In this update14
Full notes
Full Homeworld 3 update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
What changed
- Balance
- Gameplay
- Store
- Maps
- UI and audio
- Events
Homeworld 3 changes
Homeworld 3 Patch 1.3 Update Notes
Instructions on how to access the Patch Preview for 1.3 here: www.homeworlduniverse.com/how-to-access-the-1-3-patch-preview/
Important Disclaimer - Campaign Checkpoints
Mid mission checkpoint saves (including autosaves) from Patch 1.22 and earlier will not be compatible with Patch 1.3. Old mid mission saves will be visible in the save/load menu, but you will be unable to load them, and will need to restart the mission to continue your Campaign progress.
Campaign progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated (e.g. if you had reached Mission 07 in a previous playthrough, you will still be able to continue from the start of Mission 07)
Persistent fleet data is still compatible and is not invalidated
War Games progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated
Game settings & preferences is still compatible and is not invalidated
Game Patch Highlights
All Game Modes:
Extensive combat balance tuning:
Overhaul and tuning of armor and weapon classes
Reworked weapon penetration
Reworked directional damage bonus
Strengthening unit roles and identities (strengths, weaknesses, counters, etc.)
Balance Tuning
More!
Improvements to ship combat behavior and unit responsiveness
Tech tree balancing pass
Resourcing changes
New “Reinforce” ability added in all modes
War Games:
45 new artifacts
Ultimate Artifacts!
New Interstitials System
3 Interstitials encounters
9 New challenges
Updated Tech Trees for War Games Fleets
Skirmish:
Hyperspace & Hyperspace Inhibitor abilities added to Skirmish mode
Improved the pacing and flow between early game, midgame, and endgame play in Skirmish, with a focus on strategic decision making
Tactical Missile abilities added to both the Hiigaran Mothership and the Incarnate Titanship
New Skirmish Tech Tree
New AI player “Personas”
Heightened AI player difficulty
Campaign:
Pacing changes
Added “player controlled mission end” to more missions
New Paid DLC Content Highlights*
*See DLC store pages on November 21st for details
2 New War Games factions each with two War Games fleets
Somtaaw faction for War Games
2 new fleets
2 brand new units
The Acolyte, a versatile heavy fighter that packs a punch
The Storm Frigate, a short range heavy frigate with disabling attacks
32 new artifacts
10 new challenges
New emblem
Taiidan faction for War Games
2 new fleets
11 new (to Homeworld 3) units
52 new artifacts
10 new challenges
New emblem
Fixes, Changes and Additions
Gameplay
New “Reinforce” ability added - More information in the Dev Update
Bandbox attack orders have been reworked. Bandbox attacks now more intelligently divide their attacks amongst the available targets in response to community feedback. This will result in smaller formations upon initiation and completion of the Bandbox Attack command - More information in the Dev Update
Further improvements to the moving while attacking units losing their move commands issue. In particular when the formation leader was destroyed
Fixed units that were given move while attacking from overriding their secondary move destination when they re-engage enemies if their initial target was destroyed
- Retaliation Range pass on all factionsFixed many units whose retaliation ranges (used for acquiring targets in Aggressive and Neutral Stances) were significantly lower than their Weapon Range (e.g. Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate). These units should now meet player expectations more frequently in terms of when and how they pick new targets and engage enemies
Changed attack priorities on some units to prioritize attacks on Resource Controllers and Collectors more often
Single Capture Corvettes can now capture enemy ships on their own without needing a second Capture Corvette to help out (though a second one will expedite the process)
Newly-built ships now adopt the stance of the ship that produced them
Incarnate RCs can now successfully salvage or retire to the Titanship (Incarnate Mothership)
Rally no longer utilizes an offset parade formation for the rally destination. Units will now Rally directly to the rally location and group up tightly
Reworked the burstfire ability (Swarm Fighters & Railgun Corvettes) to trigger more consistently at all ranges
Increased targeted special weapon abilities reliability when targeting enemies behind terrain
Fixed lifetime of mines from the Kalan Raider’s Minelayer Corvette
Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause units to interrupt their firing cycle
Fixed an issue where a group of ships set to “None” formation will change to “Mixed” after giving them a move order
Fixed an issue where a small group of ships selected from a larger formation could lose their formation when given an attack order
Fixed a rare issue causing ships to forget orders if part of a controlled group which was engaged in combat
Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to sometimes turn backwards during and after attacking a target
Fixed an issue causing Assault Frigates weapons to stop tracking opponents when a move order was given mid firing cycle
Fixed an issue causing the Main Engine Maximum Speed stat value for all ships in the Compendium to be different than in the HUD
Fixed an issue causing the queued research costs to not be counted on the projected resource counter in the HUD
Fixed an issue causing the Heavy Suppression Frigate’s bottom weapon to sometimes shoot through the ship itself
Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to continue to act aggressively and fail to guard ships after changing their stance from Neutral to Aggressive and then back to Neutral
