Space Game General All-Platform Thready Discussy Thing :)

[Spock]

HES reminds me of a more finicky version of Renegade Legion: Interceptor.

Forgive me, but now I’m really curious: what’s HES? I did a quick Google search and couldn’t figure it out, and I couldn’t find it in this thread. Sorry if I missed something obvious.

[Otagan]

Forgive me, but now I’m really curious: what’s HES?

Human Extinction Simulator

[BrianRubin]

I just want to say that HES is the most maddening, frustratingly addictive game I’ve played in a long time. So far I’ve only beaten the first tutorial scenario, and that must have been by accident, because I’ve never been able to beat it since.

I just wish there was a strategic layer to the game. This combat engine in the right 4X would be great.

You’ve gotten farther than I, and I agree on all counts. I love that feeling that, when I lose, the game isn’t being mean or punishing, it just wants me to learn to win. It’s kinda refreshing.

[tgb123]

Aargh!!! I went back and replayed the first tutorial scenario enough times that I thought I was starting to get a grip on things. Then the game hits you with the second. I had the capitol ship you have to destroy to win down to 1 point in hulls when it attacked and casualties soared to over 10,000 which was the insta-lose condition.

I’m not sure if I love or hate the fact that there are no difficulty levels.

[CraigM]

There is a difficulty setting, but it’s… complicated. Basically the difficulty ramps up over time based on what you are doing essentially. So there kinda is a difficulty slider, though one you set indirectly.

[tgb123]

There is a difficulty setting, but it’s… complicated. Basically the difficulty ramps up over time based on what you are doing essentially. So there kinda is a difficulty slider, though one you set indirectly.

I’m not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate?

[CraigM]

I’m not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate?

Sure. Essentially the way the difficulty works is that the as time progresses and as you capture systems, the AI throws harder challenges at you. So altering things like star system size, the speed at which you conquer, etc. alters the difficulty. So the settings you use to create the map will make the game harder or easier. Oddly, for a game like this, a smaller map tends to be much easier, as ach system you take increases the AI aggressiveness.

Like I said the game difficulty is only something you indirectly influence. So reading up on some of the systems can help you make a challenge that is easier or harder.

[ShivaX]

Homeworld’s music is so good I still think about how amazing it is.

Also, I sucked at it… terribly. I got to the last mission and remember just losing horribly. I never figured out the secret to the game (unless the secret was “don’t lose any ships ever”, in which case I figured it out and was never good enough to do it).

[Janster]

Capturing ships turns the game into easy mode kinda…and it’s kinda fun to boot…

[Pod]

I only worked that “trick” out late in the game, as I think you could ignore the unit cap by capturing things? I spent so long on the last mission (or second to last?) capturing Ion friagates that he giant sphere surrounding something has slowly drifted so far forward that almost every ship in it just kept attacking me and I couldn’t progress :(

[Janster]

Yeah, cap limit is only for ships you build…but it does require you to micro salvage corvettes in bucket loads

[MrCoffee]

I remember getting to the last mission with a very small amount of ships and not a chance to win it. I didn’t finish it until a couple of years later when i restarted and just captured every ship in the game i could and that made it really easy.

[BrianRubin]

Started Cataclysm today. Good stuff!

[Murbella]

I remember getting to the last mission with a very small amount of ships and not a chance to win it. I didn’t finish it until a couple of years later when i restarted and just captured every ship in the game i could and that made it really easy.

I seem to remember they made up for this with the reverse in the sequel where the game modified the difficulty based on your fleet/money and if they were too high, you could make missions near impossible due to scaling stupidity.

[Juan_Raigada]

I seem to remember they made up for this with the reverse in the sequel where the game modified the difficulty based on your fleet/money and if they were too high, you could make missions near impossible due to scaling stupidity.

Not exactly. It did scale, but it didn’t scale fully. If your fleet was too big, the enemy fleet had already reached maximum size.

So you could make a fleet the scaling couldn’t cope with, by mining most minerals out of a map before proceeding, iirc…

[MrCoffee]

Not exactly. It did scale, but it didn’t scale fully. If your fleet was too big, the enemy fleet had already reached maximum size.

So you could make a fleet the scaling couldn’t cope with, by mining most minerals out of a map before proceeding, iirc…

In the sequel it would always automine everything before proceeding, it could get hard at the last missions but HW1 was harder.

[Juan_Raigada]

In the sequel it would always automine everything before proceeding, it could get hard at the last missions but HW1 was harder.

That’s true! But it wouldn’t autobuild. I think.

I remember doing something and waiting time and reaching fleet cap or something… I dunno. Manye years ago…

[schurem]

I’m hoping that this does VERY well, creating new fans for the series, and thus opening the door to that possibility. We can only hope!

Well even 3 weeks before release this already made the steam top 10 :)

[zombo77]

Have they released any actual gameplay footage yet? The trailer did not seem like a huge improvement over the existing HW graphics mods, I’m curious if they reworked the HW1 and Cataclysm UI.

[BrianRubin]

Cataclysm isn’t a part of this.