Redux 3 Beta Has Arrived

[neonext]

REDUX 3 NEWS AND DISCUSSION

This post is occasionally updated. Check back for new info.

LAST UPDATED: August 14th

CURRENT VERSION IS: 1.02

LATEST NEWS: I am way too busy to continue development at this time. When I have more free time I will probably continue, at least at a slow pace.

To download, please visit the official Redux site:

http://redux.dune2k.com

If your submitted bug didn't make the list, it either was overlooked (for now), isn't planned to be fixed (for at least a long time), or more likely wasn't able to be reproduced. Thanks to those who have helped with development (names are in parenthesis).

CURRENT BUG/MISSING FEATURE LIST

- structure based credit limits do not function correctly (andrew)

- problems with how barracks and hightech are arranged in structs.txt which relates to sides building wrong

types of units in campaign mode

- Units sometimes occupy same cells (andrew)

- extend unit selection (cyborg)

- remaining unit actions

- give defensive structures orders (?)

- Various clipping problems (cyborg)

- Carryalls need abilities

- Usages of power, like turning the rocket turrets off

- MCV drop offs ocur when player already has a construction center

- Starport usage

- Ability to change quick credit change button & ability to save all skirmish menu options

- Saved games (both skirmish and campaign)

- Way of scrolling through map list on skirmish menu

- Finish screens for the campaign mode

- Health bars for units

If you notice features that are missing, or bugs that need to be fixed, please post them. You will be given credit.

Also, if you want to help out with the Dune 2 mod, edit the mod data/art and help make the Dune 2 mod the best it can be. Significant updates will be posted on the website with credit given to the authors.

[Andrew]

Any reason why it tries to connect to the internet when it starts? (First time starting it)

The blacked out part is an IP address. Could be mine.

I tried playing a campiagn but everything turned black except for teh credits and a couple of otther things.

Then I went into menu and told it to go into a scenario while this was happening and it froze.

Scenario works after the program restarted, although ti still keeps asking to connect to something, and I keep denying it. When I place a quad the surface for it looks like sand, although I thought it was a slab?

Definitely looks better than the other versions. Or maybe it is just the mod.

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[stefanhendriks]

Ok, here goes after one scenario played (and lost):

- the dune 2 gfx looks like they are somehow downgraded. I refer to rock, sand, etc. It looks like they consist of fewer colors then the original dune 2 tiles?

- same goes for units, some units look odd. Ie, the harvester has some weird yellow colors in it (i was atreides, blue)

- in the main menu, when i click an option: graphically it updates immidiatly. But the sound 'click' comes a second later?

- i choose 'scenario' game, and i saw you could set unit limits, etc. When i clicked on one, it upped the value. But it turned red. I thought "oops, bad", so i thought "right-click" could be 'downwards' , but it did not help. Perhaps an idea ;)

- the sandworm in the game continiously attacked my harvester, even if i put it on rock. It did not do anything else. (Searching for a new unit, etc). It was stuck there forever! :)

- perhaps its an idea to remember how 'far' you scrolled on the sidebar. Like, when i build a heavy factory and de-select the constyard, the sidebar dissapears. But when i see its done building, i have to click on the sidebar, then click on the 'scroll' buttons adn there it is again. It would be nice if the sidebar could remember where i was at the point i de-selected the structure.

- when i deselected everything and went over an enemy structure with the mouse, it turned into an 'attack' cursor. I did not want to attack (with what anyways? ;)) i simply wanted to know how much damage the structure had... but i could not figure that out.

Well so far my notes. All in all very impressive because its all modded AND a beta ;)

I also had this internet thing.... You're not gathering secret info do ya? :P

[neonext]

Any reason why it tries to connect to the internet when it starts? (First time starting it)

The blacked out part is an IP address. Could be mine.

Although there is no multiplayer right now, the base coding for multiplayer is there, and to make things easier every game is actually a multiplayer game without any other players (or any actual game data being sent/recieved). When the game starts up, it is mearly scanning for local TCP/IP games.

I tried playing a campiagn but everything turned black except for the credits and a couple of otther things.

That doesn't sound very good at all. Anyone else have this problem?

Then I went into menu and told it to go into a scenario while this was happening and it froze.

Does it always freeze when you go to menu from in-game?

Scenario works after the program restarted, although ti still keeps asking to connect to something, and I keep denying it. When I place a quad the surface for it looks like sand, although I thought it was a slab?

Yup, this needs to be fixed, and so far concrete has no use either.

Definitely looks better than the other versions. Or maybe it is just the mod.

There's tons of new animation and the physics have been greatly improved. Anyone like the build animations I made for the structures?

Thanks for your bug report and thanks for playing

[neonext]

Ok, here goes after one scenario played (and lost):

- the dune 2 gfx looks like they are somehow downgraded. I refer to rock, sand, etc. It looks like they consist of fewer colors then the original dune 2 tiles?