Fixed an issue causing capital ships to become unresponsive to move commands after finding a target using an Attack Move command
Fixed an issue causing attack orders to be canceled when setting a ship’s formation to “None”
Fixed an issue causing the Hiigaran Mothership to not move into range when using the Fusion Missile ability on an out of range enemy unit
Fixed an issue causing the Incarnate Destroyer weapon charging VFX playing on a loop when its target was out of range
Fixed an issue causing unit selection through tactical icons to stop functioning after deploying turrets
Fixed several occurrences of ships being able to shoot through terrain
Fixed an issue preventing research to be queued or canceled during tactical pause
Fixed an issue causing the camera to sometimes get stuck inside terrain when the “Camera Collision” option was enabled
Fixed an issue causing ships positioned directly underneath the Hiigaran Mothership to not receive any damage from its Point Defense Cannons
Fixed an issue causing certain Strikecraft to not show height lines on the movement plane when NLIPS was disabled
Fixed an issue causing the F1 shortcut (Select the Flagship) to focus on the mothership instead of just selecting it when a group including the mothership was selected
Balance tuning
NB: Most of these balancing changes were made in collaboration with a small group of dedicated community playtesters through daily feedback and iterations!
Re-designed Armor mitigation vs weapon families across the game
Light Armor - 10% mitigation
Medium Armor - 20% mitigation
Heavy Armor - 30% mitigation
Mothership Armor - 50% mitigation
Updated UI on unit info panel (weapons and armor info) to show relationships
Reworked armor penetration to work with the new armor system
Strikecraft
Tuned fighter vs frigate, capital, and turrets attack style - reducing the distance in which fighters run away and turn back to attack
Tweaked Strikecraft vs Frigate attack style - added more vertical turning and decreased break time
Hiigaran Interceptor
Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
Decreased research and production cost
Decreased health
Significant increase in weapon damage
Hiigaran Recon
Retuned to reinforce its role as a low cost easily massable scouting and early game combat unit
Decreased production cost
Decreased health
Decreased weapon damage
Hiigaran Bomber
Overhauled to be much more effective against frigates and other larger slower moving targets, and less effective against smaller fast moving targets
Minor movement speed increase
Reduce attack cooldown
Increased weapon damage
Increased health
Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased research cost and time
Incarnate Dominance Fighter
Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
Significant health increase
Increased weapon damage
Corvettes
Increased movement speed of all Corvettes
Hiigaran Railgun Corvette
Overhauled to make it broadly more effective, without making it oppressive versus Strikecraft
Increased range
Increased weapon damage
Change tech requirement, making it researchable at the start of skirmish matches
Decreased research cost and time
Decreased production cost
Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Incarnate Plasma Corvette
Reworked to be stronger versus frigates and at disrupting resource operations, but reducing its effectiveness against Strikecraft
Increased weapon damage
Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased research cost and time
Incarnate Assault Corvette
Increased Weapon Damage
Decreased production cost
Decreased research time
Incarnate Capture Corvette
Significantly decreased population cap in Skirmish
Frigates
Accuracy pass on all Frigates tuning effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Hiigaran Assault Frigate
Overhauled to increase effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes but be less effective in the late game vs more specialized frigates and capital ships, all while maintaining its effectiveness as a frontline combat unit and tank.
Increased health
Decreased research cost and time
Increased Ballistic Cannon firing duration
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Increased PDC weapon cooldown
Increased PDC shots per burst
Increased PDC weapon damage
Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate
Overhauled to greatly reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes
Increased health
Decreased accuracy vs. Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased weapon AoE
Decreased weapon detonation range
Increased weapon damage
Decreased weapon cooldown
Hiigaran Suppression Frigate
Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a high DPS brawler
Increased weapon damage
Increased weapon wind-up time
Decreased weapon cooldown
Increased weapon firing duration
Increased turning rate
Decreased health
Increased production cost
Hiigaran Ion Frigate
Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a midgame high output, but fragile, damage dealer
Decreased production time and cost
Greatly decreased health
Decreased turning rate
Increased weapon damage
Increased weapon firing duration
Decreased weapon cooldown
Increased special weapon ability damage
Decreased research cost and time
Increased maximum firing angle of weapon
Incarnate Smart Missile Frigate
Overhauled to reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased weapon AOE
Increased weapon damage
Increased detonation radius
Incarnate Attack Frigate
Overhauled to bring it more in line with the Hiigaran Assault Frigate
Updated attack style
Increased health
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Incarnate Cluster Missile Frigate
Overhauled to better fulfill its role as an anti-Strikecraft Frigate and reduce its effectiveness against other Frigates.
