Homeworld HUD Designed For Confed And Border Worlds

Here's another look at the Wing Commander style user interface that Aaron Thomas has added to the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. It's the same layout as shown previously, but all of the ships, satellites and stations below belong to the Union of Borlder Worlds. Aaron is now looking at finalizing the Border Worlds fleet so he can move on to the Black Lance faction. Although the game wasn't built with widescreen displays in mind, players can manually enter their resolutions into a configuration file. This will stretch the display across any size screen.

Homeworld Mod Gets Wing Commander User Interface

WC4 Mod Goes On Audio Grabbing Binge

Playing each mission and ripping the audio is easy, but when you are looking for a specific dialog by a specific ship then it's quite difficult. I've had to practically play all missions 5 or more times to get every piece of audio out of every ship present and under all circumstances.

Example: escort BW troop transports to frigates. Played first all the way through to get all audio for escort formations, then played again for damage reports. Then played again for damage reports of all shuttles at 50% damage, then played again at 90% damage and then same over for frigate 50% damage and 90% damage. After being made traitor and asked to replay almost six or seven times, that can be a bit tiring. It was fun too I suppose, or else I wouldnt have done it all yesterday. Managed to extract about 300 lines of dialog.

Integrating them is going a bit slow since I have to choose and edit dialog to suit hw2 combat chatter, but it's definitely adding to the feel. Only a few icons and BW ship tweaks along with research and cost remains. Will keep everyone posted.

Homeworld Engine Used For Hybrid Tribute Video

Still it was a labour of love and like the rest of the mod testing, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I hope this basic template gives a glimpse of the cinematic potential that the mod will present when released, especially to those interested in recreating lost scenes and events only previously described, expanding on existing Wing Commander FMV or creating original movie compilations complete with voice-overs.

Border Worlds Faction Introduced In New Homeworld Video

The Union of Border Worlds Navy prides itself on rugged and proven capabilities and the strong frontier spirit that bonds us and on which the worlds we defend were founded. You have my admiration and the support of all Union citizens in your decision to join the UBW Defence Fleet, where I have every confidence in your performance and abilities.

As I'm sure you know, our proximity to Kilrathi space and the activities of criminal organsations operating in and out of our territory is a constant concern to the Union government and policing our large borders is increasingly being transferred from overburdened local militia and in-system security to the Navy. The Great War may be over, but hostilities remain and the UBW Defence Fleet stands firm as the thin blue line protecting the sovereignty of the Union.

WC4 Homeworld Mod Improves Sound Sequencing

Testing and development continues on the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. The latest improvements come in the form of music integration. BrynS describes his experiences with these sound enhancements below. He's also made an 11 meg video that demonstrates this. It's encoded at a higher resolution (960x720) like future clips will be. The second set of shots in this update also show off Aaron Thomas' preliminary miner transports for resource gathering.

The WC4 intro/main title composition is piped through when the game starts and loops (if necessary) through the menu and map selection screens -- as I said to Aaron, I got goosebumps the first time I heard it play when launching the mod! Once the map starts, it appears to randomly cycle through the currently available WC tracks, adding another immersive layer to the Wing Commander experience. There's no dynamic element to the music at the moment, i.e. changing tracks/tone, etc according to the action (loss of a ship, victory, melee, ambience, etc), but perhaps if it is possible to implement a similar system, it could always come further down the road.

Homeworld Bound

I have been in touch with Bryn and have updated him with the latest set of ships and add-ons. ive been working on the mod at a friends place. so far these are the latest ships in. Expect pics as soon.

Confed - Arrow made into correct version.
UBW - HQ (a converted form of an Ella superbase with a capship bay at the rear)
Destroyer
Caernaven
Mining Transport
Jump Buoy
Outpost (a replica of the one that LOAF managed to get pics of recently that was hidden within the game)

FX - All capship weapon FX and capmissiles are incorporated.

Sound - WC4 Music downloaded and cleaned up by me in audacity and recomposed for the mod.

Gameplay - Both sides have proper build times and cost and balancing

AI - Slightly improved AI for the computer when playing as ubw side.

I will be tackling the audio this week. I tried to extract the WC4 tre files with treman but have had no luck what-so-ever. Can someone mail me a zip or rar with all the extracted battle chatter from the game? I think Wedge has this archive. All battle chatter in whatever quality will be greatly appreciated. Don't worry, I have figured out a way to clean the poor WC4 audio up in Audacity that works fantastically, or else can someone guide me on how to extract the Xtre files.

WC4 Homeworld Mod Status Update

Forums member BrynS has a progress report and some new, high resolution screenshots for us. You can find out more about this Homeworld 2 mod in the news archive.

Work on the mod has been continuing, however my own testing and video compilation has slowed quite a bit over the last two weeks because of other demands.

Aaron has been busy tweaking features and amending stats significantly in a number of areas. For example, the next update to be rolled out for testing will equip fighters with a slight afterburner effect when in combat, which should add to the gameplay and together with the new balance/stats tweaks should make for an even better Wing Commander experience.

Aaron is not able to work on the mod for the next two weeks or so and was not able to distribute the latest update for testing, so when he can return to the mod, there should be quite a bit to report. We've decided to hold off on releasing the current Extended Preview videos in the pipeline, because of the large stat changes due in the next update. In the meantime I want to get the tribute video finished (yes, I know I've been saying this for weeks! ) and if all goes well, I have a few other things planned to keep the ball rolling until Aaron is back online.

For the moment, I've compiled a batch (5.56MB Zip) of over 80 high resolution (1600x1200) screenshots from some recent testing.

