Release: Dune 2000 Rise of the Mercenaries Demo

[Gruntlord6]

I am extremely pleased to announce the release of the latest patch for Dune 2000: Gruntmods Edition. A great deal of work went into polishing this release, from the reworking of the patch system, to the new Launcher, to the included expansion pack "Rise of the Mercenaries", which includes 3 new missions designed to allow the player to play as the Mercenaries in their quest for glory and power.

 

Included in this patch:

-Cleaned up installation directory, redundant or unnecessary files have been removed

-Desktop shortcut is now fixed to point to the new launcher

-Added support for playing as subhouses with MVI's Sub House fix (essential for playing the new expansion)

-Added option to install .net framework 3.5 after main installer has finished (essential for using D2K+)

-Added option to install updated D2K+ components, the very same public toolkit used to create the expansion

 

And of course, I will expand on the new features that are specific to the expansion itself.

 

The expansion utilizes the feature set of the D2K+ toolkit to a large extent, not only adding new menus and missions, but also adding functionality to the existing menus, such as the ability to choose the difficulty of the Mission Select menu directly. The files used in the expansion are all unique, meaning that it will not conflict with other mods unless they modify the core files of the game (such as a menu or string entry).

 

You play as the commander of the Mercenaries, instructed by a cold and ruthless leader who only communicates by electronic messages. As you are not one of the great houses, your access to Dune is extremely limited, as you are only allowed to assist the great houses in their conquest of the planet, and are forbidden from harvesting the valuable spice it possesses. You are tasked with secretly taking control of key parts of the planet and launching an assault against the other houses, allowing you to gain your houses independence and control of the entire planet. You have your work cut out for you, as the other houses are extremely suspicious of your presence...

 

This demo will feature the 1st mission out of the total 3 available in the final release. As this is a demo for when the full release is ready, expect us to leverage the power of the new game launcher (fondly named by our programmer as "Old Spice") to update the game rapidly as new bugs are fixed and functionality is added. The game launcher is able to verify the version of the game you have installed, as well as download and install updates when available, which will be key for future endeavors, such as our eventual plans for online play.

 

You will need to have the Gruntmods Edition installed in order to play this expansion (or even run the patch that contains it). If you have other mods installed, they have likely replaced core game files and will probably make the game unstable at the very least, so it is recommended you uninstall these before running this patch. If you are a mod developer, look forward to an instructional guide being released showing how you can create a similar campaign compatible with not only this expansion, but all other mods.

 

Images:

 

Downloads:
Dune 2000: Gruntmods Edition version 1.6

Combined update to version 1.6.1 for older versions of the Gruntmods Edition

Patch 1.6.1 (Includes Rise of the Mercenaries Demo)

[athanasios]

That's great!

Can you provide a portable version? I hate installers.

[THE AQIB]

Nice Gruntlord 6 now i can see how good you are at Dune 2000..  8)

[Gruntlord6]

That's great!

Can you provide a portable version? I hate installers.

Give it a chance, I wrote every line of code myself, there is no bloat. Its a quick and simple installation and uninstallation.

[Gruntlord6]

Combined patch installer added to post, we are programming an update to support 32 bit users.

[THE AQIB]

the game is good especially when Oreos suddenly well you know.. I'm not killing any suspense.. but it's the same thing allover again..

demo release should showcase the best of your mod..

the game feels like a Westwood classic..

Rerelease the demo mission or go for your final mod when it's complete..

keep it up..

bring the change..

[perefese]

impresive ;o

[Gruntlord6]

the game is good especially when Oreos suddenly well you know.. I'm not killing any suspense.. but it's the same thing allover again..

demo release should showcase the best of your mod..

the game feels like a Westwood classic..

Rerelease the demo mission or go for your final mod when it's complete..

keep it up..

bring the change..

The whole point of the mod was to expand on the base game, its supposed to feel like a Westwood mission.

[Gruntlord6]

impresive ;o

I am glad you think so!

[Galaxy]

So when will the missions be released too?

[Gruntlord6]

So when will the missions be released too?

I'm already done the second mission, I just have to design the 3rd and finish the guide I am making.

In short, as soon as its done.

