Dune 2 Unofficial patch v1.07c [discontinued]

[MrFlibble]

IMPORTANT NOTE: This project has been discontinued. For the new versions of the patch, go here.

Original project description follows:

I've decided to combine the merits of my Dune II AI Fix and Minniatian's Dune II EMC Patch, as well as some other minor fixes, into a single, easy-to-use patch. Below is the full list of changes:

Global scenario fixes:

• Fixed the internal syntax error which prevented the AI from assembling attack teams of vehicles ("team bug").
• Fixed the error which prevented the player from buying Ornithopters at the Starport in missions 8 and 9.
• Fixed the errors in some scenarios which allowed certain Houses occasional access to units they normally can't produce, either via reinforcements or due to pre-placed buildings (e.g. WOR owned by an Atreides AI player). (This does not affect units available to the player at Starport).

Minor scenario fixes:

• Fixed all Atreides missions where the unit limit was lower than 25.
• Removed the unused CHOAM (Starport related) section from the first Atreides mission.
• Removed obsolete reinforcement sections from some variants of Atreides and Harkonnen mission 2, which were commented out.
• Fixed invalid spice bloom placement in one Atreides mission.
• Removed junk lines (probably obsolete map terrain data) from two Harkonnen missions.
• Fixed incorrect hit point values for pre-placed buildings in one Harkonnen mission.
• Reinstated the commented out sandworms in one Harkonnen mission.
• Fixed the error that disabled Devastator reinforcement in all versions of Harkonnen mission 7.
• Fixed the error that gave the Ordos player extra 500 starting credits in the last mission.
• Fixed all missions where the MaxUnit value name was misspelled as MaxUnits for an AI player (mission 7 for all Houses; this error did not affect gameplay).
• Set the spice quota value to 0 in mission 9 for all Houses (was 2500, but did not actually affect anything).

In-game text fixes:

• Fixed the misspelling of the word "Ornithopter" (was "Ornithipter").
• The word "house" is now capitalized in the menu option "Pick another House".

Mentat database fixes:

• The "Vehicles" section was renamed into "Units", since it also includes infantry units and not only vehicles.
• Fixed incorrect information on the power consumption values of the Barracks and the Starport (the incorrect values of 20 and 80 were changed to the actual 10 and 50).

Graphical fixes:

• Several animation frames of the Heavy Factory, Repair Facility and Hi-Tech Factory that were present in v1.0 but, for an unknown reason, absent in v1.07 have been reinstated.

Gameplay changes:

• Carryalls will now always bring repaired vehicles from the Repair Facility back where they picked them.
• Rocket Turret firing range was slightly reduced so that the Rocket Launcher can outrange it from any given angle.

Setup program changes:

• The setup program now allows to configure multiple sound devices for DUNE II.
• Several text mistakes in the setup program were fixed, most notably the music device selection is no longer introduced as "Play sound from" (instead of "Play music from").

[Nyerguds]

so what exactly does it do? I mean editing wise, to patch the game. Does it edit the exe? And if not, what created the need for a separate patch for the US and EU version?

As for "Various minor errors, bugs and spelling mistakes have also been fixed" - well apparently the HitSquad version already fixes all of those. Not that that matters if you replace the scenarios, of course.

[MrFlibble]

It edits DUNE.PAK, ENGLISH.PAK and SCENARIO.PAK. These files are different in patched US and European versions. It doesn't modify DUNE2.EXE.

BTW, the HitSquad version seems to be based off the US patched one (which, BTW, if supplied with the trilingual SETUP.EXE, GERMAN.PAK and FRENCH.PAK, can be also played in German and French) - at least, in the fact that the HitSquad DUNE.PAK is identical to the US DUNE.PAK (it has a notable spelling mistake on the map selection screen in German, which says Eroberungsgebeit instead of Eroberungsgebiet; the EU CD version has this error fixed). Also, the

As for "Various minor errors, bugs and spelling mistakes have also been fixed" - well apparently the HitSquad version already fixes all of those. Not that that matters if you replace the scenarios, of course.

Nope. There are surprisingly few mistakes in Dune II, but they are still there. For example, "Ornithopter" is spelled as "Ornithipter", and "incompatible" (like "older save games are incompatible with the new version") is twice misspelled as "incompatable". Although they're not too obvious, they're mistakes anyway. Also, my patch renames the "Vehicles" section in Mentat info table into "Units", since infantry is also listed in this section. Two buildings - Barracks and Starport - are also given incorrect power demand values (20 instead of 10 and 80 instead of 50 respectively) in all three Mentat info files. Apart from that, MENTATH.ENG in the European version contains two obsolete strings: "Sardaukar" and "Frigatte" (both are in German BTW). The latter also causes the game to crash, since FRIGATE.WSA is removed from MENTAT.PAK in v1.07. None of this is fixed in the HitSquad version.

[Nyerguds]

Ah... I see. So, do you think your EU patch will work on it then?

Also, you say it "edits" the .pak file... but does it actually unpack and repack them, does it replace them, or does it simpy do some byte edits at some addresses?

[MrFlibble]

Ah... I see. So, do you think your EU patch will work on it then?

I'm afraid not. The files are different. I'll write a new patch, perhaps.

Also, you say it "edits" the .pak file... but does it actually unpack and repack them, does it replace them, or does it simpy do some byte edits at some addresses?

I used PatchWise to create the patches. It works similar to the RTPatch that Westwood used for theirs. It calculates the difference between the old and the new version of the files, and applies them.

[Nyerguds]

ahh I see.

