the ship and tactics names are very long to type, so on Homeworld
message boards (e.g. Relic Forums - http://forums.relicnews.com), you will often
find an abbreviated form being used to describe things.
If you aren't a veteran boardie, then it's quite possible that you won't know
WTF is being talked about - so here's a useful list of (some) of the shorthands
used by the Homeworld community.
Adv Swarmer Advanced Swarmer (Kadeshi)
AS
Assassin Ion Array Frigate (Turanic Raiders)
Auto Autogun (from Karos Graveyard)
Banana Kushan Mothership
Banana Mothership
Banana MS
BB Battle Ball (attacking technique using Sphere formation)
BBall
Bentusi Station Bentusi Exchange (Bentusi)
Trade Station
Traders
Boardie Internet bulletin board/discussion forum user
Brigand Missile Corvette (Turanic Raiders)
Cap Capital Ship
CapShip
Cap Ship
Caterpillar Fuel Pod (Kadeshi)
Grub
Worm
Corv Corvette
CorvWall Corvette Wall (Corvettes in Wall formation to deal maximum
damage)
CS Crazy Scouts (strategy where Scouts quickly switch between
Wall and Sphere formation to dodge gunfire)
*** NOT considered a legitimate strategy!
Dawg Junkyard Dawg
JD
DFG Defense Field Frigate
DFG Frig
DFG Frigate
DS Dancing Scouts (strategy where Scouts jump around and dodge
gunfire)
*** NOT considered a legitimate strategy!
ES Evil Scouts (usage of key-bashing to allow your Scouts to
avoid almost all gunfire)
*** NOT considered a legitimate strategy!
Frig Frigate
Furball Massive battle between many ships (usually Strike Craft)
Hairball
Heavies Heavy Corvettes
HVC Heavy Cruiser
HW Homeworld
IAF Ion Array Frigate (Turanic Raiders)
ICF Ion Cannon Frigate
Int Interceptor
Intie
Kami Kamikaze (ram your ship into another ship and self-destruct
your ship - causes massive damage to the enemy)
Lord Battle Carrier (Turanic Raiders)
Lt Corv Light Corvette
MBF Multi-Beam Frigate (Kadeshi)
MD Missile Destroyer
MGC Multi-Gun Corvette
Multi Corv
Multigun
Multigunner
MM Micro-management ("managing" a group of ships with
"microscopic" precision - giving new
orders, formations etc. very often during
a battle)
MP Multi-player mode
MS Mothership
Needle Needle Mothership (Kadeshi)
Needleship
Prox Detector Proximity Sensor
Prox Sensor
Proxy Detector
Proxy Sensor
Researcher Research Ship
Resourcer Resource Collector
RUs Resource Units
SalCap Salvage Corvette
SalCapCorv
Salvager
Salvette
SC
SVC
Sct Scout
SP Single-player mode
SS Super Scouts (strategy where Scouts are able to deal tons of
damage by changing formations as they
complete their attack run)
SuperCap Super-Capital Ship
Super Cap
Swarm Massive melee attack of Strike Craft
Thief Standard Corvette (Turanic Raiders)
Ugly Taiidan Mothership
Ugly Mothership
Ugly MS
Wing Group of ships (usually Strike Craft)
________________________________________________________________________________
============================
I. Ships and Civilisations
============================
*** PLEASE NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all stats here are taken from ***
*** version 1.05 of Homeworld. ***
This section will tell you all about the ships in the game, as well as the
civilisations that they belong to.
A great resource is the Homeworld Shipyards (http://well-of-souls.com/hws).
This site is maintained by Arioch, and contains a list of all the ships in all
the Homeworld games (including Homeworld2), with statistics, pictures, and
notes. Visit it, it's a great resource!
-----------
1. Kushan
-----------
The Kushan are the "big tech/low tech" civilisation. Their ships are clunky and
not exactly pleasing to look at, but they get the job done. Choose a red colour
scheme and you can pretend that their ships were carved from bricks ;).
According to Relic (developers of Homeworld), the Kushan were originally
designed to be the "true exiles". It was only later in the game's development
that the option was added to allow you to play as either the Kushan or the
Taiidan in single-player.
Ion beam color: red-white
------------
2. Taiidan
------------
The Taiidani are supposed to be a 4000-year-old empire, so naturally their
ships would look more refined than the Kushan ones. For example, the Taiidani
Heavy Cruiser looks graceful and deadly, unlike the boxy Kushan one.
Taiidani ships also tend to have better turret placement than Kushan ships
(Heavy Corvette, Assault Frigate), so they are probably the better race to
play as, in multi-player.
Ion beam color: blue-white
*** STRIKE CRAFT ***
i. Fighters
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Scout
------
Cost: 35 RUs
Mass: 10 tons
Armour: 110
Firepower: 12
Coverage: 8%
Weapons: 2x mass driver (nose-mounted)
Special Action: Afterburners (increases speed drastically for 3 seconds)
Velocity: 1 000 m/s (standard); 1 500 m/s (with Afterburners)
Maneuverability: very high
Build Time: 12 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
The fastest and cheapest combat-capable vessels in the game. They do very
little damage alone, but get them in packs of 40 and that's a dangerous punch,
not to mention that their speed allows them to avoid almost all weapons fire.
You won't be building these too much in single-player, but in multi-player mode
you will soon learn that Scouts are your best friends. If you are playing
anyone half decent, they will build Scouts like there is no tomorrow; you must
do the same or your Mothership/Carrier will die the "death of a thousand
pinpricks" - not nice at all.
Interceptor
------------
Cost: 55 RUs
Mass: 60 tons
Armour: 160
Firepower: 16
Coverage: 8%
Weapons: 2x mass driver (Kushan : nose-mounted
Taiidan: 1 nose-mounted, 1 externally mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 875 m/s
Maneuverability: very high
Build Time: 18 seconds
Availability: Mission 2
The successor to the Scout - not. Interceptors die against almost any Strike
Craft they go up against - including Scouts, which on Evasive are too fast for
the Interceptors to hit, and also too fast to run away from. Don't even bother
building these.
Defender
---------
Cost: 65 RUs
Mass: 60 tons
Armour: 325
Firepower: 5
Coverage: 11%
Weapons: 3x rapid-fire mass driver (externally mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 385 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 9 seconds
Availability: Mission 4
The quickest ship in the game to build; as their name suggests, they are best
used for escort duty. In version 1.00 of the game Defenders had firepower/
armour ratings of 30/160 respectively, thus they were a lot weaker but they
packed a *HELL* of a punch. A wall of 30 v1.00 Defenders could annihilate a
Carrier in a minute, now they will only tap at its hull and get killed.
They are still good escorts for resource operations, no matter what version of
the game you're playing. Their main problem is their looow speed, which means
that even Support Frigates can outrun them (and that *hurts*). Best used in the
early stages of a multi-player game to protect your valuable Resourcers, then as
the Defenders get killed, you can replace them with Corvettes.
Koki noted: "[Defenders] are pretty good at dodging, if they are not moving.
They move up/down/left/right pretty fast." In other words, their
maneuverability is quite a bit better than their speed - Defenders can actually
dodge Corvette bullets (sometimes).
BTW: while Kushan Defenders need about 1 - 2 seconds to meet a threat (because
they retract/extend their guns), Taiidani Defenders are always ready to rock.
Attack Bomber
--------------
Cost: 85 RUs
Mass: 90 tons
Armour: 110
Firepower: 42
Coverage: 5%
Weapons: 2x plasma bomb launcher (Kushan : nose-mounted
Taiidan: mounted either side of body)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 750 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 20 seconds
Availability: Mission 5
Slow, heavy, but the ultimate anti-Capital Ship fighter. It *kills* anything
frigate-size and up within seconds, a wing of 20 can destroy a frigate in 2
volleys. These suck against other Strike Craft, but hey, that's not what
they're designed for. If you need a fast, mobile, Capital Ship-killing force,
these are for you. But make sure you guard them with something anti-Strike
Craft, for goodness' sakes.
Note that Attack Bombers *can* kill Strike Craft, although not without
difficulty. It's just that their bombs are sooo slooowww...
ii. Corvettes
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Light Corvette
---------------
Cost: 135 RUs
Mass: 400 tons
Armour: 900
Firepower: 100
Coverage: 40%
Weapons: (Kushan) 1x turret (mounted below cockpit)
(Taiidan) 2x turret (mounted in front of cockpit)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 575 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 22 seconds
Availability: Mission 2
Like Interceptors; pretty useless unless you're up against Fighters, then they
do okay. Best used early in multi-player to thwart Scout rushes on your
Resourcers, that single turreted gun really makes up for the Light Corvette's
slow speed.
Heavy Corvette
---------------
Cost: 250 RUs
Mass: 750 tons
Armour: 1 700
Firepower: 200
Coverage: 50%
Weapons: (Kushan) 2x turret (mounted below cockpit)
(Taiidan) 4x turret (mounted in front of cockpit)
Special Action: Burst Attack (5km range / 2.5km area of effect)
Velocity: 500 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 30 seconds
Availability: Mission 2
Two words: KICK ASS. It seems like everyone loves these ships, and why the hell
not? They're the best Strike Craft in the game, simply because they can take
pain like nothing else can. These ships can even take a direct ion beam and
live (seriously!).
Of course, their twin turreted guns will make mincemeat of anything that comes
too close. Put 16 or 25 Heavy Corvettes in a Wall, set 2 Support Frigates to
repair them, and you've got a virtually impenetrable screen of Corvette gunfire.
No Fighters will be able to take them on and live (except maybe Evasive Scouts),
and Frigates will also die pretty damn fast. Heck, Heavies can even knock out a
Destroyer, given enough time.
Their weakness is their slow speed, which allows even ion beam-equipped ships to
hit them. Even the inaccurate Attack Bomber can be a menace to Heavies, but
that's where Burst Fire mode comes in. Select an area of space, click Z and
your Heavy Corvettes begin offloading high-explosive, highly deadly shells into
that area. Fighter wings simply pop when they get hit with Burst - try it.
Multi-Gun Corvette
-------------------
Cost: 220 RUs
Mass: 750 tons
Armour: 1 400
Firepower: 180
Coverage: 78%
Weapons: 6x turret (Kushan : 4 mounted below, 2 mounted above
Taiidan: 2 mounted in front of cockpit, 4 mounted on sides)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 695 m/s
Maneuverability: medium (seems to be high)
Build Time: 22 seconds
Availability: Mission 3
A lower-spec version of the Heavy Corvette, faster and the only ship able to hit
all types of Strike Craft, but that's about all in their favour. Put these up
against Fighters and they do great, but against anything else, not so well. The
problem is that the multi-targeting guns don't provide a direct rain of bullets,
tell them to attack something and normally only one or two of the guns will
respond. Good against Fighter-happy opposition, but for anything else, use
Heavy Corvettes. You know it makes sense.
Minelayer Corvette
-------------------
Cost: 275 RUs
Mass: 750 tons
Armour: 1 800
Firepower: ~700 per mine
Coverage: -
Weapons: 2x mine launcher (rear-mounted)
Special Action: Force Drop (dump 6 mines at once)
Velocity: 425 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 40 seconds
Availability: Mission 10
Very useful or very useless, depending on your viewpoint. The mines dumped by
these Corvettes are slow-ish (meaning they can't hit Fighters), but then again,
they don't need to be too fast to hit lumbering Capital Ships. The problem with
minefields is that the mines disappear after a time and have to be relaid, and
of course, Minelayers aren't the fastest corvettes around. Your own fleet also
tends to *cough* run into the mines they dispense.
BUT: if you can put, say, 20 Minelayers in a Carrier, then jump over by the
enemy's Mothership and start dumping mines, then you will be smiling. And of
course, laying mines in a resource patch will ruin anyone's day. It's your
choice to use them or not.
Repair Corvette
----------------
Cost: 150 RUs
Mass: 750 tons
Armour: 800
Firepower: 60
Coverage: 10%
Weapons: 1x mass driver turret (below cockpit)
Special Action: repair/refuel Strike Craft
Velocity: 350 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 20 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
Good early on in single-player, useless everywhere else. You can get Support
Frigates from only 1 technology, and they are faster (yes!), a lot tougher and
just a whole lot better than these Corvettes. I used them once, after that,
never again. Possibly the game's least-used ship type.
Salvage Corvette
-----------------
Cost: 150 RUs
Mass: 120 tons
Armour: 1 400
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: salvage (duh)
Velocity: 425 m/s
Maneuverability: medium ("bad")
Build Time: 30 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
The Homeworld manual states that Salvage Corvettes "can capture heavily damaged
ships". Well folks, if you've already played single-player you'll know that's
not true. What happened was that the Homeworld manual was completed before the
actual game itself, and then due to time constraints, Relic decided to let you
salvage any ship, of any health. But they forgot to update the manual :|.
Salvagers are some of the most valuable in the game, they can grab almost
anything. Obviously in multi-player their usefulness drops because humans will
be on the lookout for them, but in single-player, Salvagers allow you to amass
a huge fleet, without spending many RUs.
Here is a table showing exactly *which* ships can be captured, and the number of
Salvage Corvettes needed to grab 'em:
+---------------------+-------------------+
| Ship type | Salvage Corvettes |
| | to capture |
|---------------------+-------------------|
| Strike Craft | 1 |
| | |
| Frigate | 2 |
| | |
| Destroyer | 3 |
| | |
| Heavy Cruiser | 5 |
| | |
| Carrier | 5 |
|---------------------+-------------------|
| Resource Collector | 2 |
| | |
| Resource Controller | 3 |
| | |
| Cloak Generator | 2 |
| | |
| GravWell Generator | 2 |
+---------------------+-------------------+
Note that Strike Craft (Fighters and Corvettes) can only be captured if they are
out of fuel and/or trapped in a GravWell.
Salvaging is fun.
*** CAPITAL SHIPS ***
Assault Frigate
----------------
Cost: 575 RUs
Mass: 45 000 tons
Armour: 16 000
Firepower: 82
Coverage: 75%
Weapons: 4x mass driver turret (around nose), 2x plasma bomb launcher (around
nose)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 325 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 3
Good against Corvettes and other Capital Ships, bad against anything else. If
only its turrets/bullets were faster... grrr. Seriously though, if used
correctly, these ships can be a menace to other Capital Ships, notably Ion
Cannon Frigates, because they are more maneuverable than them. In other words,
if you tell an Assault Frigate to attack another Capital Ship, and then start
moving your Frigate around, it will most likely come out as the winner of the
battle.
Having all the turrets clustered around the nose area means that this Frigate
gets in more hits than others. Unfortunately, this is also its greatest
weakness, since the Assault Frigate is totally unable to cover its vulnerable
engine area. Get a squadron of Heavy Corvettes behind an Assault Frigate, and
it will die very fast.
This Frigate's bullets seem to be heavier than other ships'; get a wing of 6
Assault Frigates and start shooting an enemy ship, it will get blown backwards
and will never be able to get in range to fire on your Frigates. Cheap, but
it can help.
