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well, if you figure it out again, I'm curious how changing that graphic works! TibEd is entirely replaced and on many levels surpassed by Klofkac's editor. you'll be pleasantly surprised when you have a look, I'm sure

no idea about that, mate ^^ I could show ya how to apply the repeat queue system to any mission though, if that helps

naww, APC logic ain't a thing. probably possible to design somehow with the new systems, but we do have custom airlift unit behavior. you can give Carryalls new behaviors easily that way, like automatically helping vehicles cross impassable cliffs. the 'terrain restriction' behavior used on the new hovertech units can apply to a flying-type unit too, allowing traversal of cliffs and stuff. however, due to game logic, they can't pass over tiles with other units or structures in them, so... theoretically, it's feasible to make a "low flying" air unit that could navigate any kinda terrain, but not go over buildings and stuff. or something. maybe we get more proper flying unit logic later who knows lol

oh yeah, we interact with those folks! they asked us for some of our new art assets a while back. we've ported over a couple they've made for OpenRA-based projects, but I'm not sure they've seen too much use yet. I worked personally with the prior dev on the Cameo project, who did stuff like this (streamable links expire eventually, so for posterity I'll just say this is a Terran v Protoss game in the OpenRA engine on the Tiberian Dawn temperate tileset I played back when I was testing bruv's new-at-the-time brutal AI) https://streamable.com/0tp0h1 no shade to the OpenRA folks, but it's simply not Dune 2000 ^^ that's a whole different engine. it certainly has its advantages, but make no mistake! there's plenty we can do with Dune 2000 nowadays! this old timer still has teeth!! I recently released a debut mission to showcase the aesthetic of a new tileset we have (and the assets are available in both vanilla and expanded size to map with), as well as some new features made possible through Klofkac's ingenuity. here're the first ten minutes: https://streamable.com/b8rwm8 amphibious units, shielded hovertech laser tanks, multi-shot bursts, explosive units and structures, ECMs throwing off homing rockets, repeat queue, a new hotkey for spamming structures... lots of stuff! Klofkac didn't just add new features; what he designed was an entire new system, essentially a programming language, atop which we could design our own features! the thread detailing those recent experiments and their fruits is over here: vanilla-sized tileset files for editing with are in the OP, and the second post in the thread has links to the example mission and some other stuff, like an editor capable of handling the expanded tileset size. remaps are also included for automatically swapping existing Arrakis maps to the new tileset, though they're not perfectly accurate, so some adjustments will probably be necessary on some maps. a notable example is the ice cliffs, which... I guess I could have remapped those to water instead for more precision, but there are no equivalents in the regular cliff tiles for some of those ice cliff pieces I've also notated lotsa stuff in the example mission so even if the events themselves are confusing, the notes describe what they're meant to do that server would be over here ^^ stop by sometime! I'd be happy to help ya get some new systems figured out for your maps and stuff!

like Cm said, due to other changes and stuff it became incompatible with, uhh... everything :c but we do have a modern queue system. here's a convoluted example of 'repeat queue' cuz even weird units like Carryalls are included, and unit groups are in a funni order in this mod how's it work? just looking at the bottom three events in the top block, which are the most important: basically, is a unit leaving a building? cool, tag it and queue that kind of unit on the player's sidebar again. easy peasy it's not a traditional queue where you can mix and match on your sidebar, but it's a solid system that works well!

I don't remember about manipulating the size of the Sonic Tank's ball. maybe it has to do with the size of the blue square graphic the weapon uses, and swapping out that graphic will make it smaller? anyway, for ANY modding of d2k, you'll wanna pick up the latest exe and editor from Klofkac's thread over here: and the structures editor is very intuitive. you'll find sonic weapon data, including its graphic, under the weapons tab. hope that helps! good luck!

