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.

• 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.

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:

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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”.

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

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

• 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

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.


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.

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.

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

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!
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.

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.

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[store.epicgames.com]

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