New WC4 Homeworld Vid Dishes Out The Goods

Stargamer.Net My Destination

Shipyard Structure Complete For Homeworld Mod

The scaffolding for large ship construction has been completed for the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. Originally envisioned as an addon to a medium size construction base, this structure now separately builds the larger ships in the game. Pictures below reveal a cruiser emerging after completion. The original shipyard bases will now be used to build fighters, bombers and other small scale craft. Both will need to be built in the vicinity of strategic jump buoys. Speaking of fighters, new processes have been implemented that allow individual craft to fly more independently. The result is a more realistic look to large scale battles.

All Confed Models Integrated Into Homeworld Mod

The final major model for the Confederation faction in Aaron Thomas' WC4 Homeworld 2 mod is now an actual structure in the game. It will get an additional scaffolding/construction attachment so it can serve as a shipyard, but the pictures below give everyone a good look at the design. After the Confed skirmish mode is polished up, the Border Worlds and Black Lance sides will be implemented. A number of UBW/BL ships are already combat ready. Progress is moving along at a good pace, and we're anxious to see what comes next. For those who missed it last week, be sure to check out the gameplay video from the current beta build.

WC4 Homeworld Mod Gameplay Video Released

WC4 Homeworld Mod Gets Finished Confed HQ

Border Worlds Fleet & Sound Effects Implemented In Homeworld Mod

Impressive progress continues to be made on the upcoming WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. The Durango Class Light Carrier has been added to the fleet, and it looks great. Check out the images of it ripping stuff up and taking hits below. Most carriers are big vulnerable boxes without their fighters though, and Aaron Thomas has fixed this by adding all the Border Worlds fighters. The new Vindicator was the last one left. A cute little UBW satellite drone also made the cut, and it looks like it has some teeth too.

I have been hard at work on an aspect of the mod that I can not post updates about in the usual fashion. As of last night all fighters have full WC sound, weapon fx and weapon sound fx. It feels so good to hear some familiar audio, and I can definitely tell you it's taken the feel 'up a notch'! I would like to thank Stefan, my friend over at the HW2 forums, for his valuable time and help on getting the fx started. He was kind enough to donate me a few files to help me understand the process and get the fx overhaul underway. Going to spend tonight coding the respective damage capacity of each specific weapon into the mod. I'll try to post a few pics, though gunfire is an effect to be heard and seen in realtime to get the actual feeling.

Capships Go Out With A Bang In Homeworld Mod

The third picture is for effect. It shows the blast from the destruction of a Concordia class at the hands of 5 wings of Thunderbolts and my Concordia.

WC4 Homeworld Mod Finishes Up Confed Ships

Rest assured that all weapons are just as they are in WC. Fighters use Pilum IFFs, Spiculum IRs and Javelin HSs, and the Longbows and Avengers are built for one thing and one thing only - torpedo delivery.

Five For Fighting With

Remember the last time we reported on the Wing Commander IV mod for Homeworld 2? It seems like it was only a few days ago... but a lot of progress has been made! Czacen has added a grand total of five new ships to the project, and screenshots are available en masse! The first two pictures are the game's smaller assault shuttle (which carried Decker in Wing Commander IV). Quote the project: "these guys are going to play a important role for the BW side".

WC4 Mod For Homeworld 2 In The Works

We've got a new fan project to announce for the first time today, and it's already looking pretty sharp. Aaron Thomas has been building a mod for Homeworld 2 that recreates it in Wing Commander 4's image. WC4 is a very popular game among fans (it's in the lead in our current poll), but relatively few mods are based in that specific era. A variety of ships and features have already been implemented. The shots below reveal Banshees, Bearcats, Hellcats, Excaliburs and a Concordia class Fleet Carrier. Ships look very nice and detailed in the Homeworld engine, and the interface should allow for a good mix of fighter and capital ship combat. Right now Aaron is working on the project alone, but there is quite a precedent for solo individuals creating fantastic finished works. In the future, fellow fans will probably be able to help by contributing feedback, minor graphical elements and other material. Visit Crius.net to volunteer your time or let everyone know what you think so far.

I am working on a game MOD for Homeworld 2 that converts it to the Wing Commander 4 universe. Also I would require a small amount of assistance in some of the technical info about certain ships, some data is not available on your site such as the dimensions of the Durango class carriers, etc. I realise this info may not exist anywhere in writing, but for sake of the creation of this mod, it would really really help if I could correspond with someone from your site about info like this. I'll eventually need UI icons and some other material that I'm sure the community can help me out with this. I however would like to stress - NO DEADLINE [release date] - just in the case that people start asking when it will be done and stuff. I am doing it alone, getting it done and it will be great. That's my promise.

Fleet Action Homeworld Mod Updated

While some talk of a Homeworld 2 mod continues, NewCommanderondaBlock had updated the original Homeworld mod, Fleet Action. The ship files have been updated slightly to enhanced playability. Most original ships have been replaced by Wing Commander equivalents. Previous crashing issues have been narrowed down to the Weapons Effects Pack, so don't use that.

The pack contains Kilrathi (race 1, Kushan), Confederation (race 2, Taiidan), Border Worlds (Pirates 1) and Nephilim (Pirates 2). The Border Worlds and Nephilim ships are only for maps with them built-in. All you need is the original Homeworld. Install it by extracting the zip file to your Homeworld directory. To uninstall, delete the folders "r1," "r2," "p1," & "p2" and files that end with ".ll" and ".script" that are in your main Homeworld directory. Please note, that this mod is NOT compatible with Homeworld: Cataclysm or Homeworld 2.