Addendum: After doing a few tests with Assault Frigates, I have come to the
conclusion that their effectiveness increases *dramatically*
when used in larger groups. A set of 8 Assault Frigates are an
excellent deterrent to Strike Craft groups (even Fighters),
because they're firing so many bullets that it's virtually
impossible for one slug *not* to hit a target.
Ion Cannon Frigate
-------------------
Cost: 650 RUs
Mass: 57 000 tons
Armour: 15 000
Firepower: 138
Coverage: 3%
Weapons: 1x ion cannon beam (fixed, forward-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 300 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 4
The mainstay of every respectable fleet, the Ion Cannon Frigate packs a single
ion beam with the biggest punch in the game. Getting in front of one of these
is very bad news, no matter what type of ship you are. Group ICFs with Assault
Frigate and some Heavy Corvettes, and you have a highly dangerous escort or
attack fleet. But don't even think about sending them out unguarded, since they
die very quickly to any ship class. When engaging an enemy fleet, *always* take
out the ICFs first.
Drone Frigate
--------------
***Kushan ONLY!
Cost: 800 RUs
Mass: 60 000 tons
Armour: 16 000
Firepower: 192
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: 24x drones (mobile mass driver turrets)
Special Action: launch/retract drones
Velocity: 300 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 75 seconds
Availability: Mission 6
This is the only ship capable of hitting *any* other ship, no matter how fast
the enemy may be. Each drone has a single mass driver that is equal in power/
firing speed to the guns of a Scout, thus 24 x 8 = 192 damage per volley. These
Frigates are great for guarding against Strike Craft attack, but don't do nearly
so well against bigger ships.
The drones do get rebuilt if destroyed, although this takes a while - 50 seconds
(faster if all drones are retracted, only 20-25 seconds). And the drones aren't
repaired if damaged, only replaced if they are destroyed.
Support Frigate
----------------
Cost: 425 RUs
Mass: 45 000 tons
Armour: 12 000
Firepower: 28
Coverage: 21%
Weapons: (Kushan) 1x mass driver turret (below nose)
(Taiidan) 2x mass driver turret (either side of body)
Special Action: refuel Strike Craft, repair all ships
Velocity: 450 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 65 seconds
Availability: Mission 3
The successor to the Repair Corvette, and a much better ship all around. The
Support Frigate can repair and refuel 10 Fighters and 4 Corvettes at once, and
its green beam can heal any other ships that are damaged. Set a Support
Frigate or 2 to assist a CorvWall, and you have a deadly team. These versatile
Frigates are best used on groups of 2 and upwards; you should always have at
least 1 supporting your Mothership.
A useful trick is the Strike Craft Hyperspace Jump: tell some Strike Craft to
dock with a Support Frigate, then Hyperspace that Frigate - the Strike Craft
will go along for the ride, and it doesn't cost you any extra RUs. Great for
launching surprise attacks on resource operations.
Kushan Support Frigates have only 1 gun, but can repair themselves (hold Z and
click on the Frigate a few times).
Taiidan Support Frigates have 2 guns, but lack the self-repair capability.
Support Frigate guns are more like Corvette weapons than Capital Ship armaments,
they fire very fast and accurately, and do less damage (so the Frigate can
protect itself from Strike Craft assault, if needed). But its armour points are
so low, that it dies to almost anything anyway...
*** SUPER-CAPITAL SHIPS***
Destroyer
----------
Cost: 1 350 RUs
Mass: 185 0000 tons
Armour: 44 000
Firepower: 341
Coverage: 88% (more like 40%)
Weapons: (Kushan) 2x side-mounted ion cannon turrets, 2x top-mounted mass
driver turrets
(Taiidan) 2x forward-mounted fixed ion cannons, 2x (dual) top-mounted
mass driver turrets (4 gun barrels)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 315 m/s
Maneuverability: very low (seems to be low)
Build Time: 150 seconds
Availability: Mission 6
Slightly more expensive than 2 Ion Cannon Frigates but a better deal, these
ships have deadly twin ion beams, backed up by 2 big-ass mass driver turrets.
They are highly maneuverable for their size and (relatively) speedy, too. The
only problem is their coverage; a Destroyer's guns are meant to hit things in
front of it, consequently they have trouble shooting at attackers below or
behind them. The large, undefended "blind spot" below a Destroyer also makes
them easy to approach with Salvagers; so if you're fielding a few of these
heavyweights, give them a decent Strike Craft escort.
Missile Destroyer
------------------
Cost: 1 500 RUs
Mass: 200 0000 tons
Armour: 42 000
Firepower: 450
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: 2x guided missile launchers
Special Action: Missile Volley (32x missiles)
Velocity: 295 m/s
Maneuverability: very low
Build Time: 175 seconds
Availability: Mission 9
Death to Strike Craft, the only thing that can outrun the missiles are Evasive
Scouts on Afterburners (cloaking also spoils missile lock-on). The only problem
is the 32-missile initial capacity, once an MD is empty, its firing rate drops
off substantially (as it takes 0.5 seconds to manufacture new missiles). This
is a Destroyer, but it's *not* meant for taking on other Capital and Super-
Capital ships - leave that job to your ion beam-equipped ships.
Different tactics also alter missile accuracy versus Strike Craft:
Evasive 50%
Neutral 70%
Aggressive 90%
So on Evasive for example, half of the missiles fired at enemies are going to
miss. On Aggressive, 10% will miss the target.
Regarding Missile Volley: If used, your MD will fire off however many missiles
it currently has in stock (thanks to Koki for noting this). The penalty to pay
is that your MD can't fire/manufacture new missiles for 10 seconds after the
Volley attack has been used, so obviously, it pays to use Missile Volley only
when your ships have a full (or almost full) stock of 32 missiles. BTW, this
attack seems to make the missiles "dumb" - their homing capability is downgraded
quite substantially.
Carrier
--------
Cost: 2 000 RUs
Mass: 600 0000 tons
Armour: 70 000
Firepower: 109
Coverage: 100% (not really)
Weapons: 4x fixed mass drivers, at each corner of the Carrier
Special Action: build/dock/refuel/repair Strike Craft, build Frigates
Velocity: 315 m/s
Maneuverability: very low
Build Time: 280 seconds
Availability: Mission 9
Vital to your fleet, these ships are able to move a *LOT* faster than a
Mothership. They are best used as mobile construction yards around resource
operations, since you can keep churning out Strike Craft and Frigates to thwart
enemy attacks. Their guns are pretty bad though, and sending a Carrier out
unescorted is just asking for it to be salvaged or blown up. In multi-player,
your Carriers take over the role of Fleet Command if you lose your Mothership,
thus it's a good idea to build at least 1. Any ship(s) being built by a Carrier
will also die if the Carrier is destroyed, the same applies to all Strike Craft
docked inside the destroyed Carrier.
A Carrier can dock 50 Fighters and 25 Corvettes at a time (a little small to fit
all those ships inside, I would have thought?).
Heavy Cruiser
--------------
Cost: 3 700 RUs
Mass: 800 0000 tons
Armour: 90 000
Firepower: 921
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: (Kushan) 2x dual-ion "wide" turrets, mounted above/below nose;
6x mass driver turrets, on top/bottom/sides
(Taiidan) 2x dual-ion "thin" turrets, mounted above/below nose;
6x mass-driver turrets, mounted over-under-along on sides
Special Action: -
Velocity: 250 m/s
Maneuverability: very low
Build Time: 420 seconds
Availability: Mission 13
Even the best Homeworld players know that an enemy Heavy Cruiser is bad news.
As the manual states, "When a Heavy Cruiser shows up on the scene, things get
real quiet real fast". And it's true - nothing can match a Heavy Cruiser in
terms of sheer, raw firepower. Their huge amount of armour allows them to
shrug off any Strike Craft attack (except maybe Attack Bombers), and Frigates
don't do too well against them either (unless you're able to bring about 10
ICFs to bear on the enemy Cruiser).
The only thing that can go head-to-head with a Heavy Cruiser is another Cruiser
or failing that, at least 3 Destroyers. If you're a skilled player, you can
exploit this ship's poor (OK, *bad*) maneuverability: while attacking an enemy
Cruiser with Destroyers or Frigates, move your ships around and if you're lucky,
you'll be able to avoid the Cruiser's ion beams. (You probably won't be able to
dodge the turret fire, but bullets are *nothing* compared to ion cannons...)
For all its power, though, the Heavy Cruiser is one slow ship. The only ships
that can't outrun it are Motherships (ouch), so if you need to move a Cruiser
across the map, Hyperspace is probably the best option.
*** MOTHERSHIP CLASS ***
Mothership
-----------
Cost: -
Mass: 5 000 000 tons
Armour: 160 000
Firepower: 7 500
Coverage: 60%
Weapons: 6x fixed mass driver mounts (various locations on hull)
Special Action: build all ships classes, repair Strike Craft and Resourcers
Velocity: 50 m/s
Maneuverability: very, very low (not moveable in single-player)
Build Time: -
Availability: Mission 1 (duh)
The heart of your fleet, able to build and capture every ship. In single-player
you lose if your Mothership is destroyed, in multi-player you lose only if you
don't have a Carrier (Fleet Command transfers to the Carrier in that situation).
A Mothership can dock 150 Fighters and 50 Corvettes, which is stupid when you
consider that in single-player, you can only build 80 Fighters maximum.
Like many Kushan and Taiidan ships, the differences are not only cosmetic. The
Kushan Mothership has the "door" on the side, which has to be opened and closed
every time a Super-Capital Ship goes in or out - and that takes precious time.
The Taiidan Mothership just has the large bay in its belly, so large ships are
moved in and out much quicker.
But then, of course, the Kushan Mothership is able to produce and salvage
Frigates a lot quicker, because almost as soon as the ship leaves the bay, it
is ready to roll. The Taiidan Mothership produces Frigates from various bays,
and there is a short delay before they are under your control. So, it's all
subjective when you're choosing your race.
The Mothership's guns are small and weak, but they fire very fast and are very
accurate. Like the Assault Frigate, the bullets seem to mass more than other
ships' bullets, so anything that gets hit by them will "bounce" back ever so
slightly (not so slightly for Scouts, hehe).
As with the Carrier, any ships being built when the Mohership dies, die with it.
You don't get the RUs back, either :(. A dying Mothership also causes a massive
amount of scuttle damage, wings of Strike Craft can be wiped out instantly, and
even Frigates on occasion - so it's wise to keep as far away as possible when
assaulting an enemy's Mothership.
The Kushan Mothership has some bugs, too: it can happen that when a Super-
Capital Ship is being captured or is leaving the construction bay, the "door" of
the Mothership gets "stuck", and then the ship that's there will be trapped in
that position - unusable *FOREVER*. Also, sometimes the Kushan Mothership seems
to lose track of salvage groups, which can result in Salvagers sitting there,
holding a ship, ad infinitum. The solution is to tell the waiting Salvagers to
stop salvaging that ship (press the tilde key ~), then quickly re-issue the
salvage command. The ship should now be salvaged properly.
*** NON-COMBAT SHIPS ***
Resource Collector
-------------------
Cost: 650 RUs
Mass: 40 000 tons
Armour: 10 800
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: refuel Strike Craft
Velocity: 300 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
You can't do anything without RUs, which is why you need Resource Collectors.
They use a Phased Disassembly Array (aka "harvester beam") to extract materials
from asteroids, dust clouds and nebulae; these materials become the Resource
Units (RUs) used to build and Hyperspace your ships. When full, a Resourcer
can carry 650 RUs worth of material (not 600, as Koki pointed out).
As such, these ships are vital to any fleet, in single-player and multi-player.
Since they are unarmed and slow, they *NEED* to be protected every single second
of the game, or your RU supply will dry up as they die, and soon you're dead
too.
The Special Action is slightly useless: Strike Craft are NOT repaired, only
refueled. In addition, the Resourcer has only 1 docking pad, so it's VERY slow
to tell an entire strike wing to dock with it. Personally, I never have found
the need to use this ability; Support Frigates are designed for this role, just
keep your Resourcers harvesting.
Resource Controller
--------------------
Cost: 680 RUs
Mass: 79 000 tons
Armour: 13 600
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: refuel Strike Craft
Velocity: 300 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 65 seconds
Availability: Mission 4
A mobile docking pad for Resource Collectors, allows the Resourcers to deposit
their harvested RUs a lot quicker than returning to a Mothership or Carrier
whenever they have a full load. The best way to use these is to tell them to
guard them to guard a Collector. Like the Collector it can refuel (NOT repair)
Strike Craft, but a Controller can assist 4 Fighters and 2 Corvettes at a time.
There is a major difference between the Kushan and Taiidan Controllers: the
Kushan one requires the Resourcers to roll over by 180° to dock, while the
Taiidan one does not need this. And in addition, when Resourcers dock with a
Controller, they don't get repaired (they do when they dock with a Mothership
or Carrier).
Probe
------
Cost: 30 RUs
Mass: 40 tons
Armour: 800
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: 4 000 m/s (one-time use)
Maneuverability: medium
Build Time: 6 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
A Probe is, as its name suggest, used to check up on enemy positions. They
can only be used once: you give the Probe its move order, it will go to that
location, and then it can never be used again. If you see Probes being moved
more than once, the player controlling that Probe is cheating!
Computer players love these but generally, they're not very useful. Scouts may
not be as fast, but they can at least dodge gunfire, and shoot back at
attackers. The best use for these is "Probe golf", as discussed in the multi-
player section: build 100 Probes, set them all to move through an enemy ship,
and they will ram it, causing lots of damage. Scuttling a Probe will kill
Scouts and damage other Strike Craft nearby.
Gravity Well Generator
-----------------------
Cost: 800 RUs
Mass: 65 000 tons
Armour: 8 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: activate gravity field
(area of effect: 5.5km radius
can use for : 210 seconds
recharge time : none; single use)
Velocity: 325 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 9
The "GravWell" Generator can trap all Strike Craft in its field, as well as any
incoming or outgoing Hyperspacing ships. The gravity field is a sine wave, i.e.
it is not constant but weakens and strengthens in a 6-second cycle; this means
that some trapped Strike Craft may occasionally be able to move or start
shooting again.
The nature of the gravity field also means that it is not infinitely usable; the
bar under the GravWell's health bar signifies how much longer it can create the
field. When the bar gets to empty, the GravWell will self-destruct under the
strain, so it's wise to retire these before it's too late.
Kushan GravWells are easy to detect when they are "on", as they have those
massive white "sails" that extend. Taiidan GravWells are stealthier, as they
give no clear visual indication of their on/off state.
Cloak Generator
----------------
Cost: 500 RUs
Mass: 22 000 tons
Armour: 6 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: activate cloak field
(area of effect: 2.5km radius
can use for : 300 seconds
recharge time : 600 seconds)
Velocity: 325 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 9
As you might expect, the Cloak Generator produces a cloaking field which hides
any ships inside that field from visual detection and passive sensors. However,
Proximity Sensors can see through cloak fields, so if you are planning a cloaked
attack, make sure there are no Sensors around.
