TibEdit & Dune 2000 Edit Module

[montego]

Well, since nobody ever reads the game editing message base, i'm posting this here - Sorry Gob.. :)

Have any of you tried editing your gameplay with TibEd?

I know, I know - What is TibEd?

Well, without sounding like a commercial for the program (which isn't easy), it's a Dune 2000 gameplay editor - You can edit unit & building cost, building speed, house availability, unit speed, strength, etc. Did you know that Stealth trikes are normally a multiplayer/practice only unit?

TibEd makes mods like "Epic Dune" possible, simply put...

Now before you go off half-cocked, with the thought of editing everything in your Dune 2000 game, here's a little bit of good advice;

1. Always back up your STANDARD DUNE 2000 configuration. You cannot play on WW's servers with a modified setup. Changing game parameters for gameplay is as easy as loading them from a file, then applying them to the game. You reload the "stock" configuration the same way.

2. Backup the files in the DATA/BIN directory. Specifically BUILEXP.BIN, ARMOUR.BIN, SPEED.BIN, and TEMPLATES.BIN. These 4 files hold all the parameters for game play - So if you screw something up, you can easily revert to your old settings simply by restoring these files.

3. When making changes, don't make them wholesale (all at once). My advice is to edit units or buildings a few at a time, then go test your changes in game play. It's very easy to make a lot of changes, screw something up, and realise that you're in way too deep...

As far as I understand, the game itself won't allow you to add buildings or units, but you can add a weapon (so TibEd says), but I couldn't get that feature to work, and ended up having to completely reinstall. I suggest a little weapon editing, which is easier anyway, and guarantees not to rock the boat as much with the settings...

I suppose I will release a mod too, I am just tweaking and tweaking again - I love vehicles, but it's hard to make gameplay fairly equitable between vehicles and infantry (all foot soldiers). I suppose i'll release it when I thing it's fair enough. Any ideas are appreciated (modification-wise).

I would also love to exchange any information with people who use TibEd, advice on editing, etc. I will also pass along anything I know to help...

[harkahn]

Hello. My name is Jason Holdsclaw and I am the designer and creator of the Epic Dune modification for Dune 2000. I just wanted to say that before TibEd, making a mod for Dune 2000 was a pain in the ass, using a simple Hex editor. With TibEd, editing Dune 2000 is a lot easier. I agree with your advice upon using TibEd, i found out most of those things the hard way. Anyway, good luck with your mod. Also, out of my personal curiousity, what did you truly think of Epid Dune, if you have played it that is. Anyway, I hope you have a good Thanksgiving. Farewell.

- Jason.

[montego]

I liked it - I'm trying to make the infantry scene a little more exciting though - Actually, with things being as stagnant as they've been in the Dune 2000 scene, it's quite welcome to see.

[harkahn]

Yeah, I know what you mean about it being stagnant, thats the whole reason I started the MOD in the first place.

- jason.

[Guest m player]

Editing Dune 2000 with TibEd is great, but can't add new things, only edit existing ones !!

That's bad, because i would like to add some of my creations.

Well, hope that someone fixes that !!

[Gobalopper]

Thats because it's not possible to add things to the game or at least really hard to do. It may be possible someday but I highly doubt it.

[Gobalopper]

I was thinking about this a little today and thought it might be cool if someone did a MOD that made the game more like Dune II. That way Dune 2000 would actually be a "true remake" of Dune II. Has anyone thought about doing that?

[harkahn]

Yeah, i thought of that. I tried to make it more like Dune 2 in Epic Dune, but of course I changed it far from an exact re-make of Dune 2. There would be a problem with making a true re-make, basically the inherent gameplay differences and differences of several key units, like the siege tanks, the way fremen are deployed, and the game's speed differences. While these aspects can be changed slightly the drastic modifications required to make it a true re-make are pretty much immpossible, as far as I know. Anyway, overall it sounds like a good idea, but for now i;ll stick to Epic Dune. :) Anyway, hope you all have a good day. Farewell.

- Jason.

[Guest m player]

Well, i'm around TibEd for a while now, and i'm making a MOD for Dune 2000.

Altough is not near Dune 2, i have used some unit ideas:

1.Trooper exclusivly to Harkonnen, fires a Missile Tank weapon (those missiles), effective vs. vehicles, structures and i'm changing it to be good vs infantry too. It's a little bit slower and costly.

