Homeworld 2 Patch #1 I. CHANGES TO HOMEWORLD 2 IN 1.1 PATCH Multiplayer Improvements a. Players will now be able to host and join games from behind NATs and Firewalls. a. Using the rally to object command on a moving ship will no longer result in a crash. a. Probes and scouts no longer attract mines when passing through mine fields. Tuning and Balance Changes a. General II. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS ii. For optimal performance, play Homeworld 2 on a PC that meets or exceeds the following specifications: iii. Supported Video Cards Please ensure you have the latest drivers before running Homeworld 2, or you may encounter graphical glitches and bugs. Supported Video Cards Unsupported Video Cards Homeworld2 has been designed for the standard 4:3 aspect ratio display. However, you can use other any unsupported resolutions of your choosing, such as those listed below. Furthermore, We have included a solution for some non-standard resolutions as listed below. If you are running Homeworld2 on a laptop or other LCD display, you may experience some distortion or stretching of the game screens if you are not running in the recommended resolutions for your specific monitor. To address this, we have included the following work-around using a command line option switch. In order to specify the resolution that you want to play Homeworld2 in, use the following parameters to set your resolution. Simply cut and paste from the text below into the Homeworld2 shortcut Properties For Example, the Target of your windows shortcut should read: And if you want to run Homeworld2 in 1024 x 768 resolution, using the following command line switch (typed exactly as): -w 1024 -h 768 (**note the case sensitive and space sensitive nature of this command line switch where Therefore, if you want to run Homeworld2 in 1024 x 768 resolution, the Target field of the Windows shortcut for Homeworld2 should read: "C:\Programs\Sierra\Homeworld2\Homeworld2.exe" -w 1024 -h 768 You can try using this method to run in any one of the resolutions listed below or others that may not be listed. However, none of them are guaranteed to work in all cases. Here are several examples. Simply cut and paste from the text below into target line after the .exe portion of the existing text. 1152x864 -w 1152 -h 864 i. Multiplayer Issues If you want to play a multiplayer game of Homeworld 2 and you are behind a router, you may need to do one of the following: If you still encounter difficulty in connecting to GameSpy, please allow traffic for at least the following TCP ports. iii. Troubleshooting i. CD Keys ii. Graphics Settings iii. Installation of DirectX9.0 iv. Gamespy Arcade v. Content Download
b. The whisper function in the GameSpy lobby no longer misdirects messages to the wrong recipients.
c. The number of players in a given game is now reported correctly.
d. Players can now ignore people in the Gamespy lobby.
e. Players can now whisper to a group of people in the Gamespy lobby.
f. The ignore list in the Gamespy lobby is now automatically saved.
g. The Whisper list in the Gamespy lobby is now automatically saved.
h. There is a new ‘Suppress’ button to the GameSpy lobby. This adds the ability to ignore the join / leave lobby messages.
i. Lobby chat has been updated so that private game chats will no longer being displayed in the lobby chat.
j. Game chat has been updated so that lobby chat won’t cause the messages to be lost anymore.
k. There is a new PRESETS button that creates a default setting for gameplay options, including CPU difficulty, open/closed slots, and CPU player colours. Settings are only saved to the profile when you start a game.
l. Players can now kick a lagging host.
m. DirectPlay sessions are now closed asynchronously. This corrects the long wait at the end of a game.
n. Bagdes with long filenames (>32 characters) no longer cause multiplayer games to crash at the loading screen and/or the waiting for content download screen.
o. Players that have been defeated or have dropped from the game are no longer listed in the diplomacy and chat menus.
p. A random race setting has been added to the race selector.
q. The game now looks in both data:LevelData\Multiplayer\<GameType>\*.level and profiles:Levels\<GameType>\*.level for level content.
r. Users can now add a file called <LevelName>_Thumb.tga. It will be loaded as the preview image in the level picker. Unfortunately preview and loading images cannot be autodownloaded with the levels.
Fixes to Game Crashes
b. If a ship is destroyed in the frame before it executes an order, the game will no longer crash.
c. The game will no longer crash due to rapid switching between tactics.
d. Matrox Parhelia users will no longer experience loading crashes after installing the latest drivers for their cards.