Increased rotation speed and max rotation angle to be more effective against Strikecraft
Increased weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased weapon damage
Increased weapon AoE
Increased weapon detonation range
Increased missiles spawn per volley
Decreased cluster spawn per missile
Tuned Volley Fire ability to match the above
Incarnate Railgun Transport
Reinforced its anti fighter role by greatly improving its target tracking
Reworked weapon turrets to be much better able to track targets on multiple axes
Capital Ships
Accuracy pass on all Frigates and Capital class ships; tuning their effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
Rebalanced Battlecruisers and Destroyers to improve their effectiveness against Frigate, Capital and Mothership class ships
Carrier Research is now unlocked by Corvette tech in Skirmish
Hiigaran Carrier
Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases
Fixed weapon discrepancy between individual turrets (damage increase)
Decreased production time
Decreased research cost and time
Increased health
Kalan Raider Carrier
Significant weapon damage increase to bring it in line with other carriers
Incarnate Carrier
Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases
Decreased weapon damage to bring it in line with other carriers
Decreased production time
Decreased research cost and time
Increased health
Hiigaran Destroyer
Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Overhauled attack style
Decreased production cost and time
Increased Health
Significantly Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Incarnate Destroyer
Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Overhauled attack style
Decreased production cost and time
Increased Ion Cannon range
Increased Ion Cannon firing duration
Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Hiigaran Battlecruiser
Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Overhauled attack style
Decreased production time
Increased health
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
Increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon range
Decreased High Yield Torpedo weapon AoE
Incarnate Battlecruiser
Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Decreased health
Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
Increased Ion Cannon weapon firing duration
Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon cooldown
Hiigaran Mothership
Increased resource collector leashing distance on the Mothership in Skirmish
Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage
Incarnate Titanship (Mothership - Skirmish)
Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage
Platforms
Decreased health of all turrets
Incarnate Anti Capital Turret
Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
Utility
Decreased Resource Controller population cap from 8 to 6 in Skirmish
Significantly increased Resource Controller production cost in Skirmish and Campaign (both factions)
Increased Resource Controller production time in Skirmish (both factions)
Multiplayer
Unlocked 30 new emblems
Hiigaran Mothership and Incarnate Titanship (Mothership) now both have access to the Fusion Missile Ability in Skirmish (unlocked through research) - More information in the Dev Update
Hyperspace Research and Abilities added to all Frigate class and larger ships (including Resource Controllers) in Skirmish for both factions in response to community feedback
Hyperspace Inhibitor Research and Abilities added to Hiigaran and Incarnate Carriers, the Hiigaran Support Frigate and the Incarnate Disruption Frigate in Skirmish mode
Resource tuning in Skirmish and War Games in response to community feedback - More information in the Dev Update
Default starting resources reduced significantly
Resourcing rate reduced (10% reduction)
Unit and research resource costs rebalanced
New Skirmish Tech Tree
Full rework of tech trees for both Hiigaran and Incarnate Skirmish factions in response to community feedback
Replaced the 3 tiers of Incarnate Strikecraft Hull Integrity research with 3 tiers of Corvette Hull Integrity research in Skirmish
Significantly increased the difficulty of Standard and Hard AI opponents in Skirmish in response to community feedback
War Games Tech Tree balancing in response to community feedback
More ship abilities now require research
Restructured Platform Fleet tech tree
Restructured Raider Fleet tech tree
Restructured Remastered Fleet tech tree
Skirmish lobby Map Resource Multiplier setting default changed from 150% to 300% in response to community feedback
Increased Hiigaran starting fleet combat units in Skirmish
Increased Incarnate starting fleet combat units in Skirmish
Increased camera bounds on the Deep Space Skirmish map in response to community feedback
