HOMEWORLD WALKTHROUGH by Briareos Kerensky (briareos@inwind.it, briareos_HF), ver 3.X. 19/09/2002 Table of Contents 1-Update History 2-History Briefing 3-Technology Briefing 4-Tactics Briefing 5-Formations Briefing 7-Ships Briefing 8-Walkthrough 9-String Options 10-Submissions 11-Credits and misc **************** 1-UPDATE HISTORY **************** 17/09/2002-version 3.X. No new submissions, but some additions to the walktrhough as I've finished the game once again. Finally, even this document reached and passed 100k ;) 23/07/2002-version 2.X. Submissions only. 18/02/2002-version 2.0. Document completed. Minor corrections throughout the document. 19/01/2002-version 1.3. The Fellowship Of The Ring is here too! Finally (with Japan), after all countries in this world, Italy recieves this movie. Still have to see it (just let me find a free place in whatever theater), but...ehm, totally senseless here. Walktrhough completed. Sections needing update were updated. 16/01/2002-version 1.2. Removed Modified Ships section due to some technical problems. Walkthrough continued. Other sections needing update were updated. 11/01/2002-version 1.0. Basic sections online. Let me say why I'm doing this document: HomeWorld is still a wonderful game. I've found myself playing it throughout the night after I've stumbled on this document looking in my CDs. The original idea was thought after HW: Cataclysm (the sequel to HomeWorld and my first walkthrough) and was forgot due to time and, partially, to a limited PC. Now that I have both (well, time is always running away, but, hey, I'm on holiday!), it is time to seriously begin and end it. ****************** 2-HISTORY BRIEFING ****************** Kharak, the desert planet. An hell where only the poles are barely suited for living. Your race, the Kushans, have always lived here. From the ancient days the social structure is unchanged, divided into families, the Kiiths, but after 1106, when a mis-positioned satellite discovered a large metal formation in the Great Desert, the whole planet life has changed. In 1110 an expedition found the Khar-Toba, the First City, formed around an ancient starship, buried under the sands. In 1112, technicians were able to study and replicate the complicate technology that formed the starship's drive; most thought that Khar-Toba offered all it had to offer, until a young archeologist found a large piece of black stone with an interstellar map and a word, Hiigara, "our home". Since then, all efforts of the Kushan race were focused in building a massive starship, using the same hyperspace technology found in the Khar-Toba, to explore the space and reach the homeworld. This starship, later renamed MotherShip, was built in 55 years: 20 to collect all resources from the outer space, 10 to realize a giant Scaffold and 25 to actually build the MotherShip. The MotherShip has a living core, Karan Sjet, a scientist that voluntereed to become the center of the whole MotherShip's fleet after having perfectioned the technology that now traps her. The MotherShip also contains several thousands of colonists in cryogenic hybernation, a series of factories to build other ships and spare parts in order to maintain the MotherShip always functional. Hi-tech weaponries have been included for defense purpose, in case of unknown threats attack the MotherShip. It's 1214. The MotherShip is ready start its journey. ************************ 3-TECHNOLOGICAL BRIEFING ************************ In this secton you'll find description of the technology you have to research to obtain new vessels during the game. A brief description of weapon types is also provided. ---------------- --WEAPON TYPES-- ---------------- + Mass Drivers: projectile weapons. The weapon itself is small, so you'll find at least a small-caliber gun on every Fighter. Bigger ships will have mass-drivers in their secondary turrets. In HomeWorld, projectyle weapons are useful against fast strike crafts, as they travel at an higher velocity and do moderte damage to their thin armors. They have short/medium range values. + Energy Beams: Capital Ships only. The most common energy beam is the ion beam, mounted on a number of ships. Only Super-Capital Ships carry them in turrets, as an ion cannon is usually big as a whole Frigate. Medium/long range weapons with high damage values, mainly useful against Capital Ships, though a turret-mounted cannon can deal with Corvettes and reduce them in scraps within seconds. + Missiles: Missiles are the only weapon limited by ammunition supplies, but bigger ships can build them automatically, so just make an intelligent use of them. They were developed to provide anti-Fighter capabilities to Capital Ships. Though their damage value is lower than the Beam's one, they are fired in groups and have a longer range. + Fields: some ships come equipped with a field generator capable of deflecting enemy weapons or generating gravity to stop enemy's Strike Crafts. Those shields are useful to protect valuable ships (Carriers, Cruisers, MotherShips...) or to trap enemy vessels. The third type of field is the Stealth, capable of masking crafts to enemy eyes and standard sensors. Only advanced sensor suites will detect Stealth (or cloacked) units. + Plasma Bombs: large plasma spheres that do a lot of damage; they are a bit slow, however. Very effective against large ships and, if they hit, against fighters. ----------------------- --COMMON TECHNOLOGIES-- ----------------------- FIGHTER CHASSIS Pre-requisites: Fighter Drive Lead to: Defender Sub-System, Plasma Bomb, Cloacked Fighter, Defense Fighter Needed for: Interceptor, Defender, Cloacked Fighter, Defense Fighter, Attack Bomber Notes: basic technology FIGHTER DRIVE Pre-requisites: none Lead to: Fighter Chassis Needed for: Scout, Interceptor, Cloacked Fighter, Defense Fighter, Attack Bomber Notes: basic technology CORVETTE CHASSIS Pre-requisites: Corvette Drive Lead to: Heavy Corvette Upgrade, Fast Tracking Turret, Minelayer Technology Needed for: Light Corvette, Salvage Corvette, Multi-Gun Corvette, Heavy Corvette, Minelayer Corvette, Support Corvette Notes: Base for most of Corvette-related technologies. CORVETTE DRIVE Pre-requisites: none Lead to: Corvette Chassis Needed for: Light Corvette, Salvage Corvette, Multi-Gun Corvette, Heavy Corvette, Minelayer Corvette Notes: Research ASAP to build Salvage Corvettes CAPITAL SHIP DRIVE Pre-requisites: none Lead to: Capital Ship Chassis Needed for: Assault Frigate, Ion Frigate, Drone Frigate, Defense Frigate, Support Frigate, Gravity Generator, Cloack Device, Resource Controller Notes: Needed for Frigates CAPITAL SHIP CHASSIS Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Drive Lead to: Ion Cannon, Super-Capital Ship Drive, Super-Heavy Structure, Gravity Generator, Cloack Device Needed for: Ion Frigate, Drone Frigate, Defense Frigate Notes: Needed for Frigates SUPER-CAPITAL SHIP DRIVE Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Chassis Lead to: Heavy Guns, Guided Missile Needed for: Destroyer, Missile Destroyer, Carrier, Heavy Cruiser Notes: Basic technology for Super-Capital Ships. The drive only will allow you to build a Destroyer. PROXIMITY SENSOR Pre-requisites: none Lead to: Sensor System Needed for: Proximity Sensor Notes: maneuverable Probe PLASMA BOMB Pre-requisites: Fighter Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Attack Bomber Notes: none MINELAYER TECH Pre-requisites: Corvette Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Minelayer Corvette Notes: none ION CANNON Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Drive Lead to: none Needed for: Ion Frigate, Destroyer, Heavy Cruiser Notes: base technology for most Capital Ships HEAVY CANNON Pre-requisites: Super-Capital Ship Drive Lead to: none Needed for: Heavy Cruiser Notes: Needed for the most poweful ship in the game HEAVY CORVETTE UPGRADE Pre-requisites: Corvette Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Heavy Corvette Notes: none GRAVITY GENERATOR Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Gravity Well Generator Notes: traps enemy fighters DEFENDER SUB-SYSTEM Pre-requisites: Fighter Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Defender Notes: none SENSOR SYSTEM Pre-requisites: Proximity Sensor Lead to: none Needed for: Sensor System Notes: Capable of tracking most ships and revealing Cloacked ones. FAST TRACKING TURRET Pre-requisites: Corvette Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Multi-Gun Corvette Notes: Needed for the most versatile Corvette in the game CLOACKING DEVICE Pre-requisites: Super-Capital Ship Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Cloack Generator Notes: it is not the same technology needed for the Cloaked Fighter SUPER-HEAVY STRUCTURE Pre-requisites: Super-Capital Ship Chassis Lead to: none Needed for: Carrier, Heavy Cruiser Notes: Needed for the most powerful ships in the game ------------------------ --KUSHAN TECHNOLOGIES -- ------------------------ CLOACKED FIGHTER Pre-requisites: Fighter Structure Lead to: nothing Needed for: Cloacked Fighter Notes: it is not the same technology needed for the Cloak Generator DRONE TECHNOLOGY Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Structure Lead to: nothing Needed for: Drone Frigate Notes: basically useless ------------------------ --TAIIDAN TECHNOLOGIES-- ------------------------ DEFENSE FIGHTER Pre-requisites: Fighter Structure Lead to: nothing Needed for: Defensive Fighter Notes: basically useless DEFENSE FIELD Pre-requisites: Capital Ship Structure Lead to: nothing Needed for: Defense Frigate Notes: basically useless ****************** 4-TACTICS BRIEFING ****************** +Evasive: only Strike Crafts really benefits of this behaviour, as they are the only vessels capable of tigh maneuvers. With evasive tactics, your units will travel toward the opponent without keeping formation, each one using at maximum efficiency its engines and firing only when sure that enemy fire won't hit. Ideal for high-speed strafing runs on enemy Capital Ships with anti-fighter guns, where tight formations usually result in a single ion cannon vaporizing a good number of crafts. Also, when crafts using Evasive tactic reach red and yellow health status, they immediately return to the nearest support ships for repair +Neutral: the standard behavior of new units; in Neutral mode crafts will attach only if attached first, and then will return to inactivity until someone fires against. It will be used in the single palyer (see the walkthru below), but I've never seen someone using it in multiplayer games +Aggressive: units will maintain formations, and when a target is within range, they will fire. The drawback of this tactic is that crafts only do strafing runs or maintain position to have an optimal aim over the targets, and won't dodge any enemy projectile, missile or energy beam. Useful for Capital vs Capital and Fighter vs Fighter dogfights. ********************** 5-FORMATIONS BRIEFING ********************** +Delta: vessels will form a 2D triangle. Though it is a very classic formation and very useful for parades, the top craft will be the most vulnarable to damage, effectively broking the formation. +Broad: an other 2D formations, but this time the vessels will form a straight line. Deadly for crafts, especially for big groups, as the combined firepower of a formation should give is centered around few elements. Quite effective for Capital Ships as you can use it for positioning them along the enemy's front and sides. I will describe this tactic later on. +X: one of the best formations for fighters: the X formations allows relatively small groups (maximum 15) to concentrate fire. Drawbacks? As the formations is compact, enemy turrets will enjoy in destroying your fighters. +Claw: the best formations for fighters, and if you have some Frigates, even for them. Recomended for maximum 15 crafts, like X formation, the Claw maximizes the effects of concentrated fire of an X formation while reducing the compactness of the formation. +Wall: ideal for large groups of ships and every Capital Ship formation, the wall creates a...wall (¬_¬...) of ships, maximizing firepower. If you have large fighter formations (10+) or at least 4/6 Frigates, the Wall will be THE choice. +Sphere: though I use this formation mainly for defensive purposes, I know that someone uses it for single Capital Ships with large Fighter escorts. In a Sphere formation, the bigger ship will be the center of the sphere, while the lighter ones will produce a defensive bubble around it. When usued cleverly, this formation will break any defense line and/or assault. +Military Parade: the only way to use this formation is to include Carriers. Any kind of formation including such ships will be changed in a Military Parade formation, a roughly rectangular formation where the Carriers are at the lateral edges, Strike Crafts at the "frontal" edge and the Capital Ships at the "rear" edge. Useless during combat (friendly fire) but good if you want to snap few screenshots. **************** 7-SHIPS BRIEFING **************** First of all, a brief description of ship classes and main capabilities. + Strike Crafts: Fighters and Corvettes. Fast and Maneouverable, these ships are useful for fast-raiding parties and to harras larger ships until rienforcmentes