Here’s the details of the patch changes in Homeworld Remastered. I’ve been helping Gearbox balance these patches since June 2015 with several other people here. Hope you guys like the patches!
Click to view
2.0 Patch Summary - June 7th, 2016
Kushan and Taiidan have seen major changes to better reflect their Homeworld 1 Classic (hw1c) performance and for better balance against Hiigaran and Vaygr. Hiigaran and Vaygr are largely the same as in Homeworld 2 Classic (hw2c), but with several improvements and many tweaks for better balance vs hw1 races.
Several features from hw1c have been brought back and added to all the races. Aggressive/Neutral/Evasive Stance’s to boost damage or speed. Formation’s have small damage/accuracy/speed modifiers for different ships. Balistic/simulation features, for example idle ships are generally a lot easier to hit than moving ships now. Useful scuttle blast damage for most ships. This all adds a lot of depth to the game.
Harvesting for all races has been balanced. Hiigaran has stayed the same, Vaygr has been brought up to par (was about 5+% lower), Kushan is now closer Hiig, and Taiidan has been brought up to par with Kushan.
Hiigaran and Vaygr
I’ll quote Scole on by far the biggest change: “Single tiered upgrades. Yes, there was a definite strategy between the original HW2 races that is lost but now there are two races without upgrades who must remain a viable play option. HW2 base stats for ships are higher than Classic and when upgraded ships usually fall close to where they would have been at the level 2 upgrade. For HW2 races this frees up Resources that can be used elsewhere. Vaygr, with their particularly expensive family-wide upgrades benefit from this.”
Fire Control Tower/Vaygr Command Corvette damage and accuracy boost lowered from 15% to 7%. Maximum damage/accuracy stack lowered from 40% to 20%. This was done to balance the late game vs hw1 races which don’t have these.
The new unit cap system counts fighters and corvettes by individual ship rather than by squad for consistency across all 4 races. This is a silent buff to ships with small squad sizes including: scouts, minelayers, and command corvettes.
Below I’ve listed anything notable that’s changed more than 5%. Health/Speed changes are for fully upgraded ships. The move to single tiered upgrades caused many ship’s health and speed to change by small percentages such as 1%-15%, and that’s just how things shook out.
Hyperspace Inhibitors
Cost 1500->1000 to balance vs hw1 races that can hyperspace from the start of the game
Carrier Fighter/Corvette/Frigate Facilities
Health +40% to be closer to the mothership facilities health. This was to balance vs hw1 races which do not have subsystems.
Capital Ship Facilities
Health +30% to make them stronger than fighter/corvette/frigate facilities and to balance vs hw1 races which do not have subsystems.
Resource Collectors
Health +25% to balance vs hw1 collectors which start with far more health. Interceptor damage vs collectors was also increased to keep the early game hw2c balance.
Fighters
The health of each hw2 fighter has gone up from 30 to 90, but the attack of their counters has also gone up to match. They have been balanced close to their prior performance. This was done to better balance the new features including formations and stances, and to improve battle outcome consistency. Balancing 30 hp one shot kill fighters became a fools errand with the new features.
Scouts
Cost: 350->300 was one of the final tweaks to balance vs hw1 races
now unit capped at 18 (6 squads). Was necessary since they take up way less space in the new unit cap system.
EMP duration 35->20 seconds. Idle ships now take way more damage, so EMP had to be adjusted.
Interceptors/Assault Craft
Cost: 500->450 was one of the final tweaks to balance vs hw1 races
Bombers
Health: up 50% more than interceptors are now, to improve survive-ability.
Got a sizable attack buff. They should now be a better capital ship counter.
Pulsar, Gunship, Missile and Laser Corvettes
Health +12%
Shipyards
Speed +25%
Destroyers
Health -18%
Health regen improved 28%
Attack +5% vs frigates
Reduced the size of the engine subsystems to minimize a hw2c issue where destroyers broadsiding each other would often absorb a lot of bullet damage with their engines.
