Fey

Welcome back! Yes, Gruntmods or Dunemaster can handle all the modded missions, but you might need to update your game exe to support certain advanced / recent missions. The advancements Klofkac has made are detailed in his devlog thread over here: Hope that helps!

Klofkac recently added real queueing to the game. I've been asked to add it to SS, so... details below: I guess that's all, so, good luck and have fun!

see you there, mate! ping Fey there anytime, I can help ya set up the following: ah, we've actually got a proper queue now. it's hot off the presses, made more recently than the ArkDebut mission. behold: very customizable. comes with bulk, priority, infinite, and other queue functions I see you created a thread for your new merc / guild campaign, so I suppose that would also be a fine place to discuss it further

they're also the only map the MP boys like to play Habbanya Erg and nothing else. lol me? we've got uncrushable infantry in d2k now. it was done via a really janky workaround during Summers' Solstice's inception, but Klofkac added proper support for it relatively recently. mostly though, I lean on map design for that and just try to leave infantry rock in lots of places sure dude, feel free to hit me up then SC1 still has quite a large following. if you make something for it, I think you can be very confident it will be played

1200 resources in Starcraft for Siege Tanks? 💀 ik range is, like, the most powerful stat, but doesn't that just mean you gotta mess with how the economy works so the player's income can keep up with that kinda inflated price? my father likes to play on easy mode just to blow stuff up, and aarmaageedoon says my missions are "too easy" even with multiple restarts 😆 can't please everybody I'm not the worst at d2k, and my focus is on mission or campaign design - player versus AI - so my process is testing crap on hard mode / fastest game speed, then scaling it down for normal and easy modes. it matters for the maximum difficulty since players on hard are looking for a challenge. it should be both fair and engaging. normal and easy, those are where some theoretical scaling should suffice to nail the target difficulty as long as hard mode is done up nicely the metric I look to primarily for determining if a mission is balanced how I want it is how long it takes me to complete it, including compared to its neighboring or counterpart missions. players will inevitably have a variety of experiences, but how closely in time it takes for me, knowing them in and out and optimizing for them, to complete them does a lot to illustrate the sum of whatever balance decisions I made for them already that doesn't mean I don't consider how things might work out in a hypothetical multiplayer game though. I passed an MP compatible version of my stuff over to the boys, and some unexpected metagaming came out of it, like... walls and concrete were useable. lol micro potential is a big deal in determining units' viability. take Blink micro for Stalkers in SC2 for example. you can have a unit with relatively weak stats, but with good player control, it dominates. over here in d2k, in ArkDebut, the Keravnos Laser Tank's shield system has revealed some interesting interactions already and suggests great micro potential. needs more testing. there are innumerable complex interactions in RTS, even in a simple one like d2k. makes theoretical balance pretty messy when the rubber hits the road wym money maps? like, macro-heavy, macro missions? there are a lot of differences between how macro and micro missions need to be designed and how a player will use units just thanks to that fundamental difference. or do you mean how the resources are painted on macro missions? at some point we get more into mission design theory as opposed to unit balance theory 😛 different things

I dunno, mate. maybe it's just cuz I'm a hands-on learner, but I've played KKND and this still sounds both overcomplicated and oversimplified at the same time... there are so many more factors that define a unit's strengths or weaknesses there was one concept you brought up that's particularly comprehensible to me though 😛 how I tried to balance the Summers' Solstice campaign was through units' roles, or functions as you put it, as opposed to on an individual basis. so even if we've got some new stuff here or there, they fall into certain categories and their strengths and weaknesses are representative of the category they belong to like Shock Raiders, for instance. fast, high damage, low durability. excels over open terrain, swarming targets. bad in head-on frontal assault. very similar to Quads, Raiders, Flame Tanks, other stuff like that even that example accounts for movement speed, effective weapon range, and other stuff like that too though. not just health and damage a lot of theory falls apart in practice, I've found. you know what they say: in theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. in practice, there most certainly is a difference 😆

