Newbie Questions

[Chosenone]

I've played Emperor back in 2001, and I thought it was the greatest strategy science fiction game, and the most underrated strategy game. Even though I thought the gaming plot was horrid (especially at the end with that emperor worm bull and all), the gameplay itself was great. However, for a long time I stoped playing it and now a lot of things changed. I just want to know a few questions, mostly about the mods (this is why I posted it in this forum):

1. Is the online community still active? Also, do people still mass on light vechiles?

2. I've heard of the mods from a few of my friends so I just want to know what expansion changes what. Such as Colapse of a Dynasty, house expansion and Shai Hulad, and other basic info. I've also heard of bugs that make the game crash during loading, I just want to know how to avoid that.

3. If I do download a mod/expansion, will I be able to go back to the orginal game as well?

4. Will House Atreides still be playable in a skermish battle?

5. This there a page that gives out all of the information on the expansions?

If I made a related topic, or if this is in the wrong forum I'm sorry.

[JulesG]

1) There is a core of players see other topics for the server addresses.

2) Collapse of a Dynasty - mod for At+Hk+Or with extra units (Quads, tanks) and light factory, ideas based on Dune2K.

House Expansion - cant remember, think it is a mini-mod by Inoc that adds around 10 units and still allows campaign play.

Shai Hulud - Inoc and Timmen conversion of At into Fremen with re-skin of Ordos. Supports campaign play except for last mission. I understand it is highly rated.

ICW - my mod that expands Imperial house and replaces Tleilaxu with Imperial Renegades, campaign play supported.

All have a few bugs but should not crash during loading.

3) Some mods support install/un-install (Collapse, Shai-Hulud and ICW for definite). Others will have a text file that tells you how to install and remove manually.

4) A mod changes all play modes and most mods only support skirmish anyway. Atreides is gone in SH and KH2, changed in Collapse and ICW, etc, according to the dictates of the modder.

5) The list of the mods can be got from following the Dune Editing hyperlink on the website, but there is no separate overall discription of each mod except in their own text files. To get an idea of the popular ones check out the number of downloads against each mod.

[nemafakei]

No mod that's downloadable from Fed2k should cause a crash on Skirmish. It's easy to crash the game when you're making your own mods, but the finished products almost certainly won't do that. If you do find a crash bug, email the mod's creator, who may be able to sort it out.

Most mods don't have a working campaign mode, except those built with campaigns specifically in mind, and mods generally won't work online.

But most mods do change the game so much in skirmish that it makes the skirmish game much more interesting.