Gameplay Fixes
b. Defense fields will no longer stay active after the frigate that generates them has been destroyed.
c. Scouts with the EMP upgrade will no longer lose their ion trails after using the EMP attack.
d. Fighters can no longer undock while the carriers are in hyperspace transit.
e. It’s no longer possible to control enemy player and enemy AI ships.
f. By using hyperspace gates platforms can be issued more than one move order.
g. Platforms no longer attack when moving.
h. Players can no longer hear ships outside of visible range.
i. Research abilities that are transferred when ships are donated no longer stays if the ship is transferred back.
j. Ships that are docking or being built no longer cause ships already docked to launch when the ship hold is full.
a. General
i. Resource Collectors repair rate increased (from 25 hitpoints/second to 35 hitpoints/second)
ii. Start positions have been updated on the multiplayer map Shields.
a. Hull defence guns (located on Vaygr and Hiigaran Carrier, Mothership, Resource Controller, and Shipyard as their main weapon):
i. Hull defence guns have increased accuracy vs. fighters - 40% increase in accuracy vs. fighter (from 0.1 to 0.14).
ii. Hull defence guns have increased accuracy vs. Corvette (from .4 to .45).
iii. Hull defence guns vs. Resource Collectors Penetration Decrease (from 100% to 75%).
iv. Hull defence guns vs. Platforms penetration increased 300%.
a. Platforms
i. Platform controller build time increase (from 30s to 70s).
ii. Hiigaran Platform controller cost increase (from 500ru to 650ru).
iii. Ion Platform accuracy vs. corvettes and fighters has been decreased (from 10% to 4% for fighters and from 8% to 4% for corvettes).
iv. Ion Platforms Penetration vs. Corvettes and Fighters has been decreased from (from 100% to 1% vs. fighters and from 100% to 10% for Corvettes).
v. Ion Platform research time has been increased by 70 seconds (from 30s to 100s).
vi. Missile Platform research time has been increased by 45 seconds (from 60s to 105s).
vii. Speed for all platforms has been reduced by 75 (from 200 to 125).
viii. Platforms have had significant reduction in amount of damage done to collectors (75% damage reduction for gun platforms 50% damage reduction for missile platforms and 60% damage reduction for Ion Platforms).
a. Resource Controllers
i. Number of Hull Guns reduced from 8 to 4.
a. Corvettes
i. Missile Corvette Damage vs. Platforms has been increased by 90%
ii. Pulsar Corvette Damage vs. Platforms has been increased by 60%
iii. Laser Corvette attack style changed to an attack run vs. subsystems
iv. Vaygr Corvette armour upgrades reduced (from 1.5 to 1.3 for level 1 and from 2.0 to 1.6 for level 2)
a. Frigates
i. Vaygr Assault Frigate cost has been reduced by 50 RU (from 700 to 650).
ii. Vaygr Assault Frigate research cost has been reduced by 150 RU (from 800 to 650).
iii. Marine and Infiltrator Frigate HP has been increased (from 18000 to 20000).
iv. 10 second reduction in build time (from 55s to 45s) for Ion Frigate, Vaygr Assault Frigate, and Vaygr Missile Frigate.
v. 5 second reduction in build time (from 55s to 50s) for Flak Frigate and Marine/Infiltrator Frigate.
a. Bombers
i. Bombers are weaker vs. platforms: 20% decrease in penetration vs. platforms (from .55 to .45).
a. Vaygr Battlecruiser
i. 20% decrease in engine repair speed (from 250s to 200s).
ii. 20% increase to engine subsystem HPs (from 30000hp to 36000hp).
iii. 20% decrease to duration of inactivity after damage (from 80s to 64s).
a. EMP
i. Recharge - 10 second increase (from 60s to 70s).
ii. Frigates - Shield vs. EMP increased 40% (from 220 to 310).
iii. Research time - 10 second increase (from 60 to 70).
Singleplayer Game Fixes
i. Players unit caps will no longer be lowered when they load a game from the in-game menu.
ii. The shipyard is no longer listed as having two sensor spots.
iii. The Vaygr laser corvette now displays badges correctly.
iv. The Hiigaran Sensors Array textures are no longer inverted.
v. Vgr Refinery badges now display properly.
b. Mission 2
i. Bonus corvettes and bombers are now delivered 100% of the time.
c. Mission 4
i. The difficulty level has been reduced.
ii. Destroying the station before destroying inhibitors no longer results in a lock up.
d. Mission 6
i. The Derelict Mover is no longer targetable by your ships.
e. Mission 8
i. Scuttling Dreadnaught will now cause the mission to fail.
f. Mission 13
i. The difficulty level has been reduced.
g. Mission 14
i. The difficulty level has been reduced.
h. Mission 15
i. Ships can no longer be led out of the area of play in pursuit of the planet killer missiles.
