More bugs, and some suggestions

Rider · December 3, 2009

So after a long time I decided to check back on this project and I was happy to find a new release! It may not be exactly 'new' but hey... who gives a canary, right?

Anyway, I noticed a few bugs while I was playing, that I'd like to bring to your attention! I did read a few threads on bugs in-case some of these where brought up already, but I may name some that are already known or fixed.

- Units don't always execute their orders/the path finding sometimes gives up too easily

Basically what happens is that I tell a unit to move somewhere, and on it's way it will decide to just stop or run into a minor obstacle and cancel movement. Many occurrences, a mayor annoyance.

- Repair facility does nothing

Is it already implemented? I can't move units to it, and badly damaged units aren't carried there by Carryall like in the original Dune 2.

- Starport orders don't arrive fully

I've noticed one occurrence among a few games. I ordered 2 Siege tanks and 1 Rocket tank. The rocket tank never arrived.

- Carryalls and health bars sometimes get drawn through the Available Power and Spice Storage meters in the HUD.

This screenshot says it well.

- Single concrete slabs can be built over existing pieces of concrete

When there's already concrete at the spot that you're placing the single slot slab, it builds it there anyway. In the original this wasn't possible. The 4-Slot has the same.

- Carryalls take too long finding a suitable drop location

When Carryalls bring in reinforcements they generally move over your base and start looking for a drop-spot from there, this isn't really efficient and takes a lot of time before they find a good spot (especially if you have a big base)

- AI doesn't build concrete

It doesn't seem to affect the buildings, but it's still kind of cheating... and you can see it very well as the AI structures have no foundation, and thus look different. See example below. The one on the left is mine, the right one is an AI built power plant.

- Stuck units are not airlifted away and are 'lost forever'

In the original, if a unit was stuck and tried to move away a Carryall would airlift it out of wherever it was stuck. This doesn't happen yet(/anymore?) and so you can lose units if they're ejected from a structure in an uncomfortable spot. A REAL drag if it's your last harvester.

- Some tile positions create ugly results

I blame the level editor for this one. But even with random maps it can be an issue. Some combinations produce ugly results, as seen in these screenshots.

- Pressing F11 creates 3 screen shots in a row

I'm not sure this is intentional, maybe it's just the button repeating because it considers it 'held down' a few times.

- The AI doesn't expand beyond the bare essentials

Maybe not so much a bug, but it could be related to the AI 'stagnating' bug that has already been reported. It doesn't build Hi-tech facilities, starports or anything but what's really essential for building tanks, and a few turrets.

- Starting units based on unit count rather than effectivity

This is more balancing than an actual bug. Right now it just gives you X amount of unit spots worth of units. This can vary from 2 sonic tanks to a single squad of infantry (they apparently count as 2 units). This isn't exactly fair. Maybe something involving a units "value" would be more appropriate?

== Aside from that...

There are a few things I'd love to see in Dune2 - The Maker that aren't in there yet/anymore.

- Higher resolutions! So I can see more of the battlefield at once, and because my 1680x1050 capable monitor is starting to feel insignificant. ;)

- Post-Combat statistics! It was in the original Dune 2, so why not Dune2-TM? Just some simple things, kills, losses, units built, spice harvested and that sort of things.

- The ability to doubleclick a unit to select all units of it's type in the current view.

- Better animations for the air-units. They're rather unsightly at the moment. Sorry, it had to be said.

- Save functionality!

- Netplay. But I won't be the first to ask for that ;)

Well that's all from me. I love this port and hope it'll keep on growing and becoming more awesome. Thanks for all the work you're doing!

Rippsblack · December 22, 2009

- Repair facility does nothing
Is it already implemented? I can't move units to it, and badly damaged units aren't carried there by Carryall like in the original Dune 2.

> Try pressing and holding 'R' and clicking on damaged unit ;)

- Single concrete slabs can be built over existing pieces of concrete
When there's already concrete at the spot that you're placing the single slot slab, it builds it there anyway. In the original this wasn't possible. The 4-Slot has the same.

> In Dune 2, Large concrete slabs (4Slabs) COULD be placed ontop of existing slabs, I am not sure how the single slab behaved, I will check in a few moments.

