Ghost.B88

Haha “new house: more new enemies” is a good one for lolz! 😄 Yeah the bonus mission for the original crashed when there’s only Atreides left and they only had a starport, hence they probably ordered all they can from it with the money they have left. oof, I’m not looking forward to the 1 on 1 missions since I like to have allies and fight in a big battle, and it’s sad to see the coalition is now fighting among themselves. 😢 but nonetheless, I’ll play the whole campaign to see how the whole story turns out.

When you say “New House”, do you mean “New Enemies”? As in the sequel campaign to the Coalition Of Nobles? If so, which missions are you patching? I just finished mission 5, maybe I still have a chance to download the patches for the later missions. I also finished the bonus mission of the Coalition campaign, and it was easy like you said. However, the game always crashes in the end with the error popup: “Too many deliveries, game tick =110000”. It was around 1 hour and 10 minutes in.

If this data point helps, the normal last mission crashed a lot when I played the game higher than 1920 x 1080 resolution. I noticed a specific mission for aimed for 1080 resolution so I turned it down and it ran fine. But somehow the scrapped version crashes even in 1080 resolution. Maybe it doesn’t crash in lower resolution? it makes me think maybe the AI or the script miscalculated the map size and does something outside the map boundary? ah thanks for explaining the AI logic for starport purchases. p.s. I started playing the new enemies campaign and will circle back to the bonus mission since that one will take some time to beat.

Ah thank you for the insight! One thing I should report is that mission 16 crashes frequently if I'm playing higher than 1920x1080 resolution (it was fine for 1080p). The scrapped mission crashes even on 1080p resolution, so I couldn't finish the mission in my preferred resolution setting. I'm not sure why it crashes the game as the crashes seem random, and I can't pinpoint to any game event either. That's interesting you can make the AI focus on building towers and walls. Oh and regarding your previous comment on AI making starport purchase, I do notice they buy units in order only, and not based on need. I wish they bought units based on need or price.

Ah I beat mission 15 and 16! The convoys weren't as difficult to destroy as I thought! The initial quads were pretty much enough to destroy all the waves. I only had to build a few more. There are also 2 ledges the infantry can stand on without being crushed close to the drop zone of the convoys. The more challenging part of mission 15 is protecting the Bromeli from getting destroyed. I thought I did a good job building turrets on their territory but they were still not enough. Good thing I didn't need to keep all the allies alive in this mission to win. Mission 16 is interesting. I keep capturing the emperor's newly deployed construction yards, yet they keep deploying more! =D It was an interesting game of cat and mouse. However, the newly build bases seem to only build structures and not any offensive units. Is that intentional? Overall the mission isn't so difficult as my allies built up and helped me destroy the emperor together. By the way, I see you have a scrapped version of mission 16 that's supposed to be harder. I played a little bit but couldn't tell where it is different, but indeed it felt a bit more challenging. Can you clarify where the challenge is? I might play the level if there's something unique about it.

Ah unit queueing mod sounds cool! I’d like to try it! Ah shucks, I was gonna fill the landing space with troopers to 1 shot all the special tanks as they drop. I guess that’s not feasible. I might end up just let the convoys slip and work on defending my allies. If I don’t destroy the convoys, will they come back to attack me once they reach the enemy base? Meaning there is still value in destroying some of them before they reach the enemy base? Also, how much harder is it to win the game if the enemy had special tanks? Ah I like that prices in Starports can go above and below the regular price. Emperor had that too. I wonder why Dune 2000 decided to always go below regular price.

Wow Unit queueing sounds very cool! Like the Axotl tanks in your Theilaxu missions. Will it deduct money when new units queue out? It would have been a good idea if the original Dune 2000 game allowed players to train groups of infantry like Dune 2. For example, an upgraded barracks can now train a squad of 5 troopers for 5x the trooper cost, and a whole squad comes out. That would alleviate the queueing problem too. Anyways, looking forward to try your queueing solution. Oh I didn’t even realize mission 13 had faster starport unit refills. Cool! I just played mission 14 over the weekend and the beginning was a lot harder than I thought! (Or I messed up too much micro-ing the infantries) I lost 4 times when my infantries got crushed by tanks or didn’t focus fire on enemy units enough. But anyways, I’m glad it’s done. Mission 15 looks mad hard if one must stop the convoys from reaching the end. I’m thinking of parking massive amount of troopers in the convoy landing spot, but also afraid the sonic tanks will kill then in one hit. Lol. We’ll see. Cool! Thank you for updating the bonus mission. Did you update both bonus missions or just the New Enemies one?And does that mean I should re-download it here?