There are two reasons for this. The biggest reason is that I took my Redux 2 graphics, which were 32x32, and downsized them to 24x24 which made them lose some quality. The other reason is that I reduced the color depth of almost all images included to 256 colors to lower the download size. That doesn't mean the game displays everything with 256 colors, it just converts the images to 16 bit. All the 256 color images have different palletes, so if they were displayed in 8 bit color, they would all look very strange. Maybe I can sent you the 24 bit version of the terrain file and we can see if it even makes a difference.

- same goes for units, some units look odd. Ie, the harvester has some weird yellow colors in it (i was atreides, blue)

Yes this is true. Part of my optimizing plans are to change the way it colors the units, but thanks for pointing this out - it needs to be added to the bug list

- in the main menu, when i click an option: graphically it updates immidiatly. But the sound 'click' comes a second later?

I'll look into this. Anyone else have this problem?

- i choose 'scenario' game, and i saw you could set unit limits, etc. When i clicked on one, it upped the value. But it turned red. I thought "oops, bad", so i thought "right-click" could be 'downwards' , but it did not help. Perhaps an idea ;)

Yes I am a bit lazy sometimes ;D. I will add this to the list.

- the sandworm in the game continiously attacked my harvester, even if i put it on rock. It did not do anything else. (Searching for a new unit, etc). It was stuck there forever! :)

I've never even seen the sandworm attack a unit, so this is good and bad news for me :). I will make sure this gets fixed. I was also wondering, maybe the sandworm needs to retreat to somewhere else on the map when it's being overwhelmingly attacked? Or perhaps disappear off the map altogether for awhile? Maybe I can also change the reinforcement object to allow sandworms to be placed on the map during battle in case they are killed off entirely?

- perhaps its an idea to remember how 'far' you scrolled on the sidebar. Like, when i build a heavy factory and de-select the constyard, the sidebar dissapears. But when i see its done building, i have to click on the sidebar, then click on the 'scroll' buttons adn there it is again. It would be nice if the sidebar could remember where i was at the point i de-selected the structure.

Agreed. I'll add this

- when i deselected everything and went over an enemy structure with the mouse, it turned into an 'attack' cursor. I did not want to attack (with what anyways? ;)) i simply wanted to know how much damage the structure had... but i could not figure that out.

This definitally needs to be fixed. All you have to do is build palaces and you can easily win without clearing any shroud and without even knowing where the AI builds.

Well so far my notes. All in all very impressive because its all modded AND a beta ;)

I also had this internet thing.... You're not gathering secret info do ya? :P

Thanks. Feel free to have your firewall block it, it won't make a difference. Thanks Stefan, for playing and for your extensive bug reporting. I appreciate it

[Cyborg]

Here are the bugs I found:

* The game can't load a single map in the campgain without showing an error message.

* The harvester doesn't return to the spice field after delivering the first harvest.

* My tanks are very hesitant at best to attack enemies; they just stand there after killing one thing, refusing to attack anything more.

* The rocket turret in my base only attacks infantry. And it only kills one infantry, say, every ten-twenty seconds. Actually, a group of five men ran into my base and killed everything ( except buildings, which they seemingly didn't want to destroy ) before the rocket turret had even thought about turning its turret.

* The enemy build loads and loads of inantry. Because my tanks don't feel like attacking more than one enemy at all, I stand no chance at all.

* A quad is almost as good as my tank. Why? And why are tanks so expensive? A combat tank should be $400, not $800.

By the way, I was Corrino.

[neonext]

i took a small break, but i'm back and ready to tackle the bugs.

Here are the bugs I found:

* The game can't load a single map in the campgain without showing an error message.

Does this happen every time? Has anyone else had this problem?

* The harvester doesn't return to the spice field after delivering the first harvest.

* My tanks are very hesitant at best to attack enemies; they just stand there after killing one thing, refusing to attack anything more.

* The rocket turret in my base only attacks infantry. And it only kills one infantry, say, every ten-twenty seconds. Actually, a group of five men ran into my base and killed everything ( except buildings, which they seemingly didn't want to destroy ) before the rocket turret had even thought about turning its turret.

* The enemy build loads and loads of inantry. Because my tanks don't feel like attacking more than one enemy at all, I stand no chance at all.

These are all valid. Good bug reporting

* A quad is almost as good as my tank. Why? And why are tanks so expensive? A combat tank should be $400, not $800.

Why does a refinery that includes a harvester cost 400 but a harvester by itself is 1200? i admit the game data is way off. i didnt have time to adjust all the numbers, and i probably wont for awhile. it would be nice if someone edited the files and came up with a good balance

Thx for the report cyborg

[neonext]

btw there are 2 cheat codes so far (already exists in beta 1). press enter to bring up the chat prompt, and then type in the following codes without the quotes: "credits" - get 2,500 credits instantly, "showme" - reveal entire map

[neonext]

The first update is finished, and has been uploaded to the official Redux site.

Please visit http://redux.dune2k.com/ to download this update.

