#homeworld cataclysm

[grayrazor]

Hey guys, I found this weird geometric object floating in space. Should I touch it?

[ideas-on-paper]

So I was watching a Let's Play of Homeworld: Cataclysm, and there's this fleet from the Fornax system.

And I was like "Wait a second..."

Are you fucking kidding me?!?

[ridl]

little critters docking with their funny little paws :)

[tacitgadget]

Hey guys, Tacit here!

Go play Homeworld Cataclysm Emergence.

It's $10 ($0.99 on sale) on GOG

It's a RTS Horror game set after Homeworld

This is some of the best writing in an RTS game I've ever experienced

[gaykarstaagforever]

They apparently made a spinoff Homeworld game in 2000 about a virus that infects spaceships and melts all the people inside and turns them into nerves to run the spaceship like a living creature, which then goes out to infect other ships. And only some downtrodden group of space miners with crappy ships can stop this thing from eating the entire universe. It is apparently a really dark and atmospheric horror game, impressive considering it is literally just ships.

I didn't even know this was a thing until today. The hell.

It was originally called Homeworld: Cataclysm, but somehow Activision copyrighted that AFTER other people had already used it on games (?, explain this, lawyers), so now GOG is selling it as Homeworld: Emergence.

It isn't a remastered version, like the big Homeworld pack release they did 8 years ago or whenever. This is just as-was because it wasn't made by Relic.

I mean fine by me, the remaster used the Homeworld 2 engine for everything and I prefer the original, with all its lo-D jank. Plus that engine inexplicably still works on Windows, sometimes. If you're lucky.

Here is Mandalore talking about it, because no one but me is interested in actually playing this in 2023:

GOG link

[krjpalmer]

Computer Gaming World April 2000

on the Internet Archive

[artmeyk]

Homeworld Fans who played DOK (Deserts of Kharak) or dwelled in to the lore. (or played Homeworld 2 and Cataclysm) (THIS DOES NOT COUNT COALITION AS A KIITH DUE TO IT JUST FACTION OF KIITHID)

[kahtide]

We're in the home stretch! It's time to take on the Naggarok and cleanse the galaxy of the Beast, once and for all! Tune in for Homeworld: Emergence this Wednesday and Thursday (4/26 & 4/27) at 2pm!

twitch.tv/kahtide

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[bot1942]

Kun-lan this is the Cal...-Shto we bring reinforcements from ... Hiigara ... come to us.

oh m-...ahhh...my pockages

[dailyadventureprompts]

Villain: Qor'ivel, Faulted Brilliance

An extradimensional mage who sought godhood only to have his ambition literally blow up in his face, the shrapnel of this calamitous act of hubris is now scattered across the planes, just waiting to be discovered.

Being born to rule an empire was not enough for this genius mage, who bent his talents and the strength of his nation to establishing dominion across the whole of his world, and then to other worlds beyond.

As the product of generations of careful mutagenic engineering and magical enhancement, the depths of Qor'ivel's intelligence seemed to truly be fathomless. Through reason alone he seemed to be able to divine the innermost thoughts of his enemies and the outcome of future events, to say nothing of his arcane abilities. It took him only a decade to establish his rule over multiple planes, and in another five years he'd calculated a path to cement that rule through godhood that'd take just under a century.

He was wrong of course, you don't need to be a genius to know that there's more to being a god than being the most right all the time. The brilliant mechanism of Qor'ivel's mind realized that truth a fraction of a second before it ruptured like a collapsing star, distroying the world that was the seat of his empire and scattering fragments of his consciousness across the multiverse. Now Frozen in the moment of his failed apotheosis he exists as a mad titan rampaging across the cosmos, fleeting moments of lucidity drowned out by amnesic empire building or senseless cataclysmic fury.

Adventure Hooks:

Qor'ivel makes a great archvillain for a spelljammer campaign or any adventure that's going to touch on the astral sea. The ruins of his empire are a great backdrop and his mindshards can end up anywhere, influencing anyone, acting as mcguffins when needed. His changeable nature means he can serve as both scheming mastermind and looming apocalyptic threat, and the factions that want to ensure he stays one or the other make for great secondary antagonists.

