Homeworld: Remastered Big Fixes and Tweaks Incoming

After a rather long drought, Homeworld: Remastered Collection [official site] will be getting a sizeable update that will introduce sweeping changes to fleet formations while also adding ballistics to projectile weapons. Oh, and bug fixes, lots of 'em. According to a report by Fists of Heaven, the update has been in the works for more than six months and is the core focus of a small team within Gearbox Software. As of yet, no official release date has been announced.

"We've been heads down on this patch for 6 months which can make us look like we haven’t been paying attention, but we have," Gearbox's Dave Eaton told Fists of Heaven, addressing grumblings from the community who were dissatisfied by the lack of post-launch support for Homeworld.

The update will be tackling a lot of those grumblings head on, chiefly by fixing the formations system that governs how units gather and self-organize. The emphasis here is on creating a system that's "intelligent" and automatically reorganizes a formation depending on the race and type of each unit. As an example, Eaton illustrated how a group of 'Vagyr destroyers' would find a different place in a formation compared to their 'Kushan' counterparts due to the requirements of their differing weapon systems.

Another big change focuses on adding proper ballistics for projectile weapons. In another demonstration, Fist of Heaven was shown how bullets are now governed by realistic physics, allowing missed shots to still strike units behind a target. Some shots will even misfire, causing projectiles to veer wildly off target. This seems like a big improvement compared to the original system, which merely relied on random number generation (RNG) to determine if a shot landed or not.

Gearbox is also addressing other issues, like changing how formations move in space, forcing players to adapt to larger formations that maneuver slower because of their size. There's also going to be a host of bug fixes and balance tweaks aimed at making Homeworld: Remastered Collection an even more enjoyable experience.

"We’ve been busting our asses to get it done," Eaton said. "And the results are going to be  something that I hope everyone’s really happy with."

There's no telling how much longer it will take, but Eaton confirmed the patch was entering its "final stages." Hopefully that means soon.