Homeworld Universe mod

This already sounds cool. And the ships are already available for use. We can simply grab them from Homeworld, HW:Cataclysm and HW 2. They will need some texture upgrades though. But this is still quite doable.

I don't think the Beast will work though. It would require the ship capture ability, and so far we are being told Sins won't have that ability.

While this sounds great there is one small problem. All HW related material is "still" property of sierra/thq (whomever bought them out), and you will get a cease, and desist letter, or a lawsuit if you post it. Others have tried a HW mod for other games, and that was the end result. Check out the SFC, and Nexus community forums, and the Relic forums as well. Not trying to put you down here. Im just trying to help save you some grief. HW ip is to this day still fiercely protected.

Well, if for some reason you can manage to not get a cease and desist letter then you should check out the Homeworld 2 Point Defense System mod which has brought up some of the older ships and updated the textures a bit, also if you can interest them enough you might be able to gain some assistance with various parts (like removing ship models/textures from game files).

there is an annoyingly legal way around it.
go to the source, and ask politely. as long as you make concessions to them, they'll probably let you do it.

They really should, especially when you consider the people who would play this mod would also own (or have owned) copies of HW, HW: Cataclysm and HW2.

Could possibly be shut down, but then again theres the thought how can they sue a anon poster on the internet with multiple sources to upload files. But yes I understand what you saying and would hope sierra would recongise how much fans would like this. I suppose theres other ways around by not using official Homeworld material and I dunno, re-creating it.

PDS I know of and I could ask about though I do feel theres already suffienct material. I guess the improved models could be used as 'Upgrades' or something along those lines.

With the beast, maybe your right and it should be dropped since its built up of captured models. I was thinking as a replacement the 'derelict' race (collection of unused models, hidden models) This could include stuff from the entire catalog. I also pondered maybe asking some of the modders from Hw1/cata for the Turanic/Kadeshi stuff that was created.

Finally I don't think improving textures is really called for; the lighting in Sins looks like it would do alot of the work

I'd support this if it could be done legally.

You can try to contact Relic/Sierra. The worst case is they will say no. I dont see why they would because HW1 is damn near 10 years old now, and hw2 is fast approaching 5. You arent doing this for money, but i think thats the thing. They want money.

However there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing something like this for your own personal project. Just dont release it.

I would be all for a HW mod if they would ease up on the ip usage. Hell all of the HW2 models were released in lwo format not long after hw2 was released, but had a nice big restrictive disclaimer attached to them. Even Paramount was less restrictive with their IP.

Well you'd be suprised at what people will say no to you making. I was on a mod team that was originally making a Homeworld 2 mod that replaced the ships with things from Halo, when Star Wars Empire at War came out we moved over to that. A little bit later we got discovered by Microsoft and were told to please cease and they were nice enough to give a reason. They said they had a project underway that overlapped in scope with the game. I believe now later that it is Halo Wars that they were hinting at.

Also, I've heard news now that it is possible for a HW 3 to be made if the two companies desire (I think Sierra and another). So if they are intending to make a HW 3 then they might not take kind to the idea of you modding this game. But who knows.

IIRC the only things that are stopping another HW game are that Sierra owns all of the rights to the HW IP, not Relic. Plus Relic isn't really motivated enough to make another HW sequel even if they did own the IP rights. Sure they could let another developer make it, but IMO it wouldnt be HW if it wasnt done by Relic. Unfortunetly Relic is more interested in the Warhammer 40k universe, and its own Company of Heroes games at the moment. I believe they are working on another Dawn of War game (DoW2 possibly), but dont quote me on it.

Relic is owned by THQ now. They couldn't make a Homeworld sequel even if they wanted to if Vivendi/Sierra own the rights (which they probably do).

I've been hearing the same thing ever since WA was released.

Still, making a homeworld mod might be difficult if they're going to be 'EA' on their right.

Adding Homeworld stuff could drasticaly change the gameplay if done right and create a whole new interesting faction.

Rather then using planets, they instead just have the mothership which functions as a mobile frigate/capship factory and civ/military research. Rather then setting up permanent mines, they deploy resource collectors and swarm an occupied or unoccupied asteroid, steal a bunch of resources and move on. The units would have to be reorganized, renaming corvettes to frigates and frigates to cruisers. They already have a tech tree that could be nicely reorganized. Hmmm, capture frigates..