Ah yes, it was indeed mission 11 where we had to fight with infantry only, I corrected it from "mission 10". Thank you for figuring it out by reading the context. I think that mission was also challenging and grindy because Dune 2000 doesn't allow unit wiring, so clicking so many times to build one single infantry at a time is tedious, making the battle drag for a long time. But yes, once you have a large enough group of infantry, you can move out and explore enemy weaknesses. I only lost that mission once in the beginning when I didn't pay attention to the siege tank and lost all my infantry. Anyways, I just beat mission 13. I thought the beginning of the mission will be very difficult due to the lack of resources, but somehow I made it through with the few quads and tanks plus a turret. Whew! The Harkonnen attacks do get very strong later on so one must be ready to lure them into the rebel's base, or else it's not possible to hold with just starport ordered units. Anyways, very fun and innovative mission! Ah thank you for giving insight on how you write the campaign plot. Even though they're not from any books, they are of equal quality! 😀

Hi CM_Blast, reporting back after playing mission 9, 10, 11 and 12! Indeed mission 9 was harder than I thought! Initially I thought I was able to just simply defend and counterattack to win, but I underestimated the combined attacks from Ordos and Atreides. But once I took them seriously, I was able to win no problem. The epilogue missions after 9 are indeed very different. I can see how many players don’t like it because the gameplay moves back to espionage missions and fighting by yourself with very limited tech, like mission 11 where we only have infantry, it was such a long grind to build up and counter attack, especially when tanks come and crush the infantry and fighting siege tanks with infantry… But I think those missions are absolutely critical for the story! They compliment it very well! I love the trap the emperor laid in mission 10 so that in the subsequent missions, the coalition must establish back their foothold. Also playing as the other members of the coalition because their leaders were captured is a nice touch to the story and gameplay! Anyways, awesome story writing skills and game design skills! How do you come up with the material? Are they actually from the Dune books?

Interesting. Good to know!

Ohh neat! It’s cool to see the game can be so different than the stock dune 2000 game where they just build everything evenly. I also noticed the hard / skirmish AI tend to build more anti-armor units like tanks and troopers than anti-infantry units. Is that hard-coded or do they build counter units based on enemy’s units? All in all, it’s pretty cool to play with “specialized” AIs and work with that. Especially the Ateiedes enemy that only build sonic tanks, I thought that was an invincible army, but I was surprised to learn the Qaii can handle them by massing light vehicles… I’m learning so many new strategies which I thought wasn’t possible from a 25 year old game. Well done! I haven’t had the chance to play mission 9 yet, but I’m always dreaming / thinking of strategies to beat it.

Oh interesting. I didn’t know the game asks an official imperial side and has to use the Harkonnen tech tree. So you are saying if the imperial side starts off with an MCV, then they get their own tech tree and can’t build Harkonnen palace and devastators?

Hm… maybe I was hallucinating a better tech tree and missed the starport until I built a high tech factory. I also noticed that building more than 3 of the same production factories still sped up the production! Did you make such changes? Or maybe I’m hallucinating again. Lol. ah ok, no siege tanks is fine, I don’t usually build them anyways, just ordering a few from the Starport for defending against troopers is fine. by the way fits really cool that the computer allies disproportionally builds infantry or light vehicles. Is there special scripting or just having multiple factories vs single factory enough to make their army distributions skew that much? ah thanks for the tip for mission 9! I’m looking forward to it! Even if I lose a few times because it’s too challenging. It just looks so fun! A super challenging 4v4!

Ah I see what you mean by exploits now, but I thought the last mission of anti-fremen was meant to be played that way because you get an MCV to start the mission instead of a Con Yard. In fact I thought all missions were designed with that in mind, so when I see a MCV to start, I’m thinking where can I move this thing to start in a better position, and my Allies come to mind. 😄 haha yeah, tough but fair is how I like it. Defending against drops around the base gets old when you play the same mission multiple times, and it’s no fun to watch when a YouTuber moves all his / her tanks to the drop positions before they arrive as if they played the mission million times. I’ve seen people put troopers in front of tanks and works well, but for me, when a siege tanks comes, all my troopers die So I’d rather put my troopers to the side or behind in guard mode so the tanks soak up siege fires first. But nothing works better than building turrets and out siege tanks behind them.

