The Homeworld Remastered Players Patch resolves many bugs, exploits, and balance issues. It works with Gearbox's 2.1/2.303 Patches, and includes hundreds of additional improvements. It enhances singleplayer and multiplayer while respecting the look, sound, and feel of Relic's classics. Notably it fixes the 666 Formation Bug, the Cross Race Docking Bug, and is authored by the players who helped Gearbox balance Homeworld Remastered. It also features additional gameplay options including a campaign difficulty adjuster, user interface/camera adjusters, dual command mode, observer mode, vast unit caps, and much more.

This is being released by the community for the players and fans. Credits: Gearbox, Cloaked, Fear, Trebic, NoOne, Echo, Stuart, QuadS, Kadeshi, and all the other contributors, testers, and players providing feedback. Links: Full Change List[github.com], ReadMe, Subscribe on Steam, or Download for Epic & GOG.

1. Click Subscribe here
2. Play Homeworld Remastered (click Library, click Homeworld Remastered Collection, and click Play)
3. In the launcher, click Mods, select the Players Patch, (optionally select a Campaign checkbox), and click Launch
4. "Players Patch" will be displayed in the bottom right of the main menu
5. You can play any skirmish/mission from the start based on your current progression, but don't load game saves from other versions/builds of the game

To load this every time you play Homeworld Remastered:
1. Go to your Steam Library and right click on Homeworld Remastered Collection
2. Click Properties, click Set Launch Options, and type in the following:
3. -workshopmod ???\1190476337\2.3PlayersPatch.big
4. Change the question marks to the numbers you see in this folder: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\DataWorkshopMODs\"

To create Steam desktop shortcuts to load this for Multiplayer and each Campaign:
1. Create three shortcuts similar to the ones below. For each shortcut, change the question marks to the numbers you see in this folder:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\DataWorkshopMODs\"
2. Homeworld Remastered Multiplayer:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe” -workshopmod ???\1190476337\2.3PlayersPatch.big
3. Homeworld 1 Remastered Campaign:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe” -dlccampaign HW1Campaign.big -campaign HomeworldClassic -moviepath DataHW1Campaign -workshopmod ???\1190476337\2.3PlayersPatch.big
4. Homeworld 2 Remastered Campaign:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe” -dlccampaign HW2Campaign.big -campaign Ascension -moviepath DataHW2Campaign -workshopmod ???\1190476337\2.3PlayersPatch.big

1. Download from ModDB here
2. Unzip/extract PlayersPatch_buildXX.zip
3. Copy the DataWorkshopMODs folder and paste it in your HomeworldRM folder. The standard installation path is below, however this may vary if you installed the game in a custom location.
C:\Program Files\Epic Games\HomeworldRemasterdCollecti\HomeworldRM\
4. If prompted, replace any existing files.
5. Play Homeworld Remastered (click Library, click Homeworld Remastered Collection)
6. In the launcher, click Mods, select the Players Patch, (optionally select a Campaign checkbox), and click Launch
7. "Players Patch" will be displayed in the bottom right of the main menu
8. You can play any skirmish/mission from the start based on your current progression, but don't load game saves from other versions/builds of the game

1. Download from ModDB here
2. Unzip/extract PlayersPatch_buildXX.zip
3. Copy the DataWorkshopMODs folder and paste it in your HomeworldRM folder. The standard installation path is below, however this may vary if you installed the game in a custom location (note sometimes 'GOG Galaxy' is 'GalaxyClient').
C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Homeworld Remastered\HomeworldRM\
4. If prompted, replace any existing files.
5. Use the shortcuts from the .zip file to play Homeworld Remastered, old shortcuts prior to build 13 will not work.
6. If your installation path is different, then you'll need to edit the Shortcuts. Right click on each shortcut, click Properties, and carefully edit the Target and Start in path to match your unique installation path. For example you may just need to change C:\ to D:\ or GOG Galaxy to GalaxyClient - be careful not to delete the quotation marks.
7. When Homeworld Remastered starts, you will see "Players Patch" in the bottom right of the main menu.
8. You can play any skirmish/mission from the start based on your current progression, but don't load game saves from other versions/builds of the game.