it sounds a bit too basic to really work out ^^ there are so many other factors to consider in a unit's power. maybe as a starting principle, but certainly not as the core of balance decisions and whatnot do you have some kind of example to showcase the success of this method? a practical example, not... not more math

try running a game just against AI via CNCNET. that might rule out if it's display issues, renderer problems, etc... I also recommend ensuring you and your son have the same game version. Gruntmods and Dunemaster are the two nowadays, and if one doesn't appear to be working for you, try the other it's also worth noting that due to the way the Mission Launcher works, if either of you have run modified single-player missions via the Mission Launcher, it could result in desyncing issues in multiplayer. a fresh / separate install specifically for multiplayer would prevent any related problems I hope that helps!

lay it on us, brother 👀

you'll wanna open C&Cnet, which you'll find in your d2k directory with any modern install package, and then you can run skirmish games from there. IIRC you just click the mini-map image in the C&Cnet lobby to choose which map you wanna load note that due to how the Mission Launcher works, replacing files and such, if you're encountering sync issues with a friend while trying to co-op, consider using a fresh install for the C&Cnet stuff. even if windows isn't being a jerk and preventing the Mission Launcher from properly restoring files after single-player missions, C&Cnet can sometimes give folks trouble anyway if the Mission Launcher was used at all. why? 1998 game voodoo, I guess anyway, hope that helps!

ah, no worries! take your time I'm just doing spritework in the meantime lol. nice to hear from ya though, X3M got that Railgun Tank sidebar icon sorted the other day, but like the Kovi and Castle it doesn't have a place in any tech tree just yet. I DID intend for it to be a unit for the native rival faction to the Aether Knights, but it's a really cool new unit and the AK need something in the Autogun Tank's spot in their tech tree, sooooo I might just put it there. I've got other ideas for that other faction lol oh yeah, Shotgunners were in the Summers' Solstice campaign and will remain the Light Infantry-like unit for the smugglers and mercenaries in this campaign. they have more impact against light armor, albeit only slightly, than the former standard Riflemen. their area-effect, while larger as well, is nowhere near that of Grenadiers or Siege Tanks when trying to determine why exactly the Shotgunner is so superior to the regular Light Infantry, it has to do with their method of dealing damage. they don't actually have higher DPS than Riflemen with that small exception of more oomph against light armor. it's just that they deal their damage sooner, meaning they're more likely to eliminate threats sooner. Riflemen might need another shot or two Trikes' rapid fire attack works because it has the speed to compensate. it gets on top of stuff, eats it, and can leave just as quickly. since infantry are slower and tend to be stuck in the fight, a bursty damage model lends itself very well to the weakest infantry unit the Shotgunner becomes the player's standard infantry on S03V1 and on. both they and Grenadiers can be compared on this mission, and I'll link you to this vid from Felix where the action starts if you want to check it out for yourself, Summers' Solstice is in any regular d2k install with gruntmods or dunemaster nowadays... although I did do a small mostly-cosmetic update to backport a bunch of features Klofkac added for this campaign after its completion, including a new spirteset for the Shotgunners. more details about that are in... this post here ^^ hope that helps

just an update for the curious... lotsa stuff needs doing before I can get on with doing up campaign missions, but just cuz it's boring backend stuff doesn't mean we can't look forward to the final results! Klofkac has been working on reviving mvi's ol' queues system I believe I already mentioned that my current pursuit is spritework and I've also refined the tech tree seen in the debut mission although ArkDebut was released primarily to showcase the tileset, it happens to also be the latest mission created for d2k and I could do up another draft later just to showcase the new art additions and gameplay tweaks. and also to make that art available for other mappers through the mod data y'all can see it in action with or extract it from. I've got a lot more spritework to wrap up first though that's all for now

haha, yeah those final missions can get a bit hairy xD especially the Harkonnen ones! I guess because you get Devastators as Harkonnen, Westwood was like, "alright, start 'em off with the cruddiest of stuff between all the level 9's" lol ah, sorry to hear this issue has gotten in your way on thatun. fortunate it is, indeed, that we can freely select any mission from the Mission Launcher! starting a long mission over again is bothersome, but at least it ain't the whole campaign, right? I hope you enjoy the campaign though! 💕 good luck n have fun!

