Homeworld 3 cover
Homeworld 3 screenshot
PC Epic Steam
Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy

Homeworld 3

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Homeworld 3 Update 1.31 Notes
This small update addresses an issue reported after the release of Update 1.3.


  • Addresses an issue causing players equipped with Intel Arc GPUs to crash on boot.

Update 1.3 Available Now! Somtaaw and Taiidan faction DLCs Available Now!

Dev Update: Unpacking The Biggest Improvements Coming To Update 1.3
Hi everyone,

On November 21, we are releasing a mothership-sized update for Homeworld 3 that contains a gargantuan number of improvements, fixes, and some entirely new features. We are grateful for your continued support and patience as we’ve worked to bring you this update!

The full patch notes for Update 1.3 (spoiler alert: they’re big), released alongside this Dev Update, detail every change both big and small. But we’d like to provide our insight into Update 1.3’s biggest and most exciting gameplay improvements and new features. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so we’re going to divide this Dev Update into two major sections:
  • Combat and Balance Overhaul
  • Skirmish & War Games Changes, and Other Improvements

Lastly, at the end of this Dev Update, we will share an announcement about future support for Homeworld 3 and a special farewell message from the development team at Blackbird Interactive.

Combat and Balance Overhaul


With Homeworld 3, it was important to us that we evolved the series’ iconic space combat in exciting new directions. Our team has been working continuously to fine-tune that experience based on player feedback. Updates 1.1 and 1.2 introduced a ton of adjustments, but there was still more work to be done to bridge the gap between Homeworld 3’s combat and what you enjoyed about earlier Homeworld titles.

To that end, we’re very excited to reveal that Update 1.3 will introduce a near-total overhaul of combat. When we began this effort, our objectives were to:
  1. Increase the importance of strategic decision making
  2. Make those decisions more intuitive and relevant to the outcome of battles
  3. Eliminate inconsistencies between how you’d expect units to react to orders and how they were actually behaving


Creating more strategic depth


In Update 1.3, we’ve completely redone how damage and armor works. This is a sweeping overhaul that is complemented by a comprehensive re-balancing of nearly every single unit in the game. All of this in service of giving each unit a meaningful niche to fill, with more clearly defined strengths and weaknesses.

The reworked armor system now groups ships into four varieties, each offering more overall damage mitigation.
  • Light Armor - 10% mitigation
  • Medium Armor - 20% mitigation
  • Heavy Armor - 30% mitigation
  • Mothership Armor - 50% mitigation

What’s more, we’ve reworked how directional damage is applied. Now, attacks that strike the aft of a ship grant a much more potent 2.5x multiplier. We’ve also removed the bonus multiplier for attacks that strike the side of a ship to better emphasize the advantage gained from clever positioning.

In order to ensure these balancing changes hit the mark, we’ve been working closely with a group of dedicated playtesters from our community. They’ve been instrumental in helping us tweak each and every unit in the game so they fill more distinct and satisfying niches — far too many changes to cover in this Dev Update. So, today, we’ll share just a few examples.

Since launch, we’ve heard from many of you that you’d like strike craft to be more survivable and formidable — especially the Hiigaran Bombers. Bombers now have more health, increased speed, a reduced attack cooldown, and increased missile damage and AoE.

What’s more, we’ve shortened the distance before strike craft will turn around to re-engage after making an attack run while also giving them more maneuverability. This means all your strike craft will spend much more time actively engaging hostiles.

We’ve also rebalanced ships that we felt were uncharacteristically effective against strike craft to give fighters more of a… fighting (sorry) chance. Hiigaran Torpedo Frigates, for example, are now less accurate against strike craft (and corvettes, too). Capital ships across the board will also be less effective at targeting strikecraft, and some frigates now have reduced rotation speed so they’ll struggle to keep fast-moving fighters in their sights as easily as they once did.

Be sure to check out the patch notes to see granular details of how we rebalanced each unit.

More intuitive ways to control your fleet


Homeworld has always been a very complex and demanding game. While we’re proud of the work we’ve done with Homeworld 3’s controls, we heard from many of you that there were some very specific pain points that you’d like to see addressed.

First, a simple one: We’ve added a Reinforce targeted ship ability to all ships — allowing you to seamlessly integrate new ships into existing formations. When instructing a unit to reinforce another ship, that unit will adopt the assigned formation, stance, and current target of the ship being reinforced. Do note, that you’ll still need to manually add units to control groups since that is a separate layer of controlling and organizing your fleets.

Somewhat related, another item of community feedback we’ve addressed is that ships will now automatically adopt the stance of the ship that produced them.

Now, let’s talk about bandbox attacking — or giving an attack order to a group by dragging a selection box around a group of enemies. In Update 1.3, we’ve implemented an entirely new logic for target selection and prioritization. Instead of a large formation focus-firing on a single ship, units given a bandbox attack command will now seamlessly split into smaller formations and spread fire more intelligently and evenly across the targeted units. Ships will also prioritize targets that they are most effective against. As a basic example, a group of Bombers will now prioritize frigates and capital ships when given a bandbox attack order against a mixed enemy fleet.

Reducing inconsistencies in unit behavior


This last pillar of our combat overhaul is a sweeping number of smaller, individual adjustments that — on their own — might seem insignificant. But together, they dramatically improve how units respond to orders and behave in various combat scenarios.

For starters, we have revisited the retaliation range of all units in the game. Retaliation range is a key component of target acquisition and ship combat behavior. Now units will more consistently acquire new targets during combat, more consistently engage encroaching enemies when their stance is set to aggressive, and more consistently defend themselves when their stance is set to neutral.

How ships behave in combat is broadly defined by what we internally call “attack styles.” Think of this like the base personality of a ship — how does it juggle competing priorities like tracking targets, firing, avoiding incoming damage, and so on? In the case of ships like Battle Cruisers and Destroyers, their attack styles were a little too hyperactive. We’ve fine tuned them (among others), so they’ll spend less time maneuvering and more time punching enormous holes in enemy ships.

We have also made a number of other improvements to ship behavior to make ships feel more responsive to player commands and enable a greater level of tactical control in combat. This isn’t one single change, but rather a lot of edge-case bugs that sometimes resulted in player commands being overruled by various automatic ship behaviors. That is no longer the case, resulting in ships now being more reliable and consistent.

Skirmish, War Games, and Other Meaningful Improvements


Since launch, we’ve been hard at work making Skirmish a more rewarding and meaningful experience for players who love the thrill of fighting one another (or squaring off against computer opponents).
We’ve already spoken about some of these changes, so we’ll focus more on stuff we haven’t revealed. But, just to close the loop, Update 1.3 introduces Hyperspace jumping in Skirmish, allowing you to quickly teleport your fleet around the map at the cost of RUs — just be wary of enemy ships with a Hyperspace Inhibitor as they’ll pull you out of Hyperspace early and into a potential ambush!

