Landsraad mod for Emperor Battle for Dune

[JulesG]

I have updated the mod massively following a period of testing.

As such I have removed all my various posts on the topic as they are now misleading.

See below other peoples posts for latest up to date news on the mod.

Thanks

JulesG

[Beonid]

With the ordos+tlielaxu alliance do you get the Living turret?

[stefanhendriks]

lol, ur working on a V2 while V1 never saw the light? ;)  ::)

[Beonid]

Wouldn't it be unfair for O-T alliance to have to build another building to get the leech and worm?

[stefanhendriks]

If i understand this correct, its a mod for Emperor?

[Inoculator9]

I'm literally giddy with anticipation :D

[stefanhendriks]

Oh course it's unlikely that anyone will realise what I've done when they play the mod... :(

...they will just moan about my choice of unit stats and any bugs... ::)

heh, i feel  your pain ;)

[Beonid]

Will you be adding extra units for when you ally with two certain subhouses like you did in ICW? And what are you going to do with the last campaign mission?

[JulesG]

Well I have been busy editing the Atreides missions which has thrown up a lot of issues in editing in-game text, voices and campaign play focus.

Also I discovered that the AI was not allowing the Computer a fair chance in the missions. I could either work round all the issues and boost the AI, or I could scale back my ambitions for this mod. I have decided to do the latter.

With this in mind I think the name should change:

Either:

Campaign of the Landsraad mod.

or

The Landsraad Campaign mod.

or

Campaign Alliances mod

This is to reflect that the sole purpose of this mod is to create a new series of SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGNs that follow on from the end of EBFD and allow the player to interact with new (and familiar) units for three different houses and new sub-houses.

The three main houses are:

1) Ixian - Atreides Alliance

2) House Corrino

3) Ordos - Tleilaxu Alliance (including Living turret)

To fit better with the defeat of the Guild Emperor-Worm and still having a hated enemy (original gameplay was TL and then TL-GU in last mission) I have reworked the sub-houses as follows:

Fremen

Harkonnen (was Imperial Sardaukar)

Suboid Mercenaries (was Ix)

Guild Army (was Tleilaxu) - the Guild is not completely defeated. These are the ground troops

Guild Navigators - the units with Navigators in.

The units and vehicles are still a bit fluid so I will just say that the focus is now on most units coming from the standard factory (including Seige tanks), with advanced vehicles coming from an additional Research Factory, except for Corrino that require a non-manufacturing Smelter building that allows you to build the Corrino Devastator from the main factory. The single factory of the Corrino is made up for in that their units are much stronger than any other house.

Work on the changes are nearly complete and so is the conversion of the ATR missions (all 50ish of them) to fit new storyline.

As always New unit descriptions, SFX voices/sounds and ICONs need doing.

Next task will be conversion of Harkonnen and Ordos missions to fit new storyline.

I will not be having any Dual-house units, any units not buildable in campaign/skirmish mode will be Level 3 experienced CAMPAIGN CRATE units as this fits with it being a SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN mod.

I doubt that I can change the end mission to anything else so it will just be - The Guild (on their own) attempt to bring back the Emperor Worm.

JulesG

[JulesG]

;D

Well the AI wooped my a**e the other day, I was playing as Ix and was attacked by Ordos. I had changed the Ix units to Sonic units - Great strong weapon BUT too slow, the lasertanks slipped by untouched and torched my ix units to death. Those that survived the lasertanks got infected by Leeches or killed by the rather more effective TLWorm (fires similar but faster sonic weapon). While this was happening the Dusties were shooting dead my light infantry and sonic troopers, so all in all looks like my balancing/weapons for Ix needs a re-think!

Still good news got the ATHawkStrike to look like the Chaos weapon but instead of sending units chaotic (or hawk retreat) it burns buildings and units to little bits. I have set the weapon so that the enemy Conyard just survives if at 100% health.

I am presently trying to redefine the ORLightning sfx to different colours, yet I am finding it is probably the most complex of all the xbfs I have modded as any slight change seems to break it.

Ordos and Ix missions converted, Hark missions conversion to Corrino left.

[Beonid]

Can we have some units then?

[JulesG]

:)OK then.

I have been trying to sort out the three main sides Superunit(s), and trying to get rid of the Corrino Phaser Devastator (having two Devs, one Seige plus one Heavy laser was too much but I like the Dev being the lead Corrino unit as Dual-Cannon Seige tank). Without the Laser Dev model I could then go back to having a separate ResearchCentre from which the two Corrion Superunits could come from.

I have also been trying to edit the Deviator xbf model into two different hover tanks, one to use as the Ixian Mongoose replacement (but no anti-air) and as the Stealthed Superunit.

So the result seems to be (subject to a few more tweaks):

I have not included Scouts, Generals (can now be built) and Engineers in list below. Each side has an ADP plus ADVCarryall and all have Lite Ornithopters.