Increased vertical bounds on the Naraka Skirmish map in response to community feedback
Increased the Carrier Assault Pattern initial damage increase from 50% to 200% in War Games in response to community feedback
User can now change their fleet customization in Quick Match
Added a notification in the gameplay events list when a player leaves a multiplayer match in
Pressing ESC will now close the Artifact choice window in War Games
Players will now see a notification informing them whether a lobby they are about to join is hosted by someone with mismatching mods, as joining a multiplayer match will likely result in a desync if all players in the match don’t have the same mods installed
AI bots are now visible in the pause menu (in addition to human players) during Skirmish
Full stats will be shown to allied AI players, while stats stay hidden for enemy AI players
Fixed unit death explosions sometimes throwing salvage objectives out of the map in War Games
Fixed an issue causing captured ships to sometimes receive commands not issued by the player during War Games
Fixed the Titanship Unit Info Panel not showing any weapons
Fixed an issue sometimes causing objective markers in War Games to detach from their intended location and move around the map
Fixed an issue causing turrets to be stacked on top of each other in the Buran map when the “Capture Data Spire held by hostile forces” objective was active in War Games
Fixed an issue causing turrets to be located inside the terrain in the Under The Ice map when the “Capture Data Spire held by hostile forces” objective was active in War Games
Fixed an issue causing allied bots in Skirmish on the same team as the player to build ships and send them to idle in places far from any battle or enemy ship
Fixed an issue causing the capture point, when the “Capture position to rescue civilians” objective was active in War Games, to sometimes spawn inside the environment
Fixed an issue causing the Artifact selection panel to sometimes open with no artifacts visible inside
Fixed an issue causing the Stinger - Barrage artifact to be unlocked by default instead of properly being unlocked by a challenge
Fixed an issue causing a Skirmish AI player’s customization to automatically change to being identical to the player’s after changing their fleet selection
Fixed an issue causing some War Games objectives to be impossible to complete if the player Carrier was on top of the objective at the moment it spawns
Fixed an issue causing the Capture Corvette’s Polarized Plating ability to be unlocked without having to research it first in several War Games fleets
Fixed an issue causing the Railgun Transport ships to appear under the “Capital” section in the Population menu in War Games
Fixed an issue causing the Kalan Assault Frigate research to display “Unlocks Destroyer” erroneously
Fixed an issue causing the Kalan Capture Frigate Ability research to display “Unlocks the Capture Corvette Capture Ability” erroneously
Fixed an issue causing the chat window to not automatically scroll to the bottom when the user sends messages in Lobby or In-Game
Fixed an issue causing the Suppression Frigate Artifacts to stop appearing after unlocking the Heavy Suppression Frigate when playing the Experimental Fleet in War Games
Fixed an issue causing the Beam Fighter to appear as Dominance Fighter in the Population tab in War Games
Fixed an issue causing newly built ships to not head to the designated rally point in War Games
Fixed an issue causing the Raider carrier to attempt to repair ships at full health in War Games
Fixed an issue causing the movement disc to reveal enemy AI height lines outside of the fog of war in Skirmish
Campaign
Added “player controlled mission end” to 5 additional missions - More information in the Dev Update
Mission 2 -Facility 315
Mission 3 - Kesura Minor
Mission 5 - Trinity Gate
Mission 9 - Warsage Citadel
Mission 12 - Noctua 27
Tweaked campaign difficulty, making Hard difficulty more challenging and making the mission to mission difficulty more consistent, in response to community feedback
Performance improvement : Optimized the Mothership VFX during Kala Terminus so as to stop causing significant FPS rate drops when looking at it
Incarnate Destroyers in Warsage Citadel will no longer spawn indefinitely
Fixed an issue causing the Capture UI elements for 2 of the 3 data spires in the Lament to not disappear after capture
Fixed an issue causing Strikecraft and Corvettes to ignore the enemy tactical missiles shot at the mothership during Noctuua-27
Tech / Performance
Performance improvement : Tactical Overlay amalgamations have been greatly optimized and should result in better performance.
