An invitation to all!

[Diddily]

I think everyone here knows that the Dune universe is extremely well developed. Trying to tangibly recreate it is no easy task, yet it

[TMA_1]

Looks really awesome! I am not one to look too favorably at Dune mods, as most I have seen just dont cut it in one way or another. This looks pretty darn good though. Tribes is an awesome multi-player game in it's own right, and hopefully this will do justice, looks great so far.

I have a question though, what do your weapons look like? What do the little details look like? I would love to help, as I have thought of these things in my head so many times that I would love to help.

Also with the maps, that would be great fun, but sadly I dont know how to make maps for tribes, but best of luck to you guys! and if you need help involving things concerning dune, please pm me. :)

[Diddily]

The mod does it's best to not be your typical mod, rather it is aimed towards recreating the Dune universe first. If you want to see what the players look like, they are all skinned and screenshots can be found at http://jmods.bravepages.com/duness.html There are aslo custom made emblems made by yours truely found at http://www.dune2k.com/forum/index.php?topic=16004.msg270377#msg270377 The weapons however are the basic Tribes shapes (changing those would force players to download things and set them up in order to play... very messy and kills player influx).

Even though you don't know how to make maps, we'd be MORE than willing to help you personally and I could provide you with some sites that give you basic knowledge. And... I'm guessing you've played Tribes before... so how about you stop on by the server and try out the gameplay. Just look for the DUNE mod.

Erm, sorry if I come across as a sleezy saleman type. I just really want to get some people on the forum involved because I know they'll enjoy it.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Wanted to point out a few additional things.

Part I:

First, that if there's any special feature that's required in your (no more then 1 person so far? :/) ideas--scripting wise--we'll (by we, I mean I, unless I think my slave needs more work and myself less) write it up for you (unless it isn't possible, which we'll then find a way to hack around it not being possible). This could include things like drop ships comming in, or automated vehicles (like in Diddily's Ix based map), or any other special sequences you can come up with (another example that springs to mind, is the collapsing of the cave enterences on the last mission of the Night Attack campaign).

Also, in terms of "mission objectives" for each team involved (anywhere from 2 to 7 teams can be involved in one "mission") we currently have and use the following:

*Capture the flag (not used very much; doesn't make too much sense for the setting, and more often then not is a very bad form of mission objectives for Dune...)

*Capture and Hold (You have to hold certain positions for cumulative points. Arena maps tend to work this way, only containing just one "switch" (that which marks a position))

(Discrete)Capture and Hold (Same as above, and actually named the same, except that you don't get cumulative points; instead you have to hold X (usually all) of the objectives at one time to win)

*Defend and Destroy (Not used too much currently but can be. Basically each team is trying to destroy eachother's base assets)

Hunt (One team has an arbitary objective, like hitting a switch, while the other team's only objective is to kill the enemy soldiers)

Assault (One team defends a base, the other team attacks it. The defending team has to hold out for X amount of time, and the attackers must destroy everything before that timer runs out)

Of course, any mix of the above can be done, and any new ideas you want to implement can probably be done just as easily (i.e. you don't have to use those ones above if you don't want to). The starred ones are default Tribes objective types by the way (there's a few more default ones that we arn't currently using: Multiple-Flag and Deathmatch)

Part II:

We're not just looking for mappers in terms of help though. If you want to help out in other (possibly less creative, or maybe less actual work) ways, we could use more "actors" for additional movies. I'll start making more as soon as I get some free time (a couple of weeks) and hopefully I'll have more "characters" in them, which means I'll need more actors. So if you want to help out there, then the only thing you'ld need to do is have the game and (hopefully) have at least some understanding of how to play.

Part III:

Leadership... Ok, so maybe you're not all that good at FPS games, or in general they tend to bore you, because they're not very... well, thought provoking. RTS players in particular might subscribe to this theory (not a bad one). Fortunately, this game doesn't really hold to that theory. Sure, there's a mission or two that's just there for relaxation, and don't require any sort of problem solving (although to be honest, in every fight you encounter, you'll do better thinking on your feet, due to the complex nature of the combat), but in general the missions force you to work as a team, and work out a way to defeat the other team. It has quite a few checks-and-ballances which relate directly to more complex problems that need to be solved in order to win then your average (or above average) FPS. Add that to the fact that someone on the other team is doing the exact same type of thinking, in order to cause you to lose. This is where leadership comes in. Currently, we have a bit of lack of leadership. There's one or two pretty good ones, but not a whole lot. In fact, (not trying to brag, just bring home a point) whenever I stop to play, my team almost always wins, even if it was drastically behind. And it's not because I'm really good at individual fights; it's because I do my best to rally my team, and execute a meaningfull strategy to defeat the other team: Leadership. And it *always* wins out against an unorganized team. So, althought having an extra sword on your side is nice, having a leader that'll get things organized, moving, and solving the problem of winning, is much better (ya, you'll probably still need to fight sometimes; if you're dead, you can't give orders/commands to your team, so you've got to at least keep yourself alive ;)).