Though they might be mistaken for any run of the mill sort of glowing magical crystal, the shards of Qor'ivel have a power all their own, still somewhat alive possessing fragments of the great mage's consciousness and the power it commands. They can function like any sort of magic item, though usually wands or ioun stones, though creatures that attune to them tend to start thinking and acting a lot more like the sundered sovereign, indulging in pride, power and imperial ambition. The more powerful shards possess fragmented consciousnesses of their own, and may use proxies to set up petty dynasties of their own.

Once governors, aristocrats, and magistrates of a worlds spanning empire, the remnants of the Vaqol people and their decendants found themselves in a lurch when their god-king detonated and took their homeworld with him. Many were cast out by the peoples they had subjugated, while others hid themselves away or made themselves useful to the ascendant regimes. In the present day a fraction of these remnants still hold loyalty to the faulted brilliance, or follow his example in using their magical talent to set up their own dominions.

Fragments of the Vaqol homeworld drift through the multiverse, sometimes as reefs of rubble, sometimes as wordlets, sometimes as streaking projectiles that make calamitous impact on other planes. Adventurers of all kinds can be tasked with hiring , though whether its those wishing to recover/collect ancient artifacts, or lay their hands on Qor'ivel shards is up to you.

Artsource

[fabseg-creator]

My review about Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir

This is a (first) review about a Miraculous element (especially an episode form Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir).

This post contains spoilers.

Today, I've watched the Special Episode. I am prepared for the watching. I will reveal my aggregation in the end of the post.

And now, time to read:

Plot:

This happens in the same moment (at the night) as the episode Destruction (5.03). After Monarch has been cataclysmed at the left arm and before he configurates the stolen Miraculouses.

In a parallel world, a Butterfly superhero named Hesperia (Gabriel Agreste/Gabi Grassette) who is helped by Alya, Nino, Max and Markov, leaves his homeworld universe for escape from Shadybug (Toxinelle) and Claw Noire (Griffe Noire), two evil versions of Ladybug and Cat Noir. When the three characters come to the Ladybug and Cat Noir main universe, Hesperia teams up with the two titular heroes for make the ShadyClaw duo into good people. At the other side, the evil counterparts try to steal the Butterfly miraculous to Hesperia (and later to try to combine the Ladybug and Cat powers for make their wishes).

I've learned about news elements in the Miraculous lore by watching the Special:

They exist some billions an infinity of Parallel Worlds in the lore.

Each Parallel World is home to one Tikki and one Plagg (so One Ladybug holder and one Cat holder).

The inconvenients from the Ladybug's and Cat's powers (secondary effects)due to their excessive using. Shadybug and Claw Noire cause their own deterioration in their bodies by using their power for the evil.

The morale about the hope in dark and sad moments (Thanks, Hesperia.)

The parallel world (ShadyClaw/Hesperia's world) is a dystopian world ruled by the Supreme

Hesperia's, Shadybug's and Claw Noir's backstories

What I liked:

The Hesperia opening in the intro (that was WTF but that was fun)

The coming of Shadybug and Claw Noire, their odd relationships

The Claw Noir's lines and moments

The Kamiko (good alternate name to Akuma)

The akumatization forms: Chat Céleste (Cat Noir) and Ubiquity (first Alya and later Ladybug)

Ladyfly (Marinette with Ladybug + Butterfly unification)

The travels across multiple parallel worlds (Hi, Scarabella and Kitty Noire. Hi, Mister Bug and Ladynoire.)

The concept of Re-Verse (the idea of what would Marinette and Adrien have looked like if theirs lives had been different from the Canon)

The thing how Monarch has failed (again) to take the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses when he travelled across parallel worlds.

What I disliked:

The lack of end post-credits scene: I would like to see what happens in the Hesperia's world after the battle (interractions between the reformed Shabybug and Claw Noire, Hesperia, Alya ans Nino about reconciliation ans reorganisation of the Resistance against the Supreme).

The absence of other Miraclass counterparts, Luka, Kagami, Félix, Zoé, Chloé and Lila/Cerise (Only Alya, Nino, Max and Markov from the class appear in the episode as parallel counterparts)

The missing full appearance of the Supreme (his/her appearance from the shadow for reveal himself/herself/themself to spectators could make the cliffhanger effect for a sequel).

