Will

Working on a custom campaign and mod. Mod part is mostly done, now working on the Ordos campaign. This is progressing well; for now I'm not making things super complicated and it's just 1 mission per level. I will need new briefings and Mentat text, however, to reflect the changes in storyline and the tech tree. So, after many, many hours of research I figured out how to find, view, extract, decompress and edit the Mentat strings. What I've learned so far: 1. Choose "Westwood String Table Files (.ENG)" in SST Editor's file picker dialog, as read in a forum post. 2. Open MENTATO.ENG in SST Editor (which I extracted from ENGLISH.PAK using WestPak). 3. Auto Decompression is set to OFF, Use Compression is set to ON, as described in several forum posts. 4. I change one single letter to something else in SST Editor (to test I just changed the Raider Trike's armament description from "Light" to "Lighr". So not even changing string lengths or anything! Just substituting a letter for another one.) 5. Click Apply Changes. 6. Save File and close SSTE. 7. Run WestPak2_0.68a -> set Fix in the top menu bar to Dune 2 (I don't even know if this matters) 8. Using WestPak, Open ENGLISH.PAK 9. Select MENTATO.ENG in the PAK file -> right click -> replace with the one I just edited 10. Close WestPak 11. Start game -> start or load a game. 12. Go to Mentat screen -> click any entry other than mission briefing/advice -> DOSbox completely hangs requiring me to restart it. I'm at my wit's end here, how do I work this absolute hell-beast of a program?. I'm using the 1.0.2.27 RC4 version of SST Editor, Dune 2 1.07 HitSquad version (not cracked) with the extra 1.07 fixes applied. *edit* Guess we don't use BBcode here anymore ;D oops. fixed.

Working on a little project I think I found an issue with the editor that broke my exe. I set the missile tank (Launcher) projectile ("Rocket") to be accurate. Now of course it's extremely OP so I modified the damage values. First I changed it in the Launcher's entry from 75 -> 35. This did not reduce the damage. Then I changed the damage in the Rocket weapon's entry from 75 -> 35. This worked. Then I figured, may as well set damage to 0 in the Launcher's entry since it doesn't do anything. Turns out I had accidentally also set damage to 0 for the weapon while making that change. So, Launcher has 0 damage output, its Rocket weapon also 0 damage output. But it does actually deal about 35 damage in the game. (!!) My problem is that setting the damage values for both the Launcher *and* the Rockets back to their original ones does not work, I am stuck with low-damage launchers. It seems something broke in the exe. I also removed the accuracy from the rockets just to be sure. Still borked. I googled around but can't find anything, and I just can't figure out what happened here. Anyone? *edit* After restoring the values to their originals, it took several restarts of the game for the changes to "stick". No clue how this works or why this happened.

:D this is rich! Let's see how this pans out. [me=Will]grabs some popcorn...[/me]

Hmm, I don't really have the same experience. Buildings repair WAY too fast in Dune II, IMO. It's especially frustrating when it takes ages to destroy a rocket turret, and it's immediately replaced by the AI. If building repair speed were to be reduced by, say, 50%, then it sounds like a good idea.

That seems very likely, yes. Did you know this is also in Red Alert 1? (Probably :P) I once multiplied all weapon damage by 10 (or so) in the rules.ini, and suddenly Artillery units had Cruiser shell explosions when they fired. All the projectile weapons now had changed explosion graphics (except for the Cruiser's shots, because those used the biggest cannon explosion graphic available in the game already).

I agree, the 'area guard' command causes the unit to move to its spawn location before commencing guarding said spawn point. It doesn't have anything to do with the 'retreat' command other than sharing a similar 'return to spawn point' part of the script. It's definitely a bug. I've tested this in the US and HitSquad versions.

I am very interested in this. I should *really* learn how to do ASM...

I've never been able to destroy concrete using any number of quad/trike/trooper bullets or combat tank shots, until I increased the damage to 40+. I think it's a property of the explosion type that comes with that amount of damage.

I have some new information - at least, I think it's new - about unit weapon damage. For bullet weapons (pistol, cannon) the explosion graphic that is used depends on the damage the weapon does. Under 10 damage: pistol graphics. 10-39 damage: tank shot explosion. 40+ damage: devastator shot explosion [this also destroys spice and concrete!) I found this out when I increased the Quad's damage to 10 and it started showing tank shell explosions when it hit something. Similarly, increasing the Combat Tank's damage to 40 also switched the graphic and explosion properties to that of a Devastator shell. Another thing is that with small amounts of damage (infantry, trooper machine guns, trikes, quads), the damage positioning causes the damage to be halved, rounded DOWN. That's a pretty big difference. That's why I recommend changing the unit's damage to an even number. 5 damage is reduced to 2, but 6 damage is reduced to 3. First option reduces damage by 60%, the other by 50%. It's not much, but until someone fixes the bug... On the other hand, I quite enjoy the mini-game of correct unit positioning... :P

You are correct.

I'm just about done, 3 more missions to go. However, I'm changing some aspects of the balancing, so it'll probably be a little while longer.

Yes. I tried this, and when you press Area Guard, the unit moves back to its original position (as per the Retreat command) and Area Guards that spot. :(

If you need someone to edit the mentat descriptions and you don't feel you have enough time, I'd be happy to help you. Just sayin'.

I just played the Fremen mission again, and I didn't have too much trouble. I wonder why I had the idea that it was so difficult; must have confused it with another mission. The Merc one is way harder. I think I'll try using more infantry next time.

You get swarmed, yes. One harvester isn't quite enough to get your economy going, especially when compared to the amount of enemy units appearing at once. Every time I play Mercenary or Fremen mission 1, it's a battle of attrition. I don't think I've even beaten the first Fremen mission yet. Also, on the missions with enemy 'thopters, sometimes 6 or more 'thopters appear at once [i suspect reinforcements, am I right?], pretty much wasting everything before you can really get a rocket turret up. I have the same problem in my own campaign when giving the AI more than two Hi-Tech factories: it likes to spend virtually ALL its starting money on 'thopters. Anyway, about the difficulty: no biggie, really, but it means I don't play SD2eX as much as I'd like to. I like to think I'm pretty good at Dune II, but I just don't have the patience to replay a very slow defeat by attrition too many times.