There are less infantry as I have swopped around to gain an extra inital Lite vehicle in the build list. To balance each second infantry unit has dual anti-infantry and anti-vehicle capability. (Plus you can now build the General from the Palace)

Ixian

=====

Atreides Medium Infantry

Atreides Sonic Trooper

Ixian Hover Trike (new xbf model)

Ixian Hover Short-Range Dual-Cannon (new xbf model)

Ixian Heavy AA Missile APC (uses Ordos APC model)

Ixian Projector Hover Tank

Ixian Minotaur

From Ixian ResearchCentre

-------------------------

Ixian Stealth Mine (Infiltrator)

Ixian Sonic Steath Hover tank (new xbf model)

Superweapon

-----------

Hawk Missile - causes blast damage and then leaves Hawk splat

Corrino

=======

Imperial Sardaukar

Imperial ADV Sardaukar - with new blaster weapon

Corrino Lite Tank

Corrino Lite Flame Tank

Corrino Missile Mongoose

Corrino APC (with heavy machine gun)

Corrino Seige Tank (uses Devastator model)

From ResearchCentre (welcome back to the Imperial Pyramid from ICW but now with real damage models!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrino Repair Tank

Corrino Blaster Tank (uses ATSonictank model)

Superweapon

-----------

Plasma Energy Beam

Ordos

=====

FromTLFleshVat (replaces Barracks):

-----------------------------------

Contaminator

Ghola Gas Missile Trooper

Ghola Deployable Deviator Missile Trooper (requires ORResearchCentre)

TLLeech (needs ORFactory also)

From ORFactory

--------------

Ordos DustScout

Ordos LaserTank - with modified laser that does not react with shields

Ordos APC - fires Gas missiles

Ordos Kobra

From ResearchCentre

-------------------

Ordos Deviator - now with homing missiles.

Superweapon

-----------

Deviator Energy Beam

Sub-Houses

==========

Fremen

======

Sonic

Sniper

Saboteur

Sniper Trike (needs Suboid factory)

Harkonnen Barracks

=================

HK Infantry - cheap unit

HK InkVine Trooper

HK InkVine tank

Suboid Mercenary Factory

========================

Buzzsaw

Heavy tank

Missile Tank (needs Suboid factory and HK Factory)

Guild Army Base

===============

Gu Maker - with new anti-infantry and anti-tank weapon (Maker's breath)

Gu Captain - with hand laser and sword

Guild Navigators Palace

=======================

GUNIAB APC - no jump capability but can carry five Guild soldiers

GUNIABTank

[JulesG]

I have now completed the testing and allocation of units.

I have allowed a Gu Engineer to come from the old Sardaukar crates which allows you to attempt to capture more buildings in campaign mode including the Heighliner missions where you can capture Frigates and build either the Co Sardaukar, AT Infantry+AT Sonic or ORChemical+ORSaboteur

I am now @ 50% complete on converting Harkonnen to Corrino missions.

Icons are then the last thing to do.

Ixian

=====

Atreides Infantry

Atreides Sonic Trooper

Ixian Hover Short-Range Dual-Cannon (new xbf model)

Ixian Heavy AA Missile APC (uses Ordos APC model)

Ixian Projector Hover Tank

Ixian Minotaur

Atreides Ornithopter

Atreides ADP - missiles slightly weaker than original

From Ixian ResearchCentre

-------------------------

Ixian Stealth Mine (Infiltrator)

Ixian Sonic Steath Hover tank (new xbf model)

Superweapon

-----------

Death Missile - causes blast damage

Corrino

=======

Imperial Sardaukar

Imperial ADV Sardaukar

Corrino Buzzsaw

Corrino Missile Mongoose

Corrino APC Flame Tank

Corrino Seige Tank (uses Devastator model)

Corrino Lynx Fighter - uses ATornithopter missiles

Corrino ADP - unarmed flyer that can sense stealthed units.

From ResearchCentre (welcome back to the Imperial Pyramid from ICW but now with real damage models!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corrino Repair Tank

Corrino Heavy Long Range Missile Tank

Superweapon

-----------

Corrino General

Ordos

=====

FromTLFleshVat (replaces Barracks):

-----------------------------------

Ghola Gas Trooper

Ghola Missile Trooper

Ghola Deployable Deviator Missile Trooper (requires ORResearchCentre)

Contaminator

TLLeech (needs ORFactory also)

ORSaboteur can be got from crates or as reinforcement.

From ORFactory

--------------

Ordos DustScout

Ordos LaserTank - with modified laser that does not react with shields

Ordos APC

Ordos Chemical Gas Seige tank - is now InkVine model that throws Chemical Gas container that poisons infantry and burns vehicles

Ordos EITS

Ordos Air Mine (may swop this to Corrino)

From ResearchCentre

-------------------

Ordos Deviator - now with homing missiles.

