Jump to content

D2TM - DEMO 2 (RELEASED!)


stefanhendriks

Recommended Posts

(OLD MESSAGE BELOW)

DEMO 2 IS RELEASED:

Download from: http://arrakis.dune2k.com/downloads/D2TM-DEMO2.ZIP

Reactions about this; post them here. Thank you and enjoy.

Full list of features, and known bugs/missing features:

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

CHANGELOG: (current -> old)

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

DEMO 2 - DEMO 1 (released at: 05/02/2006)

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

FIXED:

- Palette bug when going from mission to mentat again. (Atreides book was blue

  etc).

- Loading a new scenario will remove now the old icon list and refresh it (ie, you

  can no longer build advanced stuff in a new mission. The tech-tree is restarted)

- Ability to attack non-visible units/structures.

- Ability to build WOR sometimes as Atreides/Ordos

CHANGED:

- Scrolling is now timer based, not fps based.

- Scrolling is now also possible when placing a structure.

- Health bar of units do not stay on the top.

- Mentat speaking animations will now not 'hang' for too long.

- Mentat speaking is a bit faster

- UI in game is changed with new graphics from Nema Fakei

- Win and lose 'announcement' changed.

- Build speed is now set to normal

- All Houses Mission 9 changed, quota's where set to win mission. Seems to me like

  a lack of finishing things from Westwood earlier and made it work code-wise. Its

  sloppy so i removed the quota= lines to make it work properly.

NEW:

- When hovering over unit, mouse turns into "select" picture

- When units selected, moving over other friendly units will now make it possible to

  select them.

- As an addition, holding SHIFT, will ADD the units to the already selected group!

- Smoothly fading between several sections in menu/briefing/combat

- Rewritten "hover over unit" detection. (single unit detection only)

- Original Atreides briefings (all missions)

- "Select your next conquest" screen introduced. Including campaign support!

- Campaign can be edited through the ini files in "campaign" directory

- All house mission briefing/win/lose/advice are added, thanks to:

  - Gilneas -> Harkonnen

  - Josh -> Atreides

  - MrFlibble -> Ordos

- House briefings and mission briefings now through "mentatx.ini"

- You can fail your mission.

- When enemy unit revealed, or when enemy unit is getting too close the music changes

  and you will hear "enemy unit approaching".

- Turrets work now, so watch your units!

- Ability to create groups: CTRL-1/5 to create. Press 1/5 to select. Hold SHIFT + <number>

  to add group to selection.

- Sound effects are distance related. Everything on screen = 100% sound volume. The further

  away from the sound-origin, the less volume the sound has. No panning though.

- Enemy structures repair now when damaged:

  - When AI has a lot of money, they instant repair on a bit damage

  - When AI does not have a lot of money, repair starts at 50% damage

- Sandworms will be attacked , but units will not chase them.

- Thanks to MrFlibble, all Ordos Seed files are now revealed! All missions work now properly!

- Pathfinder optimized; not speed wize but work-wise. The path generator will now not have

  odd corners and twists, but a real fast-path calculation. Bloody sandworms forced me to

  work on this one.

- When all harvesters gone and still having a refinery; automaticly harvester being reinforced

  to ensure some income. (For the player & AI)

- Simple AI opponent; which will build an army and create groups of units to attack you.

  Has exactly the same build-speeds; money income flow (no unlimited money!). Can only

  Attack what it can see.

- Reinforcements; loaded from INI file, and works like Dune 2.

REMOVED:

- GIF support files, since using own DAT format

KNOWN 'BUGS':

- There is still no "Select your house < name >". The < name > is missing.

- Harvester is not 100% yet controllable; ie, you cannot send it to the refinery.

- The repair facility does not function

- The ornithopter does not attack

I hereby announce that demo 2 will come soon and features this:

DEMO 2 - DEMO 1 (released at: DD/MM/YYYY)

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

FIXED:

- Palette bug when going from mission to mentat again. (Atreides book was blue

  etc).

- Loading a new scenario will remove now the old icon list and refresh it (ie, you

  can no longer build advanced stuff in a new mission. The tech-tree is restarted)

- Ability to attack non-visible units/structures.

- Ability to build WOR sometimes as Atreides/Ordos

CHANGED:

- Scrolling is now timer based, not fps based.