arrives. Fighters lacks the turrets and firepower of Corvettes, though they are faster. + Capital Ships: a group divided into Frigates and Super-Capital Ships. Frigates features a decent firepower and armor protection while mantaining a decent maneuverability; this class features a large number of vessels, each with differents armaments. Super-Capital Ships are Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers and every other kind of ship capable of delivering massive firepower or build Strike Crafts and Frigates. To counteract one of these behemoths, use a similar vessel or a group of Frigates. Worst of all, these crafts are usually accompained by fighter escorts. + Non-Combatant Ships: ships dedicated to recon, repair and harvesting. Bigger ships usually mount only defensive turrets. They are not intended for combant, so use them for their main tasks. + MotherShips: massive ships capable of building any other vessel class, except other MotherShips. Your main task is to defend yours, though the armor and firepower can support attack vessels. However, defend it. Immobile in all single-player missions. Note: under the coverage section I put the descripton of the weapon and type (projectile or mass drivers, missile, ion and plasma). I divided turrets into two categories: sponson turrets can track enemies in limited arcs but they aren't fixed nor can turn 360°. Normal Turrets are mounted on a fixed mount and can fire in 360° degrees. Enjoy. ---------------- --COMMON SHIPS-- ---------------- SCOUT Mass: 40 tons Armor: 110 Firepower: 10 Coverage: 48% (single forward-fixed projectile weapon) Maneuverability: very high Max Velocity: 1050 m/s Special Action: speed burst Required Tech: none RU Cost: 35 Available from: mission 1 A reconaissance fighter. The fastest and most maneuverable ship in the game, the Scout is used for scounting missions, though in first missions it will be your main attack force or a good complement to the Interceptors. Note that its Special Action consumes fuel, and can be used until the fuel load is exhausted. INTERCEPTOR Mass: 60 tons Armor: 160 Firepower: 18 Coverage: 10% (two forward-fixed mass drivers weapons) Maneuverability: high Max Velocity: 875 m/s Required Tech: Fighter Drive Fighter Chassis RU Cost: 55 Available from: mission 1 Interceptors benifit from a particular reinforce structure, allowing them to carry more armor and weapons at expense of speed. Also, due to the particular position and construction of their guns, mixed with their minor agility, their firing arc is more limited than a Scout's one. Interceptors will become the backbone of your Strike Craft formations as they mix firepower, armor and speed. DEFENDER Mass: 60 tons Armor: 280 Firepower: 30 Coverage: 90% (three mass drivers on sides and bottom, mounted in turrets) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 385 m/s Required Tech: Fighter Drive Fighter Chassis Defender Subsystem RU Cost: 65 Available from: mission 5 A slow fighter with very fast turning rates and awesome coverage and firepower; the Defender has three guns which can fire to three separate targets , making it ideal for escort operations. Large groups of Defenders are able to fend off any attack made by other fighters with minimum losses, and can be used to harras Frigates and other Super-Capital Ships without anti-fighter defenses, but are in trouble when facing Missile Destroyers, Carriers and most fighting Corvettes. ATTACK BOMBER Mass: 90 tons Armor: 300 Firepower: 45 Coverage: 5% (two forward fixed small plasma bombs launchers) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 700 m/s Required Tech: Fighter Drive Fighter Chassis Plasma Bombs RU Cost: 85 Available from: mission 5 My favourite fighter, both technically and graphically. Though a bit slow for a Strike Craft, the raw firepower of a group of 20 Bombers can devastate Frigates in seconds. The Plasma Bombs are slow, so they are a bit ineffective against other Strike Crafts, but the idea of a fast moving, small and cheap craft is a good one. Do not pretend to destroy Super Capital Ships with a group of them, but big groups in wall formation can support larger units in all-out attacks. LIGHT CORVETTE Mass: 400 tons Armor: 900 Firepower: 100 Coverage: 40 % (one medium projectile on sponson turret) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 575 m/s Required Tech: Corvette Drive Corvette Chassis RU Cost: 135 Available from: mission 2 Slighlty slower than an Attack Bomber, but more armored and with a turreted weapon, the Light Corvette is a medium-range patrol fighter capable of dealing with Fighters and Corvettes of the same class. It costs less than Heavy Corvettes, but its cost-to-performance ratio is relatively low. HEAVY CORVETTE Mass: 750 tons Armor: 1700 Firepower: 200 Coverage: 50 % (two medium projectile on sponson turrets) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 350 m/s Special Action: Powered Attack Required Tech: Corvette Drive Corvette Chassis Heavy Corvette Update RU Cost: 250 Available from: mission 2 Slow, but powerful. It carries almost twice the armor of a Light Corvette and carries two guns (each in one turret under its nose), effectively doubling the firepower. The Heavy Corvette is perfect to spearhead assaults set on Strike Crafts, thanks to its endurance; groups of these can defeat Ion Cannon Frigates easily, and if used cleverly and backed up by Attack Bombers, even Destroyers. MULTI GUN CORVETTE Mass: 750 tons Armor: 1400 Firepower: 180 Coverage: 78% (6 mass dirvers on turrets -2x front, 2xsides-) Maneuverabilty: medium Max Velocity: 695 m/s Required Tech: Corvette Drive Corvette Chassis Fast Tracking Turrets RU Cost: 250 Available from: mission 7 The best escort Corvette; groups of Multi-Gun Corvette can easily dispatch Fighters and other Corvettes easily. Used with evasive tactic and relatively loose formations this corvette can deal some damage on Frigates and Super-Capital Ships thanks to its excellent coverage. MINELAYER CORVETTE Mass: 750 tons Armor: 800 Firepower: 300 (for each mine) Coverage: none (theorically 100%; mines can engage any target) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 425 m/s Special Action: Mine Laying Required Tech: Corvette Drive Corvette Chassis Minelayer Technology RU Cost: 295 Available from: mission 10 Based on the original Taiidan technology, the Minelayer Corvette is used to establish unmanned defense lines. The mines can track down all types of crafts, but they are pretty useless again fast Strike Crafts due to their poor agility. Capital Ships can be easily destroyed by cleverly placed mines. Also, the Minelayer Corvette is capable of sending mines toward targets, but only in a roughly straight line; mines are very slow, so most ships (aside the MotherShip in singleplayer games) will be able to easily outmanuever them. REPAIR CORVETTE Mass: 750 tons Armor: 1200 Firepower: 65 Coverage: 10 % (one mass driver on stern turret) Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 350 m/s Special Action: Repair Required Tech: none RU Cost: 150 Available from: mission 1 Repair Corvettes are used as mobile repair units for single Strike Crafts. As with Support Frigates, Repair Corvettes can use "heal guns" to repair friendly units. SALVAGE CORVETTE Mass: 1200 tons Armor: 1200 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 425 m/s Special Action: Salvaging Required Tech: Corvette Drive Corvette Chassis RU Cost: 220 Available from: mission 1 Totally unarmed. The Salvage Corvette is capable to overrun all computer defenses of any enemy vessel to immobilize and bring it to the MotherShip (or Carrier if Frigates) to be analized and/or captured. Salvage Corvettes can capture only Capital and Super-Capital Ships, and only if they are badly damaged. Also, bigger is the ship, more Corvettes you'll need: Frigates can be captured with two ships, Destroyers require three, Carriers and Heavy Cruisers five. ASSAULT FRIGATE Mass: 400 tons Armor: 16000 Firepower: 82 Coverage: 100% (2 forward-fixed medium plasma; 4 medium mass drivers on frontal turrets) Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 325 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive Capital Ship Chassis RU Cost: 575 Available from: mission 3 The first combat Frigate you will be able to build. Reasonably fast and maneuverable for a ship of its size, the Assault Frigates sports four turrets that grant a good coverage and twin Plasma Bombs launchers for extra punch when needed. Though Ion Frigates can be better for Capital/Super-Capital ships battles, Assault Frigates can still hope to defeat slow moving Fighters or Corvettes. ION FRIGATE Mass: 425 tons Armor: 15000 Firepower: 138 Coverage: 3% (large ion, forward-fixed) Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 300 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive Capital Ship Chassis Ion Cannons RU Cost: 650 Available from: mission 4 This Frigate is built around an Ion Cannon, which gives it extreme firepower but it must sacrifice speed and agility. Also, the Ion Cannon is so big that the Frigate has to turn itself to aim the Cannon, meaning that all Strike Crafts will be able to escape from its beam. However, against other Capital and Super-Capital ships, the Ion Cannon performs way better, being able to deal tremendous amounts of damage in a single blow. SUPPORT FRIGATE Mass: 400 tons Armor: 12000 Firepower: 36 Coverage: 21% (2 medium mass drivers on frontal sponson turrets) Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 450 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive RU Cost: 425 Available from: mission 3 Supports Frigates are especially designed to help Strike Crafts in extra long-range operations. They have 14 hardpoints and are capable of repairing and refuelling them just like MotherShips and Carriers do. Those Frigates are also more agile than other combat Frigates and lightly armed to fend off small attacks. Support Frigates can also repair larger Ships thanks to their repair gun in the nose. Just select a Support Corvette and double click on the damaged unit. DESTROYER Mass: 1800 tons Armor: 44000 Firepower: 347 Coverage: 88% (2 forward fixed large ion; four big mass drivers -upper side-) Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 315 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Super-Capital Ship Drive Ion Cannons RU Cost: 1350 Available from: mission 6 Destroyers mounts two Ion Cannons and two hi-power mass drivers on four turrets, allowing them to aim Capital Ships and, partially, Strike Crafts without moving. Destroyers are superior to any Frigate, except for anti-Strike Craft duties, where they lack fast-tracking or homing weapons. They represent the balance between the huge, time- and resource- consuming, powerful and slow Heavy Cruiser and the relatively fast, cheap and weak Frigates. MISSILE DESTROYER Mass: 1000 tons Armor: 42000 Firepower: 450 Coverage: 100% Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 295 m/s Special Action: all-out attack Required Tech: Super-Capital Ship Drive Missile Technology RU Cost: 1500 Available from: mission 9 Missile Destroyers were designed after engineers were able to develop space-capable missiles, usually ignored for cheaper and more efficent Ion Cannons and mass drivers. Missiles are especially good against Strike Crafts and for long-range attacks. Each Destroyer carries 32 missiles divided into four separate canisters, each with a fully automated production line to manufacture extra missiles if the original payload runs out. Missile Destroyers are also capable to fire all missiles in storage bays in a single, powerful salvo, especially useful against other Super-Capital Ships. Deadly against Strike Crafts, they need support from normal Destroyes and Cruisers for Capital Ship battles, where those Destroyers are usually assigned to long-range fire support and/or fighter hunt. CARRIER Mass: 10000 tons Armor: 72000 Firepower: 109 Coverage: 100% (six mass drivers spread all along the hull) Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 315 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Super-Capital Ship Drive Super Heavy Structure RU Cost: 2000 Available from: mission 9 Carriers are praticall smaller MotherShips. Totally independent, they have two docking bays for Reosurce Collectors, can build and dock all ships up to Frigates and are decently armed and have enough armor to withstand attacks until reinforcments arrive of the Carrier finishes building ships. However, they are very expensive and due to their great tactical value, they are usually protected by large groups of ships, sometime including Heavy Cruisers, that often act as shield for Carriers. HEAVY CRUISER Mass: 10000 tons Armor: 90000 Firepower: 921 Coverage: 100% (4 large ion on two frontal sponson turrets; 6 turrets -2xtop, 2xbottom, sides- with big mass drivers) Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 250 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Super-Capital Ship Drive Ion Cannons Heavy Guns RU Cost: 3700 Available from: mission 13 The largest and most powerful ship in your fleet, MotherShip aside, the Heavy Cruiser is especially designed for combat, rather than fleet support like Carriers. Its payload is impressive, with four Ion Cannons mounted on twin sponson