We also previously spoke about some changes that we were making to resourcing to heighten strategic decision making, particularly in Skirmish (do note, that some of these changes also are present in Campaign and War Games). At a glance, these changes include:
  1. Lowering the rate at which resourcing units gather RUs by 10 percent.
  2. Significantly lowering the default amount of starting RUs in Skirmish
  3. Doubling the cost of Resource Controllers in Skirmish and Campaign


For Skirmish, these changes will emphasize the need for smart decision making — especially in the early minutes of a match — The classic RTS strategic decision trichotomy: do I invest more resources in developing my economy, building combat units to attack or defend, or in progressing my tech? Do I push heavily in one direction to try and gain an advantage over my enemy in the early, mid, or late game or do I take a more balanced approach?

Play some Skirmish matches and you’ll quickly notice we’ve entirely reworked the tech trees for both Hiigaran and Incarnate factions. Now, Research functions like a classic tech tree, where ships and abilities are spread across branches that you gradually unlock piece by piece. In addition to the Research Queue added in Update 1.2 (which made it so you can only research one upgrade at a time), you’ll now feel further empowered to make meaningful strategic decisions on how your fleet evolves over the course of a match.

Your mothership also comes with an apocalyptic new research option: The Fusion Missile. This endgame superweapon unleashes hell on a targeted ship and anything unfortunate to be close by, making it a thrilling (and terrifying) ace up the sleeve for endgame fleet battles.

Something else that we haven’t discussed: We’ve reconfigured the Standard and Hard AI difficulties so they’re much more capable of delivering a beating to unprepared players. What’s more, we’ve also added AI Personas that change the personality and unit preferences of AI opponents. These options exist separately from difficulty and bring even more variety to computer matchups. The Sentinel, for example, favors expensive, heavy-hitting ships while the Swarm persona prioritizes cheap, fast ships to overwhelm foes.

War Games tech tree revamps and new features


In Update 1.3, all players can enjoy several new features and meaningful updates to War Games aimed at addressing player feedback.

First, we’ve added 45 new Artifacts to obtain — including Ultimate Artifacts. These powerful new Artifacts only become available after you’ve collected the associated Pattern Artifact and one of each available Upgrade Artifact. Each one partially cancels out the negative effects of their requisite Artifacts, opening up new possibilities for ever-more powerful ships.

We’re also injecting some much-desired variety into War Games missions with Interstitials. These new “mini-missions” have a chance to appear between each of the traditional War Games maps and will throw some fun curveballs your way. The Shop, for example, will let you buy Artifacts at a steep price (hopefully you saved up your RUs!), while the Bombing Run interstitial rewards you for destroying enough targets within the allotted time.

Since we’ve rebalanced tech trees everywhere else, we didn’t want War Games’ fleets to feel left out. In particular, we heard from many of you that the Platform, Raider, and Remastered Fleets could use some work so we’ve restructured their tech trees entirely. Across all fleets, however, more ships and ship abilities now require you to first research them. This, in addition to the resourcing changes mentioned above, will inject some more challenge and strategy into the early minutes of War Games matches.

Other Improvements


One piece of feedback we have heard frequently and consistently since launch was that the pace of the Campaign was too fast. Players wanted the freedom to continue playing in a mission after the objectives were completed (similar to how many missions worked in earlier Homeworld games). Many players felt like there was no room to catch your breath, no opportunity to take your time to repair or rebuild your fleet, and no time to gather the remaining resource nodes or chunks of salvage scattered around a map after your hard-won battles.

We have gone back through the Campaign, and, where it made sense narratively, given you control over when you proceed to the next mission. There are some missions where we have not made this change as it didn’t make sense with the mission narrative. However, by and large, you will now have more control over when to move the Campaign forward after each mission.

It is also worth noting that many of the improvements in combat behavior, unit responsiveness and tactical decision making — along with balance tuning and resourcing changes — have directly benefited Campaign gameplay. While many of these changes have increased the overall difficulty of the Campaign (particularly on Hard), your ability to affect the outcomes of individual engagements through smart, tactical decision making is also improved.

Expanding the potential for modding


One last thing we’d like to mention: A number of improvements have also been made to the Homeworld 3 mod tools, such as the ability to inject custom Unreal Blueprints and the inclusion of Homeworld 3’s Campaign Blueprints. This should further empower the modding community to make more awesome creations. Be sure to check out the patch notes for more details!

Thank you to our community


This update marks the completion of the revised road map we announced back in September. We’d like to take this opportunity to share that Update 1.3 will be the last major content update for Homeworld 3.

To be clear, this means that while we won’t be expanding Homeworld 3 with more content, we still want to ensure a positive experience for players. Gearbox will be carefully monitoring incoming reports and will address any widespread critical issues that may arise in the wake of Update 1.3’s launch. Homeworld 3’s multiplayer functionality and mod support (including the in-game mod browser) will remain online.

We’re extremely grateful to the players who have accompanied us on this journey and hope that Update 1.3 delivers an even deeper, more satisfying Homeworld experience.

We’d now like to share a personal message from the development team at Blackbird Interactive:

“Blackbird Interactive was born from Homeworld and the enduring passion of its community. We dreamed of creating a spiritual successor which, by a twist of fate, became a reality when Gearbox Publishing acquired the rights to Homeworld and enlisted our help in continuing the franchise with both Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld 3. It was a dream come true.

But it is now time to close this chapter and begin a new one. Revisiting the Homeworld universe has had a profound impact on just about every person at Blackbird. To that end, we’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Gearbox Publishing for bringing us in to work on Homeworld with them. We wish them all the best.

We also want to thank you. The fans who, through your support and dedication, have helped Homeworld persevere across so many decades. It was an honor to contribute to this unfolding saga.

We’re deeply grateful for those of you who have supported us through launch and beyond, and who took the time to articulate thoughtful, constructive feedback. We read and listened to every word of it and everyone involved worked like hell to address as much of it as possible. Update 1.3 is the culmination of that effort, and we sincerely hope that you enjoy its many new features and refinements. They wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Until next time,
Blackbird Interactive”


We’re hopeful that these sweeping changes and updates will make Homeworld 3 a game you’ll return to — especially as the modding community only continues to grow in capability and ambition (seriously, if you haven’t checked out the modding section in the Homeworld Discord server, we urge you to take a look at all the exciting projects in the works)!

Thank you for taking the time to read this Dev Update. We’re very excited to deliver Update 1.3 later this week and to see your response to its many additions.

- The Homeworld 3 team

Homeworld 3 Update 1.3 Notes

Homeworld 3 Patch 1.3 Update Notes


Instructions on how to access the Patch Preview for 1.3 here: www.homeworlduniverse.com/how-to-access-the-1-3-patch-preview/

Important Disclaimer - Campaign Checkpoints


  • Mid mission checkpoint saves (including autosaves) from Patch 1.22 and earlier will not be compatible with Patch 1.3. Old mid mission saves will be visible in the save/load menu, but you will be unable to load them, and will need to restart the mission to continue your Campaign progress.
    • Campaign progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated (e.g. if you had reached Mission 07 in a previous playthrough, you will still be able to continue from the start of Mission 07)
    • Persistent fleet data is still compatible and is not invalidated
    • War Games progression data is still compatible and is not invalidated
    • Game settings & preferences is still compatible and is not invalidated


Game Patch Highlights


  • All Game Modes:


    • Extensive combat balance tuning:
      • Overhaul and tuning of armor and weapon classes
        • Reworked weapon penetration
        • Reworked directional damage bonus

      • Strengthening unit roles and identities (strengths, weaknesses, counters, etc.)
      • Balance Tuning
      • More!