Ships inside the field will decloak temporarily when firing, as soon as they
have fired a shot they will be re-cloaked. Thus, it's best to cloak only ion-
beam equipped ships, as they will be hidden for longer periods of time than
Strike Craft. Carriers and Motherships cannot be cloaked, this is to prevent
people from hiding away forever in multi-player.
These are best used in groups of 3: start one of the Cloaks, then when it is
almost empty start another and let the first one recharge. When the second one
is used up, start the third one. By the time the first one is used again, it
will be fully charged.
Note that you can run a cloak field down to zero, BUT you can only restart the
field if it is recharged to over 50% (i.e. >= 301 seconds).
Proximity Sensor
-----------------
Cost: 50 RUs
Mass: 40 tons
Armour: 800
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: 1 000 m/s
Maneuverability: very high
Build Time: 6 seconds
Availability: Mission 10
Better than Scouts for scouting, since they are cheaper, just as fast, can spot
cloaked ships, and don't need fuel. The ability to see through cloak fields,
though, is the main reason to build 'em - in multi-player, your enemies will try
anything to kill you, and cloaked ships are very popular. Not having at least a
handful of these is a big no-no.
Sensors Array
--------------
Cost: 800 RUs
Mass: 2 900 tons
Armour: 6 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: 280 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 80 seconds
Availability: Mission 14
This unit allows you to see every single ship on the map, except for cloaked
ships. Of course, unless you have your own ships nearby, you can't actually see
what those enemy ships are - all you see are red dots. So, enemies could fake
up a fleet (using Strike Craft as opposed to Frigates, say) and move it towards
you; this psyches you out, maybe you will move ships to the "threat" in panic,
allowing the enemy to take advantage of his diversion and launch a true attack
somewhere else.
Research Ship
--------------
Cost: 700 RUs
Mass: 11 000 tons
Armour: 4 500 (27 000 with 6 Research Ships)
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: 280 m/s
Maneuverability: low
Build Time: 60 seconds
Availability: Mission 1
Without new technologies, you can't build new ships. Without new ships, you
can't survive. Which is why it's useful to have as many Research Ships around,
as fleet resources allow.
You can build up to a maximum of 6 of these ships; on most multi-player maps you
start off with 1. Separate research ships will link together to form a larger,
composite ship, with better armour. So, 6 linked Research Ships become 1 ship
with 6 times the armour of a single ship. 4 linked Researchers have 4x the
armour. You get the idea...
More than 1 Research Ship can research a specific technology at once. In the
Research Manager, use the CTRL or SHIFT keys to select multiple Researchers,
then double-click the technology to research. Note that the more ships you have
researching a single technology together, the faster that technology is
researched.
Here's a table of the technologies available, plus the time they take to
research. *NOTE*, this table is the time it take for 1 Research Ship to
complete the listed technology:
+--------------------------+------------------+
| Technology | Time to research |
| | (seconds) |
+--------------------------+------------------+
| | |
| Fighter Drive | 75 |
| Fighter Chassis | 125 |
| Defender Subsystems | 300 |
| Plasma Bomb Launcher | 300 |
| Cloaked Fighter | 400 |
| Defence Fighter | 400 |
| | |
| Corvette Drive | 75 |
| Corvette Chassis | 200 |
| Heavy Corvette Upgrade | 250 |
| Fast-Tracking Turrets | 300 |
| Minelaying Tech | 300 |
| | |
| Capital Ship Drive | 100 |
| Capital Ship Chassis | 320 |
| Ion Cannons | 450 |
| Drone Technology | 400 |
| Defence Field Technology | 400 |
| Guided Missiles | 300 |
| Super-Capital Ship Drive | 450 |
| Super-Heavy Chassis | 250 |
| Heavy Guns | 650 |
| | |
| Proximity Sensor | 100 |
| Sensors Array | 400 |
| Gravity Well Generator | 520 |
| Cloak Generator | 520 |
| | |
+--------------------------+------------------+
The research time percentages are something like this:
1 Research Ship 100% of research time
2 Research Ships 64 %
3 Research Ships 44 %
4 Research Ships 37 %
5 Research Ships 30 %
6 Research Ships 28 %
So let's take Proximity Sensor, which takes 100 seconds to research with 1 ship.
Using the tables above, it would take (100 * 64%) = 64 seconds to research with
2 Researchers. With 3, it becomes (100 * 44%) = 44 seconds. You get the idea.
--------------------
3. Turanic Raiders
--------------------
The Raiders were originally a primitive race living on a small, harsh planet,
until they were discovered by the Taiidani, roughly 2 000 years ago. Seeing the
"potential" of the cruel, barbaric Raiders, the Taiidan gave them technology
which catapulted them a thousand years into the future, and into the stars to
harass other galactic races. In return, the Raiders were expected to serve the
Taiidan Empire - a promise which they have faithfully, and fanatically, kept.
When they are not serving the Empire, the Raider practice one of the oldest, and
least respectable, professions: piracy. No ship is safe from this scourge.
When there is an unpleasant job to be done, or a mission that it is politically
impossible to carry out, the Taiidan Emperor will call in the Raiders. Only the
highest-ranking army officials - and the Emperor himself - know of the
connection between the Raiders and the Empire, so it is easy to use the pirates
in this way.
Ion beam color: blue-white
NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated.
Fighter
--------
Mass: 70 tons
Armour: 225
Firepower: 20
Coverage: 5%
Weapons: 1x mass driver (nose-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 780 m/s
Maneuverability: high
First Encountered: Mission 2
A cross between a Scout and an Interceptor, this is the Raiders' mainstay ship,
which they tend to use in massed groups against targets. Good armour and
firepower, but against Corvettes they suffer the same fate as all Fighter-class
ships - a quick death.
Standard Corvette
------------------
Mass: 150 tons
Armour: 1 100
Firepower: 14
Coverage: 1%
Weapons: 2x mass driver ("turreted")
Special Action: salvage
Velocity: 500 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
First Encountered: Mission 2
Take a Kushan Salvage Corvette, remodel it, add 2 mass driver turrets, and
you've got a Standard Corvette. However, the concept does not translate into
practice very well, and in reality the Standard Corvette is the least
threatening ship that the Raiders will throw at you. The "turrets" are
incredibly slow to turn and very inaccurate, so all in all, this is quite a
weakling of a ship, which pops easily when confronted by Heavy Corvettes.
Note that it can salvage your ships (it's codenamed the "Thief"), but the
Raiders never attempt to do so in the single-player game.
Missile Corvette
-----------------
Mass: 775 tons
Armour: 1 400
Firepower: 12 (per missile)
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: 2x missile launchers (miniature missiles)
Special Action: Missile Burst (60x missiles - 50% damage to a Destroyer!)
Velocity: 500 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
First Encountered: Mission 2
Now this is a *lot* better, the Missile Corvette has dual missile-launching bays
mounted on either side of the cockpit. The missiles are fired in pairs, do a
pound of damage, are very quick to launch and rebuild, AND a missile burst has
DOUBLE the missiles of a Missile Destroyer! The missiles are also more
maneuverable than those of a MD, and they travel a LONG way after enemy ships.
The only problem is that it's a Corvette, so its survivability is bad because
enemies will always gun for it. Missile Corvettes also have slow speed and bad
maneuverability, so they aren't very good at running away.
Ion Array Frigate
------------------
Mass: 55 000 tons
Armour: 12 400
Firepower: 150 (estimated)
Coverage: 3%
Weapons: 1x ion cannon (fixed, forward-firing)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 245 m/s
Maneuverability: low
First Encountered: Mission 3
A low-grade Ion Cannon Frigate, they are very slow (even a Heavy Cruiser is
faster!!!), can't turn fast enough to lock on to a Salvager, and their armour
is, quite frankly, pathetic. No self-repair ability either, however those large
"wings" (magnetic accelerators) on either side of the Frigate make its beam
stronger than that of a standard Ion Cannon Frigate's; the ion beam fires more
often as well, so it causes more damage. Apart from that, nothing special.
Battle Carrier
---------------
Mass: 1 000 000 tons
Armour: 96 000
Firepower: 476
Coverage: 3%
Weapons: 2x ion cannon (fixed, forward-firing)
10x mass drivers (fixed, body-mounted in various defensive positions)
Special Action: build/repair/refuel Strike Craft, build Frigates
Velocity: 235 m/s
Maneuverability: low (seems to be very low)
First Encountered: Mission 2
The crossbreed of a Destroyer and a Carrier, this is a dangerous ship that
should not be taken lightly. It takes a lot of pounding to die, and it can put
some serious hurt on anything attacking it.
However, it's not very useful as a Carrier, since its docking rates are very
slow (it is able to build Ion Array Frigates, but it never actually does). Its
mass drivers fire faster and more accurately than a Carriers, so using Strike
Craft on these is not a good idea - break out the ion cannons instead.
------------
4. Bentusi
------------
The Bentusi are a mystic race of peaceful traders, who play a large part in
helping the exiled Kharakians regain their Homeworld. They are also known as
"the Unbound", why, you ask?
Well you see, every Bentusi ship is actually crewed by only 1 Bentusi person,
BUT that person is... integrated... with that ship. So, like Karan S'jet, the
Bentusi's ships are their bodies: if their ship gets attacked, they physically
feel pain. They are "unbound" because they are not confined by their ships like
the Kharakians, but rather, their ships are an extension of their beings.
Ion beam color: gold-white
NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated.
Bentusi Exchange
-----------------
Mass: 4 000 000 tons
Armour: 400 000
Firepower: 900 per second
Coverage: 50%
Weapons: 3x ion cannon (fixed, rapid-firing)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 200 m/s
Maneuverability: low
First Encountered: Mission 4
The main Bentusi ship that you will encounter, each Exchange is a Mothership
alone, but what a ship! Triple repeating ion cannons allow an Exchange to track
and destroy ANY ship type, and since they do so much damage, it's rare for even
Turanic Raiders to attack the Bentusi. Thank goodness the Traders are on your
side...
Cargo Barge
------------
Mass: 40 000 tons
Armour: 20 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: 350 m/s
Maneuverability: low
First Encountered: Mission 11
This looks like it's supposed to be an escape pod; in Mission 11, it's fleeing
the Bentusi Exchange which is under attack from the Taiidan. But that doesn't
make much sense, considering the Unbound nature of the Bentusi... Anyhow, it's
a weak and unarmed ship, and you only ever see it once in the game.
------------
5. Kadeshi
------------
The Kadeshi (also spelt Khadeshi) are descendants of the Exiles from Hiigara;
but unlike the main fleet of prison ships which continued on to Kharak, the
Kadeshi group broke away and decided to take their chances with living in the
Great Nebula.
As the various Kiith family groupings show, the Kharakians are a highly
religious people, and so it is with the Kadeshi. As they grew and prospered in
the Great Nebula, they came to identify with it, until "it became the center of
their existence, and ultimately, their religion" (in the words of Fleet
Command) - it becomes something akin to the Garden of Eden for them (this is
why the Kadesh are known as the "Protectors of the Gardens"). Thus, when the
returning Exiles harvest the Nebula, the Kadeshi attack because they see this as
defiling the sacred nature of their home.
And because the Protectors will not listen to reason, the Kharakians are forced
to destroy their long-lost brothers, in order to make it out of the Nebula alive
and continue the journey to their Homeworld.
Ion beam color: blue-white
NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated.
Swarmer
--------
Mass: 8 tons
Armour: 400
Firepower: 43
Coverage: 4%
Weapons: 2x rapid-fire mass drivers (fixed, belly-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 1 500 m/s
Maneuverability: very high (seems to be very very VERY high!)
First Encountered: Mission 7
The most dangerous Strike Craft ever built, these things are incredibly fast and
maneuverable, and they pack a serious punch too. The only sure-fire defence
against them are Multi-Gun Corvettes, Drone Frigates, and/or Defenders - even
Heavy Corvettes struggle to blast them, and of course, with 400 armour points
they take far too long to die... you may even find they run out of fuel before
you can kill them all.
Advanced Swarmer
-----------------
Mass: 10 tons
Armour: 550
Firepower: 24
Coverage: 8%
Weapons: 4x rapid-fire mass drivers (fixed, belly-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 1 000 m/s
Maneuverability: high
First Encountered: Mission 8
Lower stats than the Swarmer, BUT the guns fire faster so that Firepower rating
is misleading. They are still difficult to kill off, but not so difficult as
Swarmers, and since there are fewer of them in the game, you may not even notice
the difference. They have slightly bigger gas tanks than Swarmers, but not
enough to count, and so are also dead in space without Fuel Pods.
Fuel Pod
---------
Mass: 10 tons
Armour: 550
Firepower: 65
Coverage: 10%
Weapons: 1x rapid-fire mass driver (fixed, nose-mounted)
Special Action: repair/refuel Strike Craft
Velocity: 250 m/s
Maneuverability: low
First Encountered: Mission 7
The Kadeshi version of the Support Frigate; ugly ships, but they do their job of
topping up the Swarmers' puny fuel tanks. Their single gun is better than the
weapon of a standard Support Frigate, as it is much more accurate. Kill these
off (or salvage 'em) to leave the Swarmers stranded high and dry.
Multi-Beam Frigate
-------------------
Mass: 50 000 tons
Armour: 15 200
Firepower: 600
Coverage: 20%
Weapons: 4x heavy ion cannons (fixed, body-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: 280 m/s
Maneuverability: low
First Encountered: Mission 8
Scary as hell when they appear and begin raking the Mothership with their quad-
ion beams, these are like 4 Ion Cannon Frigates combined into 1 seriously
deadly ship. Salvage as many as you can, and you won't be lacking in firepower
for the rest of the game.
The "raking" ability is useful, because it allows this Frigate to kill Strike
Craft; since the beams stay "on" for quite a while, the MBF can just sweep them
around and slice into anything. The power of these beams is NOT to be under-
estimated; 14 MBFs can kill a Heavy Cruiser in under 8 seconds. They may have
a little trouble tracking Frigates, but when these beams hit... it really hurts.
Needle Mothership
------------------
Mass: 2 000 000 tons
Armour: 112 000
Firepower: 600
Coverage: 20%
Weapons: 1x heavy ion cannon (fixed, forward-mounted)
13x mass drivers (fixed, body-mounted in defensive positions)
Special Action: repair/refuel/build Strike Craft and Frigates, prevent
Hyperspacing, ram
Velocity: 150 m/s
Maneuverability: very low
First Encountered: Mission 7
This is a very cool-looking craft, the needle design looks fragile but belies
this ship's true power. Strike Craft get eaten alive by the mass drivers, and
Capital Ships take heavy damage from the single, but massively powerful, ion
cannon mounted in the "head" of the ship. Of course, if your ships get too
close, the Needle Mothership will also ram them, which *instantly* kills a
Destroyer upon impact. And additionally, the built-in Hyperspace Inhibitor
prevents you from leaving the Great Nebula. All in all, an awe-inspiring foe
and a nasty piece of work to go toe-to-toe with. If only your Mothership had
its capabilities...
