Homeworld: Ship Breakers

slipsius

Blackbird has finally released a teaser trailer of their first game - Hardware.

I've played the alpha, and it's got a whole lot of potential. Seen some more recent builds, and looks even better than when I played it.

What do you guys think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgylViCFHAs

stabbington

Love the look and overall vibe of the trailer - is it indicative of the art style of the actual game in any way, though? Would be stunning to see a full game that looked like that!

slipsius

Im not entirely sure what I can say about it, but Ill post this here and say that the bottom few pics are pretty close to the actual game.

http://kotaku.com/former-homeworld-developers-are-making-a-new-sci-fi-gam-5870674

GarageBay9

I will trade many precious things, up to and including redundant internal organs, for a chance to help make art for this game. (once I'm done with my current contract, of course)

This is another Homeworld game in spirit. They might try and say otherwise, and I'm sure they've covered their bases to not infringe the Homeworld IP, but I know Kharak, the Khar-Toba, the Great Desert, and Kushani names when I see 'em... like that Ta'amra location name...

I need to go to bed before I geek out too much to sleep. :poly142:

ScoobyDoofus

Love this style of cut-scene those guys do. SO up my street its insane.

Ace-Angel

So are they basing it on the "Homeworld Lore", or will it be just like Starship Troopers, Warhammer, StarCraft, etc (EI: Inspired, but not the same?).

I'm a little confused since as Garage mentioned, alot of it still looks very close to Homeworld, at least in terms of Lore and Fluff, but is not it?

ScoobyDoofus

Maybe they'll do a kickstarter to buy the rights to the IP... :P

slipsius

They've been doing little mini videos. Kinda cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvN-FjW_gDM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcSMAuo8OI


(WHY YOU NO EMBED!!!!)

Ace-Angel

Holy crap, the Baserunner piece really felt like a hayback to nostalgia with revamped looks.

kaptainkernals

@slipsius, because it was https, it must be http to embed

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvN-FjW_gDM"]Hardware: Shipbreakers - Episode1: The Prospector's Calling - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcSMAuo8OI"]Hardware Shipbreakers Episode 2 - Baserunner - The Legend - YouTube[/ame]

ae.

I love there art style so nice! wish there was some gameplay

ScoobyDoofus

I'm still super excited for this game, but...anybody else get that Beta VIP invite?

99$ for a beta invite, for a game that's going to be free2play, and for which there is ZERO gameplay footage or screenshots? That sounds...crazy/optimistic.

Sure, it includes a "prospectors guide"(pdf) some rights to name lands in the game for the first 2,000, forum access, concept art, etc. But 99$ is just too much. Sadly its been nearly a month since those went out and as of this writing only 373 people have bought into it. I hope they weren't counting on this VIP pre-sales to fund the production.

slipsius

Ill be in the beta once it comes out. Friend in the company. But the beta isnt out yet, sadly. Gameplay is fun though. played it before

cdavidson

Yeah the 99$ is a tad steep but i registered for the beta. no point in paying for a beta when there is no gameplay footage.

Played homeworld a lot back in the day.
will keep an eye on this like many other promising games in dev just now

cupsster

I'm going in all 10.

adam

It's weird to me that something so important to their story, the Baserunner, is something so uninspired in design. And seemingly unaffected by its own scale.

GarageBay9

adam wrote: »

It's weird to me that something so important to their story, the Baserunner, is something so uninspired in design. And seemingly unaffected by its own scale.

I like it. They're obviously going to a very military / utilitarian form-follows-function aesthetic and all the vehicle designs so far have done that well.

The Baserunner has a lot of Humvee, MRAP, M113 and Mars rover DNA in it.

EDIT: I also have a hunch that in the full game, a lot of customization will be available on the vehicles, and we'll see field mods and mission-specific configs that really start to give vehicles specific character.

leilei

am I seeing a slight Designers Republic vibe from this?

HitmonInfinity

Love the artwork so far. Thinking about buying just to support the devs.

GarageBay9

leilei wrote: »

am I seeing a slight Designers Republic vibe from this?

Lots of Peter Elson and the other classic Terran Trade Authority illustrators in there, too.

peanut™

So, will this be a ground starcraftish gameplay with a village to manage or a space 3d RTS ?

slipsius

Gameplay footage! Everything in this trailer is gameplay. Nothing is scripted, cept maybe the voices. But the movement isnt scripted.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kqNp1fZ9xQ&feature=share"]HARDWARE Shipbreakers Episode 3 - First Contact - Gameplay Preview Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

passerby

im sure it will be a great game, especially the story and theme, music etc. but for mechanics i was hoping it would be in space again, with full 3d strategy.