    • Improvements to ship combat behavior and unit responsiveness
    • Tech tree balancing pass
    • Resourcing changes
    • New “Reinforce” ability added in all modes

  • War Games:


    • 45 new artifacts
      • Ultimate Artifacts!

    • New Interstitials System
      • 3 Interstitials encounters
      • 9 New challenges

    • Updated Tech Trees for War Games Fleets

  • Skirmish:


    • Hyperspace & Hyperspace Inhibitor abilities added to Skirmish mode
    • Improved the pacing and flow between early game, midgame, and endgame play in Skirmish, with a focus on strategic decision making
    • Tactical Missile abilities added to both the Hiigaran Mothership and the Incarnate Titanship
    • New Skirmish Tech Tree
    • New AI player “Personas”
    • Heightened AI player difficulty

  • Campaign:


    • Pacing changes
      • Added “player controlled mission end” to more missions


New Paid DLC Content Highlights*


*See DLC store pages on November 21st for details
  • 2 New War Games factions each with two War Games fleets

    • Somtaaw faction for War Games
      • 2 new fleets
      • 2 brand new units
        • The Acolyte, a versatile heavy fighter that packs a punch
        • The Storm Frigate, a short range heavy frigate with disabling attacks

      • 32 new artifacts
      • 10 new challenges
      • New emblem


    • Taiidan faction for War Games
      • 2 new fleets
      • 11 new (to Homeworld 3) units
      • 52 new artifacts
      • 10 new challenges
      • New emblem


Fixes, Changes and Additions


Gameplay


  • New “Reinforce” ability added - More information in the Dev Update
  • Bandbox attack orders have been reworked. Bandbox attacks now more intelligently divide their attacks amongst the available targets in response to community feedback. This will result in smaller formations upon initiation and completion of the Bandbox Attack command - More information in the Dev Update
  • Further improvements to the moving while attacking units losing their move commands issue. In particular when the formation leader was destroyed
  • Fixed units that were given move while attacking from overriding their secondary move destination when they re-engage enemies if their initial target was destroyed
  • Retaliation Range pass on all factions: Fixed many units whose retaliation ranges (used for acquiring targets in Aggressive and Neutral Stances) were significantly lower than their Weapon Range (e.g. Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate). These units should now meet player expectations more frequently in terms of when and how they pick new targets and engage enemies
  • Changed attack priorities on some units to prioritize attacks on Resource Controllers and Collectors more often
  • Single Capture Corvettes can now capture enemy ships on their own without needing a second Capture Corvette to help out (though a second one will expedite the process)
  • Newly-built ships now adopt the stance of the ship that produced them
  • Incarnate RCs can now successfully salvage or retire to the Titanship (Incarnate Mothership)
  • Rally no longer utilizes an offset parade formation for the rally destination. Units will now Rally directly to the rally location and group up tightly
  • Reworked the burstfire ability (Swarm Fighters & Railgun Corvettes) to trigger more consistently at all ranges
  • Increased targeted special weapon abilities reliability when targeting enemies behind terrain
  • Fixed lifetime of mines from the Kalan Raider’s Minelayer Corvette
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause units to interrupt their firing cycle
  • Fixed an issue where a group of ships set to “None” formation will change to “Mixed” after giving them a move order
  • Fixed an issue where a small group of ships selected from a larger formation could lose their formation when given an attack order
  • Fixed a rare issue causing ships to forget orders if part of a controlled group which was engaged in combat
  • Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to sometimes turn backwards during and after attacking a target
  • Fixed an issue causing Assault Frigates weapons to stop tracking opponents when a move order was given mid firing cycle
  • Fixed an issue causing the Main Engine Maximum Speed stat value for all ships in the Compendium to be different than in the HUD
  • Fixed an issue causing the queued research costs to not be counted on the projected resource counter in the HUD
  • Fixed an issue causing the Heavy Suppression Frigate’s bottom weapon to sometimes shoot through the ship itself
  • Fixed an issue causing Torpedo Frigates to continue to act aggressively and fail to guard ships after changing their stance from Neutral to Aggressive and then back to Neutral
  • Fixed an issue causing capital ships to become unresponsive to move commands after finding a target using an Attack Move command
  • Fixed an issue causing attack orders to be canceled when setting a ship’s formation to “None”
  • Fixed an issue causing the Hiigaran Mothership to not move into range when using the Fusion Missile ability on an out of range enemy unit
  • Fixed an issue causing the Incarnate Destroyer weapon charging VFX playing on a loop when its target was out of range
  • Fixed an issue causing unit selection through tactical icons to stop functioning after deploying turrets
  • Fixed several occurrences of ships being able to shoot through terrain
  • Fixed an issue preventing research to be queued or canceled during tactical pause
  • Fixed an issue causing the camera to sometimes get stuck inside terrain when the “Camera Collision” option was enabled
  • Fixed an issue causing ships positioned directly underneath the Hiigaran Mothership to not receive any damage from its Point Defense Cannons
  • Fixed an issue causing certain Strikecraft to not show height lines on the movement plane when NLIPS was disabled
  • Fixed an issue causing the F1 shortcut (Select the Flagship) to focus on the mothership instead of just selecting it when a group including the mothership was selected


Balance tuning


NB: Most of these balancing changes were made in collaboration with a small group of dedicated community playtesters through daily feedback and iterations!
  • Re-designed Armor mitigation vs weapon families across the game
  • Light Armor - 10% mitigation
  • Medium Armor - 20% mitigation
  • Heavy Armor - 30% mitigation
  • Mothership Armor - 50% mitigation
  • Updated UI on unit info panel (weapons and armor info) to show relationships
  • Reworked armor penetration to work with the new armor system
  • Strikecraft
    • Tuned fighter vs frigate, capital, and turrets attack style - reducing the distance in which fighters run away and turn back to attack
    • Tweaked Strikecraft vs Frigate attack style - added more vertical turning and decreased break time
    • Hiigaran Interceptor
      • Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
        • Decreased research and production cost
        • Decreased health
        • Significant increase in weapon damage

    • Hiigaran Recon
      • Retuned to reinforce its role as a low cost easily massable scouting and early game combat unit
        • Decreased production cost
        • Decreased health
        • Decreased weapon damage

    • Hiigaran Bomber
      • Overhauled to be much more effective against frigates and other larger slower moving targets, and less effective against smaller fast moving targets
        • Minor movement speed increase
        • Reduce attack cooldown
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Increased health
        • Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Decreased research cost and time

    • Incarnate Dominance Fighter
      • Retuned to better fulfill its role as a dominant anti-Strikecraft fighter
      • Significant health increase
      • Increased weapon damage