------------------
6. Miscellaneous
------------------
This section is for the ships that don't belong anywhere else (e.g. Karos
Graveyard).
Armour, Special Action, Weapons and Velocity are all known (true) values;
everything else is guestimated, since there is no real way to find out those
stats.
Ghost Ship
-----------
Mass: 40 000 tons
Armour: 800 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: control field
Velocity: -
Maneuverability: -
First Encountered: Mission 9
This is the strange alien vessel you encounter on Mission 9 (Sea of Lost Souls)
in the single-player game. With 800 000 armour points (5x the armour of a
Mothership), it's no wonder the thing is well-nigh impossible to kill. You have
to use your Strike Craft to damage it enough and disable the control field it
emits, which can capture Capital Ships and place them under this strange craft's
control.
Research Station
-----------------
Mass: 1 000 000 tons
Armour: 200 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: -
Velocity: -
Maneuverability: -
First Encountered: Mission 10
Found in Mission 10, this is the Research Station that you must destroy. It is
completely defenceless without its escort, so once you've killed them, this
Station dies pretty fast.
Junkyard Dawg
--------------
Mass: 50 000 tons
Armour: 110 600
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: salvage almost ANYTHING
Velocity: 750 m/s
Maneuverability: medium
First Encountered: Mission 13
The ultimate Salvage Corvette, capable of grabbing any ship up to Super-Capital
class. Found in the Karos Graveyard, it's bloody fast too, and that huge armour
rating means it's very difficult to kill... but not if you have a GravWell
Generator with you.
Autogun (small)
----------------
Mass: 100 tons
Armour: 600
Firepower: 50
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: 1x rapid-fire mass driver (fixed, forward-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: -
Maneuverability: -
First Encountered: Mission 13
Autogun (large)
----------------
Mass: 80 tons
Armour: 900
Firepower: 55
Coverage: 100%
Weapons: 1x rapid-fire mass driver (fixed, forward-mounted)
Special Action: -
Velocity: -
Maneuverability: -
First Encountered: Mission 13
Nasty little turrets found in the Karos Graveyard, they fire extremely fast and
pack quite a punch too, which is why you can't just run Strike Craft past them.
Kill these with your Super-Capital Ships - ion cannons work best, since the
Autoguns can rotate to track targets, but are incapable of any sort of movement.
Hyperspace Inhibitor
---------------------
Mass: 1 000 000 tons (each segment)
Armour: 70 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: prevent Hyperspacing
Velocity: -
Maneuverability: -
First Encountered: Mission 14
This is the Inhibitor that you have to destroy in Mission 14 (Bridge of Sighs),
to enable the Exiles to return to their Homeworld. Note that the stats above
are for each *segment* of the Inhibitor, there are 8 segments in total which you
have to destroy. However, these segments have relatively low health, and
destroying 1 can set off a chain reaction which destroys others. The Inhibitor
is dangerous only because of the fact that it rotates; any ships that get
smacked by one of the segments will be instantly destroyed or at least, very
badly damaged. So it's wise to keep your distance when attacking.
Headshot Asteroid
------------------
Mass: 2 000 000 tons
Armour: 450 000
Firepower: -
Coverage: -
Weapons: -
Special Action: RAM!
Velocity: 1 000 m/s
Maneuverability: extremely low
First Encountered: Mission 15
This is a massive asteroid with an even bigger engine strapped onto it, the
armour points are the main reason it takes so long to die. Found at Chapel
Perilous, this represents a last-ditch attempt by the Taiidani to end the
Exiles' return - the asteroid is meant to ram into, and destroy, the Mothership
and all the Kharakian colonists aboard. It needs to be blasted very hard and
very long to die, but you should just about make it.
________________________________________________________________________________
============
J. Tactics
============
There are 3 different ships tactics levels in Homeworld, they are covered in the
manual but I will give my own information about them as well.
Evasive : This makes ships unwilling to enter combat, i.e. even if
(F2) enemies enter their line of sight or attack, Evasive ships
will do nothing to defend themselves. Engine/weapons split is
roughly 120/80 for Strike Craft, so they do less damage but
move faster and thus survive longer; more fuel is burnt off;
and Evasive Strike Craft also split up into pairs when
attacking. Regarding Capital Ships, this tactic has no effect
on speed or weapons power BUT makes them attack only on your
command (useful in big melees). It also forces Support
Frigates to ignore enemy fire and only repair selected ships.
Evasive Resourcers will dock with the nearest capable ship
(Mothership, Carrier, Resource Controller) when shot at.
Evasive Scouts are useful to annoy the enemy, or stall for
time if necessary.
Neutral : The default setting for all newly-built ships. Ships on this
(F3) setting will attack enemy ships that come within range, but
will not move from their positions/orders to do so.
Engine/weapons percentages are 100/100 for Strike Craft. Good
to use for ships guarding other ships.
Aggressive : Ships on this setting attack until they or the enemy are/is
(F4) dead. No fancy flight maneuvers are performed and ships are
slower, so you will lose more ships when they are on
Aggressive. Engine/weapons translate to 80/120 for Strike
Craft. Aggressive ships will attack and pursue any enemies
that enter their sights; Aggressive Resourcers will ignore
attackers and continue harvesting. On some occasions, idle
Resourcers on Aggressive will actually attack and destroy
enemy ships (Frigate-class and larger); they do this by using
their PDA beam to suck the armour off the enemy ship's hull,
so you actually get RUs from this :).
Generally, Evasive is best when moving ships around, or trying to run from
enemies (Capital Ships *do not* receive a speed boost from Evasive). Switch to
Aggressive when closing with enemy fleets, or when you need that vital kill and
losing ships is not an issue. Neutral is best used for ships that are guarding
other ships, as the guards will attack anything fighting them or the ship
they're guarding, but will not pursue the attackers (and thus leave the guarded
ship vulnerable to other attacks).
________________________________________________________________________________
===============
K. Formations
===============
These formations apply to all ships in Homeworld, BUT for reasons explained
below (***see NOTE 1), Capital Ships should *never* be placed in formations.
Delta : Pretty useless as a formation, ships in this formation are
(F5) easy to spot and easier to kill; killing the foremost ship in
the formation breaks it up. Best used for Attack Bombers and
not much else.
Broad : *The* most useless formation, only good when you have many
(F6) ships (example: Salvage Corvettes) that you need to select
in small groups. Only the insane would use this formation to
attack, as enemies will be able to pick ships off easily.
X : Best used for Strike Craft; this formation allows them to
(F7) dodge much incoming gunfire while at the same time, blasting
away at the enemy. The slow-ish turnaround time of this
formation is its only negative aspect. A good formation for
guarding other ships, and for attacking multiple targets.
Claw : Only to be used when attacking a single target; this formation
(F8) concentrates a nearly-continuous stream of gunfire at the
target. However, this formation packs ships very close
together, making it easy to hit them. And this complex
formation also takes a looong time to turn around. Best used
with groups of Strike Craft less than 30 strong.
Wall : As mentioned elsewhere, 16 Light and/or Heavy Corvettes in a
(F9) Wall, with decent support, can do a lot of damage. But
generally, the Wall is best used for slow-moving Capital Ships
because of its slow turn time. Also, ships in this formation
are packed very closely together and thus, are vulnerable to
mine and missile attacks, as well as the Heavy Corvette's
Burst Fire mode (which can pop Fighter walls very well).
Sphere : As its name implies, attacking ships will form a sphere around
(F10) the enemy, and begin pouring gunfire into the foe's hull.
Because the ships in this formation do not move, their
weapons are much more accurate than in any other formation BUT
conversely, they die much easier as they make no attempt to
avoid incoming gunfire. Best used for Strike Craft - killing
unprotected Resourcers, or quickly finishing off a dangerous
ship.
Custom : Almost never used, ships set to this formation will stay in
(F11) the positions they're currently in. Pretty useless, really.
In summary: Delta, Broad and Custom are virtually useless. X is the best
general-purpose formation, and excellent for Strike Craft. Claw is best for
Fighters that are attacking single Capital Ships. Wall is excellent for
Corvettes, bad for any other Strike Craft (except maybe Defenders and Bombers),
and good for Capital Ships (but then, you shouldn't have your Capital Ships in a
formation anyway). Sphere is a useful guarding formation, and perfect for
hitting enemy ships as hard as possible in a short time.
***NOTE 1: *Never, ever* put your Capital Ships in formation. Try this: get 2
groups of Capital Ships. Put 1 group in a formation and leave the
other disorganised. Now tell both groups to turn around.
What you will notice, is that the formation'd ships will perform all
sorts of time-wasting stunts to respond to your order, while the
other group's ships will simply rotate 180° on their axes and begin
moving directly to the location you chose.
It's simple: in formation, ships must move as 1 group; without a
formation, ships can move individually, which is probably about 10
times faster to turn and attack. For slow Capital Ships, the faster
they bring guns to bear on the enemy, the better. So, don't use
formations for your heaviest hitters.
***NOTE 2: The one problem with having no formations, is that ships are much
more likely to shoot each other in a melee. (Very likely for Strike
Craft, not so much for Capital Ships - except Missile Destroyers).
If you see your ships "clumping" too closely together, just give them
move orders and they should get sorted out.
________________________________________________________________________________
==================
L. Damage Ratios
==================
In Homeworld, ships have different levels of armour on different parts of their
bodies. If you have played the single-player campaign, you may recall that in
Mission 4, Fleet Command notes that "... Capital Ships have lighter armour on
the top, bottom and rear sides". This is true, but that's not the entire truth;
here's a table of the damage ratios for ship armour areas.
Front 90 % of weapons damage
Rear (engines) 170%
Sides 100%
Top 130%
Bottom 130%
So, say you have a weapon that does 10 damage. If it hits the front of an enemy
ship, that ship will take (10 * 90%) = 9 damage. If, however, you shoot that
enemy ship in the engines, it will take (10 * 170%) = 17 damage.
Obviously it's best to get behind enemies and attack, but in reality you will
rarely have the opportunity to kill a ship by firing ion beams into its
engines. It's more likely that you'll be able to get 130% damage, and in most
cases you will be attacking enemies from the front (since that's where all the
weapons are to fire at you...), so usually only 90% damage results.
NOTE: these ratios don't apply to Motherships, which take 100% of weapons damage
regardless of where they're shot.
________________________________________________________________________________
==============================
M. Single-player walkthrough
==============================
Homeworld can be a difficult game in places, to say the least ;).
Well, this walkthrough is (hopefully) going to help you through the rough spots.
Some parts may spoil the game for you, but don't blame me!
I played the game as Kushan, so if you're playing it as Taiidan, some bits may
not make sense. Solution: play as Kushan.
NOTE: The beauty of Homeworld is that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to
complete the game! This walkthrough is how *I* did it. If you know a
better way of completing a mission, please let me know, and (if I use your
tip) I'll credit you.
*Remember* - if you're not having fun, then you're not playing the game right!
------------------
1. Kharak System
------------------
If you were stupid and did not complete the training mission as advised (RTFM,
k?), then this level will make sure that you at least know what the hell is
going on.
I'm quite sure (OK, I *hope*) that you won't need an in-depth guide here, just
follow the instructions and you'll be fine.
Set your Scouts to Group 1 (CTRL + 1), your Resource Collector to Group 2, and
your Salvage Corvette to Group 3.
Note that when you're salvaging the Target Drone, you mustn't give your Salvage
Corvette any other orders (including movement), or it'll let go of the Drone.
Once you have fulfilled all orders, Hyperspace out... and get ready for the real
game to begin.
-------------------------------
2. Outskirts of Kharak System
-------------------------------
As the movie explains, you are supposed to meet the Khar-Selim, your support
ship, in this location. But she ain't responding to the Mothership's radio
call... and if you're any kind of gamesplayer, you know that means something's
up!
*DO NOT* send *anything* to the Khar-Selim - at least, not yet. You'll need
something a lot better than whiny Scouts to protect the Mothership, so get
researching Corvettes. Set your 7 Scouts to guard your Resource Collector (hold
G and click the Collector) on Aggressive tactics/Sphere formation, then send it
off to harvest.
With your additional resources, build 4 Heavy Corvettes and set them to
Aggressive/X formation; set them to Group 4, tell them to guard the Mothership,
and move your Research Ship as far behind the Mothership as it can go. Build
another 4 Heavy Corvettes (group 5), and tell them to guard your Salvage
Corvette (Aggressive/sphere).
After you've harvested enough, you'll meet the Turanic Raiders. They're a race
of bad guys who enjoy blowing shit up for kicks. Enjoy the neat-o movie, then
get ready to atomise them. Tell your Resource Collector to dock (press D),
while it's doing so your Scouts will protect it from Raider attack.
The Raiders wil attack in 3 distinct waves. The first one consists mainly of
Interceptors, with 2 Standard and 1 Missile Corvette thrown in. Sit back and
watch while your Heavy Corvettes happily blow the enemies to hell. Once it's
quiet again, dock any damaged Scouts and/or Corvettes, then send your Salvage
Corvette off to visit the remains of the Khar-Selim. Don't forget to guard it
with all your Heavies (Aggressive/Wall); your Scouts should guard the Mothership
in X formation.
When you reach the Khar-Selim, the Raiders will make an attempt to consign your
Salvage Corvette to the scrapyard. Sadly, their Interceptors will die horribly.
Laugh and get your Salvage Corvette back to the Mothership; dock it and make
sure that it stays there (check the "Remain Docked" button in the Launch
Manager). Now you witness (more like hear) the demise of the Khar-Selim.
Once the cutscene is over, the Raiders return yet again (getting annoying, isn't
it?). This time, they're using more Standard and Missile Corvettes along with
their Interceptors; use your Heavies on them. The missile-equipped ships should
be your first targets, but don't ignore the other enemies.
Eventually, your Heavy Corvettes should sight the enemy Carrier; when that
happens, the Raiders will finally bugger off. Build 3 more Salvage Corvettes
(set to Group 3 with the first one), then 2 Repair Corvettes (no group). If you
lost any Strike Craft, rebuild them. On to Mission 3.
---------------------
3. Return to Kharak
---------------------
"Everything's gone... There's nothing left!... Kharak is burning!..." Those are
some of the saddest words I have ever heard in a videogame. There is nothing
left of the planet that was home to the Kushan people for a thousand years. The
heat of the explosion has turned the entire Great Desert to glass.
But the evil that committed this genocide has not yet finished its destruction.
The Cryotrays - the racks containing hundreds of thousands of Kushan in
cryogenic sleep - are being attacked. If the Cryotrays are destroyed, it will
be impossible for the Kushan people to re-establish themselves as a race. You
must save the Cryotrays at all cost!