- Scrolling is now also possible when placing a structure.

- Health bar of units do not stay on the top.

- Mentat speaking animations will now not 'hang' for too long.

- Mentat speaking is a bit faster

- UI in game is changed with new graphics from Nema Fakei

- Win and lose 'announcement' changed.

NEW:

- When hovering over unit, mouse turns into "select" picture

- When units selected, moving over other friendly units will now make it possible to

  select them.

- As an addition, holding SHIFT, will ADD the units to the already selected group!

- Smoothly fading between several sections in menu/briefing/combat

- Rewritten "hover over unit" detection. (single unit detection only)

- House descriptions are now read from <housename>.txt (found in briefings directory)

- Original Atreides briefings (all missions)

- "Select your next conquest" screen introduced. Including campaign support!

- Campaign can be edited through the ini files in "campaign" directory

- All house mission briefing/win/lose/advice are added, thanks to:

  - Gilneas -> Harkonnen

  - Josh -> Atreides

  - Mr Flibble -> Ordos

- You can fail your mission.

- When enemy unit revealed, or when enemy unit is getting too close the music changes

  and you will hear "enemy unit approaching".

REMOVED:

- GIF support files, since using own DAT format

Anything you have to suggest or comment on is welcome, i can now add stuff quickly if nescesary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can wait for next demo it will be cool.

I am happy the mouse thing is fix.because just upgrade my machine

with a Pentium IV 3.6G and a Geforce 7800GT.

SO i need something to slow it down will you have the option like the original like slower.slow.normal.fast.fastest ???

And continue your great work !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Release will be done around 23:00 GMT+1 (meaning: ~ 4 hours to go)

The final features list is this, look at the big features added now! :D

DEMO 2 - DEMO 1 (released at: 05/02/2006)

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

FIXED:

- Palette bug when going from mission to mentat again. (Atreides book was blue

  etc).

- Loading a new scenario will remove now the old icon list and refresh it (ie, you

  can no longer build advanced stuff in a new mission. The tech-tree is restarted)

- Ability to attack non-visible units/structures.

- Ability to build WOR sometimes as Atreides/Ordos

CHANGED:

- Scrolling is now timer based, not fps based.

- Scrolling is now also possible when placing a structure.

- Health bar of units do not stay on the top.

- Mentat speaking animations will now not 'hang' for too long.

- Mentat speaking is a bit faster

- UI in game is changed with new graphics from Nema Fakei

- Win and lose 'announcement' changed.

- Build speed is now set to normal

- All Houses Mission 9 changed, quota's where set to win mission. Seems to me like

  a lack of finishing things from Westwood earlier and made it work code-wise. Its

  sloppy so i removed the quota= lines to make it work properly.

NEW:

- When hovering over unit, mouse turns into "select" picture

- When units selected, moving over other friendly units will now make it possible to

  select them.

- As an addition, holding SHIFT, will ADD the units to the already selected group!

- Smoothly fading between several sections in menu/briefing/combat

- Rewritten "hover over unit" detection. (single unit detection only)

- Original Atreides briefings (all missions)

- "Select your next conquest" screen introduced. Including campaign support!

- Campaign can be edited through the ini files in "campaign" directory

- All house mission briefing/win/lose/advice are added, thanks to:

  - Gilneas -> Harkonnen

  - Josh -> Atreides

  - MrFlibble -> Ordos

- House briefings and mission briefings now through "mentatx.ini"

- You can fail your mission.

- When enemy unit revealed, or when enemy unit is getting too close the music changes

  and you will hear "enemy unit approaching".

- Turrets work now, so watch your units!

- Ability to create groups: CTRL-1/5 to create. Press 1/5 to select. Hold SHIFT + <number>

  to add group to selection.

- Sound effects are distance related. Everything on screen = 100% sound volume. The further

  away from the sound-origin, the less volume the sound has. No panning though.

- Enemy structures repair now when damaged:

  - When AI has a lot of money, they instant repair on a bit damage

  - When AI does not have a lot of money, repair starts at 50% damage

- Sandworms will be attacked , but units will not chase them.

- Thanks to MrFlibble, all Ordos Seed files are now revealed! All missions work now properly!

- Pathfinder optimized; not speed wize but work-wise. The path generator will now not have

  odd corners and twists, but a real fast-path calculation. Bloody sandworms forced me to

  work on this one.