So, we can use more leaders. That's either arbitary (come on and play at any time) or if you want a more concrete way of doing it (and a little bit more responsibility), join up and lead one of the Houses. Amazingly (to me) House Atreides still doesn't have a leader at this point. Nor do Ix (House Vernius; there's actually a vote right now as to which we should call it officially; thoughts?), and we have no one waving the banner of a custom Minor House. Then there's different levels of leadership... directing the battle from home base? or giving directives to a small group of men executing part of a larger objective (this one requires a bit more fighting :P)? In this case, pick your favorite house, or the one your ideology fits most closely with, and you'll probably fit in just fine (I've noticed a lot of people tend to join the Harkonnen; I'm not sure if this is due to recruitment campaigns, or because they all like to be rude :P).

Questions? :D

[Anathema]

It looks really good! However I'm to hung up with school untill the summer vacation so I wouldn't be of much use :-

[Diddily]

Trust me, I know how ya feel. I have 4 APs and lots of grueling labor until the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, the only reason I have time to work on this mod is because Tezcatlipoca has a whip trained on my back for whenever he catches me squandering a free moment away. In fact he may even whip me for posting... :-X

Anywho, yeah... if you have to wait til summer that's fine. If you find free time prior to that don't hesitate to join us, we'd love to have you playing. Of course, you could always tell your teachers that you have a very important game set aside online to try out the Dune Tribes Mod, I'm sure they'd understand.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Tezcatlipoca has a whip trained on my back for whenever he catches me squandering a free moment away.

We'll I'm not paying you for doing nothing! Besides I need someone to 'motivate.' After all, should any of these good people wish to apply their abilities into making a great game better (and manifesting their own imagination in terms of the subject) they'd all be helping out as willing supporters, completely separate from my chain of command.

By the way; I'm not getting much feedback in terms of a proposed name change of Ix->House Vernius from the currently community of players (about half of which probably don't recognize the second name), which I mentioned in the earlier post. Anybody here have some suggestions on the subject?

It looks really good! However I'm to hung up with school untill the summer vacation so I wouldn't be of much use :-

Thanks for the complement :). If you're still willing when you have some free time, I'd love to see what ideas you can produce. Until then, if you want we can show you around the actual game in whatever minor blocks of time you may have, should you want to (better you play a few times first so you understand the game elements/atmosphere).

Btw... if anybody has any ideas we'd love to hear them; just post them here. Not having time or ambition to help is understandable. But if you have ideas that you want to share, it can only help make things that much better.

[Andrew]

By the way; I'm not getting much feedback in terms of a proposed name change of Ix->House Vernius from the currently community of players (about half of which probably don't recognize the second name), which I mentioned in the earlier post. Anybody here have some suggestions on the subject?

I don't understand why you would even think of changing the name from IX to Vernius. Is this a prequel game? :P

I'd say keep it IX unless you plan on getting rid of the technology stuff from IX.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I don't understand why you would even think of changing the name from IX to Vernius. Is this a prequel game? :P

Extreamly well made point (no it isn't a prequel game). I hadn't even considered that the term wasn't original, or at least in the DE. But after a few quick searches, I found that it appears no where in the original novels. How horrid that those books have managed to inject me with misinformation without having even read them. I'll certainly remember this for the next time someone wishes to argue that Brian's books don't harm the community! :P

That of course more or less settles that question (the players were resistant to that change anyway).

As for other ideas, fire away!

For instance, I've a player (The current leader of Bene Tlielaxu) who expressed that they wanted to see more missions in which BT is a primary team. Currently there arn't any. While most of the maps are "generic" team vs team--meaning whatever the current teams are for the server, those are the teams that play the mission--some missions force a certain team to be in the game. For instance, in the night attack campaign, it forces the two teams involved to be the Harkonnen and Atreides (for obvious reasons). In a map depiciting an invasion of a military compound on Caladan, one team (defending of ocurse) is forced to be the Atreides, while the other team is whatever is currently being used on the server. Same with one depicting an attack on Salus Secundus, where one team (again defending) is House Corrino, while the other is whatever is currently being used on the server.

His request was for a few maps that have BT as one of the forced teams, since BT rarely gets switched in as a default team on the server. The only trouble is, I'm not too sure what kind of mission would be a good setting for BT to be a forced team. Anyone have any ideas?

Currently, there arn't any maps with BT as a forced team, or with Ix (although one is in the works as mentioned earlier in the thread), although there is one with HC(Corrino). The majority of forced team maps of course involve HH(Harkonnen) or HA(Atreides) or both.

I was able to (hopefully) satisfy him a little bit (I'm not sure he knows yet; it's a recent change) since I made the Harko Arena--a mission in which basically you join one of three sides in the arena, and whichever house controls the floor the longest (wins the most fights normally) wins the competition--have HH as a forced team, and then does a forced team selection for the other two, but picks two of the remaining 6 teams at random. So there's a random chance that BT would get selected as one of those team when the mission starts.

**That wasn't confusing at all was it? o.O