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Homeworld
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Homeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999 developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It is best known for its full three-dimensional movement, engrossing storyline and unique soundtrack. Homeworld was succeeded by Homeworld 2 in 2003.
eneath the scorching sands of Kharak, the Kushan people have discovered the remains of a long-forgotten titanic spaceship.
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Homeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999 developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It is best known for its full three-dimensional movement, engrossing storyline and unique soundtrack. Homeworld was succeeded by Homeworld 2 in 2003.
Plot
Beneath the scorching sands of Kharak, the Kushan people have discovered the remains of a long-forgotten titanic spaceship. Buried within the ancient remains, the secret of their lost homeworld.
For thousands of years, the Kushan have survived on Kharak, corralled into the temperate geographical poles by a vast, unforgiving desert. Scarcity of arable land and natural resources has coloured Kushan history with near constant inter-clan (or Kiith) warfare and strife.
As new technologies emerged, religious and political conflict partially gave way to unified scientific exploration. DNA sequencing of Kharak's native life revealed no genetic resemblance to the Kushan, giving rise to their "XenoGenesis Theory" - which stated they were not native to Kharak at all.
The first space flights reinforced this idea. Small metallic debris, the largest no bigger than a hand, were retrieved from low orbit and analyzed to be made of materials totally unknown to them. In addition to helping accelerate their space technology research, the debris confirmed that a large advanced spacecraft had once been in orbit. It wasn’t until an ironic twist of fate later in their history that boosted them even further along their development.
A high-powered satellite designed to scan the planetary system had malfunctioned upon deployment, and was scanning the Great Desert around Kharak's equator instead. It strangely found something beneath the sands: a derelict city with a massive central metallic structure. An expedition uncovered that the central structure was the spacecraft they had found traces of before in orbit. It carried advanced spaceflight technologies including a Hyperspace Core, one of a few ancient machines that were the Homeworld setting's foundation for all faster-than-light technology.
More importantly however, a stone with a galactic map bearing two coordinates was found. One was recognized as Kharak. The other bore a name so ancient it was common across all their languages and dialects: Hiigara. "Home". The stone would become known as the Guidestone, and confirmed the XenoGenesis Theory. Kharak's people united in building a megalithic "Mothership" that would bear 600,000 of them to their destination, made rugged and self-sufficient in order to survive possible problems during the long trip. It is during the Mothership's final testing phase that the single-player game begins.
Gameplay
Homeworld is known both for its multi-player online and single-player elements. The player may choose to play as either the Kushan or Taiidan, both online and in the single-player campaign. While each unit serves a particular function and represents a tradeoff in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost, the differences between the two factions are mostly in cosmetic ship design. Parallel ships (the "Vengeance"-class Kushan Assault Frigate versus the "Kudaark"-class Taiidani Assault Frigate) look different but have identical armor, speed, weapons power, etc - although tests have shown that the Kushan Assault Frigate has a tendency to survive longer due to the way its turrets give it an almost 360° firing arc. However, each race does feature two unique units (the Kushan Cloaking Fighter and Drone Frigate versus the Taiidani Defense Fighter and Defense Field Frigate), and equivalent ships often have different gun positioning, usually in favor of the Taiidan.
The screen is devoted entirely to maximize the field of view, so the only toolbar is hidden and appears only when the cursor is moved to the bottom of the screen. Orders such as moving and formations are given both from right-click menus, and hotkeys for more advanced gameplay.
The inclusion of a completely null-space 3-D fighting environment yields challenges to the player that are not typically encountered in standard 2-D based real time strategies. Since the area of play is generally void of significant obstacles to create "terrain" there is little emphasis on the control of a certain choke point in order to establish defensive perimeters. The player must instead be able to react and play within a purer environment where force movement is the primary tactical factor.
Single-player
The single-player campaign includes 16 missions, and focuses on a persistent fleet concept, which causes all ships built during a mission to appear in the next (as long as they are not destroyed). The ultimate goal of the single player mode is to find the Homeworld of the chosen protagonist race, though the vantage point will remain unchanged regardless of the player's actual choice of race (in this and subsequent Homeworld games, the Kushan, called Hiigaran in "Homeworld 2", are the canonical "heroes").
Multi-player
Homeworld can also be played in a deathmatch mode where the player can choose the number of opponents, the map, enabling or disabling researching and fuel consumption. These games can be played with up to seven computer-controlled opponents, which have an adjustable difficulty setting and a setting that allows you to determine whether they attack the human player or other computers more often. The multiplayer community for Homeworld was large from its very beginnings in 1999. At its peak in 2000 and 2001 there were more than 18,000 players registered to the Ladder. Several dozen clans were active at the peak, since its release more than one hundred individual clans have been founded. There are still hundreds of active players and a handful of large clans. Today the original community of dedicated players still survives at the community operated , the publishers for the game, and on IRC. Many terms are used during multi-player online play as well. For a comprehensive list of these see Homeworld Terms.
Homeworld's original multiplayer lobby system was closed in October of 2008. To play online the player needed to create an account and download the latest patch (or version). Both the latest patch and the Homeworld Archive can be obtained from This patch may not work with Windows Vista. Alternative patches can be found at other reliable websites
Musical score
With the exception of a song by the rock group Yes entitled "Homeworld (The Ladder)" (from their 1999 CD "The Ladder"), most of the music in the game is ambient. It includes Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, the choral version of his Adagio for Strings, performed by Santa Barbara's Quire of Voyces. A 13-track CD soundtrack was bundled with the Game of the Year Edition of Homeworld and features the original soundtrack by Paul Ruskay. The re-release of the Game of the Year Edition, marked by a "Best Seller Series" stripe, does not contain the soundtrack.
Mods and source code
Homeworld's source code was released in late 2003, which allowed fans to port the game to other platforms (such as Linux and Mac OS X), with homeworldsdl.org being the most active project with support for Windows, *nix and Mac OS X.
Because of the modular nature of the file system almost every aspect of the game can be altered, including: the basic models and textures, the in-game interface, music and effects. Notable mods were based on well known sci-fi series such as Babylon 5, Star Trek, Gundam, Macross and Star Wars.
Sequels
- In September 2000, Barking Dog Studios released a stand-alone expansion, Homeworld: Cataclysm. Taking place 15 years after the events of Homeworld, the story centers on Kiith Somtaaw and its struggles to protect Hiigara from a parasitic entity known as the Beast.
- A full sequel, Homeworld 2, was released in late 2003. The game pits the Hiigarans against the Vaygr, a powerful, nomadic raider race.
Reception
Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including IGN's game of the year award for 1999. The game was praised for its eye-catching, movie-like graphics engine, large battles, appropriate soundtrack, compelling storyline, and revolutionary 3D interface.
Design
The spaceship designs in this game bear a strong resemblance to the designs popularized by illustrator Chris Foss, who is mentioned in the special thanks section of the games end credits.
Awards
External links
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