Unit cap: 7->5 (was 5 in hw2c)
Battlecruisers
Speed +6%
Health -22%
Damage -28%
Unit cap: 3->2
Probes
Cost 150->70
Proximity Sensors
Cost 250->150
Hiigaran
Resource Collectors
Health Upgrade Costs 1200->800
Resource Controllers
Health Upgrade Costs 1500->400
Gun Platforms
Health Upgrade Costs 1300->700
Speed -20%
Health -7%
Ion Platforms
Health Upgrade Costs 1300->1200
Speed -20%
Health -7%
Scouts
Generally all ship’s base hull and speed increased, while fully upgraded stats stayed the same. This ship didn’t have upgrades, so their base stats received a bump.
Speed 460->512 (was 480 in hw2c)
Interceptors
Speed Upgrades Costs are still 800 (maybe the only upgrade that didn’t change in price)
Bombers
Speed Upgrade Costs 800->600
Gunship Corvettes
Speed Upgrade Costs 800->400
Health Upgrade Costs 1250->800
Attack buffed, this ship was under-powered.
Pulsar Corvettes
Speed Upgrade Costs 1050->600
Health Upgrade Costs 1150->1200
Attack balanced against Vaygr missile corvettes (corvettes had balance issues since release due to several bugs, and bug fixes)
Minelayers
Health 400->900 Before they were easy to snipe since they weren’t a squad of 3.
Torpedo Frigates
Speed Upgrade Costs 1250->600
Health Upgrade Costs 2200->1000
Attack lowered vs fighters.
Flak Frigates
Speed Upgrade Costs 1250->600
Health Upgrade Costs 2200->1000
Ion Frigates
Speed Upgrade Costs 1250->600
Health Upgrade Costs 2200->1000
Is now better able to shoot idle corvettes, like salvage corvettes.
Marines
Fixed a hw2c oversight where every ship in the game had 100% accuracy vs marine/infiltrator frigates. Now they are treated as a regular frigates for accuracy calculations, which is a silent buff.
Unit cap 5->6
Defense Field Frigates
Generally all ship’s base hull and speed increased, while fully upgraded stats stayed the same. This ship didn’t have upgrades, so their base stats received a bump.
Speed +9%
Health +11%
Unit cap 4->2. It was 2 in hw2c, and stacking 4 DFF can be quite overpowered.
The following changes incentivize more usage:
Cost 1250->1000
Build Speed 70->60 seconds
Ability Duration 20->32 seconds
Motherships
Speed Upgrade Costs 1250->600
Health Upgrade Costs 1250->1000
Speed -7%
Health -33% (+5% from hw2c)
Carriers
Speed Upgrade Costs 1500->600
Health Upgrade Costs 1750->1000
Health +9%
Shipyards
Speed Upgrade Costs 2000->600
Health Upgrade Costs 2250->1000
Health -34% (now about the same as hw2c)
Fixed a hw2c bug with their cloak module
Destroyers
Speed Upgrade Costs: 2500->600
Health Upgrade Costs: 2500->1500
Attack -30% vs resource collectors.
Battlecruisers
Speed Upgrade Costs: 2500->600
Health Upgrade Costs: 5000->1500
Vaygr
Utility Ships
Health Upgrade Costs 3600->1200
Resource Collectors
RU load per trip 200->208
Speed +1.4%
Now start with 7 collectors instead of 6 (Yes the Vaygr mothership is that bad at harvesting).
Platforms
Health Upgrade Costs 2600->1500
Gun and Missile Platforms
Speed -20%
Health -12%
Hyperspace Platforms
Speed +8%
Cost 750->375
Has a minor sensors distortion probe effect for itself only, to incentivize its use.
Fighter Unit Cap
In HWR Public it was 15 squads, but in hw2c it was 18 squads. Now its set to 108 individual fighters to target the hw2c balance. Build possibilities:
4 scout squads (3 per squad) + 14 interceptor squads (7 per squad)
16 interceptor squads (7 per squad)
18 bomber squads (6 per squad)
18 lance squads (5 per squad) + 3 interceptor squads (7 per squad)
Fighters
Speed Upgrade Costs 1600->1200
Scouts
Cost 350->300
Speed -7%
EMP research cost 1000->1500 To balance the reduction of fighter speed upgrade costs and scout costs.
