Jump to content

Miscellaneous suggestions


nemafakei

Recommended Posts

It's occurred to me that we need somewhere for suggestions pertaining to minor (or even not-so-minor) facets of the game. What I have in mind is very much a light-hearted melting-pot situation, as opposed to a thread exclusively for serious and deeply considered proposals.

I'll start off, to set the ball in motion.

- How about a 'status bar' like in the original DII? I want to see that my harvester is 98% full!

- To make the deviator more distinguishable, could the rocket-heads be black, like in the "insidious ordos" intro cinematic?

- Likewise, could something similar be done with the raider?

- What about an 'office assistant'-style mentat? Click on the mentat button and Cyril, Ammon or Radnor will pop up and help you mail merge your siege tanks (or just give unit descriptions). And if you ever extend or mod the game to include the ixians, you know where to look for a metallic mentat...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the suggestions, but i don't really understand the assistant feature. Just brainstorming; the assistant could be used to have contact with other sides in the game, even when they are not playing (ie, you are Harkonnen, have contact with Sardaukar, but you fight Atreides, which has contact with Fremen)... you could use your 'mentat' to reach out of the 'borders' (of the map) and try to get help from Sardaukar forces, ie, you get a minor objective in between (like a request of 1000 credits), you can say "yes" to that and pay the Sardaukar. Then the Sardaukar will send off some reinforcements to you...

Its an idea ;)

Anyway, i also thought of this minor one: Have the credits 'fall' or 'rise' like in the original DII? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- what about unit upgrades (speed, firepower, armor, range etc.)?

- additional superweapons (recon ornithopter, reinforcements, etc. - CnC-like)?

- crates? (again CnC-like)

There are still some things I keep wondering about:

1) whats the use of infantry squads now that unit groups can be selected?

2) Fremen intel is a good idea but still, the price constantly rising combined with the probability of 'revealing' an already uncovered area makes it unattractive, to my point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

in response to Fibble:

1) squads are still stronger? And they still give you that dune 2 feeling ;)

2) yes, i already changed price stuff for it (so , 1, it aint expensive, 2-> its getting less fast more expensive)... but i have to change it to-> Reveal unrevealed stuff

3) crates, hell yes! I like them very much

4) additional superweapons?... ornithopter stuff, well, the ornithopters are now (in MY 0.95 version) pretty good. You can really launch air-attacks, but why not? Reinforcements is nice as well

5) unit upgrades sounds good. I wonder what building to use, House of IX? Or create a new structure for this?

Further more, i begin to wonder if D2TM should remain as close to the original, or should expand further.... the question is, where is th elimit? (How to keep it 'original' while being 'true to dune2')

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the mentat-assistant, I meant more along the lines of having them ingame instead of in a screen of their own: so rather than pressing F1 and requesting info on a unit, you could hace the mentat 'talking' onscreen to inform you about a unit. Although the EBFD-style alliance idea sounds intriguing...

"Further more, i begin to wonder if D2TM should remain as close to the original, or should expand further.... the question is, where is th elimit? (How to keep it 'original' while being 'true to dune2')"

I think the extra ideas (including the fremen intelligence) would, as I think you've mentioned, be good as 'Arrakis', while 'The Maker' can retain the Dune II rules, with the only differences being refined controls and interface.

Regarding those ideas, though, mounds could be made into crates - the original intention (it seems from the DII manual) was to have them as crates; in fact, I think that's where crates came from in the first place.

Credits rolling as if on a cylindrical thing is definitely an attractive touch!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding those ideas, though, mounds could be made into crates - the original intention (it seems from the DII manual) was to have them as crates; in fact, I think that's where crates came from in the first place.

From the manual:

Mounds: What is under those big mounds in the sand? A number of surprises can be found under those mounds in the sand. Some of the items that can be found are: Spice blooms, hidden credits, abandoned vehicles, hiding enemy units, etc. How do you find out what is under the mound? You can move a unit over the top of the mound or shoot the mound. If you choose to move a unit over the mound and a Spice bloom is under it, your unit will be destroyed, and fresh Spice will appear on the surface. If you decide to shoot a mound and there are credits under it, those credits will no longer exist.