What I want to know for the future:

The most intriguing point, for me, is: The Supreme (This hidden character I have just mentioned in this post)

Who is the Supreme ? Human or Deity ? Big Brother (1984, George Orwell) ? How do s/he looks like ?

All I've learned about him/her/them is:

The Supreme is an entity/being who rules the Hesperia's homeworld (possibly the Hesperia's entire universe).

S/He is a tyrant, a dictator (worst than Chloé, possibly more machiavelic and charismatic than Cerise, more dangerous than Monarch) on this Earth (or simply Paris).

S/He hates the Love, the Freedom/Liberty, the Justice, the Happiness, positive emotions and particularly the superheroes.

It's him/her/they who is THE overarching antagonist of the Paris Special (even if s/he is only mentioned many times). S/He's so more antagonistical than Monarch.

S/He makes Hesperia and the Resistance from this world (and by extension Ladybug 2 (former Shadybug) and Cat Noir 2/Paw Noir (former Claw Noir)) as Outlaws.

It's him/her/them who given the Ladybug and Cat miraculous to Emo Marinette and Emo Adrien. Ironical and Ridiculous from the Supreme !

S/He is too powerful, too surnatural and too overcheated: s/he has a great control on the Miraculous Ultimate Absolute Power. S/He has implanted a blockage spell on Tikki and Plagg for prevent anyone to summon Gimmi.

ML theory: I'm thinking the Supreme is probably a evil type of Guardian of Miraculouses. A Fallen Guardian (NOT Master Fu NOR Su-Han). S/He has many knowledges about Miraculouses and their using + the Absolute Power.

My personal aggregation on the Paris Special:

I've enjoyed to see the episode. The narrative is excellent. The idea of Multiverse in the Miraculous lore is well found. The various animations from the episode are fun. Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noire is a wonderful episode.

Result: 10/10

[ridl]

this frigate could be an aquatic animal. look at those fins

[freydpaladin]

So I've been quite inspired by Invader Zim as of late, and these are the byproducts of said interest.

I thought - what would an Irken with wings look like? And then I decided to take it a little further; what could the Irkens have evolved from?? From those thoughts came these - what I have now dubbed the Ancient Irken.

The Ancient Irken

Standing much taller than their modern day descendents, the Ancient Irkens possessed the power of flight and amazing adaptability. Apex predators, there were few species on their homeworld able to challenge them in terms of power - as the insectoid aliens were surprisingly social, living in fairly-sized groups with a complex hierarchy.

However, this diverse race and its many offshoots almost went extinct during a cataclysmic event that wiped out a majority of all living species at the time. Fortunately, a small population managed to survive and eventually thrive in the changed environment.

It was from this very same population that the modern Irken would emerge a mere 2000 years later.

[sicksadgames]

Into the Blind, and Wot I Like about Space Stuff

I've been working on this for a while in between breaks updating As the Sun Forever Sets. Why is my idea of a break from writing games just writing a different game? I have dumb bitch disease. I wanted to talk about some of the inspirations for it.

Welcome to The Rim

Into the Blind is a sci fi game about a group of gig economy workers living contract to contract on the roiling, wild edge of space. It's about CRT screens, mechanical keyboards, junction boxes, pipes and wires. It's about the unknown, the stresses of capital, and horror - visceral and ephemeral. It's about working hard jobs in dangerous conditions for little pay, and the chance of a better life. 

You are a Freelancer - Salvager, Shipbreaker, Courier, Bodyguard, Assassin, First Responder, Negotiator, Investigator, Debt Collector. A Freelancer is any and all of these, depending on the contract. You'll take whatever you can get to make ends meet. 

Every job you do balances your need to pay the rent on your ship against your desire to remain alive. Grab what you can, get paid, and stay alive.

If this sounds cool to you, you can grab a free preview (with the old name) below.

Let me show you my favourite space things

Ok, time for the self indulgent ramblings.

(Potential) Spoilers for: Gravity, Interstellar, Contact, Arrival, The Expanse, the Alien series, the Thing, Annihilation, Homeworld: Cataclysm and Magnetic Rose.