Well with all the stuff we got together we should be able to make a completely error-free ultimate Dune II :)

It seems the european language files of the HS version (german.pak, french.pak) are updated a LOT. They are definitely worth adding to the EU patch.

Though if you do that, please remove the HS version of "goverout.voc" and replace it by the original EU version, because the "O.K." sounds rather ridiculous compared to the much more natural "Jawohl" :P

[MrFlibble]

I think I'll do some comparison, since all sets of files are slightly different, and see what combination is more optimal. As for "jawohl", you're right, since this "och-aah" (O.K.) sounds quite a bit off :)

[Nyerguds]

Well after a quick comparison all other files seem far better. Especially the strings files.

(hey, and then you can make your HS version patch fix that goverout.voc ;D)

[EDIT]

Hmm... it seems the "O.K." was added because the "jawohl" was a copy of greport3.voc... :-

Might be better to leave it in after all.

[MrFlibble]

So what version is better? The EU one, or the HS one? I'm especially confused when it comes to the French files, 'cause my French is poor.

BTW, comparison of EU and HS region files shows that they're mostly identical, with the exception of the spelling error in HS, where it twice misspells "verfolgt" as "vefolgt". Other than that, they're pretty similar.

[Nyerguds]

Well when looking at the language pak files, the HS one seems way better.

[nemafakei]

"since this "och-aah" (O.K.) sounds quite a bit off"

Hm, perhaps it was a leftover from an attempt to do a Scots language pack, and it is in fact "Och aye"?

[Nyerguds]

...no. It's just the way "O.K." is pronounced in German <_<

[MrFlibble]

"since this "och-aah" (O.K.) sounds quite a bit off"

Hm, perhaps it was a leftover from an attempt to do a Scots language pack, and it is in fact "Och aye"?

Hehehe :D

In fact, I've read somewhere else someone complaining about the way "OK" is pronounced in German in Dune II is not the same as real Germans would pronounce it.

[Nyerguds]

well, then dump it and replace it with Jawohl again :P

[MrFlibble]

Actually, I don't really care too much about the non-English translations. Their quality is much lower compared to, say, the German version of Red Alert. I think the HS German and French files as they are can be kept as they are, since you say they're better than those from the Eu CD version.

Another problem is that the setup of three-language versions does not support multiple sound devices, whereas the setup that supports it doesn't allow to choose game language.

[Nyerguds]

Really? Huh... didn't know that. Maybe we could somehow include both?

[MrFlibble]

I've got to do some testing on the matter, and maybe a workaround will be found.

[Nyerguds]

It works perfectly. All I needed to do was include the setup.exe from the d2sound patch.

(ftp://ftp.westwood.com/pub/dune2/updates/d2sound.exe)

First you use the original HS setup (I renamed it to setuplan.exe) to select the language and go through the entire setup.

The you start the sound patch setup from the sound patch (which I renamed to setupsnd.exe) to correctly set the sound devices.

It played in French, with Sound Canvas midi and Sound Blaster Pro sound effects, in bare XP without emulation :)

I could compare the DUNE.CFG files and see which modified byte is the language.. then I ca make a small proggie to change that on the fly.

[MrFlibble]

Very good. That's how I thought I'd try to do it. Glad to hear it works perfectly :)

[Nyerguds]

ok, this seems simple... byte 8 in the setup.cfg is the language... 00 is English, 01 is French and 02 is German. I'll write a proggie right away.

[MrFlibble]

Great! :)

[Nyerguds]

Done. Mimicks the original setup perfectly, and only changes the language. Does not work if the dune.cfg file is not present.

Compiled as pure DOS program with Turbo Pascal 7.0 to allow it to be run in true DOS or DOSBox. I might do this with d2edit too... but it needs some minor code adaptations.

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/dune2edit/setuplan.zip

So all you need to add now is the setup.exe from the sound patch, and my setuplan.exe :)

[edit]

Stupid TP7 can't let functions return user-defined data types... there goes the "porting d2Edit to pure DOS" idea :P

[Nyerguds]

omg, this is crazy... you CAN launch the setup in other languages... simply by starting it as

setup.exe FRE

I also found out that the setup exe contains strings that show that it has the possibility of adding a italian (ITA) and spanish (SPA) language file.

This way of launching it doesn't change the actual language of the game though; it just displays the setup in that language. Also, it seems to have problems with the special characters in German & French...

Furthermore, I found out that the SETUP???.DIP files are simply strings files, in the same format as C&C's .ENG ones :)

Many tools, like the Siberian String Table Editor and Merri's Ingame String Editor can perfecty open and edit these and even convert them to and from text files for even easier editing.

(Siberian even decodes encoded dune II string files :) )

This means that while I can't fix the setup, I could just adjust the files so the special chars (

[MrFlibble]

Many tools, like the Siberian String Table Editor and Merri's Ingame String Editor can perfecty open and edit these and even convert them to and from text files for even easier editing.

(Siberian even decodes encoded dune II string files :) )

Yeah, Siberian_GRemlin added that by my request :)

The most bizarre thing here is that these strings files actually contain all strings needed for the sound setup of the patch... in fact the setupeng.dip is a lot bigger than the version in the sound patch archive.

I guess they wanted to add some more features to the setup, probably including the multiple sound device patch's features as well, but then dropped this idea for some unknown reason, which is very disappointing.

[Nyerguds]

Ah well. The current solution isn't entirely perfect, but it works :)

Have you tried it out yet?

[edit]

The special characters thing in the sound patch setup seems to be a bug related to reading stuff from the strings files... if I hex edit the program so it displays a