GarageBay9

I want this game so bad.

I want to make art for this game SO. BAD.

HitmonInfinity

GarageBay9 wrote: »

I want to make art for this game SO. BAD.

this.

Muzzoid

Super exited for this!

But i must say the enviro art is a little... shit?

I mean its just a heightmap with textures. The small sand dune texture is on a flat plane .

HitmonInfinity

I do have to agree with you there. The concept art was so awesome, so the 3D is a little jarring in comparison. It is a RTS though, so I guess that's to be expected a bit? Hopefully we can just assume it's pre-alpha and will improve...

Polycount challenge needed!

Snacuum

So is it just a point-to-point RTS? Sounds like missions are going to be all the same if the premise is that you fight over old shipwrecks.

Also I agree with Muzz, with the exception being a few of those top-down shots which look like beautiful satellite photos.

Muzzoid

Pretty sure the top down shots are animated concept art as it doesn't look that good in the sensor view.

It's just a bit perplexing. I mean we dreamed of a homeworld utilizing all the new art tech we have. Yet it looks pre homeworld 2. Stencil shadows, no sand built up on the wreck.

All the wreck pieces look super low poly, no small pieces of junk scattered around.

It really looks like they generate a height map and place the wreck down in it without any attempt to blend it in.

ambershee

I'm not overly impressed so far, there wasn't much of an indication of either game or visuals. Still, it's early days yet, I guess.

Snacuum

Muzz wrote: »

Pretty sure the top down shots are animated concept art as it doesn't look that good in the sensor view.

It's just a bit perplexing. I mean we dreamed of a homeworld utilizing all the new art tech we have. Yet it looks pre homeworld 2. Stencil shadows, no sand built up on the wreck.

All the wreck pieces look super low poly, no small pieces of junk scattered around.

It really looks like they generate a height map and place the wreck down in it without any attempt to blend it in.

yeah. I also thought there would be more to do with being on or inside of a wreck too (thought it would make fantastic environments) but that's probably my imagination getting away from me.

peanut™

I hope they let you do your own ship formations and not go with squadrons, this is what killed Homeworld 2

slipsius

Well, the top down view is real in game view. And that's where the majority of the game is played. You can zoom way in if you want to get those views you see for most of the trailer, but most will be top down from further away. Thats why the terrain doesnt look the greatest up close. The world is MASSIVE, so its hard to put a lot of detail into every inch. Hell, when I played (Months ago), you couldnt even zoom in that far. It was almost all over head. They just added it for people to get in close if they`d like. But, It's still early on in the dev cycle, so I would expect the art to get better and better, as per every game.

Trust me, its addicting.

Also, this is not Homeworld, so expecting to be just like it (RTS in space) is expecting way too much.

passerby

peanut™ wrote: »

I hope they let you do your own ship formations and not go with squadrons, this is what killed Homeworld 2

need a mix of hw2 and 1 for mechanics they both had some nice things, example they fucked up squads in hw2, and taking over shit, but i liked how you could move motherships, and that you wernt boned if you didn't mine out the whole map before you switched missions.

seriously all of this wants me to try and re-imagine a homeworld scene for a environment project in udk or ce3

peanut™

@slipsius: "Trust me, its addicting."

Yeah im a big fan of this kind of game specially if its played online i love the challenge to beat others.

@passerby: They used squadrons in hw2 because they tried to get rid of swarmers, at least the idea that to win a game you need to be a swarmer.

dfacto

Quite honestly this would have been an amazing concept as an oldschool point and click adventure game with that art they've got. The gameplay looks like someone put HW on the ground, old graphics and all. Now I'm not a stickler for graphics, but if everything feels and looks the same I'm worried that the gameplay itself will also be the same.

But yeah, the art is sweat as hell. Love the idea of a graveyard planet too, it's a great setting.

passerby

@peanut™; the swarming tactics came along due to it nullifying the really high dps weapons of the capital ships.

since in hw1 capital ships were easy to swarm, could be taken over really easily, and if they did get destroyed they were a huge boost to the economy of your opponent since they could be salvaged for res.

so hw2 made it harder to swarm, threw in hard caps on unit counts, and made your marine frigates/infiltrators fragile as hell, and take way too long to hijack things.

like the only way possible to hijack BC's and capital ships in hw2 was to more or less blow it's engines, and wipe out anything in range to defend it. since a cheap ass bomber made your take over useless.

GarageBay9

dfacto wrote: »

Quite honestly this would have been an amazing concept as an oldschool point and click adventure game with that art they've got. The gameplay looks like someone put HW on the ground, old graphics and all. Now I'm not a stickler for graphics, but if everything feels and looks the same I'm worried that the gameplay itself will also be the same.