2.Non stealth fremen, shooting sound (like Sonic Tank), well, this is not exactly like Dune 2, but i remember the movie...

Might look that some units will be powerfull, but i am testing and retesting so that when i release it, it will be good to play.

Just dont know where to release it. Maybe Gob (Administrator) shows some interest in putting it on this site...

Still working on it, perhaps only next year (January)...

The name for this MOD will be Dune 2000 Advanced, or just D2k Advanced.

I'll keep in touch...

[magikarp4]

I've used Tibed, I tried giving sonic tanks devastator shops, so I made a new copy of the devastator weapon, and edited that. THe game wouldn't run (I checked those warhead number numbers). Stuffups also occured when giving flying units sight range (fast exploration).

I made airstrike build very fast (speed 1000), and it worked (quite well). Might bother to send in a screenshot to dune2k.com sometime. Raider trikes with gas warheads are fun too, you get a nice coloured cloud where you're shooting. Invulnerable sonic tanks are even better, with a speed/damage increase. Surrond the base with them for defense, send about 10 on a raid (cheap/fast), and it's guaranteed to destroy whole bases (unless they're atreides, in which case, the game is stuck).

Adding units would be great.

[montego]

Someone posted this on the TibEd site - I found this information very useful, and even made a trooper shoot guided plasma ... some good stuff here, and I'll be sure to post more as I find things out.. :)

Some stuff I figured out when fooling around with the Dune2000 module

I still have no idea what changes the projectile appearance. I do know it doesn't have anything to do with the warhead or explosion type or WByte1,2,3,9. Not too sure about 8.

WByte1 = ???? unknown possibly projectile inaccuracy spread or randomizer?

WByte2 = projectile speed. Usu. 1-30. 90< is considered instantaneous. (prob. ignored if WByte3 is not set to 0)

WByte3 = 0 signifies delay projectile. Anything else is instant hit? original settings only used the values 0 and 1 (probably "if (x != 0)")

WByte8 = path correction? (Unable to determine what this does exactly but here are some things I do know)

0 ........... nothing

1 ........... (155 howitzer) ???? unknown effect.

10-20?... **16** is used for unguided rockets (If game crashes set a smoke trail)

30-50?... **48** is used for guided rockets but will also work with projectiles with no smoketrails. (I had a devastator shoot guided plasma (If game crashes set a smoke trail - setting grenades to 48 (requires smoke trail) has a really weird effect

60......... they are still guided but lose their smoke trails.

70......... they aren't guided and appear to be inaccurate (can't hit a stationary target)

100....... ??? weird

129....... (grenades) not guided, apparantly accurate but has a spinning effect on the projectile. Not much else is known.

Initially I hypothesized that the value was the amount of correction in a projectiles path with

larger being more corrected. However I am apparantly wrong as very high numbers have strange effects.

It may also have some kind of effect on the appearance of the projetile (see 155 howitzer vs

bullet14)

WByte9 = ???? unknown used mostly by "special projectiles" ie. ornibombs, sonic waves etc. however used by standard tank gun (80mm gun)

Hopefully this will help some of you...

[montego]

>> I tried giving sonic tanks devastator shops, so I made a new copy of the devastator weapon, and edited that. THe game wouldn't run (I checked those warhead number numbers).

You need to increase the WEAPON #, not the warhead # - If you change anything besides the number of weapons, it'll cause the game to crash.

[montego]

Okay, here's a little more info I got from Koen's site...

I have found some more stuff:

The "MyIndex" value will change the appearance of the projectile.

(I had a grenadier throw a few harvesters...). WByte 8 prob. has nothing to do with the projectile art.

Under units and buildings the Unit_Art will change the icon of the unit/building during playing but not on the build menu. This is quite important if you want specific units to shoot if they were not originally intended to shoot (like the thumper). It may also be possible to create a stealth tank this way by replaceing the stealth raider, I haven't tried it though.

Changing the unit behaviour is a bit trickier. While you can have two or mores units with the same behaviour, only the last one will be available on the build list.

Lastly, I have not been succesful with adding weapons. If NoWeapon2 is changed the game will crash when you build a building.

If NoWeapon2 is not changed (but you've added weapons) then the game will crash the first time you use the new weapon.

That's all for now.

[ordos45]

sounds cool, I might download it and epic dune.

[montego]

Oh, and I found out something else new. Byte53 is the byte that sets

vehicle ability to crush Infantry - 0=no, 1=yes ...