Homeworld: Cataclysm
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Technical Information | |
Developer
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Publisher
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Release Date
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Original: 12th September 2000
GOG Re-Release: 22nd June 2017 |
Game Information | |
Story
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Fighting The Beast
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Year
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9525 GSY/15 AHL
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Homeworld: Cataclysm, also known as Homeworld: Emergence,[1] is the second game in the Homeworld series, following on from Homeworld and preceding Homeworld 2. It was released in September 2000 and was developed by Barking Dog Studios, with some assistance from Relic Entertainment, and published by Sierra Entertainment.
Cataclysm was originally an expansion pack for Homeworld, requiring the original game to run. However, Barking Dog made such large changes to the game engine and also made the game bigger (17 missions to Homeworld's 16), so impressing Sierra that they decided to change it to a stand-alone release. The game was critically acclaimed on release, with its improved interface (including being able to issue combat commands on the sensor manager screen) and the time-skip facility being particularly welcomed.
While the canonicity of Cataclysm has been disputed by fans for years, Dan Irish – the Homeworld 2 Executive Producer at the time – had said that "the events of Cataclysm are not mentioned in Homeworld 2, but they are accepted as having occurred".[2] However, while Gearbox Software have stated that they do not consider Cataclysm to "exactly" be canon,[3] they have also indicated that "Cataclysm will be canon when it is necessary to progress the story". Since the release of Homeworld: Revelations, all story elements of Cataclysm have been made canon and are now accepted as having occurred.
Cataclysm's source code was lost when Barking Dog was acquired by Rockstar Games. Without the source code, it has not been possible for Gearbox to re-release the game as with the Homeworld Remastered project. Gearbox have indicated that if the code is found, they would consider the possibility. Gearbox have looked at the viability of updating Cataclysm by other means, but have not yet confirmed it is something they are working on. They have also noted that Blizzard Entertainment now own the Cataclysm video game trademark (for their World of WarCraft expansion of the same name), so the game would have to be renamed for a new release.
On 22nd June 2017, Gearbox Software announced that the game would be re-released with DRM removed on the popular digital platform GOG.com. Due to issues arising from Blizzard's trademarking of the word "Cataclysm" in a video game context, it was re-released under the name Homeworld: Emergence.[4] However, this rename only changes the main menu imagery to use the new game title and uses a semi-altered credits clip that uses the newer name: everywhere else, the game is still referred to as Cataclysm, such as the executable name, the data files and several button commands. Players can easily restore the traditional image on the main menu through removing the overriding image files from the installation directory.
Opening sequence[]
The war for Hiigara has left the Galaxy in turmoil. The past fifteen years have seen the birth of new possibilities ... and the festering of old grudges. The once dominant Taiidan Empire has fractured under the strain of civil war. The new Taiidani Republic tries to hold old territories together, while forces loyal to the old Emperor lurk in the new bandit kingdoms, waiting for their chance to strike back.
While the Taiidani struggle between past and future, the Kushan people have established themselves on Hiigara. Building new cities. Repairing the damage done by the final battle for their homeworld.
Even a fragile peace has its politics. The Kiith council has been reestablished, and the future of Hiigara is now debated amongst the gathered Kiith-Sa. Even amongst equals, there are power struggles.
The Mothership still orbits high above Hiigara. Pressed into the role of shipyard, she now builds new carriers to the specifications of each individual Kiith. The need for new ships and the crews to man them is a desperate one. Military and economic pressure on the new Hiigarans is intense.
Resources and technology are at the command of the council. Kiith with little or no political power have been forced to purchase technology from the Bentusi and other races. Hiigaran ships of exotic design now seek their future amongst the stars.
The war for Homeworld is over now. But the galaxy remains a dangerous place...
