DEMO 4 - progress

[stefanhendriks]

Odd about rocket-launchers though, i destroyed entire bases with them. If they are too close, they will miss... like in dune 2 ;) Are you sure they are not to close?

[vidiware]

Yes, they were perfectly hitting units from the same range.

And another probably well known bug: Units spawining inside structures (are perfectly able to move out of them, unlike Dune 2) and if you place a building at the edge of the map, some of the constructed units spawns outside of the map, perfectly able to move into it if you are able to select them.

[stefanhendriks]

I fixed the latter one in the RC 02, i sent out a mail for that.

The other 2 are on the bug-list ;)

[Millies]

Hey Stefan (and everyone else  :D)

I have been observing the progress of this mod for the last 2 weeks, and to find a remake of Dune II i couldnt help but sign up!!

Stefan i'd just like to say a big thanks for the effort you are putting into this, everyone here cannot wait for the final release. I think i might sign up as a beta tester if thats possible.  ;D

Im not sure if anyone has spotted this bug yet, but ive been messing around with the DEMO 3.5 release and found that once you start building a structure, hold down the P key (shortcut for place) while its building and u will be able to place it when its 3/4 finished.

Also there is a flaw in the skirmish scene. If you play a map then start another one after, you will have access to all buildings at the start of your next skirmish even before building a wind trap.

Other then that, its looking great! However can you please try to preserve the original Dune 2 feel in the game. Some of the new features sound great but try not to add so many that the game will be totally different!

[rattle]

Suggestions, ideas? You do understand the succes for this formula depends on the amount of bases made by the community... ;)

This is about the AI my-base-is-my castle presets. I thought about this a while and came up with an idea. Why not give the AI modules to play with. A module could look like the following

RRRT
RRR=
T===

R being the refinery, T are turrets depending on techlevel and = are walls

Now this would be a module for the AI to place in the south-eastern part of it's base, close to the sand or the enemy.

So the AI would have a preset build order and maybe an emergency queue (e.g. Power low or constant attacks in the northern section forces it to construct defenses there) to (re-)construct it's base but would use little modules like that instead of a huge premade plan. What you could do is implement some routine to construct concretes as pavements beforehand in the size of the module to be build, e.g.

CC:
CC:
::::::
  :
  :
  :

... and then the AI places the module in the empty "slot". That way bases could look like prebuilds in Dune 2.

Also looks of these modules could vary from being placed in direction of an enemy or close to the sand/rock border, e.g. more turrets/walls and whether it's placed inside the base where additional defenses aren't needed, but doesn't mean there can't be a 4x4 rocket turret cluster inside a base.

It wouldn't be too hard to create some shapes this way which would make a base look good while being tough to crack. I know it's probably not the easiest thing to do and is a lot more complicated than predefined bases but it's a dynamic attempt to take care of the different rock shapes.

It's nice to see how far this game has come already.

I have some little addition to it as well:

- repair button (or icon) on vehicles: lets them return either alone or by carryall to the next repair facility (just like you moved a vehicle to a walled rep. facility in Dune 2)

- repair facility: return to location mode button which lets, while activated, vehicles return to their original location, either by carryall or on their own

And there's something I don't agree with: I read something about infantry being almost immune to tank shells. Why not implementing a hit% for each weapon or unit. Meaning, tanks still kill infantry pretty fast if they hit, but they tend to miss most of the time which is more realistic IMO.

Minor things I found to be missing/inaccurate:

- Alternate weaponry for Trooper/Troopers missing

- Troopers/Infantry don't split into Trooper/Soldier

- Hit sound for Trooper rocket is missing (yes there is a hit-sound in the original game. I usually can't hear it if the fire sound or a lot of sounds are played, then a midi tone is played instead, think they used the tank gun sound effect). To prevent too much noise the amount of explosion sound effects could be limited

- The POV square on the black minimap is missing

- Focus map on cursor when the right mousebutton is pressed

- Own buildings are not visible when radar is offline

Don't know if they had been addressed yet, they're not high priority of course.

