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I've got Sand in my everything! Let's Play Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak HOMEWORLD! Pretty much. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is the fourth game in the Homeworld series, and the first in chronological order. This game takes place 110 years before Homeworld 1, and tells the tale of the mission to recover the unusual artefact discovered in the Deserts of Kharak - the Yes, the developers made no secret of the end goal, even as the characters in-game have no clue to start. Is it any Good? It's not a 3D game any more, due to taking place on the surface of Kharak. That doesn't change the fact that this is still the same design team that created the first Homeworld, and without the horrible development cycle of Homeworld 2. I would place it at about the same level of Cataclysm, though for different reasons. The plot is well paced and written, the mechanics are simple and well integrated, the graphics are beautiful. The LP itself Like my previous LPs of the Homeworld series, this will be a subtitled video LP. There is a difficulty setting, but I will keep that at 'Normal'. Videos will not cut anything out, though I will definitely fast-forward through the long waiting/resourcing sections of the game. At the end, I will do skirmish runs with both factions, then perhaps play some actual multiplayer with some willing Goons. Previous LPs? Yes. I did Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, and Homeworld 2. Only HW1 has immediate plot relevance, and its manual is recommended reading. HW2 can be ignored (thankfully). And Cataclysm? Well, the Somtaaw are back, and the Kapisi has the same spirit as the Kuun-Lan, as the later missions will show. Though you don't need that game to understand this one. Spoilers? NONE! None whatsoever, unless I bring it up in a video first. I recognize that not everyone will have played or experienced Homeworld before watching this LP, but there are plenty of points where foreshadowing needs to be illuminated. Therefore, this LP will contain spoilers about the other games, but please don't spoil them ahead of time. VIDEOS 
Skirmish Matches
Art and Other Images MShadowy produced two sketches/drawings of what the Kalash (Missions 04 and 05) may have looked like when it was intact. They are included here:   I got an image of the religious carving in the Gaalsien base from the starting cutscene of Mission 08. Have a look, and see just how much history is referenced.  This is another image of the Kiith symbols found in the Khar-Toba. I kinda like it, and used it as the image for the last mission instead of the mission patch. 
berryjon fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Apr 5, 2016 |
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Feb 20, 2016 18:46
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JamieTheD posted:It's weird, it doesn't look like rotoscope so much as digitally painted textures over a model in set lighting, I call it rotoscoping due to how I saw it when I first played the game - that's what my mind jumped too.
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Feb 20, 2016 19:43
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radintorov posted:One minor nitpick I'm having with the game is that they keep referring to Rachel as, well, Rachel: it feels a bit weird that every other officer is referred to with their role except for her, despite being the chief science officer. Actually, a lot of people get names - in the post mission debrief. The Inel Officer is Nathan S'Jet, for example.
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Feb 20, 2016 19:45
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radintorov posted:Yes, but he mentioned that while recording his personal log, not during the "go / no go" phase of getting the ship online for example. Well, she's a Hero Unit in an RTS. Of course everyone is going to use her name, rather than calling her "Baserunner" or "Science". Also, something I didn't mention in the second video - when a general unit levels up, they do get a name when you click on the unit itself. All the LAVs are piloted by someone from the Kiith S'Jet, the Armored Vehicles are Kiith Soban.I really need to find a point and sit down with unit chatter. and just cycle through them all. Possibly a bonus video.
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Feb 20, 2016 21:02
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anilEhilated posted:Wow. This actually looks pretty good. I just... wow. Didn't see that coming. Didn't see what coming? Because there's a whole lot of "WHAT?!?" coming.
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Feb 20, 2016 23:01
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Superstring posted:Something I picked up on in the first video, at around 7:20 the base PA system announces that the carriers Fiiskire and Akalon have been destroyed. There are flaws in the game. The midgame is weak, and the fate of the Sakala could have been handled a bit better. Which is why I equate it with Cataclysm - good, but not great. Two down. Three to go. Kurieg posted:I know Homeworld 1 had a lot of neat setting information in the instruction manual. Is there any explanation as to how their culture somehow came up with the idea of land carriers? It comes off as very "We needed to include a mothership in a land based game....sooooo..." Originally the Baserunner, Rachel's vehicle, was supposed to be the primary unit, but in development, things changed. I like the Kapisi though. Think of it less as a Mothership, and more as a Carrier.
