The next Homeworld 3 update, which overhauls combat and the pace of the campaign in the space RTS game, will also be the last, as developer Blackbird says it is time to “close this chapter.” Originally released in May, Homeworld 3 revives the beloved strategy series, which once ranked alongside Total Annihilation and Command and Conquer as one of the best on PC. Currently, however, the game has ‘mostly negative’ reviews on Steam and an average concurrent player base of less than 50. Nevertheless, the upcoming 1.3 version will represent Homeworld 3’s “last major content update.”
Principally, the new Homeworld 3 update targets combat balancing and the pace of the campaign. The goal, according to Blackbird, is to increase the importance of strategic decision making while also making unit behavior more consistent. “This is a sweeping overhaul that is complemented by a comprehensive re-balancing of nearly every single unit in the game,” the developer says.
To that end, armor mitigation on all ships has been tweaked, and you now gain an attack multiplier if you strike an enemy ship on its aft side. Bombers in the RTS game also have increased speed, and there’s a new command that allows you to instantly order one ship to reinforce another, so it’s easier to combine units into new sorties.
More than combat, however, criticism of Homeworld 3 has been leveled at the strategy game’s campaign. Until now, as soon as mission objectives are completed, a mission ends and a new one begins, denying players the opportunity to either continue fighting remaining enemy ships or repair their fleet in preparation for the next battle. Update 1.3 is designed to remedy this.
“One piece of feedback we have heard frequently and consistently since launch was that the pace of the campaign was too fast,” Blackbird says. “Players wanted the freedom to continue playing in a mission after the objectives were completed (similar to how many missions worked in earlier Homeworld games). Many players felt like there was no room to catch your breath, no opportunity to take your time to repair or rebuild your fleet, and no time to gather the remaining resource nodes or chunks of salvage scattered around a map after your hard-won battles.
“We have gone back through the campaign, and, where it made sense narratively, given you control over when you proceed to the next mission. There are some missions where we have not made this change as it didn’t make sense with the mission narrative. However, by and large, you will now have more control over when to move the campaign forward after each mission.”
Homeworld 3 update 1.3 will be released on Thursday November 21. It also introduces changes to the multiplayer skirmish mode, including a new superweapon called The Fusion Missile, and you can read the complete – and lengthy – patch notes right here. Although this update could be the big overhaul that Homeworld 3 needs, Blackbird says it will be the last.
“Blackbird Interactive was born from Homeworld and the enduring passion of its community,” the developer says. “We dreamed of creating a spiritual successor which, by a twist of fate, became a reality when Gearbox Publishing acquired the rights to Homeworld and enlisted our help in continuing the franchise with both Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld 3. It was a dream come true.
“But it is now time to close this chapter and begin a new one. Revisiting the Homeworld universe has had a profound impact on just about every person at Blackbird. To that end, we’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Gearbox Publishing for bringing us in to work on Homeworld with them. We wish them all the best.
“To be clear, this means that while we won’t be expanding Homeworld 3 with more content, we still want to ensure a positive experience for players,” Blackbird continues. “Gearbox will be carefully monitoring incoming reports and will address any widespread critical issues that may arise in the wake of update 1.3’s launch. Homeworld 3’s multiplayer functionality and mod support (including the in-game mod browser) will remain online.”
As of this writing, Homeworld 3’s concurrent player count on Steam is 66. Of the more than 4,500 user reviews that have been posted to Valve’s store so far, 38% are positive.
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