The whole point of this faction is to remain mobile as possible.

Special research abilities:
Jump drive. Skip phase lanes, jump anywhere. Drawbacks: Only cruisers and capships can follow, everyone else gets left behind, uses resources.
Sajuuk: Bring it to bare! The last military research object possibly.

Relic re-acquired the rights to the Homeworld franchise from Vivendi THQ confirmed it so they own it (just to clear things up there lol :p)

How bout just a "Homeworld Like" game with similarities so near its impossible to prove or disprove. Change race names and mesh them together and also add different aspects from similar games so you get around the IP thing. Loopholes guys their everywhere. THey can say you can do that because it looks too similar to homeworld cuz they would have to have all other video game companies with said similarities to cease and decease and that aint happening   

If you can do it that would be amazing... however as Catacylsm isn't really considered cannon as you mentioned, I don' think you should include them (also Kiith Somtaaw is not a race... Kiith's are different factions... like different tribes of the Hiigarans ... and I think the Kadesh are Hiigarans left behind during the exodus to Karak).


Who are the T-mat though?

Which makes the likelihood of Relic having problems with a Homeworld mod for Sins even higher. Because if they are working on a new game that means that they are highly unlikely to allow a mod which might compete with it.

I do however wish this were not the case.

Just import the models from HW2- Leave the gameplay mechanics of Sins just the way it is. The frigate and cruiser ship models in Sins definitely leave something to be desired. HW2 had excellent ship models- I just loved zooming in on them all the time.

HW2 is finished in terms of making money- a HW2 mod for Sins is just free advertising of the HW franchise for Relic. just ask politely (and pitch it like how I just described) and they probably say yes.

Honestly, now that Sins has be created and is selling very well. Don't be suprised if Relic develops HW3 as a RTS4X.

Ok. First of Relic doesn't own the licensing to the Homeworld franchise but THQ does. This means that likely Homeworld 3 is coming. Relic and THQ have never had a mod pulled and I wouldn't find it surprising if they encouraged making this mod or at least not object to it.

Anyway, echo-apollo kind of glossed over the races. Here is a time line for reference: http://homeworld.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline

The Kushan and Hiigarans are one of the same. They were once a great empire that fell after they did naughty things and made the Bentusi take there core away  . They were exiled to Kharak before they returned to the Higgara (which caused the Tiiadan Empire, which were there old arch nemesis, to fall) and grew before the fight with the Vayger, which they barely won.

The Taiidan were another Empire that formed around the same time has the Hiigaran's created there own. They entered a a war with them which ended in there favor. The empire had already started to collapse before the Exile's return, but it was the finial nail in the coffin. Out sprang the Taiidan republic from Cataclysm made of revolutionaries, but in Homeworld 2 there not even mentioned.

Kadesh are a relitivly minor race. They lived in a rose pink nebula and were decendent from the exiles. They called the nebula the Catherdral of Kadesh and attacked any "heritic" that enterd and refused to join.

The Vagyr are a nomadic group of pepole that lived on the outer borders of the galaxy. They were united by the Warlord Manikan who almost conquered the Hiigaran's new empire in a crusade. He is defeated with the help of Sajuuk.

The Bentusi used to be the galactic UN peace keeping force. However they fell from the position after the galaxy revolted. There last aggressive act was the defeat of the Hiigarn's first empire and then the exile. After that they chose to be completely peaceful and became nomadic traders, "unbound", directly connected to there U shaped trade ships. Bentus is the Harbor ship. It holds the Bentusi's core until it exploded to save the Pride of Hiigara from attacking Keepers. It is worth noting that it is said that Bentus is the last of the Bentusi. If Cataclysm is to be taken as cannon then it would be possible that they are not dead but merely not within the galaxy the game's take place in. I doubt they would be in this mod if its during/after the Vayger Crusade.

T-mat this is wannon. I am unsure exactly what these are. However:


Progenitors the creators and created all the new races. They built He Who's Hands Shape What Is aka Sajuuk, plus of bunch of other things like the megaliths and Keepers. They are all dead now (Keepers are robotic) and it is never made clear how they died.