Hi CM, for mission 5, after watching my own replay I realized that my Bromeli Ally eventually destroyed the 2nd “fake” Atreides base and the Qaii Ally set up their base and started absorbing the sonic tanks. I realized I should have helped them taking that base to reduce my defense woes (10+ of my gun turrets were getting wiped out every sonic tank wave; I learned that base defenses aren’t the best against sonic tanks). That said, kudos for modding the AI to produce solely one type of tanks! I had no idea the game AI had that capability. Another wonderful modification is that building the Starport requires the High Tech factory, which makes sooooo much sense! If I were the game developers I would make that permanent change! Also, I feel the Lassoki isn’t at a terrible disadvantage in terms of tech because now the game allows building missile tanks after upgrading the heavy factory and it can build deviators too, so its tech is even better than Ordos because they cannot build missile tanks and their combat tanks are fragile. But that got me thinking, I don’t see an option to build siege tanks anymore. I can only obtain them via Starport now? Yes, for mission 4, a secondary objective explaining the player must escort Bromeli to safety would be most helpful. oh, I’ve actually just beat mission 8 and had a peek of mission 9 and yes it does look like the final mission where all coalition forces show down with the Atreides + Ordos alliance. It’s gonna be ill / mad / nuts / insane!! I just can’t wait!! Thank you again for making such an awesome campaign!! 😄

Oh I don’t know what heavy exploits you are referring to but I did build directly into my Harkonnen Ally base and noticed that some of their units don’t attack the enemy. But It was ok, some of their units did attack the enemy. Yeah, I’m onto the coalition now, and I’ll post in that thread, but yes, the computer allies are awesome considering they cover what the player lacks! I just hope their mission where I have to defend my ally to death won’t give me PTSD like mission 7 of this campaign. 😜 Anyways, chat with you there!

Hi CM_Blast. I am playing your Coalition of Nobles campaign and I really like it! Maybe even more than Butlerian Jihad! The campaign design is really unique, there are always Allie’s in each mission, and the player has to make good use of them to complete the mission efficiently. The difficulty is also significantly higher than Butlerian Jihad: Zone Zero. I’m already struggling in mission 5! There are so many sonic tanks!! I thought the level was impossible then after 1 hour of luring them to my ally’s base, and letting them hang out at the bottom of the cliff, all of a sudden the enemy didn’t produce sonic tanks to attack me anymore. It was only then that I was able to counterattack and win. Was there some kind of trigger to stop producing sonic tanks after 1 hour? Oh I also lost in mission 4 the first time I played because I didn’t know I had to escort the Bromeli to the frigates. The objective didn’t mention that, so I was attacking the Atreides base instead of protecting my ally. All in all, super fun campaign! I’m glad and surprised that I can always find an even more custom Dune 2000 campaign each time I complete one!

Thanks for the suggestion. I played both the Fremen Warriors and Anti-fremen campaigns. There were interesting and unique. I like to build bases and attack so I naturally preferred the Anti-fremen campaign better, especially the last mission where you have to beat the Atreides and Fremen as the Emperor and you have a Harkonnen ally. Even 2v1.5 it was still hard (but fair)! I think I will go with your first suggestion and play Coalition of Nobles as the idea of playing as a bunch of weak houses to take down a strong house sounds challenging, fun and requires lots of teamwork (with computer allies is yet another challenge of its own). Btw, I beat the Final / Ending mission of the Butlerian Jihad! It wasn't as hard as mission 9 like you said, mainly because the enemy bases don't produces that fast and attacks with just a few units at a time, and the spice at the bottom of the base does grow, at least a few spice blooms did appear. I was expecting a full blown 1v5 kind of situation, but it felt more like a 1v2 and the computer enemies don't wait for a Huge force to attack, which is really really a relief when you are on your own. Oh and the extra MCVs + reinforcements every time I destroy a machine base really help a lot! I can build much faster and don't have to worry about sabateurs blowing my my main Con Yard. Also there were a lot of reinforcements like the devastators made the offensive easier (though you do have to watch out for those insidious deviators!)

Ah thank you for the recommendation and insights. I'm glad I found this forum which has so many well designed campaigns! When I first downloaded Gruntmods, I was already satisfied, but this is amazing! (Also the new launcher, which has featured campaigns, even more amazing!) I like hard missions not where you need more APMs to beat them, but finding a smart strategy or a critical enemy weakness, like mission 7 of this campaign. Oh, I also beat mission 9 last night! I beat it but it was much harder than I thought! The enemies kept on sending units non-stop from top, middle and bottom, making the micromanagement of defending those entrances a real chore (it was fun though). The saving grace is that my Ix Research center was well protected and stayed alive the whole time so I can pump out deviators from the gecko, and I have massive amount of credits to do it. Placing deviators in strategic locations really helped defending large waves of enemy forces, otherwise, I cannot build enough turrets in time. Anyways, only one more challenging mission left in this trilogy! =D

Very cool! I haven’t played the final 2 missions yet, but I’ve seen YouTube videos of other players. They are hard indeed. Although in mission 9 I will make Machine Allies build up massive attack forces by temporarily walling them off and I hope they can finish off all the enemies in one swoop! Wish me luck with my crazy idea. I think the final mission is the toughest because the spice doesn’t regrow, so you have to constantly move out and expand. Anyways, I had a lot of fun with this trilogy, in the plot and also the mission design. I think in the end I’ll miss it and I will wish it was an endless loop, an endless loop of endless fun missions! 😄