Mission list[]
- 01 Hiigara
- 02 Outskirts of Hiigara System
- 03 Coruc-Tel System
- 04 Deep Space (Tel Sector)
- 05 Aiowa System
- 06 Kadiir Nebula
- 07 Outskirts of Kadiir Nebula
- 08 Deep Space (Koreth's Rift Sector)
- 09 Close Orbit, Gozan IV
- 10 Debris Field (Koreth's Rift Sector)
- 11 System AZ-23769
- 12 Turanic Outpost (Kyori Sector)
- 13 Location Unknown
- 14 Galactic Rim (Gulf Sector)
- 15 Deep Space (Gulf Sector)
- 16 Sojent-Ra System (Far Reaches Sector)
- 17 Naval Base Alpha
Synopsis[]
The Defence of Hiigara[]
The Kuun-Lan, a large Deep Space-based mothership vessel in the employ of Kiith Somtaaw, is mining asteroids near the Angel Moon when it receives a distress call from the Veer-Rak, a Carrier under the control of Kiith Nabaal, warning of an attack by the Taiidan Imperialists.
Hearing the radio call, the Kuun-Lan returns to Hiigara to assist in the defence of their homeworld. It helps the Nabaal by destroying some enemy fighters attacking the friendly Ion Cannon Frigates, before dealing with enemy Resource Collectors.
After destroying the resourcing operation, the Proximity Sensor grid comes under attack from some Interceptors and Multi-Gun Corvettes. These are dispatched quickly by the Kuun-Lan's own Acolytes and ACVs, before the tide of battle is turned in favour of the Hiigarans. Sensing this, the enemy Heavy Cruiser flees, but is dispatched by the Kuun-Lan's defensive fleet.
Instead of any thanks from Kiithid, the Somtaaw receive orders to return to the job of helping retrieve wrecks and collect the dead from the battlefield. The task leads the Kuun-Lan to its next assignment at the edges of Hiigaran space to rescue the stranded Bushan-Re, a Destroyer in the service of Kiith Manaan and whose hyperdrive is off-line.
The Kuun-Lan comes to the destroyer's aid, only to discover the presence in the region of Turanic Raiders, intent on destroying the Bushan-Re, who now requires an escort as well as a repair crew. Even after the Turanic Raiders are initially defeated, they reveal a new and rumored "mimicking" technology, which is shortly thereafter copied by the Somtaaw. The Kuun-Lan bravely continues to defend the Bushan-Re and finally finish the repairs to the hyperdrive. Unable to assist in the battle, the vulnerable destroyer then departs, wishing luck to the Somtaaw.
An Ancient Artifact[]
Continuing to defend against the attacking forces, the Kuun-Lan prepares to leave when Fleet Intelligence detects a strange artifact emitting a weak beacon. Fleet Intelligence orders the recovery of the artifact before the Turanic Raiders find it. The Somtaaw send a single escorted worker to recover the derelict while fending off Turanic Raider attempt to do the same. The derelict is retrieved and brought back to the Kuun-Lan, which then makes the jump to hyperspace.
The Kuun-Lan's science team finds that it is unable to examine the derelict properly and Fleet Command requests of the Somtaaw Kiith-sa that he allow them to seek out assistance. Somtaaw-sa forbids this and demands that the Kuun-Lan's discovery remain completely secret. Instead they recommend the Somtaaw to seek out the Clee-San, the Somtaaw's lone science vessel.
The Kuun-Lan arrive at a designated rendezvous point to meet with the Clee-San but discover that it has been captured by Turanic Raiders who are intent on stealing valuable Somtaaw technology such as the Acolyte Drive. Using the captured mimicking technology, the Kuun Lan is able to make it past a large field of mines surrounding the Clee-San and communicate with it. They discover that a Turanic carrier fleet will be arriving soon to take possession the science vessel and its technology. If the Somtaaw are going to rescue the Clee-San they must do so soon.
An all out assault by a Somtaaw fleet manages to break the defenses around the Clee-San, allowing the Somtaaw a chance to escort the ship to the Kuun-Lan. They barely escape in time to avoid a heavily armed Turanic carrier fleet. Jumping out of range of the Turanic fleet the Somtaaw begin to examine the mysterious derelict in earnest which they discover to be encoded in some strange, alien language and that it is covered in some sort of organic matter. Research continues as the Kuun-Lan moves out of range.