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Feb 21, 2016 01:56
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Xenoborg posted:Its probably going to come up more, but I liked the part in the Galcian message where they listed going to space as one of their grievances. The thing is - the Gaalsein are quite willing to talk and use diplomacy. Yes, they're religious extremists who take their views on what is and is not seriously, and have been in a technical state of war with the northern Kiith for 3 centuries. But they will still talk if that gets them what they want. And they tried to talk the Northen Coalition out of sending an expedition to the Doesn't help any that about the only ones who could possibly independently verify some of their religious claims with documents are those assholes, the Somtaaw - demanding that anyone who wants to look at them has to go through the whole 33 temple Shining Path.
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Feb 21, 2016 19:05
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FredMSloniker posted:Does Deserts of Kharak avoid that? You do get lulls in some missions, usually while you're moving between enemy strong points, or waiting for the next wave to throw itself onto your prepared positions. And there are some missions where you start in a fight, having just arrived on scene and the enemy is attacking. (edit: video got processed in the wrong format - proper version below) berryjon fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 22:32
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Kurieg posted:It looks like you encoded in 4:3 aspect ratio. Alright, let me see what went wrong, and I'll get the fixed video up later. edit; I think I've figured out what went wrong, but fixing it requires files I have on my home computer. I'll leave the 4x3 version up for now, and replace it after I've done the thing with the other thing (technical terms, honest!) berryjon fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 23:13
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16x9 this time! Not 4x3!
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Feb 22, 2016 04:12
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Right. I'm just gonna beat my head against the wall for a few minutes, then try again tomorrow.
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Feb 22, 2016 05:48
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waves the white flag of surrender So - put in some subtitles to announce the fast forward. Do something to replace the... 31.87 seconds of fast forward sounds. Not sure what though. Make sure the post acceleration sound is still in place? Did I miss anything? ((Besides, it's not a HW LP without me fraking around with technique and style a few times at the get go.))
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Feb 22, 2016 06:58
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When I did that for the longer stretches in HW2, I put in instrumental pieces recommended by the thread. Monty Python is not included in that.
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Feb 22, 2016 07:29
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FredMSloniker posted:[waiting for corrected video intensifies] To make sure there are no mistakes (this time), I wrote out the entire process, front to back, and am starting from the raw files again. I also recorded several minutes of the Menu Theme for audio overlay.
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Feb 23, 2016 00:32
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Alright, is there anything else wrong with this video before I make it the official Update 3?
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Feb 23, 2016 04:51
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Broken Box posted:Rewatched it, your fixes turned out fine. The main menu music worked well for the fast forward. Thanks for putting the time in to straighten it out. No problem. FWIW, I also slowed down the acceleration to x8, instead of x16, as I found it worked a bit smoother that way.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:45
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Captain Bravo posted:Just one thing, that I can notice. Look, just because Kharak is the galaxy's largest kitty litter box, does not mean that you have to insult the people trying to comb it over! 
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Feb 23, 2016 06:32
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Rick_Hunter posted:What have you found so far? I ain't found poo poo.
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Feb 23, 2016 07:42
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I had to tweak some settings to get the fast-forward section to not have huge artifacts in them. Let me know if it fucks up for you guys thanks to YouTube post processing.