  • Corvettes
    • Increased movement speed of all Corvettes
    • Hiigaran Railgun Corvette
      • Overhauled to make it broadly more effective, without making it oppressive versus Strikecraft
        • Increased range
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Change tech requirement, making it researchable at the start of skirmish matches
        • Decreased research cost and time
        • Decreased production cost
        • Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes

    • Incarnate Plasma Corvette
      • Reworked to be stronger versus frigates and at disrupting resource operations, but reducing its effectiveness against Strikecraft
      • Increased weapon damage
      • Fine-tuned weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
      • Decreased research cost and time

    • Incarnate Assault Corvette
      • Increased Weapon Damage
      • Decreased production cost
      • Decreased research time

    • Incarnate Capture Corvette
      • Significantly decreased population cap in Skirmish

  • Frigates
    • Accuracy pass on all Frigates tuning effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
    • Hiigaran Assault Frigate
      • Overhauled to increase effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes but be less effective in the late game vs more specialized frigates and capital ships, all while maintaining its effectiveness as a frontline combat unit and tank.
        • Increased health
        • Decreased research cost and time
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon firing duration
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
        • Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
        • Increased PDC weapon cooldown
        • Increased PDC shots per burst
        • Increased PDC weapon damage

    • Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate
      • Overhauled to greatly reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Increased health
        • Decreased accuracy vs. Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Decreased weapon AoE
        • Decreased weapon detonation range
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Decreased weapon cooldown

    • Hiigaran Suppression Frigate
      • Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a high DPS brawler
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Increased weapon wind-up time
        • Decreased weapon cooldown
        • Increased weapon firing duration
        • Increased turning rate
        • Decreased health
        • Increased production cost

    • Hiigaran Ion Frigate
      • Overhauled to better fulfill its role as a midgame high output, but fragile, damage dealer
        • Decreased production time and cost
        • Greatly decreased health
        • Decreased turning rate
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Increased weapon firing duration
        • Decreased weapon cooldown
        • Increased special weapon ability damage
        • Decreased research cost and time
        • Increased maximum firing angle of weapon

    • Incarnate Smart Missile Frigate
      • Overhauled to reduce its effectiveness against Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Decreased weapon AOE
        • Increased weapon damage
        • Increased detonation radius

    • Incarnate Attack Frigate
      • Overhauled to bring it more in line with the Hiigaran Assault Frigate
        • Updated attack style
        • Increased health
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
        • Decreased accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes

    • Incarnate Cluster Missile Frigate
      • Overhauled to better fulfill its role as an anti-Strikecraft Frigate and reduce its effectiveness against other Frigates.
        • Increased rotation speed and max rotation angle to be more effective against Strikecraft
        • Increased weapon accuracy vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Decreased weapon damage
        • Increased weapon AoE
        • Increased weapon detonation range
        • Increased missiles spawn per volley
        • Decreased cluster spawn per missile
        • Tuned Volley Fire ability to match the above

    • Incarnate Railgun Transport
      • Reinforced its anti fighter role by greatly improving its target tracking
        • Reworked weapon turrets to be much better able to track targets on multiple axes

  • Capital Ships
    • Accuracy pass on all Frigates and Capital class ships; tuning their effectiveness vs Strikecraft and Corvettes
    • Rebalanced Battlecruisers and Destroyers to improve their effectiveness against Frigate, Capital and Mothership class ships
    • Carrier Research is now unlocked by Corvette tech in Skirmish
    • Hiigaran Carrier
      • Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases
        • Fixed weapon discrepancy between individual turrets (damage increase)
        • Decreased production time
        • Decreased research cost and time
        • Increased health

    • Kalan Raider Carrier
      • Significant weapon damage increase to bring it in line with other carriers

    • Incarnate Carrier
      • Improved their ability to fulfill their role as forward production bases
        • Decreased weapon damage to bring it in line with other carriers
        • Decreased production time
        • Decreased research cost and time
        • Increased health

    • Hiigaran Destroyer
      • Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Overhauled attack style
        • Decreased production cost and time
        • Increased Health
        • Significantly Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
        • Decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon cooldown
        • Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes

    • Incarnate Destroyer
      • Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Overhauled attack style
        • Decreased production cost and time
        • Increased Ion Cannon range
        • Increased Ion Cannon firing duration
        • Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
        • Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
        • Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes

    • Hiigaran Battlecruiser
      • Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Overhauled attack style
        • Decreased production time
        • Increased health
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
        • Increased Ballistic Cannon shots per burst
        • Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
        • Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
        • Increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
        • Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
        • Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
        • Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon range
        • Decreased High Yield Torpedo weapon AoE

    • Incarnate Battlecruiser
      • Overhauled to be vastly more effective versus large numbers of frigates and significantly less effective versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
      • Decreased health
      • Increased Ion Cannon weapon range
      • Increased Ion Cannon weapon firing duration
      • Significantly increased Ion Cannon weapon damage
      • Decreased Ion Cannon weapon cooldown
      • Increased Ballistic Cannon weapon damage
      • Significantly decreased Ballistic Cannon weapon accuracy versus Strikecraft and Corvettes
      • Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage
      • Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon cooldown

    • Hiigaran Mothership
      • Increased resource collector leashing distance on the Mothership in Skirmish
      • Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage

    • Incarnate Titanship (Mothership - Skirmish)
      • Increased Point Defence Cannon weapon damage

  • Platforms
    • Decreased health of all turrets
    • Incarnate Anti Capital Turret
      • Increased High Yield Torpedo weapon damage

  • Utility
    • Decreased Resource Controller population cap from 8 to 6 in Skirmish
    • Significantly increased Resource Controller production cost in Skirmish and Campaign (both factions)
    • Increased Resource Controller production time in Skirmish (both factions)


Multiplayer


  • Unlocked 30 new emblems
  • Hiigaran Mothership and Incarnate Titanship (Mothership) now both have access to the Fusion Missile Ability in Skirmish (unlocked through research) - More information in the Dev Update
  • Hyperspace Research and Abilities added to all Frigate class and larger ships (including Resource Controllers) in Skirmish for both factions in response to community feedback
  • Hyperspace Inhibitor Research and Abilities added to Hiigaran and Incarnate Carriers, the Hiigaran Support Frigate and the Incarnate Disruption Frigate in Skirmish mode
  • Resource tuning in Skirmish and War Games in response to community feedback - More information in the Dev Update
    • Default starting resources reduced significantly
    • Resourcing rate reduced (10% reduction)
    • Unit and research resource costs rebalanced

  • New Skirmish Tech Tree
    • Full rework of tech trees for both Hiigaran and Incarnate Skirmish factions in response to community feedback

  • Replaced the 3 tiers of Incarnate Strikecraft Hull Integrity research with 3 tiers of Corvette Hull Integrity research in Skirmish
  • Significantly increased the difficulty of Standard and Hard AI opponents in Skirmish in response to community feedback
  • War Games Tech Tree balancing in response to community feedback
    • More ship abilities now require research
    • Restructured Platform Fleet tech tree
    • Restructured Raider Fleet tech tree
    • Restructured Remastered Fleet tech tree