Physics and Feelings at 10km/s

There are a lot of sci-fi horror TTRPGS out there. Like a lot a lot. Mothership, Death in Space, the Alien RPG, You're in Space and Everything's Fucked, the list goes on and on. Not that that matters - people should make the games they wanna make and I wanted to make a scary sci-fi game with spaceships, so eh fuck it.

Something I realised while writing stuff for Into the Blind and working on the system is that the themes and feeling of a lot of the sci-fi stuff I'm into didn't revolve around a towering monster skulking around dark spaceship. Like, sure, Into the Blind will have a nasty alien somewhere, I don't need to say that I like Alien or talk about why it's good (I do, it is, and I'm going to), but there's more to write about than monsters. Space is already intrinsically stressful and horrifying:

Neil Degrasse Tyson and Chris Hadfield can shut the fuck up, Gravity has some of the scariest, tensest scenes in a movie I've ever seen in my fucking life. After watching this you could never pay me enough to go to space. The only enemy here is inertia, the only monster are the principles of physics that cause a cloud of debris to whip through orbit at 22,000 miles an hour.

Aside from the spectacle, Gravity is a film about finding the will to go on when you have nothing to live for and everything's against you. It's heavily implied that Dr Stone went to space because she's tired of existing on earth (or at least that's my read). She wants mercy and relief from the pain of her life, and watching it you want to gift it to her so badly, but the debris field crashes into her life over and over. It's a relentless, uncaring solar tide that returns like clockwork when to fuck her up any time she gets a break.

These extreme forces also generate incredible tragedy and loss. Interstellar is kind of a dumb movie but despite the memes about this scene it always gets me. You don't know what you have until it's gone, and sometimes the distance between you knowing you've lost something and it becoming lost can (thanks to black holes and weird gravity stuff) slip by you in an age that feels like an instant.

Both Gravity and Interstellar have soft, beating hearts encased behind the layers of radiation shielding, technobabble and worn metal, and when the colossal forces that make the universe turn rip it open, they're laid bare.

That's a fucking cool thing to make a game about!

Indistinguishable from Magic

I'm not a big brain science person, when it comes to wormholes, relativity, folding space time and all that, I don't really get it. I just know that it's cool as hell and opens the door to powerful character stories about finding meaning and confronting your feelings at the edge of our understanding of reality.

Contact and Arrival are two sides of the same movie to me. Both are heavily grounded in big Theory and big Science Words, both are about powerful sciencey girlbosses who've lost something dear to them (one in the future, one in the past.) Contact leans more towards the hard science approach, but both are at their best when they're balanced on the edge of the plausible and the implausible. They're both about the incredible, incomprehensible nature of the universe. They're both about people who change the world, in ways both vast impercievable to everyone else.

They're both stories of hope and benevolence, but Contact frames this through 90's optimism and the power of nations working together towards a common goal (it's so optimistic, even the villain-coded megacorporation decides to help out, which uhhhh), Arrival frames these themes through personal tragedy - Dr Banks pays a high price to save humanity from itself.

Behind the calculations and clipboards and theories, these are stories about personal discovery, love and heartache.

These are also fucking cool things to make games about!

Magnetic Rose is probably the single biggest influence on Into the Blind - there's a full adventure heavily inspired by it in the preview. It's just so good. The visual design and animation are simultaneously grounded and real yet brilliantly beautiful and surreal. It's tragic gothic horror at the dark, gritty edge of space, and it's so good at being sad. The penultimate scenes in heart of the tomb-like space station, surrounded by rank brown water and decaying metal are heartwrenching. Heintz is tormented by visions of his past and you feel it so hard. The film doesn't care to tell you how this is all happening - are his memories ghosts? holograms? hallucinations? It only cares about the why, and it's incredible.

Breathable Air Prepayment Meters

It's been ages since I watched The Expanse, so I'm not gonna dwell on it too much, but what I remember focused heavily on how capital and government care little about those they govern and sell to.

The level that our existence is monetised and used as a cudgel against us currently can surely only expand along with our expansion into the stars. You can go there right now if you have enough money to do so, and when life beyond earth becomes feasible, the companies that financed it will need someone to clean the ducts and polish the solar arrays. The amount of things that can be sold to you can only increase out in space. You think rents are high now? Wait till you see the price of a 1 bedroom apartment in orbit around Mars. Add nice breathable mix of nitrogen and oxygen to your list of monthly outgoings. You think you'll be able to repair your C02 scrubbers without voiding the warranty? Fuck no.