oh, of course! thanks to the various ways the macro is simplified (repeat queue, B hotkey, etc), the tech tree can and should be more complex I've seen the various testers and the players who have checked the debut mission out so far take wildly varied approaches to the macro game. I anticipate you'll see those problem areas I described while the tech tree is in its unfinished state when you eventually get the chance to give this debut mission a shot, but it's hopefully also much more interesting than vanilla d2k's handling of upgrades and teching up, even at this juncture eh, that's not too difficult, if ya ask me... if a mission is meant to spotlight a certain kind of unit, and those units are already balanced with certain roles in mind, then we already know where that role shines. the mission just needs adjustment to emphasize that role. frankly, the tougher part is getting a player to realize "this unit is imba on this mission" because everybody just spams Troopers, Quads and Combat Tanks. xD before yelling at me for locking Rocket Turrets behind T3 because they're OP and very much desired on hard mode. ...maybe with a new faction in play we'll see players pick up what I'm laying down more often, ya know? lol not that I want to make that unit the only viable answer on its associated mission or whatever. that's the other tough part. Starcraft 2 leaned a bit too heavily into that, in some places. some very one-note missions that wind up feeling like a glorified tutorial. I get the sentiment that campaigns may be meant to lead the player onto the ladder or something, but for those who want only to enjoy the campaign, I've gotta take special care in gearing a mission towards a certain kind of unit so all the other stuff the player has been picking up still applies. better experience that way regarding the multiplayer thing: that's unfortunately nothing more than theory until they get access to the new features we've got in single-player that make stuff like this new faction's units possible. I hear they're making good progress on it, but who knows when they'll formally wrap that up. the theory can be important for making a satisfying balance in single-player, but it ultimately only applies to single-player even if we do wind up with some overpowered stuff though, uhh... I mean, RA2 is unbalanced as hell and still very popular just cuz its wacky roster of units is so much fun. so, while balance is absolutely a consideration as you can see from... all of the above, and all to follow, it does actually take a backseat to fun factor and rule-of-cool. cool / fun new thing comes first, attempt to balance cool / fun thing comes second that's a good approach. I went a bit of a different direction with maps like S02V1 back in SS... that was balanced as a 'skillgate mission,' a tougher mission that appears early on just to ask the player, "hey, are you comfortable with the difficulty level? if not, turn it down. if so, carry on." that sort of thing takes players off-guard, but helps shape their experience in the rest of the campaign in a more positive light. or so that's the intent. it worked out well for a lot of players who, after butting heads with S02V1, started experimenting more on the later maps and discovering subtleties to the submods that really helped them survive in ways they may not have found if not for S02V1 frontloading some pain in their faces I had spotlighty missions too. like, S06V2 very much so encourages the use of stuff like Siege Tanks or Duelist Tanks. it was more about missions like S02V1 though, strategically raising or lowering the difficulty level to gauge or tamper with the player's expectations, or for story reasons doing things a bit more traditionally in some respects this time around, I don't think there will be maps like that where the enemy has high/end tech early on, like on S02V1. specifically because it involves a new faction and players are 100% not going to be familiar with it from vanilla. I'll thus probably be doing it that way, spotlighting units as they become available through subtle mission design tricks to encourage the player to try them out in favorable conditions and understand those favorable conditions. smoother difficulty curve. strategically-placed difficulty spikes can do a campaign favors, but they're not for every campaign