  • Skirmish lobby Map Resource Multiplier setting default changed from 150% to 300% in response to community feedback
  • Increased Hiigaran starting fleet combat units in Skirmish
  • Increased Incarnate starting fleet combat units in Skirmish
  • Increased camera bounds on the Deep Space Skirmish map in response to community feedback
  • Increased vertical bounds on the Naraka Skirmish map in response to community feedback
  • Increased the Carrier Assault Pattern initial damage increase from 50% to 200% in War Games in response to community feedback
  • User can now change their fleet customization in Quick Match
  • Added a notification in the gameplay events list when a player leaves a multiplayer match in
  • Pressing ESC will now close the Artifact choice window in War Games
  • Players will now see a notification informing them whether a lobby they are about to join is hosted by someone with mismatching mods, as joining a multiplayer match will likely result in a desync if all players in the match don’t have the same mods installed
  • AI bots are now visible in the pause menu (in addition to human players) during Skirmish
    • Full stats will be shown to allied AI players, while stats stay hidden for enemy AI players

  • Fixed unit death explosions sometimes throwing salvage objectives out of the map in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing captured ships to sometimes receive commands not issued by the player during War Games
  • Fixed the Titanship Unit Info Panel not showing any weapons
  • Fixed an issue sometimes causing objective markers in War Games to detach from their intended location and move around the map
  • Fixed an issue causing turrets to be stacked on top of each other in the Buran map when the “Capture Data Spire held by hostile forces” objective was active in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing turrets to be located inside the terrain in the Under The Ice map when the “Capture Data Spire held by hostile forces” objective was active in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing allied bots in Skirmish on the same team as the player to build ships and send them to idle in places far from any battle or enemy ship
  • Fixed an issue causing the capture point, when the “Capture position to rescue civilians” objective was active in War Games, to sometimes spawn inside the environment
  • Fixed an issue causing the Artifact selection panel to sometimes open with no artifacts visible inside
  • Fixed an issue causing the Stinger - Barrage artifact to be unlocked by default instead of properly being unlocked by a challenge
  • Fixed an issue causing a Skirmish AI player’s customization to automatically change to being identical to the player’s after changing their fleet selection
  • Fixed an issue causing some War Games objectives to be impossible to complete if the player Carrier was on top of the objective at the moment it spawns
  • Fixed an issue causing the Capture Corvette’s Polarized Plating ability to be unlocked without having to research it first in several War Games fleets
  • Fixed an issue causing the Railgun Transport ships to appear under the “Capital” section in the Population menu in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing the Kalan Assault Frigate research to display “Unlocks Destroyer” erroneously
  • Fixed an issue causing the Kalan Capture Frigate Ability research to display “Unlocks the Capture Corvette Capture Ability” erroneously
  • Fixed an issue causing the chat window to not automatically scroll to the bottom when the user sends messages in Lobby or In-Game
  • Fixed an issue causing the Suppression Frigate Artifacts to stop appearing after unlocking the Heavy Suppression Frigate when playing the Experimental Fleet in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing the Beam Fighter to appear as Dominance Fighter in the Population tab in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing newly built ships to not head to the designated rally point in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing the Raider carrier to attempt to repair ships at full health in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing the movement disc to reveal enemy AI height lines outside of the fog of war in Skirmish


Campaign


  • Added “player controlled mission end” to 5 additional missions - More information in the Dev Update
    • Mission 2 -Facility 315
    • Mission 3 - Kesura Minor
    • Mission 5 - Trinity Gate
    • Mission 9 - Warsage Citadel
    • Mission 12 - Noctua 27

  • Tweaked campaign difficulty, making Hard difficulty more challenging and making the mission to mission difficulty more consistent, in response to community feedback
  • Performance improvement : Optimized the Mothership VFX during Kala Terminus so as to stop causing significant FPS rate drops when looking at it
  • Incarnate Destroyers in Warsage Citadel will no longer spawn indefinitely
  • Fixed an issue causing the Capture UI elements for 2 of the 3 data spires in the Lament to not disappear after capture
  • Fixed an issue causing Strikecraft and Corvettes to ignore the enemy tactical missiles shot at the mothership during Noctuua-27


Tech / Performance


  • Performance improvement : Tactical Overlay amalgamations have been greatly optimized and should result in better performance.
  • Performance improvement : Height lines when using the movement plane have been optimized
  • Performance improvement : Beam weapons VFX have been optimized
  • Added setting to allow constraining in game UI to 16:9 centered
    • Affects base HUD panel, pause menu, campaign failed menu, and multiplayer end game menus
    • Menu backgrounds continue to occupy the full screen width regardless of whether the option is enabled, only content is constrained

  • Games that contain blocked users will no longer be visible/joinable
  • Fixed an issue causing the shadow quality to be abnormally high if the player had selected Low graphics settings. This will greatly improve performance in Low graphics settings
  • Fixed an issue causing FPS drops when power regulators are destroyed in Noctuaa-27
  • Fixed the “Enable Sensors Manager zoom-in/-out collision” camera option not working when “Modern camera controls” were turned off
  • Fixed an issue causing camera movements to sometimes cause small FPS drops when NLIPS was turned off


Art Updates


  • Improvements to the damage system visuals
    • Healing support added for dynamic damage
    • Add heat edge ring to Energy and Missile impacts for dynamic damage
    • Changed impact composting system to avoid overdriven visuals on dynamic damage.
    • Aligned visuals look between dynamic and procedural damage.

  • Reduced brightness of Strikecraft engine trails
  • Fixed many cases of weapons could situationally shoot through their ship’s hull
  • Numerous minor LOD improvements on ships
  • Fixed an issue causing the Incarnate Titanship and Hiigaran Mothership to not display the proper amount of dynamic damage on their hull
  • Fixed an issue causing dynamic damage on Frigates and Capital ships to not properly be displayed from Torpedo Frigate missile damage
  • Fixed an issue causing Suppression Frigates to not receive dynamic damage on their side from all weapon types other than small ballistic weapons
  • Fixed an issue causing the Hiigaran Battlecruiser’s sides to not display dynamic damage from non-ballistic weapons
  • Fixed an issue causing part or all of newly built ships to appear with the wrong texture or be invisible if produced while in the Sensors Manager
  • Fixed a small gap in the Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate’s model
  • Fixed the Dervish Ion Frigate’s thruster VFX being offset from the hull
  • Fixed the Railgun and Avenger Corvettes plasma beam VFX not making contact when attacking enemy ships
  • Fixed an issue causing the Pursuit Fighter’s Overburner ability VFX to appear on the body of the ship rather than its engines


Settings Updates


  • New Display selection reticle overlay option
  • New Constrain HUD aspect ratio option
  • New Input binding: “Hyperspace” unit ability hotkey (Default “J” in the Modern Experience Preset)
  • New Input binding: “Hyperspace Inhibitor” unit ability hotkey (Default “Ctrl+i” in the Modern Experience Preset)
  • New Input binding: “Reinforce” unit ability hotkey (Default “X” in the Modern Experience Preset)
  • Fixed an issue causing the 5120x1440 resolution to not be selectable


