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In light of a complete lack Homeworld2 at ECTS this year a discussion concerning this had been initiated on the forums. Feeling generous Alex “Marweas” Rodberg from Sierra Entertainment decided to drop this little gem into the discussion,

yawn

Well, I’ll be concluding my participation in this forum with this post. Frankly, the effort put into keeping this miniscule community informed is not worth the aggravation or the time.

I just returned from Leipzig, Germany, where Homeworld 2 was demonstrated at a consumer Games Convention larger than ECTS. The game looked fantastic and people responded to it marvelously. Given that trade shows like ECTS are used to hype upcoming products, not products practically in stores, and given that VUG has about a gazillion games to market (most of which have greater earning potential than HW2) we made the decision to focus on other products at ECTS.

Enjoy the game.

I look forward to hearing more complaints about how Sierra ignores the community. I’m sure accusing instead of asking, and bitching instead of learning will accomplish your goals admirably.

Cheers, and goodbye. - Alex

It always warms the heart to see such respect delivered to the community as a whole from a major publisher. I guess the Forums here were alot harder to deal with that those Tribes forums after all aye Alex? Of course honesty and integrity from a fan base kinda does that.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out..

Josh has done an interview with Etoychest. Covers the basic questions, but gives some “golden” answers to some of the questions.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to talk to us regarding Homeworld 2. Much has been said about how the user interface in Homeworld 2 has been streamlined. Can you delve a bit deeper into this, and talk about what prompted your decision to revisit the interface, and what changes have been made to the interface to make it more intuitive?

The main reason for revisiting the interface is to make HW2 easier to jump in and play. This isn’t to say we’re abandoning the sleek design of Homeworld, rather we want to upgrade it. The introduction of a task bar, common among all RTS’s, allows players to quickly access key commands and options without having to memorize hotkeys. In the original Homeworld, simple commands often required three or four steps. HW2 uses default right-click actions to simplify the player’s life — we want the player playing the game, not working the interface.

Check it out here.

Guarrand, consummate joker, posted this thread indicating that Best Buy sent him a note that Homeworld 2 would be in stores today or tomorrow. Warhampster, had previously posted that his best buy was indicating something similar.

I think it is not likely to be in, but there is a chance! IF Sierra had lined up pressing and packaging for the US/Canadian version to go as soon as the game was gold, IF they were not going to do a more syncronized world wide shipment of the game, and IF nothing else is standing in it’s way, then theoretically it could be on shelves today or tomorrow. If someone shows up with a picture of a legit HW2 CD (with visible reciept), either today or tomorrow or this weekend, they will get a 4×16 Relic Bumper Sticker mailed to them by me. Bonus points if you get pictures of a box of HW2 boxes.

So, there is only one option for the fans. Call your local supplier, and ask them when Homeworld 2 is going to be on shelves. Pick the nicest store you call, and pre-order from them (if you have not already). If the game is not there, but a bunch of folks call, then perhaps it will make the retailer pay more attention to the game.

Oh, and EB Games has Homeworld 2 advertised at 44.99. If you are a hardcore collector of HW merchandise, you may be excited to know that you also get a keychain with your pre-order.

Odipherous reported that there are 40 new screens (dated today) up at Gamespot.

Due to my connection being really really slow today, I have not yet managed to see them all, but they do appear to be (at first glance) from a mid-July build of HW2. I am also getting reports that there are a bunch of older ones scattered amongst the new ones.

The Vaygr Lance fighter has been added to Homeworld2.com, that and a note that Homeworld 2 has gone gold. They still have not sorted out the FAQ to note that there is not going to be a beta, and there is no demo currently planned though.

See the lance fighter here.

Thanks to Zilor for the heads up (and mecha for the clarification about the Lance fighter in that thread).

Full press release is here.

Geoff posted something on the Relic forums that I think you folks should see….

Strangely, I also got this image in my email…

I don’t know what the Hiigaran fleet is doing over Vancouver… must be something interesting though…

[Update 9:51am, August 25th] Right, the forums just got crushed by all the people refreshing Geoff’s thread. Here’s what he said…

August 25th, 2003 will go down in Hiigaran history as a very good day.

Can’t say more than that right now…just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

How’s that for a teaser?

Do not try the forums for now, they won’t be up till telefragged gets the server that’s hosting them sorted out.

Not quite sure how I missed this (being the forum addict I am…) but Alex “Marweas” Rodberg, who’s in charge of marketting for Homeworld 2, posted some comments about his impressions on the Single Player game so far.

My (non-weasel) verdict: it’s as much fun as HW1, if not more, even without the novelty of being the first of its kind. Not perfect, but waay better than anything like it I’ve ever played.

There’s a few more paragraphs and some comments by some Relic folks in this thread.

The guys at Relic have provided the Spec for badges on the forums.

64×64 pixels

1. Badges MUST be in Targa (.tga) format. No other format works.

2. They must be either 24 or 32 bit…*not* 16 bit.

3. Make sure they are uncompressed.

4. The badging system supports alpha channels (i.e. you can have see-through areas in your badge). The game will treat any black areas in your alpha channel as transparent, so make sure you have the right areas masked in alpha.

See this thread for more info and to ask any questions about the badges.

A new preview by Gamers Europe showed up today. They spend a bit of time talking about how pretty it is. They seem absorbed by that info in fact.

What certainly made the original such an absorbing experience was the calibre of models used. The same people have been brought back in and the standard, if anything, has improved and could put even the best sci-fi artists to shame. A criticism of the previous game could be levelled that many of the ships looked similar, however this has been rectified and each looks quite unique. There’s no more mirroring of sides, each side has very unique strengths and weaknesses. More than a few RTS games could learn from this.

Thanks to the ever grumpy BD for pointing it out.