I wonder why they didn't keep it...  ???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, actually i thought you could even use them! I once fiddled around with it. Ie, you use your own scenario.ini file and you put in (where seed= is):  crates=  , or secrets=  , i dunno exactly. I THINK it was the first. But you actually had those crates thingy. Pretty neat, though they where 'nothing'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some other suggestions:

- takin' screenshots (well that's obvious);

- queueing unit/building production;

- setting waypoints for units and production buildings;

- unit group management: assigning keyboard numbers, Shift+select, Ctrl+select, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- You can already take screenshots (press F11)

- Queuing is built in for the next version already :P (darn i have to give away another feature)

- waypoints, thats a nice idea!

- the group management should be in when most bugs are squished, but it really should be in yes ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's some wild theory for your consideration that may probably become real (NOTE: most of the ideas aren't originally mine but are borrowed from an RTS game called Horde: North Wind - I wonder whether you've ever heard of such ???):

What about not having just single missions but a huge Dune map divided into several game maps, between which you can freely switch, move units from one map to another, etc.? E.g. each House starts at its own corner with a base that is the 'capital' and can furtherly expand by moving units into adjacent maps. Once you've got an MCV, you can move it into the next map, and start building there, and so on. The deeper you move into Dune, the more enemies you encounter. If you are defeated, you just retreat to the nearest region where there's a set up base, rebuild your army and have a comeback! Or, on more advanced tech levels, you can call in airborne reinforcements from other regions - if you have carryalls.

To make the gameplay more interesting, these things can be added:

- diplomacy: ally with one of the other Houses to defeat our enemies more efficiently, or face an alliance of both of your enemies;

- subhouses - not in the EBFD sense of the word, but independant non-playable factions such as Fremen, Mercenary and Sardaukar that may ally with the player or with his enemies, work for money, be conquered or give some quests;

- sneak attacks, airdrops and sabotage by the AI so that the already conquered territories don't become just completed missions;

- various unit upgrades (armor, firepower, speed, ROF, etc.) that allow to improve units in different ways, including some House-specific upgrades. It can be made so, for instance, that each upgrade type can be applied twice to a unit-type, and a unit-type can't have more than three upgrades applied to it: this will allow to adjust units to the purposes you require. Each House may have different upgrade effects, for example, Ordos speed upgrade will increase speed by more percent than the Harkonnen speed upgrade, and so on;

- endless Spice supplies due to the sandworm activity (like in Dune2k: spice blooms that randomly appear);

- a secret enemy faction that specializes on sabotage and can provoke a rebellion within your own ranks!

Heh, that's what I'd like to see in a Dune game. I'm sure you'll like some of the ideas ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, something like that sounds like music in my ears, but also really needs some complete rewrite!

A global warfare map where you can move from one battlefield to another, thats a big step and also something very new to me. I can't probably do that at once, though i will try to achieve somehting like that eventually step by step.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Further more, i begin to wonder if D2TM should remain as close to the original, or should expand further.... the question is, where is th elimit? (How to keep it 'original' while being 'true to dune2')

The answer of course to keep it as close as possible as default, with options (or the other way around, new features and content as default, with a "classic" mode available) for new graphics/sounds/gameplay options etc.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about making some Caladan, Gedi Prime and Orods Ice planet (forgot the name :P) tilesets? It could be fun to play Dune 2 on the homeplanets. I't shouldn't be too difficult, just some colormixing with the spice should look allright AFAIK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Nothing perhaps?....

the D2TM concept is that you mine spice per scenario, but also have a global economy. I have yet to think how to work out the game concept of D2TM (note, i am NOT talking about the DUNE2 mode, which is a clone of dune 2 as we all know). I was thinking of having small and bigger objectives to meet.

Ie. to get to caladan, you should have an amount of solaris to pay the guild so you can travel to Caladan. Etc..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep. The prices for military transport are high. You won't just try invading the enemy homeworld with a pair of troopers and an MCV ;D

On the other hand, you may take as many credits with you as you wish.

Also, maybe the homeworld missions should be with limited forces and reinforcements, and not with base construction, etc. You may capture enemy buildings and hijack their vehicles though :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just remember the book. Leto launched an attack on Giedi Prime to destroy the Harkonnen Spice stores. This weakened the Harkonnen, but still the Baron had a trump in his sleeve. The transport of his forces to Arrakis was already pre-paid I think, but, in case his plan didn't work, the Baron would end up with no money.

I think this makes sense, to store harvested spice at the homeworld.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...