Dune 2 eXtended Project

[drnovice]

Ah ok! Sorry I missed this thing :P

[MrFlibble]

No problem!

BTW, back to your experiments with Sandworms in one of the above posts: doesn't the Sandworm regularly not have any selection cursor at all? (much like the invisible Saboteur from v1.0)? That would certainly explain the selection cursor duplication as an effect of the shimmer effect distortion.

[drnovice]

Yes maybe Sandworm have assigned a "personal" cursor that the 16-19 array indexes don't have by default, while for normal 20-101 array range for ground units the cursor is set by default on array itself.

So maybe it explains why if you put Sandworm into 20-101 range you get this odd effect with 2 cursors, while if you put normal ground unit (including Saboteur) into 16-19 range you don't see any cursor.

[drnovice]

Thanks to MrFlibble I released DuneX v1.28. :)

[MrFlibble]

You don't need to thank me, the full credit for v1.28 belongs to you :)

Here's the announcement I made at the Project Perfect Mod forums:

After quite some time without updates, the DuneX v1.28 update is courtesy of a truly dedicated modding endeavour by drnovice, who is a source of important contributions to the Dune II Editing community :) drnovice built and expanded on the knowledge of Dune II mechanics from such projects as OD2, OpenDUNE and Dune Dynasty, with the following results:

ChangeLog:

v1.28: (April 22, 2013)

• Fixed Timeout Scenario variable to reach victory condition by timing
• Full working bilateral alliance between Fremen & Atreides (Atreides CPU now is active to Fremen)
• Sardaukar Trooper can swap weapon type on short range like Regular Troopers & Warriors and no more explosion animation when they die (single infantry death animation)
• GUI Unit Menu no more lost focus on selected unit when cancel a Move/Attack command
• Fixed various Mentats alerts (restored missing "Unit" speech on Sardaukar alerts & always called Houses name for Units and Structures instead of "Enemy" speech)

Kudos to drnovice for this wonderful release! :D

Once again, thanks for the new release! :D

[drnovice]

Thanks to you for giving me permission to release the mod. ;)

The job about editing it's starting and I'll try to fix other things about Dune 2.

[MrFlibble]

BTW, I've just noticed that the Saboteur fis is not mentioned in the changelog. Did you decide not to put it in after all?

As for the permission, that's no problem, my contention is that such projects should be open to everyone as long as everyone involved is credited properly :)

[drnovice]

Yes, because I didn't yet write the documentation about it, and then it's passed on second plan... sorry.

However next release will contain this fix and even Wintrap re-count fix when a Windtrap is captured: https://github.com/OpenDUNE/OpenDUNE/pull/193

;)

[MrFlibble]

However next release will contain this fix and even Wintrap re-count fix when a Windtrap is captured: https://github.com/OpenDUNE/OpenDUNE/pull/193

;)

Cool ^_^

[MrFlibble]

BTW, is it possible to make the destruction of an allied base a defeat condition? I was thinking of missions like where you need to help out your ally AI in a limited time.

On another note, have you thought of some kind of Fremen superweapon that summons Atreides reinforcements? Some time ago I pondered this (but couldn't figure out the bilateral alliance fix back then), and the two major ideas that occurred to me were several Atreides ornithopters, or some ground-based force that would include sonic tanks. Both could turn out to be quite imbalanced, but the 'thopter option seems (at least in theory) more effective than building your own 'thopters.

If the Fremen palace weapon is to be changed, then we also need the place in the EXE that defines the icon type for the weapon button.

[drnovice]

Unfortunately allied structures aren't active (except Refinery that bring the Harverster to harvest spice), production of units (by TEAMS section) doesn't work.
I noticed that the game sees CPU allied structures always as Enemy, infact I changed Mentat Alerts for "Units & Structures destroyed" saying House name of element because while playing as Fremen, Atreides units destroyed were announced like "Enemy Unit Destroyed" and the same for Atreides structures destroyed ("Enemy Structure Destroyed").
 
Therefore, the function that manages allies (isFriendly? on segra's IDA db or rather House_AreAllied() on c++ code) regards only units, but something "tells" to game somewhere that CPU brain is "Enemy" for alerts and something else doesn't make possible allied production by TEAMS section.
 
Maybe TrueBrain knows why.

[drnovice]

BTW, is it possible to make the destruction of an allied base a defeat condition? I was thinking of missions like where you need to help out your ally AI in a limited time. On another note, have you thought of some kind of Fremen superweapon that summons Atreides reinforcements? Some time ago I pondered this (but couldn't figure out the bilateral alliance fix back then), and the two major ideas that occurred to me were several Atreides ornithopters, or some ground-based force that would include sonic tanks. Both could turn out to be quite imbalanced, but the 'thopter option seems (at least in theory) more effective than building your own 'thopters. If the Fremen palace weapon is to be changed, then we also need the place in the EXE that defines the icon type for the weapon button.

Surely you can change HouseID of "Fremen weapon type" into Atreides instead of Fremen HouseID. For Icon type I have to search.

I'm not sure for quantity of summoned units, I don't know if we can increase it. I know that it is variable (near 3-5).

[Feda]

Hey, very nice project here! I played it a bit (as I didnt have very much free time) and tried to search for the fremen missions where you have atreides as allies and I couldnt find anything. I used the savegames from the main topic (which seem to be incompatible and the mission restarts) but I couldnt find any atreides allied base near me. Is there such a mission or was not yet added? I think I saw a screenshot about that. And about the other factions, do they have allies too?