Bombers
Vaygr bomber damage has been improved to be closer to Hiig (longstanding hw2c issue)
Lance Fighters
Attack buffed, was under-powered and very niche
Corvettes
Speed Upgrade Costs 2400->1000
Health Upgrade Costs 2700->1600
Missile Corvettes
Attack balanced against Hiigaran pulsar corvettes. (corvettes had balance issues since release due to several bugs, and bug fixes)
Laser Corvettes
Attack balanced close to hw2c performance vs frigs and capital ships. (corvettes had balance issues since release due to several bugs, and bug fixes)
Fixed a bug where they lose DPS when corvette speed was upgraded.
Minelayer Corvettes
Base Health 400->900
Upgraded Health 640->1,350
Before they were easy to snipe since they weren’t a squad of 3.
Command Corvettes
Ping ability added, doesn’t require any additional research
Health increased 40% to match minelayer change
Now flies around in battle instead of siting idle so they aren’t such easy targets.
Unit capped at 2. The new unit cap system is a silent buff to these, and too many command corvettes would have been quite unbalanced for the other races. Also now that battlecruisers are unit capped at 2, Hiigaran is unlikely to have more than 2 FCT’s in a battle.
Frigates
Speed Upgrade Costs 2500->1200
Health Upgrade Costs 4400->2000
Assault Frigates
Assault frigate research cost 650->500
Health -7%
Attack buffed, this ship was under-powered
Heavy Missile Frigates
Is now better able to shoot idle corvettes, like salvage corvettes.
Range +14% to prevent Hiig Ion frigates from kitting them.
Infiltrator Frigates
Fixed a hw2c oversight where every ship in the game had 100% accuracy vs marine/infiltrator frigates. Now they are treated as a regular frigates for accuracy calculations, which is a silent buff.
Generally all ship’s base hull and speed increased, while fully upgraded stats stayed the same. However due to the above, Hiig marine frigates and Vaygr Infiltrator frigates didn’t received any base speed/health changes. Since there’s only one teir of upgrades now, this means the fully upgraded Vaygr infiltrator frigate is a bit lower than before:
Speed -7%
Health -12%
Capital Ships
Speed Upgrade Costs: 8,500->1,500
Health Upgrade Costs: 10,000->3,000
Flagships
Speed -7%
Health -35% (+9% from hw2c)
Carriers
Cost 1700->1900
Health +29%
Bombers got buffed, so we wanted to make sure fragile Vaygr carriers wouldn’t go poof early game. Costs were notched up a bit since the health went up so much.
Shipyards
Health -26% (now about the same as hw2c)
Destroyers
See above, upgrades are now 14,000ru cheaper
Battlecruisers
Range now matches Hiig battlecruiser to prevent kitting
See above, upgrades are now 14,000ru cheaper
Kushan and Taiidan
I’ll quote Scole again here: “The [patch] contains edits to [hundreds of] files. The complexity of the interactions the changes have on the game would make itemizing every change lunacy so instead we will speak to some of the general changes… …It will not and can not be an exhaustive, comprehensive list. You will have to play to really feel it out.”
Generally speaking, Kushan and Taiidan ships perform a lot closer to hw1c while being better balanced against Hiigaran and Vaygr. Below I’ve noted some of the more important changes, and provided some ship role/performance information.
Research costs/times adjusted to allow a hw1 player to choose to start at either fighters, corvettes or frigates and to be better balanced vs hw2 races.
Fighters and corvettes have received big speed buffs, to match upgraded hw2 ships.
Resource Collectors
Built Time 60->50 seconds
Health -17%
Can now hyperspace
Resource Controllers
No longer requires any research.
Can now support 8 resource collectors, and is much closer to the performance of their hw2 equivalents.
Scouts
Cheap anti-fighter, not quite as strong as interceptors.
Interceptors
Balanced against hw2 interceptors when in formations. Tip: small formations like a Claw or X of about 5 ships, are going to perform better than lose ships not in a formation.
Defenders
Unit capped at 20
Bombers
Better at countering capital ships than before.
No longer require plasma bomb research in multiplayer.
Kushan Cloaked Fighters
Anti-fighter, and good vs utility ships
Unit capped at 20
Taiidan Defense Fighters
Still good at killing missiles, but not so overpowered vs Vaygr anymore.
Unit capped at 10
Repair Corvettes
Repair is much better than before.
No longer require any research like in hw1c.