The Alien movies are obviously (despite what some grognards on twitter dot com will tell you) deeply about extreme capitalism. The galaxy is ruled by companies that could not care less about you, and the bottom line is all that matters. This kinda matters less and less as the films wear on, but the first 3 are all about working class people sacrificed on the altar of the interstellar dollar.

Alien 3 in particular has a lot of problems, but the edgy teen in me is still really fond of this scene. It's doing a Big Foreshadow (Do you get it? The alien is like.. the flower he's talking about right? But the flower is bad?) But it feels like an appropriate lament for prisoners on the ass end of space. Despite what the company wants you to believe, the inmates of Fury 161 don't deserve to die, aren't expendable.

We all have flowers within us waiting to grow, out from the shadow of capital.

You might've noticed mentions of a nasty guy in those last clips.

Ok fine, also Monsters

We all love a little nasty guy, I cannot resist the pull of the weird monster that does Big Themes. Like I said, there's so much TTRPG stuff focused on them for good reason And space is ripe for the nastiest of guys.

There's really nothing more to be said about The Thing, it just fucking rules. It's a movie that cares as much about what a monster can do to peoples bodies as what it can do to their minds and relationships.

What a horrible fate for Sheppard. The idea of Annihilations mutant bear is just so sinister it makes my gut drop whenever I re-watch it. Again, not much else to be said about this movie. It rips.

Homeworld: Cataclysm is a weird game. It's a survival horror.. strategy game? Set in space? Where you never see a single person?? And somehow it's voice acting and plot is incredible???

The Beast is the nickname for the microorganism that emerges from the millenia old wreckage the mining vessel Kuun-Lan happens upon whilst scouring deep space for valuable minerals. The threat it presents is so real and visceral, it's one of those "if this hits our planet, it's so over" monsters, and it's obscenely scary and gruesome. Even the Bentusi, a race of nigh-on ageless benevolent machine beings are absolutely terrified, and try to abandon the galaxy in the face of it (they fear their biological minds will be trapped in their machine bodies if they're taken over by The Beast, locked in and forced to watch what it does to the galaxy. Damn.)

The scene where you and your fleet fight the Bentusi as they try to evacuate known space to force them to help you is intense and incredible. You're fighting gods, and all you can do is crash against their incredible technology again and again like a stiff breeze, pleading for help and humanity. You shame them into taking responsibility for helping the mortals in the galaxy against this ancient threat. That's the fear inspired by The Beast.

Thank you for coming to my Space Ted Talk

I told you it was self indulgent huh. Hopefully this goes some way to explaining what I'm going for with this game. Not only monsters, but the experiences of people trapped by incredible forces of nature, corporations and circumstance. Not only horror, but exploitation, sadness, love, longing and loss. Thanks for reading.

Again, if you want to check out Into the Blind, you can get the free preview below, and follow me on Itch to get notified for when game releases (soon? idk)

[thatmoththoth]

nerd /aff /pos /platonic

You see, in Arthurian myth the fae/fairies are very prevalent, so this is exactly why in my filling of the gaps of High Noon Over Camelot and just making up lore where there is none through wild headcannons, I have added the fae onto the station.

It’s never explained what happened to the world outside of the station, so, I say the reason no one ever checked on the station was because a cataclysmic event happened which meant they were a little preoccupied. This might have been because of the General, who knows, but the point is, it left the homeworld scarred. In a last ditch effort to survive, the people used their technology to create a trace which would survive predicted conditions, with thick skin and a nictitating membrane to protect from coming dust storms, powerful wings to travel over the cracked and shattered landscape, a tail for balance against harsh winds, and large ears to hear incoming threats.

This new generation of genetically modified children did survive along with very few humans, and they rebuild society as best as they could, as well as kept safe the records of old. Now, when a group of these fae come across a working spaceship, they go out into the world, and stumble upon Fort Galfridian. They land and settle on the lower levels as their skin blocks out the brunt of the radiation, and they observe, staying largely out of sight from humans, but occasionally making trade deals, offering their knowledge and strange technology in return, but using trickery to gain more on their end of the bargain.