[athanasios]

I have 32bit W7 on a 64bit machine and launcher dosn't work. Let me load the dune2000.exe.

-

It crashes! When Ordos turn against them I get a "too many deliveries" error.

-

Also you wrote: dessert. Yummy!!!

[THE AQIB]

I'm already done the second mission, I just have to design the 3rd and finish the guide I am making.

In short, as soon as its done.

Well one major problem you have is in game mission briefing is for Atriedes Mission 1..

Try fixing this..

Because by the time i Destroyed Emperor I forgot what was written.. 

If you want i'll tell you a method I did to fix this..

 

It's like make the mission number from 1 to 10..

Then the map and mis files should be renamed to :

*a10v1.map

*a10v1.mis

Then create the file ig_a10mis.uil based on ig_a9mis.uil, create variables in text.uib to write in the new InGame Objectives..

Then when you activate game change the map to a10v1, change mission number to 10..

And if everything works there will be your ingame mission briefing in there..

Same way do for the rest but make them 11,12 etc..

 

It worked for me so i'm passing on this info to you..

Only one problem you'll face is after every mission it'll go into atriedes end video and credits comes up..

This is due to the fact that it has been written down after 9th mission there will bw no more missions..

Also if you want i'll give you an expansion shell for Dune 2000 which I have made..

Keep up the good work.. I had fun with Ordos the second time.. 8)  :P

[Gruntlord6]

Well one major problem you have is in game mission briefing is for Atriedes Mission 1..

Try fixing this..

Because by the time i Destroyed Emperor I forgot what was written.. 

If you want i'll tell you a method I did to fix this..

 

It's like make the mission number from 1 to 10..

Then the map and mis files should be renamed to :

*a10v1.map

*a10v1.mis

Then create the file ig_a10mis.uil based on ig_a9mis.uil, create variables in text.uib to write in the new InGame Objectives..

Then when you activate game change the map to a10v1, change mission number to 10..

And if everything works there will be your ingame mission briefing in there..

Same way do for the rest but make them 11,12 etc..

 

It worked for me so i'm passing on this info to you..

Only one problem you'll face is after every mission it'll go into atriedes end video and credits comes up..

This is due to the fact that it has been written down after 9th mission there will bw no more missions..

Also if you want i'll give you an expansion shell for Dune 2000 which I have made..

Keep up the good work.. I had fun with Ordos the second time.. 8)  :P

I knew how to fix the issue, I already noted that myself, its just not worth the effort for the result. 

For the curious here are the issues I know of:

 Issue: When mission is failed, player is dumped to the Atredies mission 1 map select screen.

This is an issue with the workaround being used in the menu system to load the mission. To work around the issue, simply exit the map select menu and either load a saved game or start a new Mercenary campaign and select the mission you would like to retry.

 

Issue: In game options menu briefing displays the briefing for Atredies mission 1. This is also an issue with the workaround being used in the menu system to load the mission. Simply ignore the options menu briefing and refer to the briefing screen before the mission.

 

Issue: When a mission is completed, the player is dumped into the Atredies map screen for the next mission.

Another issue caused by the way the menu system is used to load the missions. To work around the issue, simply exit the map select menu and either load a saved game or start a new Mercenary campaign and select the mission you would like to retry.

[Gruntlord6]

I have 32bit W7 on a 64bit machine and launcher dosn't work. Let me load the dune2000.exe.

-

It crashes! When Ordos turn against them I get a "too many deliveries" error.

-

Also you wrote: dessert. Yummy!!!

 

Thanks for letting me know, although the picture wasn't needed. You get "too many deliveries" at that part of the mission? 

 

As for the launcher, we are working on a 32 bit version, but it shouldn't crash, it should be telling you the game isn't installed (which is what we are fixing). Which version of .net framework do you have installed? If possible, could you screenshot the error message the launcher gives you?

[athanasios]

Oh, maybe I was not clear. No the launcher didn't crash. The game crashed with the deliveries error. Now I played the game 2 more times. The second I tried to be faster. Again it crashed the same time. The third I had already almost eliminated Ordos before they became enemies (left a harvester) so there was nobody to attack me. It didn't crash. And I let it play for very long to see if it would crash later when I had a huge army on the map. It didn't and I got bored and killed the harvester. ;-)

You have that drop down of stealth raders. How many does the carryall drops? Maybe they are to many and you should use a second carryall? Or simultaneous dropdowns cause mess? I cannot think of anything else.