turrets and six large mass drivers mounted all around the hull to provide excellent coverage. The Heavy Cruiser is slow, but heavily armored, and its often used as a phisical protection for Carriers, as they can withstand more punishment. RESOURCE COLLECTOR Mass: 40000 tons Armor: 10800 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 300 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: none RU Cost: 650 Available from: mission 1 The ships you need to collect resources. Totally unarmed and slow, but decently armed, Resource Controllers must be defended against anything. RESOURCE CONTROLLER Mass: 79000 tons Armor: 13600 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 300 m/s Special Action: can support Strike Crafts Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive RU Cost: 680 Available from: mission 3 Controllers are used as mobile drop points for Collectors. Slow, unarmed and decently armored, Controllers need protection as Collectors do. Every Controller has eight hardpoints for Strike Crafts (three per side, for Fighters, and 2 uder the nose, for Corvettes) ; it also one of the first vessels not needing refuel and with complete hyperspace capabilities. Later, Controllers can be replaced with Carriers, has they are more armored, have self-defense guns and two hardpoints for Collectors, plus the ability to build vessels. PROBE Mass: 40 tons Armor: 800 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: medium Max Velocity: 4000 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: none RU Cost: 30 Available from: mission 1 A small device used for long-range reconaissance missions. Once the Probe as been launched, there is no way to change its trajectory, nor it is possible to move it once it has reached its intended position. It is also impossible to decommission built Probes, store them in docking bays or the collect them for hyperspace jumps. GRAVITY WELL GENERATOR Mass: 65000 tons Armor: 8000 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 325 m/s Special Action: traps Fighters and Corvettes Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive Gravity Generator RU Cost: 800 Available from: mission 9 Gravity Well Generators are capable of trapping Strike Crafts in strong gravity fields. The gravity doesn't affect other ships as their engines are too powerful for this relatively small ship. CLOACK GENERATOR Mass: 22000 tons Armor: 6000 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 325 m/s Special Action: Cloack Required Tech: Capital Ship Drive Cloacking Device RU Cost: 500 Available from: mission 13 Identical to the Gravity Well, but its cloack field will affect all ships within range. Cloacked ships can be detected by Sensor Systems, but they will automatically releav themselves when firing. If a ship decloacks and then decloacks, Ion Cannons and projectiles will still hit and allocate damage, but missiles will probably lose their lock-on. PROXIMITY SENSOR Mass: 40 tons Armor: 800 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: very high Max Velocity: 1000 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Proximity Sensor RU Cost: 50 Available from: mission 10 An upgrade of the Probe, the Proximity Generator featurs a small reactor and thruster to change course during flights and even to moe after it has been deployed. Think to it as a Scout without weapons, and built only for reconaissance. SENSOR SYSTEM Mass: 2900 tons Armor: 6000 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 280 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: Proximity Sensor Sensor System RU Cost: 800 Available from: mission 14 The Sensor System is pratically a large, semi-mobile antennae capable of detecting cloacked ships and Capital and Super-Capital ships within the map. This won't give you the chance to see them with the camera system, but you'll know that there are such ships on the Sensor Manager. It cannot detect Strike Crafts at long ranges; it will also be a favourite target for your enemies, so take care of it. RESEARCH SHIP Mass: 11000 tons Armor: 4500 Firepower: none Coverage: none Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 280 m/s Special Action: none Required Tech: none RU Cost: 700 Available from: mission 1 You can build a maximum of six Research Ships. Once linked, these ships will effectively become a semi-mobile research station. Purpose of these ships is clear, so I won't bother you in useless descriptions; however, it is remarkable that a single technology can be researched in more than one laboratory (just click once more on the technology to be researched) and that a group of ships can handle different researches. MOTHERSHIP Mass: 5000000 tons Armor: 160000 Firepower: 7500 Coverage: 60% (six mass drivers spread all along the hull) Maneuverability: very low Max Velocity: 50 m/s (only in multiplayer) Special Action: none Required Tech: none Available from: mission 1 An huge Ship capable of building any other class of ship present int he game, MotherShip class vessels excluded. If you lose it in single player, you'll lose. Lose it in multiplayer without any Carrier under your control and you'll lose. It is well armored, but unable to move if not by hyperspace (in single player; during a multiplayer match the MotherShip can move at a very sluggish pace). It is protected by six small mass drivers located along the hull (two on front, one on each side and two on rear); they are powerful enough to repel attacks made by Strike Crafts, but even a large number of Heavy/Multi-Gun Corvettes will be hard to fight off; the MotherShip can build one type of unit at once, meaning at you can build an Interceptor, a Defender, a Carrier, a Destroyer and an Assault Frigate togheter, if your resuorces allows it. It has two docking hardpoints for Resource Collectors and can accept up to 40 Fighters and 20 Corvettes in its docking bays. Frigates cannot dock with the MotherShip for repairs. ---------------- --KUSHAN SHIPS-- ---------------- CLOAKED FIGHTER Mass: 40 tons Armor: 150 Firepower: 10 Coverage: 10% (two forward-fixed mass drivers) Maneuverability: high Max Velocity: 775 m/s Special Action: cloaking Required Tech: Fighter Drive Fighter Structure Cloaked Fighter RU Cost: 35 Available from: mission 12 A strange looking Fighter with the capability to cloak. This ability grants it to pass unseen from any standard sensor; only Sensor Systems can detect Cloaked Fighters, but it decloaks when fires. DRONE FRIGATE Mass: 60,000 tons Armor: 16,000 Firepower: 4,900 Coverage: 100% (24 drones with one mass driver each) Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 325 m/s Special Action: drones Required Tech: Frigate Drive Frigate Structure Drone Tedchnology RU Cost: 800 Available from: mission 6 Uhm...This Frigate should be useful against Strike Crafts, only if you get used to the drones; when activated, 24 drones will create a sphere around the Frigate herself and will attack any craft daring to pass near the Frigate. Useless, however. ----------------- --TAIIDAN SHIPS-- ----------------- DEFENSE FIGHTER Mass: 75 tons Armor: 300 Firepower: none Coverage: 80% Maneuverability: high Max Velocity: 875 m/s Required Tech: Fighter Drive Fighter Structure Defense Fighter RU Cost: 85 Available from: mission 12 A Strike Craft developed to destroy incoming enemy shots with its small energy gun. This gun cannot arm other vessel's armors and the fighter itself is useless. Better to use resources for Interceptors. DEFENSE FIELD FRIGATE Mass: 400 tons Armor: 17,600 Firepower: none Coverage: none (though field covers 100% of the ship) Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 325 m/s Special Action: defense filed Required Tech: Frigate Drive Frigate Chassis Defense Field RU Cost: 800 Available from: mission 6 The bigger version of the Defense Fighter...and useless as its smaller cousin. Useless. Build Ion or Assault Frigates instead. --------------------------------------------------------------- --TAIIDAN/KUSHAN AND INSTALLATIONS (enemies in single player)-- --------------------------------------------------------------- RESEARCH OUTPOST (from mission 10) Mass: 2,000,000 tons (extimated) Armor: 100.000 (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: none (extimated) Max Velocity: none (extimated) A deep-space research outpost with enough rear armor to withstand radiations from an active SuperNova. It has docking points for Strike Crafts and Frigates, but it hasn't the ability to produce them. HYPERSPACE INHIBITOR FIELD EMITTER (single section; from mission 14) Mass: 60,000 tons (extimated) Armor: 20,000 (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: very low (extimated) Max Velocity: 150 m/s (extimated - note that this is the revolution speed) A Hyperspace Inhibitor Emitter is composed of eight of these sections; they slowly rotate to create a gravity effect which is amplificated by particular emitters in each section to deform the hyperwave. It is significantly bulkier than the Renegade's own device, but more armored and with larger range. ----------------- --RENGADE SHIPS-- ----------------- The renegades, or Kadesh Nebula inhabitants. Their forces are based on strike crafts but their capital ships can be a nasty surprise. SWARMER Mass: 8 tons Armor: 400 Firepower: 43 Coverage: 4% Maneuverability: very high Max Velocity: 1500 m/s Cost: 25 RUs Thanks to Barrengate (neobios@comcast.net) for the Swarmer stats. He caputred one in mission 7 and sent me a screenshot when the Swarmer was docked in the Mothership. Highly manueverable fighter. Though its more or less a normal Interceptor, the great number of them will make them deadly. Really small fuel tanks; destroy the Fuel Pods to stop them at once. ADVANCED SWARMER Mass: 80 tons (extimated) Armor: 150 (extimated) Firepower: 50 (extimated) Coverage: 20% (extimated; two forward-fixed mass drivers and two plasma bomb launchers) Maneuverability: very high (extimated) Max Velocity: 875 m/s (extimated) A Swarmer with two guns and two additional plasma bomb launchers, used only against Capital or bigger ships. Can be recognized by its yellowish exhaust and orange parts. FUEL POD Mass: 30,000 tons (extimated) Armor: 10,000 (extimated) Firepower: 65 Coverage: 10 % (one mass driver on stern turret) Maneuverability: medium (extimated) Max Velocity: 450 m/s (extimated) Nothing much to say. Unarmed refuelling station for Swarmers and Advanced Swarmers. Ver 3.X addition: the Fuel Pod is a mistery. As the Multi-Beam Frigate of the same race (read below), this ship is much smaller than all ships in its class; it should be a Frigate, as it has six hardpoints to refuel fighters, it is not fuel limited and it has hyperspace capabilities and can be captured (two Salvage Corvettes); however, it leaves the same trail has Fighters and Corvettes, it is big as a Taiidan Salvage Corvette and has the same firepower of a Repair Corvette. MULTI-BEAM FRIGATE Mass: 40,000 tons (extimated) Armor: 10,000 (extimated) Firepower: 600(extimated) Coverage: 20% (extimated; six fixed-forwad Ion Cannons) Maneuverability: medium (extimated) Max Velocity: 350 m/s (extimated) You'll see only few of these ships. And if I think it's better for you. Six (6) Ion Cannons, all mounted forward, in 2 groups of three, in each "wing". Seek and destroy. Rather than "firepower+armor", these crafts seems to be "firepower+agility". Also, they tend to be more effective than other Ion Frigates against Fighters and Corvettes. "MUSHROOM" CAPITAL SHIP Mass: 700,000 tons (extimated) Armor: 70,000 (extimated) Firepower: 200 (extimated) Coverage: 50% (extimated; one forward-fixed Ion Cannon and four mass drivers on frontal turrets) Maneuverability: low (extimated) Max Velocity: 400 m/s (extimated) Special Action: disable hyperspace generators I do not know the designation of this ship, nor if it is a real MotherShip or something like a Carrier; the fact is that this ship looks like a mushroom, so I'll call it in that way. It is not heavily armed, though it has an Ion Cannon on its "top" and can produces Swarmers and Fuel Pods; never seen Multi-Beam Frigate coming out from one of these ships, but they should come from somewhere. It is fast and manueverable as most Super Capital Ships and has the ability to block hyperspace jumps. Ver. 3.X addition: I'm not still sure if the Ion Cannon I saw during my very first campaign was an error or what. However, I'm sure that there are four mass drivers at each cardinal point of the frontal "capella". ----------------- --TURANIC SHIPS-- ----------------- BANDIT class interceptor Mass: 70 tons Armor: 75 Firepower: 65 Coverage: 5% (single massi driver on the nose, fixed forward) Maneuverability: very high Max Velocity: 780 m/s It can matches standard Kushan/Turanic Interceptors in large groups; it is the fastest and most widely used pirate craft. THIEF class corvette Mass: 660 tons Armor: 1.200 Firepower: 200 Coverage: 10% (single mass driver on nose sponson turret) Maneuverability: high Max Velocity: 550 m/s Standard Turanic Corvette; not a real problem, its armor is a bit thicker than an Interceptor's one but less versatile. BRIGAND class missile corvette Mass: 775 tons Armor: 1.300 Firepower: 320 Coverage: 60% (two missile launchers) Maneuverbility: high Max Velocity: 500 m/s If the Thief was a mediocre Corvette, the