Audio Updates


  • Added audio feedback when clearing a control group
  • Fixed audio not being properly distorted while in Sensors Manager and in Occlusion view
  • Corrected Main Menu UI interaction SFX
  • Fixed mothership weapons fire persisting through the pause menu in multiplayer modes
  • Fixed the wrong VO playing when Swarm Fighters are built
  • Updated the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Pursuit Fighters
  • Fixed the Production Complete, Under Fire and Destroyed VO for Smart Missile Frigates not playing correctly in War Games
  • Fixed the unit response VOs being attached to the Sound Effects volume slider rather than the Speech volume slider
  • Fixed an issue causing the VO for detecting enemy Strikecraft to play too frequently in Skirmish
  • Fixed an issue causing “Ship Captured” VO to be played when an enemy was salvaging debris from a player’s destroyed ship in Skirmish


Misc Updates


  • Moved ‘Enable Sensors Manager zoom-in/out collision’ settings into Camera Tuning / Modern setting category to clarify that they do not have any effect on classic camera controls by design
  • Using Backspace to hide the HUD/UI now also properly hides the “Contested”, “Capturing” and “Decapturing” UI elements
  • Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after a cinematic
  • Fixed an issue causing the cursor to sometimes stay hidden after closing the Artifact selector in War Games
  • Fixed an issue causing the Sensors Manager to incorrectly function while viewing a replay in Free Camera mode
  • Fixed the Grand Armada achievement not progressing on EGS


Mod Tools & Editor


  • A new version of the Editor has been deployed on EGS
    • In order to avoid any compatibility issues, we highly recommend fully uninstalling the previous version of the editor before installing the new one

  • Updated the way mods were detected when displaying them in the lobby view
    • Correctly detects map mods, "other mods" and even side loaded mods

  • Added the ability to inject custom blueprints in mods
  • Stability fixes to greatly reduce the RHI crashes seen in earlier versions of the editor
  • Fixed several missing unit materials making ship creation easier
  • Added BBI's blueprint files for campaign missions, to use as a reference for Tiir scripting and mission creation
  • TiirSubsystems can now be defined as part of mod files, allowing blueprint to make simulation-side modifications for unique gameplay features in mods
  • Added a version of the game's Wwise project to allow for modder exploration into audio modding
  • Re-introduces the Play In Editor (PIE) button. This will allow testing of some mod content directly within the editor, speeding up iteration time, and giving modders access to BBI's internal debugging tools

Hotfix Update 1.22
This hotfix resolves an issue for some players experiencing desync errors in multiplayer following the deployment of a recent Windows update. If you experience any other issues with Homeworld 3, please reach out to support support.gearboxsoftware.com.

An Update to Homeworld 3's Roadmap

What’s Next for Homeworld 3?


Thanks to everyone who joined us for update 1.2 and the Kalan Raiders Fleet Pack. We want to take a moment to provide an update on what's next as we look ahead to the rest of the updates initially revealed in our Year One DLC Roadmap.

An Updated Roadmap:


Following the release of update 1.2, we made the decision to combine all remaining paid DLC and free content drops in the roadmap into one unified delivery in November. Combining the content into one beat will allow us to focus all our resources and provide you all with a higher-quality experience.


This change means that, come November, we’ll be releasing two content packs that were originally scheduled for 2025 with the objective of delivering the most complete Homeworld 3 experience, and many of your requested changes, sooner. In total, you can look forward to three (3) free updates and two (2) paid DLCs worth of content launching as one major update in November.


We’ve provided an updated roadmap below which outlines that content generally, but let's get into the specifics.

Note: "Campaign Missions" on the roadmap refers to the area of the game that will be updated with the player-controlled mission end. This will allow players to advance to the next mission in their own time after objectives have been completed. There will not be new or updated campaign missions in the November update.


Content Coming in November:


We’ve spent the last several months listening carefully to the feedback you’ve shared with us. We’ve also begun to work with members of our community to beta test some upcoming balance changes we intend to roll out in the Skirmish and War Games modes.


With the changes we’re making, we want to assure those of you who purchased the Year One Pass that you will be getting everything we’ve previously promised. Additionally, we've made modifications to our plans to include elements requested by the community.

Free Player-Requested Features Coming in Nov:


Highly requested features like Hyperspace Jumping in Skirmish mode and the ability to control when you move to the next mission in the campaign are both smart suggestions and elements of previous Homeworld titles that allow for more strategic gameplay.


You’ll be able to surprise your enemies with a rapid assault or zip away if your mothership becomes surrounded. Our goal with this feature was to have it feel similar to the experience in previous Homeworld titles, however, there are a few key differences. Hyperspace capabilities in Homeworld 3 are unlocked via individual ship-type research options. Each unit in the Frigate, Capital, and Mothership classes have a hyperspace core research option that is unlocked and then obtained like any other tech advancement in the game. Like previous Homeworld titles, each jump will cost RUs based on the length of the jump — requiring you to carefully weigh the decision to surprise your opponent.


To defend against these incursions, you can research Hyperspace Inhibitor abilities for the Hiigaran Support Frigate and Incarnate Disruption Corvette. The Hyperspace Inhibitor ability creates a protective sphere that blocks Hyperspace passage. When the Inhibitor ability is active, any ship making a Hyperspace Jump that flies through the inhibitor field will immediately be forced out of Hyperspace.



Another piece of feedback we heard loud in clear was that resourcing was just too efficient. Too often players weren’t required to make strategic decisions about which ships to research or build, because they had the resources to do everything. In Homeworld 3, we simplified resourcing by merging Resource Collectors and Controllers into a single unit, aiming to make macro-management more intuitive. However, this change unintentionally removed key strategic decisions related to economic development, present in previous titles, where players had to carefully balance resource investment with tech progression and defense. To restore this strategic depth, we made several adjustments: Resourcing rates are reduced by a meaningful amount, starting resources in Skirmish are lowered to drive early-game decision-making, and the cost of Resource Controllers is significantly increased to make them a riskier, more meaningful investment. These changes aim to reintroduce the tension and rewards of economic decision-making.



In update 1.2 we made a significant change in how we handled research in all game modes by introducing the queued system. No longer could you research everything simultaneously. However, this was just the first step in our tech tree changes. We have now added a more traditional RTS-style tech tree where units and research are unlocked more linearly, with unit and research unlocks being gated behind unlock requirements. This — in conjunction with queued research — has significantly improved the flow of Skirmish mode games while creating opportunities for meaningful strategic decisions. Alongside the changes to resourcing, we’re excited about how this new tech tree and queued research will reward tactical early-game decision making.



Additionally, you’ll now be able to explore the beautiful scenery in the campaign missions while collecting all those precious RUs to fuel even more powerful fleets before moving on to the next leg of your journey. Currently, many of you felt that there wasn’t enough time to catch your breath, make repairs, and generally get prepared for the battles ahead. With this in mind, select campaign missions, where the narrative permits, will allow you to choose when you are ready to advance.