Turanic Raiders. Think SoaSE pirates. That pretty much explains them.

I made a HW galaxy map for sins.

am currently testing anouther map I made, then I will make adjustments to the HW map. Then I will realease it for "Beta Testing" AKA, I am not confident with it, and I want input b4 I call it complete. Then I will realease the final version.

[gets on soapbox]
For the record I dont agree with the argument that mods compete with official releases. I also dont like companies that attack modders and try to lock them out of products then claim DCMA shield.

As far as I'm concerned, if anything they[mods] enhance the franchise value. Fans and fan generated content for franchises keep things alive and going after a fan base in the name of protecting ones purse strings when the connections are extremely dubious at best simply piss me off.

With that said I'm also not a big fan of the entire IRP philosophy that is being thrust upon us via special interest groups and ill conceived laws.

I say make the mod if they [IP holders] have issue it let them bitch if they try legal threats release it via the underground. Hell I would even release it on my domains and I would set up as many as necessary around the world if the take down notices started coming in. I dont fear lawyers nor oppressive unjust laws. I have money and I'm a copyfighter as well as natural activist.

Just because something is a law does not mean it is right.

For the record I dont agree with the argument that mods compete with official releases.

My feeling has always been that if a group of folks who don’t get paid can self-assemble and release work that trumps the work your company has doled out several hundred thousand to millions of dollars for people to create and promote as their day job, you don’t deserve to get to think of the mods as competition. You deserve to fail, and the market generally bears that out.

If THQ found that the potential for modders to use 5 year old models and textures in a new engine was a threat to an upcoming release, they should just hang their heads and bow out of the industry gracefully or at least have the cojones to hire said modders on and license the engine technology for a release, saving millions in development and actually leveraging skills.

That said at this point I don’t think THQ would care overmuch about a fanwork mod that managed to grab the models from the HW engines and convert them for Sins compatibility. I just don’t. THQ is pointedly, and happily, not Paramount and Sins involves folks who actually worked on the IP for some time. Association between the two IP is therefore not, as far as marketability for future THQ releases, an issue.

Non-commercial modding is thus pretty safe. Non-commercial modding THQ was asked nicely about and at least tacitly cooperitive with would only be better.

Squid; it's more about how fun the mod actually is.
GameX = some random game
ModX = mod of GameX
Some people might not have heard of gameX, and a user really enjoys playing it. So he thinks to himself "I'm going to make a ModX of GameX!!" and does so.

ModX turns out to be horrible, and many players ridicule it.

However, it turns out GameX is having a sequel! And it's just to be announced; but of course you remember ModX and how it's supposed to be like GameX. You decide to not buy it.
You learn a friend might be buying it, but talk him out of it because it sucks.


I realize that will happen very, very rarely but it's the general idea.
Plus than there's stealing; while mods are free, there are people who take advantage of 'free' things from mods, and use them in commercial products. Hi-Ho, we have ourselves a copyright infringement.

@Wind that argument works the other way just as well and it does so more often then not. In general however most people dont equate purchasing decisions based on mods. The logic is that they had to buy the original game to play the mod so it is not unreasonable to assume they played the base game. Thus is the base game sucks they will likely not buy the follow-up. It is however far more likely that they will buy a follow-up of a successful mod team for that title announced a project for the new version. Food for thought...

On the issue of people stealing free things from mods for commercial products that is not a legitimate concern of the franchise owners but the mod makers themselves since they have copyright on their original work.

Spar i totally agree with you on that. Up until recently slavery was LAW and we know how well that turned out HAHAHA. Just because a bunch of saps cant stand competition of a Freebase mod and feel threathned, they deserve a swift kick in the balls.

On that note i can see if you were ILLIGALLY dolling out their program as your own and making beaucoup bux then ya u are infringing on their domain but common hidding behind the childish mentally of "I made it, thought of it and put it out but havent used it in years..." u cant touch. Eat my shorts IP i'm actually keeping your company in the limelight instead of dink obscuraty

[steps of soapbox and ask THQ hottie "How you doin >;)]