 

Thanks for info & nice project, I'll definitely play it once I get time. :D

[Daniel Zammit]

Awesome Game. Even my dad now wants to play this as well :D Keep up the good work. When finished, It would be cool if the same type of Dune 2 eXtended Project could also be cloned but with the Dune2k engine. That would even be more awesome imo.

[Feda]

I have Dune 2000 campaigns for mercenaries and Ix (a totally new side never seen in Westwood's stock missions), so Dune2k has also sub-houses missions. Also TheAqib is working on some nice mod featuring new sides with new units etc. Dune2k modding community is not dead, just check http://d2kplus.com/ for plenty of mods, missions and patches.

Sorry for off-topic but I had to post this :D waiting for an answer regarding the alliances in dune 2 eXtended. Thanks.

[drnovice]

I'm happy to see that our efforts have been noticed by some fan of the game.

Actually I have no experience about D2k modding. When I'll finish this project (and those started parallelly about Dune2 modding and opendune) I could start to learn it.

Soon we will release DuneX v1.29 ;)

P.S. The savegames are used to load directly a scenario level (doing restart the Scenario),without continuing regularly the campaign

[Feda]

Ok, thanks, but are there missions where you (as fremens) are allied with atreides?

[drnovice]

Yes, I think it was planned, but since the bilateral alliance between Atreides & Fremen didn't work before (original game only unilaterally Atreides Human -> Fremen CPU), MrFlibble didn't add Atreides allies into Fremen Scenarios Campaign.

By last release, we could start to modify Fremen Campaign (and so Fremen Scenarios) to have Atreides allies and Sandworm superweapon together to Warriors by Fremen Palace to get more interesting the gameplay.

 

No other alliances were planned for original EXE, because of no more room into bytes to add other alliances by opcodes.

It could be possibile with opendune c++ source code.

[Feda]

http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/18360-dune-2-extended-project/page-15#entry378777

 

That screenshot shows fremens + atreides, that's what I was talking about. Also, 

• Full working bilateral alliance between Fremen & Atreides (Atreides CPU now is active to Fremen)

That's what the main topic states. So the alliance doesn't work actually?

[drnovice]

Original game provide Fremen CPU allied with Atreides Human, since you can choose Atreides, Ordos or Harkonnen.

Infact on original game, playing as Atreides, never you could control directly Fremen units (the only way you can see them is spawning by Atreides Palace), but Fremen CPU isn't hostile to Atreides, instead it's hostile to other CPUs.

 

DuneX is a spin-off mod version of original game, so you can choose B-Sides factions that you never can play on original game (Fremen, Mercenary or Sardaukar).

Obviously even in this case we wanted to keep the alliance between the two factions (Atreides & Fremen), but trying to play as Fremen, Atreides CPU wasn't hostile to Fremen, but it wasn't active to be hostile towards the other CPUs.

 

Now we have fixed this bug (evidently wasn't expected on original game) and so you could play a Campaign that starts to play as Fremen, but can swap some Scenarios to play as Atreides and so on...

 

 

The screenshots that you have seen are my tests on a parallel project (I like to call Dune 2: Arrakis Edition) which consist in a mod where you start to play as original factions (Atreides, Ordos or Harkonnen), but player will swap into Campaign chosen on relative b-sides factions, so you can fully play all faction starting from the three originals).

Those my tests also serve to help MrFlibble to improve your spin-off DuneX mod. ;)

[Feda]

alright, got it now, thanks for info :D

[drnovice]

For more info, see also:

 

http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/18875-dune-2-exe-editing-programming-issues/

 

and

 

http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/24707-dune-2-hex-editing-collection-on-exe/

 

:)

[MrFlibble]

I used the savegames from the main topic (which seem to be incompatible and the mission restarts)

It's not a bug, it's a feature :P

Basically, I took advantage of the fact that v1.0 savegames automatically restart in v1.07 to make the savegames independent from any changes to the scenario files that may be introduced in the new releases of DuneX.

If the savegames were made in v1.07 format, they would load exactly the version of each scenario as it was when the savegame was recorded, meaning that any change to the DuneX scenarios would require to update all savegames accordingly. Which, trust me, is a lot of tedious work.

[MrFlibble]

Okay, I've finally got around to uploading drnovice's recent release of DuneX v1.29 to PPM Forums, and updated the download link in the OP of this thread accordingly. The change log reads as follows:

v1.29: (June 18, 2013)

• Fixed Saboteur Move command: he no more detonates on no-building tiles destination
• Fix: capturing structures with deviated units did not unlock tech
• Fixed Windtrap power information when a Windtrap is captured
• Fixed Radar friend/enemy units count
• Changed Sandworm best target behaviour to avoid attacking Fremen Warriors

drnovice is really doing a great job in updating and fixing the Dune II code, with awesome results :D Personally, I find the last entry in the list above especially cool, because it works so well to reflect the Dune universe from Frank Herbert's books. And it's also a lot better than if Fremen-owned Snadworms would just ignore all friendly units: the Fremen have learned to walk without the rhythm so as not to attract worms with surface vibrations, but it's hardly realistic that they could "teach", say, a Siege Tank to do the same ^_^

Great thanks to drnovice for this release! :D

[drnovice]

Thanks!

Now I will focus on creation of new Scenarios (which would also include the timeout as a condition of victory) and Campaigns to fully experience the changes and fixes made. :)