Screenshots 6x (640x480)
History
After seeing the standard Battlecrab Shrivel effect, the Dark Age team wanted more. Since the death events are assigned per-class, only super-capital ships could have unique deaths. So they sent the Shadow Cruiser and Carrier over, but only the Cruiser death was finished before both models were completely overhauled. (Mumbling about modelling program destroying carrier textures) Anyways, this cruiser was never released. See also the Dark Age Shadow Battlecrab Death.
Instructions
For best results, you should have the Dark Age Shadow (R2) Heavy Cruiser, but you can't have it, sorry. Nevertheless, you should download the Dark Age mod. (shameless plug) But it's not necessary, this effect will work without any other mod, it will just look really strange for the Taiidan Cruiser to suddenly turn into a huge spiky beast and die.
First, unzip HVCdeath.zip into your Homeworld directory. Then open etg\r2.script and find the Cruiser class Death Events. Replace them with this paragraph:
setDeathEvent R2,CLASS_HeavyCruiser,damage,destDAHVC.ebg setDeathEvent R2,CLASS_HeavyCruiser,projectile,destDAHVC.ebg setDeathEvent R2,CLASS_HeavyCruiser,beam,destDAHVC.ebg