Skorocel

Hello guys, I know this has been posted here already for dozen times, but anyway, is there a solution to that stupid split screen bug WITHOUT having to switch to 8-bit graphics in the main menu? OS: Windows XP Professional SP 3 Graphic card: nVidia GeForce FX5200

Just saw your Tut 1 & want to ask you something about intervals. As far as I understood, the interval condition can be basically used either for the carryall reinforcements or starport deliveries (enemy or player’s), and this especially when you want to make it happen for a certain number of times (say, 4 or 5), right? In other words, if I want to give the enemy/player a CR or SD say, 20 seconds from the start of the level, and want to repeat this action, say, every 30 seconds AND 4 times in total, the values will be as follows: Interval: 1800 Start Delay: 1200 Run Count: 5 Which means that the enemy/player will receive the first CR or SD 20 seconds from the beginning of the level, and then receive another CR or SD after 30 seconds, then another CR or SD after 30 seconds, and so on until the Run Count parameter reaches the value of 5, when the CRs or SDs will finally stop, right? Please correct me if I’m wrong, OK?

@Moonlight AbaSSy: So you have problems with my remake of the O9v1 level? Well, it was intended to be tougher than the original ;-), but anyway, I’d say that this particular remake is easier to beat than the remaining two which I thus far did (i.e. H9v2 and O8v1). I can say that I did beat it on hard difficulty fairly easily… What you basically need to do is to build another 2 refineries right in the beginning + couple of additional harvesters (remember you have 3 carryalls right from the start, so the harvesters should be picked from the spice fields to refineries & vice versa rather quickly). Then build a pretty strong wall of rocket turrets on the left side of the base (somewhere in the place where the Mercenary gun turret is standing in the beginning), and then put a decent number of siege tanks behind it, so that they can repel the attacks of sardaukars & troopers (that’s why I gave you a heavy factory right in the beginning, btw). As for the right side of the Mercenary base (i.e. the place between the two rocket turrets), it’s the same story, but you don’t need to build as many rocket turrets as on the left there as you’ll be attacked mainly by the Smugglers from this side, who maybe receive lots of missile tanks per starport, but they often tend to ignore your turrets and head straight for the Mercenaries & thus are a rather easy target to hit. Also don’t forget to put a decent number of siege tanks near the infantry only area located below the Mercenary outpost, so that no enemy sardaukars or troopers can sneak through it. And, unless you don’t have enough money to build a good defense line of rocket turrets on the upper left side of your base, DON’T build any buildings here (or near this place), as it will be attacked by the Harkonnen. Last but not least, DON’T forget to watch your harvesters! In the beginning of the level, let them all harvest the spice on the right side of the map (just below your base), but be careful as they can be smashed very easily by the Smugglers (who as I mentioned above receive many missile tanks per starport), so when the level starts, scout the whole area on the right side of the map, so you can then later spot the incoming attack on the radar & move the harvesters back to your base just in time. Later in the level, when the spice will be much scarcer, try to send your harvesters in an area where they are LESS prone to be attacked by the enemy (like, for example, the lower left corner of the map, where there’s an infinite spice bloom). Now once you have a good enough defense to protect your base from ALL possible sides of incoming attack AND enough money, build a vast army of combat tanks + missile tanks + quads + troopers & destroy the Smugglers first. Once that’s done, your harvesters should have a pretty easy mining, so amass another xy of spice and destroy the upper Atreides base. After that, you can cut the main Atreides & also the Emperor base from the spice by destroying their harvesters (remember that these 2 bases, contrary to Harkonnen, DON’T receive an automatic harvester reinforcement!). Once that’s done, the level becomes pretty much a piece of cake. As for the Mercenary starport reinforcements, you can change it very easily. Open the Mission editor from the D2K toolkit & then open the O9v1.mis file located in the Dune2000missions folder. If you previously didn’t do any changes to this file, the Mercenary starport reinforcements should be located in the „events“ section, number 36 & 37 (the difference between these 2 events is that in 36, the Mercs will receive the reinforcements a bit sooner than in 37; check the timer to see the exact time, but remember that the time which you see in the editor is multiplied by 60, so if the 36 has a timer of 9000, the real time in seconds will be 9000/60). Now just select either 36 or 37 and, in the menu on the right, you can add or subtract any unit you want. Once you did the desired changes, click on the „Apply“ button & then save the file via the upper left menu.