Ohh thank you for the recommendation! I do have an interest in coalition of nobles, and I’ve seen it as a featured campaign in the new mission launcher, v1.3. And the mission design sounds unique. I’ll give that a try then. btw, I beat mission 8. It wasn’t as hard as mission 7 solely because I just have to defend myself. I was able to wall off the top and build turrets on the right entrance. I also learned from another YouTuber to wall off the Atreides AI Ally base so that they build up a massive force, then I sell the walls and they pretty much have all the force required to wipe off the Ixians and Machines! 😄 of course I was attacking with them. I also had a peek into mission 9. Very cool idea to have the Ordos working with the unstoppable machines!

Haha yes I realized that Fey is not Feda after digging into this forum. Heh😅 but still, If he’s out here reading this, I still want him / her to know the war of assassins trilogy is a master piece! Way better done than Emperor battle for dune! (Although that game is not bad with the cinematic and all that) Yes, also thank you CM_blast for making all the cool campaigns! I already beat this one as it’s so unique and recommended by another Dune2k YouTuber so I played right after I finished WoA trilogy. I like the unique concept of having an Axotl tank. and it does seem to fit with the story of WoA: Ladsraad, as you play from the bad guy’s perspective. The gameplay is really different now that you are always given a group of cool infantry. Anyways, I’m loving the Butlerian Jihad Trilogy (also a master piece in terms of storytelling and having the mission to match the story, and also the intel map! It’s so cool to see a visual of the forces moving around Arrakis!), but I’m about to finish it. Would you recommend playing Frank Herbert campaign next? Or do you have other recommendations in mind? (I like playing difficult missions with a computer Ally)

Ah no worries then. I think normal difficulty compared to hard makes a huge difference in mission 7 because it takes longer and more money to produce units (while the AI takes less time and money?), so the enemy produces way more than the player can. Also the mercenaries foiling all Ally saving forces… sigh… I talked to the other YouTuber who recently released the mission 7 video and he said he ran into the same trap of destroying the Machine factories too early, and in the end he replayed without rushing in too early. Anyways, no worries either way because you make awesome custom dune 2000 campaigns! I actually already beat all 20 missions of the Tleilaxu Infestation campaign. I didn’t record it at the time though, I should have… . It was recommended by another Dune 2000 YouTuber, lol. I was thinking of playing Heretic Alliance after this campaign because I like to team up with computer Allies to take on bigger foes. Would you say that’s a good campaign to try next? Or do you have other recommended campaigns in mind? (I don’t mind playing hard missions, as long as they are beatable and have a good story, and preferably a decent computer Ally).

Ah interesting, do you have a video of your gameplay by any chance? I would love to see how you beat it (in hard mode preferably). Yes, playing these hard missions definitely makes you think about cost-effectiveness of your army. As a kid playing this many years ago, I used to always buy the most expensive things ASAP, because they are so cool (e.g. rocket turrets right away), but here, I realized the beauty of cheaper units like light infantry and gun turrets. They are just so fast and cheap to create and gets the basic job done! Anyways, yes, I took a sneak peek at mission 8, and Thank God (and also you, the creator of the mission), that I don't have to defend a Weak ally! I don't know how much of that I can handle before I table flip. Lol!

Ohhhhh thank you for the insight!! I see that I've fallen into the trap of finishing off the enemies too early thinking that will protect the Fremen from the Machine forces, but instead it was making them more vulnerable! That is the secret insider detail I desperately needed! Knowing this, I used the strategy of rushing to destroy the wind traps of 2 Machine bases instead, making their production massively slow, so slow that the Fremen can pretty much fend for themselves. Although there are still times I need to rescue them, and they are still down to 1 Sietch in the end. I thought everything was wonderful until the Fremen started attacking and successfully wiping out 2 of the Machine bases! Then I realized this is NOT good for them, but fortunately I found the little cliff area you mentioned where I can lure the Machine forces into my base, and I was able to lure multiple waves into my base until I am able to build a massive force to finish them off. This mission had me optimize my solaris like I'm a bum living on the streets, I did NOT dare to spend money on building upgrades unless I had to, and Omg, the grind and the nerve wracking this mission gave me... At every point of the game I thought the Fremen weren't gonna make it, my heart was at my throat the whole time! Anyways, you can watch the gameplay here (it's like my 10th attempt): p.s. Oh, I actually had enough credits and time to build a high tech factory and got to use the airstrike just at the end! It wasn't a game changer as I thought it would be. They only destroyed 1 wind trap, not 2 like I hoped. I would advise players to use the $3k+ to purchase tanks instead...