Did a quick search to see if anyone else around here played Homeworld, either the first or second, and noticed there wasn't a thread about it in here. So I figured I'd make one myself.

Homeworld one and two are both Real Time Strategy games, released in 1999 and 2003 respectively, developed by Relic Entertainment.

They both have very gripping singleplayer campaigns which are heavily story-focused.



Homeworld 1 'plot':
(Don't worry, no spoilers here.)
"Beneath the scorching sands of Kharak, the Kushan people have discovered the remains of a long-forgotten titanic spaceship. Buried within the ancient remains, the secret of their lost homeworld.

For thousands of years, the Kushan have survived on Kharak, corralled into the temperate geographical poles by a vast, unforgiving desert. Scarcity of arable land and natural resources has coloured Kushan history with near constant inter-clan (or Kiith) warfare and strife.

As new technologies emerged, religious and political conflict partially gave way to unified scientific exploration. DNA sequencing of Kharak's native life revealed no genetic resemblance to the Kushan, giving rise to their "XenoGenesis Theory" - which stated they were not native to Kharak at all.

The first space flights reinforced this idea. Small metallic debris, the largest no bigger than a hand, were retrieved from low orbit and analyzed to be made of materials totally unknown to them. In addition to helping accelerate their space technology research, the debris confirmed that a large advanced spacecraft had once been in orbit. It wasn’t until an ironic twist of fate later in their history that boosted them even further along their development.

A high-powered satellite designed to scan the planetary system had malfunctioned upon deployment, and was scanning the Great Desert around Kharak's equator instead. It strangely found something beneath the sands: a derelict city with a massive central metallic structure. An expedition uncovered that the central structure was the spacecraft they had found traces of before in orbit. It carried advanced spaceflight technologies including a Hyperspace Core, one of a few ancient machines that were the Homeworld setting's foundation for all faster-than-light technology.

More importantly however, a stone with a galactic map bearing two coordinates was found. One was recognized as Kharak. The other bore a name so ancient it was common across all their languages and dialects: Hiigara. "Home". The stone would become known as the Guidestone, and confirmed the XenoGenesis Theory. Kharak's people united in building a megalithic "Mothership" that would bear 600,000 of them to their destination, made rugged and self-sufficient in order to survive possible problems during the long trip. It is during the Mothership's final testing phase that the single-player game begins."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld



Homeworld 2 starts off more or less immediately (In terms of what[s] happen[s/ed], not necessarily in terms of time)

Both games contain (In depth) only two factions, though there are brief appearances of others during the campaigns of both and in these campaigns the player is always in command of the same faction, though they're named differently in the games: Kushan in the first, and Hiigarans in the second.

In the topic of gameplay, both games are pretty much the same, the action is VERY intense and exciting, the field you play in is completley 3d, you have complete freedom over the altitude of all your ships and utilities, and in a dogfight/firefight they will use altitude as just another plane of movement, anything can and will use it at will.

You typically begin with one mothership and a few fighters (Though in the campaign you will start off with whatever ships you had at the end of the previous mission), and can build several different types of ships/utilities, such things as strikecraft, frigates, carriers, probes and so on, each type with several different crafts, all with specific jobs in which they excel above others, usually by a long shot. For example, Strikecraft has such things as Fighters, Bombers, Scouts and other small craft capable of fighting.

There are a few features which are only in one of the games, for instance:

1. Homeworld 1: Formation options. You can put your ships into formations, which you could 'customize' by putting all the ships into place manually, one at a time, and then setting their current position as a formation, which was replaced in Homeworld 2 by a simple "Strike-Force" option list, which contained only three options which would place all your ships into predetermined positions depending on what type of craft they were.
2. Homeworld 1: Refueling. All ships smaller than Frigates (Not including, ofcourse, the Repair Corvettes) require refueling after travelling so far, this can be done with either Repair Corvettes or by docking the crafts which are out of / low on fuel to a Mothership, Carrier or Support craft.
3. Homeworld 2: Support/Salvage Marine/Docking tradeout. Support Frigates along with Salvage Corvettes were removed. However, to take the role of Salvage Corvettes, Marine / Infiltrator Frigates were added to the game, allowing Frigates and other larger crafts to be boarded by marines and over time, taken over. To take the place of Support Frigates, more of the Capital Ships were given Docking Bays to assist smaller crafts.
4. Homeworld 2: Subsystems Many of the larger crafts in Homeworld 2 are given the ability to create Subsystems, these are visible and functional parts added to the appropriate craft, these range from Research modules, which allow different levels of research, several different Facilities allowing the production of -and adding research- the appropriate craft types. (Fighter Facility, Corvette Facility, Frigate Facility, ETC) Ontop of these, there are two other types of Subsystems, these are the default modules a craft is given, these are such things as the engines of the craft, sometimes hard sensors which are generally only seen on the Mothership, and the heavy weapons on Battlecruisers. Resource Drop-off Points are also Subsystems.

List of Subsystems. (Homeworld 2 ONLY)
Innate:

• Engines
• Resource Drop-Off
• Ion Beam Turret (Hiigaran Battlecruiser)
• Heavy Missile Battery (Vaygr Battlecruiser)

Production:

• Fighter Facility
• Corvette Facility
• Frigate Facility
• Capital Class Facility

Sensor:

• Adv. Sensors Array
• Anti-Cloaking Sensors
• Hyperspace Sensors

Modules:

• Research Module
• Advanced Research Module
• Platform Facility
• Hyperspace Module
• Gravwell Generator
• Cloak Generator
• Fire Control Tower

Support, Salvage & Research Differences: (Information on Homeworld 1 Crafts taken directly from http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/rtsc_homeworld.htm)
Support:
Without any doubt the most useful ships in the game are those that support your fleet. Support vessels in Homeworld come in two sizes: the Repair Corvette and the Support Frigate. Repair Corvettes can service and repair a single fighter or corvette or focus a repair beam on a damaged target and restore its armour points. Support Frigates can service up to ten Strikecraft and four Corvettes simultaneously, wield a far more powerful repair beam and also pack a single turret. Both ship types can repair capital class vessels, and when assigned to guard a group of other ships will automatically repair any that take damage. This alone makes them one of the most valuable assets in any fleet, and many players will take out Support Frigates and other unarmed targets well before they bother with the actual guns of the enemy.

Salvage:
The other useful ship in Homeworld is the Salvage Corvette. Salvage Corvettes can actually hijack enemy shipping and return them to the Mothership or the nearest Carrier to be turned to your side - or recycled for the RU's. The number of corvettes needed to nab another ship depends on its size. Frigates and Resource Collectors can be grabbed by two Salvage Corvettes, while bigger classes need three or more. Even Fighters and Corvettes can be nabbed by a single Salvager, although it'll be extremely lucky if it can chase one down. Once snared, the enemy ship becomes supine and ceases to resist, but until that point your corvettes are in grave danger - the opposition can rescue any snared craft by attacking your corvettes. A half grabbed ship will spin in slow circles, unable to do anything until rescued, while Motherships are simply too big to hijack.

Science Vessel (Replaced by Modules in HW2):
This is an unarmed, modular vessel/station that lurks by the Mothership. Science Vessels are made up of six symmetrical modules that automatically join together to form a circular space station, although its rare you'll ever need to make enough for a complete ship in the course of a typical Homeworld netgame, unless you have resources coming out of your ears. Each separate component allows you to pursue a single line of research, so having several modules lets you research several streams at once, or pool their expertise to research a single line of technology faster.