Damage resistant Research Ships (Official MPB Mod)

Homeworld Remastered Collection Homeworld Remastered Multiplayer
#1

Playing the Official Balance Mod vs. the CPU. It seems that the Vaygr have issues damaging the HP of the core module of both Taiidan and Kushan Research ships. Their missile and cannon shots impact on the expanded research modules and do not do any damage to the core ship’s HP.

This results in the Vaygr Destroyer, Heavy Missile frigate, Laser Corvette, Bomber, and other projectile ships not dealing appropriate damage. They have to chew through the surrounding expansion modules that are blocking the shots before they do actual damage to the structure. I’m not sure if this is affecting other factions as well.

The one exception is the Vaygr Battlecruiser’s Trinity cannon which seems to aim specifically at the core module and does the expected damage. However, Its 8-tube heavy missile battery suffers from the same problem as other ships and does not do any damage to the core HP.

#2

I’ll run some test on this tonight unless someone beats me to it. Thanks for posting this.

#3

Do you mean the research module inside the research ship or the ship that you can select takes no damage when you hit another connected research ship?

#4

The completed research ship only shows the health for the initial module no matter how many modules are attached (expansions). Those expansion modules block incoming shots from hitting the core module. They seem to each have their own individual health that is not shown, and destruction of the expansion modules does not result in the destruction of the entire research vessel. If you do manage to hit and destroy the core module, the entire research ship will break-up and be destroyed.

The blocking action of the expansion modules results in an incredibly resistant research ship being able to survive bombardment from a full fleet of DD’s or HM Frigates for quite a while. This looks like a result of the Heavy Missiles and Cannon fire wanting to naturally spread over the entire research ship, while the Trinity cannon targets the core module and is not affected.

Research, production, and harvest drop off denial has always been a very useful tactic in HW2 due to the introduction of sub-systems, and gave bombers a very cool role (think Star Wars) during the mid and end game especially with the research of the improved sub-system bombs. It would be nice to keep this fun interaction intact throughout the races.

That aside, the current research ship’s time to destruction is very binary at the moment; either quickly or extremely long without attacking player input being able to affect it much. This is inconsistent with player expectation earned through experience with all other aspects of the game, and is probably not intended by developer design.

I hope this made more sense.

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