@mvi: Why there are X & Y coordinates next to a starport delivery? Does it have any bearing or is it completely irrelevant if I put, say X = 29 & Y = 45 or X = 0 & Y = 0? One would think that these X & Y values would point to the exact location of the given starport, but that's not the case. If you open, say, the H6v2 level, you'll see that the the X & Y values for the Ordos starport delivery are 5 & 45, but the actual starport lies somewhere else...

Well, that’s exactly what I did :) Too bad it came to my mind only after I wrote that previous post of mine :) It’s the easiest way, and it works 100 %!

Yes, but as I’ve already said, the problem is, these „finite“ ones aren’t visible on the map at all (I mean when you open a map in the klofkac’s editor, you don’t see them). There’s just spice on the map, but no spice bloom at all. Well, actually, you can see a small “hole” in the spice which seems to be the exact location of these “finite” ones, but even this is not always the case. For example, in the O9v2 level, you have one particular spice field which is located just between your & the Mercenary base, and this spice field has a spice bloom which reappears for some 20 or so times, and then it finally vanishes for good. When you open the map in the klofkac’s editor, you don’t see any “hole” in this spice field at all, but what’s interesting is that all the other spice fields in this level which have these “finite” blooms do have this “hole” (which, as I’ve already said, seems to be in the exact place where these “finite” blooms appear). In the 2 pictures below (taken from the O9v2 level, using the klofkac’s editor), you can see the aforementioned spice field between your & the Mercenary base, and then a spice field located just underneath the Mercenary base, near the left edge of the map. Both of these spice fields have this “finite” bloom, but as you can see, the former doesn’t have any “hole” in it, whilst the latter has.

When playing Dune 2000, you may’ve noticed that some of these „spice blooms“ will continue to reappear forever, whilst some will reappear, say, 15 or 20 times, and then disappear for good. But when you try to use the klofkac’s editor, there are only the „infinite“ ones visible (i.e. the ones which continue to reappear forever), whilst the later aren’t visible on the map at all. Is there a chance to put these on the map?

Plz help someone! I’d like to increase the casualty threshold for Mercenaries in O9v2. What should I do? For the “Mercenary leader: We’re losing too many men!” message: Casualty Threshold = 10 unknown C1 = 224 unknown C2 = 63 For the “Mercenary leader: We’ve lost too many men! We must withdraw our support!” message: Casualty Threshold = 15 unknown C1 = 32 unknown C2 = 64 Do I need to change only the Casualty threshold parameter or also the C1 & C2? What do these C1 & C2 parameters represent? Thanks in advance!

@sandworm & aKaFedaYkin: Stupid me, I take it back! Was too lazy to check the .mis files, you know 8) You’re both right about the Mercs. They indeed ally with the other houses when the casualties grow, so if the Harkonnen or Atreides decide to destroy their base, it’s actually good for the player, as it draws their attention away for a minute or two… Re: the stealth fremen & saboteurs, they of course get spotted by the infantry, but what I meant is that they also get “visible” when walking near an LI / trooper / sardaukar who belong to a house which is ALLIED to them. That’s what I found weird on it… If they’re allied with these units, why should they reveal themselves, isn’t it?

