Role: Mothership
Attack: 120
Speed: 40
Hit Points: 200,000
Production Slots: 4
Module Slots: 5
Sensors Slots: 1
Armament:
8 x Hull Defense Guns (gimbal)
4 x Side Hull Defense Guns (gimbal)

Production Subsystems:
Fighter Facility: RU 250
Corvette Facility: RU 500
Frigate Facility: RU 600
Capital Class Facility: RU 500

Module Subsystems:
Research Module: RU 750
Advanced Research Module: RU 1500
Platform Controller: RU 500
Hyperspace Module: RU 500
Gravity Well Generator: RU 750
Cloak Generator: RU 3000
Fire Control Tower: RU 1500
Hyperspace Inhibitor: ?

Sensors Subsystems:
Hyperspace Sensors: RU 1000
Cloak Sensors: RU 1000
Advanced Array: RU 1000

Upgrades:
Anti-Mover Weaponry: 500 RU
Lvl 1 Mothership Hull: 500 RU
Lvl 1 Mothership Engines: 500 RU
Imp. Manufacturing: 2500 RU
Hyperspace 1: 1000 RU
HS Rec. 1: 500 RU

Work has begun on the second Mothership. The Hyperspace core which is the mark of their heritage has been removed from storage and brought to the Tanis shipyard for final integration. The Fleet has been prepared. The people are ready though nervous. In order to claim the peace and safety she promised her people when she first set foot upon Hiigara, Karan S'Jet must once again prepare for war.

The Pride of Hiigara is the largest Mothership vessel ever built by the Hiigarans. Deep within lies the original Hyperspace Core that took the Exiles from Kharak to Hiigara. It can produce and build nearly all ships in the Hiigaran Navy, and has ample slots available for the numerous ability subsystems available to the Fleet.

The Pride of Hiigara is a new Mothership, one that was built at the secret naval base in the Tanis Derelict. The old Mothership -- the one that carried the exiles from Kharak -- remained in orbit around Hiigara for many years after the return of the exiles. Shown here in its berth at Tanis, the Pride of Hiigara is outfitted with the latest technology and some experimental systems. Although the Mothership is not yet complete, our story begins with its emergency launch when Tanis' location is compromised. The Tanis Derelict, a part of the ancient and enormous Progenitor Empire, provided a natural berth for the new Mothership's secret construction. 

The Pride of Hiigara was designed by Karan S'jet during the voyage from Kharak to Hiigara. In essence, the Mothership became her body, and she immediately perceived inefficiencies, design flaws, and other shortcomings of the original design. Thus, she began work on a new design for a future Mothership during that trek across the galaxy.

"The mothership's functions will be entirely up to you. It's through subsystem creation that you grant powers to her." - Dan Irish, Executive Producer

"All ships except supercapital and mothership class ships can be built by the mothership." - Dan Irish, Executive Producer

"Hard core players will definitely enjoy and understand a few of the ship design concepts from Homeworld, like the distinctive vertical mothership, but there are also several new ship designs to grab their attention as well." - Dan Irish, Executive Producer

"Okay... regarding Motherships... There will be a playable mothership in Homeworld2 single player, and a playable mothership for each race in multiplayer... There's a couple of things you should know about this though... First off, the motherships will be distinctively different based upon the strength of the race... As well, there is only one playable race in Homeworld2 single player but the game will ship with 2 playable races for multiplayer..."  - Alex Garden, Relic CEO

"We have been told that the Mothership will also have some more powerful weapons of its own in Homeworld2 (it won’t just have wimpy anti-fighter guns)." - John Callaham, HomeLan Fed

"The mothership remains the core of unit production and the economy, but we have included alternatives to ship production. The Hiigarans' technology has advanced significantly over the years, and they're now able to construct capital ships and strike craft in other ships. These are the carriers and a new unit, the shipyard." - Dan Irish, Executive Producer

"The mothership is central but certainly not the only unit that will affect a player's production and economy. Some ships will be better at managing resources operations, while others will have better production capabilities." - Josh Mosquiera, Lead Designer

"Along with a phalanx of new ships to play with, the basic mothership designs are getting a touch of spit and shine, visually remaining similar but having their functions beefed up immeasurably. Although you still only get one to play with in the single-player game, multiplayer will open up distinctively varied motherships depending on the race." - PCZone UK

"On each ship that can build vessels, there will be slots for subsystems now. These are broken down into three classes: production subsystems that build ships, innate subsystems such as resourcing and engines, and ability subsystems that take care of cloaking and extra sensors. While the Mothership will be able to build everything, carriers and shipyards will have to choose which systems they bring to the table. You can't build everything. Perhaps even more important is that these individual subsystems can be destroyed. It won't be easy, but they take a while to rebuild and are worth a thought when it comes to your mid-battle target decisions. When all is done, you'll be able to both right click on the actual systems themselves or right click and hold for a list of subsystems that you can choose from." - Dan Adams, IGN PC

"When the player starts a game, all of these slots will be empty, so if a player wants to build fighters, he or she will have to build a fighter subsystem. But building isn't the only thing you can do with subsystems. So if you wanted a cloak detecting sensor you can build that, but again, you have a limited number of slots so you have to be careful what you choose." - Josh Mosquiera, Lead Designer

"The introduction of subsystems adds new and interesting tactical depth to Homeworld 2's research system. Players will be able to build key modules to customize their larger ships. Some sample subsystems include fighter production bays, fire control towers, and cloaking generators. Of course, players can target these subsystems, allowing them to perform surgical strikes on their enemy's fleet. If your opponent keeps building assault corvettes, take out his or her corvette facilities to give your bombers free rein." - Josh Mosquiera, Lead Designer

The newest images (top group at right) show a very different version of the new Hiigaran mothership than the older PCGamer batch. While it still retains the familiar vertical "banana" shape, it now seems very clear that this is a completely new vehicle, distinct from the Kushan mothership from the first Homeworld. Among other details, this mothership does not have the midsection "hump" of the original, nor the topside "dent" with its antennae and bridge-lights; this version adds a number of new details, the most prominent of which is a very large port-side door section. Note also the numeric designation "02", perhaps suggesting that the original was "01". Dan Irish also referred to it as "the new Mothership" in the March AVault interview (credit to oXo for spotting that), and fiction on the official site refers to it as the "second" mothership.

The untextured yellow "bumps" seen on the older mothership shots are unfinished Subsystem modules. You can see in more recent shots (nearer the top) that they have been replaced by detailed geometry. They are individually visible and targetable by enemy forces. If in the final version of the game they are graphically distinct (as they were on the Command Ship in Cataclysm), then an enemy may be able to tell what systems you have built just by looking at your Mothership. 

Click here to compare this mothership with that from the first game.