A Lethal Infection[]
The Kuun-Lan is forced to perform an emergency exit of hyperspace. The hanger and science modules are quickly succumbing to some kind of disease and the scientists struggle to keep it under control. When they are unable to do so any longer they sacrifice themselves by demanding Fleet Command to cut them from the main hull. Separated from the main vessel, they drift off into space, their inhuman screams haunting the imagination.
Shortly after the Kuun-Lan begins to rebuild its lost modules and sends the Clee-San and an escort of ten acolytes to examine the situation. They are met by the ejected modules who are now covered in the same organic matter that once covered the derelict. Soon afterwards, the module broadcasts a chilling greeting: "We live...." The Clee-San and its escorts are attacked by a mysterious beam of energy which leaps from vessel to vessel and forces them to succumb to the same thing that attacked the modules. Then the impossible happens: the acolytes fly against the Kuun-Lan.
Panicking, the Somtaaw attempt to hold off the attackers while scrambling for whatever little information they have on the derelict they took aboard. As they do this their Turanic pursuers arrive along with a Taiidan Heavy Cruiser, and demand the Clee-San. Though Fleet Command tries to warn them off the Turanics believe it a ploy to frighten them away and head for the succumbed ships anyway. The Somtaaw continue to fight off the infected attackers, each vessel more and more powerful as their enemy absorbs more and more technology.
Meanwhile, the Turanic fleet arrives at the Clee-San and is delighted to find it and the Kuun-Lan research module, without giving a thought to why it is separated from the Somtaaw command vessel. In seconds they themselves are infected by the strange disease and too turn towards the Kuun-Lan. Within minutes they are upon the Somtaaw who realized they have no more time to spare. With just enough information based on the behavior of the infected ships to make a basic plan of action they make an emergency jump and escape from the battlefield.
A Search for Help[]
In hyperspace the Somtaaw dub the infection The Beast and determine that it is some kind of biomechanical being that binds to vessels and turns organic matter into living circuitry. Unable to discern more the Somtaaw head towards an area where a Bentusi Exchange was recently spotted, hoping to find more information from the ancient race. To their dismay they find the Bentusi instead under attack by the very enemy they were hoping to seek help against and watch as Beast ships surround the tradeship. Despite the Beast's ferocity however, the natural power of the tradeship allows the Bentusi to easily fend off the attackers.
The Kuun-Lan acts to defend the Bentusi and shortly after another fleet arrives, hearing a Bentusi distress call. This time it is a Manaani fleet, led by the Caal-Shto. The Somtaaw, realizing the Manaani know nothing of this Beast seek now to protect the Manaani from themselves. Unfortunately, this leaves the Bentusi to be approached by an Infected Heavy Cruiser, and when it fires its infection beam, the Bentusi pilots choose to self-destruct rather than succumb to the infection. Destroying the remaining Beast fleet the Somtaaw partially repair the Caal-Shto, the only remaining ship in the Manaani fleet and begin to voyage on standard drives.
Hoping to escape to through the Kadiir Nebula they come upon a secret Imperialist research station guarded by a large task force. Attempting to sneak by the station the Somtaaw use recons to navigate a safe path but are eventually discovered by the Imperialists who attempt to stop the Somtaaw and Caal-Shto from escaping into a small wormhole or slipgate. Somtaaw then develops Leeches to weaken the frigate group and the heavy cruiser guarding the slipgate before moving in to finish them off and escape. Evacuating the Caal-Shto, whose crew vows to notify the Daiamid of the Beast, the Kuun-Lan holds off the Imperialists long enough to escape.
It is then that they come across a convoy of Republican refugees fleeing from a supernova who are under attack by a cruise missile equipped with a bioweapon that is immediately recognized by the Somtaaw as the Beast. After shielding the refugees from the attack and destroying infected convoy ships, the Somtaaw learn that the Republicans believe the cruise missiles to be an Imperialist weapon. With this information the Kuun-Lan sets out to investigate these claims by meeting with a Republican spy deep within Imperialist territory.