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i. Homeworld 2 requires a PC running either Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition. It must also meet the following minimum requirements:
Intel Pentium III 833MHz or AMD Athlon 833MHz
256 MB RAM
32 MB OpenGL supported hardware, GeForce or better (with Transform and Lighting), ATI Radeon 7500 or better (with Transform and Lighting).
Requires DirectX 9.0 and a compatible driver.
1.2 GB Hard Drive space, plus space for DirectX 9.0 Drivers, saved games, and Windows SWAP file.
16X or Faster CD-ROM/DVD drive
Windows compatible sound card
Windows compatible keyboard and mouse.
Required for Multiplayer:
56.6K Modem required for 4 player or less MP online (internet) game.
Broadband (DSL, Cable Modem, or faster) required for 6 player multiplayer online (internet) game.
TCP/IP Compliant Network required for Network Play.
Pentium 4 1.4GHz or higher.
64 MB or faster GeForce 3 or Radeon 8500 that supports Transform and Lighting.
512 MB RAM or higher.
Homeworld 2 has been tested and optimized to run on the following video cards.
ATI Technologies
-Radeon 7500
-Radeon 8500
-Radeon 9000
-Radeon 9100
-Radeon 9200
-Radeon 9500
-Radeon 9600
-Radeon 9700
-Radeon 9800
nVidia:
-All GeForce class cards and above except the GeForce 256.
Matrox:
-Parhelia
nVidia cards: www.nvidia.com
ATI cards: www.ati.com
Matrox: www.matrox.com
Intel: www.intel.com
SiS Xabre: www.xabre.com
3Dlabs: www.3dlabs.com
S3: www.S3graphics.com
Non-standard Resolutions
C:\Programs\Sierra\Homeworld2\Homeworld2.exe.
-w sets the width value and the -h sets the height value.)
1920x1440 -w 1920 -h 1440
2048x1536 -w 2048 -h 1536
III. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
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Modem users may experience connectivity problems when playing Homeworld 2 on Gamespy while running a personal firewall (such as ZoneAlarm or Norton Personal Firewall). Disabling the firewall during play may solve those problems.
a) Disable your router so that your machine is connected directly to the internet.
b) Unblock port 6073 and ports 2302 to 2400 (these are the default DirectPlay ports used by Homeworld 2).
c) Force Homeworld2 to use a given port number by using "-port ####" at the command line, where #### is between 1 and 65535.
6667 (IRC)
80 (HTTP)
27900 (Master Server UDP Heartbeat)
28900 (Master Server List Request)
29900 (GP Connection Manager)
29901 (GP Search Manager)
13139 (Custom UDP Pings)
6500 (incoming, UDP, default roomquery port; can be customized with roomqueryport=<port #> in svc.cfg)
ii. Dual Monitor Setup
You will not be able to play Homeworld 2 on your secondary monitor unless both are running from the same supported video card. If you have two video cards, the primary card must be supported by Homeworld 2 or the game will not run.
You may experience various display problems depending on your system specifications. Below are the current known issues.
a) Alt-Tabbing out of and back into Homeworld 2 may cause certain ships to render improperly.
b) Homeworld 2 does not run on Windows 98 SE systems that use CMI 8738 Onboard Sound Card. Playing with a different sound card or by disabling sound entirely (by using the -noSound command line parameter) will allow the game to run.
IV. GENERAL GAME ISSUES
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Please remember, no one from Sierra will ever ask you for your key. If someone logs onto GameSpy using your CD key while you are in a GameSpy lobby or game, you will be kicked out.
Remember, do not give out your CD key to anyone or you will not be able to play multiplayer games!
Homeworld 2s default graphics quality settings are set to low. If you want to experience the full visual experience of Homeworld 2, you will need to set these values to high.
Homeworld 2 requires DirectX9.0 or higher in order to run. You will be prompted to install DirectX9 during the installation process. If you have already installed or want to install DirectX9 later, please select no.
Note: If you select no during the installation process, you must install DirectX9.0 manually before Homeworld 2 will run.
While Homeworld 2 provides Gamespy Arcade as an optional part of the installation process, Homeworld 2 is not supported by it. If you want to play a multiplayer game on Gamespy, please select the GameSpy option provided in the front end.
Unique player Badges must be placed in your bin/profiles/badges/ directory. Badges downloaded from other players will be placed in this folder as well.
Levels will be downloaded to your bin/profiles/levels folder and be placed in a folder with a unique id. If you want to host a game with a downloaded map, please ensure that you copy it to your data/leveldata/multiplayer/deathmatch/ folder
