jack9

Certainly wont be the firebat...whoops, I meant "Harkonnen Flame Thrower Infantry"

It's easy to predict how a game will be. I've played a LOT of games and waited to play a LOT of games, through year and development stages. The intricacies of the game are by and far less important than the fundamentals that we find out at the get go. What it looks like. What the control is like. What archetypes (spin, stereotype, choose your synonym...) the units and models are based on. What colors for gods sake. Who the players are. How many can play. The hardware requirements. The third party involvement. RA2 (which I have) EXACTLY illustrates my point. The specifics of the game...balance and actual play...do not affect it's market value as much as the fact that it is basically C&C. Looks like RA2 units are bigger too...but I dont play C&C so I wouldnt know. Every company who has released a 3D game thinks they have calculated and schemed long enough to put out a great if not revolutionary title. They have been wrong insofar as we are talking about 3D RTS. Homeworld, TA, TA:K, Sacrifice, Citizen Kabuto, etc. These are all flash in the pans that of course garnered a small hardcore fanbase (you inevitably end up with a couple hundred ppl who LOVE most any game, with the sheer number of people that the computer market caters to), but dont have the serious numbers that are required. TA (i keep thinking tits and ass, i mean Total Annihilation) _still_ has a larger fanbase than the newbies Sacrifice/Kabuto. When looking at a rendered RTS game, ppl instantly feel uneasy because of something having to do with perspective (no, I dont know specifically why or I would be a millionaire). When you solve that visual problem, you will win the marketshare. Emperor has not solved the unmentionable problem, only rearranged the basic 3D RTS formula. Business as usual.

The Sardaukar are not a house.

Oh yes, let's not forget another huge feature that westwood continues to ignore - ip_masqing. I have a cable modem with 8 computers connected. If I were at work or some other arbitrary place with multiple comps thru 1 IP, we cannot play. Period. Some games on WON.net suffer from this as well (*cough* Vampire *cough*), which contributes to the unpopularity of these specific westwood games. Blizzard has always supported masq'd ip's which is another reason it continues to be popular. You cant run C&C from the average korean computer/coffee shop because of this.

I dont think I have to spell it out...how fecal matter retains moisture...mostly water - but here it goes (I had mirrored this from bored.com a LONG time ago) http://24.0.197.44/mirrors/scoop_on_poop.html

At some point a planet must ACCEPT Imperial rule or be ORDAINED as a fief. Either way, it is annexed, as all property is by a ruling social organization.

On a related note, the more I hear about Warcraft III, the worse I like it. Oh hell, I've never heard anything about Warcraft III that I have liked at all. Perhaps the similarity between the screenshots of WC3 and E-BFD can be said to be comparable.

The logical point of needing to be awarded a fief by an Emperor is misinterpreted. When the planet was annexed into the Imperium, I would think that the 'royal bloodline' that was in power on that planet(fief), would have been designated the 'house' for a number of reasons and to contribute to the stability of the empire.

ew. Secondly, there is no link to the forums on the main pg. tsk tsk. Also, that #566 is not mine. Doesnt even make sense =p 566.You have a tshirt that reads "I went to Geidi Prime and all I got was this stupid heartplug." 567.You have a bumper sticker that says "Tleilaxians do it in more ways than you could ever imagine." 568.You have a harvester bumper sticker that says "If you can read this, get off my spice field." 569.You have a sticker that reads "My Tleilax student can kill your student and you would never know." 570.If it weren't for Dune, you'd have to get a real day job. 571.You have a sticker that reads "Ixians do it with pleasure enhancers."

The program is a well done compiliation of resources regarding all the known information about Dune3 with lots of detail and images and some extra stuff. Well done (although have your resolution set to over 800x600). It didnt crash my machine or do any Bad Things to it. Glad I tried it.