Brigand is an excellent one. Its missiles can wreak havoc in fighter formations and allows the Corvette to fire from long range. It is no match for Capital Ships with anti-Strike Craft weapons, however. ASSASIN class ion array frigate Mass: 13.550 tons Armor: 3.500 Firepower: 4.800 Coverage: 6% (single fixed-forward Ion Cannon) Maneuverability: low Max Velocity: 245 m/s Special Action: cloack Swarm them with strike crafts (especially Attack Bombers). The Ion Array Frigate is like any other Ion Cannon Frigate, though its cannon is a bit more powerful and slightly less agile and fast. LORD class attack carrier Mass: 109.000 tons Armor: 58.000 Firepower: 7.500 Coverage: 40% (2 forward fixed Ion Cannons, 4 mass drivers, front, on turrets) Maneuverability:low Max Velocity: 235 m/s This particular Carrier-class vessel is catalogated as "attack carrier", as its weapon systems are more efficent than the other Carriers currently in service: it features a forward-fixed Ion Cannon and it is well protected by projectile turrets mainly mounted on sides and bottom. The maneuvarbility can pose a problem, as the Lord can efficently aim its cannon against Capital Ships, and the turret complements can pose more than a threat for Strike Crafts. Like all Carriers it can produces units, but I've never seen one building Frigates: the AI keeps building Corvettes. The best way to attack it is to target rear quarters and top. Do not understimate its Ion Cannon. Ver. 3.X Addition: while replaying the game as a Taiidan, the Lord from mission 4 got too near the MotherShip and started firing. To my surprise, it fired two Ion Cannons. Also, there are four turrets on the nose of the craft, capable of full motion. It appears that the Lord class was scaled down for HomeWorld Cataclysm, the main source for its statistics. ----------------- --BENTUSI SHIPS-- ----------------- BENTUSI TRADE SHIP Mass: 600.000 tons (extimated) Armor: 120.000 (extimated) Firepower: at least 15.000 Coverage: at least 40% (3 ion cannons) Maneuverability: medium/low Max Velocity: 250 m/s (extimated) Intergalactic traders. They are very mysterious and have the most exotic technologies you can pay for. Though the Taiidans are rulers of the whole galaxy, the Bentusi could be more powerful than them...as their Trade Ships show. Three Ion Cannons, high maneuverability for a ship of this tonnage, largo cargo decks, powerful hyperdrive...probably this ship is comparable to a Carrier-class ship. BENTUSI CARGO BARGE Mass: 4.000 tons (extimated) Armor: 5.000 (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: medium (extimated) Max Velocity: 400 m/s (extimated) This small Frigate-class ship is intended for short hypersapce travels and in-system travels. Probably it has no armament, devoting all possible space to cargo bays. ----------------------------------------- --ALIEN SHIPS and OTHER FOREIGN OBJECTS-- ----------------------------------------- ALIEN VESSEL (from mission 9) Mass: unknown Armor: 20.000 (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: very low (extimated) Max Velocity: immobile (extimated) This alien vessel of unknow origins is totally immobile, but has the particular ability to capture Capital and Super-Capital Ships. Bentusi are particularly affected by this effect. Other purposes are unknown. DAWG (from mission 13) Mass: unknown Armor: 500.000, or even undestructible (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: medium (extimated) Max Velocity: 350 m/s (extimated) This particular vessel can be inserted into the Frigate class. It is basically a tug with the ability to override any Capital and Super-Capital ship eletronic defense, disable its engines and weapons and then steal it to place the newly acquired ship in the Karos Graveyard. It doesn't appear to have hyperspace abilities but it is probably indestructible. AUTOMATED GUN (from mission 13) Mass: unknown Armor: 10.000 (extimated) Firepower: 2.000 (extimated) Coverage: 2% (extimated; one mass driver fixed forward) Maneuverability: low (extimated) Max Velocity: immobile (extimated) Fixed defense stations with the only ability to turn in all direction to target any unknown object. The gun mounted by these "turrets" is quite devastating, mostly due to its high firing rate. JUNKYARD OFFICE (from mission 13) Mass: unknown Armor: unknown Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: none(extimated) Max Velocity: immobile (extimated) A piece of an unknown starship where lies a Comm Repeater. It is unknown if the Daw recieve its orders from this place or if it thinks on its own. LARGE ASTEROID (from mission 15) Mass: 500.000 (extimated) Armor: 200.000 (extimated) Firepower: none (extimated) Coverage: none (extimated) Maneuverability: very low (extimated) Max Velocity: 250 m/s (extimated) A very large asteroid with an engine powerful enough to partially move it, implaneted by the Taiidans. ************* 8-WALKTHROUGH ************* As you may have noticed, during the installation HomeWorld requires a special code to be activated: I WON'T SEND THIS CODE TO ANYONE. And this, too: HomeWorld has NO codes, except the string options found in the next section. However, this always made the game unbearlably unstable to me. Use them as your own risk; I won't remburse any kind of damage, nor will Relic, Sierra or sites hosting this document will. You use those strings at your own risk. For race purposes, I consider as you are playing with Kushans. You'll always start with your MotherShip, 7 Scouts and one Resource Collector. The game has been finished in normal difficult. MISSION 1: THE KHARAK SYSTEM Mission Objectives: + Harvest Resources + Build Primary Research Ship + Destroy the Drones Using a Formation + Destroy the Drones Using a Tactic + Capture the Drone with a Salvage Corvette The MotherShip is ready. The whole Kushan race is awaiting its departure from the giant Scaffold orbiting around Kharak. This mission is very simple. It will allow you to further improve your skills with the game. Simply do what the male voice orders you: immediately build a Research Ship and a Salvage Corvette; research Fighter Chassis and Corvette Drive in the Research Ship and have the Resource Collector harvest any possible resource. The Scout will have to destroy a group of 9 Drones first, using a Formation (go for the X or Claw one), then a group of 16 Drones with Tactics. Then use your Salvage Corvette to retrieve the single Drone. Build five Interceptors or retire all Scouts to build ten Interceptors; Resources will be too low for construction of other ships, so use them for fighters. Once the Salvage Corvette has retrieved the Drone, the hyperspace module will be fully charged. Order your fleet to dock with the MotherShip and let the journey begin. MISSION 2: OUTSKIRTS OF KHARAK SYSTEM Mission Objectives: + Send a Probe to Investigate + Protect the MotherShip + Salvage the Khar-Selim + Defend the Salvage Team + Defend MotherShip + Destroy Attacking Forces The first hyperspace jump will bring you to the outskirts of the Kharak system, to rendez-vous with the support vessel Khar-Selim, which has passed the last ten years travelling on standard drives to tune your hyperdrive. As the MotherShip will emerge from hypersapce, order your Collector to harvest resources. Fleet Comand will alert you that it is possible that the fleet mis-jumped and will start hailing the Khar-Selim on all frequencies. Sensors will pick up the ship's automated beacon. Before sending a Probe, be sure to have at least two Resource Collectors and a strong group of Strike Crafts; as the Research Ship will be ready to begin development of Corvette Chassis and Heavy Corvette Upgrade, you'll may want to wait until at least 5 Heavy Corvettes are ready. Keep your ships near the MotherShip, and do not send any of them toward the Khar-Selim. Position at least 5 Interceptors on the left side of the MotherShip. Once you are ready, build a Probe and send it near the Khar-Selim. From the wreckages of your suport vessel unknown enemy ships will emerge, and will start to fly toward your MotherShip. Order your units to destroy all incoming enemy ships (8 Interceptors divided into two waves, the first composed of 2 fighters, 2 Corvettes and one Missile Corvette), then repair and substitute any ship needing it. Fleet Comand will order you to direct a Salvage Corvette to the Khar-Selim to retrieve its flight recorder. Place half of your Fighters between the MotherShip and the Khar-Selim, while the rest will remain with your MotherShip; a group of Corvettes will escort the Salvage Corvette to the Khar-Selim and back. Salvaging operations will take few seconds; after the Salvage Corvette has finished, other waves of enemies will try to destroy the Corvette. Have your forces fend off any attack; use your fighters to locate the enemy Carrier before the Salvage Corvette arrives at the MotherShip. From now on, Corvettes and Interceptors will defeat any Strike Craft coming from that Carrier while Scouts attack it; use evasive tactics to minimize losses. After the Corvette has docked, the MotherShip will play the last entry from the flight recorder: before being destroyed, the Khar-Selim tried to broadcast an abort signal for your hyperdrive test, but it was too late. Now you'll have to destroy the enemy fleet. Order your Corvettes to attack the enemy Carrier with the Interceptors, and have the Interceptors destroy any enemy Strike Craft. The Carrier will retreat soon. Call back all your forces, repair and refuel them, and if all resources on the map have been harvested, engage hyperspace for immediate return to Kharak. It is also reccomandable to have at least two Salvage Corvettes. MISSION 3: RETURN TO KHARAK Mission Objectives: + Defend the Criotrays + Capture an Enemy Ship with 2 Salvage Corvettes + Salvage the Criotrays Hostile units belonged to Corvette and Fighter classes. The MotherShip will return to Kharak to alert the planetary missile defense and for final touches to its systems. Once the MotherShip emerges from the hyperspace, everyone sees a dreadful show: the scaffold and any other orbiting facility destroyed, and Kharak is being consumed by a firestorm. The only suriving structures are the cryotrais near you, and one of them is suffering a massive malfunction. First, order your Collectors to harvest the few resources near the wreckages of the scaffold, and move the Salvage Corvette near the Criotrays. Form the usual Scout/Interceptor/Corvette groups and move them near the trays too. The Criotrays are under attack by four ships, different from those you encountered at the Khar-Selim. Tactical suggests to capture at least one of those ships to know what happened. To capture a single Frigate you'll need two Salvage Corvettes; I suggest not to try to simply order your Corvettes to move in and capture a ship or they will be destroyed at once; also, the game will not react well to any enemy ship you'll capture aside the first one, so capture just one (that's it only one Frigate in this mission until mission 8; read that mission for further informations). Order your Strike Crafts to attack the Assault Frigates: fighters are good to draw them away from the Criotrays while Corvettes fires from behind, below or from sides to maximize damage. Once three Frigates are down, order to dock to your fighting Corvettes and Interceptors and order your Scouts (or Interceptots if you don't have any) to engage the last Frigate while your Salvage Corvettes capture it; the best way to draw fire from the Corvettes is to use evasive tactic until the Corvettes are docked with the Frigate. Now dock all your fighters, replace any loss and have the Reasearch Ship study the Capital Ship Chassis technology and watch the recording of the captured ship. !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! Discovered a bug in this mission, in every version of the game. It is possible that the Criotrays will be under attack by only three ships, with one of them damaged. If this happens, and you are able to salvage all 6 Criotrays, the mission won't end as the game AI won't recognize the sixth Criotray as salvaged. Unfortunately, the only way I've found to eliminate this problem is to let the Taiidan ships destroy at least on e of the Criotryas, and then following with the mission. !