thanks very much!! ah, I don't like to restrict the player too much even on missions with pure defense objectives, I've gotta account for if the player's gonna be aggressive and attack the enemy and stuff. quite a few players have been taken off guard on S02V1 by trying to beat up the high-tech enemy lol there are some exceptions, of course. like, S02V2 was designed to introduce hero units in a controlled environment, to teach the player to sacrifice ANYTHING to keep them alive, and show their strength without the macro game in the picture. that was only for like... 22.5k ticks or something? and I don't think we'll need missions like that in the next series. no hero units so yeah, defense-oriented missions, sure, but I gotta spice it up if it's pure defense, somehow xD ah yeah, and the Wings of Liberty campaign had that one with the supernova and the banshees and all that. terran buildings being able to pick up and wander the map was integral to that one. fun concept, very memorable it took the forefront in that mission though, whereas the natural progression of wandering the map for resources is, uhh... more of an encouraged course of action than a necessity. an underlying gameplay mechanic supporting the main gameplay loop, the focus remains on defeating the enemy. less, uhh... distinct, but hopefully more fun to be had with more flexibility on more missions. less linearity and stuff damn, mate. aye, I've lost some missions too. dang computers perhaps what I refer to as gimmicks are what you're referring to here as secondary objectives ^^ I would classify the end stage of S06V2 as being its secondary objective. the production goals on SBON2 are secondary objectives. perhaps 'xyz hero unit must survive' is more of a secondary objective than a gimmick even if it's all primary though, missions can remain interesting with a strong enough gameplay loop. I've replayed Halo: CE lots of times just because its gameplay loop is so well-conceived, despite its repetition in mission layout and stuff aye, that's the plan ^^ actually, that was chiefly what I was looking for in Kipp's test run of the variables example map in the thread I linked in the last post! he had to expand a bit to support his offensive, but wasn't overwhelmed by the enemy before he could do that. target hard mode balance achieved! and now I've got the data to go off of for future missions' designs. a factor in helping to balance this debut mission, despite it being very different from that variables example map didn't mean it was perfect from the get-go though. not that that was my fault... during this process, we discovered the AI on hard mode in d2k gets a x.75 modifier on its unit build rate, which was enough to screw up my calculations without an AI parameter-adjusting event using the index number of the assigned variable as opposed to the variable's stored value too. that also happened. what a headache xD after those problems were accounted for though, the theoretical balance I had been aiming for worked out perfectly. the testers reported it was quite manageable! thank goodness Klofkac really went all the way with enabling us mappers to do stuff ^^ impossible to overstate the meaning of his contributions aye. the variables example map was more dramatic on this front, allowing the player to start in the top right, bottom left or bottom right corners, so you'd get three very different ways to approach the rest of the map. this debut mission already introduces lotsa new units, not to mention the new environment, so the three start locations here just change the order in which you get the units you're meant to start with. the player gets an MCV at the same place on the debut mission no matter which start location was chosen oh, yeah well, time will tell about the Keravnos. it's probably in a pretty good spot for an MBT, but some other units may need adjustment. the Diakotn for one feels weak, but with its low cost and some other stuff, maybe that's just fine. I already made some other adjustments, like to its armor type

appreciated, mate. take your time ah, you're unfamiliar with Klofkac's editor? if you've used it at all since v2.0 or so, it'll be familiar enough. otherwise if you're talking, like, shai-hulud editing or something like that, Klofkac's editor will spoil you rotten with the amount of stuff we're capable of now. for reference, v2.0 is the most advanced version of the editor BEFORE new features were added, and remains suitable for co-op or multiplayer mapping. the vanilla-sized version of the tileset I published can be mapped with via v2.0. we're currently on v2.3! if ya got any questions about the editor, I should be able to answer 'em. I frequent the Landsraad Discord if you gotta rapid-fire 'em, otherwise I try to check back here. oh yeah, you're preachin' to the choir here I hope that's enough insight for ya into my thought process on the design front xD