Fun time, NOT. Set your Scouts to Evasive/Claw and tell them to get after the
ships (Assault Frigates) attacking the Cryotrays. Depending on the size of your
fleet, there may be between 2 and 5 Frigates to contend with.
While the Frigates are (trying) to play shoot-the-Scout, split your Salvage
Corvettes up into 2 groups of 2, then tell 1 Repair Corvette to support each
Salvager group (select a Repair Corvette, Z-bandbox 2 Salvagers). Now send your
Salvagers off (on Aggressive!) to grab Frigates. It takes 2 Salvagers to grab a
Frigate; Z-click the frigate to capture it. (Try and get the healthiest ones.)
Hint: *never* approach enemy ships directly from the front, it's not very
clever.
The Assault Frigates will now go after your Salvagers, however your Repair
Corvettes should keep them alive long enough to do their job. Make sure that
your Scouts are set to attack *only* the Frigates that are *not* being captured.
Once your Salvagers have hold of 2 Frigates, bring in your Heavy Corvettes and
kill any that are still going for the Cryotrays.
Grab as many Frigates as you can. Once they are all grabbed/destroyed, your
Salvagers can begin bringing in the surviving Cryotrays (select a Salvager,
Z-bandbox a Tray). If all Cryotrays get destroyed, it's Game Over.
Harvest the meagre resources here, then ensure that you have 16 Heavy Corvettes
in your fleet. Set your captured Assault Frigate(s) to Group 6. Retire your
Repair Corvettes (select them and press I). Research whatever's available and
leave - "there's nothing left for us here".
------------------------------
4. Great Wastelands (Part 1)
------------------------------
A nice, quiet area of space. Now, what do games teach us about nice, quite
areas? Think Quake II here, people. (What? Never played it? SHAME!)
Hokay. Build a Resource Controller and set it to guard your Collector. Send
the Collector off to gather resources, also guarded by your Heavy Corvettes.
When your Collector has dropped off its first load of resources, you get a
scare. One big-ass Hyperspace signature pops up on your sensors, but it's OK.
That's a Bentusi Trade Ship, and luckily for you, they want to be friends.
However, don't accept their offer of Ion Cannon technology just yet.
Build a Support Frigate when you get the resources, and add 4 more Salvage
Corvettes to your other 4; also ensure you have at least 6 Scouts. Move your
Salvagers to the front of the Mothership. Keep harvesting, but when the Bentusi
begin talking about the Raiders, tell your Collector to dock. Then quickly buy
Ion Cannons and wave your new friends goodbye. You'll be seeing more of them in
later missions.
Use your Heavy Corvettes to take out the incoming Raider forces; with the end of
the assault, put your Scouts on Evasive. 6 Raider Ion Array Frigates will
Hyperspace in and begin hammering on the Mothership. Immediately salvage the 2
Ion Arrays to the left and right of the Mothership, then use your Scouts to
attack and confuse the 4 Ion Arrays behind your fleet (as with the Assault
Frigates in the previous mission), then send in your Salvagers to grab 'em.
When a pair of Salvagers becomes available, tell it to grab another Ion Array.
You should easily be able to grab all 6.
Now the Raider Carrier will appear. Use your Salvagers to grab the 2 stupid Ion
Arrays escorting it, and use all of your newly-captured ships to blast that
Carrier (if it gets away, it's Game Over!). With the Carrier gone, the mission
is complete.
Finish harvesting. Next!
------------------------------
5. Great Wastelands (Part 2)
------------------------------
Build 3 more Support Frigates (4 total), 6 more Salvage Corvettes (14 total),
and ensure you have at least 20 Heavy Corvettes; also build a Probe. If you
need resources, build another Probe and send it 49km from the Mothership,
into the open end of the "resource V". The area *between* that Probe and the
Mothership is where it's safe to harvest resources. Once you've completed
harvesting, scuttle the "marker" Probe (select it and press S, wait 1 second,
then press S again).
Put your Heavy Corvettes in Aggressive/Wall, then select them and 4 Salvage
Corvettes. Go into Sensors Manager. Taking the Mothership as *facing* 12 o'
clock, move your selected group to the dust clouds at roughly 2 o' clock
(about 45km from the Mothership). Ensure that your Heavy Corvettes are about
8km behind your Salvagers.
Once you're ready, send your second Probe to the ping in your Sensors Manager.
It's gonna die, but not in vain as you'll see later...
So, this is the scum that destroyed Kharak! Time to get revenge - and how sweet
it will be. The Taiidani will pay for what they've done.
After the cutscene has played out, your Probe will be destroyed (if you'd used a
Scout that returned to the Mothership, the enemies would follow it home - bad
idea). Watch your Sensors Manager and notice the red dots (Taiidani ships)
fanning out on patrols. A fast-moving dot should appear near your Heavy
Corvettes, revealing itself as a squadron of Interceptors; use your Heavies to
make short work of them. Wait a while longer and you'll notice another speedy
red dot, patrolling from side to side in front of the Mothership. Move your
Heavies out and kill this wing of Interceptors too, then tell them to guard the
Mothership.
Now you are ordered to kill some enemy Resourcers. In Homeworld, however, the
key is to think like a pirate. The 4 Salvagers you positioned earlier are in
prime position to grab those Resourcers; but wait for them to come to you, or
you risk alerting a group of Assault Frigates to your Salvagers' presence - and
you don't want that, now do you?
With the enemy Resourcers being refitted, it's time to do some more capturing.
Get 8 Salvage Corvettes (your "salvage group"), aided by 4 Support Frigates, and
add another Salvager (the "decoy") separate from this group; put the decoy
Corvette on Evasive, and tell it to guard one of your Support Frigates. Tell
your Heavy Corvettes to guard the same Support Frigate, then move your salvage
group out towards the patrolling red dot/enemy ships on the front/right-hand
side of the Mothership. When you're about 50km from the enemy ships, stop your
ships and wait a while. Another wave of Interceptors should appear; use your
Heavy Corvettes to kill them, then get them back to base. Now send your decoy
towards the red dot of enemies, which reveals itself to be 4 Assault Frigates.
As soon as the enemy Frigates start moving towards the decoy Salvager, turn it
around and send it back towards your salvage group; plot its course so that it
will pass over your salvage group, and stop about 50km behind it. As the decoy
flees, set it to Neutral tactics so that it always remains in sight of the
pursuing Assault Frigates. If it seems to be getting too far away, stop it to
let the enemy ships catch up - it's *vitally* important that they keep the decoy
in their sights.
When the decoy comes within sight of your salvage group, tell your Salvagers in
that group to grab the enemy ships. The Assault Frigates will start shooting at
the salvage group, but your Support Frigates will easily heal any damage caused.
Voila, 4 extra Assault Frigates.
Once the new Assault Frigates are added to your fleet, create the same formation
as described above (salvage group/Support Frigates/decoy/Heavy Corvettes). This
time, move towards the enemy dot on the front/left-hand side of the Mothership.
When you're about 50km away, stop your ships; tell a Support Frigate to repair
your Heavy Corvettes, then send them on ahead to meet the enemies. When you get
there you'll find another 4 Assault Frigates, guarded by a new ship type - the
Defender - which you can now research. Use your Heavy Corvettes to kill off the
puny Defenders, then retreat your Heavies back to the Mothership. Repeat the
decoy-flee-capture trick on the now-undefended Assault Frigates, and grab them
all.
With the new arrivals added to your fleet, take 6 Salvagers (aided by all your
Support Frigates) and your Scouts (on Evasive) towards the red dot at the bottom
of the map; again, stop the group 50km away. Move the Scouts in and attack the
Ion Cannon Frigates there; when they begin (trying) to retaliate, bring in your
Salvagers.
With the capture of all enemy Frigates on the map, the final event of the
mission will be triggered. The enemy Carrier, with 2 Destroyers escorting, will
come for the Mothership (as indicated by the ping in Sensors Manager). Split
your Salvage Corvettes into 2 groups of 3 and a group of 8, and get a Support
Frigate to repair each group. Your remaining Support Frigate must assist your
Heavy Corvettes; move them and your Scouts towards the approaching enemy forces.
Kill the remaining fighter cover with your Heavies, then retreat them to the
Mothership and bring in your Scouts. Attack the enemy ships to confuse them,
then sneak in your Salvage Corvettes.
Use a group of 3 Salvagers for each Destroyer, and the remainder to grab the
Carrier (***see NOTE 1). If you have any spare Salvagers sitting around, nab
the Support Frigate, otherwise kill it. It's not like you need it anyway...
Let's recap: from 4 Assault and 8 Ion Array Frigates, your fleet has probably
swelled to something like 12 Assault, 6 Ion Array and 3 Ion Cannon Frigates, as
well as 2 Destroyers and a Carrier. (And there's the 2 extra Resourcers as
well!) And (apart from a few dead Strike Craft?) it hasn't cost you a cent.
All courtesy of the Taiidan Empire!
Harvest everything that's left, then prepare your forces. Research and build 20
Attack Bombers and the same amount of Defenders, and boost your Heavy Corvette
wing to 20 ships. Assign each group of 20 a unique Group Number, then retire
all (yes, *all*) your Assault Frigates, you will be building something better in
the next mission. Open up the Launch Manager and ensure that "Remain Docked" is
checked for both the Mothership and your new Carrier. Now, manually dock your
Scouts and Salvage Corvettes with your Carrier; dock your Defenders, Attack
Bombers and Heavy Corvettes with the Mothership. Put your Carrier, Reasearch
Ship and all Frigates (excluding Support Frigates) into one group. Then it's
Hyperspace time.
***NOTE 1: Salvagers seem to lose all intelligence when ordered to capture an
enemy ship - they perform no evasive maneuvers of any sort. I had to
replay this mission about 4 times to get it right, mainly because my
Salvage Corvettes kept slamming themselves into the Carrier's hull
and exploding!!! That's why I advise you to keep extra Salvagers
around - just in case they get stupid, and you need some backup.
-------------------
6. Diamond Shoals
-------------------
A lovely big asteroid field. Unfortunately, these are Unharvestable
Asteroids(tm), and if they ram into any of your ships, well, you'll see soon
enough. This level can be tough, the main thing is to keep cool under the
pressure.
Move *all* of your Capital Ships (*except* Destroyers, Support Frigates and
Resource Collectors) to a spot 50km to the right of the Mothership, where they
will be safe from the asteroid bombardment. Tell all your Support Frigates
(except 1) to repair the Mothership. Move your 2 Destroyers in front of the
Mothership, and tell your remaining Support Frigate to assist them.
Grab your 3 groups of Attack Bombers, Defenders and Heavy Corvettes. Set them
to Evasive and move them out. Swivel the viewpoint so that you're looking down
on the Mothership, from above. Tell your Strike Craft to attack any asteroids
that are on collision course with the Mothership, and tell your Resourcers to
harvest the debris that remains. Your Destroyers can deal with any rocks that
your Strike Craft don't get; their large amount of health will allow them to
take some asteroid hits without dying. This level may take a few tries to get
it right - the most important thing is to keep searching ahead for more rocks to
clear. Your ships should only be sitting idle once the asteroids have passed
you by.
Once you're clear of the asteroid belt, the Bentusi show up again and sell you
Drone Technology. This will be very useful in the next 2 missions, so buy it.
Rebuild any lost fighters and churn out as many Drone Frigates as your remaining
RUs will allow. Time to leave this boring part of space, things are about to
get "interesting".
--------------------------
7. The Gardens of Kadesh
--------------------------
The Great Nebula. It looks peaceful, but it's gunna become something close to
Sajuuk's Hell in the next few minutes. The question is, can you survive?
Make sure that your Salvage Corvettes and Scouts remain docked in your Carrier.
Move your Capital Ships close to the Mothership, Aggressive and no formation.
Grab your Resource Collectors and get them all to guard your Research Ship (no
specific formation); add your Drone Frigates to this group (remember to deploy
their drones!). Take one Collector out of the formation, and get your Strike
Craft to guard the rest, in Aggressive/Wall. Get half of your Support Frigates
to aid this group, and the other half to repair the Mothership and your Capital
Ships.
Now that you're ready, tell your lone Resourcer to go harvesting. Keep an eye
on it, once it has a full load *immediately* tell it to guard your Research
Ship. The cutscene will activate.
Now you meet the Kadeshi. To them the Nebula is a holy place, and by
harvesting it you have defiled its holiness. Right... anyhow, the long and
short of it is that they decide to kill you. How nice.
They will initially concentrate on the Resourcer that sucked up the Nebula, but
since it's behind a wall of angry Strike Craft, their Swarmers may have some
trouble getting through. Of course, the Swarmers' insane speed will also cause
your ships some tracking problems, but those Drone Frigates will come in really
handy now.
The Kadeshi have a blatant weakness, which you shouldn't have too much trouble
figuring out. See, since their Swarmers are so small, they don't exactly have
the largest fuel tanks around. (*That's* an understatement.) Thus, if you can
deprive them of fuel, the Swarmers will sit in space doing bugger-all.
That's where the Fuel Pods come in. Fuel Pods are the Kadesh equivalent of
Support Frigates, and they look like big white grubs floating in space. If you
are really brave you can launch your Salvagers and grab 'em, since they're
worth 400 RUs apiece. If you just want to get this mission over (and you do,
boyo, you DO), use your Capital Ships to ionise the Pods.
After much gunfire, you will be told that the Mothership's Hyperdrive is fully
charged. *DON'T* activate it yet! Instead, wait until the massive Needleship
floating around the area, has gone (you should see it open a Hyperspace gate).
Now you can (try) and jump out; the dialog won't make any sense, but hey, who
cares? If you'd "activated" the Hyperdrive when told to, all your ships would
have spent 15 minutes docking (getting killed all the time), only to have to be
re-deployed when the Hyperdrive waveform fails.
Cleanup time! If there are any Swarmers and/or Fuel Pods left around, now is
the time to capture them. (Yes, you CAN capture Strike Craft - it takes 1
Salvager per ship.) Since a Fuel Pod is (technically) a Frigate, it will
require 2 Salvagers to be grabbed.
With the Kadeshi threat captured or destroyed, you can harvest and rebuild your
fleet. Add some more Drone Frigates to the mix, and ensure that you have* at
least* 30 Defenders. Then Hyperspace... and get ready for some REALLY insane
action. As in "even-more-difficult-than-this-level" insane.
----------------------------
8. The Cathedral of Kadesh
----------------------------
This mission is probably the most difficult one in Homeworld, so if you can
complete it, then you are a pretty good gamesplayer. HOWEVER, you must complete
it well. By "well", I mean that you must at least have *some* sort of a fleet
left over afterwards. Winning with unacceptable losses is not a victory,
because you will never be able to rebuild your fleet. So it's all or nothing!
This is just like the previous mission, except there are 3 Needleship Hyperspace
Inhibitors around the Mothership. In order to escape from the Nebula of
Hell(r), you will need to waste all 3 of them. And since they're gunna be
launching Swarmers and Fuel Pods at you all the time, this is *not* going be
easy.