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Feb 26, 2016 00:07
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I've finished recording the campaign, wrapping up the last 4 missions this evening. That means in a couple weeks, I'll be looking for
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Feb 26, 2016 05:35
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MShadowy posted:As for the ship in question, we get a simultaneously better and worse look at the Kalash derelict in next missions opening cinematic. I've tried to reconstruct how the ship might have looked while intact (from the top down) based on the images we have available and if anything I'm even more doubtful that this is any kind of warship, regardless of who constructed it. I'm not sure if I should post the image yet or wait until after the next update, though. We see the relevant cutscene during some of the teaser trailers, so I'll allow it. Besides, that cutscene doesn't play until the start of mission 6, not 5. Cythereal posted:True, but if this game's thing is that there's a lot of crashed ships in the Kharak desert the Khar-Toba's hyperspace core would be a logical reason why. This is addressed in game, and it leaves HW2's revelations in the same boat as Cataclysm for HW2 itself - you could make the connection, but it's not needed. I'll talk about it when we get to the relevant point, and explain how the logic works. berryjon fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Feb 26, 2016 |
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Feb 26, 2016 17:46
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Morrow posted:It's worthwhile to remember that this wasn't intended to be a Homeworld game at first, but rather a different IP where you went around scavenging wrecks. So it's very likely that this ship isn't meant to be Taiidan or another Homeworld race directly, but is an asset from the original incarnation that was adapted. Oh, you're plenty right with that. There are a lot of things - including Rachel's final ability and its source - that only really make sense as a Hardware: Shipbreakers holdover.
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Feb 26, 2016 20:12
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MShadowy posted:Righto. I will be putting that into the OP after the next mission, where we see the relevant cutscene. If you want to tidy it up over the next couple days before then, be my guest. I... don't like this mission. It's long, it's repetitive, and it suffers from one of the cardinal sins in any game - it's the exact same map, with no changes, used right after the previous use of that map.
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Feb 27, 2016 18:33
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Loxbourne posted:I assure you this mission gets a lot more exciting and interesting if you play it the way I did the first time around. I don't use mines as much as I should. It's a reflexive response from every other game where they're useless. Also, the game is well programmed - any attempt to pre-demolish the wrecks in the base auto-fail as Intel informs Rachel that they need to blow the primary wreck site first. And if you lay charges ahead of time, but don't blow them, they get removed from the map when the cutscene triggers. Why no, it's not like I was trying to break the mission at all!
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Feb 27, 2016 19:54
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Inglonias posted:EDIT 2: The compression of the video is godawful at about 9 mins, 40 secs. I'm guessing that's just Youtube being Youtube? I checked the file I uploaded on my Hard drive, and it's alright for the fast-forwarding. I blame this one on YouTube.
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Feb 27, 2016 20:45
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What I don't make clear in the video is the first of the two artifacts I recovered gave all my AAVs +50% speed, then the second one gave them all +50% Armor. AAVs are now, more than ever, the mainstay of my forces until the end of the game. I also watched the video front to back this time to make sure everything went smoothly on my end. Any video glitches are purely YouTube's fault.
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Feb 28, 2016 16:22
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CommissarMega posted:That last bit, with the two carriers passing each other, was awesome Well, the last two are the Battlecruiser (much later), and the Mortar OF DOOM. And if the Coalition had an orbital weapon, I think they would be spamming it as much as possible. Besides, they don't get Ion Cannon tech until they buy it off the Bentusi, or reverse engineer it from Turanic/Taidanii examples.
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Feb 28, 2016 18:03
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As for the GDI comparisons, I'm thinking Ion Cannon satellites, Mammoth Tanks, and inexplicably-effective grenade-throwing units 
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Rick_Hunter posted:So why did you go with a GDI/NOD comparison rather than a Crayven Corp/Order of New Dawn? Because as soon as I saw how the game played and the units I thought, "Holy poo poo, this is Ground Control on sand dunes!" Because I had more recently played CnC than Ground Control? edit; Also the Coalition is more politically aligned with the formation of the GDI, while the Gaalsien are a religious order that's highly militant and led by their Messiah. It has more to do than just unit style.
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Feb 28, 2016 18:16
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Palladium posted:I finished the game and obviously won't spoil anything here, but this is one of those games where it really needed a more fleshed-out ending with more info leading to the construction of the fateful space banana. SPOILERS! DON'T MOUSE OVER IF YOU VALUE THE ENDING! All they had to do was end the damned game with Rachel standing in front of the Guidestone, wipe away the dust, lean in and read "Hiigara..." and all would be well. Instead, we get.... that. Phy posted:So the non-Kapisi artifacts are randomized, giving you different powerups each playthrough? Is there anything like a useless artifact? Yes, and no. All Artifacts have uses. One of the last ones I pick up improves the range of the Railguns by 50%. The least useful I've found are the ones that reduce Construction time by 20% for a certain unit. As for the Gaalsien, it's not as obvious, but they can control the high-ground with ease, allowing them increased range on their weapons. Their hover-Railguns love to backup while firing as well, making them hard to run down and kill. As for circle-strafing, LAVs do that by default, and the rest can if you give them waypoint move-fire orders around a slow unit, like a Carrier or Cruiser. It's not effective. To the OP with you!
