Homeworld

Related Topics:
Homeworld_Series :: Homeworld_2

This article is about a computer game. For a more general term used in science-fiction, see Core Worlds.

Homeworld is a computer game released in 1999 developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It is best known for its full three-dimensional movement and engrossing storyline.

Backstory

The Kushan people lived on a planet called Kharak, a desert world so inhospitable that only the polar regions were settled. They are a tribal society, organized primarily into independent sociopolitical entities called Kiithid (singular: kiith), each of which embodies unique religious and cultural traits. For the great majority of Kharak's past, there was war between at least two kiithid at a time. The major kiith include Gaalsien, Naabal, Paktu, Sobaan, S'jet, and Manaan.

Plot

Kharak's extremely inhospitable climate eventually led many Kushan to question how they evolved on it in the first place, and genetic studies eventually proved that they hadn't. The question of where they did come from was answered by a malfunctioning satellite launched to chart the outer regions of the Kharak system, which instead scanned the surface of the planet, penetrating to a depth of 75 meters and detected metal in the vast, inhospitable reaches of the equatorial deserts. An expedition sent to the site discovered a huge alien ship, the Khar-Toba (First City). Within the Khar-Toba was found an artifact that would change Kushan life forever: an artificially-created stone, etched with a crude galactic map. A dot on a spiral arm clearly represented Kharak; a line connected this dot to another on the inner rim, a dot labeled with a word so ancient that it predated the kiithid themselves:

Hiigara. "Home." All but the most radical Kiithid eventually united toward the goal of reaching their true homeworld and discovering the reasons behind their departure. No one on Kharak could decide just what the journey would entail, so the decision was made to construct a ship that could handle anything. The resulting vessel, known only as The Mothership, is over 30 kilometers long and required 60 years to build. It demanded huge advances in science and engineering and every resource Kharak could muster. 600,000 colonists were frozen in cryogenic sleep for the journey and an internal construction bay and hangar allowed for rapid construction of all fleet auxiliaries and provides berths for the Mothership's strike craft. The bridge crew was staffed day and night by the best tacticians, navigators, diplomats and scientists Kharak had to offer. As no computers could be developed that were powerful enough or could be trusted completely to coordinate all this activity, Karan S'jet, a young female neuroscientist, integrated her physical body into the Mothership to serve as its living CPU. She now serves as Fleet Command.

The player receives this information via both an in-game introductory movie (rendered in hand-drawn, black-and-white animations) and, in far greater detail, through the game's manual. Gameplay begins with the launch of the Mothership.

After the departure of the Mothership, Kharak is attacked by the Taiidan, a large interstellar empire which now controlled Hiigara and viciously opposes the Kushan attempt to reclaim their homeworld. The remaining surface population of Kharak, several million in number, is annihilated by atmosphere deprivation weapons. The Mothership quickly salvages the six cryo trays, which are now all that is left of the Kushan people, and swears revenge on the Taiidani fleet.

Soon after, the Kushan survivors encounter the Bentusi, a benevolent group of traders who provide technology and information. They also encounter the Turanic Raiders; space pirates who have infested trade lanes for millennia, and the enigmatic Kadeshi, who defend their chosen nebula home with fanatical zeal. All the while the Kushan continue to research new technologies and spacecraft advances, eventually amassing a significant fleet, and face increasing hostility from the Taiidan Empire.

After the Mothership and the Kushan rescue a Bentusi trade ship from Taiidan forces, the Bentusi reveal their history: the Kushan once ruled a mighty empire from Hiigara, but were overthrown by the Taiidan. The Hiigarans were exiled to Kharak (a small segment stayed in a nebula, eventually becoming the Kadeshi) and were forbidden to ever leave. The Taiidan Emperor, claim the Bentusi, will stop at nothing to prevent the Exiles from reaching their goal. The Kushan also find help in the unexpected form of Taiidan defector Captain Elson, who provides needed intelligence and military support.

In a final battle above Hiigara, the Kushan fleet destroys the Taiidan Emperor and succeeds in reclaiming their Homeworld. Captain Elson assists by providing the Kushan fleet with reinforcements, as well as fighting a wave of Taiidani with his own fleet.

Gameplay

Homeworld is known both for its massive online community and single player elements. Gameplay, both single and multiplayer, is complicated beyond the real-time strategy standard by the addition of a third dimension of unit positioning. While Homeworld's user interface has a greater learning curve, it allows players full control of their ships.

In the single-player campaign, the player may choose to play as either the Kushan or Taiidan; the other race will act as the game's antagonists. The difference is primarily cosmetic (although each race does feature two unique ships), as the story and vantage point will remain unchanged regardless of the player's choice of race. It should be noted that in the subsequent Homeworld games, the Kushan are the protagonists.

The general flow of gameplay online resembles other real-time strategy games, such as Dune II and the Command & Conquer series. The player scouts the map, harvests resources and builds units. Since the game takes place in space, there are obviously no 'structures' as in most RTS games; however, the Mothership, carriers, and research ships essentially serve the same purposes, allowing the player to construct and upgrade units. It further differs from many contemporary RTS games by having only one resource type aptly named Resource Units (RUs), although RUs may be mined from asteroids or nebulae. Additionally, Homeworld does not place strict limits on unit counts as many other games do, instead having a per-class cap which allows for players to retain large groups of smaller vessels while adding more powerful ships later (many popular games, such as Warcraft, have support units which force players to compromise and strike a balance between unit classes).

