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Homeworld: Cataclysm
Warrior speaks with Chris Stewart, Designer at Barking Dog Studios, about Homeworld: Cataclysm
By - John "Warrior" Keefer
GameSpy: How did Barking Dog get involved with the Homeworld saga? Wasn't Barking Dog originally in the same building as Relic?
Chris Stewart: In the spring of '98 Barking Dog was brought on board to provide some programming for Homeworld. Sierra and Relic were confident about the game and since we had worked before with some of the guys at Relic, they endorsed Barking Dog's desire to work on an expansion pack. Sierra was happy with our work and gave us the green light to make Homeworld: Cataclysm a stand-alone product.
GameSpy: How long did it take to come up with the storyline and premise for the game? Did Relic offer any assistance?
Chris Stewart: Relic gave us room to move, to play in their universe, within reason of course (no blowing up Hiigara with a transforming mothership or anything too wacky). Then as the project got further along, they'd supply us with feedback and suggestions. A lot of their suggestions have been very helpful in creating a game that fits both our vision of the
game and their vision for the Homeworld universe. Relic has had creative input, but in the end Sierra and Relic have let us do our thing.
GameSpy: How does Cataclysm go beyond Homeworld? What can players expect that is better than the original?
Chris Stewart: We've added many features that we feel people will greatly appreciate. Waypoints, fog-of-war, ship upgrades, time acceleration, external construction, and crystals are just a few of the new features that people will enjoy using. We've also done everything we can to make the game easier to play. The right-click menu is more accessible
and you can now issue many commands in the sensors manager that you couldn't before.
GameSpy: What are some of the new ships and their specialties? What balance issues were discussed when creating them?
Chris Stewart: Players will get to play with at least 17 new ships. I say at least because
there are more ships, a lot more when you factor in the Beast fleet in multiplayer, but we're keeping these ships under wraps for now,
for story reasons. Some units we are talking about are the Recon, your scout / sensor ship, the Acolyte fighter, the Mimic, which can pass itself off as other ships, and their composite ships, the ACV and MCV. We have a next generation drone ship, called the Hive frigate, with micro-class ships on board that make attack runs like small fighter craft. A lot of people want to get their hands on leeches, small ships that attach and compromise the hulls of large ships.
Next: Multiplayer...
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