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! Now use your Salvage Corvette to recover all surviving Criotrays (it is relatively easy to save them all); I suggest to issue the salvage order when the previous Cryotray is going to be "incorporated" into the MotherShip, or the queue will eventually screw up the game, obliging you to replay the mission. You should also have some spare resources; build a second Resource Collector and if you have something left at least one Assault Frigate; don't worry if you haven't any or enough, the next mission will allow you to increase your units' numbers and quality. Once all Criotrays are secure, jump toward your next mission. MISSION 4: THE GREAT WASTELANDS Mission Objectives: + Harvest + Protect Fleet + Destroy the Enemy Carrier before It Leaves Secondary Obectives: + Build and Position a Resource Controller The commander of the captured enemy ship has revealed that the fleet which destroyed you planet was a frontier guard of a vast interstellar empire, and your race has violated a 4000 years old treaty forbidding to develop hyperspace drives. Before hunting down the remainings of the fleet, however, you'll have to refit and increase number of your fleet; course has been directed to a deep-space asteroid belt. Begin to harvest resources; build a Resource Controller and move it near the Collectors to improve harvest productivity. Remember that you'll have to manually move the Controller near the Collectors everytime they move from a deposit to an other one, or it will be nearly useless. Resume procution of Assault Frigates; build at least two of them, and save all remaining resources for after. Sensors will pick up a fast-moving MotherShip-class signal directed toward your MotherShip. Power reading are off the scale (It's manifestating! The Lance! Pull back the...ehm, sorry, wrong series...if you understood the joke, mail me, no prizes are awaiting you). The ship will stop in front of your MotherShip. As it didn't fired first, the ambassador will dock with the unknown ship to establish communications. This ship belongs to the Bentusi, the Unbounds, interstellar traders; they ahve just delivered an Exchange Unit to the ambassador in a gest of good will; with this Exchange Unit you'll be able to buy new technologies exchanging them with harvested resources. The technology being offered is vital, the Ion Cannon (whenever you are playing as a Kushan or Taiidan, the Bentusi will offer this technlogy). As it costs only 500 RUs, buy it immediately. If think that the Bentusi will remaing there as long as you do not buy Ion Cannons, but I'm not sure. Tegger Better (teggetwo@hotmail.com) says that if you are not quick in buying the technology, the Bentusi will leave. As the Exchange has been concluded, the Bentusi will leave, telling you that everything that moves is easily eard in the void (everyone knows that everyone can ear your scream in space), and will alert you that the Turanic Raiders, serves of the Taiidans are coming and should not know that you have seen them. Now that you have access to Ion technology, build at least four Ion Cannon Frigates and keep them all near your MotherShip, including the Assault Frigates. Move your Research Ship somewhere in front of the MotherShip and order your Salvage Corvettes to dock and keep them inside. Use your Strike Crafts to fend off any Turanic attack and try to locate the enemy Carrier: this time this Carrier mustn't run away, or will alert the Taiidan fleet you are seeking to destroy of your existence. Also, when located, the Carrier will call for reinforcements: two Ion Array Frigates will hyperspace near the Carrier itself and four other Frigates of the same type will jump near your MotherShip: recall your Strike Crafts and order your Frigates to destroy all enemies sorrounding the MotherShip. Once they have been destroyed, direct all your forces against the enemy Carrier, which will constantly come toward the MotherShip to use its Ion Cannon. That Carrier MUST NOT escape. Have your Strike Crafts engage the Ion Array Frigates near it and have your Frigates fire on the Carrier. As the Carrier collapses, replace any loss and be sure to harvest all resources in the map. If you can, build now two other Ion Frigates and retire any Scout and replace them with Interceptors or Heavy Corvettes. Now prepare youself to face your first large-fleet combat. MISSION 5: THE GREAT WASTELANDS Mission Objectives: + Investigate at the Asteroid Belt + Destroy all Enemy Vessels Secondary Obectives: + Destroy Enemy Resource Collectors The first hyperspace jump of your race had devastating effects: Kharak, the planet you thought was your homeworld is burining; the renmants of your race are sleeping, unaware of the situation and the MotherShip and its fleet is chased by two alien races; for now, however, there is one single objective: destroy the fleet that consumated your world. As soon as you came out from hyperspace, begin to harvest the resource-rich asteroid belt and position your Frigates in front of the MotherShip. Position your fighters near the Frigates for cover and move the Corvettes in the right-most asteroid belt (with the MotherShip at the bottom of your Sensor Manager). Do not send Probes or other fighters to recon the center of the belt: your Resource Collectors will automatically reveal the ships an the Taiidans will start to move against you. Not sending a Probe immediately will also grant you few resources to increase your fleet and to research Plasma Bomb technology, that might be useful to produce cheap anti-Capital Ship fighters. When Tactical will inform you that the ships are the ones which destroyed Kharak, begin to move your Frigates toward the center of the belt, with the fighters few meters behind. Order your Corvettes to move along the right asteroid belt, but do not engage them in direct combat until I told you so. The Taiidan fleet is composed of 2 Ion Frigates, 6 Assault Frigates, a Support Frigate, a Carrier, Interceptors and Defenders; the latter class of ship is brand-new, and will be protecting the enemy Carrier; as soon you'll make contact with them, Tactical will inform you that engineers are ready to start to study the technology. The enemy fleet will also start to move toward the MotherShip, with the Destroyer as spearhead. Ion and Assault Frigates will be slightly below it, and the Support Frigate will remain with the Carrier. Your Corvettes should have identified the enemy Resource Collectors: destroy them at once, then redirect the Corvettes into the main battle. Have them destroy the Defenders and any other unit around the enemy Carrier, and then harras it until your Frigates have finished with the enemy Capital Ships. I suggest to take out the Assault Frigates first, then concentrate on the Destroyer while your Fighters take out the Ion Frigates and enemy Interceptors. Now that the enemy Capital Ships are down, take care of the Carrier and any renmanents of the Taiidan fleet. Before hyperspacing, be sure to collect all resources and replace all your losses. Build 10 Attack Bombers, and be sure to have all your Strike Crafts locked in the MotherShip. (note: I know, the best thing would be to capture the enemy Destroyer or at least the Frigates, if not even the Carrier; however, read mission 8 for a good reason to avoid this) MISSION 6: DIAMOND SHOALS Mission Objectives: + Protect the MotherSHip You have succesfully decripted the data from the captured Taiidan ship: it appears to be an Imperial broadcast, full of unknown words, sounds and mysterious outposts, but each one looks very frightening. To avoid them, the MotherShip will change its path and will pass through a Nebula, but before, through an asteroid field. The objective of this mission is simple: destroy any asteroid that threats your MotherShip. The MotherShip itself can withstand few hits, but your Frigates will have to shoot down any incoming object. Note that resources will be available only when few asteroids have been destroyed, and if they impact with your Frigates, it is most likely that you'll lose them. Ion Cannon Frigates, with their firepower performs better than Assault Frigates in this job. Once the first wave of asteroids have been eliminated, when you have a chance, release your Strike Crafts and help the Frigates in their job: the worst is yet to come. Super-Capital Ship Drive will become available after some minutes, and the help a Destroyer can give will prove valuable. Build two or three of them, but be sure to have at least 500 RUs in your stores. After all asteroids are gone, the Bentusi will appear, offering you Drone Technology. This time you'll have a limited time to buy the Technology; if you wait too much, the Bentusi will leave; Drone technology is not vital, but you might want it for some reasons. When the deal is done, Fleet Comand will ask help to the Bentusi for identifying the dangers in this region; the Bentusi don't ear nothing here, and even the Taiidans fear the Great Nebula. No one returns. Once the Bentusi are gone, be sure to have a good Capital/Super-Capital Ship wing (let's say minimum two Destroyers and 9 combat Frigates of various type) and, above everything else, a strong Strike Craft wing, with Interceptors and Heavy Corvette as backbone. Be sure that they will automatically leave the MotherShip once out of hyperspace. MISSION 7: THE GARDEN OF KADESH Mission Objectives: + Harvest Natural Resources + Defend Fleet Secondary Obectives: + Protect Resource Collectors The Bentusi said: "No one returns." The Nebula is incredibly rich in energy and resources. Sensors have problems compensating the energy spikes, and need recalibration. Order your Collectors to harvest, but do not move the Controller. Have all non-combat ships docked (if they can) and move your Frigates in front of the MotherShip, and your Destroyers behind. Your Strike Crafts will be split between the sides of it. A large sensor contact will move toward you; sensor instability makes difficult to identify. The ambassador will meet with an emissary of the unknown ship. This Nebula, as the emissary says, is the Garden of Kadesh, protected for 30 generations from the Unclean by these people; they ask the ambassador if you've come here to stay. As the ambassador apologizes for the intrusion, the emissary will sentence that everyone not willing to remain, will be destroyed. A large numbers of ships will come out from the alien ship, directed toward our MotherShip. The enemy ships will attack your right flank first, so have your Strike Crafts fend off any attack while the Frigates attack the larger ships, the Fuel Pods, essentially Support Frigates. The enemy ship will start a flanking maneuver, trying to go in your rear spot. Ignore it for now. Fleet Comand will also begin to charge the hyperdrive; it will be ready in 8 minutes. Continue to order your Strike Crafts to destroy the enemy fighters ad your Firgates to destroy all Fuel Pods (remeber, stay away from the enemy Carrier). Enemies will also start to attack your Resource Collectors. As soon as they came under attack, order them to dock with the MotherShip or the Resource Collector and move a group of Interceptors to guard them. Enemies will attack the Collectors even if they are near the MotherShip, so pay attention. Scientists will be also able to research Fast-tracking Turrets to build Multi-Gun Corvettes, the best to deal with these swarms of light Fighters. Build at least 10 of those Corvettes. Meanwhile, the enemy Carrier should have completed the flank maneuver: begin to move your Capital Ships behind the MotherShip, but do not attack it. The hyperdrive should be ready now. Dock all your ships and prepare to escape. The hyperdrive wave has collapsed, due to some kind of inhibitor field. You'll have to guard the fleet again until the source is located. Order your Strike Crafts to deal with the enemy fighters while your Capital Ships move toward the enemy Carrier for interception; have some Strike Crafts guard them or they will fall prey of the enemy fighters. The enemy Carrier is the source of the inhibitor field. Order your Capital ships to destroy it, but pay attention to the fighters and the ramming tecnique of the Carrier, continuosly order your ships to change altitude and direction to avoid such attacks. As the enemy Carrier is destroyed or has left the map, the inihibitor field will be disabled. However, before leaving, have your Collectors harvest everything they can and replace your losses. An other Destroyer and some more Ion Cannon Frigates, plus Multi-Gun Corvettes (you can retire Heavy Corvettes for them) will work fine in the next mission. MISSION 8: THE CATHEDRAL OF KADESH Mission Objectives: + Protect the MotherShip + Destroy all Attackers !