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[Zaptruder]

This game didn't make much of a splash after it was released; it did decently sales wise and recieved some amount of interest before and slightly after its launch, on GAF.

But if you haven't thought to keep track of it, and you're interested in 'operatic' space warfare... then what the mod community has knocked up might suprise you.


http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21314
Point Defense Systems: Battle Management Redefined

http://www.dendezyn.net/mods/kennykoh/PointDefenseSystemsFiles/PDSMV2.WMV
Point Defense Systems trailer (with really nice suitable music).

The guy is incredibly thorough and is almost panajev like in his enthusiasm, so just have a look through it. If you have HW2, download it and give us impressions; I'm about ready to get myself another copy of HW2 (having traded it in within a week for Soul Calibur 2, when it was released), after I get a little more funds.

Anyone find any similarly cool relatively unknown mods for other games?

 

[Zaptruder]

No interest? Shiny flashy lasers, and battle scenes that are way better than anything lucas could ever dream of, uber-geek approach to operatic space warfare... nice shiny intro, with a kickass soundtrack to boot. No one's gonna bite? For shame.

 

[MrAngryFace]

I only have time for kohan, but this game rocked.

 

[Zaptruder]

Kohan is the devil's piss! Go download and play the demo and give impressions!

 

[speedpop]

I have been meaning to check Homeworld 2 out since I loved the original to bits and pieces..

 

[vangace]

I still say Homeworld is the best game ever made, this come from someone who plays mostly 1st person shooters and racing games. I think it was in 00" that i went to EB and this store clerk talked me into buying the game, turned out to be the best game i ever bought. Homeworld 2 is just as good but i haven't touched it in like 6months, got stuck on level 8. For those who like Homeworld type of games, you should also try "Darkspace" although its pay for play.

 

[Sinatar]

I really wanted to like HW2 but the campaign was so freaking annoying that I gave up on it.

 

[MrAngryFace]

I got stuck on the first homeworld campaign too. It always came down to weird precise timing against scripted events

 

[Sinatar]

I got stuck on the first homeworld campaign too. It always came down to weird precise timing against scripted events

Well HW2's campaign has the dumbest dynamic difficulty ever coded. Since you keep your fleet at the end of a mission it determines how much you face in the next mission by how big your fleet was when you won the previous. So basically if you did good on a mission, the next mission would throw an unbeatable horde of enemies at you. So essentially you have to retire your whole fleet at the end of mission, only there is no clear indicator as to when it ends, so you win, load, redo the end and retire before the scripted ending happens.

It was just awful.

 

[MrAngryFace]

I cant imagine that getting through testing, dumb!

 

[Ghost]

Zap, how exactly does this mod improve the game? The trailer wasnt really very specific (apart from "carriers have weapons" which looked very pretty)

 

[Zaptruder]

I'm not too sure; but from what I can gather, the mod gives

fleet AI to the ships; you should be able to select groups of ships and send them off to attack and they'll act relatively coordinated.

extra maneuverability AI to all ships; large ships will move around and try to jink and avoid shots

Point Defense Systems to the capital ships; which means that the capital ships are more akin to super all-round megaliths, rather than possessing the simple rock-paper-scissors balance of the original HW2. But they'll still benefit heavily from intelligent support. Also the focus is on disabling capital ships rather than destroying them (disabling their numerous subsystems to the point they're ineffective), as they have much greater survivability.

Weapons are also tweaked and balanced.

The end result should be a shift in focus away from micromanagement of ships to a more general high level battle field tactics; deciding on what to build, how to reinforce ships, which ships to send into strike, how many strike forces you want attacking where, etc.
It would also change the feel and indeed visual aspects of the game immensely; giving the capital ships a massive array of small pretty weapons that also have a distinct effect on gameplay, as well as making the ships themselves capable of many dazzling maneuvers without player interference.
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reading a bit more and watching the intro again, I think the idea is that you command the ships on a high level; but once they get into battle, the AI will do alot of micromanaging; the fighters in the attack group will try to support the corvettes or something, attack the units attacking the corvettes, while the corvettes and bombers continue to try and disable capital ship subsystems. If their health gets low, they'll fall back to the capital ship, which is often placed infront of all the other units as a spearhead of an attack formation...