garth

Just thought I'd make a not-so-triumphant return from my self-imposed exile. Ok, cya in 6 more years.

I always thought of the sandtrout to being comparable to frog spawn. Frogs lay hundreds of eggs in a huge mass, but in the sandworms case rather than about 9/10 of them dying they would merge together to form a baby worm.

I think its important for a country like France to be a permanent member on the Security Council to lend some balance to the decision making process. A voice like theirs urges the cautious path that doesnt just jump right into a situation with all guns blazing. Also, keep in mind that the Security Council is not designed to wage war, it is designed to maintain peace. That includes diplomacy first and foremost with war as a last result.

Well, in France's defense, their culture has set the standard for such things as quality food, drink, and launguage. The United States on the other hand, has degraded to the point of openly embracing the McDonald's philosophy of "Quantity over Quality." As an American, I feel my countrymen have too low of standards for their products and should look to Europe for guidance on this.

Yeh, hard to believe I'm even *this* active after over 3 years in the Dune community.

I think Paul realized what he was doing was wrong ie. the Jihad because after the stoneburner made him blind he came back as the Preacher and preached against the very religion he created. So maybe he saw an alternate path in the future than what his son chose to pursue that would have led to the survival of humanity.

I think the Butler family is gonna be wiped out (die as martyrs) and whoever takes their place as head of the League of Nobles will carry on the fight against machines to their victory at the Battle of Corrin.

It's on page 6 of the general discussion forum, I pity any newbie who would have to wade through all those pages of forum posts to discover a gem like this game.

If you're interested in playing a free game that involves making your own country and molding it to a political philosophy of your choosing, I highly recommend Nation States. It only takes an email address to play (you wont be spammed either, only to verify your account) and you can sign up at www.nationstates.net I've set up a region for fellow Dune fans called Galactic Imperium, which currently has 3 Houses. You're welcome to join anytime, my nation's name is House Komnenus if you want to private message me in game. Hope to see some people join us :)

According to Duke Leto Atreides there were very very few commodities that werent within reach of CHOAM's grasp.

Wow, member #6, its good to see you back Mechadragon, old timer :)

It's good to see so much information on CoD in one place, makes hunting around a lot easier.

Has anyone heard how much money they have to work with this time around? Hopefully more than the 20 million last time.

The Butlerian Jihad is my favorite of all the prequels so far. Erasmus is a really interesting character, and I looked forward to every chapter in which he was involved. Trying to figure out what made him tick and how he came to be the way he was was a lot of fun. My favorite quote in the book is from Tio Holtzman after that failed experiment causes the roof of his testing laboratory to crash, killing dozens of slaves and he remarks "At least no one was hurt." I'm looking forward to finding out the origins of House Corrino and what family wins the battle of Corrin to establish themselves as rulers for over 10,000 years.

Prince Farad'n Corrino and Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

My mistake, I forgot about the books.

The only thing Dune that has been financially successful (recently) is the miniseries. I'm sure theres plenty of companies circling like vultures waiting for their opportunity to grab the Dune license at a rock bottom price.

Things are looking really, really bad for DG now, it would be a miracle if the game was continued. The biggest shame is that this game has the greatest potential to be a game worthy of the name "Dune".

I agree about the distribution of the houses, I predict there will be very few trade houses and mostly fighters, with mercs probably in between the two extremes. The game is definitely geared towards an RTS, 2 of house types concentrate almost exlusively on the military and the trader military isnt exactly a pushover either. I hope that with their small numbers, the trader houses will be able to carve out an exclusive market for supplying the funds to grease the wheels of the war machines that will probably drive the game. I certainly hope there is no intervention by GMs or moderators if a house becomes too powerful, there should be limits programmed into the game to begin with, not on the fly arbitration by the GMs.

Yup. I added in that feature a few days ago.

The Ixians are like CHOAM, the Bene Tleilaxu, and the Bene Gesserit. They are not a Great House, but a Confederacy (so sayeth Dune Messiah hehe :))

I liked the miniseries better because it was closer to the book.

I started the tanks debate thread, I still have a copy of the first post I made on it ;D

The dev team would be shooting itself in the foot if they restricted the game to cable/dsl. As I've said on the DG forums, I don't believe internet gaming should be for the elite of this world only.

"Everything I've ever learned says the generals ended the war, the politicians wanted to keep it going." That's wrong, Luddendorf wanted to continue the war and after the politicians pushed him to surrender he went home to Germany and started pushing the idea of the "stab in the back theory": the civilians had betrayed Germany's war effort. This idea was very popular and helped propel Hitler into power. "Seeng as the Russians were knocked out of the war by 1915 most of the soldeirs on theeastern front were already in the western trenches, and the allies had numerical superiority including the Germans fighting the Russians." I don't know where you're getting these dates, the treaty that ended the war between Germany and Russia was signed on March 1918. Russia was fighting all the way up to then, just not under the Tsar's govt, who abdicated in 1917. "When the British attacked with one hundred tanks and completly rolled over the Germans, that was when the Germans realized they wre screwed. " November 21, 1917 - Battle of Cambrai starts November 23, 1917 - British advanced checked in violent battle of Bourloun Wood Here's a quote from a German officer about the tanks: "Armoured vehicles have entered the village, it is found that they are able to conquer ground but not hold it. In the narrow streets and alleyways they have no free feield for their fire, and their movements are hemmed in on all sides. The terror they have spread amongst us disappears. We get to know their weak spots. A ferocious passion for hunting them down is growing. We tie several grenades together and make them explode beneath the tanks." (Martin Gilbert's The First World War, pages 380-381) He's a british author also. So much for the German Army running in terror from the tanks LOL! "In the actual battles the Americans were no differnt than British or French troops, machine gun fodder." Exactly, they were cannon fodder that were simply overwhelming the Germans with superior numbers. The Americans certainly helped win the war because before their arrival it was a stalemate, then as soon as they arrived things swung in the Allies' favor. "The allies already ahd numerical superiority." Actually the numbers on the western front were surprisingly balanced, which is why it became a stalemate. But once again, the Germans had troops ready to pour onto the front from the east. "The American arrival probably made the Germans morale go down a lot and may ahve helped them to decide to surrender when they did, but they would have surrendered anyway within a month or so." Not so, as I have already proven those veteran troops hadn't had time to arrive on the Western Front. I agree absolutely the the American arrival caused the German's morale to go down, but more importantly it broke the spirit of the German civilian.