An Imperialist Weapon[]
When they come to meet the spy however they find him pursued by Imperialists who have discovered his identity. After rescuing him the spy reveals to them that the weapons are believed to have been developed at Gozan IV and that to get there they must recover some Imperialist vessels that will have the required codes to get past the planetary defenses and that three resourcers and a frigate in the area should do the job.
The spy gives the Somtaaw the coordinates of the Imperialists and the Kuun-Lan begins its pursuit. As soon as the Taiidan spot the Somtaaw they began to charge their hyperdrive, outnumbered and outgunned by the surprise attack. They are unable to escape however and the Somtaaw capture a vast number of Imperialist ships, jumping away to Gozan IV.
Carefully infiltrating the area near Gozan IV the Somtaaw lay outside the range of Taiidan proximity sensors in the area and use the captured resourcers to sneak past the sensors, which recognize the ships as Imperialist vessels. Heading for the surface the resourcers carry an assault team, which upon landfall storms the Taiidan research facilities.
There the Somtaaw manage to recover vital information before they are discovered and attacked by the planetary defenses. This information reveals the Taiidan indeed did attempt to use the Beast as a bioweapon but failed miserably at their attempt though they did come up with a way to contain infections. With this information they escape and come to rest at Koreth's Rift.
Koreth's Rift[]
At Koreth's Rift the Somtaaw discover something amazing: a derelict weapon they believe to be a Siege Cannon and a weapon they can reverse engineer for their own benefit. They send out a worker team to salvage the cannon but find that there is an Imperialist-Turanic force in the region intent on destroying or capturing the Kuun-Lan. As they race to install the cannon the Somtaaw are aided by the quick arrival of the Caal-Shto who promise aid. But when Turanic and Imperialist vessels attack the Caal-Shto they meet instead an infected vessel who is quickly assisted by a mysterious mothership-class vessel. In horror the Somtaaw recognize the mothership as their missing modules but with a new hull built around them. Fleet command is put into a state of disbelief when the Beast begins to speak directly to the Kuun-Lan.
Realizing their chance as the Imperialist and Turanic forces are decimated the Somtaaw fire their siege cannon, hoping to destroy the Beast. Remarkably the Beast survive the blast without injury and proceed to attack the Kuun-Lan. Realizing they are cornered and outnumbered the Somtaaw escape into hyperspace.
Scientists aboard the Kuun-Lan believe that the Siege Cannon has two problems with the Beast: The Beast has evolved so much that it can quickly regenerate from the damage of the Siege Cannon. A second shot would work, but unfortunately the cannon overheated and fused the plasma drives powering it, rendering it unusable. For now, the first problem could be solved with a sample of the original Beast infection that could calibrate the cannon for maximum damage, but that needs an advanced astrogation team to decipher navigational data, which is with the other Somtaaw explorer vessel, the Faal-Corum. Hoping to notify the Faal-Corum, another of the Somtaaw command ships, about the Beast as the Caal-Shto failed to reach Hiigara the Kuun-Lan heads to a known mining site but find the Faal-Corum under attack.
After rescuing the Faal-Corum and enduring friendly fire due to the Faal-Corum's initial belief the Beast vessels belonged to the Kuun-Lan the Faal-Corum apologizes and agrees to warn the Daiamid and departs at once after helping the Kuun-Lan decode the data recovered from the derelict. It is at this time that the scientists aboard the Kuun-Lan finally make a breakthrough in the derelict and discover the approximate lcoation of a million-year old alien vessel known as the Naggarok that was infected during the test of a powerful hyperdrive.
The alien crew realized they could not stop the Beast instead disabled their vessel to the point of being defenseless and immobilized. Unfortunately the Naggarok's automatic systems sent out a beacon pod, one that contained a single fragment of the Beast. Now, Fleet Command hopes to locate the Naggarok to learn more about the Beast and how to defeat it. They believe the exact location can be acquired from the Turanic Raiders who have long charted the Galaxy and may have necessary information regarding gravitational drift to apply to the Naggarok's last known location.