Performance improvement : Height lines when using the movement plane have been optimized
Performance improvement : Beam weapons VFX have been optimized
Added setting to allow constraining in game UI to 16:9 centered
Affects base HUD panel, pause menu, campaign failed menu, and multiplayer end game menus
Menu backgrounds continue to occupy the full screen width regardless of whether the option is enabled, only content is constrained
Games that contain blocked users will no longer be visible/joinable
Fixed an issue causing the shadow quality to be abnormally high if the player had selected Low graphics settings. This will greatly improve performance in Low graphics settings
Fixed an issue causing FPS drops when power regulators are destroyed in Noctuaa-27
Fixed the “Enable Sensors Manager zoom-in/-out collision” camera option not working when “Modern camera controls” were turned off
Fixed an issue causing camera movements to sometimes cause small FPS drops when NLIPS was turned off
Art Updates
Improvements to the damage system visuals
Healing support added for dynamic damage
Add heat edge ring to Energy and Missile impacts for dynamic damage
Changed impact composting system to avoid overdriven visuals on dynamic damage.
Aligned visuals look between dynamic and procedural damage.
Reduced brightness of Strikecraft engine trails
Fixed many cases of weapons could situationally shoot through their ship’s hull
Numerous minor LOD improvements on ships
Fixed an issue causing the Incarnate Titanship and Hiigaran Mothership to not display the proper amount of dynamic damage on their hull
Fixed an issue causing dynamic damage on Frigates and Capital ships to not properly be displayed from Torpedo Frigate missile damage
Fixed an issue causing Suppression Frigates to not receive dynamic damage on their side from all weapon types other than small ballistic weapons
Fixed an issue causing the Hiigaran Battlecruiser’s sides to not display dynamic damage from non-ballistic weapons
Fixed an issue causing part or all of newly built ships to appear with the wrong texture or be invisible if produced while in the Sensors Manager
Fixed a small gap in the Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate’s model
Fixed the Dervish Ion Frigate’s thruster VFX being offset from the hull
Fixed the Railgun and Avenger Corvettes plasma beam VFX not making contact when attacking enemy ships
Fixed an issue causing the Pursuit Fighter’s Overburner ability VFX to appear on the body of the ship rather than its engines
Settings Updates
New Display selection reticle overlay option
New Constrain HUD aspect ratio option
New Input binding: “Hyperspace” unit ability hotkey (Default “J” in the Modern Experience Preset)
New Input binding: “Hyperspace Inhibitor” unit ability hotkey (Default “Ctrl+i” in the Modern Experience Preset)
New Input binding: “Reinforce” unit ability hotkey (Default “X” in the Modern Experience Preset)
Fixed an issue causing the 5120x1440 resolution to not be selectable
Audio Updates
Added audio feedback when clearing a control group
Fixed audio not being properly distorted while in Sensors Manager and in Occlusion view
Corrected Main Menu UI interaction SFX
Fixed mothership weapons fire persisting through the pause menu in multiplayer modes
Fixed the wrong VO playing when Swarm Fighters are built
Updated the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Pursuit Fighters
Fixed the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Smart Missile Frigates not playing correctly in War Games
Fixed the unit response VOs being attached to the Sound Effects volume slider rather than the Speech volume slider
Fixed an issue causing the VO for detecting enemy Strikecraft to play too frequently in Skirmish
Fixed an issue causing “Ship Captured” VO to be played when an enemy was salvaging debris from a player’s destroyed ship in Skirmish
Misc Updates
Moved ‘Enable Sensors Manager zoom-in/out collision’ settings into Camera Tuning / Modern setting category to clarify that they do not have any effect on classic camera controls by design
Using Backspace to hide the HUD/UI now also properly hides the “Contested”, “Capturing” and “Decapturing” UI elements
Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after a cinematic
Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after closing the Artifact selector in War Games
Fixed an issue causing the Sensors Manager to incorrectly function while viewing a replay in Free Camera mode
Fixed the Grand Armada achievement not progressing on EGS
Mod Tools & Editor
A new version of the Editor has been deployed on EGS
In order to avoid any compatibility issues, we highly recommend fully uninstalling the previous version of the editor before installing the new one
Updated the way mods were detected when displaying them in the lobby view
Correctly detects map mods, "other mods" and even side loaded mods
Added the ability to inject custom blueprints in mods
Stability fixes to greatly reduce the RHI crashes seen in earlier versions of the editor
Fixed several missing unit materials making ship creation easier
Added BBI's blueprint files for campaign missions, to use as a reference for Tiir scripting and mission creation
TiirSubsystems can now be defined as part of mod files, allowing blueprint to make simulation-side modifications for unique gameplay features in mods
Added a version of the game's Wwise project to allow for modder exploration into audio modding
Re-introduces the Play In Editor (PIE) button. This will allow testing of some mod content directly within the editor, speeding up iteration time, and giving modders access to BBI's internal debugging tools
Source
Changelog.gg summarizes and formats this update. How we read updates.