Salvage Corvettes
Speed increased 150->255
Light Corvettes
Cheap anti fighter
Just require corvette drive research like in hw1c.
Multigun Corvettes
Better anti-fighter
Heavy Corvettes
Anti-corvette balanced against pulsar corvettes and missile corvettes. Also pretty good vs frigates and capital ships.
Minelayer Corvettes
Health increased like hw2 minelayers were
Support Frigate
Repair is much better than before, your going to want to use these.
Assault Frigates
Anti-corvette, not very good vs fighters unless they are trapped in a gravity well. Pretty good vs frigates too.
Health and speed changed closer to upgraded Hiig/Vaygr frigates:
Speed +47%
Health +72%
Ion Frigates
Health and speed changed closer to upgraded Hiig/Vaygr frigates:
Speed +27%
Health +53%
Attack: balanced against Hiig ion frigates
Kushan Drone Frigates
Shreds interceptors pretty fast, pretty good vs corvettes too.
Drone duration greatly increased.
Taiidan Field Frigate
Now equipped with a new field that’s always on.
Unit capped at 2, as 2 of these stacked stops 95+% of bullets. Like in hw1c, these don’t block ions or missiles.
Motherships
Hyperspace costs increased from 500base/1300max to 1000base/1500max. This better balances hw1’s ability to hyperspace from the very start of the game.
Carriers
Health +37%
No longer requires super heavy chassis research. This gives players more flexibility in choosing their next upgrade path, and provides better balance vs hw2 races.
Destroyers
Now requires Ion Cannon research due to their Ion based weaponry, like in hw1c.
Now requires Super Heavy Chassis (carriers and destroyers were swapped in the tech tree)
Built Time 178->160 seconds (between hw2 destroyers with and without improved manufacturing research)
Speed +41%
Health +10%
Health regen improved 42%
Unit capped at 5
Attack balanced against hw2 destroyers.
Missile Destroyers
Good vs fighters and corvettes now
Unit capped at 2
Heavy Cruisers
Now requires Ion Cannon research due to their Ion based weaponry, like in hw1c.
Cost 3600->4500
Built Time 293->250 seconds (between hw2 cruisers with and without improved manufacturing research)
Speed +27%
Health +20%
Health regen improved 20%
Unit capped at 2
Balanced to be a bit weaker than hw2 battlecruisers. However these are very strong when combined with repair units.
Gravity Wells
Research cost 700->500
Health +33%
Hyperspace inhibitor effect range increased to be closer to the hw2 hyperspace inhibitor range
Gravity well ability range reduced to more closely match the hw1c range.
Ability duration 90->45 seconds (Idle ships now take way more damage)
No recharge like in hw1c, however the ability can be turned on/off at any time.
Now always reduce enemy accuracy within their inner ring. Basically the opposite of a fire control tower for accuracy, due to the gravity distortion.
Note: For ship health I’ve provided the actual effective health, what’s displayed in game can be off by 20% sometimes due to armor damage modifiers.
Non-Balance Changes (for all patches)
Homeworld Remastered Collection Update Information is here.
Click to view
2.205 Patch Summary - July 5th, 2016
Gearbox’s 2.205 Patch Preview resolved most of the 2.1 Patch Balance Issues. Unfortunately Gearbox halted updates for HWR prior to rolling this out as a full patch. The 2.205 Patch Preview can be opted into on Steam as a beta, or downloaded as part of the 2.3 Players Patch.
Hiigaran and Vaygr
Gunplats
Damage vs fighters +100% (A typo gave them less damage than intended)
Damage vs hw2 resource collectors -43%
Accuracy vs frigates and capital-ships 40%->80%
Interceptors/Assault Craft
Damage vs corvettes -31%
Damage vs frigs and capital-ships -60%
Damage vs subsystems +40%
Bombers
Accuracy vs corvettes 80%->20%
Damage vs frigates +40%
Destroyers
Health +6%
Normal Unit Caps 5->6
Battlecruisers
Health +13%
Platform Modules on carriers
Health +25%
Fighter, Corvette, and Frigate Modules on carriers
Health -11%
Motherships/Carriers/Shipyards/Resource Controllers
Damage vs hw2 resource collectors -45%
Hiigaran
Ion Platforms
Damage vs idle fighters/probes increased a lot
Gunship Corvettes
Damage vs fighters +13%
Pulsar Corvettes
Damage vs fighters/probes increased 100%
Torpedo Frigates
Damage vs hw2 resource collectors increased 30% (only helps vs upgraded hw2 collectors)
Damage vs fighters/probes increased 100%
Flak Frigates
Damage vs hw1 fighters increased 64% (results in a decent buff)
Battlecruisers
Range +3%
Fixed an issue where the hiigaran battlecruiser would sometimes sit pointed 10 degrees up or down vs a target on the same vertical level - causing the nose of the ship to block one ion turret from attacking.
