Homeworld IP bought up by Gearbox

[WhipperSnapper]

I talked about it a bit in the other thread, but as much as I enjoy Borderlands, I am quick to point out that Gearbox cannot program good artificial intelligence!

That's the beauty of the Internet and online multiplayer--you have the opportunity to play strategy games against real opponents and not just mindless AI.

 

[Borealis7]

no developer is perfect. (except maybe...Valve? ) Stardock has pushed out turds in recent times. i personally got burned by Elemental: War of Magic.

 

[motsm]

Last thing I really enjoyed from Gearbox was Opposing Force, so I can't say I'm excited about the acquisition. Also, as far as I can tell, aside from a couple of ports everything they have developed have been first person shooters. So even if I liked their games, it wouldn't leave me with a lot of confidence.

 

[KaOTiK]

no developer is perfect. (except maybe...Valve? ) Stardock has pushed out turds in recent times. i personally got burned by Elemental: War of Magic.

True, Elemental had issues, but I'd say Stardock made up for it by giving people a free copy of Fallen Enchantress if they bought Elemental because they knew they screwed up and publicly apologized for it as well. FE is a fine game imo and I look forward to the new Legends one coming out soon.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Its not home world but just maybe we'll get a proper Sup Com sequel.

 

[_Rick_]

That's the beauty of the Internet and online multiplayer--you have the opportunity to play strategy games against real opponents and not just mindless AI.

I wonder if there's an economic model behind that...

Episodic content, where you can only access the next episode by playing as an opponent to someone playing an earlier episode (so no spoiling, and you know some of the challenges). Similar to Shogun2's drop-in battle mode, only for an action game. Kill the hero, get extra credit, add some matchmaking, and you can limit your AI to the first episode, and only for the first few people.

Combine it with regionally staggered releases (dota 2 release model?) and you may create something that is quite fun and different, at least for a while.

Downside: There will be griefers. You can probably deal with those, by giving opfor scores for accessing certain positional tokens, and players that do not collect these tokens or deal damage to the hero are eventually placed in low priority queues, until their performance improves.

Wait, this thread is about homeworld? Best situation would be a 3D-space action type game in a Homeworld setting. But outlook is bleak.

 

[Aikouka]

That's the beauty of the Internet and online multiplayer--you have the opportunity to play strategy games against real opponents and not just mindless AI.

Sounds like a poor excuse for terrible AI.

As much as I enjoy StarCraft, I still have no desire to play its multi-player. I want a good story!

 

[blackened23]

Sounds like a poor excuse for terrible AI.

As much as I enjoy StarCraft, I still have no desire to play its multi-player. I want a good story!

I loved the story in SC2: HOTS . Or rather, I am enjoying it. Not completed yet.

 

[akahoovy]

That sucks. I think everyone else has already stated how I feel about this. None of their past games have any correlation with Homeworld's. What an odd company for this IP to go to.

 

[JamesV]

I wish the Company of Heroes dev got it; imo the only good RTS studio these days.

Now, thanks for reminding me of Homeworld... on to see if it will work in Win7.

 

[Raduque]

That's the beauty of the Internet and online multiplayer--you have the opportunity to play strategy games against the most horrible people in existence and not just mindless AI.

Fixed.

A Homeworld game should be about the story telling, with art and gameplay second, and the AI only needs to be "good enough" without "endless-respawn-more-ships-than-you-no-matter-how-many-ships-you-have" cheating (looking at you, Homeworld 2's Shipyard mission).

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Homeworld 3 from the people who thought Aliens: CM and Duke Nukem Forever were fine to release YAY.

 

[giantpandaman2]

Let Gearbox release a sequel then judge.

It's not like THQ was releasing a lot of Homeworld games. Even if the Gearbox version is terrible, it's better than nothing. Besides, if it is that bad, that's not like it changes the first two games.

I'd just be happy if the first games were re-released. Though I liked Homeworld 1 far better than Homeworld 2.

Story before gameplay? I disagree. The Homeworld story was always simplistic. Done well, but simplistic. It was the unique gameplay that made it memorable.

 

[motsm]

Even if the Gearbox version is terrible, it's better than nothing.

I've seen this sentiment posted constantly about various games, and I've yet to find a context where I understand it even the slightest bit.

 

[KaOTiK]

Even if the Gearbox version is terrible, it's better than nothing.

Can't agree with that. I rather bad sequels not come out at all. Diablo 3 is case and point. I would have rather dealt with the still waiting/hoping for a sequel to come out rather than a turd that tarnishes an IP.

 

[AdamK47]

Hope they devote a good amount of resources to any future game bearing the Homeworld name.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Sounds like a poor excuse for terrible AI.