Some users have gotten HWRM and mods working on other operating systems. The instructions above are for Windows, however they are generally similar for other operating systems. If using Steam, see the Steam Instructions above. If using Aspyr (macgamestore, Mac App Store), see the Steam Instructions above. If using GOG, see the GOG instructions above. Note that the Steam Shortcuts and GOG Shortcuts above are for Windows, however you can create similar shortcuts in your unique operating system. Use an internet search engine for help creating an application shortcut with command line parameters for your operating system. If your struggling and can't get it working then you can follow the last resort steps below, however you won't be able to play multiplayer (with other people who followed the usual instructions above).
1. Only follow these steps as a last resort. Download from ModDB here
2. Unzip/extract PlayersPatch_buildXX.zip
3. Rename the 2.3PlayersPatch.big file to UpdateHomeworld2.big
4. Copy the UpdateHomeworld2.big file and paste it in your HomeworldRM\DataUpdates folder. The standard installation path is below, however your installation path may vary (for example C:\ vs D:\ and GOG Galaxy vs GalaxyClient).
C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Homeworld Remastered\HomeworldRM\DataUpdates\
5. If prompted, replace any existing files.
6. Play Homeworld Remastered. Do not use the Windows shortcuts included in the PlayersPatch_buildXX.zip file.
7. When Homeworld Remastered starts, you will see "Players Patch" in the bottom right of the main menu.
8. If you need to stop using the Players Patch to play another mod, you'll need to rename the UpdateHomeworld2.big file to UpdateHomeworld2OFF.big
9. You can play any skirmish/mission from the start based on your current progression, but don't load game saves from other versions/builds of the game.

A basic guide on getting started with Homeworld Remastered in general is here. Homeworld Remastered did not include a manual, however the basics are covered on Encyclopedia Hiigara here[homeworld.fandom.com]. Additional features added by the Players Patch are described below.

Gearbox/Relic partially developed some of these options, but never implemented them in the game. By popular demand, they have now been added to HWR.

Game Setup Menu (Multiplayer and Player vs CPU)
1. Observer mode: When your race is set to Observer, you will be able to spectate games. Its best to ally with one player/team so their ships appear yellow in the tactical overlay, the other player/team's ship will appear red. When prompted to continue watching, click yes to observe.
2. Dual Command mode: Allows one human player to control two fleets. Change your race to a Dual Command race, and then change a CPU ally to the same Dual Command race. You will start with two fleets, double the starting RUs, double the research costs, and will have double the unit caps. Note, only one person can use this feature at a time. It is intended to even out 1v2/2v3/3v4 games.
3. Vast unit caps: This is double the size of Huge, and only recommended for very fast machines.
4. AI Attack Damage adjuster: This can be used to increase the AI's attack damage for a more challenging game.

Options Menu (Gameplay tab)
1. Camera Pan Speed scale: Adjust/increase the camera speed to move around maps faster with the arrow keys and edge of screen mouse pan. Homeworld must be relaunched for changes to take affect.
2. Camera Rotation Speed scale: Adjust/increase the camera speed to rotate faster with the right mouse button. Homeworld must be relaunched for changes to take affect.
3. Camera Max Zoom scale: Adjust/increase the maximum distance the camera can zoom out before having to use the sensors manager. Homeworld must be relaunched for changes to take affect.
4. Mission Difficulty scale: At the start of each campaign mission, extra enemy reinforcement ships and RU are added based on your fleet size and RU. This dynamic scaling difficulty can now be adjusted. Use 0 for no reinforcements, 0.1-0.9 for less reinforcements, and 1.1-3.0 for more reinforcements. Easy is 0, Normal is 1, Hard is 1.5, Expert is 2+ (double to triple the difficulty). Use about 0.6 to be closer to hw1 classic, and 1.0 to match hw2 classic. The mission must be restarted to take effect.
Note: Using values higher than 1 may spawn too many enemy ships which might cause crashes while loading missions. Enemy reinforcements may vary and are only added if the player's fleet is bigger than what the game expects. Reinforcement ships are not in all missions. Specifically Homeworld 1 missions 1, 2, 11, 13; and Homeworld 2 missions 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10. In some missions the dynamic scaling difficulty affects other aspects of the enemy (like RU injections, health, weapon damage, and asteroids). Specifically Homeworld 1 mission 6; and Homeworld 2 missions 5, 6, 8, and 10. To see the reinforcement details, add the -luatrace command line, and check HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HwRM.log after the mission starts.

Options Menu (UI & HUD tab)
1. Stance Buttons Order: Adjust the order of the stance buttons to match Homeworld Remastered (Aggressive/Evasive/Neutral) or Homeworld Classic (Aggressive/Neutral/Evasive).
2. Default Tactical Overlay: Adjust the default level of detail for the tactical overlay around units. Homeworld must be relaunched for changes to take affect.
3. Show Base Production Times: Show the base production times for ships and research items in the production popup menus. The value of research modifiers are also shown. The game must be restarted for changes to take effect. Note, this option is currently only available in English.
4. Build, Research, and Launch Panel scale: Adjust the size of the Build/Research/Launch menus. The game must be restarted for changes to take effect. Previously these were adjustable, but their size was not saved across games.