Free Content:


The free updates described in the roadmap are also a big part of the path forward. For those who haven’t purchased the Year One Pass, we’ll be adding more than 40 Artifacts, and 9 Challenges for free to help shake up War Games for everyone. This includes the introduction of a new ‘Ultimate’ class of Artifacts that becomes available after collecting an Artifact Pattern and one of each of the upgrade Artifacts. Ultimate Artifacts partially cancel out many of the negative effects associated with traditional Artifacts, taking your ships to new heights of unmitigated power. It also increases the importance of Artifact selections: do you broaden your picks in the pursuit of collecting the Ultimate Artifacts’ required upgrades or do you stack identical Artifacts to push your units into a specific niche?

New Paid DLC:


New factions for the War Games mode will enter the fray with our paid DLC packs. These franchise favorites introduce exciting new ships and strategies for players to explore. Each new War Games faction comes with two unique fleets, new ships, dozens of new Artifacts, and 10 new Challenges to test your skills as a commander.


Little information is available about the history of the Taiidan after the fall of the Taiidan Empire or during the subsequent rise of the Taiidan Republic and through the Vagyr War. However, it is widely believed that during the Age of S’jet, the Taiidan took their place alongside the Hiigarans in the new system of representation that formed during this time of prosperity. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the Taiidan forces would find a place in the Hiigaran Naval Combat School’s War Games.


The Taiidan now join Homeworld 3’s War Games mode with two brand new fleets. The ships in these fleets should feel instantly recognizable to anyone who has played Homeworld 1. The fleets consist of classically-inspired Taiidan ships, with some modern tweaks thrown into the mix.


These new Taiidan fleets will add a new depth to the War Games experience as they defy norms established by all other War Games fleets, such as relying on the Carrier and its Resource Collectors for harvesting resources and the ability to deploy a capital class ship, the Taiidan Missile Destroyer.


On Kharak, Kiith Somtaaw was a major religious and mining Kiith. After Kharak burned (spoiler!) and the Kushan people crossed the galaxy returning to their homeworld (Hiigara), the Somtaaw continued their mastery of mining, only this time in the vast reaches of space. Some rumors say they honed their combat skills by defeating a mysterious evil, others say they developed their skills with countless years of target practice smashing asteroids. These hardened Somtaaw warriors now join Homeworld 3’s War Games mode with two new units and two new fleets.


As a Hiigaran sub-faction, in addition to two brand new ships, you will notice several familiar ships forming the basis of these Somtaaw fleets. However, on closer inspection, you will see a few variations that speak to their mining heritage and the need for extra survivability in regions not protected by the core Hiigaran Navy. For example, they armed Resource Controllers and their heavy-hitting Carrier with Ion Beam turrets.


We thank you for your patience as we work to deliver our post-launch vision for Homeworld 3 in November. Many other elements are coming beyond what we unpacked above including new gameplay mechanics, optimizations to existing features, as well as bug fixes and performance improvements. Many of these were developed or solved through insights provided by the amazing Homeworld community. We’ll be sure to include detailed patch notes ahead of launch for your review.

Hotfix Update 1.21
We just released a hotfix for Homeworld 3. This hotfix reduces friction caused by the “mod mismatch” error when joining multiplayer lobbies.

In an effort to avoid multiplayer match desyncs caused by mismatched mods between players, this pop-up was added. This hotfix changes the behavior of that mod mismatch verification to only affect modded skirmish maps selected in the lobby. Players will still see the error upon trying to join a lobby where the map selected is a modded map that they do not have installed. They will also see the error when the lobby host changes the map selection to a map that the client does not have installed.

Manually installed mods (in the pak folder) are no longer detected by this system and so multiplayer match desyncs might still happen due to mods creating an imbalance, but now you will be able to enter lobbies and discuss with other players if needed.

Kalan Raiders DLC and Patch 1.2 Notes
Hello, Commanders!

Today we are releasing Update 1.2 for Homeworld 3. This update includes a host of gameplay improvements and bug fixes — some of which are a result of invaluable community feedback. This includes several improvements to Frigates and Capital Ships to make them more reliable and powerful, various UI improvements, and optimizations that can significantly increase performance for some users.

Update 1.2 also introduces two, entirely new Skirmish maps for all players.

This patch also includes support for the Kalan Raiders Fleet Pack DLC for War Games, available for individual purchase or for those who purchased the Year One Pass. This DLC introduces two new fleets, a variety of new ships, new challenges, artifacts, and a new skin.



We’re eternally grateful for players who have left us respectful, thoughtful feedback in the months since launch. Our work to respond to that feedback continues. In particular, we’d like to acknowledge three common requests that we are seeing more recently:
  • Increase Strikecraft survivability, especially when they’re taking fire from larger ship classes
  • More granular control over unit combat behaviors and rules of engagement
  • More intuitive attack priority when using the bandbox to attack groups of enemy ships

As these are broad, complex topics that influence nearly every game mode and unit, it is imperative that we investigate these requests and potential solutions carefully. But it is important to us to let you know that these topics remain a top priority for us. If we’re able to implement a viable plan of action to address these requests, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Homeworld 3 Update 1.2 Notes


New Content for Multiplayer



  • Added two new maps to Skirmish!

    • Tears in Rain
      • Expanding further on the open-style map first introduced in Karos Graveyard, Tears in Rain provides a similar open battlefield for skirmish combat with a refined focus on providing a minimal amount of scattered terrain pieces to serve as additional tactical options, ideal for certain playstyles and fleet compositions. With resource distribution tending either towards the perimeter or centralized, ventures across open space to strike your enemies are a gamble.

    • Arran Perimeter

      • In the Arran Perimeter, a fragmented piece of very large terrain is the foundation that leads players into making high-level decisions that can lead to victory or failure. The large vertical pieces and symmetrical arrangement are populated with resources and surrounded by open space, offering more than just a backdrop for fleets to clash.


Updates



In this update, we have addressed the following based on community feedback:
  • Repositioned and reduced the size of the Hyperspace button to better allow players to continue playing after it appeared
  • Added retiring and scuttling to the command panel
  • Increased weapon damage for capital ships of all factions
  • Updated special attack feedback to indicate ability range
  • Limited research to one at a time to increase the importance of strategic choices
  • Updated the “Taiidan” fleet customization preset’s inverted colors
  • Corrected splat damage texture improperly appearing on capital ships after completing a mission and loading a new one
  • Added a rebindable hotkey to select all undamaged ships to complement the hotkey for selecting all damaged ships


In addition, we’ve also addressed the following reported concerns from players:

Mod Tools & Editor



  • A new version of the Editor has been deployed on EGS.
  • In order to avoid any compatibility issues, we highly recommend fully uninstalling the previous version of the editor before installing the new one.