When the Kuun-Lan arrives at a Turanic outpost however they are greeted by first silence and then fire. Realizing they have no choice but to fight the Kuun-Lan forces the Turanics to negotiate and strike a deal that allows them the necessary information. Heading off for the believed location of the Naggarok the Kuun-Lan takes the remaining Turanics on board as prisoners and heads off.
As the Somtaaw travel through hyperspace, one of the Turanics set a bomb off within the Kuun-Lan, heavily damaging it and forcing it out of hyperspace into an ambush. There the Kuun-Lan is met by an Imperialist fleet and is barely able to defend itself, its fighters damaged while in dock and the Kuun-Lan burning across several decks.
They are saved by the arrival of a Hiigaran fleet sent by the Daiamid following the Faal-Corum's return to Hiigara. Placing the new fleet directly under the Kuun-Lan's command the Hiigaran fleet pushes back the Imperialists and destroys their fleet. Now with enough firepower to turn the tide the Kuun-Lan continues its journey, heading for the estimated location of the Naggarok.
A Dark Alliance[]
When they arrive they are surprised to learn the Imperialists have already arrived and are repairing the Naggarok. The Kuun-Lan professes this is mad but are met by scorn and violence. Knowing they still need information on the Beast the Somtaaw send a Mimic into the Naggarok to recover needed information. Then, when the Naggarok is repaired they manage to escape before the allied fleet of the Beast and Imperialists descends upon them. The Siege Cannon can now properly hurt the Beast, but the fused plasma drives still render it unusable. With the cannon seemingly being based on ancient Bentusi designs, the Kuun-Lan seeks them out to try and fix it.
Knowing they need help they again try to find the Bentusi and enlist their aid. Upon meeting with the Bentusi they discover that their old allies will not answer them. Following the Bentusi they discover an enormous slipgate through which the Bentusi are fleeing to another galaxy. Immediately the Kuun-Lan attempts to stop them, and begin destroying the nodes circling the slipgate. The Bentusi, terrified of the Beast and afraid of their escape being prevented, meet the Somtaaw's interference with vicious fire from the tradeships and their ion fighters, dubbed "Super Acolytes" by the Somtaaw. Realizing they cannot hope to triumph over Bentusi firepower Fleet Command tries to guilt them into helping them. As hundreds die the Bentusi begin to see that they have let their fear drive them and stand down, after a long battle and the destruction of the gate.
The Bentusi provide the Somtaaw with necessary upgrades to the ancient siege cannon, allowing it to fire more than once after a brief cooldown and finally making it battle-ready against the Beast. The Bentusi recommend testing it out against a lesser fleet before engaging the Naggarok. Fleet Command and Fleet Intelligence, hoping to test the weapon's effectiveness and to wipe out the Beast Mothership in one strike head for the Clee-San's last known location. There they find it and are able to obliterate its escort fleet and pacify it, using a single siege cannon blast at half power.
With the Clee-San's defenses destroyed and the Beast self on board neutralized the Somtaaw board it using a worker and send out a false distress beacon to draw the Beast Mothership to the Clee-San, which they then destroy. When the Mothership arrives the Somtaaw obliterate it with a crushing blow of the siege cannon and jump to hyperspace, ready to meet up with the allied fleet positioned at the Nomad Moon, where an experimental weapon is being tested by the Taiidan Republic to destroy the Beast and their Imperialist allies.
The Nomad Moon[]
There they find the Taiidan Republican fleet nearly destroyed (though it is possible to save the last Republican carrier from destruction), the Beast near victorious, and the weapon station known as the Nomad Moon succumbed to the Beast. Realizing it will be up to them alone to defeat the Beast, Fleet Command declares the Kuun-Lan a warship, and even though the Somtaaw are no true warrior kiith, they will be enough to kill the Beast. The Kuun-Lan and its escorts fight a desperate battle to destroy the Moon but are surprised to learn the mysterious weapon used is a repulsor field which repels all attacks. Only through the use of Leeches do the Somtaaw manage to disable Nomad Moon.