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Feb 28, 2016 20:27
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Kurieg posted:Can you go over what artifacts you have and what they do? You fast forwarded past two of them in this video. Also can you only have a certain number turned on? It looked like you were de-activating some in video 5. I don't think you can deactivate artifacts. They are all passive benefits. Anyway, at the end of mission 6, I have:
Please note that the first two are Plot Mandated, the others are the result of the RNG.
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Feb 28, 2016 21:37
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One of the background documents also mentioned that the Taidan Empire did have automated satellites in the Oort Cloud whose job was to go 'ding!' if there was a Hyperspace event in the system. If there was, then the Turanic Raiders or a Taidanii Force would arrive to check things out. It was one of the tests of the Mothership Hyperdrive that caused a 'ding', and the rest is history.
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Feb 29, 2016 07:04
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Delta Green posted:There was no easy answer to that one. Rachel doesn't driver her Baserunner. The guy who does is never given a name. I suppose he could become the Archeologist in a couple years.
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Feb 29, 2016 07:27
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Short, sweet, and to the point. I like this level, but would like it more if there was any reason to not run right up the middle after resourcing everything.
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Feb 29, 2016 17:16
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thetruegentleman posted:gently caress the Sakala. Those lazy bastards had ONE JOB: lure the enemy away, and keep them occupied. And yet, the Gaalsien have managed to break away time and again to fight/ambush the Kapisi, and the Sakala crew just sit on their asses instead of pursuing or launching bombing runs, leaving the Kapisi to actually do all the fighting. They did provide covering fire at Kalash, then gave us two bombers afterward. And it's been established that the Gaalsien have better tactical and strategic movement, it's quite possible that they tried to keep the Gaalsien occupied, but they ran back to the Kapisi faster than they could give chase.
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Feb 29, 2016 22:16
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Below is a still-frame image of the carvings in the Gaalsien Base. Knowing what we know about Homeworld 1, just look at the history therein. And have an update! You may commence your horrified and confused understanding at any time. Right up until you realize this shouldn't be possible.
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Mar 1, 2016 17:07
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Rachel is also very high up in Kiith S'Jet. She's got a lot of political clout behind her position and it could be changing the normal chain of command.
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Mar 2, 2016 00:49
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akulanization posted:By the way, there was a combat upgrade for Rachel way back at the Kalash site; what did that do for her stats? Also you upgraded the support cruisers with anti-air capabilities, how effective are they against aircraft with that upgrade? I noticed that their attack does 3 damage normally, and our bombers at least have like 300 hp. Do they even contribute anything noticeable to shooting down aircraft? That damage is per-shot, per gun. The Support Cruiser has 2 of them, plus an AA missile rack, which isn't accounted for in the power of the unit. The Support Cruiser I have escorting the salvagers gets to max rank just by shooting down aircraft. And Rachel's upgrade increases her weapon and defense values by 25%.
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Mar 2, 2016 03:02
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Rick_Hunter posted:When we look back to the left we can see several other boxy ships along with one that looks slashed or crossed out. The intermediate planet might be a world that the exiles attempted to use as a home and were either refused settlement or realized it wasn't as good as they hoped. I think it represents the Garden of Kadesh - remember that some Exiles chose to stay there, rather than keep going to Kharak.
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Mar 2, 2016 08:29
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Dammit Sakala, do I have to do everything myself? According to the Expedition Guide (which I wish I could show you all), the Sakala is the first ship of this class of Command Carrier, while the Kapisi is the latest - with 8 more under construction back home.
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Mar 2, 2016 18:12
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Loxbourne posted:Rachel's pre-mission diary describes the Siidim rushing construction of the Sakala just so they could have the biggest and shiniest crawler first. Too bad they don't have all our after-market modifications. 
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Mar 2, 2016 19:07
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