Gameplay


  • Frigates could occasionally back away further than required from approaching targets
  • Battlecruisers in a group would sometimes not move or attack when ordered to attack a group of ships
  • Erratic or unintended frigate movements could occur when trying to acquire line-of-sight and/or get in range after receiving and order to attack a new target
  • Non-leader frigate in formation would occasionally try to get back into formation position instead of attacking
  • Incarnate Smart Missile Frigates could occasionally not track their targets properly, causing them to miss if the target was moving
  • Hiigaran destroyers would sometimes not attempt to target enemies horizontally, which resulted in their turrets remaining mostly idle
  • Ion Cannon frigates would sometimes turn backward during and after attacking a target
  • Increased the damage of the Barrage frigates ability
  • Recon ships set to Aggressive stance and Guarding a ship would occasionally change command on their own to Attack and would not return to Guard after the target was destroyed


Multiplayer


  • Host migration could fail in some instances in matches of three or more players
  • In two-player War Games matches, one player leaving could occasionally result in the remaining player not loading to the next stage
  • Matches could receive a desync error after hyperspacing to the second stage in War Games
  • Incursion points in War Game Production Bay map sometimes ceased to function based on the player’s location
  • Objective markers were not consistently localized in Production Bay and New Galaxy War Games maps
  • Added an error message informing a player if they cannot join a lobby due to a mod mismatch between players and the lobby host
  • The “Move Carrier to location” objective marker could sometimes detach from its location and move erratically through the map
  • Enemy probes could stop kiting away when their faction’s Mothership was destroyed, causing long probe hunts in “Destroy All Ships” Skirmish matches
  • Carrier would sometimes not be centered in its hyperspace window when moving between stages in War Games
  • The Incarnate AI would sometimes not use the Smart Missile frigates in Skirmish, leaving them inactive at the side of the Titanship


Tech / Performance


  • Addressed a few crashes observed through user reports
  • A new round of optimizations have been done to significantly increase framerate in many situations around combat
  • Further improvements to Dynamic Splat Damage system for increased readability and performance
  • Steam Deck users are no longer in a separate multiplayer pool and are able to create and join multiplayer matches with PC players
  • Resolved the framerate hitch that happened after completing a War Games challenge on EGS
  • Implemented improvements to the Experimental Camera Collision feature. There is still more work planned for upcoming patches
  • Benchmark level seed was adjusted to make results more consistent
  • An issue could occasionally cause the game to crash when trying to load replays from previous versions of the game. This adjustment has invalidated all previous existing replays but prevented new replays from becoming corrupted from future patches
  • Fixed an issue causing contextual movement orders to behave incorrectly in modded Skirmish maps created with the Homeworld 3 Mod Tools & Editor
    • New maps created with the new version of the editor will not contain this bug anymore
    • Existing mods will need to be manually fixed by changing the Collision Presets in the SimUniverseBoundsVolume from “overlapAll” to “NoCollision”.


Art Updates


  • Bukhari Support Ships lights that were unusually bright in War Games


Audio Updates


  • The “Battlecruiser lost” voiceline would sometimes play when an enemy battlecruiser was destroyed.
  • Some SFX feedback was missing when performing various ship actions


Kalan Raiders Fleet DLC Content


  • Added support for new War Games content for those that own the Kalan Raiders Faction DLC

    • Two new War Games fleets
      • Raider Fleet: This fleet has extensively raided Hiigaran space, and can produce a mix of Hiigaran and Kalan ships
      • Capture Fleet: This fleet specializes in capturing enemy units, and can produce a mix of Incarnate and Kalan vessels
      • Both fleets include Kalan Raider ships seen in the campaign, as well as 3 brand new ships
        • From the campaign:
          • Command Carrier
          • Barrage Frigate
          • Pursuit Fighter

        • New Kalan ships:
          • Swarm Fighter
          • Mine Launcher Corvette
          • Capture Frigate

    • 11 NEW Challenges specific to the Kalan faction
    • 40 NEW Artifacts specific to the Kalan faction
    • New Kalan Raiders emblem and fleet customization preset featuring unique color pattern & emblem
      • Fleet customization emblem and preset usable in War Games & Skirmish

Kalan Raiders join War Games on August 15!
Hello, Commanders!

We’re excited to announce that Update 1.2 — which includes a host of gameplay improvements, bug fixes, free Skirmish maps, and support for the Kalan Raiders War Games DLC — will arrive on August 15!

The Kalan Raiders Fleet Pack is Homeworld 3's first paid DLC (included as part of the Year One Pass). Take command of these ruthless brigands in War Games, where you can wield their unique fleet compositions to explore powerful new strategic options.

Today, we are also implementing a Patch Preview, so that the community of modders can get a headstart on evaluating if their mods need additional updates to work in Update 1.2.


NEW DLC: Kalan Raiders Fleet Pack



Included in the Year One Pass and available as a standalone purchase, the Kalan Raiders Fleet Pack brings two new playable fleets to War Games. Plunder and capture your way through battle. In addition to all of the Kalan Raider ships from the campaign becoming playable for the first time, three all new ships like the Swarm Fighter, Mine Launcher Corvette, and Capture Frigate join the fray.

Raider Fleet



The Raider Fleet has extensively raided Hiigaran space, resulting in a mix of Hiigaran and Kalan ships to make up its tactical forces. This fleet will power ahead to be a formidable force for the enemies you take on.

Capture Fleet



The Capture Fleet specializes in capturing enemy units. You’ll see a mix of Incarnate and Kalan vessels making up this fleet.

Additional War Games Content


Players will see 11 new challenges and 40 Artifacts for War Games specific to the Kalan Raiders faction included with this DLC.

Additionally, a new customization preset that features a unique color pattern and emblem.

We’re very excited for players to engage their enemies with the Kalan Raider faction on August 15!

Finally, check out our full key art for the Kalan Raiders from Paul Chadeisson!


1.2 Patch Preview


The 1.2 Patch Preview will be deployed Tuesday, August 13 on Steam.

We’re releasing the Patch Preview early to allow modders to evaluate whether their mods will require any updates ahead of the official patch release. A “preview” version of the UGC editor will also be released at the same time on EGS.

Need-to-know on the Patch Preview:


Warning: Save games are only “forward compatible”, which means that frequent switching between the main branch of Homeworld 3 and the preview branch could cause your save game to not function as intended.
  • We suggest that players using the preview branch stay on it until the 1.2 patch official releases before moving back to the main branch.
  • Alternatively, if you intend on switching between the two, make sure to back up your “version 1.11” save game folder before switching to the preview branch.

Multiplayer: Multiplayer requires that all players be on the same game version. Players playing on the preview branch will only be able to match with others on the preview branch.

Everything in the 1.2 Patch Preview branch will be present in the official 1.2 Patch releasing on August 15. There’s no additional debugging or content in the preview branch compared to the official patch.

How to access the preview branch:


To access the 1.2 Patch Preview branch in Homeworld 3 on Steam:
  1. In Steam, right click on the Homeworld 3 App and select Properties

  2. In the Betas section, enter the beta access code “Homeworld3Preview” and click “Check Code”

  3. You will see a “Success! Beta unlocked.” message and be given the ability to opt in.

  4. If you do, Steam will queue a game update for you to download the contents of the preview branch, same as a patch.
  5. Switching back to the official branch of the game is easy, in the same “Betas” section, choose “None” in the “Beta Participation” dropdown


To access the 1.2 Patch Preview branch in Homeworld 3 on EGS:
    Download the 1.2 Patch Preview on EGS


We look forward to seeing you all on August 15 for the 1.2 Update and Kalan Raiders Fleet DLC!
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