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! BUG WARNING !!!!!!!! As I stated in all previous missions, capturing enemy ships (aside the Frigate to complete mission 3) will cause a big problem in this mission. Sierra support politely replied to my e-mails telling that I am the only one suffering this problem, but here's my experience: everytime I start this mission and I have even one extra enemy ship with me, the game bombs to Windows. This happens with every version of the game. Also, with patch 1.5 this problem always happens, even without captured ships. This is the only mission where I experienced this problem, and I don't know what to say aside reporting it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! END OF BUG WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE TO THIS PROBLEM: I restarted the game as a Taiidan, and tried to capture as many vessels as possible. In this mission, I arrived with four Ion Array Frigates, one Assault Frigate, one Destroyer and three Multi-Beam Frigates, and the game didn't crashed. However, my MotherShip was destroyed, and had to replay it over. The game still ran, but no orders were accepted, and neither the enemies attacked me. Game version was 1.0. END OF UPDATE The enemy Carrier had a powerful field generator that deformed the hyperspace wave, pratically inhibiting all hyperspace jumps. Also, they hyperspace signature was identical to your own; this is an iteresting question considering that the MotherShip's hyperdrive was reverse-engineered from the Khar-Toba. This jump will bring the fleet out of the Nebula. The fleet is still in the Nebula. Multiple contacts are approaching fast. Three of them are Carriers, each one carrying an inhibitor device. All three have to come down if you want to escape. An alien emissary will ask if you want to join them again. Fleet Comand will state that we have the same hyperspace technology, and the HomeWorld your fleet seek might be theirs as well. The Renegades will start attacking. Group your Capital Ships and assing them an escort, but be sure that the MotherShip and remaining vessels. Do not harvest resources for now, or your Collectors will be destroyed and the defense line too loose. Move your assault group toward the nearest Carrier (should be the one coming from the left), and take it down: the tactic to use is the same of the previous mission, for all three of them. However, the Renegades will have Multi-Beam Frigates with them, so pay attention. Destroy them first before taking care of the Carrier. Each Carrier has 2 of such Frigates defending it. As the first Carrier is down, move toward the nearest to your MotherShip and attack it. Repeat the same tactic and you won't have too many problems. When the second Carrier is gone, the third and its whole escortof Fighters and Frigates will withdraw toward the heart of the Nebula, which has a friendly sensor contact, but it is defenetively not yours. Pursue them, or you won't be able to leave. Order your Collectors to harvest and move your fleet toward the friendly contact. Always have Strike Crafts with your Capital Ships as the Renegades fighters will always try to attack you. Near the heart of the Nebula there are six Multi-Beam Frigates: use your Frigates as a bait and order your Strike Crafts to attack them while your Capital ships reply to their fire and take the brunt of their attack. The remaining Carrier is near the contact. The contact has been identified: it's the Khar-Toba. Metals and structures match the orginal found on Kharak; your origins are the same. Destroy the Carrier, and, as usual, before leaving harvest everything you can. Replace your losses, but do not build any new Capital ship for now, concentrate on Heavy and Multi-Gun Corvettes and Attack Bombers instead. MISSION 9: THE SEA OF THE LOST SOULS Mission Objectives: + Investigate the Anomaly + Destroy the Alien Ship + Salvage the Alien Ship While the Khar-Toba was able to reach Kharak, its sister ship tried to hide in the Nebula. The Renegades started to steal passing ships by trapping them with hyperspace inhibitors. Soon, the Nebula become an off-limits region, and this way of life became the Renegade's religion. The hyperdrive has been disabled, due to an anomaly on the MotherShip's path. This anomaly is an unknown vessel: it doesn't match any profile, and it is sorrounded by some inactive ships of various origins. Begin to harvest resources, build a Probe and send it toward the vessel: as the Probe approaches, you'll see the ships activating and opening fire at the Probe. The ships sorrounding the vessel are 1 Taiidan Missile Destroyer, 2 Taiidan Assault Frigates, 2 Renegade Multi Beam Frigates and 1 Turanic Ion Array Frigate. Move one or two Support Frigates (if you have) and the Attack Bombers (20), Heavy Corvettes (10) and Multi-Gun Corvettes (10) near the ship, sligthly on its left side (I considered the left side from the vessel's nose; the nose is the part pointing toward your MotherShip), away enough to avoid activation of the ships sorrounding the vessel. If you have any Interceptors, use them too. Do not move any Capital or Super-Capital ship near the vessel or you'll lose control of them, and they will be used by the vessel as a reinforcment of its defenses. The plan is to use your Corvettes as a decoy for the Attack Bombers, allowing you to disable the vessel and therefore capturing 6 Capital Ships, 4 of them incorporating unknown technologies. The plan is simple: from the left side (slightly from the rear, but, in general, the left side is not defended; the real threats are the Assault Frigates and the Missile Destroyer, the other Frigates do not have enough agility to track down Corvettes or Fighters), order your Corvettes to engage the vessel with an evasive tactic, and one or two seconds after, order the Attack Bombers to attack the vessel with a neutral stance (if attacked with an aggressive mode, the vessel will tend to smash on the vessel). The key to this plan are the Bombers, so just have the Corvettes fight on their own while you maneuver the Bomber group: all attack runs should be issued with a neutral tactic, then a quick retreat in evesive mode opposite to the Missile Destroyer, and then repeat until the vessel has been neutralized. Now you'll have six brand-new ships at your command. Also, research section will be able to replicate missile technology, allowing you to build Missile Destroyers. Build one, and send a Salvage Corvette to retrieve all possible datas on the vessel. As the Salvage Corvette returns to the MotherShip and docks with it, the Bentusi will appear, offering you Super-Heavy Chassis technology in exchange of the informations you retrieved. Gravity Generator technology will be also available. Fleet Comand will ask the Bentusi for help again; they will reply that war is not their way, but even if the Taiidans rule the Empire, they have to respect the Galactic Council decisions: they will bring your matter to the Council for debate. Before leaving, build a Carrier and two Support Frigates, if you do not have one. You can ignore replacing the Strike Crafts for now. MISSION 10: SUPERNOVA RESEARCH STATION Mission Objectives: + Destroy Research Outpost + Destroy the Carrier + Destroyer All Enemies The fleet is about to enter the outer limits of the Taiidan empire; the defense is very strict, but there is a weak point: a deep space research station near an active SuperNova. It is time to hunt the enemy that hunted us. The SuperNova produces high powered radiations that can destroy Strike Crafts in seconds. Also, the radiations are so high that Capital Ships will take damage if they do not move in the veins of cosmic dust in the area. Harvesting resources in this area is extremely dangerous, not only the radiations will constantly damage Collectors, Controllers or Carriers, but you'll discover that the Taiidan are using mines, which are deadly even to Destroyers. As I always reach this mission with a good fleet and enough resources, I do not harvest there. However, if you need, use the Carrier instead of the Controller, as it will repair the Collectors when docked. Also, be sure to strictly follow the Collectors and place one other Support Frigate near the Carrier to repair its damages, then retreat to the MotherShip when the Frigate's health bar reaches the yellow. Build a second Support Frigate and have them escort the Carrier: one will repair the Carrier and one other the Supoort Frigate; switch roles sometime. To reach the Research Outpost, there are two main routes: one takes the upper dust vein, while the other the lower: I suggests the lower, as the upper is heavily mined; travelling along the lower vein will let you avoid this risk and take by surprise the garrison at the end of the upper vein. The lower vein is protected only by 5 Assault Frigates. Remember to order your Support Frigates/Repair Corvettes to follow your assault group and repair them as soon as their health bar reaches the yellow level. However, when the lower vein ends, you'll have to go to the upper vein to destroy a group of Super-Capital Ships, formed by a Heavy Cruiser and two Destroyers. Once this group is gone, move all your Frigates on the upper vein, repair and begin to travel toward the Research Station. It is defended by a large number of Defenders (immobile: an easy prey even for Ion Cannon Frigates), 2 Assault Frigates, 3 Ion Cannon Frigates, 5 Assault Frigates slightly below the base and one Carrier, with Mutli-Gun Corvettes in it. Destroy the Ion Cannon Frigates first, then the first lines of Defenders to enter the zone protected by the Research Station. Attack and destroy the Carrier before it leaves, then split your group: the Destroyers will take care of the Defenders while the Frigates will destroy the enemy Frigates. Now destroy the Outpost. In this mission, you can capture an enemy Heavy Cruiser and a Carrier, but the SuperNova radiations will force to use one Support Frigate to constantly repair the Salvage Corvettes; also, if the ships are damaged, there's no way to repair them, so the possibility of an explosion is very likely. Don't worry, you'll be able to capture more enemy ships on later missions. Hyperspace when ready; I suggest the fast docking option for minimizing SuperNova-produced damages. Ver 3.X addition: it is possible to capture the enemy Heavy Cruiser located in the uppermost dust vein, with no damage to the Salvage Corvettes: the path they'll follow (a stright line toward the Mothership) is protected by the cosmic dust, so they won't recieve damage. However, after the Destroyers are gone and the Cruiser siezed, you can move all remaining (if any) Salvage Corvettes to replace the destroyed ones and two Repair Corvettes to fix them up. MISSION 11: TANHAUSER GATE Mission Objectives: + Destroy the Taiidan Fleet You have intercepted a coded Taiidan transmission: it shows an huge machinery, probably a living computer, speaking to an humanoid figure: the Kushan fleet is the matter of the discussion: if you should enter the inner core of the Empire, it could be a disaster; also, seems that Taiidan spies reported that the Bentusi are helping you, and they must not bring the matter to the Council. Hyperdrive has been disabled: you have recieved a distress call from the Bentusi: they are under attack by Taiidan forces. The Bentusi must be defended: immediately send your Capital Ships to engage the Taiidan formation, and position your Salvage Crovettes halfway between the MotherShip and the Bentusi Carrier. The Taiidan formation is composed of one Heavy Cruiser, 4 Ion Frigates, 2 Assault Frigates and three Destroyers; if you are lucky, the Bentusi will be able to destroy a Frigate or heavily damage a Destroyer before your arrival. Also, the Heavy Cruiser is a very tempting prey to capture. Have your Capital Ships engage the Frigates and the Destroyers; the Heavy Cruiser should disengage from combat as soon as it detects the Salvage Corvettes; if it doesn't, have your Missile Destroyers fire on it to attract it attention. The easiest way to capture it is to lure it near the MotherShip, moving the Salvage Corvettes behind the MotherShip for protection. This will also make the Cruiser fire on the MotherShip instead of the Corvettes: this is when you have to order them to dock with the Cruiser: one or two will be probably destroyed by its turrets, but two Corvettes are enough to stop the Cruiser from moving and firing, allowing you to build more Salvage Corvettes to finish the operation. Meanwhile, your Capital Ships should have destroyed all other Taiidan ships: move them away from the Cruiser or they will keep firing on it, wasting your efforts in capturing it. As the Cruiser will be under your control, the Bentusi will thank you revealing the origin of your race: during the First Times, a war disrupted the old empire; the conquerors were merciful but exiled the losers from their homeworld, hoping to erase their image from the memories of everyone. Crowded in gigantic Freighters, the losers became their journey: may ships were destroyed by imperfect technology, others established in the Great Nebula, but only few of these were able to reach a remote planet at the far end of the galaxy; the Guidestone you are carrying testimonies your origins: it was sculpted from a piece of rock from the Angel Moon near Hiigara, your homeworld. Many propheticized your return, and probably the time has come. Before leaving the area, be sure to have harvested everything and that your Strike Crafts are locked down in your Carrier or MotherShip. MISSION 12: GALACTIC CORE Mission Objectives: + Protect the Fleet + Destroy the Source of the Gravity Field + Protect the Defector The hyperdrive has been disabled due to a malfunction. The wave generation will be interrupted to allow diagnostics and necessary repairs. As soon as the MotherShip will come out from the hyperspace, it will be sorrounded by Gravity Generators: no Strike Crafts will be able to fly until those Generators are active. The first thing to do is to eliminate all combat Frigates near the MotherShip. Gather your Capital Ships into a wall formation and destroy the two Assault Frigates, then concentrate on the approaching Missile Destroyer. When those ships are down, you will be able to destroy the 3 Gravity Well Generators; each Generator is backed up by two Support Frigates, which will repair them as soon as they take damage. To speed up the procedure, destroy the Support Frigates first, then the Gravity Wells. Now the Strike Crafts will be able to move. The situation is this: two enemy Carriers are harvesting resources, heavily protected by Strike Crafts and Frigates (a Support Frigate, 2 Ion Cannon Frigates and two Assault Frigates for each Carrier). Also, an Heavy Cruiser and its escort (6 Ion Cannon Frigates, some Heavy