- When all harvesters gone and still having a refinery; automaticly harvester being reinforced

  to ensure some income. (For the player & AI)

- Simple AI opponent; which will build an army and create groups of units to attack you.

  Has exactly the same build-speeds; money income flow (no unlimited money!). Can only

  Attack what it can see.

- Reinforcements; loaded from INI file, and works like Dune 2.

REMOVED:

- GIF support files, since using own DAT format

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wow  :D

gotta say that it is great to see how it all turned out. worth the wait for sure.. (have been waiting all day)

there was a few things i would like to point out, but its late, and i forgot them :P

but i _really_ like the new gfx in the game - i was afraid it would ruin the good old feeling - instead it has created a new almost better feeling :)

so please, keep up the good work ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hm, i read what the reason was to "fork away" from Dune legacy "different goals". but stefan, i cant seem to grasp why?

(and this is the part i do not get) why start you own clone that is still not playable, when DuneLegacy is close being complete. it even has multiplayer and a good working AI. wouldent be easier to work with?

true, you have another design in the right side of the screen (and i love it), and the improved gfx on the buildings (love that too) but still :/ it seems to me that alot of effort is lost every time of start all over. plus that, it seems that Dune Legacy is going _really_ slow atm - thank god that there is still someone taking care of it tho :)

I know that i could have missed something about this subject, or maybe im not thankfull enough for your effort, but I would rather have ONE working clone, than 2-3 small projects.

please dont take my post as offending in any way, cos i have followed this project for a loooong time and i like what you have done :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

D2TM existed before Dune Legacy started ;) Also Dune Legacy is coded in a different way, (style of coding) and uses different libraries. Also, i'd rather work it out as i want it to. Simply, because i love programming and love Dune 2. So, thats why I'd rather code it on my own and finish it like i want it to be (as i intend a new dune 2 clone to be), then to work on a project i did not start.

I don't take it as an offensive post, its a good question. If you read the arrakis site completely (meaning, start with Dunedit, Arrakis and then D2TM). You will notice there is a sort of story in this, i always loved the Dune scene, the dune 2 scene in particular, i made an editor; already finished an RTS that had to resemble it, and now i do what i love, writing an RTS and doing it 'right' ;)

Question though: Be honest, do you think Dune Legacy is far more complete then D2TM? True, it can play all missions, it has a briefing and so forth. But when looking at the game, do you feel like playing dune 2 but improved? Or just some unfinished engine? I admit it has a lot of good points. Yet i like to watch at details; every tiny little dune 2 detail that makes dune 2... dune 2... I want that in D2TM. I want the user to feel like he is playing that game he loved and knows all the improvements made do not disturb that feeling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

heh :) strange, i seem to have read somewhere that D2TM used source code from Dune Legacy, nevermind then.. i guess you answered my question.

heh :) come to think of it.. i clearly remember playing Dune2 for several months and really loving it :) seriously a classic.. after i had completed the game i used dune Dunedit to make a huge map with only rocks, and latter on only consisting og tiles :) would make great for a multiplayer map. i thought i was kinda dull that the scene always was set in the same old duneish place :) would be great with something else - but that idea can wait for another time.

heh, also clearly remembering setting up realbot :P but that is also another story..

arhg :/ .. well, it depends on how you look at it. if you dont have anybody to play against in DuneLegacy it becomes REALLY boring rather fast. but it works (0.91b2) or whatever the newest win-version is called. I think that DuneLegacy has a decent AI. at least, i have no problems getting beaten by the AI (2-3 opponents on hard). also it keeps alot of the old gfx (let me get back to that later) and i have to admit i kinda love the high resolution.