But yeah, the art is sweat as hell. Love the idea of a graveyard planet too, it's a great setting.

I'm good with Homeworld on the ground. That is absolutely hunky-dory for me. Maybe I'm easily pleased, but I am bouncing all over the house with excitement over this.

Really can't wait to see some of the backstory behind the origins of the wrecks. It takes a lot of energy to pull a starship out of orbit and have it end up intact on a planetary surface, instead of a mile-wide glassy crater in the desert. Maybe this will also start to explain what created the Karos Graveyard (unofficially, of course... :poly121:)

dfacto

Garage: Yeah, I get a feeling this is an not so thinly veiled homeworld prequel set in another universe.

Di$array

While I took to this like a moth to a flame since it may be the closes I get to a Dune game again for many years to come.

I like the look of the setting and presentation we have seen it the past trailers but those recon drones aircraft or what have you could of been on a whole other level. The way they followed the terrain, its like jumping back to the mid 2000s.

ambershee

I kind of liked how they were following the terrain...

GarageBay9

Di$array wrote: »

While I took to this like a moth to a flame since it may be the closes I get to a Dune game again for many years to come.

I like the look of the setting and presentation we have seen it the past trailers but those recon drones aircraft or what have you could of been on a whole other level. The way they followed the terrain, its like jumping back to the mid 2000s.

That is kind of the one thing that bugged me. Even the aircraft in Total Annihilation did a little bit better, and that was 1997.

Just a little bob and weave altitude-wise, without being glued to the terrain so closely, and maybe a nice climbing turn over the waypoint instead of standing on their wingtip and hauling over in a 90-degree bat turn.

Snacuum

Di$array wrote: »

While I took to this like a moth to a flame since it may be the closes I get to a Dune game again for many years to come.

I like the look of the setting and presentation we have seen it the past trailers but those recon drones aircraft or what have you could of been on a whole other level. The way they followed the terrain, its like jumping back to the mid 2000s.

ohh, then there better be surprising and dynamic stuff to the environments. part of the best things in Dune II was stuff like worms attacking your harvester.

moof

Graphics aside, I think this looks sweet. Most games aren't doing it for me nowadays, so something in the vein of homeworld sounds pretty slick.

Looking forward to a cool story perhaps too

Di$array

GarageBay9 wrote: »

That is kind of the one thing that bugged me. Even the aircraft in Total Annihilation did a little bit better, and that was 1997.

Just a little bob and weave altitude-wise, without being glued to the terrain so closely, and maybe a nice climbing turn over the waypoint instead of standing on their wingtip and hauling over in a 90-degree bat turn.

Yeah just subtle little touches such as those you mentioned can really add detail to the game. But we could be jumping the gun as this footage is likely to be alpha gameplay.

Snacuum wrote: »

ohh, then there better be surprising and dynamic stuff to the environments. part of the best things in Dune II was stuff like worms attacking your harvester.

Oh that would be a treat wouldn't it. Environmental hazards such as sand storms, etc could really brings new levels of difficulty and gameplay mechanics. Hopefully they will be implemented.

moof wrote: »

Looking forward to a cool story perhaps too

Me too as the potential is there. Having little banter over the radio and what have you would be goo too.

fearian

Muzz wrote: »

All the wreck pieces look super low poly, no small pieces of junk scattered around.

Muzz wrote: »

But i must say the enviro art is a little... shit?

I mean its just a heightmap with textures. The small sand dune texture is on a flat plane .

I had a theory on this that I didn't really like: It's being developed for mobile devices. Check out the HUD in the trailer - it has a build number iirc, and looks legit, but something about it, and the menu button in the corner make me think "touch screen"

lo and behold:

For us at Blackbird, platform requirements were nebulous. We wanted to launch on social networks like Facebook, and then move onto mobile platforms including iPhone and Android, but tablets looked pretty good too, and a standalone PC build for Steam distribution also made sense. Consoles were a possibility in the future, depending on the success of the game.

But I mean I think it could be great with touchscreen controls, I just worry about playing it on PC on a huge monitor and it feeling upscaled and 'port' like.

Muzzoid

This gives me a little more faith .

http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/05/hardware-shipbreakers-versus-dota-lol/

Snacuum

Free to Play

NOPE. game is ruined

ambershee

I'm out. Free to play and RTS DO NOT mix.

Mathew O

Hmmm, I'm still interested but I don't know whether I'll play the competitive online side of it. Probably just the story driven stuff against AI :P

Muzzoid

Already knew it was ftp so when i say it gives me more faith, I'm saying with the approach of making it competitive it gives me more faith than only knowing it was f2p.

That being said a retail release would be a million times better.