thank you very much! I'm enormously grateful to my clinically insanely generous sister, and to Klofkac who enabled us to use all the tiles she whipped up for us at once is it? I had no idea it was only a weird alien world from a dream many thanks! most of the new units don't have lines finished yet, but we've got plenty of placeholders. I'll still be using plenty of lines for more traditional units that were whipped up for the Summers' Solstice campaign, but the new ones are intended to get their own setups. there are even additional 'generic' versions of some takes I've got just for the purposes of other modders who may not refer to the units by the same monikers, like 'laser tank ready to cook' or 'MLRS, death from afar' as opposed to Keravnos or Pyrkagia technically, we only need 12 new lines for any new faction, but... if we do the lines up based on units as opposed to factions, then they're good for any faction. so that was my approach I'd love to! there are quite a few numbers though, and there's a lot to go into! just the Pyrkagia is subject to a multitude of new features, each of which could be its own topic of conversation so, uhh... do you mean unit stats, weapon damage, new warheads, build speeds, costs, new systems like bulk shot or shields, all of the above...? although I included unit stats under a spoiler over in the Summers' Solstice campaign thread, these new units don't really have finalized stats just yet ^^ and the testers over in the Landsraad Discord server have no shortage of feedback! hence not producing a similar section over here just yet. however, umm... included in the zips up there (in the second post in this thread, counting the OP) is a version of the editor capable of reading the debut mission. ctrl + X is the hotkey to bring up the 'structures editor' as seen there, and if you tap F11 and peek at the events, most of the various systems are notated like so: which can offer some insight into what this stuff does, even being unfamiliar with the new events and such Klofkac has developed I invite you to go poking around on your own! if you have any questions about something more specific, I would be happy to answer them I'll be working on it after getting some other stuff sorted. first priority was releasing the tileset so other mappers can mess around. next, I've gotta polish up some new spritework PsYcHo lined up for me (many units in the debut mission have unfinished / unpolished art assets. the Mavrys is considered complete, and the Keravnos just got a new body so that needs work). after that I can do some more mapping and stuff in the meantime though, there's at least this debut mission to showcase the new tileset in all respects! technical, aesthetic, gameplay... it's packaged with the cutting-edge editor over in the second post in this thread none of the testers have reported random crashes, but they have been able to break the map in various ways, and one player today ran into a random crash for unknown reasons. but that might just be related to his machine and not to the debut mission itself; some players get random crashes no matter what d2k mission they're on and just need to save the game on occasion. we dunno why lol, 1998 game voodoo. anyway yeah, although i expect it to be smooth-sailing it's best to save on occasion regardless if you give that debut mission a play, I'd love to know how it goes! any feedback helps polish things up for 'real' missions later

o7 godspeed, mate! see ya in the Landsraad, if ya stop by

the time has come! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vjWZ9eoLXpar6STEkWh8i9-ijP7VsRWz/ ^^^ you'll find it under "Atreides" in "All Missions" in the Mission Launcher, as "Arkanon Debut Mission." many thanks to, primarily, Nguyen, Fo-ehn and PsYcHo, for having a look at so many drafts of this debut mission! y'all really helped during the design process details and, if you need them, install instructions below: here's some info about the new guys' roster of units, or at least those that are finished so far, along with VA credits if the units have new voiceovers already that's all for now, guys. although this debut mission is a bit rough around the edges, I hope it proves to be a beautiful show of the new tileset, and a fun play nonetheless. it is NOT designed to be difficult, either, since it's meant to just show new stuff. still, you will find substantial differences between easy, normal and hard. even if it's easier on any of those difficulties than you might expect. enjoy! hopefully!! EDIT 9/30/25: I'm told that the debut mission is a little harder than expected xD at least on hard mode. so, umm... well, here's Nguyen's run from, uhh... today. and some other details about design goals and also a helpful build order in this section EDIT 10/14/25: Danku did a normal run too. I added it here ah, I'm rambling. I have spritework to do, so I guess I'll get on with that. this all has merely been some insight into my thought process, I suppose EDIT 10/1/25: some other folks are saying the debut mission is not hard enough fine!! here's a "hell mode" version of the mission for y'all masochists out there then!!! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kZOtzJr--mwttcEE1aHarocH-A_8X3_j this zip assumes you have the regular game assets in place from the first zip in this post, such as the cutting-edge exe. be sure to download that first! i also tested the first ~20m. seems totally doable to me! so, good luck! https://streamable.com/b8rwm8 https://streamable.com/23vtej i noticed the special weapons were broken due to an oversight in my last round of bug-fixing. that's only in these clips; they work properly in the uploaded draft if you thought easy was too easy or normal was too normal and want a bit more spice without going up to the level of hard in the prior version of the map, you can give them a shot in 'hell mode.' details for that are in this section here there. take it!! take it and like it!! EDIT 10/2/25: updated the regular version of the debut mission with the new sidebar icons, and moved them into their proper places. AK Lasgunners, Lyovros and Diakotns now are represented on the sidebar. this is just a cosmetic change, so... ya know, no worries about redownloading or replaying if you already checked out the map or w/e. just saying. it's the same link at the top of this post the unknown mimicry used by the Imperials doesn't have a sidebar icon yet, so that one's still got a placeholder if you happen to capture an Imperial Heavy Factory please note that if you redownload anyway and have a saved game on the version without the new sidebar icons, I expect that saved game would be broken! moving stuff around on the sidebar involves a mod change!