Corvettes and Defenders), are patrolling the right area of the map. They start the mission in the rightmost resource field, and will proceed toward the left of the map; however, if the Carriers come under attack, the Cruiser and its group will move toward your MotherShip. Order your Collectors to harvest, but pay attention where they'll go: the rightmost deposit (the one where the Cruiser started) is mined. First, deploy all Strike Crafts and position them aruound the MotherShip: move all your Capital Ships except one Destroyer (or two/three Ion Cannon Frigates) toward the Cruiser and its group, backed up by a Carrier and six Salvage Corvettes (if you want to capture the Cruiser. If not, have the Corvettes dock with the Carrier and keep it near the MotherShip). The tactic to capture the Cruiser is the usual: destroy all its escorts, then use your Capital Ships as decoy while the Salvage Corvettes dock with it. Two of them will allow you to disable the Cruiser, useful if other Corvettes have being destroyed during the capture operation. An other Taiidan Destroyer will hyperspace in: this time, the Destroyer and its Captain, Elson, will ask for your help: they are pursued by other Taiidan Ships and the Destroyer is badly damaged. Probably your Capital Ships will be too far away to help the Destroyer; use your Strike Crafts for long-range interception of the pursuing ships and the Frigates for close-in defence. The Destroyer will move toward your MotherShip, but won't reply to enemy fire; you really have to save it. The rogue Destroyer is attacked by two Ion Cannon Frigates, two Assault Frigates and one Support Frigate. Engage the Ion Frigates first, then the Assault and finally the Support. As Captain Elson positions his Destroyer near your MotherShip, you will be able to leave the area. However, if you want, you can capture the two Taiidan Carriers and harvest all unmined resources. MISSION 13: THE KAROS GRAVEYARD Mission Objectives: + Dock with a Strike Craft to the Comm Repeater Captain Elson tells the story that lead to an open rebellion toward the Taiidan Empire: after centuries, the Empire became corrupted and decadent; the use of a atmosphere deprivation warhead on your planet was the light that ingnited it; he asks for help to contact the resistance: there is a Transmitter in a wreckage area: once active, the resitance will start attacking the Empire. This mission will allow you to finally research Heavy Guns and therefore build Heavy Cruisers; there is the possibility to research Cloack Generator. To activate the Repeater, a Strike Craft will have to dock with the "Junkyard Office", a piece of ship located in the graveyard. Unfortunately, the Graveyard is well protected by Automated Guns, powerful enough to destroy most Corvettes in few shots. Also Capital Ships will have troubles with them if took too light. Also, all resource deposits are near those guns, and Collectors will surely have hard times. Last, but not least, the graveyard hosts a strange ship, the "Dawg". This ship is invincible (or so it seems), and it has the job to steal ships. All ships stole by this Dawg won't be returned at the end of the mission, so pay lots of attention when moving your ships. The Dawg will emerge from hyperspace throuh a series of portals throughout the map. The lightest-defended side of the Graveyard is the right one (with the MotherShip at the bottom of the Sensor Manager): this mission can be accomplished only with Frigates if you have a good number of them (let's say 9 or more Ion Cannon Frigates) and two Support Frigates (or two Repair Corvettes, if you wish) to repair them, so that you won't risk to lose Super-Capital Ships. Simply move the Frigates from the right side of the Graveyard to the Junkyard Office, then, when the road is free from Automated Guns, send a Strike Craft to dock with the structure, the hyperspace to your next mission. If someone is wondering if it is possible to reach the Office only with Strike Crafts, I'd say that it is possible, but extremely difficult. This is only theory, I do not grant the success of that plan. First, you'll need a large group of Scouts (20), backed up by Interceptors (10/15) and some Light Corvettes (10). Send the Corvettes first, then the Interceptors and finally the Scouts, all with an evasive/neutral tactic, in a loose formation. Scouts should use their special action to get an extra burst of speed, which should be disabled near the Office to maximize the chances of a straight-in docking. The Dawg is not attracted by Strike Crafts, and won't dare to come too close to the MotherShip. MISSION 14: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS Mission Objectives: + Destroy Field Generator Secondary Obectives: + Destroy Hyperspace Portals The data provided by Elson were correct: the homeworld is sorrounded by a network of hyperspace inhibitors that are invisible to sensors. We have to destroy one to get our own access point. The objective is quite simple, but the situation is not. As your Research team allows you, study Sensor Systems and build one Sensor System to have a clearer view of the situation. The Hyperspace Inhibitor Fiel Emitter is directly in front of your MotherShip, sorrounded by enough Ion Cannon Frigates to form a rough sphere around it; also, if you send a Probe or a Proximity Sensor to the Inhibitor, you'll see other enemy ships: a Carrier, 2 Resource Controllers, a Destroyer, an Heavy Cruiser, two Cloack Generators, some Resource Collectors and some Multi-Gun Corvettes. Gather all your Capital Ships in front of the MotherShip; if you have a large number of Frigates, divide this group in two, one with your Super-Capital ships, which will be used as spearhead, the other one composed of all your Frigates, which will serve as a secondary assault force, slightly behind the Cruisers; use Support Frigates to repair all damage ships; Strike Crafts will defend the MotherShip. The Ion Cannon Frigates around the Inhibitor do not form a perfect sphere: on its sides this sphere is more concentrated than on front; the best way to engage as few Ion Cannon Frigates as possible is to travelin a direct line from the MotherShip to the Inhibitor, from below. However, remember that the Ion Cannon Frigates won't remain immobileif they spot your ships on their sensors, they will move to intercept; also, all interception will be made from all sides, so do not relax when you destroyed the single Ion Cannon Frigate you saw; soon, other will come; an usual attack wave is composed by 5 or 6 Frigates. Do not move too fast. Take your time to repair any damage, replace any loss and build some extra ships; this will allow you also to spot the Hyperspace Portals that the Taiidans will establish 10/15 minutes from mission start. From these Portals the Taiidans will send ships as long as you are near them: the usual group sent through a Protal is composed by a Destroyer, Support Frigates, Ion or Assault Frigates (usually 3 or 4 of one only type), Multi-Gun Corvettes, Attack Bombers and Interceptors. They are not really dangerous as you should be able to stop most of the Capital and Super-Capital Ships while they are exiting from hyperspace, or even destroy the Portal before they have completed the passage, resulting in all ships not out yet in being destroyed. There are three Portals: on between the MotherShip and the Inhibitor that has to come down to allow "quiet" harvesting for you Collectors, and two on each side of the defensive sphere arounf the Inhibitor. As destroying these Portals is a secondary objective and they won't send troops as long as you stay away from them, it's your choice; I usually destroy the right one, which seems just to pump troops even if you are kilometers away. Getting rid of the Ion Cannons and all defenses around the Inhibitor should be simple with all fights you had durin the game. The Carrier near the Inhibitor is quite easy to capture as it won't move at all, and will only reply to fire if Salvage Corvettes are approaching. The Heavy Cruiser will act as usual, trying to destroy all Salvage Corvettes near it and ignoring other targets, so having a Carrier nearby will help if you want to capture it. Remember that the Corvettes will follow the shortest way possible to reach the MotherShip, ignoring enemies, so if you want them to reach safely the MotherShip, destroy some Ion Cannon Frigates and have them escorted by Attack Bombers and other Corvettes. Destroying the Inhibitor is quite simple, however, as it rotates, your ships will try to move to always have a clear line of sight to a specific section, often meaning a risk of impact between them and an other section, resulting in losing the ship. Once the Inhibitor is destroyed, harvest all possible resources on the map and concentrate your production on Super-Capital ships. MISSION 15: CHAPEL PERILIOUS Mission Objectives: + Destroy the Object We must assume that the defensive fleet is alerted of our presemce. All vessels ready for maximum efficency. All weapons operating at 100% and actively tracking. Hyperspace has been interrupted. There's a large object in collision course with the MotherShip. Destruction of the Hyperspace Inhibitor alerted the Taiidan and they were able to produce this trap. Impact will be in 6 minutes. The objective of this mission is simple: there's a huge asteroid moving toward your MotherShip and you'll have to take it down. However, the asteroid is protected by a large Taiidan fleet, composed by Attack Bombers, Multi-Gun and Heavy Corvettes, Defenders, 9 Assault Frigates, 3 Destroyers and 9 Ion Cannon Frigates. The first thing to do is to gather all your Capital Ships in a wall formation and proceed toward the enemy. Launch all Strike Crafts you have. Attack Bombers, Heavy and Multi-Gun Corvettes will be especially useful against the Taiidan fleet and the asteroid. The first waves of Taiidan attackers will be the Strike Crafts, not a hard work if you have two or three Missile Destroyers. Then, the Frigates, followed shortly by the Destroyers. Have your Capital Ships engage the Frigates first, then the Destroyers while your Strike Crafts take care of the asteroid. They won't be enough to stop it, so concentrate fire on a single target before engaging an other one. When the Taiidan fleet is down to two Destroyers, have your Super-Capital Ships and half of your Frigates engage the asteroid. It moves slower even than Heavy Cruisers, so Frigates will be surely able to get within firing range. Use your Carriers to deal some damage to the asteroid too and if you have some resources, reinforce your wing of Frigates (larger ships will take too much time). You'll have up to the last second before the impact to destroy the asteroid, even if Fleet Comand alerts everyone of the incoming impact (BTW, the impact will destroy the MotherShip, whatever health it or the asteroid have). If you succeded in destroying the asteroid, harvest all resources in the map and spend all of them to replace your losses and increasing your ranks' number with Destroyers (ignore Missile Destroyers if you have two or more). Ver 3.X addition: apparently, in version 1.0 there is a bug: in my last replay, I had three Carriers (two of them captured) and placed them just in front of the MotherShip, and when the asteroid was near (less than one minute for impact), I ordered them to attack the asteroid. With my surprise, when the giant rock was near the Carriers, rather than first smashing them away (yes, I admit it, tactical error...) and then proceeding for the MotherShip, it just stopped, leaving me the possibility to capture two more Destroyers and finish off all Frigates before concentrating on the asteroid. I don't know if this is a "real" error or just a minor glitch. MISSION 16: HIIGARA Mission Objectives: + Destroy all Enemy Forces "Karan." "You took one step too close to me." Fleet Comand is gone. Emergency Biotech teams are trying to save Karan. The asteroid attack served its purpouse as a delay tactic; sensors show a large number of Taiidan ships, with a MotherShip-class vessel among them. First, move your Resource Controller and all Collectors in one of the nearby resource deposits, and ignore the Carrier above the MotherShip: you'll soon recieve visit from the first group of Taiidan ships, 6 Ion Cannon Frigates from the bottom. Use your Strike Crafts and part of the Frigates to stop them, and move all other combatant ships in front of the MotherShip: an other group of Taiidan ships, this time larger (namely 5 Ion Cannon Frigates, 5 Assault Frigates, 2 Missile Destroyers, 2 Destroyers and one Heavy Cruiser), will attack you. Move the Support Frigates (if you have) near the MotherShip, issuing a support order, so that it will be partially healed, though it won't be enough to stop damages from Taiidan ships. Now concentrate fire one target to quickly destroy it and pass to an other one; when the Strike Crafts are done with the first six Ion Cannon Frigates, use them to destroy the Frigates from the second group while our Capital Ships take out the Destroyers and the Missile Destroyers. If you have Salvage Corvette, use them to capture the enemy Heavy Cruiser, you'll surely need extra firepower in this mission. When this group is gone, Taiidan reinforcments will exit hyperspace above you. DO