The names of those who helped with particular items are in parenthesis. Special thanks to these people :)

- The right mouse button now works all over the skirmish menu (Stefan)

- Structures now remember what menu page you were on last (Stefan)

- The cursor is now a normal arrow pointer when no units are selected (Stefan)

- The cursor no longer changes for units/structures that are beneath shroud

- You can now select enemy structures and see how much health they have (Stefan)

- Structure health bars are now correct lengths and are much easier to see

- The graphics for concrete slabs are now displayed correctly

- The size of the placing icon for the quad slab is now correct

- The animation for selecting a spot on the ground no longer remains after completing

- The rally point flag and move cursor are no longer displayed for construction centers

- When structures are placed they now receive damage based on the number of concrete slabs missing beneath them. For now this will not apply to AI players

- New line added to game.txt: "Concrete Used=". Put "Yes" if the mod uses concrete (gives damage for not having concrete foundations for structures)

- Fixed bug that prevented sand worms from eating units

- Fixed infantry colors and now drawing of infantry is much faster

- Vehicles have smaller radius where they run off and attack structures on their own (Cyborg)

- Vehicles are much more likely to attack infantry in range, but only after enemy vehicles nearby are destroyed (Cyborg)

- Infantry are now more likely to attack enemy infantry before vehicles

- Fixed problem with infantry walking through walls

- Fixed bug where infantry would have problems targeting nearby structures

- AI players now launch attacks with infantry better

- Infantry are much more likely to attack other infantry within their range

- Fixed some problems with harvesters getting sidetracked and just sitting around (Cyborg)

- Fixed bug causing defensive structures to not aquire targets at the edge of their weapon's range (Cyborg)

- Fixed delay between shots fired by defensive structures (Cyborg)

- You can now choose to not show the infobox instead of showing the scores or radar

- Added bars and translucent background to scores display

- You can now select the mod you want to play on the Mods menu

- Changed health and cost for all vehicles, aircraft, and structures (Cyborg)

- The attack cursor is now shown for enemy infantry

- Infanty killed by splash damage now show their death animations

- Fixed some color changing problems for units (Stefan)

[stefanhendriks]

Tried BETA 2.

I could not properly test it because:

- in every resolution, depth, windowed or not, music/sound ON/OFF

the game runs with 3 FPS or LESS. I don't know why, but thats the fastest i get...

This is only in the game, in the menu it works fine.

[neonext]

does it do this even when there is no score window?

[stefanhendriks]

score window?

It does this with and without sidebar. I don't know what you mean by scorewindow. Also, i cannot get into the menu again by pressing ESC. Since its just so slow, i can't 'hold' the key, because it then 'unselects' them (as keyboard still has the same speed due the interupt).

[neonext]

i dont understand why your framerate dropped so much with the new version. if anything it should have drastically improved. has anyone else even tried the new version yet?

on my slowest maching i get 220 fps without the score window, and a decent 55 fps with the score window (the little box on the top right that you press tab to show)

[stefanhendriks]

the score window eats so much fps!? there definatly has something to be changed there i guess. I will try the tab key.

[stefanhendriks]

tried, makes no difference. The scoreboard does not drop any fps for me, its the overl game that is very slow. I have no clue whatsoever. I simply do single play, and hit start immidiatly.

[jordos]

I notice no slowness here, with or without scoreboard.

(athlon xp 2000+ w 512mb ram)

[stefanhendriks]

i wonder how this could be, i simply reinstalled BETA 1 and then updated it with BETA 2 and still got the problem? :S

[Andrew]

Maybe you are supposed to install a clean version without updating over an old version?

[stefanhendriks]

thats what i did. I downloaded the BETA 1 package, and updated it with the BETA 2 package. Since the BETA 2 package on the site is meant to update BETA 1...

[neonext]

you shouldnt need to reinstall beta 1. perhaps it is something to do with your system, although i cant imagine what else has changed that would cause a problem like that. after you reinstall beta 1, does it still work fine? (and then not work again when you update to beta 2?)

does the game actually show 3 fps when you turn on the fps meter?

[stefanhendriks]

With toggle, it shows 7 fps.

I have tried this:

- using my laptop only

- using the external monitor

- reinstalling BETA 1 first, tried it, same problem now!

- BETA 2, same problem

I changed some settings, i did not update my drivers anywhere. The only difference is, that i have installed a monitor driver for my external one, but even when not using that it causes this.

I also tried things like , changing my visual theme in windows, turning it off. Etc. But none of them have effect.

I bet it is just my computer, but i do wonder why all other programs just run fine.

[neonext]

work is quickly coming along on the next update. the update will have a few important bug fixes that i knew were going to be a pain, but as i see it they are very necessary. everything else in the update is still up in the air and will probably be many items on the original bug list and whatever new items the community might come up with.

i wish everyone could see the cnc mod. so far it takes the most advantage of the engine, and with all the graphics and sounds in it, it's pretty cool (and fun! :)

[neonext]

the current bug list is now empty! if there's no testers for beta 3 and nothing too demanding from mod development that's going on now, this will probably be the last development update

[Cyborg]

I'd like to test it.

[neonext]

cool =)

i've been working a lot on mods lately, but instead of that i'll focus on getting the update released so it can be tested