Who says that the AI in these games is terrible? AI is what it is. It's illegitimate to judge a computer algorithm based on the standards of what real (human) opponents would do. The quality of a game's AI has to be judged based on standards for AI because it is what it is.

A Homeworld game should be about the story telling, with art and gameplay second, and the AI only needs to be "good enough" without "endless-respawn-more-ships-than-you-no-matter-how-many-ships-you-have" cheating (looking at you, Homeworld 2's Shipyard mission).

Did someone hurt your butt in an online multiplayer PvP game? There's nothing wrong with having a nice AI, but sometimes players desire smarter and more creative opponents.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Homeworld 2's AI was neither smarter nor more creative. It just over-scaled so you were always outnumbered no matter how well you were doing. And I seem to remember it basing enemy fleet on your total fleet strength + reserve RUs, and not having a unit cap like you did, meaning you ending up hilariously outnumbered.

 

[QuantumPion]

I wish the Company of Heroes dev got it; imo the only good RTS studio these days.

That would be nice considering they (Relic) were the ones that made the original Homeworld.

 

[Raduque]

Did someone hurt your butt in an online multiplayer PvP game? There's nothing wrong with having a nice AI, but sometimes players desire smarter and more creative opponents.

Well, anything I say is gonna make you just go "HURR DURR U SUX @ TEH PVP, NOOB", but here goes.



I have played online PVP before. I used to play Homeworld and Warcraft II online, and I got sucked into EvE for a couple years. I won some and I lost some. However, it's irrelevant. The online multiplayer community is shit and full of terrible people. So, I don't care about multiplayer. I don't care about PVP. I care about storyline, art direction, audio, graphics and gameplay. If a game doesn't have a storyline mode, it's completely useless to me.

 

[giantpandaman2]

I've seen this sentiment posted constantly about various games, and I've yet to find a context where I understand it even the slightest bit.

The Homeworld franchise was dead. Not a peep about anyone interested in making a sequel. Gearbox has the funds to try to make one. Even if it fails, it'll at least revive some interest in the genre or the franchise.

In other words a terrible game can't hurt a franchise that, as of this moment, was dead anyway. It doesn't damage the previous games since, well, they're complete as is.

That's worse case scenario. I, for one, will give Gearbox the benefit of the doubt. I have more faith in them then EA.

 

[bguile]

The Homeworld franchise was dead. Not a peep about anyone interested in making a sequel. Gearbox has the funds to try to make one. Even if it fails, it'll at least revive some interest in the genre or the franchise.

In other words a terrible game can't hurt a franchise that, as of this moment, was dead anyway. It doesn't damage the previous games since, well, they're complete as is.

That's worse case scenario. I, for one, will give Gearbox the benefit of the doubt. I have more faith in them then EA.

I agree.

Besides they are gonna rerelease Homeworld 1 and 2 to digital platforms, so that's something at least.

 

[Nintendesert]

Sigh. Hopefully it's good. Gearbox needs to redeem themselves, they are a pretty crappy developer overall.

 

[clok1966]

I wonder if they'll outsource the development to a subpar studio and put the money budgeted for it towards the development of Borderlands 3.

Had high hopes for Colonial Marines.

most of that OUTSOURCE stuff was bull.. you drank the koolaid.. they stated they changed much of the game (gearbox) from what the other company did.. hmmmmmmm so if that is true what you are playing is gearbox..

blaming others is the weak mans way out..

I'm not saying the other company didn't Mess it up.. I'm just saying.. don't believe everything you read.. it may or may not be true.. but you release a flop.. you need to deflect blame.. and it sure came fast in this case...99% of damage control is PR ..

gear Box made some ok games.. so did Timegate..(FEAR addons where ok and its RTS KOHAN series was what RELIC copied for COH (control point -city- resource management and constant squads)..

most likely a combo of both screwing it up.. or maybe its what it was.. but i doubt it...

 

[ZzZGuy]

This is a really mixed bag of good and bad.

On one hand Gearbox did specifically buy the Homeworld IP so they should be planning to do something with it. Nothing makes homeworld special when it comes to FPS's so I think they're trying to break into the RTS/space sim market with something they can build on rather then start from scratch.

On the other hand they betrayed their customers with their lies about Aliens: Colonial Marines (everything from the preview ingame footage to their interviews) so we won't know just what we have until the game is installed on your hard drive. They proved they can be total failures with an IP that was sure to be a hit.

So imo it boils down to did Gearbox learn or not learn from A:CM. I don't hold DN:F against them even with some questionable choices such as two weapon limit. They got that fluster cluck out the door in working shape with what was handed to them.