Homeworld 2 mod

In the past I've discussed what I view as the greatest strength of PC gaming, the ability to Mod the games. Recently I dusted off my Homeworld 2 CD and tried out a few mods for it that hadn't grabbed me in the past. Homeworld 2 was not as successful for me as Homeworld 1, something about the feel of the combat never grabbed me, it felt too short. While the graphics aided in making it feel epic, the speed of frigate-vs-frigate combat removed the feel of the massive ship-to-ship combat.

This is fixed in the Tactical Fleet Simulator mod. Having downloaded and played version 2.6 (or is it 2.7? I'm too lazy to check) I was awestruck at the subtle tweaks in gameplay that made it feel more impressive, immersive and enjoyable. The battles feel a little lengthened, and there are genuine choices made for researching. A minute or two of research in a field will only open up the basic parts of that field (E.G. Researching bomber craft will only give you the basic bombers, you need to put more work into it in order to get the REALLY impressive bombers).

Despite the feel of the battles, and the thought required for research, something I was not impressed with was excess of information. Yes, too much information. I understand they want you to play the mod and get a feel for how it works rather then just have it handed to you, but I sit there just scratching my head at all the information they give me. I don't NEED to know exactly what armament each fighter craft has, and all the acronyms prefixing each type of fighter is just a bit too confusing for me to take in while desperately trying to shore up my fleets woeful inadequacy in an unexpected area.

The mod itself looks beautiful. Aside from only a few small examples, the newly inserted ships (the mod uses all the original-game ships as well) perfectly fit the aesthetic established for their race, and the emphasis the mod adds to missile-combat makes things look beautiful. I have to admit, despite being a beam-man in space combat, the sight of a flight of missiles closing in on a ponderous target and shattering the starboard side of the shipyard just... makes me all moist.

Linked in with the 'too much information' problem is the excess of choice. I went through three stages of appreciation of the large number of individual ship types. First I was overwhelmed, then I was thrilled, then I was... confused. The benefit to the simplistic "This is an Interceptor, it intercepts - this is an anti-fighter frigate, it blows up fighters" approach of the original Homeworld 2 system is that everything's purpose is very clear and undisputed. When I'm designing the final fleet I'll send against my enemy, I become very unsure of what I should put in it. Rather then "Ok, I'll put three Destroyers in here to give me some good firepower I can split up if needed", I'm forced into an indecisive state where I can't work out which of the three Destroyer-like ships I should get. Should I get one of each? Should I specialise? I DON'T KNOW.

It really becomes a situation of "I don't know what to get next", leaving you frozen indecision. There are three classes of anti-fighter fighters, and even knowing that one of them is just an opening "Protect your start base" fighter, I'm left wondering which of the other two I should get. I understand they were trying to simulate actual weapon system development, which goes through several generations of progress and concurrent design, but to me a slight simplification wouldn't go astray.

But, my complaint is already answered. I haven't had the chance to try it yet, but there's a game mode that promises easier ship choice. Yeah, this mod not only provides a new feel of gameplay and new ships, it provides new game modes. A couple really stand out for me. 'Risk', where you only have Frigates and up (except if you choose to allow bombers, which REALLY changes the playstyle). Skirmish, where you have a fleet of ships, no ability to create more, and you've got to outfight the AI (who are in the same boat). Strikers, like Risk but with only fighters and Corvettes.

All in all, give it a look see. Tactical Fleet Simulator.