Didn’t know where to post this, but anyway, here are 2 "new things" which somehow got my attention when playing the D2K recently: 1. Why do the enemy stealth fremen appear “visible” when walking near the infantry units from the other enemy clans? Seems weird, isn’t it? 2. Also, in the levels where the Ordos play together with the Mercs, why, once you get that message: „We’ve lost too many men! We must withdraw our support!”, do the Mercs let their base to be destroyed by the other clans, which are supposed to be “neutral” to the Mercs? As far as I understand, the Mercs become “neutral” to all houses whilst all houses become “neutral” to Mercs as well WHEN this message appears, but what’s pretty common is that, by the time of this message, the Mercs are fighting against this or that house’s unit (or some house’s unit is about to attack their base or unit), but what’s strange is that they, once being attacked, don’t respond to the enemy fire at all (i.e. they still consider the attackers as “neutral”, whilst the attackers certainly don’t consider the Mercs to be “neutral”). They simply won’t do anything and will let their base to be destroyed without firing one single shot at the attackers… I mean it’s OK when they, once they become “neutral” to you and all the other houses, stop receiving those Starport deliveries (which is perfectly understandable as it would be of no use to them when they aren’t fighting with anyone anymore), but this is strange… If they become “neutral” to you and you, by an accident, attack them, they’ll automatically become your enemies (which is logical), but when they’re attacked by the other clans, they’ll ignore their fire…

@Vota dc: I don’t think A combat tank is bad at all. It has better armor than OCT & is quicker than HCT both in movement & rate of fire. In other words, it’s somewhere in the middle between OCT & HCT. I personally like it a lot more than the OCT, which is pretty much good for running over the infantry & revealing the map, rather than for fighting. @aKaFedaYkin: I still think the Deviator sux (at least in campaign play). It’s totally useless against buildings & infantry, expensive, slow to move & fire, pretty easy to destroy, and, what’s perhaps the worst: it often MISFIRES (i.e. it has to fire more than once in order to successfully change the target’s allegiance).

Man, didn't notice that at all! After playing Dune 2000 for some 13 years, that really sucks, huh? :) Always thought the Ordos combat tanks are just quicker in terms of movement, not in terms of rate of fire. Btw, does it also have the same gun & damage as has H & A combat tank? I'm too lazy to check that up in TibEd, you know ;)

@mvi: Does the TibEd also allow you to change what units can the given house BUILD? For example, it’d be good to give the Ordos a chance to build missile tanks (since they can only order them per starport). Instead, they can only build deviators, which are more or less suitable for one & only thing: stealing the enemy harvesters. Not to mention the fact that the Ordos also have the weakest combat tanks of all 3 houses... With such poor armor, one can only guess if the Westwood intended to use them more as an exploring unit rather than a fighting unit :D Which version of TibEd did you use to change that harvester’s properties? Also, which game files will the change affect? I mean, did you back up some files prior to making that change, and if so, which ones were it? The authors of TibEd themselves say that the game may sometimes render unstable if you try to edit it, so I’m just asking this in case something goes wrong... I’m interested in extending the firing range of the sonic tank, just to see how it is to be attacked by a 10 m long sonic wave, LOL :)

The Mercs can bring up a strong army even without light factory / barracks / additional starport units - it's just that they (in most of the cases) spend their units rather quickly, without thinking too much about protecting their base. Would be cool if you could give them a some sort of order which would make them attack the enemy bases only if they had, say, at least 50 units, AND with, say, a maximum of 20 units (i.e. 20 units would go outside for hunt, whilst the remaining 30 would protect the base). Speaking about the AI, btw, I've noticed that sometimes the enemy can make pretty strange things. For example their harvesters: normally, the enemy would have 2 harvesters per refinery (i.e. if he has, say, 2 refineries, he will have no more than 4 harvesters at any time, and if you destroy him one, he will quickly rebuild it, if you destroy him 2, he will rebuild 2, etc.) But sometimes, he'd, for some unknown reason, simply order 5 harvesters per starport, even if he has just 2 refineries (and therefore 4 harvesters to go with it).

@mvi: Thank you very much for these links, but I'm afraid I won't become any hex editor ace anytime soon, firstly because (as you may've noticed from my previous post to sandworm) I'm just too lazy to do any research, and secondly because I've ALWAYS sucked at maths or anything of that kind :(