- Carryalls take too long finding a suitable drop location
When Carryalls bring in reinforcements they generally move over your base and start looking for a drop-spot from there, this isn't really efficient and takes a lot of time before they find a good spot (especially if you have a big base)

> This is fairly close to the original dune2 bahavior, Carryalls would move to the construction yard then begin searching for a decent place to unload from there. however in the D2TM, carryalls move in what seems a random direction to the next tile, and checks its availability, then proceeds to the nxt deal in ANOTHER random direction.

- Stuck units are not airlifted away and are 'lost forever'
In the original, if a unit was stuck and tried to move away a Carryall would airlift it out of wherever it was stuck. This doesn't happen yet(/anymore?) and so you can lose units if they're ejected from a structure in an uncomfortable spot. A REAL drag if it's your last harvester.

> Try dammaging the unit and attempting to repair it by pressing and holding the 'R' key and clicking the unit ;)

- Some tile positions create ugly results
I blame the level editor for this one. But even with random maps it can be an issue. Some combinations produce ugly results, as seen in these screenshots.

> This has been discussed allready and is due to the original limitations in Dune2 tileseet and the random generation, a more complicated map generator is needed.

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

I would personaly love to see D2TM improved in many many areas myself... but stefan is apparently working full time and has few hours free to work on the project

stefanhendriks · August 2, 2010

I have added some of the reports at the googlecode project: http://code.google.com/p/dune2themaker/issues/list?thanks=22&ts=1280740946

Rippsblack · August 4, 2010

glad to see your still alive stefan... any word on progress at all?

stefanhendriks · August 4, 2010

Well, basically I am rewriting big parts. You can see at the SVN log (see here: http://code.google.com/p/dune2themaker/updates/list) that I've been quite busy the past few days.

Since I've graduated, I tend to atleast work one evening a week on this project. Once I've rewritten major parts, I will release version 0.5. It will be expanded from then.

Also watch http://d2tm.duneii.com for news updates and such.

Rippsblack · August 4, 2010

excellent stuff... I am glad to see you've been busy working on this again

could i make one small suggestion... one of the key reasons i love this project is that runs nicely on my EeePC 701SD which has a 7" screen... max resolution is something stupid like 800x480

and the game only runs in a window... which is a bummer as i have to drag the main windows viewport up and down to see the whole game :s

if you could full screen support that res (800x480). I'd be extremely happy ;)

stefanhendriks · August 4, 2010

The resolution is 640x480. If your screen is 800x480, why do you have to drag up/down? Can't you run the fullscreen version? DEMO4 (you can download it from the website) has a D2TM.EXE and a D2TM-WINDOWED.EXE. You need the first.

Let me know if it helps you.

Supporting a native 800x480 is atm a bit difficult, mainly because the GUI is fixed for one resolution. Supporting other resolutions is on my agenda, though not really a priority right now.

Rippsblack · August 4, 2010

the fullscreen .exe wont load in fullscreen mode... it defaults to windowed

The laptop video drivers emulate a resolution of 800x600 by compressing the screen...

which causes allot of problems with games :P

I believe its because the games try to set the screen resolution themselves which will fail as 800x600 is not supported

Some games will load in 640x480 (dune 2000 does)

but most fail...

Total Annihilation is one of those games that can not run 640x480 and i believe its to do with the video drivers :(

stefanhendriks · August 4, 2010

In that case the game is unable to allocate the 640x480 fullscreen-screenmode. So it falls back to windowed mode.

Does this also happen with the previous demo?

Rippsblack · August 4, 2010

checking now

[Edit]: yes

stefanhendriks · August 4, 2010

In that case, it is not regression (ie, broken in DEMO 4). I can't do much about the allocation. Although I could perhaps try a different bit depth. No guarentees though.

Rippsblack · August 4, 2010

can i help by providing you with further details of my netbook computer?

if so let me know...

stefanhendriks · August 5, 2010

Any information is welcome. You could also create an issue at http://code.google.com/p/dune2themaker/issues/list and fill all info there, that way I cannot miss it ;)

Rippsblack · August 5, 2010

sweet... i'll get on that later this evening ;)

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