Superweapon

-----------

Chaos Energy Beam

Sub-Houses

==========

Fremen

======

Sonic

Sniper

Saboteur

Harkonnen Barracks

=================

HK Infantry - cheap unit

HK InkVine Trooper

HK InkVine Assault tank

HK Gunship (requires HKhelipad [iMMonument])

Landsraad Factory

========================

Plasma Mortar Soldier

Heavy Trike

Quad

Plasma Seige Tank - uses ORKobra model

Landsraad Defence Platform - uses HKADP

Guild Army Base

===============

Gu Infantry - medium strength unit

Gu Maker - with new anti-infantry and anti-tank weapon (Maker's breath)

Gu Beam Tank - uses Atsonictank model and fires energy beam

Gu Engineer - fires energy beam weapon (Crate unit)

Guild Navigators Palace

=======================

GU Beam APC - can carry five Guild soldiers and fires energy Beam weapon

GUNIABTank

[JulesG]

:)Well after over two years of fiddling about I am on the last stretch with the mod almost 90% complete.

I have finished the three campaign mission conversions and are presently doing tidy-up/testing of the campaigns to pick up voice/text errors and check that the revised missions make sense.

I have just ICONs and AI upgrades to do.

So a few more months and the mod should be finished. Then there is just the problem of getting a 100Mb mod onto Dune2K...

[Andrew]

Just a reminder to back it up in case something happens like last time. :)

[erjin999]

Does this mod win the award for longest development time ?

Use some kind of p2p for distrobution, no ? Or do you think there will not be enough seeds/leechs whatever that it will not work ?  :-

[Andrew]

I would think a torrent system would work fine.

Get fed2k to host the torrent (which would say have a 50kb or 100kb/sec limit maybe) and have some users seed it as well. should be very easy to download then.

[erjin999]

But if there are only a handful of people with the file, and they are hardly online, its unlikely the file will be shared quickly.  ???

May be better to put it on several free hosts and split it up into small parts and let them download it from there.

[Andrew]

Well I would think that Fed2k could host it (IE seed torrent the whole time to make sure that at least one connection is online), but obviously there would be a throttle on it eventually as we wouldn't want to go over whatever bandwith limit it has. I wouldn't think it would be to hard for others to seed it at first (when most people are trying it out) whenever online, which would increase download speeds for others.

I just downloaded a Dune generations video and Fed2k was giving me 120-200 kb/s which is good. If fed2k could provide that or less when seeding, and others seeded whenever possible, shouldn't be too hard on fed2k. And the more people downloading in a torrent at once, the faster for everyone.

[JulesG]

Does this mod win the award for longest development time ?

If I complete it yes, however there are a number of mods that started before mine that seem to have either been abandoned or are making very slow progress.

Just a reminder to back it up in case something happens like last time. :)

;)Yes I have been doing that...

;D Oh and I have pinched Apollyon's Radar and 2k skirmish code - he will get credit for it (even though the whited-out radar does not work in mission mode, only in skirmish) in the readme. I am not using his zoom in code, I prefer my own version (goes in closer for checking unit markings) and I have my own colours, though I cant get the skirmish labels to be the same colour as the selected house colour (they are still the old colours - I must work out where the xbf picks them up from).

House colours are: Ix = Orange, Corrino = Imperial Purple, Ordos/TL = Very Dark Green

Additional skirmish colours are: Blue, Ordos Light Green, Guild Green, Yellow and Red.

I have started the boring job of creating icons, the quality is not great as once I scale the picture down to fit the icon size most of the quality is lost.

What colour should I use as a background on th icons? I first had a dark blue, am now trying a mid-grey?

[JulesG]

Anyone want to help finish this project?

I am bored doing ICONs, (I have only done a couple with loads to do) everything else is done...

If you are interested please IM me as I will need to burn a CD with all the build files to send to you.

[JulesG]

???

Well it has been a while since I updated.

I have started the boring icon work with Ix side 66% done.

Need to get on and do the other two houses plus sub-houses.

Changed some things around : Ix Missile Trooper to Plasma Trooper as could not complete the AT Heighliner mission otherwise. So I have switched some weapon explosions around, the Guild energy beam units now have the laser feedback explosion (once I fixed the black square that appears every time the explosion hits sand!)

The Ix Plasma units (Projector, StealthTank and Trooper) have instant hit (speed = -1) DevImpact explosions while the Ix Plasma Mortar Turret now uses an unused explosion xbf that includes a devimpact ring, flames and smoke...

So the Sonic weapons are now only used by Ix Engineer, ATGeneral and ADVFremen

Then the Landsraad Plasma Mortar Trooper and "Kobra" use the DevPlasma bullet (nice effects in trajectory mode) and small explosions as the explosion.

MESSAGE To Oneself!

Must stop messing about with little details and get the icons done!

[JulesG]

Then the Landsraad Plasma Mortar Trooper and "Kobra" use the DevPlasma bullet (nice effects in trajectory mode) and small explosions as the explosion

See below for picture example...

[attachment deleted by Gobalopper]

[erjin999]

That looks extremely pretty, and looks like it should kill lots of inf :)

[veK]

I'm excited... can't wait to play a single player mod  :)