Keep up the good work, cheers :)

[t0th]

ot: Stefan check the PMs ;]

[NeoHunter]

Hi.

I was pleasently surprised when I saw that someone was actually remaking the classic Dune 2! I did play both Demo 2 and Demo 3 and found that the Palaces are not working? My Atreides Palace does not have any icons to deploy Fremen.

However, I assume you are working on it, right?

Good work once again and hope to see a completed version. No hurries though.

[SupSuper]

I have to say, I've seen a lot of Dune 2 remakes, but this one really seems to beat them all in terms of "classic Dune 2 feel". :D

I once tried to make my own remake, but only got as far as reproducing Dune 2's intro. :(

One thing the classical Dune 2 had and none of these remakes or even some modern RTS have, is that if you had multiple factories, you could have each one building their own thing at the same time, which would make for much faster production. Ever since everyone sticks with the sidebar system, no deal. Heck, there's not even much point in selecting buildings anymore. (which reminds me, there's no way to unselect buildings in your remake)

Oh, and any chance you could synchronize the credits counter with build times / harvesting / etc? It looks kinda odd when you're still building something and the counter has already stopped, or when the harvester has already left the refinery and the counter's still going.

[NeoHunter]

Hi Stefan.

One question ran across my mind when I was playing D2TM Demo 3.

Once you get it stable and working properly, is there any chance that you might add new units or structures to it as sort of a way to add more life and variety to it or just keep it true to the original Dune 2 in terms of units and structures? Because we all know that there are sub factions in the Dune universe like CHOAM and the Sardaukar and the Ix.

By the way, I was playing Demo 3 again and I found that the rockets fired by Troopers are far too powerful against Trikes and Quads. A single squad of Troopers and a single Trooper took out 3 Trikes and a Quad. Maybe some toning down of their rockets is needed.

[MrFlibble]

D2TM is indeed planned to be moddable in any possible way, but I guess that won't be too soon. I personally am llooking forward to a versatile scenario/campaign editor (akin to Starcraft and Warcraft 3 ones) ::)

[stefanhendriks]

making the engine modable will be done in the latest stage, which will be in ... easter 2050 :)

[Andrew]

Woohoo! That's before the Christmas rush of 2050! :)

[NeoHunter]

making the engine modable will be done in the latest stage, which will be in ... easter 2050 :)

Wow...I would be like...let me calculate...70 years old...

[nemafakei]

I've already started some non-DII graphics - a sandcrawlers, a village, some 'civilian' or 'minor faction' buildings.

[NeoHunter]

That is cool.

Any previews of them? ;D

[stefanhendriks]

well adding those will be no problem... hard-coding them in is easy ;)

[pich]

before what i want to say.. i must say TWO THUMBS UP!! ;D

these's great work..and im one of dune's fans. ;)

now i can help only with opinions and ideas... so this is my ideas..

- first, about AI constructing method... um.. i think that needs to dicise on where's AI spawned on.

  ex.. if AI spawned on north-left of map. routines will be...

          *start deploy a base.

          *decise to lays a cell.(depend on AI-style:maybe lay or not lay and repairing it after layed construction.)

          *decise to lay constructions.(depend on AI-style and base position that's on buildable-tile (i will call

             it "rock). such as

                 -if it's start at center of rock, so it will expanding base with center-style and close at rim of base

                  with turrets or wall that's depend on that block is unused-tile or not.(UNUSED-TILE is tile that is only

                  one block left in an corner)

          *decisions when lay constructions that can deploy other units is ONE rule to follow, that's must have one-block

           that blank around constructions, for avoiding error.

- second, about rocket-tank that's less accuracy when close to building..

          *if in fire-range, no enemy, move to most accu. position and fire.(for construction attack)

          *if in fire-range, have enemies, fire at will.(for protect itself)

  it's like a rocket-system that use in many games today..

And ive some questions... please let me ask..