hey there! the number you're seeing in the error message is the amount of "ticks" that have passed in the saved games you've got. 25 ticks = 1 in-game second, and at fastest game speed, an in-game second is roughly 0.4 of a real-life second. it's just a way to tell you when the crash occurred, for debugging purposes game data invalid is what it sounds like, unfortunately. something in the save file ain't playing nice with the new exe. we try to maintain backwards compatibility, but ya know how development can be the good news is, you should be able to run any mission made with a prior version of the game in mind just fine between stable versions of the exe. there are minor exceptions, like if a bug was exploited for map design and that bug was fixed, the map that used it may be a little different. nothing should be unplayable though and, you should also be able to run more modern campaigns making use of the powerful new features. Cm's index has all known playable content documented: and if you'd like some examples of more modern campaigns, I can make a few recommendations of threads to check out via that index: - Thel 'Vadam Flippy's Great Battle of Arrakis focuses heavily on large-scale macro missions, using some powerful variables-based features, such as 'repeat queueing' to let you mass-produce large armies to clash with - PsYcHo's Smuggler Restructure campaign is closer to vanilla in terms of most of the event types used, but makes use of minimap pings and quite a few lovely new units he created as voxels, which I later polished up - my Summers' Solstice campaign recently had some new features backported to it. nothing that fundamentally changes the missions, except ooone thing on the final mission, but some significant optimizations and QoL but there are plenty of gems besides those; these are specifically campaigns that use new features with the v2.3 exe and all that on a tangential note, the very latest mission designed for d2k at the time of this post is the Arkanon Debut mission included in that tileset's thread. it'd be under "single missions" in the index. that uses a cutting-edge exe though, technically not the stable version of 2.3. still, it might be of interest if you're looking to get a peek at the most modern of our capabilities anyway, I hope that answers your question!

OpenRA is different! different engine and all that stuff. therefore, this process is not applicable to anything OpenRA they probably have another way to get custom tilesets in, but I wouldn't know how that works so, good luck!

I feel that ^^ the build queues are a popular request

aye, unfortunate about the build queue patch being so, uhh... you know. hard to get working thank you! I appreciate that! and I extend the same offer; if you need help getting the repeat queue system implemented on any missions at all (like those that NEED the new exes to work), feel free to reach out. I frequent the Landsraad Discord server, a link to which is pinned on these forums, and could help more rapidly over there. but if you just wanna give it a try and see how it feels, you'll find the system implemented in the recent ArkDebut mission, which is linked in the Arkanon tileset release thread hope that helps!

that's factually incorrect! Klofkac didn't merely design new features - he designed, essentially, a new programming language we can use to add our own new features to Dune 2000. the custom special weapons in the new ArkDebut mission, for example, are of my own design thank you though there are a lot of things people have said we'll "never have." if that were our attitude, we wouldn't be here ^^ those two in particular are pretty popular requests though. I can poke Klofkac about those again. given progress in other areas, perhaps he's up to investigate the implementation of stuff like this more closely I'm no stranger to the OpenRA side of things either. I appreciate their platform... but it's not d2k! and we d2k folks over here don't intend to just pick up and start implementing everything in their engine. we've got our own to make improvements to, which is important for them too since they've benefit from our advancements and contributions. for instance, quite a few of our new art assets have wound up in OpenRA-based d2k thingiemajiggers. so, I hope they have fun, and I hope they get lots of use out of the next art assets we'll be polishing up over here! it's just not my place. that's all

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