547. You stop reading Ordos45's reasons because yourself a connoisseur of this list. (umpteen subtle variations on the same idea dont count) 548. You have shoes made to conserve water, specifically using catchpockets for footsweat. 549. When you go to the beach you irk everyone because you insist on cleaning the sand off yourself by hand. Why waste the water? 550. You drink seawater because, although it's bitter, it's free. 551. You actually know how to distill water from blood. 552. When someone calls you on picking your nose, you claim you are recycling your body's fluids. 553. You have memorized all the fremen fonts on the net, in case one of them is real. 554. You have an opinion on how Leto got Duncan to destroy all of the Harkonnen's spice reserves in Dune. 555. You wont watch Return of the Jedi without commenting on how the first part is such a ripoff of dune. 556. You design a complex Dune game that takes you more than 2 weeks, just to get the first draft of the rules down. 557. Your computer network consists of hosts named after Dune characters. 558. You have a spoofed IRC host of @dune.0wns.you.com on EFnet 559. You registered dune2k.com 560. You scoff at people who put cinnamon in their food as if it was spice. You have the real stuff, but you cant show anyone because the government is listening to your brainwaves. Shhh. 561. If it wasn't for Frank Herbert, you wouldnt have ever became an environmentalist. You probably wouldnt have gone to jail for cutting down palm trees either. 562. You got that one. 563. You insist that your girlfriend only bear daughters. 564. You move to Utah because of their lenience toward polygamy. 565. You are the only doctor in the emergency room with a tattoo on their forehead. 566. At times you arRe:Top 1000 ways to tell your too into Dune

I think Westwood is way good. I can still remember renting the Genesis Dune2 for days so that I could beat it will all 3 factions. I bought Dune2k the first day it came out. I think it's sad that the programmers had to call further Dune games C&C. It has been awhile since kids have been exposed to Dune until the SciFi miniseries hype. I think Westwood games vary from ok to good. Blade Runner, C&C, ok...monopoly too ^^ are all favorites of mine. I have nothing against Westwood or Dune games, but Emperor is DOA.

The CCG was made by a child company of WotC that WotC "aquired", called Last Unicorn Games. The actual title of the CCG is Dune : The Eye of the Storm It aint too bad. Much like the Babylon 5 game, Guild decks dominate 1:1 games, and group games are much much much more fair and fun. There has been 1 expansion last time I checked (a few years ago) called "Judge of the Change". Some excellent informational links follow: http://www.lastunicorngames.com/ (basically gutted to nothing) http://www.mzhome.dk/Dune/design_old/design.htm http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/5665/dune.htm

I'm a BIG fan of Dune and Dune games in general. Dune Emperor is obviously (like most 3D strategy games) going to fall flat on its face. The graphics are silly at best and I have serious misgivings about the playability from what I've seen and heard. At first, I didnt even bother reading about Emperor Dune because of the way people and game makers and TV have seriously treated the story. It seemed like the pitfalls of many other liscences (like say...Rebellion, Quake Xmen, etc) would rightly pass Dune by. In short, I had GREAT faith in the gaming industry to continue to create quality games for the Dune universe. What do I find when I look at Emperor in more depth? Tragic. I am sad to see a hyped-up Dune game such an imminent failure. They should cut their losses and scrap it. Sure it may sell ok for the first month or two but I guarantee it will suffer the same fate as Vampire and Metal Fatigue. Very short lived popularity and severely disappointing sales. Not to be a troll, but this is my opinion and I've been around since before there were modems so I consider it worth mentioning. I cant be the _only_ one who has misgivings.

I have a firewall. I run my entire network and my firewall of course. When trying to connect multiplayer through the internet I watch the network traffic. First, Dune2000 talks to westwood's IRC server. No problem. It says I need to upgrade, even though I've already installed the 1.06 patch and it works correctly in Multiplayer. Then it tries to contact an ftp server (to get the update I figure) which is what seems to be returning the nosuchfile. Now I bought Dune2000 YEARS ago, when it first came out (I've been a fan of Dune2 since before warcraft). Perhaps it's login/pass (or the filename it's looking for) is expired or something. I wish I could get the WW Communicator and discuss w/ people already on Westwood Online ^^