-Can it possible to use numpad to control side-bar? ex for this...in sub-bar, use 9 to scroll-up, 6 to scroll-down,

   in main-bar, use 8 to sc-up, 5 to sc-down, and use + to command to build, - for cancel building. or use same button

   for build-unbuild. so this solution will make players can control production quicker and easier.

-CarryAll's sand-blow is just an fx-animate or write a real physical-routine?(when blowing on what tiles, make spices

   flowing to around tiles a bit.)

-Skirmish mode that you plan.. is that possible to make it on-lan? because you have on-lan, if you want to test it on-line,

   all you need just Hamachi.(Vitual LAN on internet creator)

in anyway, i following and testing yours for a long-times, i just want to tell you my opinion and if they've benefit to you

in any-case, that makes me please...

                             MMMMM     /-----------

GO ON!! GO ON!!  b=(- w - b=) <   Thumb up!! )

[pich]

ahh.. finally i have another idea (just some idea)  ;D

  -in D2TM, maybe add another sub-tech-tree system for feature,

    such as, Atreides can use El-Sayal(Coriolis Storm-Super weapon) by researched "Coriolis-Analysis"

    and "Weather-Control-Sattelite", and "Coriolis-Analysis" maybe effect to gained some abillities

    ex. storm-predict. ???

 

  -Maybe kind of Teilaxu(spell wrong?) unit can revives corsps into a gholas or something?  8)

 

  -im said this idea in topic "water", but i will say it again, that water silo can be as a concrete-type

    structure? maybe uses other tilepic. in advance, tilepic can linking like a pipe in simcity, makes a

    big container of water image. and when WT is destroyed, gfx will show an area of underneath, and

    take it to calculates, ex. # grids that show water underneaths, more will make humidity-gauge(water gauge)

    low down faster. but maybe increasing abit of health to being-unit around that grids.(fresh and sweet air  :D)

  -maybe skirmish mode will have bars for adjusting scale of terrains, ex. rock 3/10, spices 6/10, but

    conditions must not make bugs about tiles. :-

  -maybe add some another tiles like someone said(sorry that i cant remember you), ex. grass or oasis or something.

    but they must linking with a timeline. that's means grass will never found in early times, and when dune've

    grass. less humidity-requirement to units...

  -i dont sure what type of power that uses to motivate machines and vihicles in dune. but if i must dividing it,

      *the guild use melange for motivate their ships, so the guild maybe a tribe that's support-style(low-cost

      starport order fee), and cause of that... it will be most friendly with the highest melange player.

          *atreides is fremens' friend, in timeline.. early is atreides army, middle is fremen army(use tech-tree

          of fremen, but add some tech in every mission.), and last will be an atreides army with full powers

          of fremen-tech-tree.

i think i will rest for a while, and i have thesis to do..so i will back to look after El-Sayal....

[zammid]

hey stefan

how is the progress going for dune2tm demo 4 is going

my email is in my last post

thanks'

daniel

[stefanhendriks]

Since it is open source, and being worked on well (by a few people) i'd say its going well. Technically its leaping forward, though on the outside you won't see that much ;)

Anyway, you can always go to the project depot on Allegro (find link @ open source project of d2tm) and download 3.5 ;)

[zammid]

i got 3.5 stefan and when is demo 4 is going to be out??

thanks

daniel

[noize]

just tried 3.5 and it really looks good, too bad there is no windowed mode..

[lord vernius of ix]

ill bet stephans hard at work coding out bugs or somethign like that and thats probably why he hasnt posted in a bit

[nemafakei]

Stefan has a day job coding, so it's not so easy for him to come back home and code more each night. As a result, I don't think we've got much further in terms of features, based on the look of the google code database.

When there's some significant progress, he or someone else will no doubt inform you all.

[stefanhendriks]

besides that, the engine needs some part rewritten; some basic parts are already, (like mentat etc), but some more vital parts of the game still need to be done. I am still practicly coding it alone , though others do seem to have ideas and code alongside, there is nothing concrete submitted just yet.

The good side for me is, there is no deadline for this thing... unlike my job ;)