Yet just as victory seems possible an Imperialist fleet arrives, along with a Beast fleet from the other side, a deadly pincer movement that could obliterate the Kuun-Lan. To make matters worse, the Naggarok proves to be a weapon in its own right, despite being what is essentially a research vessel for a long gone race. Armed with an incredibly powerful version of the resourcing tool known as the Phased Disassembler Array the Naggarok is able to disintegrate any vessel it finds. Now fighting on three fronts and watching as the Naggarok tears through the allied fleet at amazing speeds the battle seems hopeless.
The Somtaaw are able to heroically hold off the Beast assault however, successfully repelling the Beast reinforcements approaching from one side of their fleet and managing to stand their ground as the Imperialists draw closer. Even more importantly, the timely arrival of a Bentusi tradeship brings near certain victory when they grant the Kuun-Lan the ability to construct super acolytes.
Then, impossibly, the Imperialists turn on their allies after realizing the word of the Beast amounts to nothing. Between the Nomad Moon being impossible to possess due to the Beast infection (even if it wasn't destroyed by the Somtaaw) and the Bentusi clearly not destroyed, both promises by the Beast, the Imperials leave the Beast to its fate. With the Beast-Imperialist Alliance broken, the Naggarok turns on the Taiidan fleet and proceeds to devour them as well. Abandoned the Beast fight desperately on, only to be obliterated by the Somtaaw forces at last, with the beast occupants making a chilling, final scream. Now, with the Naggarok destroyed, the end of the war with the Beast seems near.
Over the next few months, strains of the Beast sometimes emerge, but with the technology from the Somtaaw's campaign, ships become immune to the Beast virus and are easily able to destroy them. The Beast is completely eradicated, never to rise again.
With this, Kiith Somtaaw finally become respected on Hiigara. Welcomed back into the homeworld with a procession in their honor, the mining clan is disrespected no more. From then on, the Kiith Somtaaw become revered as the Beast Slayers.
Gameplay[]
Numerous small changes and fixes were added, such as the ability to toggle 8X time compression. This quickens the typically slow 'post battle' harvesting of resources and building after a level is finished. Ship upgrades were added, improving armor and adding new abilities, and command ships and carriers were given the ability to add external modules for ship research and larger fleet support. Ship experience levels were also included, gaining up to four levels through combat boosting all of their abilities which carried over in campaign missions. Fuel was eliminated from the game, so players didn't have to constantly monitor their corvettes and fighters for low fuel levels. In addition, the sensor display could be used to issue attack orders to friendly units—a very handy feature not included in the original. Another welcome addition was a full cast of voice actors for every ship with semi-unique dialog for each of them in various situations, making it much easier to identify which ship was doing what or complaining about heavy damage. The original Homeworld had three men voicing everything, which was unfortunately carried over to Homeworld 2, making it much less immersive and nearly impossible to figure out which ship was in trouble from the dialog alone.
One of the main additions to the game was a varied difficulty level, from Very Easy to Very Hard. This allowed players to set the scope of the entire campaign, rather than a static difficulty level. The exact things that are changed by the difficulty level options are not known, but some of the things that have been determined to be impacted by difficulty level include:
- Less assistance from the Tactical Officer and Fleet Command when not playing on Very Easy. On Very Easy difficulty, Tactical Officer will provide significantly larger amounts of commentary that can provide assistance to newer players of the series, which helps them to avoid failing missions from unexpected sneak attacks or similar.
- Ships cost more to build, consume more Support Units and can sometimes be easier to destroy by the enemy or be infected by the Beast.
- Some missions have a constant stream of fighters harassing the Command Ship, making it difficult to move away from it. On Very Easy, these harassing fighters do not appear.