ah, sorry we didn't see this sooner, mate! aye, old game voodoo. the 'cinematic' part of the map showing up is kinda screwy on modern systems, but the map loads just fine. it's only a cosmetic glitch, so I guess nobody's really looked into it and we're not sure what to do about it there might be a solution if you mess around in the video settings, but definitely take note of what's currently working before messing with those as a side note, that you're seeing those cinematics means you're going through the game exe, yeah? Feda built some lovely extensions for Funky's Mission Launcher application, enabling some very fancy custom campaigns. some which come by default with gruntmods or dunemaster nowadays. and, the Mission Launcher has a dedicated section for the original campaign missions at the top of the "All Missions" page. if you haven't tried going through the Mission Launcher, I'd suggest giving it a look! although it doesn't have those cutscenes or pre-game maps like the original campaigns, perhaps having a broken map screen is a bit more immersion-breaking. if you'd like more info about the Mission Launcher (which you should have by default nowadays, but there's still this thread for it), I'll point ya over here: and if ya got any other questions, I'd invite ya to drop by the Landsraad Discord over here. apologies about the pre-game map issue; wish we knew what to do about that. still, I hope this helps! EDIT: I was just made aware of a potential fix. try running the game in 640x400, the vanilla game's resolution. apparently that solves it? apparently, a friend forgot to up his resolution before playing and accidentally discovered this possibility. what a fortunate coincidence lol