NOT move your ships to intercept. Repair them, replace your losses and wait. Before the first batch of reinforcments, an other group, identical to the second one, will attack the MotherShip from the front. Repeat the same tactic used with the first group, and prepare to see an other group of Taiidan ships coming out from hyperspace below you. Again, do not move your ships and wait for the third group, which comes from above: it composed of 5 Assault Frigates, 5 Ion Cannon Frigates, 3 Destroyers and one Heavy Cruiser; probably, during this attack a fourth group of Taiidan ships will enter the are, just on top of the MotherShip: this time it is Captain Elson with reinforcments: he's trasferring under your command squadrons Kor and J'ssah (2 Missile Destroyers and 3 Ion Cannon Frigates - I saw the Ion Cannon Frigates replaced by Assault Frigates...when this happened, I got six of them) while his Destroyer and six Ion Cannon Frigates will fight on their own. With Elson's help you should be able to repel this wave; after this wave, Elson and his group will move toward the Emperor MotherShip, located exactly oppositely to your MotherShip. Do not follow him, there's the last group of Taiidan reinforcments still coming from below; this time there are one Heavy Cruiser, 9 Ion Cannon Frigates and 9 Assault Frigates. Move all your Frigates and Strike Crafts toward them, and if they are numerically inferior, send the Super-Capital ships too. Now it is time to destroy the enemy MotherShip. Repair and replace all your losses, then head toward your enemy. Elson will directly go toward the MotherShip, deviating its course only when the enemy Carrier harvesting resources near the Emperor will come within sensor range (or it will attack it...the Carrier itself will be probably destroyed, not before releasing a grup of 12 Multi-Gun Corvettes and 12 Attack Bombers). He should be able to destroy it, but its group will be shattered by the Attack Bombers and the Multi-Gn Corvettes protecting the Carrier. If there are survivors, they will go after the MotherShip: a suicide, but this will allow you to see what kind of defenses the MotherShip has: 3 Heavy Cruisers, each backed up by three Support Frigates, 2 Missile Destroyers and one Gravity Well Generator, plus the MotherShip, with ability to build other units (it will usually produce Interceptors, only when under attack by your forces...I saw the Interceptors perform suicidal attacks against the surviving vessels from Elson's fleet once). The contacts orbiting around Hiigara are only Proximity Sensors, ignore them. When Elson's attack is finished, the suriving Strike Crafts and the Heavy Cruisers (plus their Support Frigate escort) will move toward you at different speed, allowing you to pick them out with concentrated fire one at time. The Missile Destroyers near the enemy MotherShips are not really aggressive, and will reply only if fired upon (or when the MotherShip will come under attack). The Gravity Well Generator can be ignored. As the last Missile Destroyer goes down, attack the MotherShip, ignoring everything exits from its hangars. When the enemy MotherShip is gone, Fleet Comand will recover and the Bentusi will appear with the Galactic Council. The Kushna fleet finally arrived on its homeworld. A place of wonder, for everyone used to the scorching sands of Kharak. All signs of the old Taiidan empire were destroyed, and a celebration marked the beginning on a new era. The Kushan colonists were released from their forced sleep and Karan Sjet, Fleet Comand, survived extraction from the MotherShip's core and was the last Kushan person to set foot on the homeworld. **************** 9-STRING OPTIONS **************** Before anything else, me, Relic, Sierra or the sites hsting this fact will not be responsible for any damage or data loss due to the wrong use of these options. You do it at your own risk. To use these "cheats", you have to add them after the "homeworld.exe" command; to do this, right-click on the HomeWorld shortcut, Properties, Shortcut tab, Destination field; you should see something like this: C:\Progam Files\Sierra\HomeWorld\homeworld.exe or the drive or the directory where you installed HomeWorld. Add these options after the .exe as showed below. Note that you need the options next to the slash and the slash one space away from the .exe: C:\Progam Files\Sierra\HomeWorld\homeworld.exe /1stOPTION /2ndOPTION [...] /4320thOPTION Options are the followings: debug: enable debug mode nodebugInt: disbale int 3 after fatal error and fatal errors do not generate Int 3 before exiting noBG: no background (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) noCompPlayer: no CPU-controlled fleets notactics: disable tactics noretreat: CPU-controlled enemies won't retreat disableAVI: no cutscenes (smacker files) heap: set global memory heap size prepath: set path to search for opening files CDpath: set path to CD drive freemouse: button F11 enables free mouse ignoreBigfiles: exclude infos from *.big files logFileLoads: create log with all files loaded disbaleKatmai: disable KNI support forceKatmain: force to use KNI support noSound: disable sound effects noSpeech: disable voices waveout: force mixer to write to Waveout dsound: force mixer to write to DirectSound driver noFilter: disable bi-linear filtering (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) noSmooth: disable polygon smoothing (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) nilTexture: disable textures NoFETextures: disable front end textures stipple: enable software renderer (stipple alpha) noShowDamage: disable damage effects (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) sw: resets rendering system to defaults at startup fullscreen (default option): force fullscreen with software rendering window: force window mode noBorder: window with no border slowBlits: force slow screen blits device (sw, fx, d3d as options): force one of the rendering modes (software, OpenGL or Direct 3D) gl: force OpenGL rendering d3d: force Direct3D rendering nohint: disbale OpenGL perspective correction hints noPause: pause with Alt+Tab disabled (Windows feature) nominimize: disable minimize Windos feature dockLines: show dock lines gunLines: show gun lines light Lines: show light lines in debug mode boxes: force render to bound bowties on the ships textFeedback: enable text feedback in game commands aiplayerLog: enable AI player logging determCompPlayer: CPU-controller players are deterministic gatherStats: enable gathering of stats captaincyLogOff: turn off captaincy log file captaincyLogOn: turn on captaincy log file logOff: turn off network logging file logOn: turn on network logging file logOnVerbose:turn on verbose network logging file statLogOn: generate log on file intOnSync: generate Int 3 when a sync error occours debugSync: enable autosave and packet recording forceLAN: force LAN support, regardless of version testNIS: enable NIS testing mode using [nisFile] testNISScript: enable NIS testin mode using [scriptFile] demoRecord: record a demo demoPlay: play a demo packetRecord: record packets used during multiplayer games packetPlay: playback packet recording disablePacking: disable use of packet textures if available smCentreCamera: center SM world plate at about 0, 0, 0 rather than the camera closeCaptioned: close captioning 640 (default option): 640x480 resolution (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) 800: 800x600 resolution (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) 1024: 1024x768 resolution (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) 1280: 1280x1024 resolution (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) 1600: 1600x1200 resolution (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) d16 (default option): 16 bit color depth (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) d24: 24 bit color depth d32: 32 bit color depth (can be accessed in the options/graphic/advanced menu during the game too) truecolor: try 24 bit mode before 16 bit ************** 10-SUBMISSIONS ************** Andrew Traviss (ninja_squirrel_@hotmail.com) sent me this: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Great FAQ, it pointed out some things I didn't think about before. I never used a Defender before, and never realized how useful they are, I also didn't know that Ion Array Frigates could cloak, which would have helped, because I managed to hijack 5 of them. Also, a point you might like to note is that Multi-Beam Frigates place a really low targeting priority on Salvage Corvettes, so it is easy to steal them. I stole 11. Imagine what theat did to fighter *evil grin*, though friendly fire is an issue with them, as they lack fine firing control. You also misrepresented Repair Corvettes. They CAN repair capital vessels. Also, Heavy Cruisers and Carriers require 6 Salvage Corvettes, don't they? Speaking of all this hijacking, I did not experience the same error as you did on Mission 8, I was free to be a hijacker for the entire game -P How did you beat Mission 14 so easily? It is proving impossible for me. I cannot seem to limit the enemy attacks to 4 or 5 ships. Every time I hit a portion of the sphere, almost the entire hemisphere comes after me. In the formations section, I have something you might like to add The spehere formation is perfect for cloak generators. It is a special case. Any group with a cloak generator in it puts the generator in the center of the sphere, regardless of other ship classes present. Claok generators are also useful for capturing enemy capital ships, by allowing salvage corvettes to latch on unfettered ^_^ I try to steal every capital ship I encounter, it saves resources for Strike Craft and Corvettes. In the end I had 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Destroyers, 1 Ion Cannon Frigate, 1 Missile Destroyer, 11 Multi Beam Frigates, 5 Ion Array Frigates, and a Resource Collector that weren't mine. I might add that stealing the cloak generator from Mission 12. There are no proximity detectors among the enemies in that mission, so it is possible to take their carrier and frigates if you do it properly, and it also spares you the considerable 700 expense to build one. Haha, that's alot, I know. Have fun with it, I hope you found it interesting, and I hope I hear back from you sometime. I like to discuss this game, and I don't know many other players. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- and this: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cool. I checked, by the way, and it is 5 salvage corvettes to grab a heavy cruiser or carrier. I should pay more attention lol. And how did you get the Ion Array Frigates to cloak? I tried and they won't do it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In Homeworld Ion Array Frigates do not cloack, they do it in Homeworld: Cataclysm. General question: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I need to know the title of the end song from Homeworld and the group that did it. Thanks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It is performed by Yes, and it is called Homeworld: The Ladder. An original game should contain a small directory with few HMTL pages with a mini-interview, lyrics and overview of the song; it is also diplayed at the very end of the credit movie. ******************* 11-CREDITS and MISC ******************* The first credit goes to Relic, for Homeworld. Then to Sierra for having published it. The third is to me, Briareos Kerensky (briareos@inwind.it), the fourth to GameFAQs (and all sites showing this FAQ with my permission) and the fifth to you for reading it. For now, no one sent me mails about this FAQ, but if someone writes something interesting, I will put his or her name here. + Barrengate (neobios@comcast.net) for the Swarmer stats. + Andrew Traviss (ninja_squirrel_@hotmail.com) for his e-mails. I would like to thank my new computer, which allowed me to play HW at 1600x1200x32; the official HomeWorld site for Tech/Ships' English names; the HomeWorld unit viewer and its funny descriptions of the ships; Leader for having translated only game's texts (knowing how their dubbers mauled MechCommander and Falcon 4.0...); Fate's Warning, the main soundtrack of the long hours where I wrote this document; I would like to thank my girlfriend, but I haven't one. Sites authorized to show this FAQ: + GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) + Wolf Art (my site, visit it! http://www.geocities.com/khan_briareos/index.htm) + Esprit Network (http://cataclysm.esprit-str.com), translated in French + Cheat Happens (http://www.cheathappens.com) To ask permission to post this document, just send a mail writing down the URL. To contact me, write at briareos@inwind.it; ICQ UIN is 40534369; Odigo ID is 264286, though you won't recieve answer to such messages (I'm just bored of all the ICQ crap and Odigo's tendency of cutting to half your effective speed 'cause it has to check if the world is still working). Write only about this FAQ or if you have a cute(female)friend/sister to introduce. Copyright (c) Briareos Kerensky 2001/2002. Reproduction and translation of this document (as a whole or parts of it) in any mode without permission is strictly forbidden. All names and marks are proprieties of respective owners.