- Players will often need to make wider use of the ships they can build on higher difficulty levels. For example, Sentinel use is never needed on Very Easy, but would be necessary on Normal difficulty to protect the fleet.
- Capturing ships in some missions is significantly more advantageous due to them being far more powerful than your own ships in some cases.
Although slow and methodical in its movement, the Command Ship is capable of delivering a frightening array of weaponry. Namely, it is capable of deploying an epic scale cannon in battle that can completely eradicate an enemy fleet at extreme range—capital ships and all. As such, the command ship is less of a liability and more of a knockout punch, especially late game.
The game is smaller in scale than its predecessor and streamlines the selection of ship types by reducing the number of different ships while enhancing the versatility of the remaining ones. Processors, for example, which seemed to be the modernized version of the resource Controller from Homeworld, were greatly improved. They were given medium-strength weapons to defend from smaller craft, repair beams to heal damaged resource collectors, and four (rather than one) pads to dock with resource collectors. The game's resource collectors, smaller yet more versatile, perform the same functions that they did in the original Homeworld. However, these craft, when upgraded, are capable of capturing enemy vessels and repairing friendly vessels, essentially being a hybrid of Resource Collectors, Support Frigates and Salvage Corvettes.
Voice cast and characters[]
One of the best aspects of the game compared to the other Homeworlds. While they have only 3 men voicing all of the ships other than the Mothership and a very small selection of campaign character voices, Cataclysm has a different voice actor for every ship type including several women, and more distinct dialogue for each to make them even more unique, as well as a larger number of campaign dialogue voices. On top of the improved immersion this also makes it easier to tell which ship is calling for help when they're engaged in fleet combat.
- The Narrator - Campbell Lane
- Voice of Fleet Command - Scott Swanson
- Voice of Fleet Intelligence - Heidi Ernest
- Voice of the Bentusi - Campbell Lane
- Additional Voice Acting - Brendan Beiser, Graem Castell, Arinn Dembo, Peter Flemming, Rinko Gulubovic, Pam Hyatt, Joe Keithly,Rob Morton, Briany Richy, Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff, David Sobolov, Sam Vincent, Marcel Barker, Glenn Barnes, Martin Cirulis, Terry Jones, Rob Plotnikoff, Roger Savoie, Susannah Skerl, Chris Stewart
Design team[]
- Lead Design - Michael Gyori
- Design - Martin Cirulis, Christopher Mair, Chris Stewart
- Script / Manual - Marcus Skyler
- Singleplayer Design / Scripting - Marcel Barker, Ryan Dy, David Salsman
- Cinematics - Fred Dee, Matthew Leigh
- Art Director - Sean Thompson
- Lead Art - Glenn Barnes
- Texture Art - Grant Corless, Laurie Kindiak, Susannah Skerl, Stuart Ure
- Ship Engineering - Sean Thompson, Glenn Barnes
- Frontend & Backgrounds - Sean Thompson
- Technical Director - Peter A. Grant
- Lead Programming - Roger Milne
- Programming - Peter A. Grant, Peter Holubowicz, David Salsman, Jamie Seward
- Additional Programming - Marcel Barker, Ryan Dy, Darren Grant, Michael Gyori
- Sound Programming / Additional Production - Terry Jones
- Music Composition Studio Production - Paul Ruskay, Greg Sabitz, Studio X Productions - Vancouver Canada
- Sound Effects - Roger Savoie, Headroom Studios - Vancouver Canada
- Cataclysm Remix - Greg Sabitz, Todd Shillington
- Dialogue Editing -Rob Plotnikoff
- IT Support - Greg Dalton, Mark McIntyre
- Managing Director - Brian Thalken
- Chief Financial Officer - Lance Davis
- Controller - Kelly Gibson
Promotional items[]
People who pre-ordered Cataclysm from Electronics Boutique also received a copy of the Homeworld: Raider Retreat CD.
Patches[]
The version 1.0.0.1 patch was released on December 21, 2000, resolving many bugs and balance issues. Note that Cataclysm is able to run on Windows 7, but it requires installation of the 1.0.0.1 patch.
