Homeworld2 Motherships
The Mothership is the nucleus of your fleet. These
massive vessels dwarf all others. This is where all your crews and resources
are ultimately derived from. You only get one of them, and they are irreplaceable.
Losing it is a significant blow to your side, unless you've successful
delegated
your production and resourcing to your other production and utility shipping.
For the Hiigarans, its the Pride
of Hiigara: that iconic Kushan mega-banana that epitomised the original
Homeworld so prominently. Vaygr players
get a giant, oblong
mega-barge
called the Flagship. Apart from
looks and design, there's no real difference between the Pride
of Hiigara or the Flagship.
The Mothership's primary role is resourcing, manufacturing,
research and servicing the fleet. Production ships
are completely defined by the Subsystems you
build on them. When they first appear, they are little more than a hull
with an engine, a repair dock and a place to offload ore. You build them
up by installing Production, Research,
Sensor, and Module Subsystems.
While you get a lot of slots to build on, you can't get all of them in
the one vessel. You're forced to delegate roles to your other factory
ships, usually your Carriers. But Motherships are still vital in the game
because only they are capable of building Capital ships.
Motherships start off with a huge 200,000
hit points, upgradable to 400,000, and
sport Heavy Armour. This means there are no units
in the game that score any special bonuses against it - except for Bombers
that can shoot out its Modules, Engines
and Resourcing facilities.
Shipyards
The second type of Mothership is the Shipyard.
This is a specialised floating industrial district that is so big, it
has to be assembled "outside" the map and Hyperspaced into the
game. Shipyards can be built by any Capital ship or bigger that can install
a Hyperspace Module. This means that even a properly
kitted out Battlecruiser can conjure one up if all else fails. Shipyards
are like floating bases; Motherships with the emphasis on construction.
They emphasise construction, but like all production ships, can still
only produce one ship at a time. They get one more Module slot than a
regular Mothership, but they're painfully sluggish, vulnerable to attack
and don't seem to function as efficiently as other ships when it comes
to servicing and repairing the fleet. They are so slow, its ridiculous.
Smart admirals Hyperspace them everywhere. You basically keep them around
because they are the only production ship in the game that can produce
Battlecruisers.
Motherships and Shipyards,
along with Carriers, constitute your
Production ships. These mobile factories perform
all your manufacturing, resource gathering and research, a lot of your sensor
coverage, and small pool of empty Subsystem slots
to extend your fleet's ship-building and military abilities. Lose all your
production ships and you lose the game. Simple, really. Carriers
will keep you in the game if all your Mothership class factories are lost,
but only just. In most cases if all you have left is a Carrier, you're in
pretty dire straits indeed, especially with any enemy Capitals on the prowl.
At the very least you can assist your allies: allied shipping and Resource
Collectors will make full use of any friendly docking and resource drop
off points nearby.
Shipyards sport 150,000
hit points, upgradable to 240,000, and
wear Heavy Armour. Despite this they wield pathetic
point defences and are easily demolished, requiring considerable protection.
In many games several may be built, but rarely kitted out to their full
potential; they feel more expendable unless, perish forbid, you've lost
your Mothership. |
Capital Class
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