As soon as you can control your ships, grab your Strike Craft and put them into
formation (any sort), otherwise the first wave of Swarmers will wipe them all
out. As before, get your Strike Craft to guard your vulnerable ships, except
this time get your Defenders to guard all your ion cannon-equipped craft (your
"Battle Group"). Your Drone Frigates should be guarding your vulnerables, as
well. Don't forget to use your Support Frigates to help the Mothership/
vulnerables, and your Battle Group.
If you have any Attack Bombers left, put them in Aggressive/Claw and send them
out to kill Fuel Pods. Locate the Hyperspace Inhibitor at the front of the
Mothership and send your Battle Group off to kill it. Now you will encounter
the Multi-Beam Frigates; they look similar to Fuel Pods but don't be deceived,
these ships are far more deadly. They are also *the* most powerful ships in the
game, so salvage them all! After the first wave is yours, more will approach
from the left and right sides of the Mothership and begin firing quad-ion beams
at it. With your Salvage Corvettes (aided by a Support Frigate), capture as
many as you can; it shouldn't be too difficult since the Frigates tend to only
concentrate on the Mothership (keep an eye on her health!). Once you have
disposed of the first 2 waves another group will show up, grab them too (there
are 10 total). Mercifully, the Kadeshi Swarmers ignore Salvagers unless being
targetted by them.
With the MBFs in your possession, destroy the Needleship behind/to the left of
the Mothership; once it's space dust, recall your Battle Group (add your newly-
acquired MBFs to it). Fleet Comand will tell you that the third Inhibitor is
retreating, ignore this information (for now) and concentrate on killing/
capturing any remaining Kadeshi forces around the Mothership. You can repair
and rebuild in peace now. Ensure you have at least 14 Salvage Corvettes, 16 is
recommended.
Once your fleet is back in top condition, grab all of your Support Frigates.
Get 2 to repair your Salvagers and the remainder to repair your Carrier. Use
your remaining Defenders and Drone Frigates to guard the Carrier. Then move the
Carrier and your Salvagers towards the final, fleeing Inhibitor.
When you encounter the final 7 MBFs, use your Carrier as bait, and start
capturing the Frigates. (Make sure your escorting ships don't kill 'em!) Some
Swarmers will show up, but will be wiped out by your Carrier's escorts. Now you
can harvest the Nebula in peace.
Grab your MBFs (you should have 17 if you salvaged every one) and set them on
Aggressive. Set all your Support Frigates to repair them and, with your Drone
Frigates along, head off to the location of that final blasted Hyperspace
Inhibitor.
Now you learn that the Kadeshi are actually your long-lost brothers. The
problem is, they *still* don't want to let you leave. So, lay into the final
Inhibitor with all your MBFs, it shouldn't take too long to die. Some Swarmers
and Fuel Pods may arrive to aid the Inhibitor (weird how they can Hyperspace
Strike Craft when you can't), but concentrate only on that Inhibitor. Once it's
gone, the mission is complete and you can (*finally*) jump out.
-----------------------------------
9. Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls
-----------------------------------
Oooh, creepy. A big unknown ship, sitting in the middle of nowhere, with a
whole heap of highly useful ships around it. Derelicts? Not quite... try
moving a Scout near the group, and see what happens.
Note that all the ships guarding the alien vessel are Capital-class or higher.
That should tell you something about the nature of the alien ship's control
field. To be brief, it's great at controlling big ships, but can't capture
Strike Craft. So you are going to have to use your Fighters and Corvettes to
"destroy" it.
Note the position of the Missile Destroyer guarding the alien ship. It is the
ultimate anti-fighter platform, and your Strike Craft will get annihilated if
that Destroyer is not kept occupied. Move a Support Frigate to a position
about 60km from the alien ship, but place your Frigate so it is as close to the
Missile Destroyer as possible (without being shot at, naturally).
You will need 30 Scouts and 20 Attack Bombers, minimum. Put your Scouts into 1
group (Evasive, X) and your Bombers (and any remaining Defenders) into an
Aggressive/Wall group. Move these groups out, send the Scouts to the position
of the Support Frigate and the other group to a position opposite to the
Scouts/Frigate (on the other side of the alien ship's control field).
Tell the Scouts to attack the enemy ships and, while the enemies are busy trying
to ice them, get your remaining Strike Craft to attack the alien ship itself
(set them to Sphere fromatino when you get within range). Your Scouts will
retreat to your Support Frigate when they get very damaged or low on fuel, but
you probably will lose a few. However, the cost of the Scouts you may lose is
nothing, compared to the RU values of the ships controlled by the derelict.
Eventually, the combined firepower of your Strike Craft will overwhelm the alien
ship's control field, and the ships it was controlling will become yours (how
does that work?). You also gain the ability to build Missile Destroyers. Dock
all your Strike Craft for repairs, send a Salvage Corvette to the alien ship,
and begin harvesting this region's sparse resources.
The Bentusi will arrive and sell you Super-Heavy Chassis, which will allow you
to build Carriers. There is still 1 component you need to build Heavy Cruisers,
the biggest and nastiest offensive ships on the game, but you will get that
technology soon enough. Finish harvesting and Hyperspace out.
--------------------------------
10. Super Nova Research Station
--------------------------------
The Exiles have jumped into an area of space that is near to a supernova. The
unstable condition of the dying star means that it is outputting deadly amounts
of radiation into space around it, and anything straying into that radiation is
gunna get toasted. As soon as you gain control, check that none of your ships
are outside the dust patch surrounding the Mothership, or you'll lose them.
Research Proximity Sensor when it becomes available.
Open up the Sensors Manager and check the map. Note the dust "paths" that lead
to the Research Station - the dust absorbs the radiation, so ships staying
"inside" the dust will be safe from the supernova. Before you make your way to
that station, though, you *might* want to harvest the area.
There are 2 resource patches to the left and right of the Mothership. Send a
Carrier to one of them, it will get hurt along the way, but it has so much
armour that it won't die. (It'll be safe amongst the asteroids, there's dust
there.) Your Resourcers are another story, though. Here's how to keep 'em
alive:
- You must only use 2 Resource Collectors to harvest with.
- Move 2 Support Frigates near your 2 Resourcers.
- Set one of these Support Frigates to repair your 2 Resourcers, and the other
Frigate.
- Set the first Support Frigate to repair your Resourcers, plus the second
Frigate.
Once you've got the above setup going, send your Resourcers off to harvest; the
Support Frigates will repair your Resourcers, and each other. Cool, huh, but
you still have to watch them to ensure that damage doesn't get too bad. As you
finish harvesting one patch, move your Carrier over to the other one, and move
your Resourcers and Support Frigates once the Carrier is at its destination.
When the area is sucked dry, return your harvesting fleet to the Mothership.
You will need at least 2 Missile Destroyers (3 is even better; 4 is great), so
build them if you don't got 'em. With your Missile Destroyers selected, move
forwards to the first red dot "uphill" from the Mothership (keep inside the dust
path!). Kill the Interceptors and Heavy Corvettes you find there, then keep
heading along the path until you find a new ship: the Minelayer Corvette (cue
Minelaying Tech research available). With your Missile Destroyers, use CTRL +
SHIFT to attack and destroy the mines the Corvette launches, then finish it.
Once it's dead, move towards the third dot, and kill the second Minelayer
waiting there; repeat the process for the next dot/third Minelayer. Leave your
Missile Destroyers where you killed the last Minelayer.
Put 8 Scouts and 20 Salvage Corvettes into your Carrier; tell all of your
Support Frigates to assist it, then move the Carrier to the location of your
Missile Destroyers. When your Carrier is in position, launch your Scouts and
Salvage Corvettes. Split the Salvagers up into a group of 7; 2 groups of 5; and
a group of 3 (for backup purposes). Tell 1 Support Frigate to assist all of the
Salvagers (except the 3 for backup); the other Support Frigates should be
ordered to aid the first one.
Grab your Scouts and set them on Evasive. Send them to the 5th red dot along
the path. Focus on your Scouts, when you see large Capital Ships in the
distance, tell the Scouts to attack them. 2 Destroyers, and a new ship - a
Heavy Cruiser - will come along. Tell your Salvagers to grab 'em, the groups of
5 should go for the Destroyers and the 7 Salvagers, for the Cruiser.
But *look out* - as soon as they see your first Support Frigate, the enemy ships
will start attacking it. When this happens, tell the damaged Frigate to guard
the now-empty Carrier. The Cruiser and Destroyers will only go after that
Frigate, so your Salvagers can grab them with ease. *Dock your Scouts* with
your Carrier, or they'll keep attacking the enemy ships and may (accidentally)
slam into - and destroy - your Salvagers. It may sound amusing, but it isn't
when it happens to you.
When your Salvagers are idle once more, get them to dock with your Carrier.
Move your standard Destroyers, new Heavy Cruiser and 4 Multi-Beam Frigates to
the point where your Missile Destroyers are waiting; give all of these ion- and
missile-equipped ships a single Group Number. This is your Battle Group, the
force that's gonna kill the Research Station; not large, but with more than
enough firepower to do the job.
With your Carrier being repaired by every Support Frigate you have (which should
be repairing each other as well), move downwards from the path you're in, to the
red dot in the other, lower-down path. You will come upon a group of 5 Assault
Frigates which will begin attacking your Carrier; launch your Salvage Corvettes
and grab all the Frigates. (The enemy ships may attack your Support Frigates
instead - in this case, just order the Support Frigates to repair each other.)
Retire them all - once you have done so, move along to the second red dot and
you'll find another 6 Assault Frigates, repeat the process of capturing and
retiring them. Dock your Salvagers and move the Carriers back up to where your
Destroyers/Cruiser are waiting.
Now it's time to assault the Research Station. Leave your Carrier and Support
Frigates at the point where you captured the Cruiser and Destroyers - something
will come along later, that you'll also want to grab. Move your Battle Group
along the dust path parallel to the Station; when they're about 20km away from
it (the dust looks thin in Sensors Manager), turn around and begin moving in.
Approaching from the Station's undefended rear will protect your Battle Group
from the Defender wall in front of it, AND they won't take as much radiation
damage. When the Station's guarding fleet of Frigates arrive, blow them to heck
- you don't need them. If you have not captured or killed the Assault Frigates
hiding in the lower dust paths, they will also show up and begin causing
trouble. (Although, they will be heavily damaged by radiation, so it's probably
easier just to laugh off their "attack".)
While your Battle Group is killing stuff, you will be informed that the Taiidani
Carrier is running away. It will launch Strike Craft at your Battle Group;
watch out for those Attack Bombers, use your Missile Destroyers on them and the
immobile Defenders. As the battle winds down, the enemy Carrier will "flee"
towards your Carrier; launch your Salvage Corvettes and grab it, it won't put up
any resistance (yet another AI bug...).
By this time your Battle Group should have destroyed everything that moves, so
lay into the Research Station itself. With its destruction and the capture of
the Taiidani Carrier, the mission is complete. Hyperspace without waiting
around.
-------------------
11. Tenhauser Gate
-------------------
The Taiidani have figured out that the Bentusi are helping you, and they ain't
too pleased about it. The lone Bentusi Station in this area is under attack
from a large and very angry Taiidani force. Since the Bentusi are the only guys
who have been willing to help you, it's time to repay their generosity by saving
their hide. (Not to mention that if that Bentusi ship dies, it's Game Over.)
You have a choice here: kill (easy) or capture (difficult) the enemy fleet. If
you choose the first option (maybe you just feel like killing stuff), use your
Scouts to decoy the enemy ships, then engage with your own ion cannon fleet.
With those MBFs you captured in the Great Nebula, even a Heavy Cruiser melts
away in seconds.
The second option is more tricky. The problem is that, unlike the Taiidani
ships you've met before, these ones *hate* Salvage Corvettes, with a passion.
However, the strategy below - while complicated - is the one I used to complete
this mission with no losses. Thanks to Koki, for informing me that the enemy
ships only hate Salvage Corvettes ***if you issue the salvage order on the
enemies*** - that information forms the basis of this successful "Gotta Catch
'em All(tm)" battleplan.
Grab 1 Salvage Corvette and Z-click on the enemy Cruiser. As soon as all the
Taiidani ships start turning towards it, move the Salvager waaay to the right of
the Mothership - to the edge of the map. Tell your Support Frigates to repair
all of your other salvage ships, then move your remaining Salvagers *next to*
the enemy ships (3 Destroyers and the Cruiser). *WAIT* until your ships and
their intended targets are out of visual range of the Bentusi Station, otherwise
the enemy Ion Cannon Frigates will come and kill your Salvagers. Once you're
far away enough, move your Salvagers as close to their targets as possible; now
it's simultaneous capture time. By "simultaneous" I mean: pause, select 1 set of
Salvagers, unpause, tell them to salvage a ship, pause, select another set of
Salvagers, unpause, tell them to salvage a ship, etc... you get the idea. This
prevents the other ships from shooting at your Salvagers (because the enemy
ships are all configured to support each other). Now your salvage crews will
haul those Destroyers and that lovely Heavy Cruiser back home.
Onto the remaining ships. Send out your Heavy Corvettes and annihilate the
single Assault Frigate (it's guarding the other ships and kills any Salvagers on
sight), then dock them with the Mothership. Bring in 8 Salvage Corvettes (you
may have to wait for some to finish hauling in the other Taidani ships) and
as before, move right next to the Ion Cannon Frigates. When all 8 are in place,
simultaneously latch on to the enemy ships.
Once all the enemy ships are captured and/or killed, you discover much about the
Hiigarans' exile from their home planet. Notice the prison ships that veer off,
into the nebula; any guesses as to whom they eventually became? Clue: their
name starts with a "K". And if you can't guess THAT, please throw yourself in
front of a bus.
With the end of the mission, ensure that you have *at least* 20 Salvagers (26 is
better). Open up the Launch Manager and ensure that "Remain Docked" is checked
for the Mothership and *all* Carriers, there is gonna be a nasty surprise next
mission and you don't want your Strike Craft getting killed by it.
------------------
12. Galactic Core
------------------
The Mothership has been pulled out of Hyperspace by a Taiidani trap, consisting
of a Missile Destroyer, various Frigates, and some GravWell Generators. Launch
your Salvagers (which aren't affected by GravWells, strangely) and grab the
Support Frigates, GravWells and the lone Missile Destroyer (which will ignore
your Salvagers); use your Battle Group and blow the Assault Frigates away.
With the GravWells gone, launch your Heavy Corvettes. Put them in X/Aggressive
and aid them with 4 Support Frigates. Move them slightly ahead of the
Mothership, they will take care of the 5 or so wings of Strike Craft that come
your way. Bring your Missile Destroyers slightly behind your Heavies, and build
3 Proximity Sensors, which should be placed around the Mothership.
Once the Strike Craft threat has been neutralised by your Heavies and Missile
Destroyers, you will start being attacked by various mixed Ion Frigate/Strike
Craft waves. Kill the Strike Craft with your Heavy Corvettes and Missile
Destroyers; the Ion Cannon Frigates go for your Proxy Sensors, so you can
salvage them (and attached GravWell/Cloak Generator) easily.