I downloaded your latest version yesterday and what i saw was a fairly worked through program, and it really looks nice :) it all seemed to work - i played to lvl 4 or 5 without problems of any kind (nice work) :) the new gfx is also really nice :) i really like the idea - but sometimes i miss the old ones. suggestion: would it be possible to put both models in there, so the user can change after own preference? also, the right side of the screen (the bar) it would also be real nice if the user could change how it looks. still both those things are not important atm. i like the new models, and i can easily live with them :)

oh, another thing. i often felt that the enemy was kinda non-responsiv. some times they didnt even return fire :/

.. if you ask me which game that is most complete right now! i have to say Dune Legacy. i can sit down and play a skirmish map and just about everything works (i cant play campaign in the version i have). But ask me which project that has the largest potentiale, and i would have to say D2TM, and it even seems like it is close. Im really looking forward to when it is possible to change resolution and play the old Dune as it was intented, and trust me, you are on the right track :)

i dont know how often you code, or how much trouble it would be :/ but i would like to see something like nightly builds. would that be impossible? dont know if i can wait another 2-3 months for another even greater DEMO :)

okay.. that seems to be enough jappering. i'll give your DEMO another spin :) maybe i missed something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i just download the new demo and try it for a while and the demo is to fast for me when i click to build something and move to place the screen

move left and when i return move right again beside that the game is great.

I got around 400 FPS playing the first few mission arkonen.

Can't wait for the next demo..... :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DuneFan, well, scrolling shouldent be a problem anymore since "- Scrolling is now timer based, not fps based. " i have pretty decent hardware, and i have no problems scrolling. but then again, i mostly use the keys instead of the mouse :)

Stefan, i gave your DEMO another try yesterday, and maybe i was a bit too fast :) if i could save my games, i would say that D2TM is better than DuneLegacy. atm i have my computer running all the time and after each mission i Alt+TAB, then i wait awhile and play the next mission :P not the same thing as saving tho..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well i would not mind if one would say Dune Legacy is more complete or not. It depends on how you look at things. Dune Legacy IS far in a lot of aspects of the game. Though its not 'finished'. How do i explain; ie, if i take the single missions campaign. I do see a mentat, but it does not chat all missions and it also chats way  too fast. Besids that, the music does not fit as it seems to be seemingly random somehow.

Its not bad, its just those little things that does not make it complete, little details as i call them. I closely watch such details. If you watch the flow in D2TM. I try to stick as close to dune 2, yet use a bit newer gfx.

heh  strange, i seem to have read somewhere that D2TM used source code from Dune Legacy, nevermind then.. i guess you answered my question.

About code, in the old days when Dune Legacy was coded by TonyD, i did had some mail conversations with him and we did share some code. Though i (and neither Tony) never litteraly used each others code, we do share techniques, tips etc. Dune Legacy DOES use something of Dunedit though (as does D2TM)... the seed files. Which D2TM all has now btw, don't know if Dune Legacy is up-to-date on that aspect now. They are free to use them.

About graphics, the new graphics look superb, but i do intend to release an old-skool gfx pack. So you can play with 100% (well nearly 100%) identical dune 2 graphics.

@ DuneFan,

Did you try the NEW demo? As the new demo (link above) fixes your problem. Even with 1000000 fps the game should run the same speed as on a computer with 10 fps...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes i did download the new demo 2 still do the left and right mouvement of

the screen i found a trick i move my mouse completly down and go to building and move my mouse up and move to the others screen so no mouvement

left and right....

I need something to slow it down like a options maybe v-sync or something

to slow down to around 100 FPS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You mean the mousespeed itself? Because thats the only thing that is not timer based ofcourse.

Scrolling around the map should be no problem, also scrolling through the icon list is not a problem due the mousewheel or buttons.

Perhaps i will do a vsync option in demo 3, tough i don't think it will solve the problem you describe..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I noticed in Harkonnen mission 3, the Ordos built tons of raiders and sent them to my base doing nothing while my troops just blew them to pieces. It happened too many times. I suppose this is due to an imperfect AI.

I know nothing about Dune Legacy, but I like D2TM and that's that. Sorry. I'd always wanted to try Dune 2 but just didn't like the inability to select multiple units at one go. D2TM made that a possibility for me :)

Another fix I would recommend is with the band-boxing ability (multiple selection). It seems that I can't select units with band-boxing unless I cover the entire square the unit is on. Having the unit rest on the line will result in it not being selected. This would be a most wonderful thing to fix.

Update: I skipped to Ordos last mission and was playing it halfway when my game crashed, having me hear an explosion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I fixed the non-active ai stuff. I had to fix some bugs to see the result, but i assure you the demo 3 will be a lot tougher in that aspect.

A crash on explosion? thats the 2nd one who told me about it, perhaps the devastator? i would look into that code , anything that explodes that is ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...