There have been many improvements to HWR, however some fundamentally change the way things work and are listed below:
1. Kushan and Taiidan Support Frigates now keep units docked in Passive tactics and launch units in Offensive tactics. They can also now carry docked units through hyperspace like hw1c.

Gearbox's 2.303 Patch has many bugs that render some units overpowered, underpowered, or useless. The Players Patch makes units relatively closer to their classic stats, performance, and feel while enabling balance across all races. The goal is to make all units useful and effective at what they are supposed to do, while utilizing ballistic/simulation combat features. All ship speeds, armor, costs, build times, and research costs/times are now consistently translated into the HWR engine, with a robust design methodology. Thousands of ship vs ship tests have been performed with Gearbox's developer balance testing tools, to fine tune combat performance for skilled and casual players alike. Technical data including the Balance Design, Stats Tool, and Core Comparison files can be found on the BalanceInfo[github.com] section of GitHub. Definitions for some technical data/stats can be found on the Homeworld Remastered Karos Graveyard[github.com] modding wiki. Reader friendly changes are detailed in the Full Change List[github.com].

Your mission progress is kept across versions/builds. You can play any mission from the start based on your current progression, and your latest persistent fleet from the prior mission will be utilized. However game saves from one version/build of HWR should not be loaded on another version/build as they often cause issues (like the build menu not opening) or do not work at all.

The Players Patch works with HWR v2.1 and v2.303.

HWR lets you select and load multiple mods. However this works best with small mods like maps. For big mods that change many things, there will likely be file conflicts that cause issues. So its best to ask the mod authors to include the bug fixes/improvements from the Players Patch.
Instructions:
1. Click Subscribe here
2. Play Homeworld Remastered
3. Click Mods, select the Players Patch, (optionally select additional mods), (optionally select a Campaign), and click Launch

Feel free to include the entire Players Patch in your mod with credit. To just include specific bug fixes in your mod, see here[web.archive.org]. General steps to include all changes:
1. Use unfBig, or archive.exe (Homeworld\GBXTools\WorkshopTool) to extract the files from 2.3PlayersPatch.big
2. Include all these files in your mod.
3. If your mod already includes any of these files, you’ll need to merge the contents of each file.
4. You can compare file contents with Meld[meldmerge.org], Notepad++[sourceforge.net], etc.

Many developers have released community patches as official patches, and it would be great if Gearbox considered doing the same. Gearbox is welcome to include the entire Players Patch in a future update to Homeworld Remastered. To just include specific bug fixes, see here[web.archive.org]. General steps to include all changes:
1. Download from ModDB here
2. Unzip/extract PlayersPatch_buildXX.zip
3. Use unfBig, or archive.exe (Homeworld\GBXTools\WorkshopTool) to extract the files from 2.3PlayersPatch.big
3b. Alternatively, you can download the files from the master branch on GitHub here[github.com].
4. Include all these files in Homeworld Remastered.
5. Remove the "Players Patch" name from in-game menus by updating the following files: playerspatch_buildnumber.lua deathmatch.lua deathmatchhw1.lua deathmatchhw2.lua

Steam Troubleshooting Steps
1. Do not load game saves from other versions/builds of HWR, just play any mission from the start based on your current progression.
2. Using Mission Difficulty values higher than 1 may spawn too many enemy ships which might cause crashes while loading missions.
3. Note that HWR is not the most stable game. Some intermittent crashes are typical, especially while loading campaign missions or while playing online multiplayer. While some players rarely crash, other players frequently crash. Its often easiest to just restart the game and accept this reality. Otherwise proceed as follows:
4. Make sure HWR is working without the patch first. Run HWR with no mods, and see if the issue occurs. If you are experiencing general HWR problems see the Master Troubleshooting Guide.
5. Run HWR with only the Players Patch, and see if the issue occurs. This patch is currently not known to cause any additional problems.
6. Sometimes Steam workshop items don't download correctly or get corrupted, causing an instant "Access Violation Error" crash most of the time while loading levels. Corruption can be caused by closing the mod launcher while its loading (If you've subscribed to many mods, the mod launcher can take a long time to load). Follow these steps to resolve the corruption:
7. Open Steam (not your web browser), and unsubscribe from the Steam workshop item.
8. Exit Steam, completely close it down.
9. Delete the folder containing 2.3PlayersPatch.big located here (note, sometimes unsubscribing automatically deletes this): C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\DataWorkshopMODs\???\1190476337
10. Delete the cache folder containing 2.3PlayersPatch.big located here: C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\???\1190476337
11. Restart Steam and resubscribe to the Steam workshop item. Hopefully this resolves the issue.
12. If your still having issues, you can try deleting your player profile as these also sometimes get corrupted.
13. You can also check the bottom of your HwRM.log file immediately after a crash for clues. Note this log is over-written each time you play. First enable tracing also enable default persist fleet files incase they got corrupted:
14. Go to your Steam Library and right click on Homeworld Remastered Collection. Click Properties, click Set Launch Options, and add in the following: -luatrace -persist
15. Run HWR with only the Players Patch. Immediately after a crash, open the log file located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HwRM.log
16. Post your HwRM.log file using https://justpaste.me or https://pastebin.com in this Troubleshooting Thread. Note your operating system and describe what occured prior to crashing.