[Gruntlord6]

Oh, maybe I was not clear. No the launcher didn't crash. The game crashed with the deliveries error. Now I played the game 2 more times. The second I tried to be faster. Again it crashed the same time. The third I had already almost eliminated Ordos before they became enemies (left a harvester) so there was nobody to attack me. It didn't crash. And I let it play for very long to see if it would crash later when I had a huge army on the map. It didn't and I got bored and killed the harvester. ;-)

You have that drop down of stealth raders. How many does the carryall drops? Maybe they are to many and you should use a second carryall? Or simultaneous dropdowns cause mess? I cannot think of anything else.

honestly that error only appears if there's too many carryalls appearing at once. I will try splitting the stealth raider into 2 shipments and see if you can try that out. Thanks for the heads up!

[THE AQIB]

honestly that error only appears if there's too many carryalls appearing at once. I will try splitting the stealth raider into 2 shipments and see if you can try that out. Thanks for the heads up!

I didn't have any crash..

I played it perfectly..

I captured emperor's base for producing sardaukars..

Defeating Ordos was tough so in the beginning of the mission I accumulated a lot of force and I send half into ordos base and other half to attack others..

This allowed me to impair them before they actually attacked..

[Gruntlord6]

I didn't have any crash..

I played it perfectly..

I captured emperor's base for producing sardaukars..

Defeating Ordos was tough so in the beginning of the mission I accumulated a lot of force and I send half into ordos base and other half to attack others..

This allowed me to impair them before they actually attacked..

If you play it the same way he did do you get the error?

[athanasios]

honestly that error only appears if there's too many carryalls appearing at once. I will try splitting the stealth raider into 2 shipments and see if you can try that out. Thanks for the heads up!

Check the timinings also that enemy and player's carryalls do not coincide.

[Gruntlord6]

Check the timinings also that enemy and player's carryalls do not coincide.

I don't think that's the issue either, as at most there are 6 carryalls going on at once. I'm really curious about why this is happening though, are you using any other mods?

[THE AQIB]

If you play it the same way he did do you get the error?

no error whatsoever..

[Feda]

Every time I got that error, it was caused by the game sending INFINITE carryal drops. That happens because of the condition. The best way to explain this is through examples:

So lets say I wanna have reinforcements after I kill emperor palace. If the only condition i put is "BuildingExists = checked", the game will send infinite carryals because theres nothing to tell it to stop. Also it sends them all at the same time which causes the crash. Thats why in that situation I'd need to use "SetCondition" event and a DummyCondition to make it stop once one drop has occured.

If u want a drop as soon as the game starts, putting "Timer=1" is enough since the timer variable will increase instantly and the reinforcements wont be spammed because the event doesnt meet the requirements anymore.

Ill try to look at your specific error when I get time but before try what I told u: using SetCondition and DummyCondition

[THE AQIB]

Every time I got that error, it was caused by the game sending INFINITE carryal drops. That happens because of the condition. The best way to explain this is through examples:

So lets say I wanna have reinforcements after I kill emperor palace. If the only condition i put is "BuildingExists = checked", the game will send infinite carryals because theres nothing to tell it to stop. Also it sends them all at the same time which causes the crash. Thats why in that situation I'd need to use "SetCondition" event and a DummyCondition to make it stop once one drop has occured.

If u want a drop as soon as the game starts, putting "Timer=1" is enough since the timer variable will increase instantly and the reinforcements wont be spammed because the event doesnt meet the requirements anymore.

Ill try to look at your specific error when I get time but before try what I told u: using SetCondition and DummyCondition

I know but why didn't the error occur for me??

I downloaded the earlier two..

it works awesome..

@gruntlord6:

I'm looking forward to your other missions..

[Nuclear_harvester]

yes , a  huge fleet of carryals   spam the map and soon or sooner error ccomes up.    there must be something to   allow limited amount of carryals to come not hordes. and notthing stop the carryal coming up.