for those with no attention span or who are only having a glance: CHECK THE FIRST POST UNDER THE OP FOR A PLAYABLE MISSION AND THE FULL / EXPANDED TILESET. THE OP HAS ADDITIONAL INFO AND A VANILLA-COMPATIBLE 800-TILES VERSION OF THE TILESET, WHICH MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR MAPPERS LOOKING TO MAP FOR CO-OP BECAUSE MULTIPLAYER DOESN'T HAVE THE COOL NEW FEATURES YET. HOPEFULLY SOON THOUGH. ANYWAY, YEAH. hallo. this thing is almost done, so I guess I'll put it out there kinda sorta maybe a little. technically the tileset is complete, but I'm still working on the playable example mission (check the post after the OP), and I'll be continuing to make tweaks to the tileset until that's done, so... ya know, it ain't official just yet it's official now! good luck and have fun! anyway, here's a full map image of the current state an earlier draft of the debut mission-to-be: and here's an image of just the starting area. this is the sort of thing that will be pictured in the tactical map, so it's not a spoiler. I mean, you clicked on this thread to get a look at the new tileset, yeah? surely this is fine! nobody had better come complaining to me later about spoilers when I hid the full map image!! this tileset is hand-drawn primarily by ZoeO, AKA my sister who did the lovely splash art for the Summers' Solstice campaign, among other things like those new Barracks we've been seeing in-game, the new smuggler sand mouse or mercenary rock dragon minimap emblems, and more this download link is for d2k editor v2.0-compatible mapping assets. again, nothing playable here just yet, but check the second post in this thread for a playable example mission. if you're a mapper and want to mess around with the tileset, knock your socks off with this zip. you can find a summarizing list of credits under the FAQs section around the bottom of this post. also included are .r16s of the recolored crater assets. auto-smooth works for water and water bridges too, making that easier to map with https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gb2I4-xpLj1UG5rShNWdwna-RSloT6yG/view what's auto-smooth? it's that feature you might be familiar with from Arrakis maps that automatically paints borders. shift+click the edge of a whole buncha painted water tiles like the first screenie here, and you'll wind up with the second screenie. makes painting water or water bridges very simple and easy EDIT: I was made aware of an issue with auto-smoothing on vertical bridges. for some reason I'm not yet aware of, horizontal bridges are auto-smoothed perfectly around water, but vertical bridges are not. you can paint a vertical bridge on any other terrain, auto-smooth it there, and then use select mode to drop them where they're meant to be. my apologies for the inconvenience. also, the bridges MUST be square! they don't have turns and whatnot! EDIT 9/27/25: turns out there was a conflict between an editor attribute and the paint group vertical bridges are in. for some reason, that messes up auto-smooth. I updated the zip and moved the paint group over one. it's the same link; just redownload it and vertical bridges will auto-smooth as expected before I continue, here's a clip testing the first five minutes or so of the debut mission-to-be linked in the second post in this thread https://streamable.com/04dlae EDIT 9/27/25: also, I did a lot more polish on this here test mission. took some more clips, threw 'em up on Streamable... spoiler alert! https://streamable.com/g04e9w https://streamable.com/sxc06d https://streamable.com/9n5o07 https://streamable.com/eitr1b this is the entire mission, so, spoiler alert, obviously xD apologies for my cruddy macro; it was like 5 in the morning and we did some insomnia ahh gaming. still, this should be a decent showcase of the new features this mission is released, and you can find a link in the second post in this thread. I'll be working on the art assets for these new units now that the debut mission and the expanded tileset are released all that said, the details for that first Streamable link from before this edit in the post continue below: this streamable link will expire eventually, but it's here for now to give a peek at what will be the first playable mission, by me at least, on the tileset it's rough around the edges and totally unbalanced at this stage. my intent with this test was merely to examine the macro game rebalancing, and I got a pretty good look at how the early game goes. very safe build order, lots of production off two refs and four harvs with hard mode's build costs, and I would have had more income after getting a couple of rigs up on the southern island. when I tweak the AI so they don't send end-tech stuff in their first attack, this should feel pretty good anyway, below is a list of features, some purely about the aesthetic and some involving concepts and plans I have for this tileset. no spoilers, really, this is just hidden for the purpose of sectioning and condensing the thread. it features: I've been detailing progress on the creation of this tileset in a dedicated channel over in Feda's Landsraad discord server. if y'all wanna check out my diary, you can find it there. spoiler alert, obviously, but you could hang around the server anyway for all sorts of other d2k stuff. here's a link to the pinned thread which itself has a link to said server: I'll go on to elaborate on the development process and list answers to some frequently asked questions here though first, here are a buncha development screenies. apologies in advance for crashing your computer if you look under here; there are a ton of images. I guess maybe it might help that most of them are hidden under secondary spoilers? maybe? it is impossible to fathom how much effort this was without witnessing the absurdity of the development process. this is the extent of my sister's generosity - she's owed our highest praise for all her hard work! and I make sure any she receives is passed along to her, as she doesn't frequent this locale I will be doing my best to justify all her efforts: make this tileset simple to draw for other mappers through carefully customized editor presets, come up with remaps for Arrakis tilesets so they can be quickly converted, characterizing it strongly through a passionately-crafted series of campaigns including old and new factions... all that stuff here are some FAQs that's all for now. check back later the next post in this thread for the debut mission

thank you very much! PsYcHo did great work on their voxels it's a process, that's for sure. creation of the voxel, polishing and recoloring, frame alignment and adjustment, there used to be palette conversion issues to deal with... the palette differs for each structure. the colors are all defined by their position in the palette, and can be customized. there are some new units that have green faction color pixels and dark blue shadows doubt not at all, Falcon if you still have those, I would love to see them. can't promise anything with regards to implementation, but... the campaign PsYcHo used the new hovertech units in is a smugglers one. as for my intent, the two hover units seen in that clip will be the main battle tanks or long-range fire support units for the new 'native' faction on Arkanon. they can be ordered at the Starport. notably, hovertech is incapable of crushing infantry, meaning this faction will feel even more different than one might expect from the original ones there are plenty of counterbalancing factors, of course. their infantry units (when they're done) will be well-rounded and compete with the Sardaukar, their Siege Tank equivalent unit emerges from the Light Factory, uhh... but, you know. and yeah, they'll get Harvesters and high-end tanks that can crush stuff, not that that really matters cuz those are slow units but yeah it occurs to me that we've been off-topic for a while now I'll see about making a proper thread for this tileset now that news of its existence is out there. we can continue on this subject over there, and I can update that thread with the proper release in due time I'll edit this post with a link when it's done, or reply with a link later EDIT: got that thread worked up. now we can discuss this stuff somewhere relevant https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/37027-wip-kinda-arkanon-tileset/