Motherships
Speed Upgrade Cost 600->400
Health Upgrade Cost 1000->800
Carriers
Speed Upgrade Cost 600->400
Health Upgrade Cost 1000->800
Shipyards
Build Time 85->75 seconds (was 75 in hw2c)
Speed Upgrade Cost 600->400
Health Upgrade Cost 1000->800
Health Upgrade Research Time -50%
Vaygr
Re-balanced the Vaygr unit caps, to allow for fair transferring between players of different races. Interceptors/Bombers now count as 5 supply, and Missle/Laser Corvettes count now as 3 supply. Unit caps have been updated appropriately.
Missile Corvettes
Damage vs fighters -55% (they now perform closer to hw2c)
Fixed a bug where they would deal zero damage to probes
Laser Corvettes
Fixed a bug with the attack script where laser corvettes would start doing evasive maneuvers and rarely attacking. This bug fix makes laser corvettes much more effective.
Assault Frigates
Cost 500->650 (was 650 in hw2c)
Research Time +12% (to same as hw2c)
Damage vs Hiig/Vaygr fighters -50% (results in a small nerf)
Damage vs hw1 fighters +400% (results in a decent buff)
Battlecruisers
Trinity Cannon Range +1%
Damage vs capital-ships -6% (with no micro, makes 1 hiigaran cruiser vs 1 vaygr cruiser consistently come out even like in hw2c. With micro, vaygr can slightly out-range hiigaran and win.)
Carriers
Cost 1900->2100
Capital Ship Health Upgrade
Cost 3000->4000 (to balance vs Hiig)
Research Time +5%
Capital Ship Speed Upgrade
Cost 1500->2000 (to balance vs Hiig)
Research Time +33%
Kushan and Taiidan
Scouts
Damage vs fighters -50% (A typo gave them twice their intended damage, causing major balance issues)
Damage vs corvettes -31%
Damage vs frigates and capital-ships -50%
Interceptors
Damage vs corvettes -31%
Damage vs frigates and capital-ships -50%
Damage vs subsystems +40%
Bombers
Accuracy vs corvettes 80%->20%
Damage vs frigates +40%
Defenders
Speed +53%
Corvettes
Now move around a little more in combat.
Light Corvettes
Damage vs fighters +20%
Multi-Gun Corvettes
Damage vs fighters +38%
Heavy Corvettes
Cost 315->285
Damage vs hw2 corvettes -9%
Assault Frigates
Capital Ship Chassis Research Time down 113->85 (allows hw1 to get assault frigates faster)
Damage vs corvettes -50%
Damage vs hw2 resource collectors -25%
Ion Frigates
Ion Cannon Research Time up 35->64 (same timing, considering the capital ship chassis research buff)
Damage vs frigates -24% (they still beat hw2 ion frigates with 10% health left. This was a big oversight in balance testing the 2.0 patch.)
Motherships
Damage vs fighters +25%
Can now target any ship (previously couldn’t target some ships)
Carriers
Damage vs fighters +25%
Damage vs hw2 resource collectors -45%
Can now target any ship (previously couldn’t target some ships)
Destroyers
Cost 1800->2500 (to balance vs hw2 destroyer ship and upgrade costs)
Health +7%
Normal Unit Caps 5->6
Gravity Wells
Now uses frigate armour (this is generally a health buff)
Research Time down 71->35 (to allow hw1 to get hyperspace inhibitors faster)
Ability Duration 45->30 seconds
Ability Range -20%
Cloak Generators
Speed +45%
Bug Fixes
Fixed Hiigaran Mothership visual errors, mainly the badge being cut off.
Fixed the Turanic Carrier Engine missing icon.