Bugs[]
After the patch, a partial list of known remaining bugs is below:
- Rarely, the game can crash when the Mission 05 cinematic finishes. Reloading the game from the last save will bypass this bug.
- Pressing F12 after selecting the Command Ship, as well as other ships not in Parade formation, will only set Parade formation once: thereafter, this will stop working unless the game is minimised and then restored. This bug is caused by a bunch of internal debug functionalities being left in the game by mistake, whereby the KeyUp handler does not get registered: minimising and restoring the game (by pressing Windows Key, or Alt+Tab) resets the entire renderer and internal state, allowing the command to work again, although it is still possible to call Parade formation using the context menu.
- Players with modern AMD CPUs or GPUs may run into a number of game breaking visual and audio glitches, which are only fixable by the use of the Cataclysm Engine Tweaks mod:
- The equalizer in-game may cause extremely deafening sound glitches when certain sound effects are played in the game. This is known to affect the Siege Cannon and the Nomad Moon. Disabling the equalizer will fix this bug.
- Certain invisible polygons and vertices may be visually displayed on-screen. This is due to a bug in the OpenGL Compiled Vertex Arrays extension, which AMD GPU drivers are known to be written to the letter of the specification. Disabling the extension fixes this bug: the Cataclysm Engine Tweaks mod includes the setting to disable just this aspect, without impacting the other optimisations provided by the /safegl command-line argument.
- Due to a bug in the loading game functionality, the stored SongNumber in a save game file is automatically zeroed, irrespective of the value stored in the file. This causes every loaded save game to play the first track in the music pack, which is the music used outside of battles in the first mission of the game.
- The Cataclysm Engine Tweaks mod contains a fix to correctly load the SongNumber variable from the file.
- Group 10 assignment is bugged and may be unreliable for most players. There is no known fix for this if you are impacted, except to never assign ships to Group 10 and remove any keybinds that assign Group 10. Examples of bugs that all largely lead to a crash have included:
- No number [usually a 0] is shown next to any ships that are bound to the group. This does not cause a crash directly, but may be responsible for crashes occurring with the other bugs caused by the Group 10 feature.
- Having a Group 10 set but proceeding to press 0 to select the group.
- Ships assigned to Group 10 get attacked, which may lead to a crash from the game attempting to play the "Report of hostiles near Group 10" voice line.
- The keybinds set for Group 10 may be randomly removed or unassigned by the game for no apparent reason.
- The game "forgets" about any ship assigned to Group 10, forcing the player to have to reassign it to ships.
- On most modern operating systems with long uptime, the missions which are ended using a fade-to-black transition and do not involve a hyperspace jump will not have the transition effect played, due to an internal coding error which requests the system uptime since the last shut-down in a format that goes out of bounds after a while. In older operating systems, shutting down would reset this value to zero, but on modern systems, a shut-down is a form of hibernation, which causes uptime to keep increasing. If the player is affected by the bug, the NIS cutscene bars will appear after clicking "End Mission" and then an apparent softlock will be observed, however the game is not softlocked.
- Players can work around this issue by simply using Alt+Tab [or the Windows key to open the Start Menu] to force the game to be minimised, waiting about 10 seconds and then clicking the icon for the game in the taskbar to restore it. This appears to "jump start" the fading sequence and the game will progress normally.
- In some cases, this action may need to be repeated to get the transition to the "completed" stage. If this is required, players can see the fade effect going through its steps to reach the "completed" stage.
Sources[]
References[]
See Also[]
- Homeworld: Cataclysm Manual
- Homeworld: Cataclysm Soundtrack
- Barking Dog Studios
- Sierra Entertainment
External links[]
Homeworld Series | ||||||
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Homeworld | Homeworld: Cataclysm | Homeworld 2 | Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak | Homeworld Mobile | Homeworld: Vast Reaches | Homeworld 3 |
Homeworld Remastered |