After a few waves of attackers, go into Sensors Manager and note the position
of the red dot below and in front of the Mothership. Grab your Destroyers,
Missile Destroyers and Cruisers and send them all off to that dot. Bring along
about 10 Salvage Corvettes, aided by at least 2 Support Frigates. Oh, and
you'll need 8 Scouts.
The dot reveals itself to be a Heavy Cruiser, surrounded by a ball of Defenders,
and guarded by 6 Ion Cannon Frigates and 10 Heavy Corvettes. Wipe out
everything *except* the Cruiser, then retreat your Battle Group to the
Mothership. Tell your Scouts (on Evasive) to attack the Cruiser, and while it's
preoccupied, salvage it.
A short while after you capture the enemy Cruiser, Captain Elson will appear.
He's the leader of the Taiidani rebellion, and if you want to get your Homeworld
back, it would be wise to help him.
Send in your Heavy Corvettes and kill the Interceptors that are chasing Elson's
Destroyer; salvage the remaining Frigates. With Elson safe you can leave this
area; there are 2 Carriers and various Frigates remaining, and if you want them,
feel free to grab 'em. But by this stage you should have more than enough ships
in your fleet.
--------------------------------------------------
13. The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands
--------------------------------------------------
The Karos Graveyard, the place where the warships of the Kushan were taken,
after their loss to the Taiidan Empire a thousand years before. The Graveyard
is big and spooky, and there are no Taiidani ships around - but that doesn't
mean it's safe to let down your guard...
If you don't have a GravWell Generator yet, now would be a good time to build
one. Move all your Multi-Beam Frigates in front of the Mothership, with your
GravWell guarding one of them. Progress steadily forward until you get the
message about "Hyperspace signatures but no new ships detected". Then get ready
to meet the Junkyard Dawg.
The Dawg is the ultimate Salvage Corvette, and seemingly indestructible. It can
steal any ship up to Cruiser-class in size, and it's fast too. But its one
weakness - gravity fields - will prove its downfall.
As soon as you see the Dawg, activate your GravWell, and get your MBFs hammering
on its hide. It'll take quite a while to die, but nothing can resist that much
pounding. (Can you say "19 MBFs kills the Junkyard Dawg in under 20 seconds"?)
Now you can move through the Graveyard fearing only the Autoguns (which are
annoying, but nowhere near as dangerous as the Dawg).
Take your Missile Destroyers, set them on Aggressive/Wall, and get your
remaining Scouts to guard them. Move your Missile Destroyers 30km above the
Graveyard, then straight along to the point marked on the Sensors Manager.
Once you get there leave the Scouts, and begin moving your Missile Destroyers
straight downwards; kill every Goddamn Autogun that shoots at your MDs. When
the route to the Junkyard Office is clear, send in a Scout to dock and establish
the communications link.
Elson will send his message to the Taiidani rebellion, and Hyperspace out.
Since there's nothing holding you here, leave as well - don't even bother
harvesting.
--------------------
14. Bridge of Sighs
--------------------
Remember - salvaging is fun.
Elson said this was the *least-defended* Hyperspace Inhibitor. Sheesh, I'd hate
to see a well-defended one. There are over 100 Taiidani ships in a massive
Sphere around that Inhibitor, and to get in there to destroy it, you're gonna
have to salvage (preferable) or destroy (wasteful) at least some of that defence
fleet. It doesn't really matter *what* you do, since by now your should have
more than enough ships to finish the game. But hey, a few more can't hurt!
Begin researching Sensors Array, and once that research is done, build one,
which will allow you to see every enemy ship on the map. Build a Cloaked
Fighter and send it to the Inhibitor; don't forget to cloak it though! When the
screen begins to letterbox, tell the Fighter to dock - you now get to watch a
long (and pretty pointless) cutscene, although it does tell you something about
the locations and strengths of the enemy ships.
Get a Carrier, your Heavy and Salvage Corvettes, 2 Support Frigates (guarding
your Heavies) and 4 Proximity Sensors. Move them all to a position in front of
the Mothership, about 30km from the edge of the defence sphere. Get prepared -
you will need *at least* 20 Salvage Corvettes to complete this mission, I had 30
and still had some near-misses, so I'd recommend retiring any other Corvettes
(e.g. Multi-Gun) that you aren't using, and building more Salvagers instead.
Using 2 Carriers also helps, because captured enemy ships can be processed
twice as fast (so Salvagers don't sit around as long).
Grab one of your handy Proximity Sensors and tell it to move to the Inhibitor.
Go into Sensors Manager and watch the Proxy Sensor. When you see the red dots
of the defence sphere begin to move, get the Sensor to retreat behind the
closest Carrier.
Some Ion Cannon Frigates will now come for your Proximity Sensor. Sadly, they
ignore everything else but the Sensor, so you can grab them easily. A Fighter
wing *may* show up, so keep your Heavy Corvettes handy. If you get overwhelmed
by Frigates, just keep moving the Sensor around until your Salvage Corvettes are
free to capture another ICF.
Move your Proximity Sensor out again and repeat the decoy-lure-capture trick.
Do it again and again, so many times that you get sick of it, until you have
about 40 to 60 new ICFs in your fleet. During this time you will be attacked by
various wings of Defenders, Scouts, Interceptors and Heavy Corvettes - but
that's what your Heavies are here for. The defence sphere will be greatly
reduced in size and threat, but it's not time to attack the Inhibitor yet.
*** Hyperspace gates: use GravWells?
*** Salvage Corvettes: cloak them before stealing enemy ships (issue orders at
last moment); keep a Proxy with to see enemy cloaked ships
*** Evil tactics - add Carrier/Cruiser ramming ploy
Locate the standing Hyperspace Gates on the Sensors Manager. Support your
Battle Group with *every* Support Frigate you have (except the ones aiding your
Heavy Corvettes). Move your Battle Group to the closest Gate, and open fire on
it. 2 Destroyers and a Missile Destroyer will jump in, followed by some Strike
Craft and Support Frigates. Kill the Strike Craft, then put your Battle Group
on Evasive and move it back to the Mothership. The enemy Destroyers will
follow, trying to kill your Battle Group; salvage them, then return to the Gate
and grab the idle Support Frigates. Once they're gone, bring back your Battle
Group and turn the Gate into space dust.
Move your Battle Group to the left-most Gate; keep your Salvagers with you.
Begin laying waste to this Gate, and bunch of Strike Craft will appear - blow
them to heck, then salvage the Support Frigates. The final Gate is identical to
the first one in terms of ships.
Leave your Salvage Corvettes where they are, and send your Battle Group back to
the Mothership. Bring 2 Proximity Sensors and 6 Support Frigates here; 1 Sensor
should guard a Support Frigate, the other should be left idle. The Support
Frigates must be ordered to aid your Salvagers.
Select an idle Proximity Sensor. Open up Sensors Manager and locate the enemy
Cruiser. Move the Proxy Sensor to the Cruiser; when you see it begin to move,
tell the Sensor to return to a position just behind your Salvage Corvettes.
Now the Cruiser and its 4 Destroyer escorts arrive, supported by Cloak
Generators. Your other Proximity Sensors will allow you to see through the
enemy cloaking fields, so salvage everything you can (especially those Cloak
Generators). Make sure to keep the decoy Proxy Sensor alive; if the enemies
manage to kill it they will immediately find new targets - your Salvage
Corvettes. Ouch.
With Cruiser and friends in your possession, the mission is nearly won. Add the
newly-captured ships to your Battle Group and head off to the Inhibitor. Set
your Battle Group on Evasive and attack the Inhibitor from outside. Keep a
close watch on your ships, if you see them getting too close to the Inhibitor
"blades", move them back (or they will get, err, *mashed*).
With the end of the Inhibitor this mission is technically complete, however
there are still many ships out there. Bring in your Salvage Corvettes (aided by
some Support Frigates) and grab the Resource Collectors/Controllers, as well as
the Carrier. Keep your Heavy Corvettes close, as the Carrier may launch Strike
Craft at you.
Time to trim down your fleet. At this stage I had:
6 Scouts
12 Interceptors
14 Defenders
14 Attack Bombers
25 Heavy Corvettes
31 Salvage Corvettes
10 Assault Frigates (all captured)
64 Ion Cannon Frigates (all captured)
4 Ion Array Frigates
14 Multi-Beam Frigates
19 Support Frigates (2 built, others captured)
12 Destroyers (all captured)
4 Missile Destroyers (1 built, others captured)
4 Heavy Cruisers (all captured)
4 Carriers (1 built, others captured)
10 Resource Collectors (2 built, others captured)
3 Resource Controllers (1 built, others captured)
2 GravWell Generators (all captured)
6 Cloak Generators (all captured)
1 Research Ship
1 Mothership (y' don't say)
=======================
260 ships in my fleet
=======================
If you'd followed my guide to the letter, you would have about the same amount.
This is *FAR*, far too many, because many of them you will never have any more
use for. So start retiring. (*DO NOT* retire your Resource Collectors!)
I got rid of:
24 Ion Cannon Frigates
4 Ion Array Frigates
3 Support Frigates
3 Resource Controllers
2 GravWell Generators
2 Cloak Generators
1 Research Ship
===================
50 ships retired
===================
That left me with a much more manageable (and useful) fleet of 210 ships. Still
a lot, but a lot less than before. Resource gain was ~15 000 RUs, but a bit
pointless since I didn't need to build anything ever again.
Give your Resource Collectors, ion cannon-equipped ships, Missile Destroyers,
Heavy Corvettes and Support Frigates each a *unique* Group Number. Hyperspace,
you're almost home.
--------------------
15. Chapel Perilous
--------------------
Ho hum, another Taiidani trap, getting a little tedious aren't they? Well, at
least this one is interesting - shades of Diamond Shoals, except that is one big
mofo of an asteroid heading towards the Mothership. Kill it and kill it *fast*,
or it'll make space dust of everyone aboard.
Grab your ion-equipped ships - *every single one* - and set them on Evasive.
Move them to the location of the asteroid and commence firing, Evasive will
ensure that they get out of the asteroid's way (on any other setting, they would
get rammed by the rock). Once the asteroid has passed your big guns, set them
on Aggressive and chase the asteroid down. Take your Resource Collectors and
kamikaze them into the asteroid, this will deliver that extra damage that you
need to get rid of it fast.
While this fun time is going on, your fleet will be under assault from varied
Taiidani escort ships, ranging from Attack Bombers to Destroyers. Use your
Missile Destroyers, Heavy Corvettes and whatever other Strike Craft you have at
hand to combat this threat.
*As soon as* the asteroid pops, jump the hell outta here. It's too dangerous to
attempt to salvage anything, you will end up losing more ships than you gain.
Onwards, to the final mission of the game!
Koki suggested that you can fly a Proximity Sensor near the enemy fleet, which
would cause the Taiidani escorting the asteroid to go after that Sensor (thus
allowing you to easily kill the asteroid). I haven't tried it yet but, given
the disturbing ease with which you can decoy ships in this game, I would say it
sounds very likely to work...
------------
16. Hiigara
------------
Finally, after a long, winding and torturous route, the Exiles have arrived at
their Homeworld, their birthright, which they are going to reclaim. But the
Taiidan Empire isn't giving up yet, and they're putting everything they've got
into this final battle for the Homeworld.
First of all, the evil Taiidan Emperor uses (presumably) his psychic powers (?)
to hurt Karan S'jet, which means no Fleet Command for the duration of this
mission. In other words, no messages about what you're building, where you're
building it from, which group is under attack, etc. etc. It may not sound too
important, but you really do notice Karan's absence.
Note that your objective is to destroy the enemy fleet, but all you have to do
to win is blow up the Emperor's flagship (Mothership), which is right across the
map. This is easier said than done, because as soon as the mission begins,
enemies start closing on your Mothership. Before you get a chance to whoop on
the Emperor, you will need to defeat the ships he's sending at you.
Put your Heavy Corvettes in X/Aggressive and repair them with 2 Support Frigates
- the same goes for any other Strike Craft you may have in reserve. All Ion
Array and Ion Cannon Frigates should go into a group, Aggressive and no
formation, which should begin moving down below the Mothership to attack the
group of enemy ships (Assault/Ion Cannon Frigates) there. At the same time,
your Strike Craft and Assault Frigates should go marching off to meet the
Carrier above the Mothership. Give your Assault Frigates some support, as the
Carrier launches Attack Bombers and Heavy Corvettes at you.
Your Battle Group (Multi-Beam Frigates, all Destroyers, Cruisers) should be
moved slightly in front of the Mothership, this is where the first true attack
wave will come from. A Heavy Cruiser escorted by 2 Destroyers, 2 Missile
Destroyers, 12 Assault and 12 Ion Cannon Frigates will Hyperspace in. Get your
MBFs to attack the Cruiser (14 MBFs kill a Cruiser in under 8 seconds), your
Heavy Cruisers to attack one Destroyer/Missile Destroyer pair, and your
Destroyers to kill off the other Destroyer and Missile Destroyer. Once they're
down, you can clean up the measly Frigates.
Koki notes that since all attacking ships will be going for the Mothership, it
should be easy to capture them. Of course, at this stage you shouldn't *need*
to grab more ships... but there's nothing wrong with a few more Heavy Cruisers
as trophies :D.
Take 6 of the Support Frigates helping the Mothership and get them to repair
your Battle Group. By the time the first attack wave has died, your Ion
Frigates and Assault Frigates/Strike Craft should have defended the fleet from
the other attack waves, so get them to return and guard the Mothership.
Move your Battle Group behind and slightly above the Mothership (towards the red
dot), and repair them while you wait. Another enemy fleet will appear, similar
to the first attack wave; give them an ion-warm welcome, using similar tactics
as before. Now move your Battle Group straight downwards, and begin homing in
on the third wave of enemies that appear. Again, use the same tactics to
dispose of them, then get your Battle Group back to the Mothership.
A new set of Hyperspace signatures appears above the Mothership, causing Fleet
Intelligence to get all panicked and scream "We're being overwhelmed!" Not
really, considering how you've creamed the Taiidani so far. Anyhow, the new
arrivals turn out to be Captain Elson and assorted ships; he gives you some of
his fleet (2 Missile Destroyers/6 Assault Frigates), how nice. Get these new
ships to guard Elson's Destroyer, on Aggressive/no formation.
Elson now wants to kill the Emperor, and considering how much the Rebellion has
helped the Exiles, you should really get out there and cover his ass. However,
before you can do so, yet another wave of enemies emerge from Hyperspace, in
front of the Mothership. Send your Destroyers and Missile Destroyers along with
Elson, and use your Heavy Cruisers, Multi-Beam Frigates, and Ion Cannon Frigates
to kill off this final enemy assault. Don't bother sending these ships after
Elson, they're too slow to catch up - let your Destroyers do the final work.