Epic and GOG Troubleshooting Steps
1e. Do not load game saves from other versions/builds of HWR, just play any mission from the start based on your current progression.
2e. Using Mission Difficulty values higher than 1 may spawn too many enemy ships which might cause crashes while loading missions.
3e. Note that HWR is not the most stable game. Some intermittent crashes are typical, especially while loading campaign missions or while playing online multiplayer. While some players rarely crash, other players frequently crash. Its often easiest to just restart the game and accept this reality. Otherwise proceed as follows:
4e. Make sure HWR is working without the patch first. Run HWR with no mods, and see if the issue occurs. If you are experiencing general HWR problems see the Master Troubleshooting Guide.
5e. Run HWR with only the Players Patch, and see if the issue occurs. This patch is currently not known to cause any additional problems.
6e. If your still having issues, you can try deleting your player profile as these also sometimes get corrupted.
7e. You can also check the bottom of your HwRM.log file immediately after a crash for clues. Note this log is over-written each time you play. First enable tracing also enable default persist fleet files incase they got corrupted:
8e. For Epic: Go to the Epic Games Store settings. Under HWR check Additional Command Line Arguments and add the following: -luatrace -persist
9e. For GOG: Right click on each of your Players Patch shortcuts and click properties. Add the following at the end of each shortcut's Target: -luatrace -persist
10e. Run HWR with only the Players Patch. Immediately after a crash, open the log file located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HwRM.log
11e. Post your HwRM.log file using https://justpaste.me or https://pastebin.com in this Troubleshooting Thread. Note your operating system and describe what occured prior to crashing.

Official Homeworld Discord Chat[discordapp.com]
Steam Forums
GOG Forums[www.gog.com]

If you'd like to join the development team, we would love to have you! Just let us know and we can get you setup on GitHub[github.com] and our private Discord server.

Gearbox for Homeworld Remastered!
Gameplay Options and Features: Cloaked, NoOne, QuadS, Sastrei, Lif, and Dwarfinator.
Bugs Fixes and Improvements: Trebic, Cloaked, NoOne, Fear, QuadS, Echo, Stuart, Gunnerth, radar, Lone Wolf, Dom2, HW_Lover, 178thBattleGroup, and CryCoh.
Campaign Improvements: NoOne, Echo, Cloaked, and Stuart.
Balance: Cloaked, Fear, Kadeshi, QuadS, omniconsumer, and everyone else who helped with balance testing.
The community for identifying balance issues, bugs, and providing feedback!

Cloaked: I've been playing and modding the Homeworld series since the early 2000's. When Homeworld Remastered was released I placed 1st and 2nd in many HWR tournaments[web.archive.org]. In June 2015 I was invited to help Gearbox balance HWR. Over the next year I volunteered 1000+ hours as a hobby to help Gearbox balance and test what would become the 2.0/2.1 patches. I ended up working closely with Gearbox's balance designer (scole/thisquietreverie). Many others from the community were involved as well, including Kadeshi, ratamaq, omniconsumer, Hideki, BlackBaps, Alpha_1_SLS, Battlecry, etc.

When the 2.0/2.1 patches were released in June 2016 the changes were simply massive. Many issues that were missed in testing were quickly identified by the community. I identified solutions for the balance issues and provided them to Gearbox to implement in the Patch Previews. Unfortunately Gearbox halted their patch support after the July 2016 2.205 Patch Preview. Initially it appeared we might get a final patch - but it never materialized. Then in 2017 Trebic created a fix for the 666 Formation Bug. This got me motivated to finish the final patch, and create the Players Patch!

Many years later, Gearbox eventually updated Homeworld Remastered from 2016's 2.1 Patch to 2023's 2.303 Patch. This enables multiplayer between Steam and the Epic Games Store. It adds a Banana Mothership mod. This also includes the changes from Gearbox's 2016 2.205 Patch Preview, which was previously only available as an optional Steam beta. Unfortunately it doesn't include any of the hundreds of bug fixes and improvements from the community created Players Patch. However the Players Patch works on the new update for Steam and Epic.