Ships in the game range from agile strike craft to lumbering capital ships. Each unit serves a particular function and represents a tradeoff in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost.

In the single player game, Homeworld uses a unique fleet inheritance concept (aka persistent fleet), in which all ships from a previous mission remain in the next. Therefore, it is theoretically possible for a ship built in the first mission to still be present at the end of the game. This feature, coupled with the limited availability of resources in each level, forces players to make hard decisions on the make-up of their fleets. However, some players find that this feature can make the game very hard, and dooms a player who starts off weak in force to failing some very tough missions later in the game. Some of these include fighting massive guardian fleets, or trying to destroy a massive incoming object whilst your mothership is stranded, with no ability to move out of the way. These missions require raw firepower, and sometimes a player will not have enough. This aspect can also make the game become progressively easier if the player is skilled enough to finish a level with a larger fleet than was intended; capturing just a few strong vessels on each level, for example, will allow a player to amass a very powerful force as the game progresses. Others missions require delicate maneuvering of your fleet, such as moving a fleet through dust pockets to protect the fleet from damage by a supernova's radiation. The ultimate goal of the single player mode is to find the Homeworld of the chosen protagonist race.

The multiplayer community for Homeworld was large from its very beginnings in 1999. At its peak in 2000 and 2001 there were more than 18,000 players registered to the Ladder. Several dozen clans were active at the peak, since its release more than one hundred individual clans have been founded. There are still hundreds of active players and a handful of large clans. Today the original community of dedicated players still survives at the official Relic forums and on IRC.

Musical Score

With the exception of a song by the rock group "Yes" entitled "Homeworld", most of the music in the game is ambient, matching the lonely but beautiful environment of deep space. Also worthy of note is the inclusion of Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, the choral version of his Adagio for Strings. A 13-track CD soundtrack was bundled with the Game of the Year Edition of Homeworld and features the original soundtrack by Paul Ruskay.

Developmental History

Homeworld was undoubtedly influenced by the many RTS games, books, and movies which preceded it. The epic storyline is reminiscent of titles such as StarCraft and Dark Reign. Homeworld's battles, involving hundreds of small swarming ships and dozens of larger ones, were inspired by George Lucas's Star Wars. The voice of the game's narrator also appears to be identical to the narrator from the animated Sci-Fi series Robotech, further reinforcing the game's space-opera atmosphere. The concept of a large mothership carrying exiles back to their homeworld has much in common with Battlestar Galactica.

Many of the starship designs were inspired by the Terran Trade Authority books, published by Hamlyn Publishing Group in the 1970s, and illustrated by artists Peter Elson and Chris Foss. Both are honored by getting special credit mentions in the game, and one of the game's characters is named after Peter Elson.

Homeworld revolutionized the RTS genre and paved the way for later 3D RTS games such as Legions of Iron and Far Gate.

There is also a strong Middle-Eastern/Islamic/Jewish influence to the feel of the game. This is evident in the music, as well as the culture of the Kushan. There is some good evidence that the Kushan practice a religion very similar to Islam. Especially notable is the Kushan name for their Homeworld, Hiigara, which strongly resembles the word Hegira, which refers to the Prophet Muhammed's historic flight from Mecca. In addition the Kushani follow a path that goes into realms similar to the areas of interest during the Jewish exodus, including Kadesh, and the background story is similar to the Babylonian exile. However, a lot of what is apparently an Islamic/Arab touch may in fact be secondary influence filtered through Frank Herbert's Dune series.

Homeworld is also full of symbology, with specific symbols for the Kiith in the game as well as the symbol of the Kushan, which is their ancient homeworld and two eagle's wings. These symbols are mostly mentioned in the historical background for the game, but in multiplayer were used to distinguish one player from another.

Mods

Homeworld was extensively modded by a large group of fans of the genre. Despite many hardcoded limitations, almost every aspect of the game was altered from the basic models and textures to the in-game interface, music and effects. The most popular mods were based on well known sci-fi series. Macross, Babylon 5, Star Trek and Star Wars mods were all very popular at the height of Homeworld's popularity, as were many other mods based on other shows and original ideas from fans. Because of the modular nature of the file system in Homeworld, even the most non-technical user could modify simple ship statistics to change the gameplay, leading to a large modding community surrounding Homeworld. After the release of Homeworld 2 many teams either migrated to the new platform or moved away from the Homeworld series altogether.

Sequels

In September 2000, Barking Dog Studios released a stand-alone expansion, Cataclysm. Taking place 15 years after The Return, the story focuses mainly on Kiith Somtaaw, and their struggles to contain a powerful parasitic entity known as the Beast.

A sequel, Homeworld 2, was released in late 2003. In the game, the Hiigarans (Kushan) must defend their homeworld from the Vaygr, a powerful, nomadic raider race.

Relic released the source code to Homeworld in late 2003, which allowed unofficial ports of the game to other platforms, such as Linux and Mac OS X. ^*

Reception

Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including IGN's game of the year award for 1999. The game was praised for its eye-catching, movie-like graphics engine, large battles, appropriate soundtrack, compelling storyline, and revolutionary 3D interface.

Homeworld is a good example of a game that exhibits aesthetic completion. Rather than going for the 'realistic' graphics that initially impress but inevitably decay, Homeworld shoots for very clean lines and textures, somewhat abstract yet visually compelling. Such an aesthetic was not easily achievable given the technology of the day, and continues to impress.

Awards

E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best Strategy Games

References

Homeworld
Homeworld Historical and Technical Briefing (Manual)

External links

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