With your Destroyers (and Missile Destroyers), aided by Support Frigates, head
through the dust belt after Elson. You will eventually catch up with him and
his Ion Cannon Frigates when they stop to destroy a Carrier; use your Missile
Destroyers and Assault Frigates to get rid of the Attack Bombers and Heavy
Corvettes launched at Elson's forces.
Once the Carrier blows, a much more deadly threat lies ahead: 3 Heavy Cruisers,
each one aided by 2 Support Frigates. Ignore the Frigates - you can inflict
more damage than they can repair - and hammer on the Cruisers. When they die,
you can press on to the Emperor's flagship. There are some Missile Destroyers
(with the obligatory Support Frigates) nearby, but strangely they seem
reluctant to attack your ships; ignore them.
The Emperor will keep launching Strike Craft at you; they will kamikaze into
your ships. How scary. Obliterate the Emperor's flagship and cheer, you've
just won the game and reclaimed your Homeworld!
Roll the credits, enjoy that Yes song... and get ready for Homeworld 2.
________________________________________________________________________________
=======================
N. Multi-player guide
=======================
The walkthrough above may have helped you beat Homeworld in single-player, but
do you have what it takes to beat other players in a head-to-head contest of
skills? This part of the document will show you how to become a decent
commander of a multi-player fleet.
Homeworld single-player and Homeworld multi-player are two very different
things! While the single-player game is objective- and storyline-based
(linear), multi-player has only one objective: stay alive, and kill everyone
else. Not very subtle, then.
There are many differences between the 2 modes; for example in multi-player, you
can usually Hyperspace at any time, as long as you have the RUs. But the main
change is in the style of play: you gotta be faster, harvest more, build more
than your opponent, or he'll crush you into dust.
And remember - a multi-player game against a CPU player is vastly different to
one against even an inexperienced human. Human beings react differently to the
CPU; they don't react the same way twice; they're unpredictable. If you want to
beat a good human player, you have to be unpredictable as well, and learn to
cover all your bases.
---------------------
1. General Strategy
---------------------
Research in multi-player is very important. You start off with all technologies
available, and you then have to decide which tech tree to follow up. The key is
to choose one ship class to research, and then research it to the max.
Most players choose to research either Fighters or Corvettes first, then only go
for Capital Ships once they have established themselves. Why these types?
Well, Strike Craft are quick to research, cheap to build, and deal a lot of
damage. Capital Ships are slooow to research and build, and the really
powerful ones take forever to appear. Only a very few, very experienced players
are able to successfully pursue the Capital Ship tree from the start, and win.
With that in mind, you now have to choose: Fighters or Corvettes?
Fighters : fast
: cheap
: weak
: little damage
: small fuel tanks
: need huge numbers to have an effect
Corvettes: slower
: more expensive
: tougher
: decent punch
: larger fuel tanks
: 1 of these = ±3 Fighters
If you're going with Fighters, you would probably get Defenders, then
Interceptors, then Attack Bombers.
With Corvettes, you'd get the Light Corvette first, then the Heavy Corvette
and perhaps the Minelayer Corvette.
The thing is, you need to support your Strike Craft. So you will need to
research at least Capital Ship Drive, which will give you Support Frigates -
invaluable for keeping your ships alive.
Of course, the bluntest weapon is the humble Scout - it needs no research, can
be churned out in massive batches, and is cheap and fast to boot. As mentioned
in my Ships Guide (section G), Scouts do little damage, but put a few dozen
together and they are lethal. In the very earliest stages of a game, you are
building Scouts all the time, just to stay alive until better ships are
available.
Once you have your Strike Craft research/production going smoothly, you can
progress to Capital Ships. Capital Ship Chassis gives you Assault Frigates, and
Ion Cannons gives you Ion Cannon Frigates, everyone's favourite ship (or not,
depending who's on the receiving end). Group Assault Frigates and ICFs, add
some Defenders or Heavy Corvettes, and you can begin killing stuff pretty well.
If you're still alive after the Ion Cannon Frigates start appearing, then
there's no reason not to move onto bigger and better things. Research all the
Super-Capital ship techs to get Carriers, of which you should build at least 1.
If your Mothership is still around after your foes get Destroyers, then you
might even manage to build some Heavy Cruisers.
--------------
2. Resources
--------------
Vital, vital, vital. Without any research you still have Scouts to shoot/
kamikaze into things, but without those precious RUs, you can't even build
Scouts - and then you're f**ked, to put it mildly.
6 Resource Collectors is the minimum you should consider having, on resource-
rich maps 9 or 12 is good. Resource Controllers become a *necessity* when
harvesting far away from your Mothership - there is no use having 20 Resourcers,
if they each spend 10 minutes riding home to drop off what they've collected.
In that scenario you would literally "starve to death", as your RUs dried up and
your opponent(s) decimated your Scout wings.
The 3 tips for successful resourcing are:
PROTECT! You must *always* guard your Resourcers; keeping them near your
Mothership is *not* enough, they need a dedicated Strike Craft escort to prevent
them from getting killed off by other Strike Craft. As the game progresses you
can add Capital Ships to their escort, but *some* sort of guarding is vital to
the continued existence of your Resourcers.
MANAGE! Resource Collectors are notoriously stupid, they tend to wander off far
across the map in search of RUs, ignoring the cluster that's just re-spawned
next to your Mothership. And if you need RUs fast, then it's pointless to sit
and wait for your Resourcers to get full loads; you must tell them to dock
manually.
ATTACK! By killing enemy Resourcers, you deprive your foe of those precious,
precious RUs. Remember that, despite the fog of war, enemy Resourcers *do* show
up on the map. In the early stages of the game it's trivial to open up Sensors
Manager, and look for little red dots near resource patches; then you send a
wing of Scouts over there.
Starve your enemy and he can't build ships. He can't build ships, he's dead.
Remember that, and you're onto multi-player greatness already.
-------------------
3. Useful Tactics
-------------------
Here are some hints 'n' tips, general tactics, and some tactics that are just
plain nasty. Many of them will wok only once against a human player, but of
course the CPU never learns from its mistakes... of course, you really shouldn't
be playing the CPU, since you won't learn anything from it.
- You can't survive without Scouts against decent human players. Don't even
try.
- 9-16 Light/Heavy Corvettes, in an Aggressive Wall and aided by a Support
Frigate(s), is the *ultimate* anti-Fighter defence. 10 of these Corvette
Walls ("CorvWalls"), positioned strategically around a RU op (or guarding
individual Resourcers), are almost impossible to penetrate with Fighters
alone. Even Corvettes may have trouble; the only sure-fire penetration is a
Missile Destroyer or Drone Frigate, and those come only late in the game.
- Building more Research Ships is a good idea, but don't go ape. They are
bloody expensive at 700 RUs each; that's 3500 RUs if you build 5, which is the
cost of a lotta Scouts/Corvettes, and almost the cost of a Heavy Cruiser.
Only build extra Researchers if you have extra RUs (how I amuse myself),
and/or your fleet is doing OK in terms of size and strength.
- If the Scout is the basic Strike Craft, then Ion Cannon Frigates are the basic
Capital Ships. They are weak and slow, yes, but they can really put the hurt
on enemy ships. (Their ion cannons do the most damage of any ship's.) Not
building a few of these is a big no-no, unless you're looking to die.
- Conversely: Heavy Cruisers really kick ass, but they take forever to build,
are slow to move, and cost a shedload of RUs. A Destroyer is built in
almost a third of the time, is almost a third of a Cruiser's RU cost, and can
move quite a bit faster. And of course, it needs far fewer technologies to
construct.
- Defenders' shots are very fast; even Evasive Scouts can't dodge them. So
consider a wing of Defenders if your opponent is going Scout crazy.
- The lowly Attack Bomber is slow and awkward, but it kills Capital Ships, and
unwary Corvette formations (Walls and Spheres) too. If you're going the
Strike Craft route, 20 of these will come in very handy against Capital Ship-
happy foes.
- It's always good to have 2 GravWell Generators around your Mothership. Keep
a few Salvage Corvettes around to grab any Strike Craft that get stuck in
gravity's mudhole.
- Keep a Carrier parked somewhere isolated, preferably near a bountiful patch of
resources. If your Mothership goes boom, at least you'll still be alive, and
now your opponent will have to guess where you're hiding.
- Fill a Carrier with Salvagers and begin building a GravWell Generator. Pause
construction of the Generator just before it's complete, then Hyperspace to
your opponent's RU op. Resume building the Gravwell, launch and activate it,
then launch your Salvagers and take your pick of the Strike Craft you trap.
Then, use your newly-gained Strike Craft to kill your hapless enemy's
Resourcers - or salvage them too.
- An extension to the above trick: Fill a Carrier with Heavy Corvettes and
Attack Bombers, then begin building every Frigate type you have at that
Carrier. Pause production before the ships are complete, then Hyperspace over
to your opponent's RU op and resume construction. When 5 Frigates pop out of
your Carrier at once, the enemy may think you're cheating, but in reality it's
a perfectly legal ploy... of course, it's not seen as such by human players
who are on the receiving end of this trick.
- More Carrier madness: Start moving a Carrier towards the enemy's Mothership or
resource operation; on the way, build as many Ion Cannon Frigates as you can.
The motion of the Carrier will prevent the Frigates from launching, as soon as
you stop the Carrier's movement, they all pop out and begin killing things.
Again this is a perfectly legal tactic, but it is based more on exploiting a
bug in the game - how would YOU feel if it was done to you?
- Any ship that Hyperspaces in or out around an active GravWell, will get stuck
in Hyperspace - unable to move, shoot, or even scuttle. If you suspect that a
big attack wave is incoming, build 6 GravWells and stick 'em around your
Mothership. When enemy Hyperspace signatures appear, activate your Wells and
tie up your enemy's fleet, big time. (Note that this applies to *ALL* ships,
regardless of whether the active GravWell is allied with the Hyperspacing
ships or not.)
- Built a huge fleet of Probes, then set their trajectory to run *through* one
of your opponent's big, valuable ships (e.g. Carrier). The Probes will smash
into the enemy ship, causing a respectable amount of damage - the "Probe Golf"
technique. Cheap and nasty, and of course, Probes are so fast when moving
that it's nearly impossible to shoot 'em...
- Support Frigates that are reparing other ships should *always* be set to
Evasive. This prevents them from halting repairs to shoot at any ships
attacking them.
- The "Battle Ball" (aka BB): Build 21 Attack Bombers. Grab 20 and set them to
guard the remaining 1 on Aggressive/Sphere. Now find a target and tell the
Bomber that's being guarded, to attack it. Or, just move that center Bomber
around, and the others will shoot at whatever enemy ships comes in range.
Also works well with Defenders and Corvettes.
- If a large fleet of Capital Ships is coming your way, try this:
Build 9-16 Minelayer Corvettes and 2 wings of 17 Scouts. Move the Scouts
close to the incoming fleet, but keep your Minelayers out of visual range.
Set both groups of Scouts to Evasive, then move 1 group out and begin
attacking. Then bring in your second Scout wing and at the same time, get
your Minelayers to begin attacking the most dangerous enemy ship. If all goes
well, the enemy fleet (including escort) will be shooting at (and missing!)
most of your Scouts, and will ignore the Minelayers... until it's too late.
Kaboom.
- When confronted by enemy mine walls, grab 5 Attack Bombers and zoom through
the minefield. The mines will follow the Bombers (matching their speed); when
you see a Capital Ship of the enemy (preferably a big 'un), tell the Bombers
to attack. They will make their pass at the ship, and pull away to avoid
collision - but the mines won't.
- Think a CorvWall is mean? Try cloaking one. Enemies without Proximity
Sensors nearby will *not* be happy.
- When an ion beam hits a dust cloud, the cloud becomes electrically charged and
will damage any ship that touches it. This charge is powerful enough to
destroy Fighters and damage Resourcers, so a cheap tactic is to Hyperspace an
ICF into an enemy's resource patch, ionise the dust, then jump out. If his
attention is elsewhere, he'll never notice until his Resourcers start popping
one by one. You might even scare your opponent into sending his entire fleet
over there, to look for cloaked ships!
- If your opponent has a Sensors Array, psych him out by creating Walls of 9
Defenders and moving them around. While Sensors Array can locate enemy
ships, it does not allow you to ALT-select them, so if he sees 9 dots moving
slowly towards his resource operation (since Defenders are almost as slow as
Frigates), he may well assume them to be Frigates and scramble his fleet to
assist. By the time he realises he's been tricked, you can Hyperspace a real
fleet in and start hitting his Mothership. This trick normally works only
once (after that, decent players will use Scouts to check up on incoming
ships), but when it does... it's good.
- Even better: Use the above trick, but add a group of really nasty ships,
cloaked and set to guard the Defenders. While enemy ships kill the Defenders,
your fleet is moving to their resource operation or even better, their
lightly-defended Mothership. Decloak and say "I love ya".
- Frigate-sized and smaller ships can be hidden in dense resource patches; as
long as the enemy has no Sensors Array, they'll never notice your CorvWall
until it's too late.
________________________________________________________________________________
======================
O. Credits and Links
======================
The people and organisations responsible (in any way) for this guide.
Note that they are displayed in no particular order.
Me I wrote it!
You For bothering to read it.
Relic Entertainment For creating one of the finest games ever.
(http://www.relic.com) Period.
Relic Forums For being a great place to talk about everything
(http://forums.relicnews.com) related to Homeworld.
RelicNews
(http://www.relicnews.com) For keeping the Homeworld community up-to-date
Homeworld Universe and informed about this game and its sequels.
(http://www.hwuniverse.com)
Many of the multi-player strategies were contributed (inadvertently) by the
greatest Homeworld strategy gurus, to mention a few: 1_Alpha (aka Alpha_1),
Calaban, MajorFreak, Dyntheos, Apollo and Molle. And of course, the great
Homeworld clans: Guidestone, Homeworld Universe, Nova Divine, Space Lords
Syndicate, and all the others.
Thanks to Koki, for many miscellaneous-but-inportant corrections... and for
actually taking some time to *read* this guide.
Of course there are many more great Homeworld players, too many to mention here,
so if you have a question you should really get onto the Relic Forums (the link
is above - you need to register, then browse to the Homeworld Strategy forum).
As long as you show *some* capability of intelligent thought, you'll be answered
nicely; otherwise, you'll get flamed. Simple, huh? ;)
If you feel you deserve credit, and didn't get it, please inform me (my email
address can be found in the "Contacting the author" section).
________________________________________________________________________________
============
P. The End
============
I hope that this guide has been useful and informative to you, even if only in a
small way.
If you have any contributions to make or corrections to add, please send me
mail! I am currently looking specifically for more multi-player strategies, but
of course, anything *constructive* is welcome. See the "Contacting the author"
section on how to contact me.
This is only the beginning... expect to see Homeworld: Cataclysm and Homeworld 2
guides soon! Until next time, this is The_Assimilator, signing off.
Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
